Page 6 of Abdominal Snowman

With the intense blizzard swirling snow around her, Sage couldn’t see much at all. Not to mention the punishing wind and the needle-like snowflakes. They smacked against her exposed cheeks and nose, each flake stinging with cold.

Thiswas one situation Sage hadn’t been prepared for.

Pausing in the middle of the road, she glanced the way she’d come, and then the way she’d been headed. She already knew there were no houses back the way she came, and she was too far from town to try and make it by nightfall. Her only option was to continue on and hope that she found her rental, or found a neighbor or someone who could help.

And if she couldn’t find anyone?

This situation was becoming very real, very fast.

She didn’t want to be stuck out here alone with whatever thing had run across her path. Wolf or… not, Sage didn’t want a repeat.

“Why not?” she mocked herself and the situation. “It turned out so well the first time.”

She headed down the road, facing away from the wind, finally. It blew past her, sending strands of hair flying past her face, but at least all her layers were doing their job. She was warm… for now.

The cold was a lovely change from the muggy heat of the South, but she was wearing worry-colored glasses. The severity of her situation was taking away from its beauty.

Each step crunched through several inches of snow, and she burrowed deeper into her coat, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of anything.

She walked.

And walked.

And slipped. She almost fell a few times on the slick spots, but she recovered with an elegant curse and a stance she liked to refer to as, “Ohshitohshitohshit.”

Laughing at herself helped keep the panic at bay, and as long as she kept talking to herself, she wasn’t really alone or stranded.

Worry twisted tighter in her chest, and she briefly considered leaving the road, diving deeper into the woods to see if she could find any houses off the beaten path. The trees thickened just past the road though, and at the rate the snow was falling? She wouldn’t be able to trace her own tracks backward.

Sage was a photographer, not a tour guide. North and west had no meaning to her in the middle of this forest.

The road was here for a reason, someone was using it.

She just had to find them.

* * *

Sage picked her way through the thick trees with unsure footing, her eyes adjusting to the thinning light. She had to find something, someone, up here. Maybe even the SnowBnB?

Pushing it, girl.

Okay fine, some cell service would be fucking fine too.

The panic from her crash had subsided, but now adrenaline was the only thing keeping her toes from falling off into the fresh powdery snow. And sarcasm, apparently.

Fat snowflakes fell faster, blurring her vision as she hiked her pack higher up her shoulder.

“There isn’t anyone out here, Sage,” she mumbled to herself, snow boots getting heavier and heavier to lift with each step. “Finally go on vacation and die in a blizzard. Best idea I’ve had this year.”

Something caught her eye in the woods, and she blinked.

There, through a small thicket of trees and the blowing wind of the storm, Sage spotted a light. Her heart leapt into her throat at the sight, and it took everything in her not to sprint toward it. At this point, she was pretty sure if she fell she wasn’t getting back up.

A modest log cabin emerged through the flurries like a dream, smoke puffing in a steady cloud from the chimney. Sage hefted her backpack higher, cautiously approaching the cabin. Lights flickered inside and the wood smoke engulfed Sage as she crept around the side of the home.

There were a few windows within her reach, and she poked her head over the sill, praying to catch a glimpse of life inside.

But it was empty.