White Walker

Chapter 1

It had been his call, and as Ted watched the storm beyond the window of the building where he worked, he was beginning to suspect he’d made a mistake. The forecast had called for a light dusting of snow, an inch at most, a manageable amount for those who lived in the area. But as was usually the case when man tried to predict what mother nature had in store for them, they were wrong.

What began as a light snowfall quickly became a raging blizzard howling down from the north. It was as if someone had flipped a switch, unleashing a wintry chaos that battered the glass before him. The sudden appearance of the storm reminded him of his Nanny, and the stories she would tell of her childhood on the windswept plains of Siberia. Stories that both frightened and excited him. A small part of him wanted to go back to those simpler times, to experience first hand all she had seen. Yet at the same time the stories scared him with the possibility that the world was not as neat and orderly as he would have liked.

In her world there were forces that lived at the edge of reason, that would at times interact with those who inhabited the small villages dotted across the rolling plains. One such being lived within the winter storm, carrying in his pocket the howling winds, and the driven snow. Destined to wander forever alone as he gathered the souls of those lost in the blizzards that at times appeared to spring up out of nowhere.

He understood how ancient man must have felt when faced with such an event. With his limited understanding of how the world worked, it was easy to see how supernatural beliefs could give birth to legends that were then handed down from one generation to the next. His nanny was a prime example of this and she always warned him to be careful when he went outside during a winter storm.

Osteregat'sya belyy khodok, she would whisper, crossing herself as he got dressed to go out. She had learned enough English to get by, falling back on her mother tongue when her emotions took over. Though he couldn’t understand a word she said, the worried expression on her face told him all he needed to know.

He’d asked his mom once what she meant but she didn’t understand, assuring him it was simply a superstitious belief from the old country. Yet he couldn’t shake the unsettled sensation that had been growing stronger with every passing moment as he watched the storm beyond the window.

What was once a supermarket had been converted into a call center housing Alltek Computer Services. Their job was to provide tech support to government contractors, assisting them with the interface between client and government network systems. As a newly promoted supervisor Ted felt a degree of responsibility for the people on his team.

With the coming of the storm the center had been shut down, and the evening shift sent home. Unfortunately there were ten members on his team who had been unable to get rides, and with every passing moment, their chances of getting out were growing slim. Which meant, that as their supervisor, he couldn’t leave either.

It would be nice to be snug at home on such a bad night, but if they had to stay over that would be no problem. It would be safer anyway. As the storm worsened, the chance of something happening on the way home was magnified by the fact that if an accident did occur, there would be no help until the storm passed.

No, it would be better to just stay right where they were. He’d expressed this sentiment to his boss, and knew she was probably on the phone right now with corporate to clear it. But he couldn’t shake the feeling he’d made a terrible mistake. It lay in the pit of his stomach, the unsettled sensation that something major was about to happen, it was a feeling that had put him on edge all day, and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it.

Judy, his girlfriend, had asked him to get her lunch for her. Normally they would eat together in his truck, which was where she had left her lunch when they came in. After all it was supposed to be a just light dusting, not the blizzard that had appeared on their doorstep.

Thinking of Judy caused that unsettled sensation to intensify. For the past week she had been quieter than normal, withdrawing into herself, speaking only when she was spoken to. Several times he’d caught her day dreaming. When he ask her what she was thinking about, she would shake her head, and change the subject.

He’d always thought they had something special together, that maybe she was the one he was supposed to spend his life with. But now he wasn’t so sure, and was worried she might be giving thought to leaving him. He’d never been very good with women, they always seemed so untouchable, so unapproachable. It didn’t help either that he had very little experience with the members of the opposite sex.

Judy had been different, she was like the best friend he never had. She liked many of the same things he did, and even got most of the jokes that only a small circle of his friends could understand. Growing up with an IQ over 140 had been difficult, not to mention lonely. While he could easily grasp even the most complex theories, it was the common sense things that frustrated him the most.

The wind battered at the window, the steel frame rattling in response, reminding him of his current situation. Pulling up the collar of his coat he pushed the button that released the electronic lock, and the door slid open, a cold blast of frigid air swirled around him, carrying with it snowflakes that drifted to the floor where they melted instantly as he stepped out into the storm.

The storm thrashed around him in a frenzy, pulling at his clothes with icy fingers as he crossed to his truck sitting beneath a growing mound of white. The wind howled in his ear with an insatiable voice, wiping away all other sound save the crunch of his own footsteps through the frozen crust of the snow already on the ground.

Reaching his truck he pulled open the door, the hinges squealing in protest, nearly frozen as they were. It was an older truck, though reliable, with four wheel drive that was more a necessity in this area than a luxury.

Judy’s lunch was sitting on the seat in her purple lunch box and he retrieved it, slamming the door before turning back to the call center. When he did he realized that in the short period of time he’d been out here, the storm had worsened. He could no longer see the building that he knew was less than fifty yards away.

He was overcome by a momentary flash of panic, imagining himself wandering through the blizzard until he succumbed, less than a hundred yards from safety. He squashed the panic beneath the weight of reason as he searched for his footsteps in the snow, they would lead him back to safety. As he crossed back to the building the sound of the wind diminished, fading to a stately silence as the falling snow stopped its frenzied dance to fall gently to the ground around him with a faint hiss.

A pause that spoke of supernatural things living just beyond view.

From his left came the sound of footsteps, slow, steady, crunching through the frozen crust as they moved away from his position.

Hey, he shouted, I’m over here, his voice was swallowed by the softening blanket of snow. The footsteps stopped as his nannies voice whispered in his mind, Osteregat'sya belyy khodok.

What did it mean?

The footsteps turned towards him, growing louder with every step as he peered into the blanket of falling snow that surrounded him. Unable to see anything, his imagination was unleashed and he struggled to control himself as a sudden fear of the unknown flashed through him.

He realized he didn’t want to see what was going to emerge from the curtains of falling snow, and he turned to trace his path back to the call center, his overriding curiosity forcing him to glance over his shoulder at the sheets of falling snow that undulated like a curtain. The footsteps followed until he was halfway back to the call center when suddenly the storm was unleashed upon him.

The wind howled in a voice filled with an unholy need, battering at his body, grabbing at him with a chilled touch as he trudged towards the call center that was now a black blob within the swirling snow.

The wind whipped the snowflakes to and fro, shifting direction almost instantly. A rhythmic display that reminded him of a flock of birds gathering to head south for the winter. Flying with one mind, twisting and turning in an intuative dance as they prepared for their long journey.

He spotted three snow devils skittering back and forth to his right, weaving in and out of one another’s path, and was reminded of the almost superstitious nature of the storm .

He stopped, mesmerized by the hypnotic precision as the snow swirled around him, taking on a life of its own. Slowly he became aware of a pattern. The snowflakes were no longer aimlessly darting back and forth as they were driven about by the shifting wind. They all began flowing in one direction, following a clockwise pattern as they were drawn into a vortex swirling around a very tight axis that was slowly forming a snowy funnel that grew to tower over him.

The column of snow measured a mere five feet across at its widest point, narrowing to a tip that danced across the surface of the ground as the body of the vortex undulated above it like a snake. It grew taller, taking on substance and form, towering over him. Ted was forced to tilt his head back as far as he could in order to watch as the funnel rose towards the muted sky above.

His earlier feelings of unease returned, stronger than before. While fascinating to watch, the action of the snow had an unsettled effect on him. A moaning cry drew his attention, and he looked up to see the wide mouth of the funnel as its body nearly doubled over upon itself, and the black eye at the center of the funnel gazed down upon him.

Ted turned and ran the remaining few feet to the door of the call center, that undulating funnel following him as the wind pulled at his clothes, trying to draw him into that fathomless void.

He slipped his id card through the reader and shoved against the door as the panic he had managed so far to keep in check blossomed in the pit of his stomach. He swiped it again, glancing back at that approaching funnel as it got closer, towering over him, the wind shrieking in his ear with an inhuman voice.

He looked at his card, realizing he had it turned the wrong way, and flipped it around to swipe. There was a faint beep signaling that the door was unlocked, he shoved it open as that inhuman roar reached a crescendo, filling the world around him with a shrieking cry of agonized anger as he slipped into the safety of the building.

The storm followed in a swirl of snowflakes that gently drifted to the floor as the closing door severed the searching fingers of the wind. Panting with relief he stood at the door for a moment, watching the storm as that towering funnel slowly dissipated, its parts scattering to the ceaseless winds, and he turned to vanish into the building’s depths.

Chapter 2

Ted sat on the edge of his seat as he waited for Marie, the general manager, to return to her sparsely furnished office. Aside from a desk whose surface was neat and tidy, the only other piece of furniture was a narrow bookcase beneath several framed diplomas that occupied the wall to his right. The bookcase contained, from what he could see without being too obvious, several first editions of some well known classics. A reader himself, his curiosity as to their authenticity was stirred. But that wasn’t why he was here. In his various dealings with Marie she had never struck him as someone willing to strike up a conversation over anything outside of work.

He had given Judy her lunch before reporting to Marie’s office, dodging Judy’s questions spurred by the way he looked. By then he had rationalized his confrontation in the storm. Chalking it up to the stress of taking on a new position coupled with his imagination, seasoned with just a dash of the supernatural brought on by the memory of his nanny’s warning.

Behind the desk was a window, and his gaze kept getting drawn to the storm outside as the sound of the wind battering itself against the wall filled the office with a low roar. He shuddered when a swirling snow devil danced across the width of the window. A chill washed across his body as an errant breeze wafted through the office. He’d rather be at home with his feet up, safely encased in his apartment, yet his responsibility as a supervisor forced him to remain.

His job was his responsibility; he’d made a promise, not only to his employer, but also to Judy, the only real family he had. He knew to get ahead you had to exchange a part of your life for the means to provide for your loved ones. To give them a sense of security. But sometimes the line between your job and your life became blurred, as it had for his mother and father. A pair of workaholics whose greatest contribution to the world was their eagerness to put aside promises made to family to fulfill the needs of their employer.

His childhood had been one of constant disappointment. Family vacations promised yet never taken. His daily needs entrusted to a parade of strangers as both of his parents worked towards their own success. Never once considering that to Ted their presence in his life would have meant more than all the toys in the world.

He never lacked for anything, and always had the latest, and the best toys, making his friends jealous. But they had something he would never know. They had known the loving touch of a father’s hand, the caress of a mother’s lips upon his cheek, a cool hand on his fevered brow. His parents were at work when he woke up in the morning, and still away when he went to sleep. Several times he had tried to wait up for them, only to fall asleep on the couch long before they arrived.

When he was twelve, the two strangers that were his parents died in an accident and the money they had given up their