Winter's War

A short story of a woman experiencing winter in a very unique way.

So long has man feared the world, the threat of death surrounds us at every moment, danger lurks around every corner and in every dark crevice of the human mind. The base of our fear is not imagined it is not a boogie man in the closet or a nightmare to be tucked away as the crust of sleep is wiped from our eyes. The source of our fear does not reside in the darkness, it is the darkness. Darkness and cold are the beasts that consume the body and torture the soul. Though we are helpless to resist this sweet terrifying embrace, we fight and rage against the dark and we will not go quietly into the night as we strive for life and the hope that light will come again. How foolish we are, before life can be reborn it must die in winter’s brutal war.

She stood at the brink, staring out into the void, and felt a tingle of suspense spike up the length of her spine like an electric shock of preparation for what was to come. This sensation dispersed as she finally gained the will to cross the threshold into the unforgiving battlefield that was the world. She knew that she must press forward into what remained outside, no matter the calling and no matter the desire that burned in her heart to stay in safety. She had to press on, lest she be left behind in the maddening chaos of a world struggling to survive it’s fate. 

The step was small, but the effect was devastating. As she moved from the warmth and comfort of a happy home into a bleak reality prepared to rip it’s self apart at a moments notice. She felt the bitter cold pierce her core and the very essence of her being as if  a million daggers from the hand of an enemy that could never be seen. Her heart was strong, but the forces that opposed her were powerful and unrelenting. Her gentle face felt every strike delivered by the wind as it unleashed it’s devastating hatred upon her as though she were to blame for the loss of the sun who would cure it’s dreaded state.  

The conflict had already begun, the beautiful colors and loving embrace of nature were being torn apart as they foolishly buried themselves among their dead and dying brothers in a futile effort to seek refuge from the inevitable. As she prepared her self to advance, bolstered only by the knowledge of what must be done, she craned her head sky word in the hope that light’s sweet kiss might bless her one more time before it disappeared, not to be seen again until the coming atrocities had taken their tole. What she saw however filled her heart not with joy or hope, but pure dread that can only be felt by those that know the face of death as if it were their own. She spied in that dark and brutal sky above the very bane of her existence. It flowed forth upon the world like a legion of the damned with but one purpose that has driven it since the dawn of time, to claim what was once alive and seize the thrown in it’s place.

The snow landed around her covering all that was with white and erasing all she had once known. Though the tyranny of winter’s oppression would continue until spring could bring forth a savior, the war had been lost and the battle was over and she was now a mere refugee of  winter’s war.            

Reviews

[Schatzi]

Hello Nicholas Mazzaro,

That was definitely not what I was expecting but a great read nonetheless. You painted a very vivid and real world. I felt what she felt . . . Nicely done! It was a great story.

Thank you for sharing!

Kind regards,

Schatzi