“It’s cold out there,” I said to the girl next to me, over the steaming coffee cup. A shock of dark curls fell gently over her face, as she turned her head.
“Yes.” She nodded and gazed at me with captivating grey eyes, the colour of unearthed mushrooms.
“Lots of snow expected,” I added. She shifted closer and I saw she was a strange combination of ugly, beautiful and primal. A prominent nose graced her small face, and her piercing eyes were framed by stark black lashes.
“You don’t say.” She leaned on the counter; the stool creaked beneath her weight.
“Later today.” I swallowed, feeling a tingle of unease creep through me.
“You don’t like the snow?” she asked.
I stammered, resisting the strong urge to move away.
I could feel her breath on my face. “Have you ever walked the woods on a cold January night?”
I took a sip of coffee, aware of it flowing down my throat, and feeling its warmth spread across my chest.
“I barely get into nature.” My discomfort in her presence grew.
“When it snows, the whole world changes.” She was very close now, and I could see small dark freckles crisscrossing her porcelain cheeks. “You can track creatures in the night with ease.”
“You must live near the forest then.” A surge of caffeine swept through me.
“Yes.” Her smile betrayed something sinister; though, perhaps I was mistaken. “Near enough to hear the popping of tree sap as it freezes, and the eerie sound of branches groaning as the wind whips through them. The snow shows a map of activity.”
She stretched an unusually long limb overhead.
“When the silver-blue light of the moon spills through the trees; that is the magic of winter.” Her eyes narrowed. “Then there’s the hunt, the struggle, the kill, and the virgin snow sweats with the red stain of victory.”
I inhaled, my cup suspended midair, mouth agape, but she was gone, and as the pounding of blood in my ears subsided, the cacophonous sounds of the cafe returned.
Shakily, I turned to leave and stopped suddenly. Next to a lipstick-stained cup, lay a crumpled newspaper: ‘MNR Warns, Wolves Spotted at Edge of Town.’
An eerie story. Kept me in suspense to see what the strange woman was going to do. Character description was great. I would not like to meet that wolf-like woman!
It is like mysteries in the snowflakes. Fairies in the darkness. Words if put in the right order make you envision may things.
Wow – story itself was a jolt of coffee – what comes across in so few words is astonishing.
Really like the “virgin snow sweats with the red stain of victory.” You’ve suggested a narrative both in the cafe and outside in a really short piece. Nice.
Spooky! The imagery is so vivid.
I love this!