5 Minute Reads | Anthology

The Blizzard by Alan247

The wind howls in the Alps, like all of Hell's spirits came out of their caves, flyed to the mountains and howl, hiss, and laugh. Naughty, they dive in the lake, gliding from the seabed to the shore, causing huge waves. They run through the peaks and hollows, snapping trees and pushing rocks. A powerful storm carries and blows the snow from leaking clouds all around, covering everything in its path in a white powder... The sky has mixed with the ground...

All white and tired, the young passenger trudges through the storm. He sees nothing around. His sight flickers, he sees only white all around him, in the ears hums a terrrible blizzard sound. Slowly, scrolling forward, he cautiously pokes the frozen ground with a stick. Afraid of falling, as he feels that he's not on the road anymore.

And just recently, it was so beautiful in these mountains! Only a hour ago, he was standing on a peak of a mountain and looking down to Hillwalderzth Lake, with shining cities on its coasts. And just a few steps ahead stood shining mountains with their silver peaks.

When the sun magically hid under the peaks of the mountains, he turned around. At the bottom of the mountain, he saw a motel. He was thinking to spend the night there and tomorrow morning return to Birch. But suddenly, the weather changed. It began to snow, and the elevated storm mixed everything up. That's how he ended up in the mountains all alone, abandoned, sad...

Passenger stopped. He began to look around and listen to see if he can spot somewhere a shimmering light, if he'll hear a human voice or the ringing of bells. Nothing. He only heard the raging blizzard and his eager, beating heart in his chest.

'God, do I have to die here?' A thought passed through his head. He felt the cold starting to take over his body, feeling his stagnating blood veins.

But, he quickly recovered, as he remembered that the motel should be nearby. He only has to walk a bit and soon he'll see the lights of the motel appearing. He took a solid few steps forward, often falling and rising up again. He was walking fast, deep breathing, as if afraid of being late. He walked for a long time, as it seemed to him. But he didn't see a light nor a human. And blizzard increasingly so, the wind was getting angier and angrier, the weather was freezing.

"Help me!" He shouted, unhappy, and got scared of his own voice. It was weak.

No one replied to him. Just someone shouted, laughed at the top of the mountain and ran away.

"Help me! Please!" He cried again, almost not hearing his own voice.

Tired, he fell to the ground and felt from his eyes drop plentiful, painful tears.

But he quickly got up and began to wade through the snow once again. He saw nothing. He wanted only the people, the light, the heat, to get away from this terrible blizzard. He ran through the snow, falling and rising up as if he had already felt somewhere near a Reaper with his scythe. Finally, all his body stuck against a hard object and fell on the ground. Soon, he realised that he hit a tree. He came closer and took shelter under a tree in order to hide from the wind. But the wind found him. From all sides wind went right through his body, cold and horrific. He couldn't move a single toe.

"Still need to spend the night here," he said aloud to himself.

While sitting under a tree, he saw that it was a large, leaning fir with low branches. He remembered that he had a knife and in his head born a strong mind. He rose up, took hold of a branch, then another... third... He cut them off the tree and threw them on the ground. After he cut about twenty of them, he gathered them around and put some of them on the side from which the wind blew. Other ones he put on the ground and made himself a bed. Then he began to walk back and forth in order to warm up. Finally, he curvatured in his bed, as if preparing to spend the night here.

'Maybe, somehow, I will survive the night,' He thought, 'I won't go further, from that nothing good will come. Even more, I will get lost if I go further... And I wonder what my friends are doing at Birch right now?' The young guy remembered, 'After all, it's a New Years night. Perhaps they all came together, having fun and remembering their relatives and friends. And why did I come to these mountains? I would rather have fun with them, greet the New Year. I could have seen the mountains and the next time...'

He imagines how great it would be to be in a warm place, among friends, to joke and have fun. And now - BRR!......And through his body moves quake.

But there in his head, another, more precious image: sitting in a warm room, his father, a doctor and mother, from both sides sits two beautiful as two exploding white lilies. Everyone eats dinner and waits for the New Year... They are far away from him, a few hundred miles away...

'Good for them, warm,' the man thinks with a dazed smile, 'They are probably speaking about me, waiting 'till I come back.'

From that image and thoughts about his family, he feels warmer and better, as if the mother was blanketing him.

He starts feeling sleepy...his eyes about to close. But what is this? In his eyes stood a picture of a young woman.

"Barbara! My love, my dear Barbara!" Guy whispers and his hearth trembles with happiness.

Although his eyes are closed, he can clearly see a cheerful face and blue eyes looking at him. He remembers how last time he left her, he promised to come back after one year, to marry her and to go study together.

"I'll soon finish the school and I'll comeback to you," the guy whispers, as if he's comforting her, "I will return, and together we will live and work and be happy, happy... I'll be back soon Barbara..."

With that image the man falls asleep...

For an eternity.