Trespassing

The icy breeze brushes Chloe’s cheek, leaving stinging frosty tearstreaks from her watering gray eyes in its wake. Around her, snowflakes dance through jagged branches that cage her in from the cloudy sky overhead. She shivers and pulls her light windbreaker more tightly around her body. An errant gust of wind sweeps her hood off her head and tangles her blonde hair around her face. She curses and pulls the hood back up, stuffing her hair back inside it.

“Just my dumb luck,” she grumbles as she continues trudging along the snowy trail. When she left her house earlier this afternoon, it was a beautiful spring day: The sun was shining, birds were singing, the breeze was warm and gentle. She’d almost considered leaving her jacket at home. After all, she was just going through a walk in the metropark behind her apartment complex, as she often does on afternoons when she leaves work early. The forecast hadn’t said anything at all about a freak winter storm.

And yet Chloe finds herself lost in woods she knows well, engulfed in unseasonal wintery weather. The forest is smothered in the preternatural quiet that often comes with snow; her footsteps seem to echo off the trees as she walks down the path with her shoulders hunched and her hands buried in her pockets. Snowmelt is seeping into her tennis shoes, and her distressed jeans offer little protection against the bitter wind.

“I should have been home by now,” Chloe murmurs aloud, gritting her teeth to keep them from chattering. No signs of civilization meet her eyes as she scans the woods–no signposts, no trail markers, no glimpses of houses or playsets. Not even birds or squirrels make themselves known to her. The trail stretches on ahead of her, winding between the trees, wholly unfamiliar. When she looks behind her, a similar scene meets her eyes, only distinguished by the presence of her own footprints on the snowy path. Already the wind and ongoing snowfall are obscuring them.

“If I don’t find my way out, no rescue will be coming,” Chloe realizes aloud, her breath creating a cloud of fog. Her phone lost signal some time ago. She lives alone in her apartment. No one will even know anything’s gone wrong until she fails to show up at work tomorrow.

But that won’t happen, she resolves. “I’ve been on every trail in these woods dozens of times,” Chloe reassures herself as she continues forward down the path. “Maybe I took a wrong turn somewhere, but if I stay on the path and keep walking, I’ll definitely find something I recognize. Or at least get phone service back.”

She pulls her phone out of her pocket. The screen stares back at her blankly. No matter how she shakes it, taps it, and presses buttons, the screen remains black.

“Shit.” She had at least 75% battery when she left her apartment. There’s no reason her phone should be dead now. But it’s completely nonresponsive, as useful to her as sunscreen would be in these darkening woods. She quickens her pace, trying to keep her breathing steady and come up with a plan. Chloe has never been the type to go camping, but she’s seen enough survival tips scrolling through social media to know that exposure will kill before hunger or thirst or lack of sleep. Without a way to call for help, she needs to find a way out of the woods or find shelter, the sooner the better. Doing either will become infinitely harder once night falls.

Chloe’s lungs and legs burn as she continues down the trail. She’s not used to hiking for hours like this in her day job as an accountant. As she walks, she sees no animals, no other hikers–no sights or sounds of any life except the trees, which she can tell regret starting to put out the buds of new leaves. It’s cold comfort to know that she’s not the only one the weather caught off guard.

The trees thin out ahead, and Chloe rushes forward, stumbling down a slope and all but tumbling into a snow-covered clearing. The open space is almost perfectly circular. Wind cuts through it like a knife, piercing her jacket and chilling her to the bone. But Chloe doesn’t care, because at the center of the clearing is a quaint little log cabin. Its windows are dark and no smoke comes from its chimney, but it’s shelter, if she can just get inside it.

Chloe runs across the clearing, panting and aching with every step, until she crashes into the door. To her surprise, the door is unlocked and swings open when she touches the doorknob, dumping her on the cabin’s rough wooden floor. She drags herself inside and kicks the door shut behind her. Meager light spills through the windows from the snowy twilight outside, but the walls are sturdy and keep the wind from ravaging her.

“Hello?” she calls. The cabin is a single room, as far as she can tell looking around; if anyone was in here, surely they would have noticed her coming in. But no one answers her call. “I’m sorry for trespassing. I got lost in the woods, and my phone isn’t working. I just need a place to wait out this storm. I’m not dressed for winter.”

Still no one answers. Chloe gets to her feet and inspects her surroundings more carefully. There’s wood and kindling in the fireplace, and she’s able to start a fire with a piece of flint and the fire poker. She sighs in audible relief as the flames give her warmth, allowing her stiff fingers and toes to thaw out. The flames also offer the room more light. A few pots and pans hang from hooks in the ceiling, along with various herbs and root vegetables. There’s a hook in the fireplace for a cookpot, as well. A couple of cupboards line the walls, but Chloe doesn’t dare open them. She hates the feeling that she’s trespassing. Besides the fireplace, there’s a small bed in one corner and a rocking chair near the hearth. A cedar chest in another corner has a thick woolen blanket on top of it.

“I’m really sorry. I just have to get warm,” Chloe calls to the cabin. She takes the blanket and wraps herself in it, then huddles in the rocking chair. After a minute or two, she kicks off her sodden shoes.

In the next minute, she’s sound asleep.

***~O~***

A spine-chilling howl startles Chloe out of her nap. The fire has burned down to mere embers, and the room is chilly. Bright silvery light streams through the windows onto the cabin floor. Chloe gets out of her chair and goes to the window, hoping the light is from people searching for her. Maybe one of those helicopter searchlights? But no, the unnerving stillness of a snowy night greets her ears rather than the noise of any aircraft.

Outside, an enormous full moon oversees the clearing, creating a world of cold light and stark shadow. The clearing is a glittering sheet of diamond snow. Across the clearing, a dark, hulking silhouette steps out of the trees. It points its canine nose skyward, and another eerie howl assaults Chloe’s ears.

Chloe’s eyes widen and she backs away from the window. Her heart pounds in her ears. She can’t have seen what she thinks she’s seen. It howled like a wolf, but stood on two legs like a man. A huge, burly man, like a WWE wrestler. She grabs the fire poker and looks for a way to lock or bolt the door, wondering how she could have failed to do that before. Maybe I’m dreaming, she tries to reassure herself, but when she pinches her arm, her only reward is an angry red welt.

Something THUMPS outside the door. Chloe whimpers and brandishes the fire poker. The door swings open. A huge creature fills the doorway, its wolfish snout scrunched with a snarl. Its legs bend at unnatural angles. Wicked claws protrude from its fingers and toes. Coarse dark hair covers it from head to toe, only broken up by tattered remains of a shirt and pants. A bottlebrush tail swishes back and forth behind the creature.

“I’m so sorry. Is this your house? I promise I didn’t mean to intrude. I was lost in the woods–” Chloe babbles, but she stops as the beast growls so loudly that the floorboards vibrate. It steps inside. Chloe notices that blood is dripping from its jaws. She screams and lunges forward. The fire poker pierces the beast’s abdomen and she dives between its legs. The beast roars. Claws clamp around Chloe’s ankle.

“No! Please, just let me go! I didn’t mean–”

Her cries abruptly stop, replaced by the sound of jaws tearing through flesh. Outside the cabin door, spatters of red mar the silver snow.