Intermission: Christmas, Part 5.

December 24, 2009. 10:45pm
Sam took a step, his boots crunching into the snow and ice coating the floor. It sunk in a few inches before hitting the slippery floor. Slowly and carefully, he walked the first few steps into the hall. Wind rose up and sent ice and snow whipping at his face. Behind him, the doors slammed shut and locked. Sam clenched his jaw, held an arm before his face, and kept moving. He was almost there. The walk seemed to take days, reminding Sam that time flowed however it wanted, here. Halfway through the hall the wind rose fiercer, the hall becoming a whirlwind of ice and clumps of snow. Within that wind was a malevolent howling. Sam knew in his heart that the sound was what a pleased demon sounded like.

An animal part of Sam’s mind told him to turn back, to run. He was surely making a mistake. Someone else was meant for this. No, no. It had to be him, and it had to be now. Sam tightened his grip on the toy sword. Turning around now, straying from the instinctual path even by inches meant getting lost in the storm. Getting lost in the storm meant a lot of things for a lot of people, none of them. Sam took another step, and walked headfirst into a pair of heavy wooden doors. He took the holly wreath from his hair, now frozen, and pushed it into the space between the doors. He pushed, and twisted, and the holly shattered. The doors followed shortly after, cracking slowly and finally simply falling over into a pile of frozen wood shards. The thing was waiting for him on its throne.