Frostbite

Tomorrow.

They never really left.

The shadows give chase. Through the hazy fog and storm, snow kicks up with every step, making loud crunches. His breathing grows heavier as his heart races, pounding like a frantic drum in his chest. They're getting closer.

The world doesn't stop turning, and I know I can't let it get to me, but it doesn't make it hurt any less. I can still hear them...

His foot connects with a stray tree root, tripping him. A distant bellow follows, an ungodly howl that seems to mock his struggle. Quickly joined by a cacophony of more howls; a sickening humor pervades the sound. As he struggles to regain his balance, the noise grows nearer. The fog swirls around him, and the dark crooked outlines of the abominations dance close behind, piercing through the oncoming snowfall.

I can't let it stop me, but their voices echo in my mind.

The pitter-patter of leathery extremities and claws scraping against rocks grows louder. They are relentless and merciless. No one can afford to be caught by them—not even those with a death wish. The fate awaiting those taken is worse than death—a different kind of hell. One that isn't on some distant planet or deep underground where magma flows and heat cracks igneous rock. No, it's here, in the snow, in this world, where demons roam the blizzards and darkness. Hiding in the shadows, waiting to strike. A hell that no one can escape. Not the weak, the strong, or the innocent.

I pray there's a God watching, but after everything I've seen, after everything I've been through, He'll have to beg me for forgiveness.

Adrenaline is the lifeline of mankind—the fragments left behind. It keeps him moving, his legs swinging like unbreaking cogs in a dying machine. His fingers are numb, perhaps frostbitten from the overwhelming cold, but he can't tell. He is oblivious. There is only one goal, one thing on his mind.

The world, my world felt so much more alive. So much more colorful, even in its monochrome palette, when they were around. They were loud until the very end, and it never really bothered me. But their screams did. They begged and cried for me, and it became so loud until there was an abrupt stop. An impenetrable silence. That was worse.

Too numb to feel, too numb to taste, almost unable to hear. A faint, muffled ringing permeates his senses, cutting through the noise and static of his mind. The frostbite seems to envelop his entire being. Maybe it has. Maybe it has even touched his soul. But regardless, the goal remains the same.

I'm sorry for failing you.

And that goal is to see tomorrow.