An Evening to Die For

“Dad! Where are you?”

Lori had been shouting for nearly an hour already and was panicking. The cold was biting — she was nearly frozen, with frost particles forming on her nose.

She ran up the hill, trudging through the three-foot-deep snow, sled string in hand.

Just hours before, the both of them had been at the top of that same hill, keeping an eye on their stone house with candle lights on the porch so as not to get lost. The smoke coming out of the chimney further served to mark where they were. Now, Lori stands alone in her all-white marshmallow snow suit, not knowing where her father went.

As she slowly sat down in the snow, she heard the sound of wolves howling in the distance.

The stars were bright and the moon was full, making the snow glimmer. Her dad had been taking her sledding ever since she was a little girl.

Now here she was almost in college, still enjoying those nights with her dad. It was the same routine. After an hour of sledding and racing to the bottom of the hill a few times, her mother would have hot chocolate waiting for them in the kitchen.

As Lori reminisced about the past, something suddenly dawned on her. Her father had mentioned that he’d be cutting out early to finish chopping firewood. With a sigh of relief, she dragged her sled behind her towards the smoke. She looked forward to the hot chocolate.

She was about 50 meters away, and the candles started to get brighter. However, the kitchen light was turned off. Maybe her father was waiting in the living room. She continued walking towards the wooden front steps when something caught her eye. The snow by the shed wasn’t white anymore. She put her hand on the wooden banister and squinted into the moonlight by the shed.

Blood. And it was growing fast.

She backed up the stairs slowly and shut the door behind her. Wolves continued their howling as she stared worriedly outside through the side window.

“Hey honey, where’s your father? I have the hot chocolate made.”

Lori stared at her mother and then back outside, not knowing what to say.

I originally published this on Medium on July 1, 2024