The Night Frost

This is a little story that i came up with. Hope you enjoy and be free to comment or give feedback!

Peter was a young boy living with his mother in the countryside. He liked to go to school and hang around with friends in his free time.
The winter was harsh, cold and dark and Peter had to work hard with his mother to provide food for them and survive in the countryside.
Peter’s father had passed away in a war when he was just a baby. So the life in this time, the late 1800’s was very hard for Peter.
The village where Peter lived was small and poor located deep in the countryside surrounded by forest, fields and lakes.
But the village was known for it’s weird events where people had disappeared from their homes and never found.

It was a cold, dark regular morning in the village. Peter left home early to go to school on the Monday morning. Peter packed his bag, put thick winter clothing on and prepared his skis ready.
There had been snowing whole night and made moving trough the paths more difficult. He skied the daily regular path through deep forest, fields, hills and lakes to the school.
Peter’s friend Matthew joined him in one gravel road intersection every morning and they skied to the school together. They arrived to the school in good time and went to class.

The school day went on normally until the last class of the day. The teacher said that the local store owner had gone missing on the previous night. All locals were warned and adviced that everyone should be inside or somewhere safe during the night.
So after school Peter and Matthew didn’t think much of it and thought that the store owner was probably black out drunk and passed out in some ditch. So the two friends decided to go to a large lake after school and play around.

The boys came up to the lake and got an idea. There was a well used gravel road next to the lake where lots of people walk on. Peter and Matthew thought it would be hilarious to throw big snowballs at villagers that pass them.
So the boys waited behind a pile of snow and targeted the first victim who was a neighbor of Matthew. The neighbor got absolutely covered in snow from the attack, but appreciated the effort from the boys.

Peter and Matthew surprised many people after such as, the teacher, a policeman, a priest and friends from school. The boys had done this for so long that the evening had arrived and Peter realized that they should leave before it’s absolute darkness.
Matthew didn’t take the warnings earlier seriously and suggested that they surprise couple more people with snowballs before leaving. So the boys stayed and waited behind the snow pile. It had been almost an hour after the last person had passed.
Peter decided that there isn’t going to be anyone passing now when it’s dark and was about to grab his skis when Matthew alarmed quietly that there was a man coming.

Peter returned quickly to the pile and grabbed a snowball in his hand. The boys didn’t recognize the man walking slowly towards them. The man was taller and larger than any other in the village. He had all black clothing and didn’t show his face.
Peter had a bad feeling about this, but Matthew was fired up and threw the snowball as hard as he could straight to the man’s face.

The man stopped on his tracks and locked eyes with the boys. Peter knew straight away that something about this man wasn’t right and grabbed his skis.

Matthew laughed at the man after landing the perfect shot. Peter yelled at Matthew to grab the skis and leave but Matthew wanted to wait a bit longer to recognize the man.

But as Matthew turned his head around from Peter towards the man, there wasn’t anyone. Matthew looked around in confusion when a large hand grabbed Matthews neck from the side and picked him up. Peter started to throw snowballs towards the man but unfazed the man slammed Matthew to the ice and kept chocking him.

Peter didn’t know what to do and abandoned Matthew in shock. The man chocked Matthew so hard that both of them went trough the ice and into the water. Peter sped off with his skis and never looked back as he heard the ice cracking beneath him.

Peter skid so hard and fast that in 15 minutes he was already near his house. Peter while being very exhausted took a break in the woods. He sat down next to a tree and caught his breath. There wasn’t even one sound during the dark night in the forest.
The wind was the only sound in the forest. When Peter was done resting, he got up and prepared to continue. As Peter skid towards home he got to a very familiar road that leads towards Peter’s house. But Peter had a feeling that someone was following him. So peter looked around and checked every corner of the forest with his eyes.

The darkness made it very difficult to spot anything. But Peter noticed that a large figure was moving very quick just ahead of him at the road. Peter continued skiing and checked every now and then that there weren’t anyone following. All of a sudden the man from the lake runs from the forest and just misses Peter with hi hands.
Peter realized the danger and skid as fast as he could. The man ran very fast behind Peter almost catching him. The man pulled out a knife and threw it straight to Peter’s back.

Peter screamed from pain but kept on going. The man reached Peter’s ski and tackled him to the ground. The man started to strangle Peter as he had done to Matthew. Peter was fighting back with his fists but the man didn’t stop.

Peter was about to pass out when the man stopped and ran to the woods after hearing footsteps. It was the local policeman with a lantern and a rifle. The policeman rushed to Peter and picked him up.
Later Peter woke up in the hospital with his mother beside him. Peter’s mother announced the police of his disappearance and started a searching patrol. Matthew wasn’t as lucky as his body was found in the same spot at the lake.


Peter was wounded and hurt but happy to be alive.

But the man was still out there.