Carrie looked longingly outside the frost covered window. The snow was falling several inches per hour. It was one of the biggest snowstorms that Carrie had ever experienced and she was all alone with the exception of her huge Newfoundland dog, loyally following her around the cabin. She was thankful for the large pile of logs in the corner and the full tank of propane that was now covered in snow outside. Still, she was not going to be able to spend the holidays with the people that she loved. There was no way that her parents were going to be able to leave from their home further north, and the mountainous roads that led to the cabin Carrie was in were virtually shut down. Only the most durable cars and trucks with heavy chains would be able to make it to where she was.
A panic struck her suddenly, when would she be able to leave? The snow was not supposed to let up for several more days, she had enough food to last her for a week or two, but who knew if she would even be able to start up her car -- or dig it out -- after the snow let up. And what if something happened to her? She was in perfectly good health, but who knows what sort of ailments may fall upon a young woman while panic stricken in the mountains?
She sighed again and pulled a heavy blanket from the couch around her shoulders and clicked on the old television set that had been sitting in the cabin since the 1980s. In recent years, her family had installed a satellite dish on the roof of the place, so at least she had a bit of entertainment for the time being. She turned to the Weather Channel, snow, snow and more snow. There were blizzard warnings everywhere in her surrounding area, the weather people were urging everyone everywhere to stay off the roads and to definitely stay away from the mountainous areas.
"Happy Christmas to me," Carrie said glumly. She walked to the lit Christmas tree in the corner and toyed with the ribbons on some of the presents she had brought for her family members and a couple of her friends. She walked around the enormous living room space in the cabin. It was a very large space to be alone in. This maybe was a cabin, but her family was wealthy, and a cabin for them was more like a large house for a 5 person family. They often had ten people visiting on any given occasion. How was it that Carrie was alone now? She had no idea. She was scared and she was lonely. She wondered how she would be able to sleep with the wind howling at the creaking logs, knowing that she was probably the only person around in a thirty mile radius and the ever present knowledge that by morning the ground would probably be buried by three feet of snow.
In any case, she walked back over to the big couch in the middle of the room and turned back to the television and changed to a local channel to watch some late-night comedy show. Carrie curled up and closed her eyes slowly, then snapped them back open again as she heard the winds howl down the chimney, sending the fire ablaze briefly. Her dog looked up, surprise and fear in her eyes. She jumped up on the large couch with Carrie. Carrie shook her head and turned off most of the lights in the living room with a flick of a switch on the coffee table, all except for the light on the table next to her and the Christmas lights on the Christmas tree and the lights along the edge of the fireplace. She sighed deeply a few times and settled down into the couch and against her dog. She let down her guard against the brutal force of nature outside and slowly fell into a deep sleep.
There was a hard knock at the front door of the cabin. Carrie bolted awake from her deep sleep. Her dog jumped as well. The TV was still on and playing infomercials for Christmas music, "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole was playing comfortingly. There was another hard, loud knock. Carrie bolted upwards. Either there was someone at the door, or the storm was becoming increasingly violent and pelting ice or tree branches against the front door. There was another knock. Carrie wrapped the blanket around her body and cautiously started to walk towards the door. On her slow walk to the door, there were two more hard knocks. Carrie stood on the other side of the door. She wished there was a peep hole or something. There was one more knock and Carrie breathed in deeply. Her heart was racing, she was about ready to run upstairs and hide under the bed. She had no idea who could be there. It could be a blizzard murderer for all she knew! She knew for certain it was none of her family or friends. They had all called her to tell her they would not make it in the blizzard.
"Please!" a voice shouted from the other side of the door, much of it was being carried away by the wind and the snow. "Please! There must be someone inside! I see lights on! Please! Let me in!"
Though Carrie could only barely hear the voice, she could sense the desperation in the voice and she pulled the enormous door open. After all, it was Christmas now and she wanted to spend it with someone. A large man, in a red coat, black pants, huge black boots and what appeared to be a white beard flew in through the front door.
"Oh thank you! Thank you!" the man exclaimed in a gruff voice.
"Santa?" Carrie asked, quietly and deliriously, she looked at the clock, it was about four in the morning. She had never really believed in Santa before, and it was not like her at all to automatically jump to that sort of conclusion.
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you," the man said as he rushed around the cabin living room, shaking snow from his body as Carrie closed the door. When she turned around to face the mysterious man, she realized the white beard had been snow, and the man had quite a young face.
"Who are you?" Carrie asked pulling the blanket around her shoulders a bit more tightly. Her dog, too, stared curiously at the strange man. The dog made no move to attach the strange man, so Carrie knew that she was not in too much trouble as the dog was usually a good sensor of good versus bad.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he replied. "My name is Zach. What is yours?"
"I'm Carrie...What are you doing here?" Carrie asked.
"I got stuck driving in the storm in the middle of the mountains, I ran off the road...I've been walking for six hours now. You're the first place that I've run across," the man said. Carrie gasped.
"Take off your coat and boots, please," Carrie said. The man nodded and peeled off his coat and boots. Carrie took them immediately and hung them up by the fireplace in order to dry them off and warm them a bit. When Carrie turned back around, she noticed blood on the sleeve of the man's shirt and some dried blood dripping down his temple.
"Are you hurt?" Carrie asked.
"No, no, I'm fine now," Zach replied. Carrie gawked at the strange man, she knew that he was not okay, and the first aid classes that she had gone through for various college courses and backcountry training told her that she needed to take care of this man. If he had been out in a blizzard for six hours, he surely had suffered from frostbite among other things.
"I'll be right back," Carrie said looking the man up and down. "Sit down in front of the fire and warm up a bit." The man nodded and sat down on the stone in front of the hearth as Carrie rushed off into a room off of the living room. She emerged only seconds later holding a large pair of sweatpants, a wool pair of socks and a huge black and white sweater.
"Here," Carrie said handing the clothing over to the man, "these are my uncle's, but he's not here, and you definitely need them right now. Change out of your clothes and put these on. They're warm and dry." The man nodded as Carrie turned around and went to the kitchen to make some tea for herself and the mysterious man.
As she boiled the water, she stole glances at the man changing near the fireplace. He tore off his wet shirt and Carrie noticed a long, bloody scrape along the man's right forearm. She then noticed the very attractive muscular stomach, chest and arms of the man. She ducked back into the kitchen and measured some tea into a porcelain teapot. She snuck another peek at the man in her living room. He was slowly removing his wet and icy pants, and Carrie caught a quick glimpse of his genitalia. A quick pang of horniness ran through Carrie's body. She had not been with anyone since her last break-up, which had happened the previous July. The quick desire washed away, she knew that she had to take care of this man. She was not usually the kind of girl that would drop everything for a guy, but this poor person had been out in a blizzard for six hours, he needed help. Carrie also noticed her dog starting to warm up to the man, and he in return was starting to warm up to her.
The water on the stove started whistling from the steam. Carrie took it off of the heat and poured the hot water into the porcelain teapot and carried the teapot with a couple of large mugs out into the living room and set it on the coffee table in front of the man, now fully changed.
"She won't bite you," Carrie said with a smile on her face.
"She's huge," Zach said as he nervously moved his hand towards the dog's head. Carrie sat down on the couch again.
