Wintermoon Ice (2010) by Suzanne Francis

Wisdom of the Irrakish
, Theodore Black, PhD
    * * * *

    Tessa must have fallen asleep. She woke with a crick in her neck, still clutching the diary. The candle had burned into a puddle of grease, leaving the bedroom in almost total darkness. But she could see the vague outline of the window with the broken shutter. Centered in it, like a portrait within a frame, was a dark shape that looked very much like a head.
    She froze in terror and closed her eyes. "I am dreaming. Please God..." Tessa waited for exactly ten heartbeats and then her eyes flew open. The head had disappeared. She flopped onto her pillow again, feeling the cold sheen of sweat that had sprung to her forehead and armpits.
    Laughing to herself she said out loud, "Silly girl. Don't be afraid of the bogeyman." Tessa straightened her pillow, and turned over on to her stomach, hoping she would be able to get back to sleep. A few moments later, a resonant scratching sound made her shoulder blades want to meet in the middle of her back. She found she could not turn over and see what it was.
    The sound continued. It sounded oddly like fingernails scraping on glass.
    Tessa listened hard, desperately trying to think of any benign explanation for the sound. There were no pets, no trees, and no hanging plants. After a short while, the sound grew louder and more varied, almost as if there were two sets of...
    With a cry of terror, Tessa rolled off the bed and onto the floor, just as a fist thrust its way through the window, showering her pillow with glass.
    She saw white fingers, like huge maggots, scrabbling for the catch. They dragged a terrified moan from her throat. "No... Go away."
    There was nothing to throw but the candle lantern, so she did. The hand withdrew for maybe two seconds, but by then she was out of the bedroom and crossing the living room floor. The doors were locked, she had seen to that before she went to bed, but they could still get in, quite easily. As if to prove her point, she heard the hinges squeal in protest as the bedroom window opened past its normal rotation.
    She ran to the front door, had her hand on the knob, before she stopped abruptly. Tessa slapped her forehead, hard. "Think. They won't both have come in. One will wait outside in case you try to escape through the door." She dug through the umbrella stand and selected a sturdy brass-topped cane. It had been Suvi's, when her arthritis got the best of her. Somehow, it gave Tessa courage.
    A dull thump indicated that one of them was now in the house with her. She didn't want to fight, didn't think she could, but she prayed she might be able to outsmart whatever it was. Holding her breath, moving as silently as a breath of wind, she crept across the floor, back towards the bedroom, towards
it
. By the time it came through into the living room, Tessa had hidden herself behind the door.
    The Poly's heavy tread made the floorboards groan in protest, but it did not depend on stealth to catch its prey. It needed only complete implacability.
    Tessa counted to four and then dived back into the bedroom and slammed the door. The impact made the key fly out. It landed somewhere in darkness. "Shit!" She dropped to her knees, groping wildly under the bed.
    Already she could feel the vibration of the floor as it moved back towards her. One step, two. It didn't seem to be in a hurry. Tessa found the key and stuffed it back into the lock. She turned it, just as the handle rattled. Standing, hardly able to catch her breath, she backed away from the door, wondering what it would do now.
    The upper door panel cracked wide as a fist shot through. Tessa screamed and smashed the cane on the groping fingers. The impact caused the head to break off, leaving her with nothing to defend herself. The hand withdrew, pulling a large section of door with it. A boot kicked in the bottom panel, very efficiently. In ten seconds, nothing remained of the door. The Poly stepped over the broken pieces, and surveyed the empty