The Snowman ( PDFDrive )

‘Yes,’ Harry said, catching sight of the bike in the wing mirror. Thinking this was the only answer
he could give. Because it was the only answer that gave any hope.
Oleg struggled with all his might, but went limp in the monster’s iron grip when he felt the cold
steel on his throat.
‘This is a scalpel, Oleg.’ The monster had Mathias’s voice. ‘We use it to dissect people. And you
wouldn’t believe how easy it is.’
Then the monster told him to open wide, shoved a filthy cloth in his mouth and ordered him to lie
on his stomach with his arms behind his back. As Oleg didn’t obey at once the steel was thrust in
under his ear and he felt hot blood coursing over his shoulder and down the inside of his T-shirt. He
lay on his stomach on the freezing cement floor, and the monster sat on top of him. A red box fell
beside his face. He read the label. Plastic ties, the kind of thin ties you saw around cables and on toy
packaging, which were so irritating because they could only be tightened, not loosened, and they
couldn’t be pulled apart however thin they were. He felt the sharp plastic cut into the skin around
his wrists and ankles.
Then he was lifted up and dropped and there was no time to wait for the pain as he landed softly,
with a crunch. He stared up. He was lying on his back in the freezer; he could feel the ice that had
broken off burn the skin on his forearms and face. Above him stood the monster with his head
angled to one side.
‘Goodbye,’ he said. ‘We’ll meet on the other side before very long.’
The lid was slammed down and there was total darkness. Oleg could hear the key being turned in
the lock and swift steps fading into the distance. He tried to lift his tongue, tried to get it behind the
cloth, had to get it out. Had to breathe. Had to have air.
Rakel had stopped breathing. She stood in the bedroom doorway knowing that what she saw was
insanity. An insanity that made her flesh creep, her mouth drop and her eyes bulge.
The bed and other furniture had been pushed against the walls, and the floor was covered by an
almost invisible surface of water that was only broken when a new drop fell on it. But Rakel didn’t
notice; the only thing she saw was the enormous snowman dominating the centre of the room.
The top hat on the head with the grinning mouth almost touched the ceiling.
When she finally recovered her breathing and the oxygen rushed to her brain she recognised the
smell of wet wool and wet wood and heard the sound of melting snow dripping. A wave of cold
surged towards her, but this was not what gave her goose pimples. It was the body heat of the man
standing behind her.
‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ Mathias said. ‘I’ve made it just for you.’
‘Mathias ’
‘Shh.’ He placed a kind of protective arm around her throat. She looked down. The hand was
holding a scalpel. ‘Don’t talk, my love. There’s so much to do and so little time.’
‘Why? Why?’