A Simple Crushing Choice

20251205

Written for Luna Asli Kolcu’s “Myths of Winter - Week 1” event.

CW: Endangerment and harm of children.

Mathias paced the frozen ground, his gaze fixed on the broody sky. Waiting, as he had been all day, for the first snow of winter.
It was an old tale. More of a warning than anything. “Wish upon the year’s first flakes, before they reach the ground, and winter will answer.”
Nobody had ever tried it that he knew. Only a fool would strike a deal with the Frozen Maw. The Cold Dark. The Long Hunger.
Mathias’s shivers deepened. He tried to brush these dour thoughts from his mind. No telling if they might call something.
And what else was left? He’d done all he could. There was no saving the harvest with weather like they’d had this year. The messengers sent to the king had brought nowt but platitudes. The church had given the same.
With how haggard everyone was now… it’d take a miracle for any of them to see spring.
If the gods wouldn’t answer, what was a desperate man to do but take what aid he could find, even knowing the price would be steep?
So his pacing continued. Watching the sky, stomping his feet and tucking his hands against whatever part of his body felt least cold. Waiting.
He felt the moment that it started, where the clouds opened and the first flakes emerged and something inhaled.
Sucking in breath himself, the air burning his lungs like a final warning, he shouted to the sky “O Winter, be welcome, and hear my plea!”
It heard. He’d never been more certain. Even before the flakes swirled downwards to form a face grinning before him. All angles and glittering hunger. Tall enough to swallow him whole.
Mathias bowed his head. Hopefully the tremor in his voice would be mistaken for reverence rather than fear and chill. “O Winter, I have but a humble request - something to sustain my family through your reign.”
“Very well.” The face whispered, words woven of wind and magic older than memory.
Its ready agreement did not comfort him, and sure enough it added “I have but a humble price - you must bring one of your children here and sacrifice them in my name.”
Mathias’s breath caught. He screwed his eyes shut and fought to compose himself. “Would you take my life in-”
“No.” Swift. Decisive. Merciless.
“Why?” Though he knew it was foolish to antagonise such an entity, he couldn’t accept this price without explanation. “Why is a child’s life more valuable to you?”
“It isn’t.” The face drifted closer, its smile widening. “Your pain as you weigh each beloved… your agony as you murder your choice… the web of assurances you weave around your broken heart… the way your gut twists whenever you are reminded of them… that is the price.”
Ah. Mathias bit his lip. Blinking back tears - not in any attempt to hold face before this tormentor, but simply because his eyes freezing shut could be a death sentence out here.
The face waited with ancient patience. Why wouldn’t it, when it knew that no matter what he did, it would eat well this season?
“And… if I do this…?”
“Your family’s attempts to gather food will be blessed. None of you shall have a failed hunt or return from foraging empty-handed.”
The choice was painfully simple. Kill one child, or allow five to starve? Plus himself and Edna.
That was a thought. “What if we share the food we gather?”
“Do with it as you like.” The face sounded bored.
Perhaps it didn’t realise that if he could give aid to his neighbours no-one else need strike such a bargain. Or perhaps it thought he was the only father wretched enough to accept murdering one of his own.
Gall burned his mouth as he whispered “I will return.”
“Go well.”
A puff of wind and the snowflakes dispersed, finishing their path to the ground.
Mathias turned and began his bitter walk home. The weight of it all squeezing his chest and calling tears which would not be blinked back.
He would speak with Edna. He would pray and rack his brains and curse the world, and perhaps this time he would think of another way. Any another way.
But…
With his vision blurred he felt his way, his ice-block feet clumsily tracking the frozen ruts of the path.
A simple choice. Of the five it was best to choose the one least likely to make it through winter. For fear that your first sacrifice would be followed by another. Which meant…
Mathias sobbed and tugged his scarf a little higher. His mind filled with how just that morning, little Fabian had nestled against his chest sleeping peacefully.
At least… at least the poor baby wouldn’t understand what was going on. They could lull him to sleep, carry him out to the hill, and…
Good gods!
Why? Why must he be faced with this? A crossroad paved in death and regret. Had this cruel world not forced him to bury enough children already?
Perhaps… perhaps it was better to accept their fate. Let it all end now. Before an even crueller choice was put before him.
He could simply pretend that nothing had answered his call. Let things fall as they may. Try to find another way.
Home loomed before him, the warm glow of its windows forming piercing, judgemental eyes.
Another crossroads, this one far from simple.
Lie, or share this dreadful burden?
Gamble five children… or betray one? And in doing so, surely inflict harm on the survivors. But they would be survivors.
What did he do?

Prompt was “When the first flakes fall, you can make one request. It answers. It asks for payment in return.”