Winter
Chapter 7

Snowballs that were far more solid than normal snowballs were whizzing past Haru as he ran as best he could on a bad leg through the forest. Those that struck trees after missing him ripped bark off or left visible gashes in the wood.

“Crazy bitch,” exclaimed Haru. “Leave me alone!”

So concerned was he with dodging the deadly projectiles that Haru failed to notice that he was nearing a steep slope. He hit the slope at full stride and tumbled down head over heels on his dizzying descent to the bottom. Haru escaped the fall relatively unscathed, but it made him extremely angry.

“You want to mess with me?” exclaimed Haru, pulling out his knife. “Show yourself!”

The only response was silence.

“Not so tough now, are you? Don’t mess with a man! You may be a monster, but you’re still just a woman!”

“Is that so?” asked Natsuko, who was nowhere to be found.

A heavy fog began to roll in, making it impossible to see anything more than a few feet away. This prompted Haru to take to a readied stance.

“You bitch!” he shouted. “This isn’t fair!”

“How would fighting you face-to-face be fair?” asked Natsuko, hidden somewhere within the smothering fog. “You said I was just a woman. So what chance would I have against a strong man? I’ve got no other choice.”

“Keep talking,” whispered Haru, treading carefully forward. “I’ll follow the sound of your voice and then cut you to pieces.”

“When you’re done cutting me to pieces,” said Natsuko, showing that she had heard Haru’s less than silent whisper, “are you going to do the same thing to your wife? Or are you going to use a more cruel method to kill her?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” exclaimed Haru.

From out of nowhere, Natsuko pushed Haru from behind with nearly enough force to knock him to the ground. Haru immediately spun around and began swinging his knife wildly, but was unable to strike his target.

“You’re going to have to do better than that,” said Natsuko.

Haru again began taking careful steps forward. “She’s close,” he whispered. “I can feel it.” He then took another wild swing but again failed to strike his target.

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” asked Natsuko. “How are you ever going to kill your wife if you can’t even put a scratch on me?” Natsuko then pushed Haru from behind again. This time, however, she had pushed him with much more force than the first time, sending Haru crashing to the ground.

Haru quickly got back to his feet and spun around, swinging his knife wildly. “You bitch!” he shouted. “Who do you think you are?”

“I’ve got you,” said Natsuko

“What?” asked Haru.

Natsuko again pushed Haru with enough force to take him off his feet, but when he hit the ground this time Haru began sliding.

The fog slowly began to dissipate to reveal Natsuko, who was standing on solid ground. Haru, however, was lying on his back upon a frozen lake. When he stood up, small cracks began forming in the ice around him.

A blinding fog engulfed Natsuko. “I’d rather kill you myself,” she said. “So try not to die.” When the wind blew the fog away, Natsuko was nowhere to be found.

Haru took a timid step forward, and when he did, more cracks began forming in the ice. Believing it would give him his best chance at survival, Haru got down on his hands and knees and began crawling toward safety.

The ice cracked a little more with every careful inch of ground he covered, but Haru eventually made it back to the safety of solid ground.