harmonia: a horror story

The monsters in the night might kill me eventually, but the cold will kill me indubitably.

The Cold does not discriminate between good and evil, what had been nothing but white death, shall remain as nothing but white death. Now, choking the life out of any unfortunate enough to stand trial before its inescapable grasp, it will continue doing so until the very laws of reality fail before it. Just as Death was inevitable for those here, those who had come before and those who had come after; the great equalizer would itself, reap the reaper.

Chapter 1: Harmonia

Harmonia and I looked down over the festivities spreading through the village below. “Christmas is finally here again,” I said, simultaneously glancing down at my right hand. My memory was still fuzzy from that incident, and if Harmonia hadn’t saved me that fateful night, then I would have joined the grand display of the mountains’ cryopreservation collection. A minute later, Death's gentle embrace would have lulled my soul into repose for eternity.

Harmonia nodded, quickly glancing back toward the calendar on the wall. Several red circles and crosses filled the dates near Christmas, together with the note of their quarterly shopping trip down to the village. Occasionally I wondered why Harmonia put up with me, with her uncanny proficiency in seemingly everything, she could have easily found someone wealthy and lived a comfortable life as their wife. However… unlike Harmonia, I could not leave this haunted place, not after that fateful night.

A sharp sting pulled my attention back to my right arm. The red spots had returned; it seemed me skipping the last quarter's batch of medicine had led to my health taking a turn for the worse.

They lay clustered just beneath the skin like a constellation of dying stars. They were akin to faint, angry pinpricks that pulsed in time with my heartbeat. At first they had been harmless, only a few scattered flecks that faded whenever Warmth touched my hand. I pressed a hand against them, trying to remember when they first appeared. Was it before Harmonia found me in the snow? Or after? My memories from that night were warped. She used to whisper that it was nothing; she still does. But lately the marks had spread, branching upward like tiny veins of rust beneath porcelain. It’s fine. The medicine will make it better.

I tugged my sleeve down, yet the fabric could not hide the heat radiating from them. It was the only warmth left in this place, and it terrified me. Harmonia noticed, of course. She always did. Occasionally I wanted Harmonia to experience the same desire for me as I felt for her, I wanted to be an existence for which she solely shined for.

“You should rest,” she said, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. Her fingers were cold, unnaturally so, like they had never known blood. “The spots are worse today.”

I swallowed. “I know.”

“You didn’t tell me they reached your elbow.”

My breath caught. I hadn’t realized they had. Harmonia stepped closer, her silhouette framed by the dim lantern glow. “It’s spreading faster,” said she. “I’ll go down to the Village later and inquire if they have any spare medicine…” A worried look spread across her face as she continued. “You’ll have to hold on for approximately two weeks when the Christmas delivery arrives.

Chapter 2: Tiffany

Tiffany closed the door as soon as Harmonia’s figure reached the decrepit door. “You’re sick, until we get the medicine you should be excessively careful.” However, despite closing the door, the Cold did not fully retreat from their abode. Tiffany shivered a few times, fumbling and barely managing to start boiling some water without dropping anything. Even I, covered by the safety of a few blankets, felt the insidious encroachment of Cold. “Tiffany… your sweater has to be magical for you to still be functional.” I managed to say after a minor struggle to properly sit up. She laughed a bit, and it was then I realized my grave mistake.

“It might be,” she muttered, though her lips felt paler than before. “Just… keep your blankets tight.”

I nodded, but the words felt hollow. The blankets were thin, and even now, I could feel the insidious pressure of Cold in the corners of the room. It seemed to breathe along the walls, its presence stretching long, skeletal fingers across the floorboards, curling around the corners of the ceiling. I pulled the blankets tighter, but warmth was fleeting, almost perfidious, like Warmth itself was struggling to hold the Cold back.

I lifted my sleeves slightly, checking my arm. The red spots had darkened. They seemed almost alive, pulsing with their own cold heat. I pressed my fingers to them, feeling the sting of their angry constellation. “They’re… worse today,” I admitted, my voice catching.

Tiffany froze. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, her usual composure faltered. “How fast have they spread?” she asked, leaning closer. Her eyes were bright with worry, almost luminous in the dim light.

“From the wrist… almost to the elbow.”

“Rest,” Tiffany said finally, her voice firmer now. “Don’t move. I’ll check the stove.” She moved toward it, and I watched her silhouette tremble slightly against the dim lantern light.

I sat up an unknowable amount of time later. The same eternal twilight that had veiled the sky the past months remained fixed in above, their monotonous colors only being broken by the occasional Aurora Borealis’ that shone through. I had always wanted to see them, but by now I had lost hope. The northern lights should have only appeared in the far north. The Aurora danced across the sky, pale ribbons of green and violet that should have been beautiful, but it only deepened the hollow ache in my chest.

I flexed my fingers, feeling the sting of the red spots along my arm. By now I was unsure if I could hold out until Christmas. They were pulsing; almost in sync with the oscillations of the Aurora above. For a moment, I thought I could see them reflected in the snow outside the window, little clusters of fire against the white expanse. My heartbeat quickened, and I pressed my hand to my arm as though I could will the pain away.

And then I saw it: a figure moving under the Aurora’s glow, silhouetted against the snow, impossibly far from the cabin, impossibly close to me. I had seen this creature many times before, always lurking at the same distance, staring at me from the treeline. In its right hand it held a gleaming axe lay. A serpentine tattoo stretched down from what seemed to be the creature’s elbow, although its ragged clothes obscured my vision.

I force myself to get up once more, calling Tiffany would be of little help… The creature always seemed to vanish temporarily whenever she came along, but it never disappeared. Tiffany’s arm was a frigid blue under the lamplight.

“It’s getting too cold,” I said.

She froze, glancing back at me with her hollow eyes. “Yes… it is.” Her teeth chattered faintly as she straightened. “I’ll fetch more coal and firewood. We can’t let the fire die.”

Before I could respond, she was gone, moving swiftly through the cabin and into the encroaching gloom outside. The door creaked behind her, and immediately the temperature in the room seemed to drop, the blankets barely a barrier against the gnawing chill. I shivered, wrapping myself tighter, listening to the faint scrape of boots against the snow, the sudden gust of wind that snuck through every crack in the walls.

I could have sworn the chess board had been on the sofa, not that I would be able to play Tiffany anyways. She knew this technical stuff the best. There was no entertainment to be made. There was nothing in the world… outside my world… except a blanket of white death. By now, Tiffany’s presence had been drowned by the sea of white outside. It was always waiting, that and that accursed figure veiled by the treelines had been the only constants in her life the past years… And Harmonia. Harmonia would fix everything. The house shook once, and then twice. A few snowflakes trickled down from the ceiling, landing squarely on her bluish hand.

The cold crept in with patience. It no longer bit or stung; that would have required a body capable of protest. Instead, it seeped into me the way ink seeps into paper. My fingers no longer felt like fingers but like hollow twigs, fragile enough to crack if I tried to move them.

A thin shimmer of frost webbed across the inside of the windowpane. I could swear it echoed across my vision too.

Minutes—or perhaps hours—passed. Time was meaningless here, stretched thin like the frost along the windowpanes. Then Tiffany returned, her arms laden with coal and bundled firewood, cheeks flushed red against the icy wind, her movements were almost frantic by now. Who could blame her?

Her hands worked deftly, coaxing the fire back to life, and for a moment the room seemed almost warm. She guided me toward the heap of mattresses strewn near the fire, before Tiffany would have mentioned something about fire safety, now only her chill eyes watched the embers dance in the flames.

Down below, the village’s festive lights shone brighter than before, a crowd bearing torches had gathered on the village square, dressed in something similar to what my parents had been wearing on that trip to Hawaii all those years ago. Was it really that warm in the village? I’d have to ask Harmonia when she gets back. A warm breeze had carried the smell of salt then.

I thought I saw a shape gliding between the parade floats. Something tall. Something thin. Something that moved like smoke sliding through a keyhole. But when I looked harder, the shape melted into the crowd, indistinguishable from the torchlight. Maybe the village was just celebrating early this year. Maybe warm places looked different from far away. Maybe I was imagining things again.

The cold pressed closer to the window. I stepped back. Yes. I’d ask Harmonia. She would know.

Chapter 3: Jacob

As has happened before, such will happen again. The only thing humans learn from history is that they cannot learn anything from it. Decay or Preservation, either lead to the same inevitable outcome.

Jacob coughed a few times as he watched the fire dance under the ashen chimney. We did not know how long we had been watching it, but time didn’t matter here anyways. It was not like it would ever get warmer… the only thing that changed as time passed was Harmonia’s appearance, somehow she seemed to grow ever more beautiful. My vision twisted slightly when I turned my head, the nascent flames merging into their surroundings, as if trying to spread; To devour the rest of the house.

When will Harmonia return?

“Soon,” Jacob answered. “It should not take long.” He blinked slowly, like thawing from sleep. “Tiffany should also be here soon.”

“Who’s Tiffany?” I asked curiously despite the name sounding vaguely familiar. “Is she that girl you’ve been hiding from me?” But I never got an answer. Only his hollow stare. He tried to bend his fingers, but they moved slowly, stiffly… and when one of them cracked backward, his expression didn’t change. He held his hand as though it belonged to someone else.

“Jacob,” I whispered, “your arm…”

“It’s just the cold,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

I nodded, and an increasing desire to let the gentle repose of Pasithea to embrace me forevermore was building inside me. A knot had formed in my stomach, slowly making its way toward my throat… The food must have been poorly cooked. I’ll pay more attention next time.

I wanted to sink into it, into her, into the softness pressing against the edges of my thoughts. A knot tightened in my stomach, churning upward toward my throat. The food must have been poorly cooked. I’ll pay more attention next time. I took a breath, then another. Each one felt thicker, sweeter and more enchanting and harder to pull.

Jacob leaned back against the wall, his gaze drifting lazily to the ceiling.

“Tiffany… she said she’d come,” he murmured. “She promised she wouldn’t leave me again.” His lips twitched into a smile, though his eyes remained naught but two entries into the abyss. “She used to get so cold. But Harmonia kept her warm. Harmonia keeps everyone warm if they just listen.”

A faint breeze brushed the back of my neck, one that I hadn’t felt in years. I knew who it was, I wished I knew who it was. Harmonia was standing behind me. “You shouldn’t be breathing this,” she said.

Her voice was calm, but the floorboards trembled beneath my feet. The fire guttered low, shrinking into itself as though bowing to her.

Jacob lifted his head. “Harmonia,” he rasped. “Finally.”

“It is carbon monoxide,” she said. “It is filling the house. You are dying.”

The knot in my stomach tightened into a fist, that’s what it had been. The decadence of them had not been in vain, alas their fate would not change. A low groan rippled through the walls as the flames climbed higher, licking at the rafters. By now, clusters of embers had begun forming beyond the gentle confines of the fireplace. A lachrymose tune spread through the house, or maybe it was Harmonia.

“We must leave,” she said. “Now.”

As the frigid mist consumed my world and the ephemeral tranquility of the stillness vanished into the jaws of the world, I knew that there was nothing in this world that did not want to consume the heat hidden deep within. Indeed, the carbon monoxide might kill me… but the cold will. Jacob’s skin grew increasingly pallid as the storm battered the unclothed parts of his skin.

Behind me, he fell to the ground. Others tried to help him stand up, but it was of no use — he was not moving. We had no choice but to abandon our futile attempts. And soon, his corpse was left alone, to be swallowed by the haze of the blizzard, disappearing from view forevermore.

Far behind the veil of trees, the lonely house blazed like a raging fire against the dying light.

Chapter 4: Harmonia

I could not feel my hands anymore, the cold had seeped itself into my very soul, and I had trouble processing my thoughts. I had wandered for miles, the scent of ash still lingering on my clothes. The village was close, Harmonia had made it there before.

I looked down at my diseased arm, the red spots had now formed a honeycombed pattern, reaching the upper part of my chest and part of my neck.

Somewhere in the blizzard’s murk, I heard footsteps—many of them—the crunch of boots circling Jacob’s fallen form. But when I turned, there was nothing but whiteness, blank and voracious.

Perhaps the others had gone ahead. Perhaps they had followed Harmonia. My breath rose as a trembling cloud. The ash-stink on my coat curled into my nose, warm and wrong, a reminder of the fire devouring the only home we had known. The village lanterns glimmered far ahead, soft at first, then fizzling into jagged streaks as my vision wavered.

“Harmonia,” I called softly, though the wind stole the shape of her name.

She had walked these roads before me. She always walked ahead. She always knew where to go.

I sank to my knees in the snow, the Cold biting through my clothes with a hunger I could only faintly reminisce about. The diseased arm throbbed again; each honeycombed spot glowing faintly beneath the skin like the embers buried in ash. I peeled back a layer of sleeve, and the flesh beneath it quivered. For a moment, I thought something pulsed under it.

I swallowed hard. “I’m almost there,” I whispered to no one.

The path unwound before me in wavering lines. A lantern flickered atop a wooden post at the village entrance—its flame bending backward, as my very presence was destined to be shorn from light. Beneath me, the snow looked stained by a familiar crimson liquid.

I rose unsteadily, clutching my ribs. My breath rasped; each inhale felt smaller than the last.

Harmonia stood at the edge of the village, her back to me, her silhouette stretched impossibly tall by the lantern glow. Snow spun around her but never touched her. The storm parted at her feet, curling away from her presence like a living thing afraid to approach.

“Harmonia,” I called again, louder.

She answered me, although her words were all but intelligible. The muddled resonance that had once been her voice had devolved into a cacophony of winter winds. Her gaze dropped to the stained snow, and then my stained hands. Harmonia’s touch gave no warmth; For as I looked down at the pallid hands, I had realized that they were not mine. The dismally bloodied wounds I had carried from escaping the fire had not been mine either. All around me, the snow carried Harmonia’s essence, drowning the world in her.

She stepped toward me. The snow did not crunch under her feet, and there were no footsteps. I knew what she was going to say, and I knew what awaited me. She opened her arms as if offering refuge. I had seen that gesture once before, in a nightmare older than memory.

For I knew, as the bloodstained hatchet fell from the serpent's hands, that there was only Christ to cry now. I understood why she had walked ahead of me all this time.

Author’s notes:

Harmonia is both an "entity" and the main character’s best friend; the narrator had sort of a weird obsession with her. It was not exactly a crush but not mere friendship. Each of the friends (including the entity Harmonia) represent different instincts of a person stuck in a situation leading to inevitable death. Harmonia (human) represents safety and reliability. Harmonia was the group leader, and was the person who organized everything. Tiffany represents the rationality that people rely on; gathering fire, making sure everyone is okay. Her mistake in grabbing too much firewood, leading to the carbon monoxide poisoning represents how intelligence fails under stress and that a mistake is inevitable. If there is a weakness… the cold will find it. Jacob represents panic and hopelessness, hence why he was the only one described dead on screen.

In reality, they had all died, explained by the (vague) ending. (For I knew, as the bloodstained hatchet fell from the serpent's hands, that there was only Christ to cry now).

"Her gaze dropped to the stained snow, and then my stained hands. Harmonia’s touch gave no warmth; For as I looked down at the pallid hands, I had realized that they were not mine. The dismally bloodied wounds I had carried from escaping the fire had not been mine either. All around me, the snow carried Harmonia’s essence, drowning the world in her." is when the narrator realizes the warmth from holding Harmonia was because she had been warming herself through having her hands inside of Harmonia's corpse. The entire story was the main character hallucinating before death, and the village PoVs show how her hold on reality dissipates as the story progresses. The narrator did not kill (human) Harmonia. Harmonia killed herself so that the main character could warm her hands in Harmonia’s entrails and then regain enough mobility in her hands to start a fire.