Never Fear by Heather Graham

seeing
to call out to Snorri and discover her son’s fate. Reynir was in
the barn. She stood there numb, unable to move, knowing only that
she needed to protect her daughter.
    Leifur reached Snorri.
“Father, Father! I tried to stop him, but Magnús… he wanted to see
if the animals really do talk. I told him if he heard them, they
would make him insane. I told him!” He was gasping and crying. “Is Magnús all
right, Father? Father?”
    Snorri stood motionless, the lifeless
body of his son draped in his arms.
    Berglind could contain herself no
longer. “Snorri, what is it? Is Magnús all right?”
    “ AAAAGH!” Another scream from
the barn.
    Snorri snapped out of his stupor.
“Reynir. I must go to him. Leifur, stay here and watch your
brother.” He gently set Magnús down in the snow. Leifur sat down
next to him, picked up his brother’s cold hand, and held it. His
eyes fixed on his brother’s face. He neither cried nor moaned. His
body began to rock back and forth and he played with his brother’s
fingers.
    Berglind screamed, and grabbing Lilja,
rushed to her sons. She dropped down opposite Leifur and pulled
Magnús’ head up to her breast. “Magnús, Magnús,” she softly
uttered, her tears falling on her dead son’s white skin. “Why could
you not obey me? Foolish boy. Foolish.”
    Lilja knelt next to Leifur in the snow
and buried her face in his cloak, crying but saying nothing. Still
playing with Magnús’ fingers, Leifur mumbled, “He only wanted to
hear the animals speak.”
    “ AAAAAHH!” An agonizing scream
tore through the night, chilling them all to their
bones.
    Snorri was at the barn. He threw open
the door just in time to see the gargantuan Yuletide Cat close its
mouth around his brother’s head and silence him.
    Snorri had heard the stories of the
enormity of the Cat, but he’d thought they must be exaggerations.
They were not. The Cat was pure white and the size of two of his
largest cows. Its black eyes held malevolence and hate. It gave a
vicious twist with its mouth and wrenched Reynir’s head from his
body. Blood gushed over the Cat’s snowy muzzle and face.
    It tipped its head back and swallowed
hard. The lump, which was Reynir’s head, vanished down its
throat.
    The Cat turned and glared at Snorri,
blood dripping from its chin.
    Snorri could have sworn it smiled at
him before returning to finish consuming his brother. He backed out
the door, feeling the gorge rise in his throat.
    He couldn’t contain it. The evening’s
stew and bile spewed from his mouth in a violent gush, covering the
ground before him and his boots. He heaved several times, the Cat
ignoring him, intent on its meal.
    Snorri’s knees buckled, stupefied by
the horror before him. His knees sank into his own vomit, his head
bowed low, hiding the unspeakable sight from his vision.
    He turned away and stood, head still
bowed, grief-stricken, and trudged away. There was nothing he could
do for Reynir. His brother was gone… and so was Magnús.
    He approached the remainder of his
family, who knelt in the snow over the corpse of his
son.
    “ Oh, Snorri what has
happened? Magnús? Reynir?” Berglind looked imploringly at him,
freezing tears and new ones covering her cheeks. Helpless.
Hopeless.
    “ Father, Magnús wanted to
see if the animals really talked on Christmas Eve,” Leifur said. “I
could not stop him.” He still held Magnús’ stiffening
hand.
    “ They did speak, Leifur,”
Snorri muttered. “And he went insane.”
    “ Reynir?” Berglind
whispered.
    “ Jólaköttur, the Cat,”
Snorri choked out, the too recent memory causing him to heave once
more.
    Berglind gasped. “No… why?”
    “ He-he bought the candle
for everyone in place of a new piece of clothing for himself, and…
and…” He couldn’t finish. The bile at the back of his throat yet
again threatened to spew out. He collapsed in the snow over his
dead son and sobbed.
    “ Oh Snorri…” Berglind wept
harder for all the loss and