Quinn Shalom Phillips...

The wind was blowing hard and cold. The sky was a dull shade of silver gray. A blizzard was coming in, the first of the winter. Our Indian summer was finally succumbing to the change of seasons and it made me mad. The change of the aspen trees hadn't come in late September as usual due to a years-long drought. The leaves faded from drought-dulled greenish to bland brown and it wasn't fair. I married the love of my life in that season under the golden aspens, I had a leaf from every autumn we were been married. The one I plucked last week was as dull and brown as a paper sack. There would be no aspen gold this year.

I felt robbed of the colorful change of seasons I had come to enjoy in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I loved Autumn, it was my favorite time of year, but the harvest festivals didn't feel the same in 90-degree weather. Halloween was a mere two weeks away and it felt like we were skipping Fall and going straight to Winter. I wasn't ready for the snow and ice to paint the world white as the weatherman predicted for tomorrow. I needed color, all the colors of life, the colors of harvest and richness of the earth preparing to slumber. I loved living in God's country but sometimes we got cheated. Colorado's bipolar weather sucked!

I rubbed my arm. The shots made them so sore, but now I could switch to the pills. This was my third time going through the treatments. The most aggressive regime the clinic offered, and I prayed that it would work. The overhead PA was playing an old song, one Kenneth loved by the Bangles called Hazy Shade of Winter.

We had seen them perform on our last evening in Berlin, we made Molly that night. My life changed so much from the moment I served him that first cup of coffee. Just a waitress on day-labor wages, trying to earn enough money to keep moving. I had a rule, never stop running, so I said goodbye to my regular customers, including the very dashing, slightly nerdy PHD graduate, Dr. Kenneth Phillips, and headed to Europe. A month later, he 'stalked me across the pond' to Berlin. I saved him from muggers, and he saved me from my past.

Finally, the pharmacy clerk called my name, interrupting the song and my memories.

"Quinn Phillips."

I paid and headed out, it was a good day to be alive, even if the world was changing to a hazy shade of winter.

VvvvV

I watched Miles throw a larger boy across his shoulder as his sensei Steve monitored the match. Molly peeked up from her sketchbook every few moments, her headphones muting the noise of parents and fellow students shouting encouragement. She supported her Irish twin ferociously, but her Asperger's made the crowded studio dojo a test for her coping skills. She watched her younger brother proving his 14-year-old self against a much larger 17-year-old. When Miles won, she clapped and blinked back tears of overwhelmed pride. She loved him so much.

Afterward, Molly ran out to the car with her sketchpad, she drew Miles in his new blue belt like she knew he would succeed, but she couldn't handle the crowd anymore. I took pictures with my phone and sent them to Kenneth, who was coming home very late tonight or sometime tomorrow. He had just finished another part of the huge research project on dormant genomes and the susceptibility to certain pharmaceuticals that were ending up in the ground water and food chain. I really didn't understand it beyond the explanation that all the red M&Ms were more susceptible to the chemicals than the other colored ones, and that the chemicals came from everything from flushed prescriptions to insect sprays. He had been working on it for almost a decade.

After he explained it to me, or tried, I started buying only bottled water and I made him install the most expensive water purifier we could get from Home Depot. I also only bought organic groceries and grew a lot of what we ate on our five acres and in my greenhouse. We had processed food from time to time, but for the most part my family was chemical-free, and it seemed to help with Molly's symptoms.

Ken teased me about my paranoia to which I gave my usual, "Just because you aren't paranoid, doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you."

Only he knew where I got that saying. My husband laughed and kissed me, telling me I was one of a kind.

Our anniversary was on All Saints day because he claimed I was a saint for marrying him. He knew what I was before we married, and he married me anyway. This year was number fifteen. It had been a whirlwind two-month courtship, then marriage, and at Christmas, I presented him with a positive pregnancy test for Molly who was born early, just before St. Patrick's Day. On Father's Day, I gave him the one for Miles, Molly was only three months old. Miles came almost a month early too but was strong for a premie.

I smiled as I headed to our favorite drive-through, I was one of the lucky ones. Tonight, the kids and I were celebrating their father coming home after a long six months away on research assignment in Japan. A sacrifice we gladly made for the good of all. Kenneth's project would make the world a safer and cleaner place for our children's children.

We stopped at Culvers on the way home, double cheese burgers or crispy chicken, cheese curds, and frozen mint chocolate chip custards. Our weekly treat. Miles traded his white gi for Broncho Orange sweats. Molly was talking a mile a minute about her new art supply kit, and all the colors it contained. She won it from a local amateur artist competition, and Miles was being the best little brother ever and listening patiently to the list of three hundred colors. They made my world wonderful.

I popped my pill with my soda, hoping to add to their happiness soon.

"Mom, are you sick?" Molly never failed to notice EVERYTHING.

"No sweetie, just my treatments."

"Do you think it will work this time?"

"I don't know, but I have hope." I really wanted it to work, more than almost anything else.

"Me too, Mom," she grinned.

Miles bobbed his head, "Me three, Mom. I hope you can surprise Dad with a Christmas card just like with Molly."

I was surprised when my cell phone rang with a 911 alert. I ignored it, I knew a storm was coming, I didn't need the reminder. Our house was provisioned with groceries and alternative heat sources. I would not go through the nightmare of 2006 again. Then I got a text message advising all people to head home immediately and remain indoors. As I looked at the darkening sky and scattered snowflakes, I rolled my eyes. Somebody at the weather bureau was definitely going overboard.

While the kids ate in the SUV, I rushed through Walkmart for a few extra things and a bag of specialty cat food. Fluffy was the world's most finicky feline but Molly loved him. The store was chaos, the usual "OMG, a snowflake!" panic by those not from the mountains. I was so glad they had the self-checkout kiosk now.

Back in the SUV, Miles was laughing, and Molly was faux-screaming about the zombie apocalypse being a lie because daddy said it was a patho-physiological impossibility.

"What is going on?" I demanded.

"Mom, Miles is scaring me," Molly whined.

"Explain yourself, young man."

"Somebody hacked the 911 system and is pranking everyone, it's early for Halloween. The messages say that everyone should stay indoors or lock themselves in their tornado shelters, and if you see a pack of rabid dogs or group of people acting strangely you should run away and hide. It's crazy funny." Miles was laughing. Then my phone buzzed.

He read it then chortled. "It's another one. Evidently the rabid dogs are now werewolves."

Molly stared at him, then squealed excitedly, "Like Twilight werewolves? Like Jacob?"

"Ohhh, maybe the crazy people are sparkly vampires?" Miles mocked as I drove through the beginning snow. "Then you could become one too, like your leech boyfriend or your pet dog boyfriend."

"MOMMmmmm, Miles is making fun of Edward and Jacob again." Molly whined, she was fixated on those ridiculous books and movies.

It was hard to keep my voice level. "Miles, do not mock your sister's love of pretend supernatural parasites and pets."

"MOM!" Molly shrieked, but we all laughed. I loved that I could tease my kids.

At home, on the porch was a long package and a small one getting rapidly covered with snow. Thank you, mail man, for leaving yet more packages out in our lovely weather.

I looked west out the kitchen window; the mountains vanished, and in an hour the blizzard would be here in full force. I worried about Kenneth making it home from DIA. The giant airport on the plains east of Denver was notorious for bad weather delays. Seventy degrees yesterday and seventeen degrees tomorrow. Typical autumn in the Rockies, all four seasons in forty-eight hours.

Freshly showered, Miles flopped on a stool, "What's in the boxes, Mom?"

"Your father sent you both presents from Japan. They came early, but you will have to wait for Christmas or maybe four days longer till your birthday." I said unconcerned. I knew Kenneth was planning on giving them to the kids when he got home, but I had to tease my son. He hated surprises and he hated waiting for surprises more.

"Awww, Mom, you're so mean, it's months till Christmas," Miles whined.

"Actually, it is only 68 days, 5 hours, and 22 minutes until Christmas midnight." Molly pointed out. I laughed at Miles' hurt face and his sister's smug look. "Besides, it's the replica sword you wanted."

"Molly! Don't tell," I scolded.

She just looked at me and blinked like her cat. "The weight and dimensions of the box are the right size, it came from Kyoto region of Japan, and it says here, Hiroshimi Sword Company in Kanji." She picked up the other box and shook it, "And mine is the silver enameled locket from the Fall Lantern Festival that daddy sent me a picture of."

"Fine, open them. But you have to tell your father, that his daughter ruined the surprise." I announced, watching them tear into the boxes.

Our daughter, despite her learning and social problems, was brilliant just like her father, with a dash of my love of nature. I watched Molly clip the locket around her neck and admire it. Our son was more like me, an athlete, but also like his dad, an avid video gamer.

"Now, get your homework done, so we can spend the evening with dad when he makes it in."

"Mom, we have all weekend." Miles complained, "I can do it later.".

"All weekend that you will spend playing with your dad instead of studying." I reminded.

My son just rolled his eyes as Molly giggled, "I'm already done."

"Suck up," Miles growled, and Molly mussed his hair as he protested.

Outside the wind blew fiercely and snow obscured everything beyond the curb.

VvvvV

It was almost nine, I pulled the thermometer from my mouth and smiled. I hoped that this treatment would be the one to work, then we could get on with the rest of our lives. I typed my info into the spreadsheet the Doctor ordered me to keep and was about to save it when the power went out. My phone chimed again, and I ignored it. I recieved a dozen more text messages and reverse 911 phone calls about the supernatural invasion.

"Werewolves and vampires are attacking."

"Lock yourselves in a secure room in your home

with the lights off."

"Don't go outside or attempt to drive to safety

or they will chase you."

"If the werewolves or vampires find you,

you must kill them to escape."

It was laughable, very "The Walking Dead", but the hoax was getting old fast. Somebody was definitely going to jail for hijacking the 911 alert system during a blizzard.

I lit candles and the fireplace as Miles SMSed with his friends. They were having a grand time carrying on about the ever-crazier messages. Then the cell service went out and we settled around the fireplace, Miles and I reading, Molly sketching. I was surprised to see Kenneth's SUV in the drive with the door open as I came back into the living room with a tray of hot cocoa. He burst into the front door, slamming it before he rushed into the living room. He was home hours earlier than I expected.

"Why aren't you in the tornado shelter?!" He yelled at me. He never yelled at me before, not even when we fought. His eyes were wild, terrified.

"What are you talking about? It's a blizzard, not a thunderstorm. What are you doing?" I demanded as he was blowing out the candles, leaving us with only the light from the fireplace.

"Omigawd, Quinn, don't you have your phone on? They have been messaging and calling every ten or fifteen minutes so people could get to safety," he snapped.

"I... I thought it was a hoax. You can't be serious? The alerts are for werewolves and vampires," I laughed as I said it.

"It's not a hoax, they are real, they are all real." His voice carried this bizarrely calm tone, like he already knew.

Molly and Miles stared at their father like he lost his mind, and I guess I was too because he grabbed me by the arms and shook me. "Something went wrong, Quinn. Something with the program went very wrong, they tested it against my recommendation, and some of the Nons went crazy instead of calming down. They are killing everyone they find, I barely got away. I lost my phone escaping the airport so I couldn't call. Quinn, we have to get into the shelter..."

The bay window shattered and then the biggest dog I had ever seen was standing in my living room with snow swirling around it. I realized it wasn't a dog, it was a wolf, just like the ones I saw in Yellowstone and Banff. For a moment we froze, then it snarled, a deep unearthly sound like death itself and everything happened at once.

Molly screamed. Miles ran upstairs. Ken grabbed the fireplace poker and began beating it. I dragged Molly out of the room and yanked my concealed carry out of its pouch in my purse, where it lay on the foyer table. I rushed back into the living room. Kenneth lay on the floor, his blood draining onto the carpet from his neck.

The wolf turned toward me, snapping its bloody maw, its eyes were cloudy white. I swore under my breath and put half a clip in its head. It dropped on the floor, dead, it was not getting up. The Teflon-coated hollow points that spread on impact killed it. Ken did not skimp on ammo, and all those days he made me go to the Dragonman Gun Range meant I could kill anything at close range or at a distance and now I had. But the shock of killing my first animal was replaced by the horror that Kenneth was bleeding out.

I rushed to where he lay. Molly sobbed in the foyer as I knelt by her dead father in his pooling blood. My hands shook as I touched his face. Turning it toward me, there was no flicker of life in his ice blue eyes. For fifteen years Dr. Kenneth Troy Phillips had been my lifeline and my love, and now he was dead. Miles ran back into the room with his new sword. I was surprised when he cut the wolf's head off, tossing it in the fireplace.

"Why did you do... that?" I demanded horrified as its body became a naked man. It seemed so surreal.

"It's the only way to make sure they're dead. Jeez, Mom, read more fiction, less romance," he snapped before he knelt by his sister.

Molly was sitting in the floor, rocking, with her hands over her ears and her eyes squeezed shut, muttering the names of all the shades of red.

"Molly, get up, sissy, please come with me," he said to her gently.

Molly was having an episode, and Miles spent his whole life dealing with them. I was almost too shocked to move, looking at Ken's blood on my hands and clothes. So much of it. Flashes from my childhood rushed back, I fought to push them away, my children needed me.

"Mom, we gotta go, there are more out there," Miles's voice was a strangely calm whisper as he stared out at the forms moving in the blizzard.

I guessed all those hours of playing Warcraft World and Zombie Apocalypse MMORPPs conditioned him to be like his father. Completely calm and focused in any situation, taught to evaluate and act.

'But there's so much blood.' Shaking, I stood quickly, I couldn't have another break down, not now. My children needed me to be strong, I couldn't run away.

With Molly between us, we knew we had to get to the tornado shelter now buried by the blizzard. We hurried through the kitchen and out into the near whiteout. As we dug away the snow from the underground shelter door, a howl broke the freezing roar of the storm, followed by more. That's when they ambushed us.

VvvvV

(trigger warning)

I rolled over. I was laying in the snow. I was naked. My clothes were shredded off my body because of what IT did to me. Mounds of white stained red showed where my children lay and the two werewolves we killed. My collar bone was shattered, my ankle bitten and crushed, and long slashes ran the length of my body. I used my last bullet to spare Molly a cruel death instead of killing myself after the beasts killed first Kenneth, and then Miles.

Blood was splattered on the fences and walls, so much blood, just like when mama and daddy and baby Beau died. Just like when I came home from high school and found my Aunt Judith murdered.

I choked out a sob...

Always the ones I loved and never me...

I always got left behind...

I couldn't think about my childhood right now. My survival instinct kicked in stronger than it had ever in my life. A voice telling me over and over, I needed to get inside the greenhouse. I needed to have shelter. I needed to hide. There was a handle sticking up out of the snow, Miles' shattered sword was my only protection from the monsters. As I dragged myself through the snow, I knew I was in trouble because I didn't feel cold at all. My son's broken blade clicked on something under the bloody slush. There was a ring on a human finger; IT's finger. I put the ring on my thumb. I vowed I would find IT and end IT, and the other one who killed my children.

Finally, I managed to get the door of my greenhouse open enough to crawl inside before I kicked it shut. I collapsed into blackness, surrounded by the pungent smell of drying spices, the salty iron of my blood, and the peppery scent of chrysanthemums.