The Final Winter

Chapter Fifteen

Harry snapped out of his wallowing, leapt up in front of the fire. “The hell was that? More screaming?” He started for the pub’s exit again. “What’s going on tonight?”

The others emerged from underneath their blankets and duvets by the fire. Steph hurried up beside Harry and put a hand on his back, clutching his jacket. “That scream sounded really close,” she said. “You think it was the same person as earlier?”

“I hope so, otherwise that means there’s something even more screwed up going on out there. A single person screaming is a lot better than multiple people screaming.”

The cries continued, closer and more urgent.

“Go on, Harry,” Steph urged. “It sounds like they’re right outside.”

Harry nodded and made for the door, but, before he managed to get there, it sprung open. Luckily, his forehead was nowhere near this time and he avoided a second blow from the door’s thick wood. Two flailing bodies – a boy and a girl – tumbled through the entranceway and ended up in a crumpled heap on the floorboards.

Harry saw that they were just a couple of teenagers. He offered them his hand. “Come on in why don’t you.”

The girl ignored his offer and sprang to her feet unassisted. She rushed over to the still-open door and slammed it shut, heaving her weight against it and sliding her arm up to the dead bolt, pulling it across with a forceful Clack!

Damien entered the scene and came up beside Harry and Steph. He looked down at the teenage boy on the floor and then across at the panting girl slumped against the door. He laughed out round. “What the fuck are you two tripping about?”

The girl looked back at Damien, her chest heaving in and out beneath her fleece. Her eyes were wide like a rabbit on a motorway. She said nothing.

Damien turned his glance to the boy. “What about you, sunshine? You got anything to say, or shall I just kick your arse back outside? You’ve interrupted a private party and its bad manners to crash.”

“No,” the girl said urgently. “Please, let us stay!”

Damien went to speak but Harry cut him off, confident that he would take a more appropriate line of questioning. “You can stay. Of course you can, but what on Earth has gotten you so freaked out?”

“There’s something out there, man” said the boy on the floor, still trembling on his back, but now propped up by his spindly elbows. “There’s something out there. Like a big fucking dog or something. It was like… like… Jaws with fur.”

There was silence in the room as Harry and the others studied the newcomers and considered their wild suggestions. The girl was nodding in agreement at what the boy had said and they both seemed startled half to death by something, but what they were claiming seemed like pure…

“Bullshit,” said Damien. “You’ve just shit yourself at a dog or something.”

Harry nodded, actually agreeing with Damien for once and finding the sensation strange. “It was probably just a stray, stressed out by the weather. I’m sure it’s unpleasant out there for anyone, dogs included.”

Harry watched patiently as the teenagers seemed to calm slightly, although both kept glancing back at the door, presumably to make sure nothing was trying to get in. After a couple minutes, the boy got himself up off the floor and put an arm around the girl, pulling her away from the door. They spoke between themselves for a moment but were too quiet for Harry to make anything out. Boyfriend and girlfriend, he supposed, before asking them, “Beer?”

This seemed to be just the ticket as the two youngsters started smiling. Yet, despite them relaxing, Harry couldn’t ignore the uncomfortable lump ascending in his throat, rising with the bile from his stomach.

It tasted like dread.

Jess watched the elderly man come from behind the bar with more blankets. Beside him, a huge, greasy-skinned man had a shopping bag filled with food – sausage rolls, chicken, ham, and stale-looking bread. The faint smell of meat made Jess’s mouth water as the blankets and snacks were handed out amongst the group.

“You say it was halfway between a Great Dane and a bull?” Kath asked her, sneering lips stuffed with porkpie.

Jess couldn’t believe it when she’d found Kath at the pub. A spiteful part of her had hoped the old bag had gotten lost in the snow. Jess made a mental note to find out where Peter had gone when she had opportunity to ask. It wouldn’t have surprised her if Kath had left him in the supermarket to guard it overnight in the freezing cold. Kath had it in for Peter more than she did Jess.

Kath cackled at her. “Well, bull is exactly what it is, young lady.”

“Yeah, as in bull-shite!” said a voice from somewhere else.

Jess sneered at the person who had spoken. “You’re Damien aren’t you?”

Damien’s face lit up. “You’ve heard of me? Well I guess you’d be a fool not to have.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of you. You’re the dickhead that gets high on smack and then tries to buy beer from the supermarket after licensed hours. Then, when you get refused, you start causing trouble – knocking stuff over and threatening staff – most of which are female. Basically acting like an immature little boy. Same as you are right now.”

Damien’s smug expression dissolved into anger. The flesh in his cheeks changed from primrose to burgundy. “You better watch that mouth sweetheart. This is my pub and–”

“Actually,” said the barmaid lady (Jess thought she’d heard her name was Steph). “It’s my pub tonight, Damien, and we’ve all agreed to get along. That includes you, too, sweetheart. Don’t poke the natives!”

Jess nodded. “You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just been a bit of a head-fuck tonight.”

Damien smiled and held up his beer. “I forgive you, but only cus you’ve got a fit ass.”

“She’s like sixteen, dude! How old are you?” Jerry obviously took exception to the comment; he eyeballed Damien with suspicion.

Damien sneered. “You want to call your dog off, sweetheart? I was only being polite. Besides, I’m twenty-one, mate, what’s the issue?”

Jess turned to Jerry, hoping to show as much disapproval on her face as only a young woman her age could muster. “I don’t need you to fight my battles, Jerry, and, for everyone’s information, I’m seventeen - almost eighteen, in fact.”

Jerry stepped closer and spoke in a hushed voice. “Sorry, it’s just that I’m aware of this tool and he’s bad news; a right wannabe gangster.”

“I know,” she whispered back. “Everyone is aware of him, which is why you should just stay out of his way. He’s dangerous enough on a normal day, let alone on a night where everything’s gone to hell. Let’s just finish our beers and try to stay out of his way till the morning when we can try and get hold of help.”

Jerry nodded and re-joined the group who were resuming their position in front of the fire. Despite covering herself in several layers of blankets, duvets, and coats, there was no doubt in Jess’s mind that it was getting colder.

“So, lass,” said a handsome man with an Irish accent, “with a somewhat calmer mind, do you want to give us your yarn about the furry beast you say you saw outside?”

Jess didn’t answer and instead looked quizzically at the other man, the one who’d offered to help her up off the floor when she’d first arrived. He was handsome too, but had a withered tiredness to his face.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said to her and smiled. “Lucas always speaks like that. You’ll get used to it.”

Jess laughed. “Oh, well, I guess it was like you all said: Just a dog or something.”

Lucas frowned. Somehow his expression was clear to her despite the lack of light. “Come now,” he said, “if that was what you thought at the time then you wouldn’t have burst in here screaming like a blind banshee. At the time, you thought you saw something. What?”

Jess was hesitant, nervous at the thought of bringing it all up again after she’d just managed to calm herself down enough to convince herself it hadn’t happened. “I er… I really don’t know. It was all so confusing.”

“It wasn’t a dog,” Jerry spoke up. “I’ve seen a hundred different breeds of dog and there’s nothing even close to what we saw tonight.”

The others switched their focus from Jess and listened to Jerry as he continued. Don’t tell them, Jess was thinking. They’ll think we’re both bonkers.

“We’d just started to climb the pub’s hill,” Jerry said, “when we heard growling. It started off just like a dog’s, and that may have been what it was at first… but then it got louder. A dog can’t make your bones rattle like this did. We started to get our asses out of there, but Jess slipped over.”

“I tripped on something under the snow,” Jess explained, embarrassed. “That’s when we saw it.”

“Saw what?” asked the elderly man. “What did you see?”

There was silence for a few moments and it became unclear who would be the one to answer first. Jess decided it would have to be her. “It was big – bigger than anything wandering around a council estate should be. It had thick, oily fur that was totally clean from snow, as though any flakes that tried to settle on it just melted. In a way, it really did look like a dog, but it was just way too big… plus its face was all wrong.”

Jerry supported her as her voice began to weaken. She appreciated it and had already started to consider him a friend. Relationships forged easily at times like this, she realised. “Yeah, I remember,” Jerry said. “Its face was much flatter and rounded – more like an ape than a dog, except its mouth took up half its face. It was full of teeth; rows and rows of them like those chomp-monsters in The Langoliers. You ever see that flick?”

Damien scoffed. “How could you make out all that detail in a blizzard?”

Jerry shook his head. “I don’t know. It was as though there was a glow around it. A sphere of light.”

Damien shook his head, obviously not buying any of it, but said nothing. Jess saw a similarly incredulous expression on Kath’s face as well. Screw you both, she thought.

The others stayed quiet too, until Jerry finally said, in a croaky voice, “We haven’t even told you about the sick bastard that murdered my best friend – turned him right to dust.”

Everyone looked at Jerry.

When the teenagers, Jess and Jerry, had finished telling their wild story about a hooded figure turning their friend to dust, Harry was speechless. Of course, he didn’t believe such a ridiculous tale – such a thing was impossible – but the story still managed to unsettle him. Whether or not it was true, something had obviously sent the kids running inside the pub.

Harry swigged his beer as he stared into the fire, listening to the conversations of the group rather than participating in them. He tuned in to the sound of Kath who was busy berating Jess about what the girl had just told them.

“You silly, attention-seeking, twit,” the woman told the girl. “You’re just trying to frighten everybody. I’ve never heard such codswallop in all my life.”

Jess slapped her palms against her forehead in dismay. “I watched Jerry’s best friend die. If you hadn’t been too busy abandoning me then you may have been there to see it too.”

“How dare you! I did nothing of the sort. I shouted and looked everywhere for you, but you’d wandered off carelessly.”

Jess sneered. “Bollocks!”

“That is it, young lady!” Kath’s voice quivered with rage. “Don’t you bother coming in to work tomorrow because you are fired, young lady!”

Jess laughed. “We’re in a pub, Kathleen, not at work. I can say what the hell I like to you. Don’t worry though because I quit anyway.”

“Music to my ears. Now I can employ someone with half a brain.”

“Actually, you need to hire someone without a brain, then they won’t mind working for a pathetic bully like you. I understand though, Kathleen, it must be difficult being a spinster.”

“You spiteful little bitch! You know nothing about me.”

Harry watched as Kath threw off her duvet and leapt to her feet. For a second, it seemed as though the older woman was going to go for Jess, but instead she turned away from the group and departed towards the toilet.

“You two don’t get on then?” Lucas quipped from the edge of the group.

“No shit,” Jess replied. “Got to tell you though, it felt really good saying that to her.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” said Harry. “Maybe you should just let things lie for now though. Who knows how long we’ll be stuck in this situation together.”

“I know. I’ll leave her alone, so long as she doesn’t get in my face. I need to ask her where the warehouse guy went first though. She treats Peter like dirt and I need to make sure he’s alright.”

Jess shoved herself up onto her feet and headed after Kath. Once she’d taken half-a-dozen steps, a body crashed through the window.