Winter had come over the week. Monday the sky grayed and temperature dropped. The snow came in small flecks and barely covered the ground. Then through the week the sky kept its veil and snow poured out in large dense clumps. Stores closed, schools called off and children rejoiced. By the end of the week the whole town was covered in a thick blanket of snow. During the day the clear blue sky and sun radiated much needed heat, while at night clouds once again came and snow glistened in the moon light.
The sound of kids playing out in the snow woke Ash from a dream filled sleep. Sun was pouring through the thin shades of the window while heat blasted from the vents. Ash stretched and hopped out of bed to look out the window. It had snowed again last night. Each morning he would look at the pole for the power lines. Mid way up was a yellow band which acted as his guide. Through out the week since the storm came the snow had been creeping up the pole towards that yellow band. Around his guidepost he could see Todd and the rest of his friends throwing snowballs, ducking in and out of the snow walls that they had built for cover. Ash made his way down to the kitchen where his sister and dad sat at the dining room table. His mom busily moved about the kitchen making breakfast. Pancakes, bacon and a side of fruit. He pulled up a seat to the table. His dad sat cross legged, leaning back in the chair with the newspaper full spread.
“Morning son” he said behind the parchment.
His sister who was journaling side eyed him “Finally up?”
“It’s nine, what do you mean finally?” He shot back before a plate of pancakes and bacon were laid in front of him “Thanks mom”
She smiled and returned to grab everyone else’s plates. His dad shuffled the newspaper and folded it into his lap. Even though he would not be going into the office today he still was dressed in his white button up shirt, tie, and suit jacket. He had a young face, but his glasses which thick and made out of a heavy turtle shell material added some seniority to him. His black hair combed slightly to the side.
“Fantastic dear. Julie, if I remember, someone woke up about ten minutes ago” he said with a smile before skewering a pancake.
Julie sneered at her dad and snapped a piece of bacon in half before devouring it.
His mom untied her apron and joined them at the dinning room table. She was always done up. No matter what time of day, what ever occasion she looked put together. Make up perfected, hair in a silky blond locks, and styled in an elegant dress or outfit. Adorned on her wrists and neck held jewelry from all over the shopping catalog. She embodied a sort of eternal youth in the eyes of the neighborhood. His dad would always joke he found her in an enhanced forest.
“Schools out again you two. Not forgetting what you were being taught, right?” His mom picked up her fork and knife, she looked down at her plate then at her two kids.
“Of course not. We were about to go on Christmas break anyway. Do you think it will continue snowing?” Ash finally took a bite of his food.
“I hope so, if it doesn’t stop snowing we might need to learn how to hunt again. Eat the squirrels in the backyard”
“Dear, please” His mom shot his dad a look.
He gave a smirk “On a serious note, it might be some trouble if it keeps snowing. I hear that the storms come out of no where at night. Clear skies for days then - “ he clapped his hands together “out of the blue a storm cloud follows the night sky“ he swept his right hand through the air “covering everything in another blanket of snow. The meteorologist has never seen anything like it. I have been trying to track it with a new program that I am working on and - oh well, I will fill you in when it is more complete”
His dad was a grand wizard at something to do with computers. All Ash knew was that his dad was the only one to have one in the whole block and that they were crazy expensive.
“I heard that we are entering another ice age or something on the radio. Or at least the states are. Doesn’t seem like the rest of the world is getting it. Not even Russia” His sister Julie who tormented him most days was a series listener to the deep waves of the radio. Even though TVs had started to replace the airwaves her fingers twisted the dial to catch any piece of underground news she could. At night he could hear her scrolling around static, listening for anything to catch. He had to admit she found some interesting stations.
“Well it will melt come this spring. I wouldn’t worry about it to much. Now finish your breakfast and let me get this place cleaned up.” His mom stood up taking empty plates and glass from the table. She once again tied her apron and went to work manning the kitchen.
Julie returned up stairs where she had been all week while Ash started the ritual of gearing up for the cold onslaught of snowball fights, fort building, and exploring the winter wonderland with his friends.
During the days the sky remained a cloudless deep blue vista with the sun shining warm. It was perfect weather for all snow activities. It was cold, but there was no wind and the sun provided just enough warmth to starve off the bitterness. Ash found Todd and his friends down the street building a snow fort near the entrance to the park. Each day they had picked a new place in the neighborhood to conquer and build a fort. The suburban landscape now held several small outposts and castles made out of snow all the way from the forest edge near the north side of the neighborhood all the way to the green divide at the entrance. It seemed that they were determined to cover the outsides of the neighborhood then work their way in. Next to many mid century homes their influence had began. They were busy building when a boy called out from down the street. They all rose and like a merry band marched through the snow to meet him. A street down and around a corner there was a small street with wood fences on each side. A boy stood at the end pointing towards something. Ash and Todd moved to see.
In the center of the small road was a large snowman.
“Did you build this?” Ash asked the boy who shook his head no “Any of you?” He turned to the others lined up around him and Todd. They all denied while keeping eyes glued on it. He looked at Todd who stared narrow eyed.
Ash moved towards the snowman. It stood a foot taller than him and came with all the typical snowman accessories. Two thin sticks poked out of its middle section for arms and hands, two coal buttons sat vertical on its chest, wrapped around its neck a red scarf which looked torn and worn out fell dangling just above the ground. A smile made out of seven round pieces of coal rested underneath its long carrot nose. Slightly larger coal dotted its eyes and a large torn top hat that looked liked had seen too many circus performances, sat on its head. It looked perfect. Way too perfect. The snow was smoothed to an almost icy consistency which formed each of its three perfect spheres. Ash walked around, poking and prodding it. It sat smiling out a the group as he inspected.
“This things is like a work of art” Ash said returning to the front.
“Gives me the creeps. Like a storybook tripped and this thing fell out. Someone must be super bored. “ Todd said backing up a bit “or super batty”
The others nodded in an agreement.
“Come on Ash, let’s get out of there”
Ash rose his arm and made his hand in the shape of a gun “Catch you around” he said then let an imaginary shot go with a soft “bang”
The band returned to building their fort until the sun started to dip below the top of the houses and the temperature began to drop. Ash looked up towards the sky. In the distance he could see the dark clouds once again approaching.
“Tomorrow we build on the other side of the park and check if the other forts are still intact” Todd addressed everyone. The group sprawled out and returned to their homes. Ash waved to Todd as he disappeared around the corner.
The door slammed behind him as he shimmied off his snow gear.
“Welcome back” he heard his mom call out from the living room.
Ash shook off the winter chill moved to join his mom in the living room. His house was a mix between mid-century modern and post-war. The front door opened up to a small foyer where stairs roped around the left wall to three bedrooms upstairs. On the first floor heading deeper in the house was a decent sized kitchen on the left with the dining room table in the middle and on the right the living room which had a small step down into a sunken pit of carpet. A door across from the living room led to the master bedroom. Natural woods, browns, reds and beige colored most of the space giving it a warmth. Windows opened up to the backyard next to the kitchen and framed the back wall while some smaller windows dotted around to bring in light from each side of the house in an intelligent way. Their neighborhood had been built as a new standard, an experiment on modern living. His dad setting eyes on the place immediately threw his wallet at the Realtor. It was completely his style, and as his mom did, she embraced it and put her own charm on every aspect, bringing life and comfort.
Ash stepped down into the living and sat down next to his mom on the couch. The TV was on tuned to some old movie.
“Have fun? Where did your next outpost go?” She asked
“Front of the park. We saw the storm coming again, thought it was time to retire for the night, wheres dad?”
His mom looked up towards the ceiling “He said he is hammering out some new program tonight. Trying to get his weather tracker working or something along those lines. I’ve only seen him twice today, both times he looks like he is about to keel over” she laughed. “I think hes close” she flashed her eyebrows and smiled.
“I’m sure he will figure it out” Ash looked out the back windows. It was now pitch black with only the fury of the snow showing up in the house lights across the yard. He squinted for a moment. It looked like a large shadow slid across under the light. Then a loud thump came from the front door. He was so concentrated that he gave a yelp and whipped around.
“What was that?” he stood up. He could hear two feet thumping up above him and moving towards the stairs.
“Is someone here?” He heard Julie yell from the top of the stairs as their dad moved down towards the front door. Ash moved to the hallway to get a better view.
“I’m sure it was just a tree branch or-“ his dad opened the door “or something el-“ his voice died off as he came face to face with a snowman. Ash gasped, he recognized that snowman. Picture perfect from before. This time though, the coal smile looked sinister, different, predatorial .
His dad must of gotten the same feeling because he immediately shut the door in the snowmans face and stepped back.
“Concerning” he stated. Thumping returned to the door and it grew louder and louder “Very concerning” he yelled and moved towards the living room calling for Julie to follow him. There was panic and a torrent of activity as the family backed away from the front of their house as the door violently shook from the winter body slammed against it.
“Out the back” his dad cried, but as they turned a mob of coal eyes stared in at them. A row of perfect snowmen, some with different hats and scarfs but all perfectly rounded lined up blocking their path. Not only did the block them, they were actively moving towards the large windows. Twig hands reached out, coal smiles now turned to sharp teeth in a large wicked grins. His mom was rummaging in the kitchen tossing pans and kitchen utensils to do active battle with. She took a pan, handed a rolling pin to his dad, a smaller pan to Julie and a poultry hammer to Ash.
“Upstairs” she commanded. They moved towards the front and as soon as they were half way up the stairs they could hear the back windows breaking and as they reach the top the front door slammed down into the foray bringing winter chill rushing in. The perfect snowman waddled into the house and looked up at the family who stared back. It nodded and tipped it’s shredded top had with it’s branched fingers.
“Go go go” Ash screamed as the snowman started shuffling up the stairs. They ran down the hallway to the end room which was his dads office. It was double doored and the largest of the rooms upstairs, since the master was on the main floor. They burst through the doors and barricade the them with the sofa and a book case.
“What do we do?” Julie stammered “I heard about government experiments to control polar bears, but nothing like this”
“I would rather be fighting polar bears right now” his dad laughed nervously.
Ash looked towards his mom who was deep in thought for the survival of her kids.
Outside they could hear shuffling snow getting closer. Slowly it sounded as if many large snow balls was being rolled towards them.
“Honey, did you ever finish trying to hook into our heater with your computer program?”
His dad went into a small trance running his mind through all his programs then lit up “Yes! Yes I did” He swung over to his computer and started to type rapidly “Boy, I hope it works, I only tested it once or twice”
Scrapping came at the doors of the room, then shook as the snowmen threw themselves against them.
“What temperature would you like it?” His dad swiveled in his chair.
“The highest it can go Dad” Julia screamed which was echoed by Ash and his mom.
His dad put up his hands and then rained more commands down on the keyboard and with an exaggerated gesture hit the enter key “Bang”
They could hear the heat start to ramp up and soon hot air was blowing through all the vents. The snowman did not stop however and the door was giving way. His dad picked back up his rolling pin and joined his mom near the door.
The door cracked open and snowman faces holding jagged coal teeth chomped at them as they did their best to burst through. The top hat snowman made it through first slushing through the door becoming deformed as it moved through the broken entrance. As soon as it came into distance his mom swung her frying pan as hard she could at it’s head with a scream. The pan hit perfectly on the side and in a flash the head the snowman plopped to the side of the room and burst in a slushy pile. They all stood shocked. The other snowman moved slower and their bodies melted as they tried and approached. The heat was working, slowing dismantling them. Coal eyes slipped off, following by carrot noses. The clothes became damp and soon the mob of snowman were a puddle in their upstairs hallway.
“Remind me never to be in front of you when you have a frying pan” his dad broke the silence as they all let out a collective breath.
“Were alive” Ash said.
“For now” Julie replied.
His mom gave a triumphant “Ha!” as she placed her hands on her hips “I think we handled that pretty well. Now, let’s get this all cleaned up”
They removed what they could of the barricade and cleared the broken door. The snowmens accessories were gathered in garbage bags and put by the front door. The storm still raged on outside, but their house was blasting hot air through out. They moved into the master bedroom which was off of the living room and closed the doors to keep it warm. His mom handed out hot chocolate to each of them as they huddled around the bed.
“Are we going to talk about the killer snowmen?” Ash blew on his hot chocolate.
“We will talk about it tomorrow morning, when its light outside. I don’t know if talking about them will summon them back alive.” his dad pursed his lips thinking for a moment and then took a sip.
Julie had brought her radio down from her room and the plugged it in to try and find some news. Static filled the room until a raspy voice broke through “An experimental weather device was discovered and shut down this evening. It is said to be causing the storms sweeping across America.” The voice broke in and out “For those stuck in the raging storms it looks like they are moving rapidly and will be gone by the hour. Stay inside and keep warm” The station turned to a commercial and Julie turned the volume down.
“I knew it” she exclaimed. “See I told you”
“Don’t let it go to your head, thats one out of one hundred” Ash shot back, but his sister beamed with confidence.
They sat for a while finishing their hot chocolate and then as the radio moved to classical Christmas music as they fell to exhausted sleep.
Ash’s Family 1 - Killer Snowmen 0
When I was a kid we used to go to the movie rental store I would peruse the isle looking for different movies to rent. What I always loved was that movie covers were so intense. The posters and the box art for different movies always inspired my imagination. One such movie was Jack Frost. This turned out to be a hilariously bad B-horror movie, but the cover scared me to death as a kid. So I wrote stories about killer snowmen for my whole life. This story I wanted to combine the feeling from a Steven Spielberg film with the horror of killer snowmen ( It is Christmas as I am writing this and we saw E.T. this morning.)
Watch out for this snowmen out there. Never know what they might be thinking.
Cheers and Merry Christmas Everyone! Cheers ~