In the Deep of the Woods

The soft snow hitting the frozen ground outside barely made a sound, drifts and piles of endless snow gathering. Joshua Brooks woke from his slumber in a cold sweat, jumping out of bed breathing heavily. He slowly stalked over to the window and gazed into the picturesque winter scene. His dream had been terrifying enough to wake him, yet easy enough to forget. The only thing his brain could conjure from the dream was endless black with speckled white strobing across his eyelids like a moving tattoo. And a figure in the distance. Too far to make out any details, but just close enough to see its long bony fingers stretch forward. Other than that, Joshua’s memory had gone blank. He shook his head and tried to forget the sickening feeling growing in his already achy stomach. The Brooks family had lived in Alaska their whole life, but this was Joshua’s first time living in the middle of the woods, alone. He had bought a nice long cabin with all the essentials. His sled dogs slept in the barn, except for one, Kudo. Kudo had auburn fur and piercing ice blue eyes. He was one of the wheel dogs, along with his sister Fortune. They are both quite strong, since they are the wheel dogs. The four team dogs, Charity, Chinook, Balto, and Sergey are all siblings, black and white huskies with typical brown eyes. The two swing dogs are Misha and Bear. Finally, the Lead dogs Moose and Kasha. All of the dogs were relatively calm and quiet, especially during the night. But on this particular night, many were howling and barking, their voices traveling through endless night and snow. Joshua got a striking pain in his head, falling to his knees and pressing his fingers on his temples. He stayed there for a second as the pain subsided, then clutched the table beside him with a white knuckled grip and hoisted his body up, letting out a weak cough and gazing back into the yard the window looked into. He closed his eyes and looked back out the window, seeing shadows moving in the distant night. His eyes widened a bit as he strained his vision but only to see the shadow figure moving closer. He started to panic, thinking it could be a dangerous person. Joshua’s breath quickened and he stumbled backward. His cabin was dark, so he was unable to see the chair behind him. He backed up into it and fell backwards, a loud thud echoing. He stopped moving and breathing, listening for the rustle of wind or crunching steps in the snow. As he took a fearful and shaky breath, he heard the footsteps quicken and start to grow louder. He jumped up with wide eyes and looked out the window to see the black figure charging towards his property. In reflex, Joshua ducked under the window just as the figure set foot on the edge of his land. With the brief light of the moon peeking through the clouds and into the window, he could see the shadow of a looming figure peering into his dark cabin room. He held his breath as not to alert the intruder. He saw the shadow shift and heard a tick tick tick of a nail tapping on frosted glass.