Heart of Ice

“In the winter of 1885 a wagon train was heading West and found themselves in Minnesota, traveling through what would one day be part of the Superior National Forest. The legend states that a blizzard caught them off guard and trapped them in a mountain pass. They had provisions on hand, enough to, in theory last them a month. The Donner Party tragedy having already occurred, many people were wary of falling to the same fate. What the rest of the group didn’t know was that one of their members had made himself some extra cash by selling off what he saw as excess provisions as they journeyed West. The entrepreneur in question was a man that was, at least at the time, going by Doc Smith.” Madeline read the prewritten copy with her usual smooth confidence.

“That’s quite the fake name.” Frank chuckled.

“Yeah, well it was olden times and all.” Lydia snickered into her mic.

Madeline cleared her throat. “If we could not get sidetracked for a change guys. Anyways, Doc Smith was in reality a conman from the East coast. He was wanted in several states for fraud. He attached himself to the caravan in an attempt to get away from his troubles out East. He had been masquerading as a physician for several months, selling his miracle cure to rubes throughout the Midwest. So, when the caravan found themselves snowed in with dwindling supplies things got predictably unpleasant in short order.”

“Oh, Jesus, I’m gonna need my coloring book for this aren’t I?” Lydia groaned.

“Yeah, sorry to say you just might darling.” Madeline chuckled as Lydia pulled out her Lord of the Rings coloring book, she used it to help her avoid the more gruesome descriptions of what they discussed on the podcast. “So, yeah, within a week the caravan had run out of food. Hunting didn’t produce enough meat to feed them all. Tensions in the camp started to rise as the temperatures continued to fall. After almost a month people were getting desperate, more than one had already passed. The stories say that there was a fight over some rations that were being hoarded and one of the homesteaders was killed in the brawl.”

“Oh, boy, here it comes…”

“That’s right Frank, the stories never seem to specify who, but someone convinced the camp that they shouldn’t waste the valuable resource…”

“Meaning of course the corpse.” Frank chimed in.

“Fucking gross Frank!” Lydia shuddered as she said it, coloring furiously to try and banish the image from her mind.

“I agree, but he’s not wrong. Yes, this is the point in the tale where the desperate settlers turn to cannibalism. The stories are vague on most of the details, but they all agree on one thing. Ol’ Doc Smith took to it a bit more easily than the rest of the group. Supposedly this is all based on the journals left behind, but it says that as time wore on more people started dying. Doc Smith was always right there helping butcher the corpses and eagerly taking his share.” Madeline cleared her throat. “The remaining members of the camp began to suspect that Doc was killing people, possibly with some of the medicines from his supply. At this point he gave up the pretense and just started murdering them openly.”

“The story says he began to change physically at this point, even though he was now eating regularly he was growing more and more gaunt. Almost cadaverous in appearance. Though it seems his strength only grew. Supposedly he killed the final victim with his bare hands. The legend says that the last remaining survivor decided to take her chances with the wilderness and freezing temperatures, when her body was discovered, they found her journal in her pack and that is where the legends states all of this information comes from. I managed to find a quote that is supposed to be from her journal.” She paused to take a breath. “There are only a few of us left now. Doc has changed. At first, we thought the stress of the grim deeds we have resorted to in order to survive had broken his mind. We were wrong, he enjoys it. He’s stopped waiting for the cold to claim us and begun taking those of us that remain before our time. He came last night; I hid beneath a wagon, and he found Mr. Nelson sleeping in his tent. I heard the brief struggle; Mr. Nelson couldn’t even cry out before he was dispatched. Then I heard the wet sounds of meat tearing and the slurping of him sucking on the bones. I fear God has forsaken us.”

“Well, that was grim.” Frank grumbled.

“I said I was going to go over a Wendigo legend, I never said it was going to be a feel-good romp.”

“So, the legend says this information all comes from the journal of one girl that escaped the Wendigo but died in the forest. Did they ever find the campsite? Or Doc for that matter?”

“Yes, the campsite was located by the authorities of the time, but Doc was never found.”

“Spooky, so that’s the Wendigo? Just some con man that got a taste for human flesh? Like instead of trying to get old ladies social security numbers he’s out there conning people into serving themselves up?”

Madeline sighed, accustomed to Frank’s humor now, it had taken a fair portion of the 4 year’s she’d been dating Lydia to get there, but she was still put out by it on occasion. “No, the Wendigo, according to First Nations folklore, is a malevolent spirit which possesses people. Usually causing an insatiable hunger to take hold of the victim. The victim begins to change as they consume human flesh. The folklore states that they increase in size and strength with each new victim. Their skin becomes taunt against their bones, so along with an unending hunger they must be in incredible pain as their bones press against their skin.”

“Wow.” This time it was their producer Tony that couldn’t seem to contain himself.

“In addition to those physical changes the tales say that a Wendigo has a heart of ice, whether that is meant to be literal or metaphorical seems to be open to interpretation.” Madeline continued.

“Any way to kill one of these things?” Frank always seemed to ask questions like that.

“Folklore is fairly vague on that score, if I had to guess I’d say fire. That seems to be a common solution for supernatural creatures.”

Tony gave them the signal that they were over the allotted time for recording this episode. Madeline nodded and moved closer to the microphone. “Well, that does it for this episode folks.”

“Yes, and that was quite the introduction for the Wendigo. Please join us again in a couple weeks when we will be going out on location to the Superior National Forest to investigate the legend of the Wendigo for ourselves.”

“Ok, recording has stopped. I’ll edit it tonight.” Tony said while packing up his laptop.

“Thanks Tony.” Lydia said and turned back to Madeline. “God damn babe, don’t you think that quote may have been a bit much?”

“I was just trying to drive home how nasty this thing is really supposed to be.”

“Well, it worked. It even made me doubt the wisdom of seeking this thing out.” Lydia shivered as she recalled the mental image of the cannibal sucking the marrow from his victims' bones.

“Aw, come on Lyds you don’t believe in any of this shit.” Madeline rubbed her back in an effort to comfort her.

“Yeah, in fact you’re always telling us we’re crazy for believing any of this.” Frank said as he packed up the microphones.

“Yeah, well fake shit can be fucking scary too Francis.” Lydia stuck her tongue out at him to emphasize the point.

“You always were eloquent Lyds, all the way back to the playground.” He chuckled.

“I got the confirmation from the guide we hired. She will meet us at the entrance to the park next Saturday morning.” Tony chimed in as he finished packing his gear. “She also included a list of gear we should pack, mostly camping and safety shit. I forwarded it to all of you.”

“You’re a prince Tony.” Frank said with a wink. “Who wants to go grab dinner?”

Lydia shook her head. “Not sure I’m hungry after hearing about marrow slurping monsters.”

“Really? Goddamn, it seems to have sparked something in me.” Frank grinned at her.

A week later they gathered at Franks apartment to make sure everyone had all the recommended gear before leaving. Then they packed themselves into Tony’s beaten-up old van, Frank made the usual cracks about the rust being the only thing holding it together. Tony laughed it off and called him an asshole. Madeline and Lydia sat in the back, Lydia reading a book about the psychological reasons people believed in things like ghosts and monsters. Madeline quickly dozed off; she was only in her mid-twenties, but her friends always joked that she had the bedtime of an old lady, and they were leaving around eleven p.m. to make it to their rendezvous with the guide at the park entrance the next morning. Lydia peered over the top of her book at Madeline and smiled at the soft snoring sound her girlfriend was making. Frank turned around and smirked.

“I can’t wait to give her shit about that ruckus.”

“It’s not that bad, I think it’s kind of cute.” Lydia whispered at him as aggressively as she could manage.

“Yeah, of course you think it’s cute.” He turned back round. “You’re out of your mind.”

Nine long hours later they pulled into the parking area outside of the entrance to the park. The day was overcast, and the air had a crisp but not unpleasant bite to it, but even Frank was silent for a moment, stunned by the splendor of nature. They didn’t have long to wait before their guide sauntered up to the driver's side of the van. She wore a camouflage jacket and blue jeans, with a sheathed knife on her hip. Her age was hard to pin down, but late forties would have been a decent guess judging from the amount of silver that shot through her otherwise black hair. She pulled her aviator style sunglasses down the bridge of her nose and stared at Tony through the window with hard grey eyes. After a moment he rolled the window down.

“You guys the radio show?” Her voice had a hint of gravel to it, making Tony speculate that she might be a former smoker.

“Podcast, actually.” He said uncomfortably.

She quirked an eyebrow and continued to stare at him. He squirmed under the weight of her gaze. He cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, that’s us. You must be Cheryl?”

“Yep.” She pushed the sunglasses back up and leaned on the door with her shoulder. “You folks get the gear I advised you to bring.?”

“Ah, yes it’s all in the back with the rest of our gear.”

“Good.” She turned to walk away. “That’s my truck there, follow it to the parking area near the camp site and then we’ll have to take the trail from there.”

She hopped into a well-maintained black truck, it roared to life a moment later. Tony guided the van into position behind the truck and followed Cheryl further into the park. Eventually they came to another small parking area, made up of a field of gravel. They parked both vehicles and everyone got out and started gathering their gear. They each had a pack containing their personal items along with a small amount of food and water in case they happened to become separated. They each also had a sleeping bag rolled up and strapped to the top of their packs, as well as a light coat to help ward off the chill. While it was warm enough to be tolerable right now there was no guarantee that trend would continue and Cheryl warned them to prepare for that. Tony had some recording equipment with him, nothing too serious, mainly just small microphones that could connect to a cell phone for recording while they were here, he also carried the pack that held the lion’s share of their food for the weekend. Frank carried the tents. Per the email from Cheryl they all also had a small knife and a bright orange flare gun with two flares each.

Cheryl came over, a military style camouflage back pack strapped to her shoulders over her jacket. She carried her own tent and a black rifle case. “Alright, you folks ready? This is not going to be a short hike.”

The friends all nodded and then Frank said. “Is the rifle really something you expect to need?”

Cheryl smirked. “I hope not to need it, but if a gray wolf or a black bear decides one of us looks like dinner I’d rather not have to try fending it off with harsh language.” With that she walked past him and towards the trail.

Frank turned to Lydia with a grin. “I like her.”

“She might shoot you frank.” Lydia chuckled as she brushed past him.

“A small risk to take for love.” Frank said as he followed.

They followed Cheryl on the long winding trail further up into the mountain. The forest was dense and imposing, at times the trail thinned down to nothing more than a game trail, just a thin strip of dirt where the local fauna had worn down the undergrowth. Without Cheryl they would never have been able to find their way. As they traveled Cheryl would occasionally point out animals or plants that she thought they might find interesting. They took a break around noon to eat lunch. The crispness of the morning had begun to turn into a sharper kind of cold. Their breath formed tiny clouds as they talked.

“Am I wrong in thinking it’s a bit early in the year for this kind of chill?” Frank asked around a mouthful of ham sandwich.

“It is unseasonal, I’ll say that, but not unheard of.” Cheryl replied between bites of protein bar.

“Sure hope we don’t end up snowed in, the way Lyds eats we’ll be eating each other within the weekend.” Frank shot Lydia a wink as he said it.

“No worries, Frankie, you’re safe.” Lydia chucked the last bite of her sandwich at him. “Nobody would want to eat you…you’re one hundred percent asshole.”

Frank swatted ineffectively at the chunk of sandwich and caught Cheryl chuckling at him, he gave her his best version of a sly grin. For her part Cheryl just shook her head and stood up, brushing her fingers clean on her pant legs. She started shoving her things back into her pack. “Alright people, if we want to make camp before dark, we’d better get moving.” She barked out the order like a person that was accustomed to being listened to.

The group polished off what was left of their lunches as quickly as they could and hastily packed up the rest of their things. No one wanted to be hiking through the woods in the dark. They continued their trek, with Cheryl in the lead. Madeline would periodically pull out her phone and record voice notes about the forest, commenting on the chill in the air and the feeling of solitude being this deep in the woods elicited in her. When Lydia asked what she was doing she smile and explained that she was recording supplemental material for the podcast.

As the sun began to settle on the horizon they had started to descend into the valley that was their destination, the valley that was the final stop for Doc Smith and the rest of the caravan. Madeline was not entirely sold on the idea of spending the night in the same site where all those people died. Lydia told her repeatedly there was nothing to worry about, which came as no surprise to Madeline, Lydia was never a believer in any of the supernatural stuff they covered on the podcast. When they got to the valley floor they start setting up the tents. Once that was done they gathered stones and wood to make a camp fire.

By the time night had fully fallen their camp was set and dinner was almost done cooking on the campfire. Dinner was a simple soup cooked in the Dutch oven they had brought with them. They all settled in around the fire, eating the soup out of tin mugs, talking about what they needed to do tomorrow. Frank was cracking jokes and trying to flirt with Cheryl. For her part Cheryl ignored most of what Frank said. Madeline, Lydia and Tony discussed how they would record content for the podcast, deciding to have everyone record on their phones as they explore and Tony would stitch everything together later. After dinner was finished they all turned in for the night, retiring to their tents.

Around midnight the sounds of a man calling for help shattered the silence of the forest. Madeline and Cheryl both poked their heads out of their tents, looking around in the darkness trying to find the source of the noise that had roused them from their sleep. Then they heard it again.

“Hey, somebody help me!” It sounded like Tony.

Madeline moved quickly from her tent and checked Tony’s, she turned to Cheryl. “He’s not in here.”

“Damn it.” Cheryl muttered and disappeared back into her tent. She appeared again a moment later, dressed and carrying her rifle. She pointed to Madeline and said “Stay here, the last thing I need is more of you injured or lost.” With that she jogged off into the dark woods.

“Yes, ma’am.” Madeline said, throwing her a half hearted salute.

Lydia stumbled out of their tent, in the sweats she was using as pajamas, hiking boots on, but untied and bundled up in her jacket. “What’s going on?” She asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Tony was yelling for help out there somewhere, Cheryl went to go check it out.” Madeline said in a worried tone, rubbing her arms to try and warm up. Lydia walked over and wrapped her in her arms.

“I’m sure he’s fine, probably staggered out there half asleep to take a leak and tripped over a rock or something.” Lydia spoke in comforting tones.

Frank appeared from inside his tent, his thick black hair was a messy tangle atop his head, his eyes only half open. “What’s up? Mads' snoring make the local bears jealous or something?”

Lydia rolled her eyes at him. “No, jackass, sounds like Tony’s out there, Cheryl went to check it out.” She paused and kissed Madeline on the forehead. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

Frank zipped up his hoodie and started pulling on his boots. “I’m gonna go check on them.”

“Frank, no…Cheryl said…” Madeline started.

“I’m sure she said we’d get lost and she may be right but I can’t just sit here if Tony’s hurt out there.” Frank declared stubbornly.

“Frank, I’m worried too but if Cheryl needs help she’ll come back and…” She was cut off by the crack of a gunshot echoing through the woods. “Was that a gun?”

“Yeah, I think it was, I’m going.” Frank said sternly.

“We’ll go with you.” Lydia said. “But we should take the flare guns with us, in case we get separated.”

Frank agreed, they took a moment to grab their flare guns and flashlights before tromping out into the blackness of the woods. They stayed as close to each other as they could, pointing the beams of their flash lights around, trying to pick up some sign of Cheryl or Tony. Their breath plumed into thick clouds of mist before their faces as they moved. The temperature had drop significantly, Frank even thought he saw frost on a few of the trees they passed.

“Tony! You out there? Talk to me man!” Frank yelled into the darkness. For a moment there was only the sound of underbrush crunching under their feet and the echo of Frank’s voice. “Cheryl! Come on, one of you answer me!”

A high-pitched scream cut through the frozen air, coming from their right. The trio immediately switched directions and moved towards it. They found a small clearing, maybe fifteen feet around, roughly. Laying in the center was Cheryl’s rifle, as the beam of Frank’s flashlight hit it, he also saw a splash of red on the ground next to it. “Shit.” Frank said as he rushed forward, panning his flashlight around frantically. The beam illuminated a dark brown boot, sticking out from behind a bush. Frank held the flashlight beam on it and moved towards the bush. “Tony….that you bud?”

As he edged around the side of the bush he saw Tony, laying on the ground on his side, his arm twisted under him at an unhealthy angle. As he inched the beam up his friend’s body his heart beat faster and faster until the light reached his head. Tony’s throat had been torn out, leaving only a gaping hole of mangled flesh and glimpses of white bones beneath. Tony’s face was frozen in a look of shock and fear, his eyes stared unflinchingly back at Frank. “Oh fuck me.” Frank said and staggered back a few steps.

His stomach turned fiercely and his dinner came rushing back up, he fell to his knees as it splattered the forest floor. Madeline and Lydia rushed to his side, Lydia bending down to check on her friend. Madeline began to move toward the bush, Frank reached out and grabbed her leg. “Don’t…don’t go over there, it’s…” He was gasping, his throat raw with stomach acid. “It’s Tony, he must have run across a bear or something.”

Madeline took a step back, having no desire to see their friend’s mangled corpse. She felt tears stinging her eyes as the realization set in that Tony was gone. “Where is Cheryl?” Lydia asked, scanning the area with her flashlight. She stopped when she felt something land on her head, it felt like a rain drop. Her stomach sank as she reached up and touched the damp spot on her head. She brought her hand back into the light of the flashlight beam, her fingers had red streaks on them where she had touched her hair. She swallowed hard, trying to force the fear back down, as she raised her flashlight. Slowly the beam climbed the old tree before her, frost glistening in the light. Eventually the beam reached the top.

The first thing she saw was Cheryl. She was draped in the intersection where several branches met the trunk, blood trickled from her, dripping off the bottom of the branches. She could see that the right side of Cheryl’s head was caved in, shards of bone sticking out through what was left of the scalp. Cheryl kept twitching, at first Lydia thought maybe she was still alive or at least still in the process of dying and that was the cause of the twitching. Then she noticed that Cheryl’s right arm was not dangling off the branch like her left was. It was being held up by the thing that was gnawing at her forearm.

It looked human, except its limbs were too long and its skin had a blueish gray tint to it. It’s back was to her and she could see it’s spine and ribs pressing against the skin. The head was bald, the tips of the ears were black with frostbite. Lydia gasped and the creature’s head whipped around to look at her. The skin on its face was drawn tight over the bones, almost as if the bones themselves were pushing out against the skin, giving it a somewhat skeletal visage. The eyes were clouded over, but she could see the irises were blue. The eyes had a crazed look to them. There was blood coating a large portion of its face and it was chewing a strip of Cheryl’s arm. As it snarled she noticed that the creature had no lips, just a ragged wound encircling it’s mouth as if the lips had been chewed off. The teeth were sharp, but not as if by design, they looked like they had been chipped and broken until they were sharp as knives. It dropped Cheryl’s arm and positioned itself like a large cat getting ready to pounce.

Lydia jerked as the rifle went off to her left, her ear ringing. The shot tore into the tree next the creature and it leapt from the branch, landing with a predatory grace ten feet from her. She turned and saw Madeline, the rifle held in her shaky hands, taking aim at the creature once more. The monster drew itself up to it’s full height, Lydia guessed maybe seven feet tall. She could see now that there was ice growing out from its chest, almost like a breastplate and its veins showed darkly through its pale skin. The creature let out an ear shattering roar before dashing forward so fast that it became a blur. Madeline pulled the trigger, hoping to get a lucky hit, but the bullet cut through empty air.

The creature snatched the rifle from Madeline’s grip with one hand and swatted her with the other. The blow powerful enough to send her spinning into a nearby tree. She was unconscious before she hit the ground. Frank pulled out his flare gun and fired at the creature as it stalked toward Lydia, hitting it in the shoulder. The flare was nearly blinding in the dark, but from the scream the creature emitted, he assumed was injured. The creature wrenched the flare from the smoldering flesh of its shoulder and threw it into the night. The flare still burned, bathing the woods in a red light. Frank was trying to reload the flare gun as the creature turned to him, but his hands refused to work. It snarled at him and before he could blink it had one clawed hand around his throat.

It slammed him against at tree so hard he almost passed out. As it brought its maw of jagged, broken teeth up to meet his face, he wished it had knocked him out. He screamed as the teeth tore into his face. It pulled its head back with wet tearing sounds and a spray of blood, chewing a mouthful of Frank’s face. He was screaming and beating at it with his hands, but it barely seemed to notice. The creature dropped the rifle, grabbing Frank’s arm with the now free hand, and it began to pull in opposite directions with each hand. Lydia rushed over to grab the gun, trying to ignore the wet popping sounds coming from Frank and the choked, gurgling sound he was now making. She backed up a few paces and pointed the rifle at the back of the creature’s head.

The monster didn’t even flinch as the bullet tore a trough of flesh out of the right side of its head. Lydia watched as the skin knitted itself back together. It turned, dropping Frank’s mangled corpse to the ground and took a few steps toward her. Lydia could almost swear it had gotten larger, she put the stock of the rifle to her shoulder and fired again. The bullet blew a hole in its shoulder just as it charged her. It took the rifle from her and smashed it into the ground so hard the barrel bent. The claws of its right hand dug into Lydia’s shoulder and it slashed her stomach with the left. Lydia cried out and thrashed against the monster, trying to dislodge its claws from the meat of her shoulder.

“Get off of her you cadaverous fuck!” Madeline screamed at the monster. It looked up at her, bloody saliva dripping down its chin. She was pointing her flare gun at the beast. She waited for it to rear up and expose its chest. Then she fired, the flare streaked across the clearing, bearing itself in the icy surface of its chest. It screamed so loud that she covered her ears. Then it scooped Lydia up and ran off into the forest. Madeline tried to run after them, even knowing it was hopeless as fast as the thing moved, but the world spun and she fell to the ground.

Her head was killing her and she felt like she might vomit. She was becoming certain that she had a concussion and she pushed herself to her feet. She staggered over to Frank’s body to retrieve one of the flashlights that had fallen to the ground and search for his extra flare.

‘I’m sorry Frank.” She said as she searched his pockets, her tears fallen onto him. “Fire is the only thing that seems to be working and we both know I’m not a great shot.”

She found the extra flare in his back pocket and loaded it into her flare gun, leaving her own spare in the pocket of her jacket. She stumbled out of the clearing, following the tracks the creature left behind as its clawed feet tore up the ground while it ran. Her vision was blurry with tears, and thanks to the blow she had taken to the head the world kept tilting.

The tracks started to become harder to follow, but she was eventually able to pick up a trail of blood splatter. As she followed the trail of blood through the dark woods, she was talking to herself, a habit of hers when she was nervous or scared. “This has got to be one of your dumber ideas, wandering through the forest, at night, following a thing that has already killed three people.” She stopped because reminding herself of her dead friends made her start crying again. The tears hurt her cheeks as the frigid air began to freeze them.

“Damn it! Get yourself together.” She chided herself. “A fucking Wendigo stole your girlfriend; this is no time to fall apart.”

She followed the blood trail until she started hearing the sounds of a woman’s screams echoing through the woods, then she followed that. She charged forward into the night, feeling steadier on her feet now, flare gun in one hand, flashlight in the other. The screams led her to the mouth of a cave. She stopped at the entrance, nervous about being in a confined space with the Wendigo.

“Of course, it’s in a fucking cave…”

Lydia’s screaming picked back up and Madeline’s fear evaporated under the heat of her rage. She ran into the cave. Following the tunnels further and further into the cave, she pointed the flashlight at the ground to make sure she wasn’t about to trip over anything. She let out a gasp as the beam of light showed her the human skulls and other bones that littered the cave floor. She pushed on, following the screams, her grip on the flare gun tightening. Knuckles white.

She rounded a corner into a larger portion of the cave. The piles of bones were thicker here and there were other artifacts laying around. Odds and ends, she assumed from the monsters’ victims. A small pile of pocket watches. Tattered books. A couple of broken laptops and assorted cellphones. Laying amid the detritus was Lydia. Her clothes were soaked in blood. She had a series of wounds in her shoulder and large slashes across her belly. Those wounds Madeline had witnessed back at the clearing, she saw then that Lydia was clutching her left arm, trying in vain to apply pressure to the massive hole where a chunk had been bitten out of it. Madeline rushed over to her and pulled off her coat to press against the wound.

“No, no Mads…” Lydia was choking the words out between sobs. “You…you can’t be here…that thing will kill you!”

“I can’t just leave you here.” Madeline said as she tried to help Lydia to her feet. Lydia tried to get her feet under herself, but she had lost too much blood and when she put any weight on her legs they just buckled. Lydia crashed to the ground, crying out as the impact jolted her wounds. Madeline crouched down, trying to soothe her.

“Just go Mads…. please.”

“I’m not doing that.” Madeline said sternly. She scanned the room, hoping to find something that she could use to help carry Lydia out of here when she saw the flashlight reflected at her from eyes in the dark passage at the back of the room. She stepped back and fell as a femur rolled under her boot, taking her foot out from under her. The Wendigo stepped into the light. Blood still dripping from its mouth, its jaw working as if it were chewing something that wasn’t there. She saw the wound in its chest from the flare she had shot it with, a ragged hole of blackened flesh. The ice that had covered it had melted away, leaving only part of its chest covered in the frigid armor.

“The Wendigo had a heart of ice…” She whispered to herself.

The Wendigo stalked towards her, as if it could sense how vulnerable she was. Its claws twitched with the urge to tear into her and gorge on her flesh. What few thoughts remained were all centered on feeding. It had once been a man, long ago, but now there was hardly anything of the man left. Just a monstrous avatar of greed, intent on nothing more than satiating its hunger. But it would never be full. It roared and sprung at the prone woman.

Madeline snapped the flare gun up and pulled the trigger. The flare burned through the air and hit the Wendigo in the stomach. It howled and flung itself onto the ground, desperately tearing at the fire burning into its stomach. Madeline jumped to her feet and pulled the last flare from her pocket. It felt like an eternity passed as she fumbled with the gun to load the fresh flare into it.

By the time she had the flare loaded the Wendigo had torn the flare from its belly and tossed it onto the ground. It snarled and charged her, slamming her into the cave wall. Its hand was crushing her throat, darkness was encroaching on the edges of her vision. She looked down and pressed the flare gun against its chest, directly above the heart. Then she pulled the trigger.

The flare burst to life, igniting the gun and scorching her right hand. The Wendigo unleashed an unearthly shriek, its eyes growing wide and wild. The ice melted off its chest and then the room was full of the stench of charring flesh. It dropped her and staggered back before falling to its knees. The flames spread over its body, turning it into a man shaped bonfire in the middle of the cave. Madeline slumped against the cave wall, the frozen rock shocking her back to full consciousness. She watched the Wendigo burn; it had stopped moving and was now burning away into a pile of charred bones. She pushed herself to her feet and staggered over to Lydia.

She wasn’t moving anymore. Madeline fell to her knees beside her and put her fingers to Lydia’s neck, searching for a pulse. Nothing, not one weak beat. Tears welled up in Madeline’s eyes as she stared into Lydia’s. They were fixed and unseeing. She was gone. Taken, just like Frank, Tony and Cheryl. Victims of the Wendigo’s unending hunger. Only it had come to an end now. Too late to save them. Madeline collapsed on the floor next to Lydia and cried. Deep, wracking sobs tore through her as she mourned everyone, she had lost in the span of one short night.

When she could no longer cry, she walked numbly out of the cave, finding the sun peaking up over the horizon. She would make her way back to the camp, she was certain Cheryl had a satellite phone in her gear, and call for help. She didn’t think the authorities would believe her, but that didn’t matter now. She was alive and she had killed the monster that took her friends. She had ended the Wendigo’s curse. That would have to be victory enough.