The snowman

Chapter 1
Merry Christmas

Frank was driving down the road to Mathew' chalet.  It was a large chalet in the middle of the woods which he inherited from his dad after he passed away two years prior.  It was also the perfect place for a holiday reunion party after him and his friends spent so long apart.  They got separated once they got to high school and rarely saw each other since except on a few occasions like birthday parties but even that stopped after a while.  Now they finally had the chance to meet again and they organized their Christmas party by using Facebook.  The road was bumpy and the snow falling was limiting his vision so he had to slow down.  Plus it was now dark even if it was only 5 o clock, something quite annoying about winter.  

When Frank finally arrived, he was greeted by Sophie who was waiting for him on the porch.  She gave him a big hug and told him to come inside.  She was always the more extroverted of the group.  Inside he saw Mathew, Sam and Cassandra.  They were all in their mid twenties and happy to see each other.  After they caught each other up on their lives, they ate barbecued turkey for diner.  Then the party started.  Mathew brought out the booze and they started drinking.  And they drank a little too much.  They blasted Christmas music from a speaker brought by Sophie and danced to their heart's content.  No need to worry about bothering any neighbors here.  They sang karaoke and has expected, they did quite poorly but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Then Cassandra proposed to go outside to make snow angels.  They all put on their boots and coats and joined her outside.  They began laying in the snow to make their angels and found it quite difficult not to ruin them as they got back up on their feet especially now that they were drunk.  Eventually, Sam wandered to the back of the house to make an angel in the untouched backyard of the house.  Then Cassandra started explaining that the angels they made in the snow aren't accurate to what angels are supposed to look like in the Bible.  She explained that they were described as eldritch rings of of fire with multiple eyes.  After hearing that, Frank proposed that they actually tried to build a biblically accurate angel.  The group agreed and started the project.  Mathew gathered branches from the trees around the yard.  He was an outdoors type so he had no problem placing all the sticks in a cone shape so it stays in that form an burns well.  Then they drew eyes with their fingers all around in the snow while Frank got coal from a bucket besides the fireplace inside.  They used the coal for the irises in the eyes.  Then Mathew used his lighter to start the fire.  

The group admired their creation but were soon interrupted by an high pitched voice : "That's cool.  Can I play with you?"  They turned around to see a little boy.  In their drunken state, it took them a few seconds to register what was happening but soon after, they went to the child to ask him if he was lost.  He said : "I don't know how I got here but you guys are my friends so you want to play with me right?"  Frank said : "Sorry kid we don't know you.  Can you tell us your name so we can help you find your parents?"  The boy answered : "I am Sam.  Stop being mean.  You know who I am.  Let me play."  That sent a chill up the friends' spines.  They had meant Sam when he was a child and now that they looked at the kid more closely, they realized that he looked just like Sam did when he was 6 years old.  Could it really be?  But how could he have become a kid?  The group exchanged bewildered looks before asking the boy who his parents were again.  He answered the exact same names of their friend Sam's parents.  No more doubts it was him.  Sophie said : "Ok Sam, we will play with you if you can show us what you did in the last 30 minutes so we can understand what happened to you."  Sam agreed and took Sophie and Frank with him while Mathew and Cassandra watched the fire.  

Little Sam took them to a snowman in the backyard.  strange, Sophie could have sworn that it wasn't there when she first arrived.  Did Sam build it?  But Sam interrupted her thoughts and said : "He wants to be my friend and your friend too."  While pointing at the snow man.  Sophie and Frank scared at the snowman.  It was an average snowman with branch arms, coal eyes, mouth and button and a scarf.  The only difference his that his nose was an icicle.  Yet he seemed oddly familiar.  The two of them had an impression of deja vu that made the snowman feel quite eerie.  The turned to Sam and asked if he made the snowman.  He said : "No snowbro just came here to play with me."  That name snowbro also seemed to dig up some forgotten memories.  When Frank turned around, he saw that the snowman seemed closer now.  He started getting anxious but just chalked it up to his imagination.  he turned to Sophie and suggested that they should all go back inside and figure out what to do next there.  But Sophie wanted to stay here because the boy seemed to like that snowman and he was more open to them when he was near it.  Frank turned back around to see the snow man only a few feet from him.  He stepped back and screamed in fright.  Sophie asked what was wrong.  Frank said : "That snowman just got closer to me."  Sophie said : "Don't be silly, snowmen can't walk.  It can't hurt you, see."  She walked up to it and stood in front of it.  Sam said : "It just wants to play with you."  Just as Frank was starting to calm down, the snowman suddenly grabbed Sophie who screamed in surprise.  Frank watched as her body began to shiver and tremble uncontrollably as she started shrinking.  She shrank down to the size of a child about Sam's age and her clothes also transformed to fit her new size.  She had a panicked look in her eyes that was quickly replaced with confusion.  Then she said : "Can we go back inside?  I'm coooold."   

Frank quickly grabbed the two kids by the arm and ran as the snowman came to life and chased after him.  Luckily he was slow but Frank couldn't run too fast either in deep snow while having to pull two kids.  He screamed at the two others to get inside once he got to them they all ran inside and locked the door behind them, the snowman crashing in it soon after.  

Cassandra asked : "What the fuck is going on?"  Frank said : "I don't know, that snowman just turned Sophie into a kid and started chasing after me."  Sam answered : "Snowbro just wants to play with you again."  Upon hearing that name, Cassandra thought she heard it before and began looking back in her memories.  Eventually, she said : "Guys, does anyone else remember playing with a living snowman as a child?"  Mathew started thinking and said, now that you mention it, yes but only vague ones, I had always thought it was just my imagination thought."  Then Frank remembered a similar childhood experience and said : "Yeah, I think we were all together with it once."  Mathew said : And it's name was..."  "Snowbro wasn't it?"  Frank finished.  Mathew said : "Yes, I think that's what we called it."  Mathew said :"Looks like he was real after all.  But how?"  Cassandra said : "I think I remember reading from a strange book I found in the basement of this place when we first came here when we were 6 to show off how good I was at reading.  I was pretty skilled for my age but I had no idea what the words I read meant.  I don't think it was English.   From what I can remember, the snowman came alive the next day.  He played with us every time we came back to this chalet but stopped moving whenever our parents came close enough to see it."  Mathew said : "That's right and he came back every year until we stopped coming to the chalet at the age of 9."  Frank asked : "So you think that our childhood snowman friend wants us back as kids to play once more?"  Mathew said: "It sure seems like it!”  While they were talking, Sam and Sophie were playing with the Christmas decorations.  

Frank asked : "What should we do?  It's not like we can call the cops.  They will never believe us."  Mathew said : "Keep an eye on the snowman through the windows.  The locked door seems to be enough to keep him out."  Frank looked and saw the snow man starring at them from the front yard.  After a while, it moved away and Mathew reported seeing it from the back window.  Then it moved again and couldn't be seen from any window.

  After about 30 minutes, Frank said : "I think it's gone.  Let me just get outside and check.  Don't worry, I won't go too far from the door in case it's still here."  He opened the door and went out. He took a few steps down the stairs but didn't see it.  Slowly, he took a few more steps.  Then suddenly, the snowman, popped out from behind a wall.  Frank ran back up the stairs but it was too late.  It threw a snowball which hit him in the back.  He collapsed at the top of the stairs feeling a wave of cold spread to his body rendering it numb and making it shiver uncontrollably.  He saw everything around him get bigger and then the shivering stopped. 

He got back inside and Mathew slammed the door shut.  He asked : "Are you okay man?"  Frank answered : "Yes but what will I tell my landlord or my boss, how can I live my life as a child?  We need to reverse this or I... I..."  He felt a sudden brain freeze making it harder to think.  The more he tried to focus on his adult thoughts, the more his head hurt.  Eventually, he just let himself slip and said : i wanna go play with Sophie and Sammy."  The two remaining adults could see that he had lost his maturity so it was no use trying to talk to him about an escape plan.  Mathew said : "Okay, nobody goes out until morning.  Then we can think of a plan to get to the cars and leave.  They tucked the three kids to sleep in their sleeping bags which were now too big for them but still did the trick.

They checked the windows but couldn’t see Snowbro anywhere.  Mathew asked : “Hey Cassandra, you said that you remember reading from a strange book that you found in this chalet and that it brought Snowbro to life, right?  So maybe if we find it, we can read a counter spell to remove the magic from this snowman.”  He was careful not to speak to loud to avoid waking up the children. Cassandra answered : “It’s worth the try but I can’t remember exactly where I found the book.”  Mathew said : “Then we should start looking.”  Cassandra went to the second story while Mathew searched the first floor where he currently was.  They found nothing until Nathew decided to go to the basement, where the fireplace was, and saw a bookshelf.  He called Cassandra so she could tell him if the book she used was there.  After examining the 20 or so books there, she said that it wasn’t there.  Mathew was getting desperate so he pulled books off the shelf and showed them to Cassandra to make sure she didn’t miss it.  She confirmed yet again that he didn’t have the right book.  Until he saw a book hidden behind a row of other books.  It had a pentagram symbol on it with each point of the star containing an image representing elements.  Earth, water, air, fire and lightning were all represented.  Cassandra saw it and jumped : “Yes that is the one!”

They returned upstairs and Cassandra opened the book.  Her expression immediately changed.  “It’s written in Latin.”, she said.  Mathew answered : “But if you were able to read it as a kid, surely you can read it now.”  Cassandra said : “I can read the words out loud but I don’t know what they mean so it’s too risky.  Therefore I  can’t be sure what to read to stop the snowman.  For all I know, it might bring the chair I am sitting on to life.”  Mathew said : “Keep it with you anyway.  It could be useful if we take it to a professional.”  She put the book in her backpack.

She said : “Don’t worry, we can get out of here tomorrow.  If we call the cops, the snowman won’t act.  Remember how it froze whenever our parents came close when we were kids?”  I think that it can only show that it can move to us.”  Mathew answered : “We will have a whole lot of trouble explaining why we called them when there was no danger but I guess that it’s worth it.  If Snowbro turns all of us into kids, we will die a slow and painful death.  After all, six year olds can grab food from our supplies and survive for a while like that but we won’t be able to keep the fire going nor get more food once we run out nor drive back home and I doubt that Snowbro can do that for us.  Therefore, we would freeze and starve to death after a few days.”  Cassandra replied : “Yes he might kill us without realizing it.  Ironic considering he only wants us to play with him.”  Then Maybee saw the snow man very close to the window behind Cassandra.  It sticked its face against the glass and Mathew suddenly realized that although Snowbro couldn’t bust down the door, it would have no problem breaking the window.  He yelled : “Cass, get up now!”  Cassandra jumped In surprise and turned around once she heard a bang against the glass.  She saw the snowman through the cracked glass and screamed.  She tried to get away but Snowbro dived through the window and grabbed her arm.  She quickly yanked herself out of his grip but it was too late.  One touch was all it took.  She started trembling on the ground and Mathew saw the snowman was about to throw a snowball.  He dived to the floor just in time to dodge it.

When he got up, he saw that Cassandra was now a child too, the other children had waken up and Snowbro got back up.  Mathew bolted downstairs to the basement.  Cassandra said: “You can’t just do this to us.  We have lives now and we can’t just go back to being kids.  Especially since we can’t take care of ourselves like this.  Please change us back.” But Snowbro was having none of it.  He patted her on the head and said : “Don’t worry about that little girl, you can just play with me and your friends now”. It’s voice was deep and slow.  Cassandra tried to fight it and said : “No I am a big girl, I go to university, we can’t stay like this”. The snowman hugged her and told her not to worry as she started crying.  It said : “Shhhh, don’t be sad, your friends are here, you can have fun with them now.  I will be there to watch over you.”  Sophie grabbed a Christmas stocking from the wall and said : “Hey Cassie, this looks good on you.”  She then put it on Cassandra’s head which made the girl giggle as she removed it.  Her mind finally slipped into childish innocence and she jumped up and down a few times before joining her friends.  Snowbro lifted up Sophie and Sam on his torso ball and they screamed with joy.  But he only played with them for a brief moment before setting them down and saying: “Just wait here, I will go get one more friend for you.”  It then made its way to the basement stairs.

Meanwhile, Mathew knew he was cornered.  There was only one exit to the chalet and it was the front door.  Snowbro was too close for him to escape that way without being caught so the basement was his only option. He can’t run but he can fight.  He grabbed the axe he used to chop fire wood and sticked it in the furnace.  After a while, he heard Snowbro coming down stairs.  It was slow because he only had a ball for legs but he will get down eventually.  Mathew turned around to look at the axe.  It wasn’t ready yet.  He didn’t like what he was about to do but he needed to do it to have a good chance at winning this crucial fight.  He dropped the axe with its head still in the furnace and its handle sticking out. He then put on his work gloves and grabbed a flaming log from the fire place.  He quickly dropped it in front of him but his hands were still in great pain.  He removed the gloves which got too hot and examined his hands only to see a few small burn marks on them.

Then he saw Snowbro turn the corner and arrive in front of him. It said : “Come now Mathew, join me and your friends.  We will have lots of fun together.”  Mathew was a bit taller than the snowman but he knew this would be the case for long if he let it touch him.  He turned around to see the axe’s head was now red hot.  Perfect.  He  kicked the burning log into the snowman’s leg ball and it screamed in pain.  Mathew had hoped it would have stunned it but the snowman powered through.  He approached it with the axe and he narrowly dodged when it swung its branch arm by taking a step back.  He then took a step forward and swung the axe using all the practice he got from chopping wood with his dad.  But the snowman moved its head and the axe landed in it’s back.  The burning pain caused it to forget its target and focus on pulling the axe out.  Mathew put his gloves back on and took another log from the fireplace.  He ignored the burning pain and threw it at the snowman’s face right as it had removed the axe.  The log collided with its face causing it to melt and Snowbro collapsed to the ground.

Mathew went out to put his burned hands in the snow.  Once the pain became tolerable, he went inside to patch them with bandages. He saw that his friends were still kids and they went back to sleep.  He was so exhausted that he decided to do the same.  Sam woke him up in the morning and they ate breakfast.  He then drove them back to his house where he called their relatives to figure out who would take care of them.

While the other kids were playing, Cassandra walked up to Mathew and said: “Mister Mathew, look what I can do.”  She then pulled out the spell book from her bag and began reading from it.  Mathew panicked and by the time he yelled at her to stop, it was too late.  She finished the spell.  He grabbed the book from her hands and she began crying.  “Give that back.  You’re a meanie.”  He answered : “That book is dangerous, it almost got us all killed.”  Then he felt dizzy.  The world started shifting around him and he closed his eyes.  When he opened them, he was almost at eye level with Cassandra.  The spell had also turned him into a child.  But it was okay now. Their relatives were on their way so he was not doomed.  He said : “You should never read from that again.  Just find another book.”  She said nodded and put the book back in the bag.  Mathew played with his friends as his mind slowly regressed.  When the adults arrived, they decided who would adopt him too.  The five friends enjoyed their second childhood together and this time, they stayed together even as they got older.