FROSTBITE by David Warren Page B

somewhere inside it and then I saw that it was slowing down. I didn’t however. I kept piercing the worm’s body over and over in different sections until it stopped altogether. Stephanie, who was still pulling on Elaine’s arms, gave one final tug and Elaine came free.
     
    Stephanie toppled backwards out of the booth, with Elaine landing on top of her, their faces only an inch or so away. I gulped as I stared down. The entire back half of Elaine’s cranium was gone, clear up to the ears. I turned and saw the dripping mixture of bone and flesh hanging from the dead creature’s mouth. A second later Stephanie started screaming. “Oh my….She’s dead! Get her off me!”
     
    I hurried over and started to drag Elaine off of the screaming girl on the floor. I looked up and saw Ted just staring down at me. “A little help Ted?” I asked breathlessly.
     
    Ted stood still a moment longer and then leaned down and helped drag poor Elaine off of Stephanie, who was crying so hard that she started to choke. A moment later she vomited what little dinner she had eaten right there on the floor. I tried to comfort her the way Elaine had earlier, but it was not working.
     
    “This is a nightmare,” she kept repeating over and over. Then, her eyes widened. “I’m gonna get sick again!” she cried and bolted toward the bathroom. I turned and saw that Ted just stood there, wide-eyed, staring down at his former co-worker.
     
    “Ted?” I said. He didn’t respond.
     
    “Ted?” This time he numbly looked over at me.
     
    “Yeah?”
     
    “We need to find something to cover that whole in the window,” I said, nodding toward the shattered window. Cold air and snow was pouring through at a rapid rate. “We don’t want the other one slithering in.”
     
    My last statement seemed to do the trick. “I’ll see what we have,” he said, scooping up a yellow flashlight. He turned and made his way through the swinging door to the back. I turned my attention back to the dead worm that was lying across the silver table top. I hesitantly reached and started to pull the rest of it inside. It was surprisingly heavy and the going was rough.
     
    After a moment, it flopped the rest of the way in. It was then that I heard the sniffling and, to my horror, I realized that I had temporarily forgotten about the boys. I turned and saw that they were both standing by the counter. As dark as what is was, I could still tell that they were both crying.
     
    I got up and made my way over to them. “Brad? Kevin? You guys…okay?”
     
    “Elaine,” Brad muttered.
     
    “I know,” I responded. Upon closer examination, it looked as though little Kevin was about to pass out. “Here, take a seat on these stools.” They both jumped up into the seats. “You boys have seen things tonight that no kids should ever have to see. Heck, no adult should ever have to see something like this,” I said, gesturing over my shoulder. “But I need you boys to stick together and hang in there. Can you do that?”
     
    They both nodded. “We’re okay,” Brad said, trying to sound brave.
     
    “I know you are,” I encouraged. Just then Ted came back from the kitchen, carrying what appeared to be an old tabletop, presumably left over after a renovation.
     
    “I found this,” he muttered. He walked over and slid it in front of the window, covering the hole up nicely. “It’s heavy, should do alright.”
     
    “Good,” I said, walking over to him. “I suggest that we put Elaine back with Billy.”
     
    “Yeah,” Ted answered, this time without an argument. “Sure.”
     
    “We’ll be right back boys,” I said, hesitant to leave them by themselves. Just then Stephanie emerged from the bathroom and joined them. “Let’s go,” I motioned to Ted and we carefully picked her up. I grabbed hold of her legs the best that I could and Ted lifted poor Elaine from her armpits. I groaned under the weight, but we managed to walk around the counter and