THE CURSED BEAST ❄️

 

I never thought I’d be stupid enough to be stuck in the mountains in winter, but here I was.

Alone. Cold. And freezing my ass off. The first sign of trouble was that damn snowstorm. It came outta nowhere. One second, the weather was calm, and then—boom—whiteout. The wind screeched like a banshee, pushing me deeper into the woods, miles from the path. No one knew where I was. I shouldn’t have come out here, but I needed a break, and the mountains seemed like the perfect place to clear my head. What a joke.

The snow had been falling hard for hours when I found the old temple. It wasn’t marked on any map, and it didn’t look like it should even be here. No road, no sign of life. Just the stone remnants of a place forgotten by time. You could feel the air change as soon as I stepped inside. Cold, but not the normal cold—the kind that sinks into your bones and makes your blood freeze.

I could hear whispers. Low, guttural growls from the walls, the kind that make your skin prickle. I shook my head, laughing at myself. Probably just the wind. But then I saw it—a set of massive footprints, too large for any human. They went deeper into the temple. Curiosity is a bitch, right? So, like a fool, I followed them.

The deeper I went, the thicker the shadows got. And then I found it—the thing that cursed this place. A massive stone carving of something that didn’t belong to any god I knew. Big as a bear, with tusks and fur that looked like ice, and eyes that glowed a deep, malevolent red. The yeti. The creature of the mountain legends. The one people said would drag you into the snow, never to be seen again.

And that’s when the ground shook.

I barely had time to react. It came charging out of the darkness, too fast for something that size. The scent hit me first—blood, like it had been feeding for days. The roar shattered my eardrums. I tried to run, but I was already too slow. The yeti’s massive hand swung down and grabbed me by the leg, yanking me off my feet like a ragdoll.

Pain exploded in my leg as it snapped like a twig. The snow beneath me turned red. I screamed, but it was useless. The thing leaned in close, its breath hot and putrid against my face. I saw it now. The eyes weren’t just red. They were full of rage and hunger. It had been waiting. For me.

The creature dragged me deeper into the temple, past the carvings that seemed to shift and twist in the dim light. My mind was barely functioning. Blood gushed from my leg, and I was dizzy from pain. But I knew what was coming. I had read the old stories. The yeti didn't just kill—it *cursed*. It would drain your life slowly, turning you into another one of its frozen slaves.

And then I saw it. The altar.

I had no choice. The pain was too much. My body was giving out, and the creature was pulling me closer to the altar, where the air was thick with ice and magic. My body was going to be the next sacrifice. But somehow, in that last moment of clarity, I understood. The thing wasn’t going to kill me right away. It wanted me to *live*—to suffer. To freeze, to become one of its own. A lifeless creature trapped in the snow.

Something inside me snapped.

I reached into my jacket and grabbed the flare gun. My fingers were numb, my grip weak, but I fired it anyway. The explosion lit up the temple in a flash of blinding red and blue. The yeti shrieked in pain, throwing me across the room. The stone cracked, splitting open like the earth itself was bleeding. In that instant, I knew the truth. The yeti wasn’t just some monster. It was bound to the temple, and if I could destroy it, I could break its curse. But first... I had to get out of here alive.

I stumbled, dragging myself away from the altar, the snow outside calling to me. The storm was still raging, but at least I could run. I didn’t look back, not even when I heard its roar—louder now, closer.

I never made it back down the mountain. A week later, they found the bodies of the other hikers who had gone missing over the years. Frozen. Like they had been waiting for something.

And the thing that got them? It's still out there.

Waiting.

For someone else.