Freezer Burn

Sergei was a humble Ukrainian immigrant with a penchant for drugs. Dealing with the euro trash day after day made him thick skinned. He finished a platter of Ukrainian meats and carted it out to the dining hall where the Todorowycz’s were feasting the marriage of their dear son Demetri. The party was quite glamorously hidden in the black diamond charm of the party center which was crumbling in the majesty of the dilapidated Astrodome. It was a wonderful celebration, and the groom could not be happier. As he placed the platters on the separate tables he got the occasional thank you from the party goers, and before long he ran out of plates. He carted on back to the kitchen and when he entered, a grease fire was erupting in the kitchen.

“Jesus Christ!” heard sergei in Ukrainian.

He rushed over to them and stood in absolute shock at the fire balls that were shooting from the oven. It was something you always hear about but never think will happen to you.

“Fuck, fuck, Sergei, what the hell are you doing get some water.” Yelled his head chef.

“Sergei snapped out of his trance and rushed over to the sink. Fumbling arounf the pantry he spotted a pot and immediately began filling it with water.

“Get back, I got it,” Yelled Ivan wielding a fire extinguisher. Marion opened the oven and let the fire loose onto the stove top. Ivan boggled with the pin but it wouldn’t open.

“Pull the pin” yelled Marion.

“It wont Pull!” Ivan yelped.

“Pull it!”

“It WONT COME OFF!” he squealed, and without hesitation the pin snapped out.

Ivan waited a second, then unloaded the white fumes all over the oven. In a moment the kitchen was aching with black plumes of smoke, and the crew had run out. Sergei got a choked whiff of the fumes and fell to his knees gasping. He crawled on all fours all the way to a door. It was the freezer. He flung the heavy door open and ran inside. The room was dark and as he stood in the cold room, the door slammed shut behind him. He was trapped in the frigid black abyss.

He stood for a moment then began to yell.

“Guys? Hey guys?” he said. He grabbed for a handle but realized that the door only had one, from the outside.

“Hey Guys! I’m stuck!” he yelled.

“This isn’t funny guys.” He said starting to chuckle as if they had been playing a joke, and then he remembered why he had been in there. He had fled to the wrong side of the room, and they must have been all the way out in the hall now.

“Oh shit. He let me out! LET ME OUT!” he screamed, but it was of little use.

He opened his mouth once more, but only deaf cries heard by the flames came out. Now panicking, Sergei started to cling to the walls, to try and find something familiar in the dark freezer he took several wild steps then tripped on something sticking out.

His head smacked against the side of the door and he was knocked out cold.

He awoke in a frenzy with a headache and frostbitten teeth. His body was shivering and all he could see was black. Who knew what time it was now. There weren’t any alarms going off anymore. There weren’t any sounds muffling in from outside. It was just him and the peaceful dismay of the black silence.

His body was twitching from the cold and he wondered where he was. He couldn’t see what corner of the freezer he had been in, and his legs were almost too cold to stand with.

As he shuffled to his feet he clawed up and down the shelves, trying to see where he was. He could feel rocks in one box, maybe potatoes, or apples. Everything was too cold to smell. After he got to his feet he walked blindly forward and made it to a metal wall. The door.

He banged once quietly, knocking the door.

“Guys.” He said calmly. “Guys, just let me out, I’m fucking freezing.”

No answer in silence.

“Guys I’m really fucking cold” he said louder, but not a soul could catch his voice.

“Just let me outta the fucking freezer. Just let the fuck out, Guy! GUY! GUY! Guy! Guys. Guys, guys…” and he stopped speaking.

It was useless. He was only loosing warmth with every breath. In the back of his mind it struck him like a ton of solid metal. I will die here.

The next morning, Marion walked into the mess of a kitchen and had a mop in hand. It was time to renew the place to its modern day lack luster. He started with the stove top, then made his way to the kitchen floor. He swapped everything possible, then saw a cake that had been out rotting all night from before. He walked into the freezer and before he could inspect anything, he brushed against the stone cold body of Sergei, hard as a rock.

There was nothing more left of him but his icy remains, and when Marion saw this he knew his kitchen wouldn’t survive. Not with a tragedy like this. He broke Sergei’s body from the arctic floor and scooted him to the furnace. Chipping off his limbs, Marion fed the poor Ukrainian into the fire, letting in rest in ashes, just like the ones that trapped him in his sub-zero tomb.

In a half hour, there was nothing left of Sergei, except for a man shaped burn mark on the side of the freezer, on the side of the freezer that sits right next to the window. The same side that was pressed so far up against the wall that no one could clean it. All they could do was look up at that burn mark and wonder if a man ever laid upon that wall, or if it was all just a figment of an overactive mind.

So here I am twenty five years later, staring at that same black mark. I’ve gone to the Astrodome ever since I was born, and every time I see the mark, I always feel a cool breath breathing on my lips, as if my teeth are biting into ice cream.

I sometimes see someone looking at me through windows, and I wonder who it is but at the same time, I already know. Whenever I’m alone in the massive hall, I can feel his presence, lurking in the bleachers upstairs. Some say the building is old, but it’s not the creeks that scare me.

It’s not the man in my peripherals that haunts me.

It’s the gruesome mark he leaves for the world to see.