Racing Fate

The frozen lake cracked beneath his feet. The icy air burned his lungs through exasperated gasps as he ran. Light from the full moon glimmered off the clear patches of the lake that the wind had blown snow off of. It certainly felt cold enough, but the groaned snapping of branching cracks gave away that this lake wasn’t as frozen as he had thought. Caleb had read somewhere that freezing to death was the most peaceful way to go and that drowning was one of the worst, but what happened if you combined the two?

Aside from his breathing and his footfalls, silence had filled the night and for a moment his world was calm. The trees on the other side of the lake drew closer and closer, the cracks did not produce any immediate obstacle and the ice seemed to be remaining solid for the time being. His muscles began to scream at him. Imminent danger does wonders for your cardio, but now that it was gone, Caleb felt every 2^nd beer and skipped gym day grow heavier with every step.

Breaking through his moment, the beast crashed through the treeline behind him and leaped onto the edge of the lake. Caleb’s muscles forgot they were tired. Nothing like a stark reminder of death behind you to keep goal oriented. He did not dare look behind himself to catch a glimpse. His first had been plenty. Those bright red eyes searing behind a mess of black fur above drooling fangs were undoubtedly still there and he had no need to check.

Cracks turned to thundering crashes as ice broke apart behind him. Heavy scrapes on ice sounded closer with every second. Those damned trees were taking way too long to reach him. He wondered if the broken ice or the beast would reach him first, a race he had never intended to be a part of. Eaten alive cannot be high on the list of best ways to go.

Caleb glanced behind him.

Bounding toward him was a wolf that was larger than a moose. Instead of front legs, this wolf had long extended arms with massive claws on the ends. With each leap the beast would break the ice, but with surprising speed it always took another leap before it could be pulled into the water. Caleb needed to run faster.

Looking back ahead he felt every nerve on the back of his body tingle. He had heard the term “dig deep” when athletes looked for those deep reservoirs of hidden energy that they allegedly tapped into. Caleb felt much more comradery with the term “lighting a fire under his ass” right now, and the last thing he wanted to do was dig any deeper into the hole he found himself in.

Wind blew tears across his face, the burning in his lungs had become excruciating, his heart was determined to deafen him, and he could no longer, or maybe just refused, to hear the beast behind him. Caleb was running faster than he had ever in his life and the treeline and edge of the lake was finally approaching. Suddenly, his right leg, which was currently behind him with his left knee raised, gave a twist and a snap. He felt his body jerk to the right and his shoulder smack onto the ice as his world went sideways. Something attached to his leg and stopped all his forward momentum so he didn’t skid along the ice, saving his face from being scraped, but did no favours for his shoulder when it took all the impact. His calf felt like molten lava was pouring out of four spots. Caleb felt like he was sliding backwards when he turned onto his back to look behind him.

Latched onto his leg was the beast. Its’ red eyes were wide with rage and panic, its’ head was tilted sideways. Behind the beast’s head was the broken chunks of ice bobbing in the frozen lake. The body of the creature had gone under, except for one claw trying to dig into the ice for a hold, and the head which was dragging Caleb in with it.

Without thinking, Caleb pushed his palms down as a brace and brought his torso up, then used his left leg to stomp on the beast’s nose as hard as he possibly could. He didn’t want to do this, but instinct took over. The grip loosened for a second. He drove his heal into the beast’s nose repeatedly until it finally let go. The head thrashed around, jaws snapping with a ferocious snarl. Blood flecked off its’ teeth and speckled the snow with red, but Caleb had immediately shimmied backwards out of the beast’s range. The creature’s above-ground claw proved not enough and it slowly sunk under the ice letting out a long, chilling howl before its’ head submerged. A flash of remorse in those demonic eyes met his gaze just as they disappeared.

Caleb fell onto his back facing the sky. He couldn’t feel his leg. Was that shock? Which was better freezing to death or bleeding out? Caleb refused to deal with what he had just done and pushed reality down to find some peace in his final moments. He admired the stars and smiled at the Northern Lights has they danced across the sky. This was supposed to be a romantic night.

Caleb’s whole body was racked with pain and discomfort and he knew that, but for some reason his brain didn’t seem to care. His body went numb. The moon shone onto his face; it felt as refreshing as the sun on a summer morning. His heart warmed and the light of the moon filled his eyes. His heart began to beat much, much faster.

He slipped into a dream, and in his dream, he was still on the edge of the lake, and behind him it was still broken. But the beast was gone and he felt strong. He felt insulated against the cold wind and his muscles were not aching, but itching. Itching to run into the woods and find something. But what?

He wove through the woods on the other side with speed unimaginable. His vision was not as clear, but his nose and ears guided him in a way his eyes no longer could. He could hear the trees creaking in the slightest breeze and could tell a fresh path from a used one by the scent.

Caleb was following the trail of something small. He raged with hunger. He thought he had known a girl who could get hangry sometimes, but even she had never bent down on all fours to pursue a snack through the woods, or at least he had never seen her do that. He was famished and at the end of the trail his nose told him there was something that could fix that.

He devoured the rabbit whole and it felt like having a single Dorito after having not eaten for two days. If anything, it just made his hunger worse. He had to find something bigger; he had to find more.

The bear had heard him coming and giving chase to it was causing Caleb to growl low in elation. His powerful heartbeat was driving him forward with every repetition. The smell of the bear had him salivating, the rabbits and the deer had not been enough, but this bear he could gorge on and finally be satisfied. It was the bear that finally let him notice how much larger he was than when he was awake. He had never come across any bears up close before, but he could make an educated guess that he did not tower over them.

The bear had been fun. But these campers gave him a real chase. He had never been able to be so quiet before. How could something as large as himself remain undetected to these people? It was almost hilarious. The look of terror on their faces as he made an example of their friend was satisfying. Caleb wasn’t sure he believed in hell, but surely deeds done in a dream couldn’t have you end up there, right? Most people, he believed, had a monster within them, thoughts aren’t the same as actions.

He let them flee for a moment, sinking back into the darkness and out of the range of their senses before giving chase once again. He bounded after the fastest one, the one who smelt the least fearful. “I’ll show him,” Caleb thought. The blue flannel and orange toque came into view and Caleb allowed himself a little more noise to let the man know he was there. The sweet scent of fear became much more present. This man was ripe now. Caleb closed the distance and lunged forward, jaw aiming for the man’s neck.

Caleb’s dream ended abruptly, yanking him awake. He sat upright and gasped, his head darting left and right. He was no longer bobbing on a block of ice and waiting to die. The snow wasn’t too deep under the large evergreen tree where he sat. He could feel the dirt on his hands and a little on the back of his legs and buttocks. Where the hell were his clothes?

As Caleb became more accustomed to his surroundings he noticed his nakedness, his very intact leg, and the blood. Blood soaked the snow like a cherry flavoured snow cone. The largest concentration was on him. He was covered all round his mouth and down his chest and stomach. His hands were coated in dark, rusty dried blood. His leg still had scars from the teeth of the beast, but it was not broken. Caleb was not a doctor but he guessed that was not the medical norm for a recovery from “leg mauled by giant beast.” None of this made sense but he needed to figure out where he was and how to get to familiar ground. Something about the blood pinged a connection to his strange dream, but as dreams go the next morning, it was all a haze. As he concentrated on one part of it his mind would go blank.

He got up, his body aching, and tiptoed just out from under the tree where he discovered much more blood. His eyes tracked the highest concentration of blood to a gory pile. The dream pinged again in the back of his head. Caleb’s recollection was much clearer now. Never before had he been able to recall a dream so clearly. Not a dream, memories. His eyes widened and he began to sob, covering his mouth and he felt sick. The gory pile wore a blue flannel and an orange toque.

Tears streaming from down his face, Caleb trudged through the knee-deep snow in the woods. Some of the other campers must have escaped him and ran for help, he had heard the distant sirens, and now he heard the shouting and the dogs. His feet were numb, his body was submitting to the cold and the strain. He wanted so badly to get away with it, even though he knew that was likely not the right choice. But, if he could just get away, he could figure it out so that it never happened again. How, he had no idea, but he just needed to get away.

The thought he continued to suppress was that he knew exactly how that dead camper had felt in his final moments. Confronting the police and the dogs were a suitable alternative to confronting that. He wasn’t doing a very good job of suppressing this thought though, all his mental will was holding down a much worse reality.

Just a little further and he could see a break in the trees. Caleb had been following a path through the snow that made his movement easier.

The barking sounded so close.

Caleb grabbed a tree at the last second to stop himself from summersaulting into the water. The trees had cleared away. Before him the broken ice bobbed in the lake. He knew his car was parked on the other side just a few kilometers through the trees past their campsite. But the sun had shone warmer today, and the gaps between the blocks of ice were even wider than before.

“Why didn’t you tell me Beth?” Caleb exhaled as the tears renewed. He wished he could go back in time to leaving the house and remember to grab her medication. He could still recall the panicked look on her face as her eyes had begun to turn red, tears forming out of a concerned look before she had started to change shape. Allergy is definitely one way to put it.

The dogs were right behind him when he jumped into the water. Not fighting for his life was much easier than he had anticipated, despite the initial shock and pain, letting his body go numb and sink was the most peace he had felt in a long time. People said cold plunges had health benefits, but he reckoned he would not be around to reap the rewards.

As Caleb’s eyes went black and he drifted in the water he thought of Beth. The hypothermia set in before he truly began to drown.