Fibrous Entangler

Matthew tried not to let his teeth chatter as he pulled out the little black ledger book again. His numb fingers slid the elastic band aside, slipping it open to the page bookmarked by a frayed ribbon. It was still there—the cheque that would change everything. Breath fogging before him, Matthew tried to imagine what he would do with $20,000.

He’d get the hell out of town for one—somewhere warm. Tropical. A place where they cracked open coconuts with machetes on the beach and adorn them with those tiny umbrellas. Matthew had never tasted fresh coconut milk, but he liked tiny umbrellas. The waitress at the only diner in town would always put one in his Shirley Temple—extra, extra, cherries of course. Before enjoying the sand and sun though he had to get out of this cabin, make the snowmobile ride through the woods, back to his place near Main Street.

Matthew tucked the book back into his breast pocket, rubbing his hands together in a futile attempt to warm them. He wasn’t sure how long ago the howling had faded away. Perhaps it is time to escape, it must be morning by now, he thought. Cautiously, the man crawled out from under the bed, stumbling on numb feet. Opening the door, a smile played across his lips—the cabin was utterly destroyed. The furniture was flipped, a puff of feathers from a torn pillow drifted across the floor. The partly unhinged front door was decorated with a smear of blood. The doctors he supposed, his former boss. He had given the doctor what she wanted; the cheque was proof of that. It wasn’t his fault that the monsters had followed him.

They got the doctor, but they won’t get me—he didn’t know any fancy words like cryptozoology but Matthew had grown up in the wilds. He was a survivor. With fingers brushing against the black book in his coat pocket he stepped over the snowdrift gathered at the door. He didn’t have to go far, his snowmobile was still right where he had left it, covered with snow but otherwise untouched.

“They’ll never find me,” he said, his voice weak, but determined. Squinting against the bright blanket of snow he used the sleeves of his torn jacket to brush his snowmobile clean. With a finger poised to start the engine he flinched, hearing the familiar drone of an engine that wasn’t his.

“They can’t find me,” Matthew whispered in fear, dashing back into the wrecked cabin and sliding back into his hiding spot under the bed. He clutched the book tightly in his hands and waited. The droning engine grew louder and stopped suddenly. Boots clomped across protesting floors. Matthew held his breath.

“Clear!” A familiar voice shouted. They won’t find me, Matthew continued repeating to himself. He moved deeper beneath the bed, the squeal of floorboards betraying him. He held his breath as a flashlight beam moved towards his hiding spot.

“Alright, come out. Nice and slow, hands where I can see them.”

Matthew screwed his eyes shut as if that would save him.

“Now, move it!”

Slowly he slithered out from under the bed, hands raising.

“Jesus Christ, Matthew? You look like a pack of wolves tried to eat you,” the cop said. Jasper, not a monster. Matthew was starting to remember now, “Did one of them bite you? What happened to your shoes?”

“They didn’t find me.”

“Who?”

“The eldrazi. They tried but they didn’t find me.”

“Right,” Jasper said in that tone of voice that people often used with Matthew. That tone that told him they didn’t believe him. All of them, even the extra extra cherries waitress thought he wasn’t smart enough but soon he’d be the one laughing. He’d be dancing on the beach with tiny umbrellas while all of them had to run and hide before the werewolves came.

“Let’s get you out of here man. I don’t have any shoes, but the truck isn’t far,” the cop cuffed him to the bed and wrapping him in the various blankets in the room, “You just focus on staying warm and I’ll be back before you know it.”

There was a brief exchange of hushed voices outside the door. Matthew assumed Jasper had a new partner. Matthew waited until he heard the drone of the engine again. Then, millimeter by millimeter he carefully slid one hand out of the cuffs, muffling a groan of pain as his thumb dislocated with a crack. Untangling from the blankets he moved as fast as he could, slipping out the back door. All he could think about was getting as far from the cabin as possible. Out in the woods he stumbled through the deep snow. A tropical island, Matthew decided, that was where he was going. He stripped off his clothing piece by piece, crawling through the snow.

It took Jasper longer than expected to get back to the cabin and track Matthew down. Jasper shook his head as he analyzed the crime scene, wishing he had tightened the handcuffs just a little more. He tucked the black book into an evidence bag. The only other item of interest Matthew had on him was a card from Magic the Gathering—Fibrous Entangler it read, Eldrazi Werewolf.

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Written by Kelsey Reich on February 11/2021 in Ontario, Canada. Edited on February 16/2021.