The Winter Beast

          I ran fast, as fast as I could, dodging tree branches, and bushes, jumping over logs and large rocks, and stumbling through the ankle deep snow. The prize was my life and running was the only way to save it. The beast was running for my life as well and he was determined to be the winner. I was cold and tired but his fast paced gallop forced me to move on. He was gaining on me. I thought I felt his paws teasing the heels of my feet. Toying with me, that’s what he was doing.
          This can’t be real. It can’t be happening.
          My tears told me otherwise. They were the only thing that felt real at the moment. They hurry down my face as fast as I did through the snow. The cold had quickly taken the warmth of my tears and turned them into stinging streams of ice but the burning pains I felt in my legs and chest swiftly took my mind away from trivia things like crying and focused me on my current venture, escaping.
         Only my panicked breaths and the heavy foot steps closing in behind me broke the silence in the forest. No wind blowing loose snow, no winter birds or whimsical forest creatures, just the snarling terror behind me. Maybe he had devoured them all like he would me.
         The snow began to come down quickly adding on to the difficulties I was suffering. Still running but barely taking in air, I collapsed into a pile of snow. As quickly as I fell the beast pounced upon me. I knew he had made up his mind right there that he would try to devour me as quickly as he could. He wasted no time ripping through the arm I used to fend off his sharp slimy teeth. I had always said if I were ever in danger I wouldn’t run or fight back I would just let the danger take me whole. But this was before I was ever in any real danger. I fought back and prayed that I wouldn’t die in the mouth of the beast.

***

         The horrible scream of the beast provoked an equally loud scream from me. Through the whipping wind and blinding snow I yelled in victory.
         “You freak! You stupid freak. I killed you! You didn’t kill me. Ha-ha.” I yelled angrily at the beast.
         He whimpered as his impaled body slid slowly down a sharp branch that stuck up from underneath the snow.
         I did it! I fought it and killed it.I celebrated in my head.
         Luck, God, something must have been on my side. Pushing the beast into the fallen tree branch was a miracle. All around me were patches of pink and red snow. Half of my arm had been taken by the beast but I couldn’t worry about that if I wanted to survive.
         I started my trek through the blizzard. The fast moving snowflakes assaulted my face. I walked not really having an idea of where I was going. I only hoped that the direction would lead me out of the forest. The reality of my devoured arm had set in as I walked through the blizzard. The ice cold snow stung as it hit the opened wound, but soon I felt nothing at all. It had become numbed.
         Pressing on, not knowing where I was, I finally rested against a tree. The racing snow didn’t care that I was tired and wounded, it proceeded to fall relentlessly. The feeling in my feet began to slip away.
         I have to keep moving.
         Getting up I noticed the snow around me had a twinge of pink to it. Descending on my knees, I dug, with my good arm, into the snow and found a darker shade of pink.
         “No, no, no, no, no,” I mumble digging deeper only to find red blood mixed in with the white snow. I had been going in circles. I was in the same place that I had killed the beast. The beast!
         I scrambled, digging through the snow searching for the branch where the beast had been run through with.
         Here…where is it. Where is it?
         My head spun in circles as I looked at the broken splints of wood scattered thought the snow. I looked around aimlessly in panic for a sign of the beast. The blizzard made it a fruitless venture.
         Crawling around in the bloody snow, my heart sank when through the lighting fast fall of the snowflakes I made out a figure. At eye level with me only a few yards away the beast’s yellow eyes look at me. I quickly clawed at the snow, pulling myself, trying to reach a tree or something to lift myself up. All the while watching the beast watching me. He didn’t move or lash out, he only watched me, studying what I would do next.
         Another miracle happened or maybe it was that old instinct to stay alive kicking in, but I pulled myself to my feet and began to run. Slower than before and now blinded by the storm, I ran. The silent forest that had been filled with my panicked breathing and the beast rough foot steps now was filled with the treacherous wind of the blizzard. Feeling I would be lost in the maze of the blizzard forever the weight was lifted from my heart when two dim yellow lights broke my blind spell.
         The semi-truck headed towards me quickly. It slowed to a stopped only a few feet in front of me. The Good Samaritan jumped out of the truck draped in a thick black coat, the hood lined with fur. The Samaritan pulled their hood back as they approached me.
         “What happened to you? Are you okay?” She expressed terrified by my appearance.
         “We have to go now!” I pulled the lady towards her truck.
         “Hold on now what ha–” she never finished her sentence. The beast sprung out of the woods grabbed the women by the neck and dragged her into the forest. She appeared to scream but the wind swallowed any noise she made as the beast pulled her deeper into the woods. There was no time to save her.
         It might come back. I have to save myself.