BROADCASTS.com

b'Episode Notes
During a record breaking blizzard two cops answer a call that turns into more than they bargained for when they discover an ax weilding maniac hell bent on spreading Christmas fear!
The Weather Outside is Frightful by Shane Migliavacca
Buy the new book!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P4ZF9LG/
Music by Ray Mattis
http://raymattispresents.bandcamp.com
Produced by Daniel Wilder
Get Cool Merchandise http://store.weeklyspooky
Support us on Patreon http://patreon.com/IncrediblyHandsome
Contact Us/Submit a Story
twitter.com/WeeklySpooky
facebook.com/WeeklySpooky
WeeklySpooky@gmail.com
This episode sponsored by HenFlix.com
For everything else visit WeeklySpooky.com
Transcription:
It was the worst blizzard the city had seen in over a decade. In time the storm would be known as \\u2018The Christmas Eve Blizzard of \\u201873\\u2019, but tonight it was just \\u2018the storm\\u2019. \\xa0 \\xa0
Patrolwoman Halsey Stone strained her eyes scanning the sidewalk as the radio car crawled down the street, her partner Officer Roy Soccorso at the wheel. This part of the city had been hit hard by the country\'s current financial stagnation\\u2026 decaying buildings, junk piled on the side of the street, broke down cars left to rot in open lots\\u2026 for Stone this was too much like the poverty she\'d grown up around.\\xa0
Many of the large buildings were seemingly abandoned, but in truth whole families lived within their walls, as did the normal cast of junkies, drunks, and other shady characters.\\xa0
An anonymous caller had reported a woman screaming for help. They\'d circled the block a few times, but come up with nothing. The blizzard had driven everyone indoors\\u2026 between the strong gusts of wind and the visibility being shit, nobody in their right mind would be out here. But here they were, on Christmas Eve no less... not that either of them had anywhere else to be\\u2026 Stone had left her family behind when she\\u2019d moved to the \\u201cbig city.\\u201d, and her partner was estranged from his wife and daughter.\\xa0
Stone\\u2019s left hand clasped and unclasped her holster. Almost keeping a steady rhythm.
"Enough," snapped Soccorso.
"What?"
"With the holster kid."
Shit. She hadn\'t realized she\'d been doing it. She could get lost in thought sometimes. "Sorry."
"This is just a bullshit call kid."
"Sure."\\xa0
Stone took off her uniform cap. She smoothed back some of her long blonde hair that obstinately refused to corporate.\\xa0
"What? You think there\'s something to this call? Probably just some junkie trying to steal a few bucks\\u2026 or some asshole trying to stay warm by raping a bitc-" He stopped himself. His face reddened a little. "Sorry kid."
Stone adjusted her dirty blonde ponytail. Maybe he was right\\u2026\\xa0
"How long do you want this to go on?" Soccorso said.
"What? Your shitty attitude?"
"No Okie. Looking for our phantom suspect."
God she hated that. When somebody back at the precinct found out about her family coming from the Ozarks, one of the assholes had started calling her \\u2018Okie\\u2019. They\'d got it from some old song, and it stuck like glue.
"You got somewhere to be?" She said, somehow making it sound like \\u201cfuck you\\u201d.
He shot her a look. "No, just think our time could be spent better."
She drummed her fingers on the dash. All she wanted to do was bounce Soccorso\'s head off the dash\\u2026 the anger was always there, had always been there. Once it scared her, now it was a friend.
"You know what, Okie? I\'m going to make it your call. Do we continue looking?"
Stone took a deep breath. "My choice? No bitching?"
"Your call."
Since she\\u2019d been a kid, she\\u2019d had a \\u201cfeeling\\u201d\\u2026 she could always tell when something bad was coming. Stone had that feeling now.
"Another time around. If there\'s nothing\\u2026 we go."
"Okay. Fair enough."
Soccorso turned the corner, as outside the wind gusted. Stone could feel the car move a little pushed by the wind.
"We\'ve been at this dance for almost a month now kid, I\'m supposed to be training you\\u2026 be your partner\\u2026 and I know jack and shit about you."
That was the way she liked it. There was too much in her past.\\xa0
"What\'s there to know? I\'m from Missouri."
"You should open up more. Hang out with some of us."
"Why? You guys constantly make fun of me\\u2026 where I came from."
"That\'s just ribbing you\\u2026 no different than any other rookie. You make it harder on yourself anyway, acting like a brat."
"Sorry I\'m just not Miss Fun and Games."
The woman came out of the blanket of falling snow, running at their car screaming. There was blood on her hands and jacket.\\xa0
Soccorso swerved the car, and ended up in a snowbank. Stone was already undoing her seat belt.\\xa0
"Fuck! You okay kid?"
"Yeah."
The woman came running towards them. Stone started to open the door.
"Oh god, officer I\'m so sorry."\\xa0
"Ma\'am, take it easy. Is that your blood? Are you injured?"
She shook her head. "No." The woman was shaking. "His-his blood."
Soccorso tried getting his door open, but the snowbank wouldn\'t give as he slammed the door repeatedly against the packed snow.\\xa0
Stone took the panicked women towards their car.
"What\'s your name ma\'am?"
"Dorothy. It\'s Dorothy."
"Okay Dorothy, I need you to get in the back of the car."
Dorothy hesitated.
"What? Why?"
"You\'ll be safe. Until we can get somebody to look at you."
Soccorso finally gave up on getting his door open.\\xa0
Dorothy slid in, and sat in the middle of the backseat. A steel mesh separated Dorothy from Soccorso.\\xa0
"You\'ll be safe here. Now can you tell me what happened Dorothy?"
Dorothy told her how she\'d been cutting through the alleyway on her way home from the corner store when a large man had come out of a nook in the alley and chased after her. When she fell on the icy ground he grabbed her. Terrified she pulled a metal nail file from her purse, stuck it into his leg, and made her escape.\\xa0
Dorothy pointed to the alley across the street a little ways back.
"It was there."
"Thank you Dorothy." Stone said. "You\\u2019re very brave. My partner will take care of you until an ambulance arrives.\\u201d\\xa0
"I will?"
Dorothy looked up at Stone, perhaps sensing what was about to happen. "I looked into his eyes, officer\\u2026 there was nothing inside."
Stone tied to reassure her. "It\'s going to be okay."
"Kid, don\'t even think-" Soccorso said.
She cut him off. "Call it in. Get back up."
Stone slammed the door shut before he could protest any more.
Stone took off down the street towards the alley Dorothy had indicated.\\xa0
This was it\\u2026 that feeling of dread that she\\u2019d felt. Her heart felt like it was going to break free from her chest.\\xa0
She made it to the alley. He could still be here\\u2026 nursing his wound she thought. Ultimately he wasn\\u2019t in the alley\\u2026 but something was.
The nail file. He\'d pulled it out\\u2026 now he\'d bleed more and make her job easier. Stone followed the blood down another alley and out on to a deserted street.\\xa0
She had never been much of a hunter. Her dad had tried to teach her, but her patience was lacking. He\'d seemed so disappointed in her, but those times out in the woods with him, just walking, those were some of her favorite memories of growing up.\\xa0
But now her father was spending another Christmas in prison. She sighed.
From somewhere above, Christmas music drifted down. Hark the Herald Angels.\\xa0
The heavy snowfall was quickly covering the blood.\\xa0
Stone came out of the alley. She heard voices and a door close.\\xa0
She spun around, her gun at the ready.\\xa0
A young couple stood there holding Christmas gifts, a look of shock etched on their faces. Their little dog on a leash yelped at her.
The man raised his hands dropping the gifts.
"Have you seen anybody suspicious.. other than me\\u2026 maybe bleeding?"
The dog continued yelping. The man pulled hard on its leash. "Shut up Mitzy."\\xa0
Stone wouldn\'t mind slamming the guy against the wall.\\xa0
"No, officer."\\xa0
"I need you both to go back inside. There\'s a dangerous and wounded man in the vicinity."
Stone crossed the street. The trail continued down the side of the street past a large abandoned building. Then it stopped.\\xa0
Ahead of her, Stone heard a loud metallic \\u2018clank\\u2019\\u2026 like a metal door or lid closing.\\xa0
She regretted leaving Soccorso behind. \\u201cNo\\u201d Stone thought, \\u201cThis is where I show them what I can do\\u201d.\\xa0
She crouched. Slowly she peeked around the corner of the building until she had a full view of the small street that lay beyond.\\xa0
There, next to an abandoned theater, was a metal hatch set in the ground. Those led to basements Soccorso had told her. Stone, gun at the ready inched towards it. Snow had been brushed off\\u2026 very recently.\\xa0
And there was a bloody handprint on the hatch. \\u201cGot you bastard\\u201d she thought!
She pulled a rag from her jacket. There was no way she was taking a chance of fucking up the evidence.\\xa0
Her service pistol ready, Stone pulled on the hatch. Locked\\u2026 of course. She\'d have to find another way in.\\xa0
Then she heard it\\u2026 the rustle of wings. Stone looked up.\\xa0
Perched on a rusty metal railing was a large white owl. It stared at her with its large luminous eyes\\u2026 eyes that looked into her. She stared at it transfixed.\\xa0
Then it struck her what it was sitting on\\u2026 the railing of a fire escape!
She ran over and discovered the bottom of the escape\\u2019s ladder was just out of reach. Frantically she looked around for something she could use to get up there.\\xa0
And there it was, sitting against the far wall of an adjacent building. An old plastic chair. She carried the chair over, and on tiptoes she reached and pulled herself up. All that tree climbing as a kid paid off.\\xa0
The fire escape led to a locked second story metal door. Not far from it was a window set above a narrow ledge. She stepped over the metal railing, and on to the ledge.
The wind howled. She feared a really strong gust might blow her off her perch on the ledge. Her feet knocked snow free as she inched towards the window.\\xa0
Finally she made it to the window. Using the flashlight from her belt Stone smashed through the glass and climbed through the window into the dark interior.\\xa0
She played the beam of the flashlight over the floor and walls of what had once been an office. The broken glass crumbled underfoo'