[ IP ] Wrong Turn

Blood dribbled in a thick line down Jonathan's face. His nose was broken, damage sustained when his car swerved and slid off the road, crashing through the safety rail and down the side of the mountain. One of his teeth was cracked, two others were loosed when his head had struck the steering wheel. 
 
 He came to slowly, head buzzing, snippets of memory flashing in and out, forgotten and remembered and forgotten again. Something was wrong. He realized that much as he tried shifting in his seat. The action sent needles of humming pain rocketing through his sinuses. He tasted blood in his mouth. 
 
 Heather! The name burst into his brain, following a remembered wail of panic as the car began to slide. Jonathan turned in his seat, wrestling with the airbag as he did so. That flash or a red jacket, or maybe blood, or maybe just the error of a traumatic memory. No, Heather had been wearing red, her little red coat. Where was she? 
 
 `` Heather!'' Jonathan croaked, wincing as his split lip stretched and the scab tore. The pain was forgotten in a moment as he thought he heard a response. `` Heather?'' 
 
 `` Daddy? Daddy where are you?'' It was his daughter's voice. 
 
 `` Hold on baby!'' He began to thrash with his seat belt, half blind in the darkness. He had a thought and paused with his escape attempt to flick on the headlights. Relief flooded his chest as he saw the two high beams illuminate the snow ahead of the car, and the small red clad figure that stood shakily. 
 
 `` Hold on Heather, I'm coming. I see you. Do n't move.'' Finally, the seat belt released and spooled backwards into its mounting. Jonathan pushed at his door. It was obstructed by a snow bank, but he forced it and crawled through the hole. He was surprised for a moment when his legs seemed almost asleep and his head began to spin. The world tilted and lurched, and then he regained his bearings. 
 
 Jonathan nearly tripped in the snow trying to reach his daughter. Her hands were held out in front of her tiny body, searching for him. He stumbled forwards, tripping over his own foot and crashing down in behind his daughter. She jumped, startled by the sudden noise and motion, but he caught her in his arms and hugged her close. `` Shhh, baby, it's alright now. Daddy's here. Calm down. It's alright.'' 
 
 `` Daddy?'' Heather asked, pulling off her gloves and reaching up with tiny cold fumbling fingers to feel at his face, searching out the topography to confirm his identity. She wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him close. `` Daddy.'' She said, satisfied that Jonathan was there with her, confident that he could in fact make everything alright. 
 
 `` You did good baby, you did real good.'' He wondered how long it'd been. How long had his daughter been fumbling around in the wilderness. He looked around for her walking cane and found that she'd lost it in the snow somewhere. Instead, she held a slender twig, one that was poking him in the side as she squeezed him tighter. 
 
 Something in the distance groaned, a sound like a low flying aircraft or a small earthquake. The ground shook and Jonathan's teeth chattered together from the vibrating force of the noise. Heather froze. She peeled her face off his chest, snot and tears running down her face, some frozen and other fresh and warm. `` Daddy?'' 
 
 Jonathan looked down into his daughter's pale blind eyes, one just a bit off center. They were n't fixed on an indeterminate point in the distance anymore, like they'd been from the moment of her birth. They were turned, and smoothly tracking something in the distance, the kind of movement that the eye could not consciously make. `` Daddy, what are those?'' She pointed into the distance. 
 
 Jonathan followed his daughter's eyes. Something dark moved against the pale grey twilight. Something enormous. Something with two glowing eyes. As he watched, another pair of eyes opened. Then another. Then there were four things in the darkness. They moved, each step shaking the ground and knocking snow from trees. Heather screamed.
