Snow Demons

The darkness of my sleep is disrupted by the glaring red of too bright sunlight. A pain crawls up my neck, my shoulder popping as I lift myself from the warmth of the bed. A twist and a pop releases my other arm and I rise to a view of white.

The world is filled with crystalized ice, the trees bending and yet so still, as if their frozen state will protect them. Sunlight dances on each snowflake, the glimmer of fractal light embodies the demons, the landscape moving as they dance. Trees cower towards the feet of the snow demons who have buried them so completely.

I didn’t process the scream that escaped, or the throbbing pain in my shoulder as the door hit me, a shuddering breath the only sound I can make before the touch of ice on my toes suffocates me. I smile at the demons jumping around, angered for the destruction of perfect snow. The demons hide between snowflakes, grotesque rainbows that do nothing to hide the nightmares of humans.

These guardians of snow scaled me, I stared as they nibbled until my fingers began to blacken and fall off; they matched the darkness behind my eyelids before a light was shone in my eyes.

“She isn’t perfect anymore.”