Once the bell rang, the group was out of school in a flash. Riley and Nancy, as usual, were out first and waited for the others to escape the congested halls. Riley stood quietly, his dark hair fluttering lightly in the breeze. Nancy, however, was shifting her weight from foot to foot, frantically rubbing her arms to ward off the frigid air. 

      “How are you not freezing?” the dark-haired girl asked Riley, giving him a half confused, half unbelieving look. He was always the kind of guy that Mother Nature couldn’t strike down. At one point in time, during a science project, their class had to go outside in a thunderstorm to collect rain samples. Nancy had absolutely hated it -- it was cold then, too -- , but Riley just stood there in his t-shirt, embracing the chilly raindrops. 

      He shrugged. “It’s isn’t that bad,” he replied. Nancy just stared at him, shivering, until Brianna finally came out of the school. 

      “Hey, guys!” she greeted in her high-pitched voice, “Ooo, it’s a bit chilly out here, isn’t it?” The blond wrapped her arms around herself. Of course she would be cold, wearing that woven sweatshirt. It looked good on her, though. 

      “Yes! See, Riley? I told you it was cold,” Nancy said. She wouldn have poked him to make her point, but she didn’t want her hands to leave the warm comfort of her hoodie pocket. 

      Riley just shrugged again and glanced up at the school door, nodding to Jason as he walked out behind Brianna. “Jason!” Brianna said enthusiastically, running over to greet him. 

      The tall brunette nodded back at Riley before wrapping his arms around Brianna. “Hey,” he said with a smile. He didn’t seem all that affected by the cold either, wearing his usual black shorts again. Nancy didn’t understand how in the world anyone could take this weather with shorts on. 

      After a few minutes of standing there, chatting, Nancy mentioned that they should get going or their parents would get mad.

      “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Brianna said, disappointed. She liked hanging out with everyone after school. It was pretty chilly, though. “Let’s go through the woods. The trees could block the wind maybe?” 

      “Probably,” Riley agreed. He didn't talk all that much around people, but he made an exception for his friends and Nancy. 

      It didn’t take long for the group to reach the edge of the woods. Nancy loved the trees in fall, all bright oranges and yellows and reds, but she only got to really see them after school when she walked with the others. Today, though, the trees were bare and ugly, their branches twisting up towards the sky as if they were begging the clouds to part, to give them at least a little fragment of sunlight. 

      It had  started snowing just a little as the group walked, the small frozen flakes drifting down to land in Nancy’s hair. Jason had told them about a nice little pond he had seen before on one of his early-morning walks, so they were taking a short detour to take a look. Both girls had argued that they needed to just go home, that it was too cold for them to stay out too long, but Jason used his “I’m the leader” line that Brianna always falls for and Riley ended up convincing Nancy to come along with them.

      “How far away is it anyway?” Nancy said, shivering through her hoodie, her teeth chattering. 

      “Not too far,” Jason said with a small shake of his head. How was Nancy so cold already? It wasn’t that bad. “Actually, here we are!” The group looked through the trees and saw the pond Jason had been talking about. There was a nice little clearing circling the seemingly ink-black water. 

      Riley gave the water a look. “Why’s it look like that?” He glanced up at Jason who merely shrugged. Something didn’t feel quite right here, but Riley shook it off. It was probably nothing. 

      “Alright, we saw it,” Nancy started, “Can we go home now?” It was way too cold out here for her liking. 

      “Let’s walk around it first,” Jason said, swiping his brown hair to the side. 

      “Fine…,” Nancy grumbled, pulling her hood up and pulling down on the strings. Brianna trailed alongside Jason, Nancy behind her and Riley at the back of the group. 

      It didn’t take long for Jason and Brianna to start up their usual dares; making the other eat grass or walk the rest of the way in the cold with only a t-shirt and pants. Riley rolled his eyes at their backs.

      “No!” Riley flinched at Nancy’s sudden outburst. “There’s no way I’m doing that!”

      “You have to,” Brianna said with an amused smirk. “It’s the law of the land.”

      “She’s right,” Jason chimed in, “You have to do the dare or you get kicked from the group.” he made a kicking motion with his foot. Nancy glared at them, but complied and took off her shoes. 

      “Nuh uh!” Brianna said, waving a finger in the air. “You’ve got to be wearing everything.”

      “Oh come on, why?” Nancy complained. This was so ridiculous. Why did they always have to pick on her?

      “Because I say so and I'm the leader,” Jason said, raising his nose a little. “Just do it.”

      Nancy humfed at them, but did as she was told and put her shoes back on before taking her phone from her pocket. “Can you hold this for me?” Riley nodded and took the cellphone, sliding it into his own pocket. There was something not right with that water that made him uneasy for her. He didn’t try to stop her, though. That would look like he was trying too hard.

      The brunette took a deep breath before leaping into the frigid pond, swimming as quickly as she could towards the middle.

      “What are you making her do this time?” Riley asked, coming a little closer to the others while they watched.

      “She has to swim out to the center of the Pond and back,” Jason said like it was no big deal. Riley felt bad for Nancy, though. He knew she hated the cold and taking a dip in a pond on this cold of a day didn’t seem like the warmest of ideas.

      It didn’t take long for Nancy to reach the middle of the water and she quickly spun around to head back. She didn’t get too far before she felt something reach up from below her and touch her leg, rubbing what felt like a deformed finger down her goosebump-riddled skin. She shrieked and was suddenly a torpedo in the water, boling towards the shore as adrenaline shot through her veins.

      Jason and Brianna were laughing their heads off when she scrambled to get out of the water. 

      “You screamed like a baby!” Jason laughed, his head tilted back and his sides heaving. Brianna looked like she wanted to say something, but was too busy trying to calm her hysterical giggles. Riley glared at them and went over to the soaking wet girl, setting his arm over her shoulders.

      Nancy shoved the arm away and narrowed her eyes at the two laughing idiots. “I’m going home,” she grumbled, walking towards the trees.

      “Alright, fine,” Jason called after her, finally catching his breath. “Just don’t get lost!”

      Nancy huffed over her shoulder. She couldn’t believe they had made her do that. She was downright freezing now, the cold seeping through the water in her clothing and penetrating her bones. 

      She wasn’t sure if it was from her chilled state or what, but it wasn’t long something began to feel really off. Like something wasn’t right or...or like she was being watched. 

      “Guys?” she called out behind her, but nobody answered. She stood still for a moment, trying to hear anything like footsteps or Jason’s nasally breathing. Nancy was met with an absolute silence that made her skin crawl. Not even any birds were chirping, no wind was there to ruffle the leaves resting on the ground. 

      Something whizzed by in front of her and she jumped back with a gasp, her heart racing. 

      “Hello? Is anyone there?” she tried again, starting to get freaked out. Still nothing. “Guys? Riley?”

      She was shivering immensely now, but not from the cold. There was something else, a presence almost, but she couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. A sudden fear gripped her heart and she found that she couldn’t move. She tried multiple times to run, but all she could do was twist her head around, trying to find whatever was watching her. 

      There was a fog appearing around her, obscuring her view and making the trees all look strange. No, wait. Maybe that was just her vision. The Earth was beginning to sway around her and everything was swirling together. She suddenly hit the ground with a soft thud, the dirt the only thing to break her fall. 

      Nancy’s heart was pounding so hard now she was surprised it didn’t jump right up out of her throat and run away itself. The only things she was able to move were her eyes, which darted around, desperately looking for help or whoever was surely out there, looking at her. And then she saw something through the fuzziness in her vision.

      The heartbeat that was slamming in her eardrums only moments ago came to a dead halt at the sight. 

      What. 

      Was. 

      That. 

      One of the trees was moving, walking jerkily towards her, its head tilted to the side. Was that a head? She wasn’t sure, everything was too blurred. But it was definitely coming at her. 

      Her eyes widened and her breathing quickened when she watched it slowly go from hobbling on two, spindly legs, to full on charging towards her on all fours. She blinked and it was above her, water dripping from its multiple, clawed and mangled arms. Nancy’s mouth opened to scream but it was too late.

                                                                  ***

      Riley stood with his back to Jason and Brianna, shuffling his feet nervously. His hand rested on the phone that lay neatly in his pocket. Surely she would have come back for it by now, right? 

      “That was too good,” Brianna giggled from her spot beside Jason, who was unnervingly quiet. She had been snickering about it for the past five minutes and it was driving Riley insane. 

      “I’m gonna go look for her,” he said, heading for the trees.

      “Whatever,” Jason said, barely glancing back at him; he seemed to be almost entranced by the blackened pond water. Riley gave him a look, but kept walking. A bad feeling was tugging at him, giving him an urgentness to find Nancy as soon as possible. 

      Once he was in the trees, the snow seemed to shift from looking beautiful and cottony to eerie and foreboding, like ashes falling from the sky. “Nancy?” he called out. There was no answer, so he tried again. Still no response. He picked up his pace, fallen branches and dead leaves crunching and snapping under his feet. 

      After a short distance, a horrible, rotting smell punched him in the face. Riley scrunched his nose and looked around, trying to find the source of the smell. The longer he searched the more the pit in his stomach grew. Where was Nancy? 

      He found where the smell was coming from and reeled back in horror and disgust. There was what used to be some sort of animal torn to shreds behind a large bush. It was all he could do not to throw up on the spot and he quickly backed away. What the heck was that? It was way too big to be a raccoon or wild dog. Maybe a deer or something? 

      Riley turned around and was suddenly gripped with terror. Something was watching him; he could see the black eyes staring at him through the trees. The first thing to pop into his head was, Wolf!,  but then he remembered that they traveled in packs and this wasn’t somewhere they would live. It was too close to civilization.

      Then it moved and he saw the size of it. His eyes widened, his heart rate rising, and he bolted back for the pond to warn the others. Riley’s feet pounded on the ground, his breath coming in short gasps as he sprinted through the trees. The dark-haired boy turned to look behind him, to see how close the creature was and tripped on a root protruding from the ground. It was on him in an instant, clawing and biting and slamming down on him with powerful talons.

      The sudden realization that Nancy had been out here with this thing, the image of the mutilated pile of flesh and bones, shoved his stomach up and into his throat. His train of thought was cut short as pain shot through Riley’s arms and abdomen as the thing tried to turn him into a mound of bloody meat like he’d seen behind the bush.

      He wasn’t going to give up. He needed to get Jason and Brianna out of here. Riley curled up into a tight ball and reached out, grabbing a stick from the ground. The creature reared up above him, it’s talons ready to smash through his skull. As it dropped, Riley held the thick stick in front of him, scrunching his eyes closed. Black blood splattered across Riley’s face and hoodie as a high pitched shriek punctured his ear drums. He took the opportunity to throw the disgruntled creature off him and escaped, running as fast as he could.

      Riley burst into the clearing. His breath hitched when his eyes took in the sight at the pond. Jason was gone, replaced instead by a steaming pile of red flesh, blood oozing from the torn clothing. His face, along with Brianna's, was floating in the water, staring blindly up at the sky as the snowy ashes landed on their shredded skin. Riley heaved and threw up, unable to hold it down this time.

      A clicking, almost slimy-sounding snarl sounded behind him and Riley froze, paralyszed by fear. His eyes were red and filled with tears as he turned around to face the thing that had so brutally murdered his best friends. Its black, soulless eyes stared into Riley’s, blood dripping slowly from its maw and the gaping hole in its chest.

      Riley sucked in a few quick breaths, tears streaming down his pale face. “Please…” The creature didn't wait for the plea and a scream split through the cold air.
The clouds seemed to split apart at the sound, the snow coming to a slow end as the sun made its descent, leaving the sky a dark, starless black.