Page 109 of True

on earth they were doing there at such an hour. Misty had shushed him, pointing to the closed office door.

"The kids are in there, sleeping. We're doing inventory."

"At this hour?"

"It's a tradition with Misty and me," Al had said. "We're closed through New Year's. So if we do it Christmas week, all the year-end stuff is done. No worries over the holidays."

Misty extended her container and fork to him. "Kung pao?"

He had declined, leaving the couple to their tradition.

Straight people, he heard Demarco mutter in his thoughts.

Ithadbeen a nice surprise though, not having to access the security gate in the dark. And Al had retrieved, gassed, and warmed-up the snowmobile for him.

Good people.

The voice in his head that time was Tyler's.

So he here he was, minutes away from the cabin with snow falling heavily, pelting his goggles,

at times nothing but a white, blurry wall reflected in his headlights.

He sensed a turn ahead, not able to see or remember. So he stopped the Titan and got off to

register his surroundings. Up ahead was a dark shape, a landmark he knew, a large oak where the

road veered right. He stepped toward the tree, the lights from the snowmobile giving him a good

degree of illumination through the cascading shadows of snowfall.

It was eerily quiet, having grown accustomed to the constant rumble of the Titan's motor. He

walked with a flashlight, his boots crunching through the deep snow as he approached the hulking

shadow before him. He was reminded of his conversation with Demarco on that first night here and

his talk of the Wendigo.

What the fuck is a Wendigo anyway?

Spirit demon of the wilderness, Demarco answered.

The hair prickled on his arm beneath his parka. He raised the flashlight to reveal exactly what

he knew would be there… the old oak in the bend.

Wrapped around it was a red ribbon with a big red bow.

He wanted to go faster, but the weather would not let up. The snow was coming down so

heavily now that, had he not been moving, he would have been a snowman in no time. He approached

the final bend in the road, knowing there was a big tree there as well. Instead of stopping, he reached for his flashlight and shined it right while bearing left.

There was a red bow on that tree as well.

The remainder of the way was straight up, a steep climb to the plateau and the cabin. And as he