10 DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING
There was something desolate about the snow today… the snow was a few inches deeper, the wind gusts were like lances, and the air was so thick with flurries, it was nearly impossible to see.
Good thing that there was more than one way to get through a snow storm than simply walking. With a final crunch of snow under the flop of a slipper, the air charged with an ecstatic blue energy that surged and bounced and whirled from tree to tree, stone to stone, between the tall and gloomy trees. Normally a casual and fun thing, the blue lights dance this early morning twitched with an intense focus.
"Somethings changed… I can feel it in my bones!"
A swift lunge up a stone, and the flip over a ledge, and the blue disappeared as a bird closes its wings from flight over the treeless platform. "Huff… huff…" breath wasn't easy for one who had traveled miles in so few seconds, but there was no time to catch breath. Not when you didn't even really have lungs.
"Okay… okay, where are you?" his voice shivered and clicked, his jacket rustling over hunched, creaking, rattling limbs. "H-hey… knock knock?" His pale bony hands clawed at the blue folds of his jacket. A short silence passed, "Heh… don't leave me hanging. Old lady? You there?"
The enormity of the dark purple doors was blurred due to the heavy snow fall, but the loneliness of them was even greater today, even… absent. "No…" with a desperate jump, he threw himself at the colossal doors, clawing at the rippling, sparking magic that traced up and down the surface. The fury of it was like fireworks to his touch.
"Urgh! Let me in for once!" he held to the door and its magic, his own blue stirring into a flickering wave. "I just want to know!" His slippers fell away, his claws sank into the snow, and found icy ground. Lightening crackled, and a force like an opposing magnet began to build between him and the door. "Are you okay?!" he protested against the wave shoving him back. "Old lady!"
The magic of the door arced, wove dizzying quick circles encompassing three triangles, and crossed wings. With a final hiss and threatening crackle, a boom of energy tore the monster's claws from the door, and he went tossing through the air back over the ledge, rolling across the path below.
"Ugh…" lanky limbs sank into the snow as he stood himself up, and dusted snow from his shoulders with a few deft flick of his thin hands. Squinting, he spied the doors magic already setting to rest. Beside him was the trench of snow he'd created… and beside them… a trail of shoe prints, just a little smaller than his own, fading away under new snow.
"Those aren't mine." Scrambling, he followed after them, but they soon disappeared completely. Focusing on the stretch of white between the long winding path of trees, he took a deep breath and set forward, barefoot, walking at a stiff pace, steadily gaining speed. "What sort of soul do you have, new kid?" his arms and legs were pumping now, and he was charging through the forest. "Are you an Angel, or a Demon?"
With a leap and a surge of blue, the monster disappeared with a violent neon streak that bolted straight over the path and into the unseen oblivion between light and time. A woeful wind and a thunder crack tore through the forest with such great force the winds and snow followed, swinging even the trees low. On the path, all traces of footprints were entirely obliterated by new snow, all save for the barely visible pink fluff at the foot of the great doors. Even so, the snow would erase them soon…