Snowfall

Brilliant snow fell from thin clouds like white diamonds, shimmering in the fire light as they tumbled around a thin man, who staggered down the hill. Crimson blood dripped around him with each step, a trail leading back to a cabin behind him, which was in fact the source of the blaze. Heavy black smoke belched out of the small windows, choking the night sky and spreading a cloud of grimy darkness around the otherwise clear night sky.

The bloody man took weak and uneven steps. He stood with a hunch and walked on bent knees. With each wobbly step away from the cabin, the more he felt that he was walking away from part of, if not his whole self.

"What… What's my name?" His thoughts were hazy. He knew the answer, but it seemed to have been made of oil, slipping from his grip with each attempt. A wayward step sunk his calf deep into the snow. The sudden wave of cold against his skin jolted the answer to the forefront of his mind immediately.

"FELIX! …I am Felix." With a deep breath and great effort, Felix hauled his leg from the hidden snow bank, and began to continue his trek down the mountain.

Felix grunted as he dragged his leaden feet through the snow. Despite the cold, Felix's body was slick with sweat, and snowflakes melted against his skin at a touch. Simply looking down to watch his feet was an ordeal that left him nauseous, as his head pounded like a drum with every movement it made.

The world suddenly disappeared into a tumble of chaotic colors, black, white and red all over and yet nowhere, as Felix's legs finally gave out. He tumbled down the hill without so much as a sound, kicking up waves of snow and pebbles with each rotation, finally landing on the lip of another hill.

Felix had landed on his back, so a look down not only revealed the vast white outstretch of snow beneath him, but also the state of his body. His shirt and jacket were torn to shreds, fissures having been torn from his abdomen where it had struck him. Long jagged lines ran down and across his chest and arms.

He was already rather pale, but the blood loss combined with his fever practically made him blend in with the snow. In fact, he could only tell where his body even was due to the splotches of crimson blood peppering his torso.

The man's face was not unharmed either, though he could not see it, he knew that he could barely see from one eye. A shaky hand brushed against it, revealing a horrific tear across his eye. The rip started at his cheek, which he could feel hanging loose, and stretched just above his eyebrow. He knew the eyeball itself had been ripped open, as he felt blood pooling inside of it. His other eye, however, was a brilliant blue that he'd been told was dazzling.

It was with that eye, that Felix observed the thing that had done this to him. With a twist of his neck, Felix turned so that he could see it in full. He did not know what it was, and likely never would. All he knew was that it was not human.

This thing only lay a few feet away from him, an arm's length at most. Its body was thin, and painfully so, as it was clear that it was little more than skin stretched over bones. Its head was long, like a stag's as it also featured an imposing pair of black antlers, the tips still wet with Felix's blood. The thing's skin was stoney gray, splattered with black and red blood, the red Felix's, and the black its own.

The monster was large, easily twelve feet tall. Long black claws dug into the snow, staining it red. The beast's teeth were eerily similar to that of a human, with the exception of the brutally curved canine fang, the business end of which Felix was far too familiar with. A long black tongue in the snow, its red stained drool frozen solid.

The beast's eyes, which were now empty, had once been a harsh combination of blue and silver that shined with a light of brutal intentions and an intelligence that was far too great, too unfitting for a thing of such a horrific appearance.

Finally, the monster's legs were long and thin, but were deceptively powerful. Felix had seen firsthand what kind of supernatural speed they were able to achieve, even in such an inclosed space.

Exhausted from looking at the vile corpse that lay next to him, Felix turned his head upwards again, staring into the sky, more specifically into the growing cloud of smoke. She was in that cloud somewhere, though if she smiled down upon him was unclear. He hoped she did, but saw no way to blame her if she never looked back down at him, for whatever brief time he had left,

As he lay, snow fell around his body, like a chalk outline from an old crime show his father must have watched. How he wished he was there now, with him, rather than in this frozen hell.

If he could have laughed, he would have. To think that someone who had led such an aimless life would have such a horrific end was foreign to him, but at the same time, he was still laying here, bleeding out and dismembered.

"What… a crazy way to go…" Felix muttered, staring up at the night sky. The cloud of black smoke obscured the world above from his failing gaze, Felix closed his heavy eye, and things began to fade away. The pain, although numbed by the cold, simply began to vanish, bit by bit. The crackling inferno of the cabin and the howl of the coming freezing wind became mute, and the scents of smoke and sweat and blood tapered off. The last to leave was the cold, the deep bone corrupting freeze disappearing like all the rest.. The dark embrace of death was neither warm nor cold, it simply took him away. His pain and fear and regret were gone. Felix was gone. He'd expected some great bright light, but there was none.

Perhaps there really was nothing after death.