The Blizzard nosleep

The man stepped out from the ditch and looked upon the street. The blizzard had just gotten stronger and the man’s vision was limited. He could see a few headlights coming from beyond the closest stoplight. As the car approached him, he tried to wave it down for help, but the car did not stop. The man stayed there for a few more moments and tried waving down a few more cars; all without success.

The man then went into his car and grabbed his winter hat. He shut and locked his doors and began to walk down the street. The strong wind from the blizzard retarded the man’s walking speed, but he prevailed. While he was walking down the street more cars passed him, but the man was too far from the ditch to try to get help. He walked further and further until he came to a street where he saw many houses on both sides. The man turned down the street. He began to think that he would get hypothermia and would freeze out in the tundra. He looked down at his shoes, he couldn’t see them as they were buried in the snow, but where his feet once felt like a wet rag, now felt like icicles.

As the man passed house by house, he didn’t see any particular house he felt like going to. Each house he passed either had no cars in the driveway or didn’t have any lights on inside. The man started to feel out of luck. As he approached the end of the street he saw a man shoveling his now. Still battling the wind, the man walked up the owner’s driveway. “Excuse me, sir,” asked the man as he was being blown slightly back “would you mind helping me get my car out of a ditch? I swerved off the road not quite a quarter mile away.”

The owner turned around slowly and studied the shivering man at the end of his driveway. He drew up a small smirk on his face and said, “Don’t mind if I do. Why don’t you come inside for awhile to warm up?”

The owner went into his garage to put his shovel away and guided the man into his home. The man removed his frozen shoes before entering the owner’s home. Upon entrance the two men were standing in the owner’s kitchen. To the left of the two men was the door to the owner’s basement and to the right a small bathroom. The owner took the man’s jacket and hung it on the rack in his kitchen and locked the door they entered. The man went and sat down at the owner’s kitchen table to catch his breath.

“So you think you can pull me out?”

“Yessir that should not be a problem, I just figured you might want to warm up after walking a half a mile in that blizzard out there, that’s all.”

“Well I really do appreciate it.”

“Say, would you like some soup or something while you’re here, I’d hate to leave you just sitting there.”

“Yes, some soup would be nice, thank you.” The owner grabbed a pan from the rack next to his refrigerator and a can of chicken noodle soup from his pantry and began making the man a bowl of soup. As the soup was being made the man was watching the evening news from the table.

“The storm outside is expected to get much worse around three to four a.m. and many districts have already cancelled school for the next two days. We advise that you only go outside unless you absolutely have to. In other news: the search for the killer of elderly local man James Flannigan has been suspended by the police in response to the blizzard. Flannigan’s killer is believed to be the same suspect that killed sixth grader Kevin Banks just a few months ago and schoolteacher Jessica Skylar last November. Both cases are still unsolved.”

The owner brought the man his bowl of soup and headed to his basement. The man asked the owner if he could borrow a pair of boots and the owner said he could. The owner then went downstairs as the man slowly began to eat the large serving of soup given to him by the owner. It was good soup, a little hot for the moment, but good nonetheless. The wind outside began to blow even stronger. The sound of the wind blowing was now louder than the broadcaster on the television. The man was trying to listen to the news, but he could only make out a few words.

The man got up from his seat and went to use the bathroom. As he exited the bathroom he gently approached the closed basement door. He could hear the owner downstairs and it sounded as if he was rummaging through a messy room. Metal was colliding with the floor as well as other metal, and the man began to hear what sounded like the owner mumbling to himself from the basement. The man figured that the owner was looking for something to pull him out of the ditch or maybe some boots. He went back to the table to eat the rest of his soup.

As the man was now beginning to finally reach room temperature, so did his soup. He began to eat more while trying to watch the news in the living room, but the wind was still too loud to hear what the broadcaster was saying. The man started looking around the owner’s kitchen. There was nothing in it. The man scanned the kitchen more and noted that the only things that were in the kitchen were the bare kitchen appliances. The refrigerator backed into the wall near the opening to the living room, and next to the refrigerator were the shelves that held the pots and pans, which ended at the corner of the kitchen. Then came the sink, and on the side parallel to the refrigerator and pans was the stove.

The man then observed the living room. There was also nothing in the living room but a sofa, a chair and the television set. The man stood up from his chair and stepped into the living room. There were no pictures of the owner’s family, no paintings of the wall, no phones in either room. Nothing. The entire house was bare. The man then took to notice that all of the windows the owner had in his house were the brick-like windows that people have in their basement. The kinds that are so think it is impossible to see through them. The snow from the blizzard made visibility even less than usual.

The owner was still downstairs while the man was investigating his house. The man began to wonder what exactly he was doing down there. He walked on over to the door and knocked a few times, “Are you just about ready to go?” the man asked. “Yes’m, I shouldn't be much longer down here, just looking for the right stuff to be able to get you out of there. Do you drive a small car? SUV? Truck?” asked the owner. “Just a small four door,” replied the man.

The man sat down to finish eating his soup. It was a little cold at this point, but he ate it anyway. The wind was blowing stronger and louder than it had all night. The man just sat at the table and ate his soup one spoonful at a time, admiring the power and destruction caused by the blizzard outside.

The man was on his last spoonfuls of the soup and listening to the wind blow outside. The man then begin to hear the sound of footsteps coming from the basement. It sounded like heavy boots that were pounding on the steps. The man got up from the seat to go put on his jacket and then sat back down in his seat. He ate another two spoonfuls of the soup and heard the door open. The man then felt a sharp pain in his upper back and let out a gasp which lead him to spit out his soup. He turned and looked at the owner, and the owner looked back at him.

Submitted March 21, 2016 at 06:09AM by zsahcakne http://ift.tt/1Mwa3CU nosleep