A Day in December

By the time I woke up, half of my body had already been frozen. It was December, burning cold, as the weather had taken a turn for the worst. As soon as I opened my eyes, cold air gushed in forcing me to close them again. I could barely lift my fingers. My throat had become completely dry and my voice became cracked. I felt as if I was dumb. I tried analysing my situation. I had been covered in snow, but gladly didn’t get buried in it. I was lying in what seemed to be a construction site. I could see the machinery and the cement covered in snow as well. About four feet away there was something that was moving.

My vision had become blurry and my eyes watery, I couldn’t make out the shape of the moving object. Then I heard, it was the voice of someone weeping. Here was my chance! I mustered up all my strength and called out in a weak croaked voice, “Please …hel...p…..mee….” The person heard me, and came closer to me. It was a girl in her teens, her brown hair all wet from the snow and her hazel eyes wet with tears. I could see some frozen blood on her forehead as well as her bruised knees. I could tell she had fallen somewhere.

She saw my face and screamed. I tried to calm her down by waving one of my moving arms. But instead of calming down, she picked up a stone from the snow and started walking towards me. My heartbeat which I couldn’t hear before now suddenly became louder and quicker. I was terrified by the look on her face. She glared at me, coming towards me with blood shot eyes.

I had two options now, just lie there and wait to be killed without knowing the cause of my own death, or I could force my body to move and at least die struggling. But I didn’t have time to choose the second option as she already stood before me.

“This is all your fault”, she said.

Was this a new trend among killers these days? Before killing the victim, start accusing them. Well isn’t that fun? But it sure wasn’t, if you were in the place of the victim yourself that is. So I replied with a very clichéd line.

“What did I ever do to you?”, as soon as I said it her ferocious eyes turned wild and I realized that I had just made things worse for myself.

For some odd reason, she started weeping. But since it delayed my funeral, I didn’t mind.

“You… you don’t remember anything?” she chuckled, it wasn’t a cute one.

“Remember what exactly?” I had forgotten all the pain in my body and my croaked voice finally cleared. My memory had been hazy.

She paused and stared at me. It was getting pretty annoying for me with all the suspense she was creating. Can a guy get some peace please?

She bent down and grabbed my neck. If I had any connection with this girl then it would probably not be a romantic relationship as she was now trying to strangle me to death. She must have decided not to give me any peace at all. If only I could remember what I did wrong. For some reason, her hands were really strong, or maybe I had become too weak. I had difficulties breathing before, but now I could barely breathe. I was about to lose my consciousness again, her nails digging deeper into my neck.

Then I remembered.

I grabbed her hands and with all my strength tried to stop her.

“Emily! Stop!” I shouted. She stopped, stunned.

“Emily…” I panted. “….. We have to run…..”

She seemed confused.

“I didn’t kill them…. I swear to God, I was on my way home and I saw this large guy sneaking through your back door, I thought something was wrong, so I called the police…”

“YOU’RE LYING! I SAW YOU! YOU WERE STANDING OVER MY MOTHER! YOU HAD A KNIFE IN YOUR HANDS THERE WAS NO OTHER GUY!!” she shouted so loud my ear drums rang.

But I didn’t fail to hear the footsteps behind us. I felt a shiver down my spine. By now, I was already barely standing. Holding Emily’s hand, I asked her.

“Is there … someone behind me?” even though I already knew the answer to that.

“Yeah….” She whispered in a low pitch voice, tears rolling down her face. “And… he’s covered in blood….”

“I see”, I replied. I knew we had to get away from him.

“The knife was for self-defence by the way….”, I turned around, now facing the man. “RUN EMILY!!!” I shouted and gave her a push, she realized that I wasn’t able to move my body and started to run, but I was glad that she listened to me for a change. She spared me the drama at least.

But alas, I didn’t have the strength to fight a girl and here I was facing a giant man who had just murdered a family. The killer seemed to be enjoying himself. I could tell from his eyes, people like him just kill for fun. It was revolting, the sight of him. The killer brought out his knife, a sinister smile on his face.

It was an especially cold day. A day in December.