A Cold Chill
Crossmanx at - crossmanx@hotmail.co.uk - comments and ideas welcome.
There's a chill in the air, a chill that could take your breath away! 


A Cold Chill

Graham looked out the window of his living room, the radio was playing in the
background and the news was just coming to an end. He looked out into the rear
garden and only stared straight ahead, almost as if trying to ignore something
out there, something to the side, something that was trying to garb his
attention. The weather forecast followed and the seductive female voice warned
that there was going to a return of bad weather with the possibility of some
snow later on in the week.

It was now that the man was almost forced to look over to the side and where
the pile of snow from a couple of weeks ago was still fighting not to melt
away into a puddle of water. That pile of snow was a reminder to the man, a
reminder of something he was desperately trying to ignore, forget, blank out
of his mind. But like the pile of snow, it was still there at the back of his
mind, still bringing those memories back. A shiver went down the man's back,
not that there was going to be a cold snap again, or even that there was a
chance of snow 'at this time of the year!' But it was the memories of 'that'
day when the snow had fallen recently, it was 'that' day that made his shiver.

For Graham the sight of the pile of snow, the one he'd been trying to avoid
looking at and the recent weather forecast took his mind back. Back to a
couple of weeks ago or so, to when the temperature had dropped and there was
that felling, that change in the air, the sort of change you could almost
smell. The snow was on its way and later in the evening it had started, quite
lightly, to fall outside. Jenny, Grahams wife, had looked out and commented on
how nice it all looked. Graham wasn't so sure as he was due to head off early
tomorrow morning on a business trip and he didn't fancy driving all that way
in the snow.

That night the snow had carried on falling, getting heavier and heavier as
time went on and all through the night. The next morning and as Graham woke
and pulled back the curtains, 'Shit!' He was meet by a sea of crisp white
snow, everywhere, it was all over the place and looked deep! The man rushed
around and got himself ready, he'd knew the traffic would be bad and that
everyone else couldn't handle a bit of snow so their poor driving would affect
his travel plans.

He just about remembered to give Jenny a kiss goodbye and he was off. Even so
Graham had beat the rush and was making as good as progress as he could
expect. Then he got a phone call from his boss, the meeting was cancelled and
also as so many people couldn't get into work today the best thing was to stay
at home and work from there. His boss would give him a call tomorrow morning
to give him an update about what was going on.

That was just great!' Graham turned the car around and headed back home. An
hour later and after he'd managed to negotiate his way pass all the idiots
that couldn't drive, he made his way back home. In the kitchen and Jenny was
in her dressing gown sat at the table drinking coffee, she'd rung her boss
before even attempting to leave the house and was told basically the same
thing, 'don't bother coming in today!' This left Graham in even more of a bad
mood as he went upstairs and changed out of his work suit, 'typical she gets
told before even leaving the house, but for him, well that's different, he has
to ... ... .!'

But a short while later and after a 'well deserved' caffeine intake himself,
Graham was feeling a bit more relaxed about it all. He's switched on his
laptop and had a quick look at his e-mails, 'nothing there too urgent, so that
was good.' To be honest as he was up to date with all his other work, so there
seemed little point in him 'working from home' today. So ... ... ! He'd just
take the day off, no one would know, and he still had most of the day left to
... ... ? 'What was he to do?'

Jenny came up with an idea, a walk! At first Graham wasn't too sure, he looked
outside it had stopped snowing but still looked cold and the snow was deep.
But this was followed by, "how about a walk to the park, down to the canal and
over the bridge to that fancy pub by the lock gates?". 'Yes, the pub by the
lock gates, good beer, good food and a roaring open log fire!' Now that did
sound like the best way to spend a snow day, so it was off to find the hats,
scarfs, gloves and long coats. The couples dog looked up at them as they
hurried around, with a look of 'leave me here' on its face. Curled up next to
the radiator in the hallway and this dog was going to stay there!

Twenty minutes or so later and Graham and Jenny where all wrapped up against
the cold and the weather and where on their way out, they knew the dog would
refuse to go outside, far too cold, so had left it back at home to 'rest!'.
The park was on the other side of the road, down an alleyway between two
houses and there is was. The couple set off out their house, across the road
and towards the alleyway, in which time Graham had wobbled once, was unsteady
on his feet twice and slipped, going straight on his arse three times! All
very amusing to Jenny his wife, but not in the least bit funny to Graham
himself!

So, the 'expedition' had started, and now that Graham had worked out how to
walk in the snow, without falling, it was starting to go well. Across the road
and the coupe managed to reach the first major landmark, the entrance to the
alleyway. This was a long, single, straight 'canyon' covered in white snow, it
would be a treacherous journey but necessary. At the far end was the entrance
to the park and would mean that they were getting closer to their final
destination, the pub!

As they tackled the alleyway and almost a full third of the way down it there
was the sound of shouting and an obvious commotion, from behind them. They
both looked back at the top of the alleyway and could see there was a lad, a
youth he'd fallen over in the snow. But quickly he scrambled his way back up
to his feet and was now slipping and sliding his way as fast as he could down
the alleyway. He was running, as fast as he could in the snow and as he got
closer, Graham and Jenny could see there was blood on his face and he looked
scared.

Just as he got level with the couple, the lad stumbled once again and fell
down to the floor. Instinctively his head turned to look behind him, as if he
was checking on those who were after him, his pursuers! The man and woman also
turned to looked back to the top of the alleyway, and now there were two more
figures stood there. These two looked at each other and then back at the three
of them, Graham, Jenny and the lad, now halfway down the alleyway. There was a
shout, a scream, mixed in with a kind of laughter as the two fingers now ran
down the alleyway towards the three of them.

Graham and Jenny made the assumption that whoever these two where they were
after the lad that looked as if already he'd been in a bit of a fight. But
also, as the two runners got closer it was obvious that they were in fact
female, girls, and the closer they got the more they seemed familiar! Although
neither girl was known to Graham and Jenny, the husband and wife recognised
them, had seen them at some distance around the area and knew of them from
their 'reputation.'

The two girls where Connie and Steph, probably just short for Stephanie. These
where the two local trouble makers the horrible kids that inhabited the area,
a couple of terrible terrors and a pair of bullies. Although Graham and Jenny
had never had anything to do with these trouble makers they knew their names
and how they were persevered around here, their low standing in the community
was well-deserved. Even for two such young girls, they had built up their
'status', the two horrible college girls that everyone stayed well away from.

So, whatever this young lad had done, deserved or not, he'd upset the girls
and was now very much in trouble with the them, that was obvious. As the two
running girls got closer, Jenny had bent down to try and comfort the lad on
the floor, Graham had turned towards the girls in an attempt to ... ... THUD!
As they got to where the lad and the couple were, the girls thrown themselves
upwards and acted. The redhead girl Connie had jumped up, but not too high,
her foot came down right on top of the lad's head and pushed it down into the
snow and the floor. Using the boy's head as a stepping stone. At the same time
the brunette, Steph, also went up, her foot had come out and caught Graham in
the side of his body, knocking him back against the garden fence that ran down
the side of the alleyway. The man stumbled back against the fence and almost
fell down to the floor, only his strong legs and quick reaction managed to
steady himself and stay upright.

The girls had carried on after each of their hits and landed a short way
further down the alleyway. They now both slowed down as the went past the lad,
with his face buried in the snow and the stunned couple. They slowed down to a
gentle jog, then back into a steady walking pace a bit further along the
alleyway. As they carried on the girl's giggle and laughed, obviously this had
caused them much hilarity! They carried on now, walking slowly further on and
towards the open park, as if nothing had happened and they didn't have a care
in the world. At the end of the alleyway, turning their heads to look back and
snigger at those they had just 'passed by!'

Graham was shocked by this, he'd heard what these girls could be like and now
realised that all those things he'd heard where true. But even so, he was now
getting quite angry with what had just happened. Jenny was also fuming but
also concerned about the lad that she was now helping up onto his feet. There
was blood coming out his nose and a cut across his cheek, she told Graham that
she was going to take him home and sort the lad out. Graham agreed, "you look
after him, I'm going to have a word with those pair of brats!" That was it,
Graham was more than annoyed, more than angry, and he was going to do
something about it. 'God help those girls if he got his hands on them!'

The two girls were out of sight now as the angry Graham stormed off down the
alleyway. When he reached the end, he stopped and looked out into the large
park, but he couldn't see either of those little terrors. Even if the normal
green park was now mostly white, and everything now stood out so clearly, he
still couldn't see those girls! Graham quickly looked behind him and saw that
his wife had got the lad back up onto his feet and was helping back up the
alleyway. That was one thing taken care of.

The man turned back and starred outwards, the park area was quite open, and of
course looked somewhat different with all that snow. There were the normal
paths that criss-crossed the park, that somehow even when covered in snow
could still be made out. There where trees here and there, either single
trees, or in smalls groups of two's and three's, but not too many as to block
all of his view. He could see over to the far side of the park where it then
fell away and down towards the canal, but still there were no girls! Yes,
there where footprints in the snow but there were a lot of footprints, too
many to make even a guess as to who they might belong to. One thing about the
snow, it does bring people out, even if for only a short while.

There was the football pitch area, well the goal posts at least, the rest of
the pitch was, of course, covered in snow, and over there was the play area
for younger children, with slides and climbing frames that sort of thing.
There were a few children in there enjoying themselves and a few over there
making a snowman, there was even a few dogs being walked. Dogs braver than his
to come out in the cold, but there were no girls. 'Where could they have got
to and how did they ... ... .?'

Suddenly something caught Graham's attention, just out the corner of his eye
he'd thought he'd seen something move, 'over there!' Some way away there was
the park cafe hut, it was closed at the moment, but it was an old wooden hut
with benches outside it. Benches out in the front and also to the rear, but it
was the rear of the café, that was the quite more secluded area, surround on
two side by tallish hedges. The man nodded his head as if agreeing with
himself, 'that would be an ideal hiding area, that's where the girls run off
to!'

Graham made his way over to the cafe area, he was going to get those girls, he
was almost there and decided to go around the rear and come through the back.
Sneak round to the rear, use the hedgerow to hide his approach, they would be
in that more secluded area, 'that's where they'll be hiding,' he was sure of
that. As the man now creeped around to the rear and where he was sure he could
hear something come from the other side of the hedgerow. 'Were the girls
trying to hide from him?' He was sure of it and soon they would be regretting
their bad behaviour!

As he turned the corner and there was the opening, he heard movement, the man
grinned, smiled as he now got ready to startle and scare the girls as he
jumped around the corner. He got himself ready and then made his move, into
the enclosed rear area of the cafe, AAARRRHHHH! THUD! OOOOWWWHHH!

But maybe it hadn't gone quite the way that Graham had planned, as the man
jumped around the corner and let out a cry of anger to scare the girls,
something, quite solid, had come speeding in 'his' direction. The man had seen
this blurred dark object come hurtling towards him as he jumped around, and
there was the very sudden realisation that it was him that had been caught
out!

The blow caught him straight in the middle of his face, he saw stars and the
chilling air didn't help as his face stung intensely from the blow, his face
throbbed and hurt like crazy too. It was a painful moment for the man, it also
shook and stunned him, making him wobble and stagger backwards. Which lead to
a miss placed foot, a slip, a tumble and then a fall. Graham went down with a
thud into the snow, but unfortunately it was coving a stone pathway so his
fall was hard, painful and cold.

The man sat there on his arse wondering what had just happened, but in truth
knowing all too well that it was one of the girls that had done this. One of
the two girls that now stood there in front of him, one of them had hit him
and dropped him on his backside! The two girls both took a step forward and
looked down at the man on the floor, there were grins, smirks on their faces
as they took in the stunned expression on the man's face.

Graham was an average man, well that was how Jenny his wife had last described
him, tallish, fairish, OKish with his looks and 34. Yes, he was just an
average sort of guy, and the two girls could see that he was indeed, just a
bit average.

The girls however where not your average college girls, the fact that both of
them, sort of, even went to college was about the most average thing about
them.

There was Connie the girl with the red hair, the ginger one, the girl with the
freckles that went all across her cute button nose and cheeks. With the short
hair, and the fiery temper, so don't call her 'ginger!' She was the one with
the fire in her eyes, the frown on her forehead and the pouting lips, it gave
her a sense of foreboding. She was dressed in a pair of high brown suede
boots, blue jeans the kind with all those rips and tears in them. Then she
wore some old green bomber jacket, a blast from the past kind of a look, but
defiantly a blast!

Next to her was Steph, Stephanie was her full name, but don't use it when
talking to her, she doesn't like, not one bit, she'd just plain Steph. Got it!
And she was quite plain with her looks, her long dark hair that just came down
over her shoulders and that stare she had. The one of 'not being interested in
anything.' She was dressed in black leather boots, dark blue jeans, with a
couple of rips but not the designer type, and a black leather jacket, a size
or two too big that hung over her body. But even so, dark, uninterested and a
bit mysterious that was Steph.

This was the first time that the man had seen these two notorious girls up
close like this. He'd noticed them from afar, heard the stories about what
little brats they were around the local area, and until now he'd not had
anything to do with either of them. But even so that didn't matter, he didn't
care what 'reputation' they 'thought they had' they had gone too far, this
time! Graham turned to the side put his hand into the cold snow 'shit!' and
pushed himself upwards. 'When he was on his feet he would ... ... ', WHACK!
OOOWWWWW!

A boot went sharply into the side of the man and he tried to clambered back up
onto his feet. It was a hard blow that caught him again by surprise and
knocked the wind out of him. It also sent him back down to the floor and
tumbling over in the snow. Graham lay there for a moment coughing and
spluttering and getting him breath back, once he'd got that and had again
realisation that once more he'd been hit, kicked by one of these girls, the
man was now so mad with these girls!

Once again, he went to get back up, but this time he went about it a lot
quicker, but not quick enough! As he pushed himself up Graham felt his
shoulders being grabbed, obviously by one of the girls, then he was yanked
upwards. He went to lift his head to see what was happening, but all he saw
was a flash of something dark coming towards him and, THUD! OOUUUHHHH! Steph's
thigh went into the side of the man's face as she pulled him upwards, he'd
turned his head just at the right moment to feel the full impact of her blow.
Even for Steph this 'happy coincidence' made her smirk, ever so slightly.

The blow makes the man fall backwards, only halfway up on his feet he fights
to keep upright rather than got back down to the floor, yet again. Graham's
arms flap around in the cold air as his trying to grab onto something that's
obviously not there to hold onto. But something does stop him falling again,
he stumbles back against something, it wasn't anything hard, so not a wall,
maybe the hedgerow? But then the man felt the hand that where under his arm,
the hands that where holding his up!

That only meant that it was the ginger girl that he'd fallen back against, it
was her who was keeping him upright. As soon as he felt those hands his head
instantly turned to the side, as if checking what he already knew was right.
As his head turned he just about caught sight of the redhead girl out of the
corner of his eye. And at the moment he saw her, she made her move. The girl,
Connie, twisted the man around, spinning him, turning him on his wobbly legs,
all the way around so he was now facing her.

In that moment that he came to a stop and was now facing, looking at the girl,
as he stared at her face, into her eyes. Then her nose, that pretty button
nose, moved, flinched. The man's eye dropped to look at how cute it looked and
CRUNCH! OOOOHHHHHH! A suede boot flicked up into Graham's groin, catching the
man just right and dropping him down in an instant onto his knees, and back
into the cold, wet snow.

Back at Graham's home and Jenny had got the hurt boy back to tend to his
injuries. Just at that moment the older woman, well 32 was older than the lad,
the woman was doing everything she could to smooth the pain and was kissing
his injuries better! Well her husband has said to 'look after him!'

Back in the snow covered park and Graham took in a sharp intake of breath, of
icy cold air in his lungs, as he dealt with the pain that had engulfed him
just now. But even with the pain, his ears picked out a crunching sound, as
boots were put down into the snow close to him. Graham knew that both the
girls where close by now, but more importantly he was in no condition to do
anything about it and if they decided to ... ... CRACK! OOOOHHHH! There was
thundering jolt to the back of his head, Steph had walked around and behind
the knelt man, then twisted her body, sharply, brought a leg up, hooked it and
driven her knee into the back of the kneeing man's head.

The hard pounding knee had sent a numbing pain all the way through Graham's
head and forced him forwards. The man had dropped forwards and was heading
back into the snow, face first. That was until Connie joined back in and
simply put her leg forward, allowing the man's face to fall dead centre into
her knee CRUNCH! His head bounced up and came back down onto her knee then
simply rolled off and to the side. Which meant he was back to falling face
first into the snow, again!

The was a dull thud followed by a whimpering sound as Graham was once more in
the snow. Then a suede boot and a leather boot where placed on his body, they
rolled the man over onto his back and now there was a red patch in the white
snow where he'd just fallen. One of the boots moved down his body to his groin
and then, twisted! ARRRRHHHHHH! Automatically the man's body shot upright as
he lay there being tortured by the boot that was crushing his groin. But as
his clenched, hurt body came shooting upwards SMACK! The other boot, from the
other girl, came into the side of his upwardly moving jaw.

Graham went sparling over the snow and was now in a state of half
unconsciousness. He thought he'd lay there for such a long time, but in
reality, only a few moments had passed when the girls reached down grabbed an
arm each. Now they began to drag the hapless man out of the secluded cafe area
and out into the park. All Graham knew was that he was moving, or was it the
sky that he was looking up at that was moving, he couldn't tell. The sight of
two girls dragging a man along in the snow on a cold day like today should
have been noticed by someone in the park, and maybe it had been. But when the
girls involved where Connie and Steph, maybe people decide to just ignore
this?

For Graham it was as if time was just going around and around in circles and
he didn't really know what was happening to him. That was until that frightful
moment when ... ... SPLASH! OOOOOOHHHHARRRRRRRHHHHHH!

It was that moment when his body was dropped into the canal and the freezing
cold water engulfed him. There was a feeling of pure panic that came over the
man as the electric cold water took hold, as his body came up out of the water
and then floated back down again. This seemed to go on and on and on and all
the time he just couldn't breathe, couldn't grasp, couldn't take in a breath
into his lungs. It seemed like this went on for an age, it seemed like it went
on forever, not being able to take that breath. But somehow, he didn't know
how, he did manage to take in some air and keep his head out of the water. But
even more surprising was that he manged to scramble to the side and drag his
soaking, cold body out of the canal.

The shock of the cold water had numbed his hurt body, so maybe that had helped
him as he dragged himself out. As he stood there by the side of the waterway,
shivering like he'd never done before, as he'd never been this cold before, he
was grateful that the girls had seemed to have vanished. The walk back across
the park, down the alleyway, across the road and back home, wasn't any great
distance, but to the cold, wet, hurt Graham it seemed like the journey would
never be over. His body didn't stop shaking from the cold, his cloths began to
freeze to him and the pain was almost unbearable.

But somehow, he did make it back home, he got through the front door, 'thank
God it wasn't locked', got his clothes off and dropped through into the living
room. He'd grabbed onto an old blanked that was used to protect the settee
from the dog and wrapped it around himself. Then fell onto the settee and
curled up into a ball to try and get warm again. Graham just lay there,
shivering, but it didn't take too long before he'd fallen into a restful
sleep, which was just as well as in the kitchen and Jenny was still busy
nursing the lad back to full health. Well in fact the lad had Jenny over the
kitchen table and was showing her just how good a nurse she was and how mush
he'd recovered. In fact, it was a full demonstration of just how much better
he was feeling, and how grateful he was for how she'd looked after him! Yes,
backwards and forward he was thrusting her, showing her just how grateful he
was!

But that had all been a few weeks ago and now back in the presence and
Graham's mind also came back out of that horrible frightful day, and now the
weather forecast of possibly snow on the way, he shivered. It had all been a
very embarrassing occurrence, one he so wanted to try and forget, but
couldn't. When he'd woke, on the settee on that day, he'd managed to explain
and convince Jenny that he went and looked for the girl but hadn't found them.
Then somehow got to close to the canal and fallen in, 'silly him!', and she'd
believed him, which was good. She'd the explained that she sorted the lad out
and he'd left quite happy, well she wasn't lying! She'd found out that he'd
thrown a snowball at a friend, missed and hit one of the girls by mistake!
They hadn't seen the funny side of this and bullied the poor lad, hit him
chased him. 'How awful was that?' The poor lad.

But now everything was back to normal, Graham turned off the radio and tried
to forget about the weather forecast, he pulled on his jacket, got the dog,
who was now happy to go outside and set off on their walk around the park. The
man didn't mind going back to the park, it was just the thought of the cold
and the snow that sent a shiver down his spin and 'reminded' him! Jenny looked
out the bedroom window and saw her husband taking the dog for a walk, she
quickly called 'her lad' to see if he was free to come over and service her
again. She knew a dog walk would take some time as Graham would end up at some
pub or the other, giving her plenty of time to suck some boy cock and get a
good seeing too!

As Graham made his way down the alleyway to the park he wondered if a trip
away would be good for him and Jenny, she seemed a bit distance with him
lately, or was it just his imagination? 'Yes, a holiday in the sun, no chance
of snow, just some good hot weather, what could go wrong with that?' That put
a bit a skip into his step, but as he reached halfway down the alleyway, back
at the top and two figures appeared, they could see the man walking his dog
and the two girls turned to looked at each other.

'Yes, a holiday in the sun, that would ... ... ' Just then Graham thought he
could hear running feet behind him. As if someone, or more than one person,
was running down the alleyway behind him. Something made the man stop, for
some unknown reason a cold chill seemed to come over him and as he turned his
head to look behind him ... ... !