Book Read Free

Snowball

Page 26

by Gregory Bastianelli


  Tucker dug his feet down into the snow. “Seems fine.”

  Clark worried about him slipping off the roof. “I’m going to lower the kids down first.”

  “Okay.”

  Clark turned to Shelby and brushed a loose strand of hair from the side of her face. “Are you ready?”

  She nodded, her half smile contradicting the worry lines on her forehead.

  He bent down to eye level with Luke and Macey. “Who wants to go first?”

  “Me,” Luke exclaimed with excitement, the drowsiness long purged from his system.

  Clark helped the boy out the window and lowered him into the waiting arms of Tucker, who set him down on the roof beside him. Clark then turned to Macey. “Are you ready?”

  She looked to her mother. “I’m afraid.”

  Shelby knelt down beside her, stroking her back. “You’ve been brave this far. You’ll be all right. None of us will let anything happen to you.”

  Macey bit her lower lip and nodded.

  Clark picked her up, but as he brought her to the open window, he felt her arms tighten around his neck and he was afraid she wouldn’t let go. Tucker stood below, waiting.

  “It’s going to be okay, Macey,” Clark said. He felt her arms release, and he lowered her down.

  Clark was relieved once the kids were secure on the roof with Tucker, and he helped Shelby down before following behind. He was glad the snow had stopped and the morning sun warded off most of the daylight chill. It was a good thing since the kids had no coats. They would need to keep warm for the trek back to the highway.

  They began the process of climbing down onto the balcony, shimmying down the column supports. They repeated the same order, with Tucker going first, and then Clark lowered the kids to him. The distance was shorter, which made the task much easier.

  On the balcony, Clark cast a wary eye to the glass door that led inside, wondering where Sledge and Wick lurked. It struck him as odd that neither of them had made an appearance in a while. He could imagine Sledge in the study watching their every move in that cursed snow globe.

  Clark went to the railing to look over the edge of the balcony. There was a wooden trellis that ran down the side of the front stoop. A vine snaked its way up from the ground through the slats in the trellis.

  “We can climb down here,” Clark said.

  The others peered down.

  “I don’t know if that will hold me,” Tucker said.

  “Then I’d better go first,” Luke said and climbed over the railing.

  “Luke!” Shelby cried in surprise.

  “That’s the initiative,” Clark said, watching the boy climb down the trellis like a monkey. Before he even reached the bottom Luke jumped down into the snow and looked up at them with a smile.

  “Great job,” Clark called down to him.

  “I can’t do that,” Macey said.

  “I’ll help you,” Clark told her. “We’ll do it together.”

  He climbed over the railing, and then helped Macey over, showing her where to grip the trellis, making sure she held on to the openings in the slats and not the thin stems of the vines, for fear the fragile plant would rip away from the wooden structure. He guided her step by step as the two of them descended the trellis. He could hear it creak, and he was afraid the slats would crack beneath each foothold. When the ground was in sight, he dropped down, and then reached up and pulled Macey off into his arms. When he set her down in the snow, he realized both her and her brother’s feet wouldn’t last long in the cold. They needed to hurry.

  He looked up at Tucker and Shelby.

  “You better go next,” Tucker said to Shelby. “I should go last.”

  “Okay,” she said with a smile.

  Clark watched her descend, slow and careful, and was glad when she was safely on the ground.

  “I’m cold, Mom,” Macey complained, and her mother scooped her up in her arms.

  Clark took off his jacket and draped it over Macey’s shoulders. He brushed the snow off her socks and rubbed her feet to keep her blood circulating. “Better?”

  The little girl nodded.

  “Come on,” Clark called up to Tucker, trying not to be too loud.

  Tucker looked at the trellis doubtfully, shook his head, and heaved his body over the railing. The wood screeched from the burden. Tucker looked awkward and clumsy trying to climb down, having trouble getting the tips of his boots into the holes in the slats. The vines shook as he struggled, almost as if they were alive.

  The vines began to curl themselves around Tucker’s body, and that’s when Clark realized that they were alive.

  “Watch out!” Clark yelled, his incident with the maple tree fresh in his mind.

  One long piece of vine wrapped itself around Tucker’s throat. His left hand released its hold and grabbed the vine that was choking him. Clark could hear him gagging, struggling to breathe.

  “Oh God,” Shelby cried.

  Tucker’s feet kicked in his struggles, both released from their footholds. His body hung free, solely in the grips of the vines that had now wrapped around his entire body. He used both hands to try and loosen the vine’s grip around his throat, but the thickness of his mittens hampered his efforts.

  “Hang on!” Clark yelled. He pulled the knife from his belt and began climbing up the trellis. He reached Tucker, who was gagging and gasping, and began cutting at the vines around his large waist.

  Clark frantically slashed with the blade, slicing into the man’s coat in an attempt to cut the vine’s hold, trying to be careful not to cut Tucker. He worked his way up the man’s torso, hacking and slashing, till he reached his shoulders. Clark grabbed on to Tucker with his left arm while he continued cutting vines with the knife in his right.

  Tucker’s eyes bulged wide and white, his mouth open, his thick tongue hanging out. The vine around his throat sank into his flesh. Clark didn’t dare try to cut it off. He hacked away at the vines around Tucker’s shoulders, trying to find the source of the one wrapped around his neck. Tucker appeared to be losing consciousness.

  With a loud crack, the wood on the trellis split under their weight and Clark felt himself leaning backward. He held tight to Tucker and the two of them fell. The vine around Tucker’s neck snapped and they landed in the snow with a soft thud.

  Clark took most of Tucker’s weight on top of him, the air squeezed out of his lungs like a bellows, the knife loosened from his hand. He couldn’t breathe. Once the wind had been knocked out of him, he couldn’t suck any more back in. He tried pushing Tucker off him, but the man’s weight was too great. If the snow hadn’t cushioned his fall, Tucker’s body would have crushed his rib cage.

  Clark struggled beneath Tucker, feeling like he was drowning, thinking he was going to black out. All he could see was the pale blue dawn sky above him, with just a few wisps of white cloud.

  Tucker rolled off him, and Clark felt a rush of air into his lungs. He gasped, sucking in air. His lungs felt as if they were about to burst, and then he exhaled and felt relief. Shelby’s concerned face loomed over him as he panted. And then Tucker’s smiling face appeared.

  “You gonna be all right, man?” Tucker asked.

  Clark was glad the man was alive.

  “Yes,” he said between gasps. “I – just – need – to catch – my breath.”

  “Well, don’t take too long,” Tucker said. “We want to get the hell out of here.”

  Clark could see the edge of the house beside them, and the windows that looked into the room with the snow globe. Yes, he thought. They needed to get away from here.

  “Help me up,” he said. Tucker extended a hand.

  There was a loud crack and Clark saw movement above. The long pointed icicles on the roof’s edge broke free in one section and dropped down like a guillotine blade, heading right for Tucker.
/>   “Watch out!” Clark yelled. He found the sudden energy to scramble to his feet and throw himself at Tucker, knocking the big man to the side.

  Four sharp icicles slammed into the snow where Tucker had just been standing. Clark looked back over his shoulder.

  “Damn,” Tucker said, realizing what had almost happened. “Now you better help me up.”

  When they got on their feet, they moved away from the side of the house. Clark glanced up at the roof, wondering if the house was still trying to stop them.

  “Can we go now?” Shelby asked, still holding Macey, worry etched on her face.

  Clark looked at Macey’s sock-covered feet. The kids wouldn’t get far walking without any boots. Then he remembered something he’d seen when he first got to the house. The toboggan on the front stoop.

  He ran to it and pulled the wooden sled out of its mooring in the crusty snow at the edge of the stoop. He brought it over and set it down before the others.

  “Get on this, kids,” he said.

  “Here,” Tucker said, removing his jacket and putting it on Luke before helping the boy onto the front of the toboggan. He had a heavy gray sweatshirt underneath and didn’t seem to miss the coat. He took his big mittens off and put them on Macey’s feet, like socks.

  If Clark thought his coat was big on Macey, Luke got lost in the big trucker’s jacket. At least they would help keep the kids warm, and the toboggan would be able to keep their feet out of the snow. He helped Macey on behind her brother.

  “Hold on to him tight,” he told her, and without a fuss she wrapped her arms around the bulky jacket that encompassed Luke’s waist. “You two should be able to get them back to the highway okay,” he said to Tucker and Shelby.

  “Wait a minute,” Shelby said. “What about you?”

  “There’s something I still need to do,” Clark said, not having time to explain.

  “I’m not going without you,” Shelby said.

  “Let’s all just go now,” Tucker pleaded.

  “You don’t understand,” Clark said. He thought about the snow globe and the image of the highway on it. He thought about the realm they were in and how Thayer Sledge had brought them here. He thought about the skeletons of the young couple in the hatchback. Wherever they were – whenever they were – they were still not yet out of this.

  “Make me understand,” Shelby said, her eyes pleading.

  “This Sledge guy,” he started, searching for the simplest explanation to something he still didn’t quite comprehend. “He’s got us trapped here, and even if we got to the snowplow and got it going, I’m not sure we’d be able to get out.” He paused. “I have an idea of what might help, but I don’t want you wasting any more time waiting around. Get to the highway, and I’ll be right behind you as soon as I can.”

  “I’m afraid,” Shelby said, her eyes moist.

  “I’ll catch up with you.” He reached out and brushed a tear away that had loosened from the corner of her eye.

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  She leaned up and kissed him on the lips, and he thought he’d never felt a kiss so soothing and comforting in his life.

  “You better, damn you,” she said, strength in her voice.

  “Now go,” he said, waving them off.

  Tucker nodded. “I’ll have the engine revved and ready for you. Just get your ass there.”

  “Watch over them,” he replied. “Keep them safe.”

  Tucker grabbed the reins of the toboggan and began pulling it through the snow toward the woods, looking exhausted but grateful. Shelby stood still for a moment, staring back at Clark longingly. He smiled in an attempt to reassure Shelby that he would be okay, but wasn’t sure if the silent message found its target. But he knew as she turned to follow the toboggan that he wanted more than anything to be by her side right now, and that he’d do everything in his power to make that happen.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Shelby kept silent, trying her best to keep up with the toboggan and not fall behind as Tucker pulled the kids on it through the woods. Just seeing the toboggan brought back memories of that fateful night on Tobin Hill with Kirby Decker. God, how that one incident had changed her life so dramatically. If that tragic mishap hadn’t happened, she wouldn’t even have these kids she loved and was trying desperately to protect.

  She noticed how cold and fragile they seemed sitting on the sled, bundled up in the adult coats, holding onto each other for warmth and security. In the woods, they lost some of the warmth the rising sun had provided, the shade casting a chill around them.

  She needed to get them safe, but she still didn’t feel right about leaving without Clark. She kept looking over her shoulder, hoping to see him emerging from behind a tree. He said he’d be along as soon as he could. She just wished he would hurry.

  At least she had Tucker. She was grateful for his help. He could have refused to come along, but he risked his life to help her and they had succeeded in getting her kids away from that creature, and all the other horrors in that decrepit house or whatever it really was. She didn’t quite fathom what Clark was spouting about, but then nothing much made sense during this whole ordeal. Still, she didn’t know what other horrors might lie ahead. Those things that attacked the RV were still out there somewhere.

  Shelby couldn’t wait to get out of the woods. Besides the swooshing sound of the toboggan being dragged through the snow, the only other noise was the occasional cracking of a tree branch giving way under the weight of the snow. The sound echoed in the woods, as if it was all around her, giving her the feeling something was out here with them. It’s just the trees, she kept telling herself, nothing more. But she couldn’t help but look around, just in case.

  She concentrated on one step after another, trudging through the snow. It was draining; each laborious step felt like a dozen. Up ahead, Tucker pulled the sled with little effort, just quick puffs of breath and some beads of sweat on his forehead. He didn’t seem affected by giving up his coat and gloves. But she could tell he was as anxious as any of them to get out of here.

  They reached the edge of the woods and stopped. Shelby felt like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. She looked down the slope to the highway. In the daylight she could see the buried vehicles, misshapen mounds of snow. There was also the RV, and she shivered at the thought of the bloodbath that took place inside it. She wondered, but didn’t really care, what happened to the others.

  She could also see the snowplow, their means of escape, its orange hulk standing out among the other vehicles. God, she hoped this worked. She glanced back into the woods for some sign of Clark. There was nothing. She turned to Tucker.

  “I need to rest a minute,” she managed through strained breath.

  “No time for that,” Tucker said.

  “I just don’t know if I can go on just yet – my legs.” At the mere mention, her legs buckled and she sank down into a sitting position in the snow.

  “That’s okay,” Tucker said. “From here on, we ride.”

  “What?” Before she realized what he was talking about, he climbed onto the back of the toboggan, right behind Macey. He looped the reins over the kids’ heads and turned to look at Shelby.

  “Climb on,” he said with a toothy smile.

  “Yes, Mom,” Macey said. “Come on.”

  Shelby eyed the toboggan, thinking about that last ride. But seeing the faces of Macey and Luke, with their desperation mingled with excitement, she overcame her reluctance and climbed on behind Tucker. She tried to put her arms around his large waist, but couldn’t even make it halfway around.

  “Hang on,” Tucker yelled, “it’s going to be a bumpy ride.” He pushed off with his feet and hands till gravity grabbed hold of the toboggan and pulled it down the slope.

  Luke shouted out with glee as the toboggan picked up speed, ic
y wind rushing past them. Shelby buried her face into the thick back of Tucker’s sweatshirt to protect it. She clung tight to his body, gripping the folds of the sweatshirt.

  As the toboggan careened down the slope, Shelby felt a sense of exhilaration, as if she were a kid again and this was a fun winter excursion, forgetting the misery of everything that came before it.

  Shelby felt arms around her own waist, holding tight onto her.

  Her eyes widened and cold sank deep down inside her gut. She pulled her face away from Tucker’s back and turned to look behind her.

  She stared into the dead face of Kirby Decker, the top of his head split open, dried blood caked in the crevice.

  “How about that kiss?” his dead lips said.

  His arms pulled Shelby off the back of the toboggan and she had no air to even scream as she watched the sled continue down the hill.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Clark watched Shelby and the others leave and hoped they would be safe. He remained where he was till they were no longer in sight. He felt guilty about letting them go off by themselves. If something happened to them, he wasn’t sure what he’d do.

  But he had business to take care of.

  He turned to head back into the house, but stopped at the foot of the front stoop when he heard the door open. Sledge and Wick came out.

  “You surprise me, Mr. Brooks,” Sledge said.

  Wick stood by, grinning in silence. Creases at the corner of his mouth extended his smile, exaggerating it. He held his hands behind his back.

  “Why is that?” Clark asked.

  Sledge gestured toward the woods with his right hand. “Your friends have left, but you didn’t go with them.”

  “I have unfinished business here.”

  The old man chuckled. “That’s quite an understatement.” He stepped to the edge of the stoop. “Makes no matter. Your friends won’t get very far, I assure you.”

  Clark’s spirit sank, but he kept his face rigid, not wanting to show it. “Leave them out of this. I’m still here.”

 

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