Short Story: Red-Faced Monkeys
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Short Story: Red-Faced Monkeys

A relationship in ultimate turmoil

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Short Story: Red-Faced Monkeys
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There were only two things Craig was certain of at this point: Their map of The Swiss Alps blew away last night, and it was blisteringly cold. Not even a shivering cold that slowly numbs the face and purples the hands. This was the type of cold that woke up those numb areas, and woke them up screaming, stinging and resisting to move at the command of his nerves.

It was because of this resistance that he dropped his only bag a few hours ago, losing every blanket, icepick, flashlight, and bit of food packed for the trip. Vicki was furious when this happened, as her coat was in there too, the one he spent 170 dollars on at Dicks sporting goods the week before.

“Who in their right mind takes off their coat in the Alps!?” Craig spat at her, astonished that the incident was his fault in any way.

“I got hot, and it was chafing me. You’d take the stupid thing off too if you had to wear such an ugly green.” Vicki raised her eyebrows and over-annunciated every word, like she was explaining it to a 7-year-old.

“Oh my god.” Even when their lives were in danger, the color of her coat was still so important. “It doesn’t matter what color it is, it’s supposed to keep you war-“

Vicki cut him off, “I said purple, you stupid asshole!”

He trailed 6 feet behind Vicki for the rest of the day. He knew he wasn’t wrong in this circumstance, but he couldn’t tell if her face was a neon scarlet because of the cold, or an impending volcanic eruption should he chose to say another word. They walked, keeping the distance a sled master keeps from his huskies, for hours on end, as Craig occasionally looked back to see the snake of their footprints slither across the endless hills and into a horizon too small to see. “We may be able to follow those back to where we started”. It was with that thought that Craig remembered they were lost, and quite possibly heading further into a snowy, obscure wasteland of a grave.

He fell to his knees and wept upon this realization, something made evident by the noise of his sobs, as he couldn’t feel the tears streaming down his face over the alarming sting that coated every inch of his exposed skin. He was certain that he would die within a week, and certain that they were lost, but that wasn’t what broke him down. This trip was the final grip on his relationship with Vicki, and quite a sloppy, tenuous one at that. Since they were teenagers, he remembered, he and Vicki always dreamed of braving the Alps, but their daring personalities lead them down a path that made any vacation seem like the stuff of fairy tales.

Things were dire, though, the past year, and Craig scrounged up as much extra money as he could make off of recycling cans and old collectibles to make it work. That’s what he always did, he made it work, but Vicki’s agenda was the exact opposite. He knew how badly she wanted to put a bullet in their love, and knew now how right she was now. He didn’t cry from looking back at this relationship, but from the notion that he’s probably be buried beside her, forever hearing her muffled passive aggression from the column of dirt between them.

It was a terrible thought, but only lasted for a minute or so, as Vicki interrupted it from beyond his field of vision. “Craig! Hurry up! I found monkeys!” He took a while to process what he just heard. The monkeys were the first red flag, as he pictured the chimpanzees at the zoo, knowing it would be impossible for them to survive in sub-zero weather, but this could have been one of Vicki’s games. He pictured running over to Vicky with that stupid look of bewilderment he was aware of but couldn’t help, finding nothing but an equally cold and frustrated Vicki taking amusement in his disappointment. “There he is!” she’d say, pointing at him, “There’s the monkey!”

But he knew something was different this time, since her statement was followed by a loud splash, as if there was water nearby, and some indulgent giggling. “OK, so I’m hallucinating.” Craig thought to himself, wiping his face and chuckling a bit. Must be hypothermia setting in. “Well, we’ll see how elaborate this is.” He was certain that Vicki’s call was a mirage, but he had never seen one before.

When he finally reached Vicki, he almost fainted. He was bundled up in eleven layers and still shivering and turning as purple as Vicki’s dream-coat, and the ground all around him was as saturated in packed, freezing snow as a Victorian-era noblewoman’s face was in make-up, but just six feet ahead of him, Vicki had discarded all bits of clothing but her bra and underwear. He rubbed his crusted, stinging eyes, and even pinched himself through his shield of fabric to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

Turns out, the joy in Vicki’s call to him was as genuine as the splashing that followed it. There Vicki was, leisurely swimming around in a small pond of water, flanked with chest-high snow but projectile vomiting a thick, nearly opaque ray of steam far into the sky that suggested the water was beyond warm enough for a swim. After examining the pond for a while, in shock of course, Craig was ecstatic and hurried toward it while shedding his first, husky layer onto the snow.

“How did you find this babe?” He took a big risk with such a term of endearment, but this was one of the happiest times they shared. in years.

“I just stumbled into it! I’m sorry I lost track of you,” whatever anger had possessed Vicki before was gone, drowned in some soothing warm water and replaced with a smile, “I just couldn’t believe what I saw!”

Likewise, a smile cracked open Craig’s dry lips as well, “I don’t blame you, I can’t believe it either! How’s the water?”

“It’s like a hot tub! You should totally come in. I thought it’d be freezing, but I guess we really lucked out.” Vicki was playfully swishing the water around with her hand, but Craig noticed a bit of holes in her story, and his excited grin fled to his throat, curling up uncomfortably in the back. Craig stopped unbuttoning his third layer and stood as still as possible.

“How did you know the water was warm enough to swim in, then?” Vicki picked up on his suspicion and became somewhat fearful herself. Knowing she’d be on the receiving end on their next argument, however, Craig watched as her expression changed to counter his.

“Well, I saw all these monkeys enjoying it, and I thought it must be warmer than the snow.”

As soon as the word monkeys left Vicki’s lips, Craig looked behind her, only to find rows of red-faced monkeys all clingy onto each other for warmth, dangerously close to Vicki. He unfamiliar with monkeys that dwelled in such cold conditions, but knew how threatening chimpanzees were, and these monkeys were the same size of chimps, perhaps larger. He counted twelve of them, more than enough to overpower and rip apart he and Vicki, and discovered something even more disturbing than their sheer presence.

These monkeys, with their black, beady, expressionless little eyes, were all watching Vicki with conviction. She was in their environment, their home, and they felt threatened. Craig worked on flattening the lump in his throat and cleared it loud enough to make the nearest monkey jerk its head towards him. “Jesus Christ,” he thought, “Those eyes are like snake eyes.”

He finally conjured the words, “Honey, I need you to get out of there now.”

“What? Why?” Vicki turned white when he said this, as if she had seen the monkeys the same way as Craig.

Craig ignored her questions. “Move slowly, and come right to me, you can have whatever coat you want. Just get out of there.” His voice shook with horror as he said this, and Vicki’s whole body shook from hearing it. She was frozen stiff, not moving at all like he just instructed her to do.

“Baby, I can’t. I’m too scared to move.” She began to cry and looked to Craig as if she was about to fall off of a cliff. The situation was certainly as dire. Something had to be done on his part, as was expected of any true man in the face of danger. Perhaps this was the lesson to be learned on this trip. This was the defining moment that would reignite their relationship, and Vicki would tell their kids and grandkids about that treacherous day in the mountains when Craig saved her from those expressionless, red-faced snow monkeys. “Now’s my chance!” Craig thought as he puffed his chest out, seeing those reptilian ice primates as a mere obstacle in the way of a newfound spark, and he was grateful that they played their role. Now it was time to play his.

But, to Craig’s disappointment, the monkeys had acted out while he was so absorbed in his own bravado, and Vicki was nowhere to be seen. “Vicki! Vicki!” Craig screamed in terror. But never again would he hear her voice, as several monkeys had their hands over her head, holding it just far enough under the water to make breathing impossible. They looked down at her as she thrashed around with the same black indifference with which they seemed to look at everything.

That wasn’t true, Craig soon found out in the worst way possible. Evidently, he had yelled too frantically for Vicki just then and, as a result, stirred some of the monkeys in the process. These monkeys had the same intent as Craig — they wanted to protect their loved ones, but, unlike Craig, they didn’t have egos, and delivered immediately. In a matter of seconds, Craig saw these once cold monkeys leap through the pond and out of the skirt of steam with eyes full of a palpable hatred and knife-like teeth, then felt these teeth tear through his body at every angle, a pain no amount of frostbite or hyperthermia could come close to matching.

Then Craig felt nothing, but saw hairy, red feet plant around his field of vision, filling the wide void of snowy ground with grotesque texture, all while deep red extended from his body to the furthest pair of feet. Finally, red was all Craig could see, and as this red slowly faded into a plain stripped of any color, Craig thought of one final color.

“If only I bought that purple coat.”

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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