In the past I've written various horror stories centered around or themed from certain holidays like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and of course, Halloween. Even my erotic horror novella, Roseblood, was somewhat inspired by Valentine's Day.
Recently during this colder than normal Florida winter, we had frost and some folks having to scrape off windshields early in the morning. We can get tiny snow flakes but more northern Florida and if the weather conditions are right for it. We rarely get enough to make a small snowman. It'd be easier going to the beach to build a sandman version.
So the wheels were spinning one frosty morning (see what I did there?) and the story below came to be. Originally, I'd imagined two brothers for this tale, but opted for sisters instead because I've found myself enjoying writing about female characters more.
Also, after I'd written this, it became somewhat obvious that I'd been channeling my inner John Urbancik. It seemed like something he'd write, and if you haven't checked out his work yet, I'd highly recommend you unfuck that pronto. He's one of the most talented writers of dark fantasy and horror fiction around.
Reign of the Winter King
Copyright 2021
Then a week after the Yuletide holiday, the snow came and where they lived, it had been the first significant snow storm in a decade. They'd been too little to remember when the snow had fallen the last time.
Excited by the prospect of donning heavy coats and gloves and boots, they dashed out into the mid morning backyard to check it out and marvel at the blanket of near blinding white that had covered the ground around the house and surrounding woods. It was breathtaking! They scooped up handfuls of snow and tossed them at each other and took turns laying in it to make snow angels.
Suddenly, the older sister, Kristine, had an idea. "Hey, lets make a snowman!"
Her younger sister clapped her snow-flecked gloved hands in delight. "Yeah, that would be awesome!"
So as they hunkered down and began to gathered up huge handfuls of snow and formed the big round base of the snowman's bottom half, Kristine had another idea.
She didn't want to make the traditional and common snowman that most kids did. Their snowman would be much better than that. He'd be grand, noble...and he would be the King of the Snowmen.
He'll be the...Winter King! Kristine thought and smiled. She shared that with her sister.
"Whoa, sis...that's freaking perfect!" Kristine was always reading books and had the more imaginative creative mind. But her sister said she'd be right back, had to go get something from her room, and went inside their house.
Minutes later, as Kristine continued working on the snowman, the Winter King, her sister came back holding a silver toy crown. It was made of plastic but embedded with red rubies and jade gemstones, all fake of course, and while it had faded a little bit, it still looked useable. Her little sister had found it in the woods behind her house a few years ago and thought it looked cool. Kristine had suggested it probably belonged to some neighborhood kids who sometimes played in the woods.
"Remember this thing? Bet it belongs to him now," she proclaimed as she held it up. "The crown of the Winter King!"
Kristine laughed and her sister got down on her knees as they continued putting together their snowman. It took a while, longer than they figured and an hour later, the Winter King was brought back to life. He had two twisted arms from a couple medium sized but thick fallen tree branches and they used small stones for his eyes and another chunk of rock for his nose. His mouth was made from a small twig with a slight curve like a wicked grin.
Then Kristine let her sister place the crown upon his head. They clapped and cheered aloud.
"All hail the Winter King! Long may he reign!" Kristine cried out in a deep voice.
Her sister echoed the declaration.
Suddenly, a deeper voice called out. "What's the deal with the snowman? And that thing on his head doesn't belong to you, either."
Both sisters swiveled their heads around toward the snowy woods to see three teenage boys emerge. Dressed like the girls for the cold weather, they wore smirks and sneers of derision across their reddened pale faces. Their "leader" stood in front and gestured again at the Winter King.
"That crown is mine. Lost it in the woods a while back. So...give it back."
They knew the boys as being a group of slightly older boys, usually up to no good both at school and home. They had a bad rep around the neighborhood as bullies but had pretty much left the sisters alone.
Until today. The leader moved forward and stepped over to grab the crown off the Winter King's head. But Kristine intercepted him and prevented him from touching it by blocking his path with her tall, willowy body.
"No, you don't," she said.
The leader frowned and his cronies chuckled darkly. Then he shoved her aside and snatched the crown. Cristine fell sideways, thrusting one arm out in reflex, and one of the tree branch arms whacked her face, splitting open her bottom lip. She collided with the Winter King and he toppled over and she fell atop him.
Her sister yelled and bent over to scoop up snow, compacting it into hard balls and hurled it at the laughing boys. She hit them a few times as they retreated back into the woods. Then she helped her sister to her feet. Her sister's lip bled down her chin.
"You okay, sis?"
Kristine wiped at her bloody lip and bit back the sobs of frustration and embarrassment. Usually it was she who defended her younger sister not the other way around. But she'd been grateful. She told her she was fine, but they needed to fix the snowman first.
They hurriedly put the Winter King back together, slightly disappointed and dispirited because he no longer wore his crown. Some of Kristine's blood had stained his body but they agreed it seemed fitting somehow. Then they both had needed to go back inside to warm up and drink hot tea or cocoa.
The weather worsened and both sisters hadn't ventured back outside that day. They'd not forgotten about the Winter King and checked on him a few times by looking out a window. They were pleased to see the bullies hadn't returned to destroy him. However, they might do that once night fell. Sadly, he didn't look quite so noble without his silver crown of jewels even if those were fake plastic ones.
The next morning, more snow had came overnight and both sisters decided they'd wait a while before going outside. They'd told their parents about the scuffle with the bullies and their Dad wanted to report them to the police, but Kristine asked him to let it go.
Their father told them over his morning coffee and newspaper that they must've had a change of heart after getting what had been coming to them. He chuckled and sipped from his mug.
"What do you mean, Dad?" Kristine asked curiously. Her sister asked him the same thing.
He shrugged and pointed with his mug. "Go see for yourselves. Your snow king got his crown back. And it wasn't me, I swear."
They both went to the back window overlooking the snowy yard behind the house and sure enough, the Winter King sat proudly wearing his rightful silver crown. His twig mouth seemed to grin even wider. Wickedly, almost.
Both sisters had no idea why the three ruffians would do that, but they swore it had to be their father. He probably visited their parents and got the toy crown back after explaining what had transpired. They only hoped his intervening wouldn't result in further retaliation.
Nothing untoward occured but curiously, once they returned to school after the holiday break, Kristine had found out something very interesting. Very interesting, indeed.
One of her classmates and friends was telling her about how she'd heard the trio of wannabe thugs had been hanging out in the woods last week when they'd been attacked. They'd suffered from cuts and bruises, but not so bad that they needed to go to the clinic. At least not that they'd admitted to anyway.
The bizarre thing about it, her friend told her, was that they claimed it had been a big snow monster.
Kristine did her best to hide the look of shock and surprise. She'd nearly gasped. Her friend noticed something and asked if she was okay.
"I'm fine," she replied and couldn't wait to tell her younger sister. But she could barely suppress her own wicked grin.
Winter eventually moved into early spring and because of that the Winter King did melt away. Both sisters had been a little sad to see him go, but they saved the silver crown.
After all, winter would come back. And so would its King.
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