This is an idea I've tossed in my head for a few months now and decided to make a chapter and I hope you enjoy :)

SPOILERS FOR THE NIGHT IN THE WOODS VIDEO GAME OBVIOUSLY!!

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Two years ago a group of unlikely youths learned there was more to our world than what meets the eye. There exist realms fantastic and terrible beyond the edge of the senses. Sometimes special individuals and places in the right circumstances can bridge those uneven places making the once fantastical horribly plausible.

Perhaps these places have always been there and perhaps are the genesis of what mortals understand as the supernatural condition. A paranormal archetype with us ever since our ancestors wore pelts and lived in caves have the transmundane walked alongside us trying to call out or perhaps waiting to be found.

But things come with the winter that no praying man would welcome. Something wicked walks through the winter.



“Mae you have to remember; investing takes patience and a keen knowledge of the markets.” Beatrice said without moving her eyes from her cellphone. Beatrice Santello was Mae’s best friend and closest thing she had to a sister. On the exterior Beatrice or ‘Bea’ for short, was a dour crocodile woman no older than twenty-two with dull turquoise scales and spines to match atop her head. A difficult road in life after losing her mother to cancer senior year made Bea cynical before her time and it was reflected in her gloomy gothic clothing sporting deep black eyeliner. Even in the winter her coats and boots were black.

“Check it out Bea-” Mae buzzed and sat up on her couch. The duo were sat in Mae’s living room while Stan, Mae’s dorky but goodhearted father decorated the tree for Longest Night. Bea poked her eyes from her phone to see Mae’s screen.

“I bought DoggyCoin! I’m a millionaire!” Mae exclaimed. Margaret or ‘Mae’ Borowski was Bea’s foil, or perhaps vice versa. Where Bea was gloomy, stormy and rigid Mae the cat was zany, unfiltered and just a little bit goofy. But the good kind of goofy.

Bea rolled her eyes, “Mae you shouldn’t buy cryptocurrency it’s a ponzi scheme made by people with weird opinions on child labor laws. Besides you’re not a millionaire you spent the thirty dollars I gave you for your birthday for one million DoggyCoins.”

Mae pursed her lips and sat back. “The coins looked cute. They got a funny little fat dog on them.”

“Well as long as some cyborg billionaire doesn’t trash talk your crypto online I guess you’ll be fine.” Bea said and stood up putting her phone away.

“Leaving so soon Beatrice?” Said Mr. Borowski as he struggled to wind shiny garland around the tree.”

Bea snorted and cracked a tiny smile. “No mister Borowski I’m just going out for a smoke.”

“Oo I want to come too.” Mae said and sprung up in one fluid motion.

“Mae you don’t even smoke.” Bea chided lightheartedly as she made her way over to the door of the Borowski’s cozy lower-middle-class home and donned her coat. She withdrew her box of cigarettes and popped an unlit one in her maw.

“I smoked that cigar with you once back in fall.” Mae added and slipped her shoes on.

Bea checked her pockets for her lighter and once found opened the door and the two stepped onto the porch. “I bought you that cigar because you were always talking about that video game man that smoked cigars. You didn’t even smoke it right. You gotta puff cigars not smoke them like cigarettes. I think you can like catch a disease from smoking cigars the wrong way.”

Mae leaned onto the porch railing next to her friend. “Isn’t that like- all cigarettes Bea?”

Bea took a drag from her cigarette. The ember from her cigarette was probably the hottest thing in the neighborhood of the snowbound town of Possum Springs. The past two winters since the incident have been uncharacteristically harsh even for rural Pennsylvania. The kids on the block were elated at having some snow days though it would just mean they would lose spring break.

Bea released the smoke in her lungs and the plume of smoke was instantly taken by the strong wintry winds and unceremoniously blown right back at her. “Well…. Technically yes but I mean like there’s some kind of other disease like...” she paused to think, “Leukemia or something like that.”

Bea took some more drags before putting the cigarette out on the underside of her boot and lighting another one. Mae simply took in the panorama of icy small town America. Cars were becoming snow dunes, a man down the street was waging a war against nature for control of his driveway and a few houses over was a snowman with a carrot and two rocks arranged in a crude, sophomoric area. Naturally Mae chuckled.

“I still can’t believe Gregg and Angus are gone.” Mae said just the tiniest bit glum.

Bea exhaled a plume of smoke. “Yeah crazy to think they moved to Bright Harbor. Honestly I kind of thought they wouldn’t make it.”

Mae perked an ear to Bea and she continued. “Like, not that I wanted to them to fail but I kind of figured once Gregg saved up that kind of money he’d blow it on something goofy like a tattoo sleeve or a dirt bike.”

Gregg was- is- Mae’s childhood friend from the cradle days to the Incident of 2017. Gregg and Mae spent their youths as punk delinquents venturing into all manner of lighthearted misadventures. Angus was Gregg’s boyfriend- quiet, reserved, smart and averse to the prospect Mae and Gregg’s sordid quests which they lovingly referred to as ‘crimes’. Gregg and Angus saved up enough money to mount a move to the city of Bright Harbor in the early months of 2018. The split was hard on Mae but isn’t that what she asked for when she met-

“Mae- you got that spacey look again. C’mon let’s get inside.” Beatrice said having concluded her smoking.

The Borowski home was warm and welcoming with mom cooking in the kitchen and soothing crackling of the fireplace- the fireplace the Borowski home did not have! Mae turned the corner from the foyer and stepped into the living room looking for a blaze but paused when she saw the fire noise was originating from the television. Dad, now seated on the couch turned to the two women and waived the remote.

“Check it out they got ten hour videos of just a fireplace- so it’s like having a fireplace without all the work and danger.”

Mae wiped her brow and uncrinkled her whiskers. “Jeez Dad you scared me for a second.”

“Well just sit down by the fire and warm yourself up, kitten.” Mr. Borowski joked. Mae indulged her father by walking over to the tv and pretending to warm her paws by the fire.”

“Nice and toasty.”

“Dinner’s read- Mae what are you doing?” Mrs. Borowski asked only a little puzzled by her daughter. Candice or ‘Candy’ Borowski was Mae’s mother who worked down at the First Coalescence church as a receptionist. Despite working at a church, Candy was happiest when reading or watching tv shows about true grisly crimes or anything macabre.

“Uhh I can explain.” Mae said dully but yet still did not stop ‘warming’ her hands in front of the television screen.

“Riiiiiight well in any case dinner is served.” Candy declared.

“Good point. Probably time to get going before it gets too dark outside to drive.” Beatrice said with a glance out the window past the Longest Night tree.

“Oh Bea are you sure you can’t stay? You’re always welcome.” Candy said as she removed her oven mitts and hung them back up.

“I would but I don’t like to leave my dad alone especially in winter.” Bea explained and dejectedly put another cigarette in her mouth and searched for her car keys.

“Well how about some to take home for you two?” Candy insisted.

Beatrice graciously accepted mom’s plates and before long they were saran wrapped and good to go. Mae carried the plates to Bea’s unassuming four door and placed them in the driver seat while Bea turned on the engine.

“Be careful driving Bea.” Mae said as Bea sparked up a cigarette.

“Will do Mayday. Now get inside you’re not wearing a coat.” Bea commented playfully before carefully driving off down the way to town center where she lived in an apartment with her father. The Santello’s had to relocate after the medical bills from Mrs. Santello’s death forced them to sell their home.

- - -

The Borowski’s were all seated in their habitual chairs and the fireplace ambiance had been replaced with reruns of old Garbo & Malloy talk shows. Mom insisted they say grace especially during the Longest Night season at the least. Religion and Mae had a strange relationship. Considering the 2017 Incident, Mae was not in denial of forces and lifeforms beyond the scope of the waking world but the idea of what was taught in the churches just seemed wholly unable to grasp the magnitude of what was out there in the cosmos. Mae tried not to think too much about the 2017 Incident. That’s what she and her cadre of friends came to call it as time progressed before becoming little more than a macabre memory in the passing waters of day to day life.

“Amen.” Candy finished and the Borowski’s raised their heads and began to eat with gusto.


- - -

“You know, when springs come we really need to get you your license Mae.” Dad commented in between bites of ham. Mae had obtained her drivers permit last year but the gears were moving slow on taking the actual test to become a licensed driver in the state of Pennsylvania and the rough winters did not help engender a desire to be on the road. The thought of driving alone with someone purposefully judging her made Mae anxious. Normally Mae would shy away from the prospect of obtaining her driver’s license and maybe find riding a bike an acceptable alternate route. She suppressed these thoughts. 2017 taught her she cannot live her life running away from what made her worry but rather to meet the challenge head on for better or worse.

“Yeah that sounds cool I guess.” Mae said but told herself she had a cooler-sounding response in her mind.

- - -

The day came and went. Dinner became sitting around the living room watch Garbo & Malloy and watching tv became Mae relaxing on her futon bed in her attic room. The room was a veritable jungle of Mae’s creation. Video game controllers lay on the floor where she last cast them, bands from a litany of different genres all had their posters haphazardly tacked across her room and even the slanted angled of her ceiling. Mae’s bass and amplifier sat in it’s dedicated corner of the room- she had not played it much since Gregg moved away. With Gregg and Angus gone the group’s band became a passing memory.

Mae’s heater whirred from the far side of the room. Being the attic it became cold faster and her mother insisted on Mae using it every winter. The gray and muted sunlight of the wintry day no was gone replaced with a blizzard and angry howling winds. Mae found it a rather cozy scene as she typed away on her laptop with Bea.

Bea had sent Mae an obligatory message to tell her parents she had arrived home safely- something Candy insisted upon. They sent messages about any and everything while Mae opened the ‘About’ tab to start up Demon Tower V Hell on Earth – a video game about slaying demons with spectacular gore graphics.

Mae: Well Bea I’m going to log off and fall into a food coma now and probably freeze to death. Goodnight!”

Bea: Why don’t you just sleep downstairs if you’re cold?

Mae: Just unfreeze me in about one hundred years. I want to see the future. :>

Bea: You think I’ll be around in a century?

Mae: Of course. By then they can be put your brain in a jar and attach to robotic spider legs.

Mae: Then can also add nicotine to the jar keep your brain alive. C:

Bea: You’re always thinking of me Mae. >_>

Bea: I’m gonna turn in too. Goodnight Mae.

- - -

Mae stirred to wakefulness on her futon midst her scattered blankets. Her room was quiet, black and still. Her heater and pajamas barely staved off the chill from the outside. The wind howled outside and was particularly loud given the thinner and less-insulated walls of her attic room.

But what awoke Mae was much more mundane. Tossing the last of the blankets off her Mae fumbled for her phone on the floor. Upon finding it Mae turned on the flashlight feature- and tried to ignore being veritably blinded by the LED screen before getting up.

Now equipped, Mae casually departed her room and ventured into the darkened halls of the Borowski home. To a child, the large framed photos and antique clock would have unnerved her being as looming ominous figures skulking her halls but the light of her cellphone dispelled such notions.

Mae arrived to the family bathroom and flipped on the lights and turned her phone light off. Soon Mae sat down on the toilet and casually answered nature’s call while scrolling through her phone.

“Aw man- dumb snow storm.” Mae complained to herself as the internet stopped responding and she noticed the telltale “No Service” text where the WI-fi sign would be. Dejected, Mae put her phone on the sink and pondered the old home improvement magazines. They had been there since the turn of the millennia.

However before Mae accepted defeat and began to rife through one of the magazines her cat ears perked up at a curious noise outside the bathroom door. Mae turned to examine the door but it was unremarkable. The sound barely registered at the edge of hearing. Certainly not the ‘jingle-jangle’ of someone trying the locked doorknob but rather something approaching a lazy brush against the door itself.

Mae tidied up in the bathroom, washed her paws and tentatively cracked the door open and peered outside into the dark hallway. Mae peered left then peered right then left again towards the stairs to the living room below. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Mae scratched her hair but seeing no plausible explanation she dismissed the sound as the house settling or perhaps snow outside falling from the roof.

“Yeah house settling. Then the next morning? Bam- skeleton city.” The horror movie aficionado inside Mae gawked.

Feeling no pressing reason to return to her room, Mae proceeded down stairs guided by her phone light but now she did move with just a tiny bit of apprehension. Downstairs Mae passed the Longest Night tree but not before marveling at it with a quiet appreciation for all the years, good and bad, that it had seen their family through.

Mae opened the fridge and browsed before settling on some leftover pizza slices from the day before. A stint in the microwave later and Mae was sitting on the couch in the dark living room illuminated by the multicolor lights of the Longest Night tree. With the internet out for the time being Mae checked out the regular channels. Unfortunately there is not much to watch at three in the morning so Mae settled for the History Network. The reheated pizza went well with watching a show about how the Allies met with Aliens to win World War II with dubious evidence at best.

Knock knock knock! Came the unmistakable sound of someone knocking at the front door, Mae almost spilled her plate when she jumped from the knocking.

“Who could be knocking at this hour?” She thought to herself and quickly turned off the television and the tree lights. That primeval part in the depths of the brain of mortals compelled Mae to be silent and observant and most certainly NOT to greet whoever or whatever just knocked on their door.

Quietly Mae placed her plate on the carpet floor to minimize sound and stood up from the couch and slowly crept to the front door. She had no intention to answer it but the peep hole could at least show her who was outside. At the door Mae peeked into the peep hole but it was in vain. Whoever stood outside eclipsed the lens and she only saw black.

Knock knock knock! The visitor knocked again sending Mae clamoring back away from the door in fright. She scrambled and fell back on the staircase.

“Margaret…. Please open the door. It’s been too long.” A voice oozed from beyond the door and only muffled from the gale outside. On the surface the masculine voice conveyed no malicious intent in fact for a moment the tone was almost singsong like how one lullabies a newborn. Mae was not so naive however to open the door for just a few honeyed words.

“I know you’re there Margaret. Just let me in. I just want to talk.” The man outside asked again though the mask of pleasantry was slipping from his words.

Mae still refused to reveal her presence but her mind was beginning to run with all manner of hypotheses of who this stranger was. Thoughts of Eide the cultist having returned for his revenge at long last bloomed with horror in Mae’s mind.

“That can’t be- Eide could walk through walls and teleport and he died in the mine!” Mae thought to herself as she began to walk up the stairs backwards not talking her eye off the front door.

“Margaret- don’t you walk away from me!” The man outside hissed and the doorknob began to rattle furiously followed by the sound of someone bounding across the porch outside. The person outside left the doorknob and was running back and forth outside with the thunderous steps of someone large in stature. Fearing the man outside was gauging to jump through the window Mae let out a scream of terror and began to scramble up the stairs on all fours to find and alert her parents. Abandoning her phone and all ideas of stealth Mae bounded up the stairs for dear life while the fierce running outside continued. Just as she reached the second floor a towering shadowy form met her and before Mae could scream two large hands took her by her neck and began to crush her windpipe. A weak yell escaped Mae as she kicked and flailed and scratched but the lack of oxygen was crippling her as her meager attacks did not even seem to register to this stranger. Mae’s ears burned and her vision darkened as the stranger lifted her off the ground but now Mae’s vision was growing black as her world was ending before she could lay her eyes on her assailant.

- - -

“Mae? Mae honey-”

Mae shrieked and her chest rose as she filled her lungs with oxygen and coincidentally fell from her futon. Her scream caused Mom to scream in return.

“Mae honey are you okay?” Mom asked as she stepped over Mae’s video games and assorted junk before kneeling by her daughter. Mae took in a few more breaths before beginning to realize her surroundings. A moment later Mae sat up and checked herself. Besides being a little sweaty she was completely normal.

“You must have been one hell of a nightmare sweetie.” Mom remarked and offered her hand. Mae took it and was pulled to her feet.

“Want to talk about it?” She asked casually.

Mae paused and thought. “...Nah not right now.”

“Well in any case I’m making pancakes if you want some.” Mom said gingerly and exited Mae’s room. Mae took the moment to sit down on her futon and collect her thoughts. She felt her neck- she could breath obviously.

“It felt so real...” Mae said to herself in the quiet of her room. Unlike the normal person, Mae knew there was more to the world than what met the eye- 2017 taught her that all too well. She had dreams before- she learned more about them in the years after 2017. Astral projection; the idea of projecting one’s consciousness beyond one’s physical form. Was that really astral projection though? Even years later Mae would have the odd stress dream about once or twice a year but nothing ever that vivid or intense.

It was then an idea hatched in Mae’s mind! She stood up and bounded out of her room and down the stairs to the living room. She turned the corner and entered the kitchen and opened the fridge.

“Mae, hun, I thought you wanted some pancakes with us?” Mom recounted a little confused from the stove.

Mae plucked out the plate of pizza leftovers and showed it to her mother. “See! Look! It was a dream! The pizza is still here!” She said triumphantly.

Mom just looked confused.

“Hey Mae come check this out.” Dad said casually from the foyer. Mae placed the pizza back in the fridge and left Mom to cook.

“Yeah Dad?” Mae said and approached her father looking out the front door. Instantly Mae’s stomach and hope dropped.

Where the neighborhood was graced with a blanket of virgin undisturbed snow the Borowski porch was littered with a menagerie of slushy footprints.