W

Chapter 10: Answers

Kori's POV
It's been a few days since my Mom implied she knows something about wendigos. So far she hasn't said when she'll tell me about her experience, but something tells me it'll happen soon with how she's been behaving lately.

It was getting close to 11 PM and Akane was already asleep in her bed. As I was sitting down on mine looking at my phone, I saw someone walk into my room.

"Hey, honey." It was my Mom.

"Mom? Shouldn't you be asleep?" I asked, looking up from my phone. She nodded yet walked closer to me.

"Yeah, but this has been on my mind for the last few days. It's about time I tell you." Mom replied, sitting down next to me on my bed.

"About the w thing, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. See, Kori....it happened a long, long time ago. Your Father was alive back then. You had been left at your grandma's house back then because your Father and I were going to vacation in the mountains at a ski resort."

Ah. So Akane must not have been born yet.

"I was pregnant with Akane at the time. First trimester. I didn't know until a few months later."

There's my answer to that.

"Kazumi and I were lost one night and we were having trouble finding our way back to the ski lodge. After we got back we'd go back to the hotel we were staying at. It was a very cold night, Kori. I remember it was snowing, too."

As my Mom told me this story, I got reminded of the dream I had a few nights ago. If this story turned out like that dream or was different, it looks like I'll find out soon.

"A few days before this, he had been talking about those creatures. You know what I mean by that, too. Sometimes it was all he would talk about. I told my Mom about it before the vacation and she gave me two special boxes. While we were lost in the snow, I noticed he was hungry. He wanted to eat something, but couldn't."

"What happened next?" I asked. Mom hunched over on my bed, running her hands through her hair and resting them on her neck.

"The truth is I didn't notice how different he had become. I didn't notice him getting skinnier because he began wearing baggy clothes. I didn't notice his shift in demeanor because I was busy taking care of you. I remember he would eat, and what he ate he didn't seem to mind. You were six at the time, Kori. Do you....do you remember this?" Mom asked, turning to look at me, getting her hands off her neck.

"Very vaguely." I responded with a shrug. It was true that I was six, and I did remember the two of them going on vacation, and I did notice my Dad wearing baggier clothes, but it was also very cold when this happened.

"Yeah, that's fine, honey. You might not have known we were going on the vacation. I don't remember your Father and I talking about going on this vacation a lot, but I do remember us mentioning it sometimes, only not that much or a lot."

"Ah. I see."

"So, uh, anyway...." Mom started, looking back down at the floor, "To this very day I still remember your Father looking at me and asking if he could take a bite off my arm. I thought he was joking. I remember laughing and telling him no and that we can eat whenever we get back to the lodge. The more we walked, the weirder his behavior became. I took that box with me too. Back then I didn't know why but knowing I might have had to." Mom said.

"Wow. It's weird how this happened so long ago yet feels like yesterday." Mom said, shaking her head as she let out a sad sounding chuckle.

"So as we continued walking, we came across two people at a campfire who were also lost. Kazumi wanted to sit with them and I wanted to see if I could find the lodge, so I went to try and find it and he stayed with the two people we found to keep himself warm."

Something tells me something really bad is going to happen soon.

"After what seemed like ten minutes, I saw a light in the distance. I remember thinking it was the lodge, so I walked towards it, and that's exactly what it was. I walked closer to it to make sure. When I got to the front door, I found two silver spears next to it. I don't know why, but I thought I had to take it with me to protect myself, so I did. I retraced my steps back to the campfire to tell your Dad I found the ski lodge, and when I got there, I saw both of those people laying on the floor. Blood pooled from their wounds all caused by your Dad. D-Deep gashes were all over their bodies...their stomachs, their arms, everywhere. One of them even had his forehead torn off!" Mom said, her hands clutching her knees.

She shook her head, closing her eyes shut.

"A-And when I saw Kazumi, he was becoming one of....you know, one of them."

She stopped speaking for a moment. She opened her eyes, then shut them again, her head turning to the ground. She shook her head and opened her eyes, turning her head to the ceiling now.

"He grew taller, his skin melted away and fell into the snow, his clothes ripped and fell off him and blew away in the wind. He had blood all over his mouth and hands. I tried to see if I could get through to him, like saying how I knew who he was, but no matter what I did, your Father was gone. I remember trying to outsmart him. I tried to get him to step into the campfire because I remembered two ways on how those monsters can be killed, and fire was one of them."

"So did he die by fire?" I asked. This was all too similar to that dream I had three nights ago. The only difference was I didn't know how it ended.

"No. I killed him with that spear." My Mom said, her voice beginning to crack.

Can't say I wasn't surprised with where this story was going.

"He was fast and I knew I would have a hard time killing him since he became one of them. I knew if I tried he'd run quickly in another direction, so instead I waited for him to run towards me. I had the spear ready in hand, ready to strike at any moment. So when he finally ran towards me, I took that spear and plunged it through his heart. I took the spear out and his heart was on it, covered in ice yet distinctly human, and at the moment I knew I had to use that box, so I did. I put his heart inside it and everything. When I came home the next day, the first thing I did was bury that heart in the backyard. To this day I still don't know if I killed my husband or your Father."

My Mom finished her story. She lifted her right hand off her knee and rubbed one of her eyes with it, then the other, and stood up, crossing her arms.

"Kori, there's something I want to show you in my room." She said, heading to my doorway.

"What is it?"

"Follow me and you'll see what I mean."

I got up from my bed and followed her out of my room. When we reached her room, she stood in front of her drawer.

"You ready for this?"

"Yeah." I said, eyeing the third drawer, getting closer to her nightstand.

My Mom bent down to that same drawer. I knew something was in there! When she opened it up, I looked inside it.

Sitting inside that third drawer was nothing but a metal box.

End chapter