The Snow Killer by Melissa Holden Page B

fidgeted in the cold but kept looking up at the sky, as if wondering where the snow comes from. If she realizes I’m here, she’s going to go nuts. Danny tried to stand up, but slipped down the wall and crashed into a bin.
    “What the fuck was that?” The girl moved in to the light more, and Danny saw just how young she really was. She couldn’t have been more than nineteen. Emily is nineteen in March. Danny caught himself before he could think about her again, but his grip on his own mind was weak. She was so young. So pretty. Everyone loved her. He looked at the ditzy girl in front of him, and noticed her hair: it shone in the light of the flickering street lamp. She was fair, but not sickly pale, like Danny. When he was younger, his mother was always telling him to go out in the sun and play with the other kids.
    “Who’s there? I’m calling the cops if you don’t come out right now!”  Her voice trembled like a crying child. “Now, dammit!” She screeched. Rush. Rush. Rush. Danny walked towards her, holding up his hands in surrender.
    “Whoa, OK, I’m coming out. I wasn’t watching you I swear, I just-." Rush. Rush. Rush.
    “Oh my days, it’s you: you’re the creepy bloke from the pub. You’re stalking me!” The girl stepped back. Rush. Rush. Rush.
    “No, No, seriously I’m not. I was just walking home, I swear.” He lowered his arms, and stepped towards her again. This is beginning to look like a tango. Backwards, forwards. Backwards, forwards. Rush. Rush. Rush. Shut the fuck up, will you, so I can go home?
    “Well then why were you hiding behind a bin? No sane person stalks anyone. You must be some psycho freak. Stalking girls in the snow.” She tried to stand firm, but her legs buckled beneath her and she fell into the quickly forming bed of snow behind her. Rush. Rush. Rush. Not the snow. It’s always the snow. “Will you shut up about the weather? I’m not fucking stalking you.” Rush. Rush. Rush.
    “Yes you are: an attractive woman out by yourself. I rejected you. You thought it would be funny to come and scare me. Well I’m not scared, Freak.” She spat the last word at him.
    “Shut up” The words of a petulant child with no anger but his own. Rush. Rush. Rush.
    “Freak. Leave me alone.”  She scrambled back against a wall, and tried to stand up. Danny got closer and closer. Stop talking. “HELP! HELP ME HEL-“Danny covered her mouth with his hand. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum.
    “Shut the fuck up. What are you trying to pull? Flirting with men and then accusing them of stalking you. I bet you’re not even old enough to be in a fucking pub.” He gripped her mouth with his palm; his nails digging in to her milk skin. She’s so beautiful. The girl mumbled beneath his hand, and a warm expulsion of breath tickled his skin.
    “Stop talking. Do you ever stop talking?” RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. The girl tried to scream, which panicked Danny. “Please stop talking. You talked about the snow. The snow hates me. Please, make it stop, please.” Danny sobbed hysterically. The girl’s eyes widened and she tried to scream once more.
    RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. Danny jolted his hand in panic, smashing her head against the bricks behind her head. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. She cried out in pain. Every noise she made was mumbled. She couldn’t breathe. There was blood everywhere. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. Danny pulled his hand away from her mouth and frantically tried to bring her back. He pounded his clenched hands against her silvery top. “Breathe you bitch, fucking breathe.” RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum. RUSH. Da. Dum.
    “BREATHE” He grabbed her shoulders and shook her furiously; her head hitting the wall. Slam. Slam. Slam. More blood. So much blood from such a tiny person.
    “Please stop.”