Ice and Blood by Oliver Altair

Author:Oliver Altair [Altair, Oliver]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944099145
Publisher: Striking Books
Published: 2019-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

19

Blackness.

Tiberius couldn’t remember shutting his eyes, but he must have. He lay on the chilly ground of the blue fir forest, waiting.

For what?

For his end at the hands of the looming creature. Every part of his body paused—muscles, breath, heart. He squinted.

Dimness.

The skin of the statue glistened as it reached for his chest with an open palm while squeezing Owen’s oozing heart in the other. Its touch stung like a million furious wasps. The agony deepened as the creature pressed harder.

His flesh, frozen. His blood, frozen.

His deepest thoughts, frozen, heartbeat fading away like a distant drumbeat in a long-forgotten dream.

Silence…

The pain receded. Tiberius listened to the soothing sounds of the forest: the song of the winter birds, the crackling icicles, the howling wind. He sat up against the bark of the closest tree. He breathed in painful, faltering huffs. The center of his chest hurt as if he’d been rammed.

“Sheriff?”

Tiberius looked up with narrowed eyes, head as heavy as a sack of grain. He met the Chief’s concerned gaze. “I’m fine.”

He leaned on the tree to get back to his feet. The chain of the jaw trap jingled. The Chief crouched and examined the metallic teeth biting around his ankle. “You stepped wrong.”

“That I did.”

“The trapper is dead. There is blood on your face.”

“Yeah, it’s his. But I didn’t touch him. Cross my heart.”

The Chief nodded. He fetched the machete hanging from his belt and pried the trap open.

Tiberius pulled his foot free, wincing. “Thanks.”

He limped toward Owen O’Leary’s butchered body. The corpse lay on its stomach in a puddle of bloodied snow. Tiberius had no wish to turn it. He’d already witnessed the same carnage twice before. “Killing statues…” he muttered. “And I thought I’d seen it all in the fall.”

He looked around, suspicious of every waving shadow.

“It’s gone,” The Chief said, standing close behind him. He waved his hand to a rocky trail buried in ice. “That way.”

Tiberius took two clumsy steps toward the trail. His injured ankle throbbed. His leg wobbled like a bar of gelatin. The Chief caught up to him. He lent him his arm to help him stand. “You need to see the medicine man.”

“That can wait. But my ankle might be too shredded to track that thing through a rough path.”

“I will go.”

“Wait. If you find the creature, stay away. Note its whereabouts and come for me. I don’t wanna chance upon your bloody heart pierced in a branch. Is that clear?”

The Chief replied with two solemn nods. He handed Tiberius a black revolver. “Your gun.”

Tiberius held the Colt Dragoon. He brushed the snow off its barrel. The coldness made the weapon more alive. It reminded him of the chilling grip of its previous, undead owner. He tipped his hat. “Much obliged. See you in town.”

He walked to Owen’s campsite with slow, dragging steps, like a long, arduous pilgrimage. When he peeked over his shoulder, the Chief had already vanished, as fast and quiet as a winter critter. The trapper’s campfire still burned, but the flames fought to survive under the burgeoning rage of the blizzard.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.