Cold Winters Day

A door slams in my face. I had started getting used to it. It wasn't long until it happened. It wasn't because I was a bad person in my core I think but more they just didn't want me around anymore.

I gently touch the door feeling it's warmth through the soft oak wood. My mind easily bringing up an image of happy moments of laughter and fun inside. Of us standing around a nice small fire in a small stone hearth. It didn't blaze up like I knew it could but it kept us warm and nourished who we were. After a few seconds of warm thoughts, a snowflake gently floats down and lands on my cheeks, the coldness a reminder of how it all went wrong. It started with a mistake. It was my fault really, but that's all it was. I had placed to many logs on the fire and it started to go out. I had only wanted to see the fire blaze in its full glory.

It took hours but the damage I had done to the fire began to take its toll, the fire began to die, we began to become distant with each other and fear crept into my throat. I knew it was coming. It was like a curse that kept haunting me. Time and time again I had put out the fire in someones home.
I tried removing the extra log, I tried blowing on the fire, I even braved the elements to collect more wood but that only ended me up outside the warmth further and led to the door being slammed in my face as it is now.

I remove my hand from the door and lay the logs down next to the door. It wasn't much but it was the only dry wood I could find in the darkness. I turn around and steel myself against the cold weather, I wore a slightly thick coat that had seen better days. Cotton had begun falling out torn pockets, a large rip made its way up the side of it. It had used to be a black so dark it could challenge the night in its glory but had faded to a dark grey color as it lost its pride. To complement the bad looks I had chosen sweat pants to go with it and that were nothing special but also had seen better days. They were a dark blue color, and paper thin with torn bottoms to complete my fresh homeless look. With a set of basic white and black sneakers that couldn't keep any of the colds out. It was all I could scrounge up before I had made my journey.

I peer out through my glasses into the inky black darkness. Large looming trees peeking in my vision with large tendril-like fingers ready to grasp at all the parts of my soul. The wind blows and the trees shift gently as if a giant's hand was itching his roughing up his hair to get the snow out of it.

I slowly move away from the house that I had thought I had found a permanent home in and true into the snow. Frosty snowflakes fall from the sky down slowly onto the bare skin of my face burning what little hope I have left away. Slowly one step in front of the other I make my way into the trees. Heading in what I could only hope to be the path back home. A place I had hoped I would never see again. The trees reach down as if baring my way and begin to whisper. I can feel there fingers scratching, clawing, demanding sacrifice as I force my way through the branches but on I move. A part of me had got used to the pain but it still hurt. I still felt every cut, every slap, every hardship and every mistake I made. As I move forward the numbness of the cold begins to set in until its all I can think of is one step in front of the other.

*Crunch, Crunch, Crunch*

I focus on the snow's sound underfoot and I almost don't notice when the laughter begins. Fears well up and I panic falling forward into the snow. Suddenly the trees' fingers became whips, and the whispers became fierce roars.

"LEAVE THIS PLACE!! LEAVE THIS PLACE AT ONCE!!"

I scream the jacket tearing from the slashing of the whips across my face and back. I charge forward tripping and sliding. The slippery ground doing its dam best to hold me back but it can only do so much against someone as determined as me to get away.

Everything stops as I burst through the last line of trees into a clearing. My home at last. My breathing is labored and all I feel is pain and numbness. I smile knowing that at least I had a place to return to after all this time and I kneel down in the snow trying to catch my labored breath.

I drag my fingers through the snow that never seems to melt around my house. Over the years of me living here, the snow had become dyed pink. I smile thinking of all the moments I have had here. Even if they were all sad it was still a place I called my home and that will never change. A trail of blood rolls down my arm and across my fingertips falling into the snow. I move my fingers a bit to warm them back up a bit of a blue tint beginning to set into the once healthy skin and I stand up again.

My eyes drift over the place I called home. The snow had begun to bury it as if trying to hide the shamefully small abode. I begin to walk towards it slowly at first but do my best to run towards it after a few seconds. My limbs, not quite wanting to operate correctly. Stumbling, tripping, and looking quite disorganized I make my way to the front door and slam it open. Rubbing my arms gently trying to get some semblance of warmth back into my limbs. I look around the room and notice the fire has gone out in the hearth. Not surprising in the least at all.