The banging continued on the door and a slinking silhouette flittered against the pure white backdrop of the snow outside. Ben reached out for the door handle when something occurred to him. He paused. “Hey, who’s there? Stop your banging, okay?”
Sure enough the banging stopped at his command.
“I said who’s there?”
From behind Ben, Jerry said nervously, “Dude, I swear to God if you let the Lost Boys in here to eat us, I’ll never forgive you. Just remember if it’s a vampire, don’t invite them in.”
Ben shook his head again, certain that his friend had smoked one of his ‘funny fags’ at some point during the last few hours. It was the only explanation for him being so annoying.
“My name’s Jess,” said the person outside. “I work at the supermarket down the path. Please let me in. Please.”
Jerry leapt up and punched the air. “Dude! That’s the girl I was just talking about. The fittie! I swear it must be fate.”
Ben grinned. “Pity we can’t let her in; just in case she’s a zombie or a vampire?”
“Dude, stop fooling. Let her in!”
Ben couldn’t help but laugh as he turned to the door. The girl’s silhouette continued to dance frantically against the snow outside. Ben wondered what on earth had gotten her so worked up.
“Jess,” he said through the glass, “you still there?”
“Yes, let me in.” She sounded frightened.
“The thing is, Jess. The door isn’t locked.”
There was silence, followed by: “Huh?”
“The door isn’t locked – but it opens outwards. You need to pull it towards yourself instead of banging on it.”
After a further moment of silence, the door started to open and cold air flowed in through the slowly widening gap. Illuminated by the crisp moonlight reflecting off the snow, a delicately-featured face appeared in the doorway. It looked embarrassed.
###
It took almost fifteen minutes for Ben to calm Jess down sufficiently that she managed to introduce herself. Once Ben had let her in and locked the door (she’d insisted on it), the girl had started to catch her breath. The three of them now stood by the entranceway where they could just about make each other out under the moon’s shimmering glow and the green pulse of the fire exit sign.
“You’re lucky,” Ben said, patting her on the back. Her entire body was trembling. Whether it was just the cold, or something else, Ben couldn’t tell. “We were just thinking about getting out of here,” he explained. “You just caught us in time.”
The girl glanced over her shoulder at the door behind her, as though she expected something might burst through at any moment. The wind was picking up outside and flakes of snow were whirling up and settling against the glass.
Ben raised an eyebrow. “What exactly happened to you out there?”
“Yeah,” Jerry added. “Something give you the heebie jeebies, or what?”
Jess giggled, but it was a nervous sound. “I guess you could say something like that, but I’m probably just being silly. Least I hope so.”
“You got us a bit freaked out too,” Ben said. “Banging on the door like that!”
“Sorry. I was just in a panic.”
“Why though?” Ben wanted to get to the point quickly, disconcertingly aware of the fact that they would all have to get out of there soon. It was getting far too cold to hang around any longer.
”Well, I left the supermarket to see if anybody knew why the power had gone off,” Jess told them, “and also to get away from my cow of a manager. She drives me insane, but I just act really happy around her because I know it makes her mad. I call her Kathleen and it drives her craaaaaazeee! With a capital zee.”
Ben got the girl back on track. “Then what happened?”
“Oh right, well, it’s the weirdest thing. I got lost!”
Ben and Jerry spoke in unison: “Lost?”
“Yeah, literally like ten steps out of the doorway. I couldn’t find my way back at all. Every time I changed direction it felt like I was going round in circles. I couldn’t see anything other than snow all around me. That’s when I started to get, you know, a bit scared, so I got my phone out to call someone at the supermarket to come and get me. But my phone was all messed up. I totally freaked and started calling out for help. That’s when I saw it…”
Ben swallowed. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what it was the girl saw – especially the bit about how her phone was all messed up the same as his and Jerry’s. The last thing Ben needed was to be freaked right now, but he asked the question anyway. It felt like he needed to. “What did you see?”
Jess shook her head and shrugged, her bleached-blonde hair glinting in the white light coming in from outside. “I…I really don’t know, but it had a face, you know? It was a man, I guess. A tall man.”
“Like Phantasm? Dude!” Jerry left it at that. Sometimes Dude said it all.
Ben wasn’t quite so impressed, though. “A face? You just bumped into someone in the dark! No big deal.”
Jess nodded. “Maybe – except for the only thing I could make out on this person’s face were his eyes: big, glowy white ones inside of a hood.”
“A hood?” Another one of Jerry’s fantasies took a hold of him. “What kind of hood? Jedi or Sith? Or one like the guy in Assassin’s Creed?”
Jess shook her head, a blank expression on her face. “I don’t know what any of that means, but it was like a priest’s robe or something. I didn’t see anything else – just the face – and I ran. Then I ended up at your door. Thank God!”
Jerry put an arm around the girl’s waist and squeezed tightly. “Amen to that!”
Ben’s common sense was telling him to dismiss the girl’s story as paranoid nonsense, but part of him couldn’t help but wonder…
Was something out there in the snow?
Chapter Ten
Damien had separated himself from the group and was now standing by the window in his bulbous puffer jacket, staring intently at the world outside. Harry and the other drinkers had remained around the sofa, a row of beers at their feet thawing in front of the fire. A couple were cracked due to the change in temperature, but several more seemed to be returning to their more natural state of crisp, bubbling liquid.
Damien stared out into the night.
What is with this weather? It came out of nowhere…
Damien had never known anything like it. The air was cold enough to freeze a person’s eyelashes – not to mention the beer – and if he was honest (which he never was if he could help it) he was worried. If the power didn’t come back on soon, would it continue to get even colder? Would he freeze to death? It seemed absurd in this day and age, but he wasn’t so certain anymore. The ghost-white blanket swirling outside the window made him even less sure. The whole world was freezing.
How did I get stuck in this dump on a night like tonight? The one Tuesday where I have serious business to attend to and this happens – and that screwup Jimmy hasn’t even turned up. I should be sitting in my Jacuzzi right now – some bitch waiting on the bed to gobble my knob – but no, I’m stuck here with a bunch of deadbeats. Steph isn’t so bad – in fact I wouldn’t mind giving her one – but the others deserve a good old-fashioned beat down. Especially that waster, Harry. Thinks he’s better than me when really he’s the biggest degenerate here.
Damien craned his neck towards the group by the fire. Harry was sitting on the sofa alone, whilst the others milled about nearby.
Everyone probably moved away because of the stink of booze and vomit. Who the hell does that guy think he is?