Snow Storm Bringeth – Part 3

Link to Part 2

Jill was holding Cathy in her arms when suddenly the door opened. Marcie looked around frantically.

“What’s wrong now?”

Karl looked at her, “Cathy saw someone at the window.”

“He only had eyes, no mouth and no nose,” she whimpered.

“Nonsense. Keep quiet, my brother’s not well.”

“Hey, wait a second, that’s my daughter you’re talking to and you’re frightening her,” snapped Jill.

“Marcie, I wanna talk to you outside,” said Karl.

They stepped into the hall and Marcie closed the door.

“Open it slightly, they’re frightened,” said Karl pointing.

Marcie opened it and Karl could see the three of them in the corner. He nodded sympathetically.

“I want to know what’s going on here. What’s wrong with Mark, and what’s wrong with you? “

“Nothing, he’s just being difficult, he’ll be better soon.”

Karl felt someone watching him and he looked up. Philip was standing on the landing, motionless, watching. There was another groan from the bed room and then a load animal screech and roar. Karl heard the children crying.

“What is that noise? Is there some sort of wild animal outside? And who are those people I saw?” Karl asked.

“I don’t know,” replied Marcie looking at the ground.

“I’m getting a drink for those kids and then we’ve got to make a decision what we are going to do.”

Karl went back into the room.  He walked over to Jill. She was sitting on the floor with her arms around both Cathy and Robbie. Karl went down on his knees.

“I need to get into that room upstairs to see what’s going on. I’m going to suggest that Marcie bring you and the children into the kitchen for something to eat and drink. Please go with this, ok?” he asked quietly.

Jill nodded.

They stood up and walked to the hall, Marcie was standing waiting.

“Take them to the kitchen, the children are hungry and they should have something to drink too,” Karl said slowly.

“You take them,” Marcie snapped.

Karl leaned over to her. “I’m not going to ask again, now you know this place, do it.”

She looked at the three visitors and then turned away walking down the hall. Karl nodded at them to follow and they did.

“Philip, come here, I need you,” he called.

Philip seemed to jump and then started down the stairs.

When he got to the bottom, Karl pointed into the room.

“You need to start storm watching again, I think there’s more coming.”

Philip frowned and looked confused, he slowly nodded no.

“Go on, it’s important,” Karl said quietly.

Philip looked at him carefully and then turned and went into the room. Karl closed the door and slowly looked up the stairs. He swallowed, but his mouth felt dry and he had a pain in his chest. He started up the stairs, then realised he probably didn’t have much time. Quickly and as quietly as possible he moved on up until he was with a few feet of Marks door. From the corner of his eye he could see a shadow moving back and forth outside the window and heard the familiar flapping sound from outside.

He reached forward and opened the door, pushing it gently in. There wasn’t much light in the room. He could see the outline of Mark in the bed and slowly approached it. There was no sound now and no movement. As he reached the bed he strained his eyes to see how Mark was.

He sucked in more dry air suddenly as he looked at what should have been Mark’s face. There were no recognizable facial markings. He had no hair and his face was completely blank and white, no eyes, no mouth, no nose. The papercut like marks had all disappeared, even on his hands, there were simply no features at all. He heard the flapping at the window again and spun around. There, hovering, was one of the figures he had seen at the end of the driveway. Now he knew what Cathy meant when she described the man at the window. This creature had no mouth or nose, just eyes, and was totally bald. It held its place with ease as it watched Karl and then slowly a hole started to appear in the centre of its face. It was accompanied by a low growl and as it grew in size the growl started to turn into a screech and finally a deafening roar.

Karl turned and ran for the door. He could hear running downstairs as well and he raced down the steps two at a time. When he reached the bottom, Marcie had arrived and Philip was at the door.

“What are you doing down here? Why aren’t you watching your brother?” Marcie shouted at Philip.

He just nodded and ran up the stairs.

“What have you done Karl? Why were you up there?”

“Just wanted to check how bad the snow was from a better view,” he said calmly.

“Did you go into Mark?”

“No. I’ll go see how our visitors are,” he said as he pushed past her.

Marcie went up the stairs and Karl walked into the kitchen, shaking.

“My God, what happened to you?” asked Jill.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I saw what Cathy saw, I think it’s worse than a ghost. We have to get out of here, be ready, there’s just something I need to get.”

He walked past her and reached for a narrow cupboard in the corner. He pulled it open and reached in. After a bit of shaking and rattling, he slowly drew out a shot-gun.

The children gasped and Jill looked nervously at Karl.

“It’s just a precaution,” he said as he pushed cartridges into his pocket and then loaded two.

Outside they could hear the low growling again and suddenly the sound of a window smashing upstairs. There was a loud shriek and long roar, then silence.

“It’s in the house now,” said Karl.

*********  Link to Part 4 *********

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