“THE SNOWMAN” by Scott Donnelly #MicroTerrors
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Welcome to MicroTerrors. Scary stories for kids. Where it's always the spooky season. Full of chills. Thrills. And spine-tingling spooks.

The Snowman by Scott Donnelly

Danny woke up quickly, a chill rushing through his body. But it wasn't one of fear or excitement. It was one of anxious anticipation. When he had gone to sleep the night before, he knew there was a chance of snow overnight. The weatherman made it seem like it might have even been enough to cause some school delays or even closings. Danny leaped out of bed and yanked his curtains apart to reveal the outside world to himself.

And just as he had hoped, the world was covered by a thick white blanket of snow. A smile broke free on Danny's face. He rushed downstairs to check with his parents to make sure these schools were cancelled. And if they weren't for some reason, he'd find a way to convince them it wasn't a good idea to be traveling in such messy conditions. But there was no need for convincing. "School's closed, buddy," Danny's dad, Doug, said.

He was still in his pajamas and sipping on a hot cup of coffee with hazelnut creamer. "Yes!" Danny exclaimed, hopping up onto the table and doing a dance that made Doug cringe and move his bowl of cereal out of the way. "Danny, get off the table!" his mom said, also moving aside a flickering peppermint candle. "How many times do I have to tell you this? Do you want to start a fire?"

"Sorry," he said. "I'm just excited. I'm gonna make a snowman today." "Well, you'd better get moving then. Your little friend across the street has already started one," Doug said. "He's not my friend," Danny exclaimed, rushing through the house and to the front window. Through the frosted glass, he saw Onyx Barlow, dressed to the nines in the most expensive and state-of-the-art winter gear available.

He was out front with his dad, building a snowman in their front yard. "Dad!" Danny called out. "Will you help me build one?" Doug joined his son, his hot coffee fogging up the window. He wiped away the fogginess and squinted. Danny knew how competitive his dad could get, and he could feel it festering within him. After Doug received a bow and arrow for Christmas a week earlier, Jack's, Onyx's dad, made it a point to show off his state-of-the-art crossbow.

When Doug was excited to meet the local weatherman, Slick Rains, at the market, Jax made sure to mention how he had played a crucial role in helping Slick overcome his fear of lightning back in the third grade, which led him down the path of becoming a meteorologist in the first place. "He's kind of got me to thank for his career," Jax would say. Doug didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

"Let's build a better snowman than they ever could," he said to Danny, determination and relentless neighborly rage festering in his voice. Over the next hour, Danny and his dad braved the cold weather and heavy snow outside, trying desperately to build a snowman. Their skills, however, weren't on par with Jack's and Onyx's. The larger the Barlow's snowman got, the more crumbly and lopsided Danny and Doug's looked.

After another 20 minutes of trying to fix portions that kept breaking apart, Danny stepped back and sighed. "Maybe it's time we give up, Dad." Danny's dad sighed as well. He stepped back and gawked at their messy creation. The bottom of the snowman was flatter than it was a sphere. The middle wasn't even there, and the top was slowly sliding off, centimeters at a time. "This thing is an abomination," Doug said.

Together they looked back across the street. Jax and Onyx put the finishing touches on their snowman. It was perfect in every single way. The three body segments were perfectly round and smooth all over. The eyes and mouth were made from pieces of top-quality coal expertly dug from a coal mine Jax had the honor of visiting over the fall.

Its nose was a freshly grown, organic, award-winning carrot, and the top hat upon its head once belonged to the royal family in England who Jax had once shared an evening of tea and crumpets with. "We can't beat that, Danny," Doug said. "Let's go have some hot chocolate mix." Danny and his dad went inside, defeated once again by the Barlows. For the rest of the day, Danny stayed in his room and played video games.

The failed snowman barely crossed his mind, but his dad stirred down in the living room. He sat in his rocking chair, creaking back and forth, drinking one hot chocolate after another while the fireplace crackled beside him. He stared out the front windows all day, focusing his attention on the perfect snowman across the street. And eventually what remained of their snowman completely collapsed and blended back in with the several feet of snow in the yard again.

That was the last straw. Danny's dad downed the last of his 15th hot chocolate, grabbed a fire poker and wandered outside and across the street. He stared at the Barlow snowman in the face. "You think you're so great, don't you?" he said to the frozen, inanimate eyesore. He looked it up and down one last time and then unleashed a berserker-style fire poker assault on the snowman.

When he was done, the coal, the carrot and the hat were laying atop of a small mound of disheveled snow. After dinner, the sun set and the snow began to fall again. Danny was tucked in for the night, and his parents retired to their bedroom as well. His mother, unaware of the snow assault that had taken place shortly before dinner, had fallen asleep quickly. Doug, more than satisfied with the assault, was asleep even quicker.

Danny, however, lay wide awake in bed, now thinking of the snowman he and his dad tried to build earlier in the day. It was a complete failure, falling apart at the seams, as the Barlow's snowman stood tall and proud like a perfect winter specimen. That summed up the Barlow's, though: perfect specimens.

Danny just had to accept the fact that he and his family weren't on the same level as the higher-level humans across the street. Danny rolled to his side and closed his eyes. He tried to drift away to sleep but was suddenly interrupted by a scratching sound. He opened his eyes and listened for it again. It was coming from downstairs.

Danny crept out of his room quietly, tossing on his robe and slippers. He softly descended the stairs and into the living room where the Christmas decorations still hung on the walls and the tree still stood in the corner. He was surprised to see his mother had left one of her peppermint candles lit on the mantel. She was usually good about blowing them out before bed. He stopped in the middle of the room and waited to hear it again. The living room, cast in dark shadows, was cold and quiet.

Danny tightened the belt on his robe and rubbed his hands together to generate heat. Then he heard the scratching again. He looked at the front window. Standing on the other side of the frosted glass, he saw the Barlow's snowman, scratching its branchy arms and twiggy fingers against the outside of it. The coal on its face was rearranged to display a look of anger, a look of rage and revenge.

Shocked, Danny backed up and collided with the rack of fire pokers. He knocked them down, creating a loud clatter. Frantically, he picked one up. It just so happened to be the same one his dad used to obliterate the snowman only hours earlier, unbeknownst to him. The snowman, noticing this detail, wasn't happy about Danny's choice of weapon and quickly conjured up a supernatural force to crash through the glass window.

The snowman flopped into the living room, stood straight up and began to roll toward Danny, the angry look now permanently embedded on its face. Danny held up the fire poker, trying to threaten the snowman, but it didn't faze him in the least. He only charged Danny faster. Danny just dropped to his knees, now willing to just accept another defeat at the hands of Jax and Onyx Barlow.

He let the fire poker fall to the floor as the hulking shadow of the snowman grew over top of him, engulfing him within its cold confines. Danny closed his eyes. Then a "thwip" followed by another "thwip" and a "whoosh." Danny opened his eyes as a third "thwip" and "whoosh" happened. This time, Danny watched a flaming arrow hit the snowman in the head.

The first two had hit him in the base and then the middle. The snowman stopped where it was, his body quickly melting from the inside out from the flaming arrows. After Danny watched the evil wintery manifestation melt and slosh into a slushy puddle on the carpet before him, he turned around and saw his dad standing by the peppermint candle, holding the bow and arrow he'd gotten for Christmas.

Without saying a word, Doug walked over, stepped into the slushy puddle and piece by piece tossed the coal into the fireplace. He then picked up the top hat, once worn by a member of the royal family, and placed it upon his head. Then he let the carrot limply dangle from his mouth. "I'll be right back, son," he said to Danny.

outside. As the snow fell in heavy flakes, Doug crossed the street, barefoot, wearing worn-out flannel pajamas, a royal top hat upon his head, carrying a bow and arrow and letting a high-class carrot dangle from between his teeth. He knocked loudly at Barlow's front door. A light upstairs turned on. The living room light was next. Then Jax Barlow opened the door in a pair of silk pajamas and wearing a nightcap.

Onyx, wearing an identical get-up, appeared next to him. Jax just stared at his neighbor with wide eyes. Doug took a big bite of the carrot, chewed it for a moment, and then spit its misty orange contents all over the welcome mat in front of the door. And then, in an arrogantly calm yet subtle and threatening tone, he said, "I know we have this unspoken neighborly battle, this silent dogfight of fatherly one-upping,

Jackson Onyx just looked at Doug, confused, almost like from their side of things they had no idea what he was referring to. Doug took another bite of the carrot, chewed it up and spit it out. Then he tossed what remained into the snow-capped bushes to his left. The Barlows watched the snowy shrubs shake as the carrot fell all the way through and to the ground. "So whatever that was," Doug continued, pointing over his shoulder, referring to the supernatural snowman that attacked his son

"Expect some same-level retaliation." "What are you talking about?" Jax asked. Genuinely confused, possibly even concerned for Doug, Doug just smirked and turned around. Danny had been standing next to him the whole time, large snowflakes gathering on top of his moppy head of hair. "Let's go, son," he said, grabbing Danny's hand and walking him back across the street. "Same-level retaliation?" Danny asked.

"Same level as a mutant supernatural snowman? How are you going to do that?" Doug didn't respond. He just kept walking, stewing in a growing annoyance. He wasn't thinking rationally. He was thinking like a suburban dad caught up in a one-sided war with a neighbor, which meant he hadn't the slightest clue as to what he was going to do next. Deep down, he hoped it would somehow involve a supernatural ice monster.

But what were the chances of that happening again? Thank you for listening to MicroTerrors. Join us each Saturday for another scary story. For more fun, visit our website at microterrors.com, where we will also have spooky games you can print out and play, like wicked word searches, mysterious mazes, and more...

Microterrors.com is also where you can find us on your favorite social media and even send in your own scary story for us to tell. Plus, you'll learn more about our author, Scott Donnelly, who has other horrors for both young and old. I hope you'll join me again soon for Microterrors, scary stories for kids.

Eat, save, and be merry with low prices and same-day delivery from Amazon Fresh. Whether you're looking for sweet deals on holiday treats or your dream gingerbread house, outshine the tree with holiday deals delivered right to your doorstep. Prime members save even more with deals on thousands of grocery items and up to 50% off on weekly favorites. Celebrate the holiday season with savings and same-day delivery from Amazon Fresh.

When it's PCS time, you know the drill. Pack, research to new base, get the kids in school, because family supports family. At American Public University, we support military families with flexible, affordable online education that moves with you. As a military spouse, your tuition rate is the same as your partner's, just $250 per credit hour. American Public University, education that moves with you.

Learn more at apu.apus.edu/military