Snow Dragon: Episode I
A 10-part horror serial
A mythical monster has awakened beneath Deer Falls following an earthquake. Can the Duggan family destroy this vicious and lethal predator before it drives the sleepy Colorado town to extinction?
Snow Dragon is a prequel to Pandora Reborn — my debut horror novel released in 2018. All 10 episodes of this horror novella are available exclusively to paid subscribers of my Strange New Worlds newsletter or patrons of my Patreon page.
Check back each Sunday for the latest episode through the end of September.
I | II | III | IV | V |VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | Epilogue
Violent tremors rippled through the entire house. Evan clutched both molded plastic arms of his office chair so tight his knuckles turned white. His instincts told him to spring from the chair and station himself inside the open doorway until the shaking stopped.
Neither leg budged an inch.
An oak shelf broke above him. Books tumbled down and spilled across the beige carpet. One thick leather-bound volume struck his knee. Evan winced and finally compelled himself to act. He stumbled toward the doorway, determined to follow through with his earlier plan. The sound of breaking glass greeted his ears. Evan’s deep blue eyes slid over to the wall. Jagged horizontal cracks stretched across the window, threatening to erupt in a rain of glass shards at any moment.
Then the tremors ceased with almost the same speed they emerged. This earthquake bore several telltale signs of being a massive one. He wondered how high it would place on the Richter Scale.
The whole house shook for approximately one minute. That minute formed its own separate eternity and invited a parade of memories Evan forgot existed.
Evan steadied his hand against the door jamb and drew a sharp breath. He pushed his glasses up along the bridge of his nose.
“Is everyone okay?”
His voice reverberated throughout the ground floor of the house. He stepped out of his downstairs office and surveyed the living room for signs of the rest of his family. Marie poked her head outside the kitchen door. She met Evan with a wide-eyed stare and licked her lips.
“It’s an absolute mess in here.” Marie glanced over her shoulder and back at Evan again. “All our clean plates and glasses tumbled out of the drain board. There’s broken glass everywhere!”
“Don’t move anything yet,” he said. “We might need to take pictures for the insurance.”
Evan frowned. First broken windows. Now broken dishes. Still, he counted it fortunate neither that he nor his wife were seriously injured. He hoped the same scenario held true with Casey. Their son never responded to his original inquiry.
“Where are you, Casey?” Evan turned toward the stairs and shouted his question. “Are you injured?”
“I think I’m … okay.”
Tentativeness gripped his youngest son’s voice. Judging from the direction the sound traveled, Casey seemed to be hunkering down in his upstairs bedroom. Evan flashed a concerned frown at Marie.
“I’ll clean up down here,” he said. “Do you want to go check on Casey and make sure he isn’t injured?”
Marie took deliberate steps out of the kitchen and gestured toward the mess on the other side of the door.
“It’s all yours.”
She walked past him and climbed the stairs. Evan pushed open the door again. The sight of glass shards and broken ceramic scattered all over the linoleum greeted him. He paused before entering and cocked his head toward the front door.
Did he hear a scream?
From their front yard?
Evan stepped back and his brows knitted together. He marched over to an adjacent window and peeked between the slats in the blinds. Their neighbor who lived directly across from their house stood unmoving in her snow-covered driveway. Broad visible cracks ran through the chimney on the side of her house. The structure’s top section had collapsed, and numerous bricks were jarred loose. Broken remnants formed a jagged pile of rubble surrounding a corner of the chimney.
Evan slid on a pair of boots, flung open the front door, and dashed out to the porch.
“Julie, are you hurt?” he shouted while leaning over the railing. “Is anyone else over there hurt?”
She wheeled around and faced Evan. Tears streamed down her face. In her rush to get outside, she neglected to put on a coat or jacket.
“Bouncer is … missing.” Julie forced out the words between sobs. She dabbed tears from her cheeks with her scarf. “I let him out in the backyard … just before the earthquake. I don’t see him … anywhere.”
“Hang on,” he said. “I’ll help you find him.”
Cleaning up the mess inside the kitchen could wait.
Evan suspected her poor dog was trapped under the collapsed chimney. Julie adopted Bouncer three years ago. The pair had grown inseparable since that time. He never saw one without the other. Evan hoped the poor animal was frightened rather than injured. Julie had not coped well with her husband’s fatal heart attack less than a year earlier. Losing a beloved pet like Bouncer so soon afterward would be devastating.
He sprinted out to his backyard tool shed and grabbed a sturdy shovel. Larger bricks would need to be cleared away by hand but taking care of smaller pieces with the shovel would speed up their rescue effort. Evan darted across the street and joined Julie at the collapsed chimney. He laid the shovel against the haphazard pile of brick and stooped down.
Evan cupped his hand against his ear. A faint whimper greeted him.
“I can hear your dog.” He glanced over his shoulder at Julie. “We’ll get him out there.”
She clasped her hands together and pinched her eyes shut, mouthing a silent petition for Bouncer’s safety. Evan turned his attention to rescuing her pet. He repeatedly stabbed the shovel blade into broken bricks and chipped away at the pile brick by brick until he spotted Bouncer’s dingy fur. Evan tossed his shovel to the side and cleared away the rest of the bricks by hand.
He let out a low whistle.
“Someone is looking out for you,” Evan said, glancing back at Julie. “I don’t know how Bouncer survived.
Bouncer stared up at him with deep brown eyes swimming in terror. His breathing was fast, but also steady and clear. Evan spotted no blood or visible signs of bleeding on the scared animal. Brick dust coated his brown, black, and white fur. The collapsing bricks formed a pocket around the beagle against the rear corner of the chimney. If he had crouched down only a few feet further away from the chimney, raining bricks would have resulted in Julie burying her beloved pet.
“Is he hurt?” Concern threaded Julie’s voice. “Are you okay, Bouncer?”
The beagle let out a short whine upon hearing his owner’s voice. Evan moved off to the side, allowing Julie room to reach her dog. She scooped Bouncer off the cement with tenderness and gave him a gentle hug.
“My poor sweet boy.”
Julie dipped her chin and kissed his dirty forehead while holding the beagle in her arms. She carefully plucked loose bits of brick from his fur. Bouncer rested his head against her shoulder.
“Thank you so much,” she said, making eye contact with Evan again. “Bouncer and I are both in your debt.”
Evan cracked a smile and snatched up the shovel.
“What are neighbors for?” he said. “Better take Bouncer over to the vet so they can find out how badly he’s hurt. I’ll make sure these broken bricks get cleaned up while you’re gone.”
Julie flashed a grateful smile.
“You and Marie are getting the best homemade cherry pie when Bouncer and I get home.”
Evan’s mouth already watered thinking about the pie when he crossed the street and returned to his house. Julie always used fresh cherries with a hint of almond in her pies. Each slice was delicious.
When Evan turned the knob and popped open the front door, he jumped. Marie stood behind the door with crossed arms. An annoyed frown adorned her face.
“Where have you been for the past hour?” Her tone perfectly matched her expression. “You promised to clean up the kitchen. I’m still waiting.”
Evan held up the shovel and cracked a sheepish grin.
“I just needed to find the right tool.”
She stared unblinking at the shovel blade coated with brick-and-mortar dust mingled with snow. Marie’s eyes trailed back to him. Her frown deepened at the corners of her lips.
“Notice I’m not laughing.”
“Julie needed my help for a minute.” Evan pointed behind his shoulder with his thumb. “Her chimney partially collapsed and trapped Bouncer against the side of the house.”
Marie’s expression instantly softened.
“My God, that’s horrible. Is he okay? Poor little guy.”
“Some minor injuries, I think. Julie is taking him to see the vet.”
The sound of an engine igniting greeted Evan’s ears. He turned and saw Julie’s car backing out of her garage and down the driveway. She waved as she drove past and continued up the street.
“How’s Casey doing?” Evan asked, facing his wife again. “He seemed a little rattled.”
“Better.” Marie’s eyes briefly darted to the top of the stairs and resettled on him. “Some books fell off his bookshelf and a heavy one struck him on the arm. Left a small bruise.”
Evan set the shovel aside and walked into the house, pulling the front door shut behind him.
“I’m glad it isn’t more serious,” he said. “He has enough on his plate with that damn school.”
Marie nodded. A worried frown graced her lips.
“I’ve talked to that worthless principal three times since the school year started,” she said. “Nothing I’ve said has made the slightest difference.”
Evan rubbed his chin and cast his eyes skyward.
“Maybe it’s time to buy him a bench and a set of weights,” he said. “If Casey puts a little extra muscle on his skinny frame, it might keep the meaner kids off his back.”
“I’m in favor of getting one – if you can convince him to lift weights,” she replied. “Taking the ‘ignore them and they’ll go away’ approach never works with bullies. Muscles speak louder than words.”
Evan nodded and met her gaze again.
“I’ll do my best. to persuade him.”
“Don’t worry about the pictures.” Marie raised her phone as she turned to leave. “I spent an hour going around snapping photos of everything.”
Evan walked into their kitchen to fulfill his earlier promise to clean up broken glass and ceramic. Evan opened the pantry, grabbed a broom and a dustpan, and went to work sweeping the linoleum floor. Sweeping required less time than he anticipated. Glass was scattered across the floor between the kitchen island and oven, but many strewn shards were large enough to make tracking each one down a simpler task.
“Dad, you gotta see this.”
Evan raised his chin at the sound of Casey’s voice. His eyes darted to his son’s face and then down to his feet. Casey wore no shoes – only a pair of socks. One had a prominent hole near the big toe.
“Careful.” Evan gestured for him to stay back. “There might still be some broken glass on the floor.”
He made significant progress gathering shards over the last ten minutes, but not enough to risk letting unprotected feet walk across the linoleum. Casey looked up from his phone and backpedaled to a spot he apparently judged as a safe distance from the kitchen island. His eyes quickly darted back to the screen.
Evan sighed.
“Mom said someone posted about a missing person on the Deer Falls community Facebook page.”
“Who is it?”
“One of my teachers, Mr. Bowen. His wife said he disappeared from their backyard after the earthquake.”
“That’s odd.”
“She claims she heard growling or hissing behind the house around the same time.”
Wild animal?
Evan set the broom aside and rounded the island to check out the Facebook post for himself. Casey handed him the phone. He scrolled through the post for a minute before meeting his son’s gaze again.
A worried frown crossed his lips.
“Damn,” Evan said. “The last thing we need is an injured and hungry bear or cougar running around Deer Falls attacking people.”
To be continued …
Enjoying Snow Dragon so far? Check out Pandora Reborn — the novel that introduced Deer Falls to the world.