Sarah?

The cold gripped me, bit me, suffocated me. I found that I couldn’t escape it no matter how tightly I wove my arms around me. How long has it been since these Fall days have gotten below freezing? A few years? Nobody I’ve asked seems to know. When I left for work it was fine, this jacket would suffice, but now I wasn’t sure if I would make it the next few blocks to home. 

As I was staggering down the sidewalk, shielding my face from the slicing wind, my phone buzzed in my jacket. I harked back to when I had left work and swore that I had turned it off, but resolved that I hadn’t. That I was probably remembering wrong.

With numb fingers and chattering teeth, I fumbled with the keys to my house, and only after I shivered there for almost ten minutes was I finally able to unlock it. The howling wind slammed the door inward, and I had to use all of my weight to ram it closed once I made it inside. I was resting against the wall, attempting to catch my breath, when my phone buzzed in my pocket two more times.

“Alright, alright,” I muttered and clicked my phone on.

It was a text from Jacob. Stunned, I took a seat on my couch. I haven’t spoken to Jacob or his family since college. It wasn’t that our friendship ended on bad terms, we had just gradually started to drift apart after moving away from each other. It was a shame, too. I had really started to miss his mother’s shepherd's pie, and his sister, too. Oh, how I had begun to miss her warm hugs and smiles.

I found that his first text had come when I was still walking home. It said, “Hi, Jess. Was just wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime? :)”

I guess he has grown since we last spoke. The excessive punctuation and capitalization was something he never bothered using when we were in college. Not to mention the smiley face, which he used to make fun of me for using when I texted him back then. He must be making fun of me.

I chuckled to myself before reading the next two texts which both just read, “Jessie?”

Wow, really he has changed. Either that, or something must be really wrong. He used to hate when people would double text him. I decided I should reply right away with, “Sure what day works for you? :)”

He responded instantly. “How about today.”

I didn’t like how he was talking anymore. It didn’t sound like him, not like the Jacob I once knew so well. This Jacob was too stale, too lifeless. After considering it for a moment, I shook my head at myself. What am I doing? He has barely said anything to me, how can I judge him so quickly?

After I remembered that I had work, I settled on saying, “Ah, sorry. I have to get up early in the morning. How about tomorrow night?”

He wasted no time in replying, “Fine.”

A chill slipped down my spine, and I was suddenly and overwhelmingly aware of the cold that had begun to slither through the cracks in my house. I guess I had turned the heater off when I had left this morning, though I couldn’t quite remember.

Just as I was rising to get the heat going, my phone buzzed with another message from Jacob. It simply read, “It sure is cold.”

I didn’t move, just stared at the message in silent disconcertion. With stiff fingers, I typed, “What?”

Again, his reply was instantaneous.

“It’s been almost three years since it has gotten below freezing in the Fall.”

I sighed. “Oh ya. Haha.”

It had started to snow outside. I know that I should think that it’s beautiful considering it’s the first of the season, but it was hard to appreciate when all I could think about was my trembling fingers and runny nose.

The rest of the night all I could muster to do was eat dinner and wash up. This sudden exhaustion had pulled me to bed and caused me to fall asleep before my head even hit the pillow, but the cold would wake me soon. It wrapped its chilling fingers around my neck and squeezed, and I found that no number of blankets would keep it out, so I drearily pushed myself up. With both of my arms clutched at my sides, I padded to the thermostat only to find the heater off again.

I wouldn’t allow myself to think about what that could mean. Not at this hour. I decided to simply flick it on again and settle back into my cocoon of blankets. It was easy for the sleep to begin tugging at my eyelids for the second time tonight, but when a rustling came from outside my window, I was jostled awake. Though it was a faint noise, a ghost of a sound, I heard it. It came again and again, each time causing my heart to pound harder. Then, my nightstand buzzed with a message. With a trembling hand, I retrieved my phone and found it was Jacob. He said, “Are you awake?”

Suddenly, my back porch light came on, casting the silhouette of a man through the window. Fear shot up my arms and into my cheeks. I could not see his face, only the general outline of his body, but I could tell he was trying to look at me.

I covered my mouth to keep myself from screaming. Everything around me was frozen. I was frozen. The snow that fell outside had stopped. The sound of the heater rattling went silent. The man outside did not move. He did not even sway slightly from side to side, he was only deathly still out in the burning cold.

I decided I could not just sit and wait for him to have his way with me, so, with quivering fingers, I called 911, and as silently as I could gave them my information. As soon as I hung up, the porch light went out and I could not see the man outside my window.

When the police came, they searched every inch of my house, inside and out, but could not find anything. They said they could not even see any footprints leading to my window even though the snow had stopped by the time I called them. I did not sleep that night. 

In the morning I finally replied to Jacob’s message. “I’m sorry. I had to call the police last night when you texted me.”

His only response was, “Oh.”

I guess I should have been weirded out by him leaving it at that with no follow up questions or even a simple ‘Are you okay?’ But I’m glad he did. What would I have even said? That a ghost visited me in the night? How would I explain that? And even if I could I wouldn’t want to.

To keep my mind off of this vague feeling of being watched, I decided to catch up with Jacob after all these years. Our conversation went like this:

“So, how’s Sarah, Jacob?”

“My sister is no longer with us.”

“What do you mean?”

“She is dead.”

“I’m so sorry. I know how close you were with her. How are your parents?”

“Fine.”

“Well, if you guys need anything you know you can come to me. When is the funeral?”

“It was last week.”

Though it didn’t show much in my messages, the gravity of what he said made me stagger back on my feet. Sarah is dead? How? How can she be gone? And when she was so young, too. A certain guilt began to wash over me for never saying goodbye and for never keeping in touch. I just wished I could have gone to her funeral. I realized that this is probably why Jacob has been talking so weird, and it’s also why he decided to reach out to me so suddenly. Death will do that to a person.

Before I could reply, he added, “I can’t wait until tonight to see you. :)”

I guess his sister is a sensitive topic for him. Still, considering how close they were it is weird that he isn’t willing to talk about it more. I suppose everyone deals with death differently, though.

I began to wonder how she died, but before I could think too hard about it, a frigid wind began to bite at my face, and there was this horrible feeling in my stomach, like someone was staring at the back of my head. I hurried along the sidewalk and only looked back once I was at the bus stop, but I found nothing except a slight rustle in the bushes.

I was able to go home at a regular time that day, and felt that I just might get a normal night's rest. It was only when Jacob texted me that I was reminded that might not be possible. 

He said, “I’ll see you tonight.”

I typed with a sigh, “of course. What time are we meeting and where?”

He said, “Don’t worry, I’ll pick you up. :)”

“But you don’t know where I live and I still don’t know what time you’re coming,” I pointed out, vaguely annoyed. 

He didn’t answer, and I began to feel that familiar cold slithering up me once again. I wondered how his parents were doing and if they were handling all of this any better than Jacob. I couldn’t imagine they were, not after having to bury their own child. 

Out of curiosity, I started to scroll through my contacts to see if I still had his mother’s phone number. I would have liked to give her my condolences and maybe even ask about Jacob. To my utter surprise, considering the years that have gone by since our last conversation, it was still there. 

I sucked in air through my teeth, pressed the call button, and waited anxiously as the phone rang, hoping this was still her number. It gave a few more rings before there was a click and a woman clearing her throat on the other end. I waited for her to say something. 

“Hello?” She asked with a slight tremble to her voice.

“Hello, Mrs. Anderson?” I greeted, “this is Jessie, Jacob’s friend.”

She sighed in relief. “Of course, Jessie,” I could hear her smile, “how are you dear?”

“I’m fine, Mrs. Anderson. How are you and your husband?” I inquired, feeling lightheaded after being on edge for so long, just grateful to hear a familiar voice. Even now, though, as I listened to her comforting voice, I could feel eyes on me.

She gave a dismal answer, and I imagined how she must have felt like crying then, “We’ve seen better days, as you can imagine.”

“I’m so sorry to hear about Sarah. I know that must have been hard,” I breathed, holding back tears of my own.

Her reply was earnest, “Harder than you could ever imagine. I can only pray to whoever will listen that you never have to go through something like that.”

I nodded, more to myself than anything, and added, “Thankyou, ma’am. If you need anything you know I am only one call away.”

“Of course,” she quivered.

“Mrs. Anderson, I hope that I’m not out of line here, but I want to ask you a question about Jacob.”

“Everybody does,” she paused, “go ahead sweetheart.”

I thought for a moment. “How is he doing? I mean really doing. I know that he was super close with Sarah but he wouldn’t talk about her or even you guys when I asked, and he’s just been acting a little bit strange lately. I’m asking this as his dear friend.”

She was silent for the longest time, and after a while I began to think she had hung up. 

“Mrs. Anderson?”

“Jessie,” she began slowly in a grave voice I had never heard her use before, “when was the last time you spoke with Jacob?”

I was quiet, more confused that anything, before telling her simply, “Just now.”

“I don’t know what you are trying to do young lady, but my son has been dead for two days. Why would you say something like that to me? Jessie, I considered you family,” she asserted firmly before dissolving into sobs.

“What? What are you talking about? Mrs. Anderson, I had no idea. He texted me. And now he- er someone is on their way to come get me,” I pleaded frantically, “just tell me what’s going on. Please.”

Her crying stopped all at once when she asked in a serious voice, “When did he first contact you?”

I hesitated, and felt the strongest sense of fear I have ever felt in a long time. An intense, fierce cold that seeped into my bones and traveled up throat began to omit from the door just as a soft knocking started up. It wrapped itself around me and chocked me. 

I shivered, “Yesterday.”

“Jessie, listen very carefully to me. Do not open that door, do you understand? Get away now,” she demanded, but I was already lifting up the blinds to see who might be knocking at my door.

I felt the worst, most devastating terror I have ever felt in my entire life when I came face to face with Jacob, who stared directly at me through the window. He wore the widest, creepiest smile I had ever seen. His pale lips had been stretched out as far as they could go, so far that they hung slightly over his chin, his skin was grey, and it was sagging off him like it was nothing more than a suit, and his eyes seemed to pop out of his head like someone had squeezed him just a little too hard. 

When he saw me drop my phone and run away from the window, his expression then shifted and molded into the most terrifying, irate, angry face I had ever seen. His mouth made an unnatural upside down ‘U’ shape and his eyebrows furrowed so that they were almost touching.

I was able to see him move away from the window and over to my door just before the harrowing, debilitating cold prompted me to drop to the floor in a fit of shivering hyperventilation. I found that I couldn’t even muster the strength to shriek in terror when that thing broke into my house and was standing over me, smile clinging to his face once more, a knife in one hand and Jacob’s cracked phone in the other. 

*3 days earlier*

“Are you sure you’re okay, Mom?” I pressed for the truth, though I knew she would never give it.

“Yes, I’m fine, Jacob” she assured me through sobs, “go to work now, please, we’ll be okay. As long as we have you we’ll be okay.”

I nodded, gave her a tight hug, and stepped out of their house. I began to plod back to my car, wanting so badly not to go but knowing I had taken way too many days off to stay with them, when a ghastly cold took hold of me. How strange for that to happen this early in Fall. From my back pocket I heard the familiar ‘ding’ notification. 

Man, it really is getting cold out here, I thought. When I pulled on the driver’s door, the howling wind pulled it out of my hand. I let out a yelp of surprise before I sat down and tugged it back closed against the cold. Once I had settled into my seat, I pulled out my phone and clicked it on.

Shock rolled through me like a raging wave. All I could do was gape at my phone in disbelief. I could not think. I could not breath. I could not even begin to imagine what was going on or even how to explain this. All I could do was whisper breathlessly,

“Sarah?”

“Hi, Jacob. Was just wondering if we could talk? : )”