A shorter version of this cryptid-inspired flash horror originally appeared in the UK-based Myth & Lore: Cryptids of The World issue. I created glass and blackened copper apple charms when it was first published. It is the third Maidens story in Weird Stories of Strange Women.
Her Apple Thieves
Katie woke to blinding sunlight and a headache to match. I really need to cut back on Aunt DeeDee’s apple cider, she thought.
Images flashed through her mind: surreal disco lights and the pain of a fist striking her jaw. She had dreamed of fighting in a nightclub. Katie groaned as she rolled out of bed. Such an intense dream. Ugh. That cider is toxic.
Fresh snow piled up on the bedroom windowsill. Katie peered through the frosty glass. A blanket of white covered the whole yard.
Katie made a pot of coffee and examined the yard from the glass doors that separated the living room from the outside. Deep gashes—tracks—snaked through the fresh snow. She groaned to the silent cabin, dreading the task of going out into the frigid morning with a hangover. Her house-sitting duties included maintaining her aunt’s Hemlock Lake cabin and monitoring the surrounding property for animal activity. Her aunt would want a report from Katie to go with whatever the outdoor cameras had captured.
Katie threw on her winter gear and slid the back patio doors open. Ozone rushed at her. She interrupted the white noise of fresh snow with slow crunching steps.
The channels on the ground were chaotic, but Katie could make out several large, three-toed tracks. The visitors were certainly not deer.
She examined the crab apples on the ground. Bite marks revealed purple marbling. They gave off a sickly-sweet odour, more potent than her aunt’s cider. Now she was curious about what her aunt’s cameras had seen. She went back inside and peeled off her wet snow gear. She opened her laptop to fire off an email, but it struggled to connect to the internet. She felt vindication at having suggested that she be given access to the cameras directly, despite her aunt’s security concerns. After several long minutes, her browser finally loaded.
From: DeeDee QueenBee
Subject: What’s Going On??????
Hi Katie, I got an alert from my camera, and I have video of some people in the backyard during the snowstorm. The snow blocked out the details, so I haven’t called the police. Can you take a look?
Regards, Aunt DeeDee
Katie hit reply, and her screen flashed to an error message. The internet had died. She glanced back at the window and saw snow swirling in the air again. She wasn’t scared enough to bother one of the few people Aunt DeeDee had introduced her to, who lived on the lake year-round. Once the storm ended, she could dig out her car, drive to Prince George, and ask the cable company to help.
***
A shriek slapped Katie awake in the middle of the night. Her heart pounded. She got out of bed and slid her feet into her bootie slippers. Another cry—it had come from outside the house.
The front doorknob rattled. Something banged on the siding on the outer wall, next to her. Katie remembered seeing a steel baseball bat in the front closet.
Seconds later, bat in hand, Katie caught motion in her peripheral vision and whirled around to see a figure jumping on the other side of the sliding glass door.
The back deck was bathed in bright white from the security light. When the figure stopped jumping, Katie saw that it was some kind of primate—a small body covered in coarse white fur with a light blue face. The animal took a bite of something in its hand. The apples! Bright yellow eyes locked onto Katie. It squealed and struck the glass, leaving a purple smear.
The front door rattled behind her. Something long and sharp scraped along the side of the house. Were there three of them?
The monkey on the deck pounded the glass with both fists. THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD reverberated in Katie’s head. She clamped her hands over her ears, only to make her pounding heart louder. A shrill explosion of glass forced her to turn away. Just in time to see the front door BANG-CRACK into pieces on the floor. A primal shriek stabbed the air beside her. Katie bolted to the bathroom. She wasn’t fast enough.
The deck monkey caught her leg, sending her crashing to the floor. Pain ripped into her calf where its claws dug into her skin. The second animal was on top of her, slashing into her back. A third jumped and shrieked. A bolt of terror shot through her. She swung her steel bat.
The bat connected with the head of the nearest monkey, sending it reeling into the living room. The other took its mouth off her arm to scream. She swung at its face, knocking it back.
Katie’s wounds throbbed, but adrenaline propelled her as she drag-scrambled to the bathroom and slammed the door on both creatures. Arms shaking, she twisted the privacy lock, knowing it would only buy her minutes. Fists pummelled the solid wood. The sturdy handle rattled like a cheap toy. She didn’t have much time. While the creatures assaulted the door, Katie slid open the small window above the shower stall. She dropped the baseball bat out of the window, climbed up, and pushed herself out after it, tumbling onto the freezing ground.
In her microfiber booties, she forced her way through drifts of snow, cradling the bat to her body.
“Hey, you in there! Monsters! I’m out here!”
All three devil monkeys snapped their heads in her direction from the cabin’s living room. They bolted in unison, a mess of teeth and fur and unholy eyes, back out the ruined sliding doors.
She crossed the yard to Aunt DeeDee’s second deck. It was hard to tell in the snow, but Katie knew it was perched atop an embankment—the drop down to the lake was steep. She braced herself against the back railing.
As the monkeys closed in, Katie chose her moment and swung the bat at the nearest head. Crack—and a limp body went flying.
Katie swung again. Another monkey flailed mid-air before hitting the frozen lake.
The last one dodged her swing. Claw-tipped fingers wrenched Katie’s hair. She yelled, wrestling with the monkey as it squawked and hissed. Finally, it released its grip. Katie lashed out with a balled fist, sending the last monkey tumbling over the railing.
Down below, the third monkey knocked into the others, and they slid in unison away from the shore. The ice below them creaked, and in a blink, it gave way. The trio collapsed into the water.
Katie limped back to the house, through the shattered sliding glass door, straight to the bathroom.
She locked the door with quivering hands, slid the bathroom window closed, and latched it. A knock on the bathroom door startled her.
“Miss? Are you Katherine Lawson?” a man asked from the other side of the door.
“I am. Who are you?”
“RCMP, Miss Lawson. We received a call about a break-in at this address. Do you need assistance?”
A yelp burst from Katie’s mouth before sobs took over.
