The convenience store breathed like a tired animal, its metal contracting in the cold, plastic sighing, the wind dragging across the bent sign out front. The Moons light bled through the shattered front windows in a low red wash. Valez's flashlight made a wavering tunnel through dust and hanging motes, its beam jittering every time his wrist twitched.
They'd stacked two shelves across the entrance and dragged the counter sideways to make a half-wall against the window. Jess slept with her wrench across her chest,Dev was in the chip isle making a bed out of unopened chips swearing it was just like a mattress. Chris unfortunately had first watch, with his back against the register, the shard under his skin a small steady thump like normal it seems just to make sure he never forgets about it. After a few hours it switched to Valezs. Both questioning inside their mind if they will actually get a peaceful night.
Chris wasn't sure what woke him. Not sound. A pressure change, maybe. As if something watching them started to pay attention to see what happens next. His Instinct flared up feeling a cold prickle along his scalp, then nothing. He lifted his head, listening.
The cooler doors along the wall were fogging.
"Valez," Chris whispered.
The flashlight jerked, its circle dragging across the cracked tile. Valez raised the beam without a word. He didn't ask what Chris had witnessed. He just waited.
It came again: metal scraping on pavement, slowly approaching.They first saw the shadow from the dim light of the moon it seemed to be something taller than a man, light on the feet, dragging something heavy behind it. The sound stopped just outside the windows. The red haze thickened like a bruise.
"Up," Chris said, already nudging Jess's boot with his own. "Now."
Jess was awake in a second, wrench lifted. Dev shot up slipping on his makeshift bed of Doritos searching for his crowbar, almost knocking Valez's flashlight from his hand in the process. "Sorry," he breathed, too loud.
The beam steadied. It hit the far wall, the aisles, the dark. Dust swam in it like plankton.
Chris's Instinct stuttered in three short pulses, like a drummer picking up speed. "Front his instincts screamed," he whispered. "It's in front."
They began to hear clicking coming from something on the other side of the door. It kept tapping and tapping, slowly as if it was getting used to the idea of knocking.
Frost expanded outward from where the tapping was coming from. The air seemed to change as if it was thinner, and sharp enough that every breath scratched the throat. Chris could see his own breath when he exhaled.
Valez slowly slid his light to the door, across the threshold, and into the red-slick night.
Something moved by the pumps. Tall. Too tall. Its limbs seemed disportional. They hung too long, like someone had stretched a person at the joints. The light seemed want to refuse to land on the creature as it didn't want to light up such a horrific monstrosity.
It turned its head towards them.
Antler-like growths twitched along the crown of its head, as if its bones and tendons fused ,flexing on their own. Its face and body were as pale as snow. When it breathed, a fine white vapor spilled from the hollow sockets where eyes seemed to be.
The store went very, very quiet.
Dev whispered, "Fuck me."
The thing lifted one long finger and tapped the glass again, right where the frost had began. Tap. Tap. Tap. Each touch seemed to dragged a little heat out of the room.
"Back," Valez said, voice low. "Get back."
The thing cocked its head further, like it was listening to the shape of his words. Then they seemed to hear Valez say, help me, from outside the store.
His real mouth didn't move. All their eyes lit up in panic.
"Don't listen," Chris said, and the shard inside him thumped once, hard. His Instincts screaming that with certainty that if they hesitated now, the thing would rush inside.
Valez fired. The shot punched through the window missing completely. The second hit the creature's jaw and a piece of it broke off. It staggered, but not much. Stopping to stare at him as what felt like it was taunting him to do it again. The air around seemed to freeze, and crackled as it stepped forward.
The monster didn't want to play nice anymore, suddenly it blitz through the glass towards them. Its shoulders hitting the door frame with such an making it collapse as if it was made of mapper mache. Valez's flashlight jumped; the beam flashing across its malformed head. The Wendigo screaming as it lunged.
Chris moved before he thought. His Instincts screaming to jump left,he threw himself aside just as the claws raked across the wall where his skull was, tearing a strip out of the concrete wall. He slammed the iron rod forward, but when he made contact , it felt like as if he hit a solid wall hardly doing any damage. Black fluid sprinkled across his sleeve.
Jess swung her wrench into its knee cap. The impact made a crack like breaking ice. Making the creature take a knee for a second stumbling.
Dev hurled a full can of beans wildly. Smashing against the thing's face releasing the contents over it. The monster flinched not from pain, maybe from surprise , or a ghost from its past.
Valez shot wildly shooting it two more times into its shoulder.
"Out! Out!" Valez shouted, even as the thing slammed its forearm across the counter and flipped it like cardboard. The shelf barricade colllapsing instantly.
The flashlight flickered when it hit the ground. The room was suddenly plundged into darkness. In the brief instance the monster, rushed forward again to where the group retreated to.