Free Beware, the Snowman by R. L. Stine

Your
mother and father were sorcerers. But not me.”
    “Then who made them climb the mountain to rescue us?” I demanded.
    “I did!” a voice cried.

 
 
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    I turned to the ledge—and saw Conrad standing there. His gray hair blew
wildly in the wind. The white wolf stood at his side.
    “You made the snowmen march?” I cried. “You are a sorcerer, too?”
    Conrad nodded. He gazed at the monster trapped in the ice and a smile spread
over his face. “Yes. I sent them to rescue you,” he said.
    Aunt Greta narrowed her eyes at Conrad. As she studied his face, her mouth
dropped open. “You!” Aunt Greta cried. “It’s you!”
    Conrad’s smile grew even wider. “Yes,” he told my aunt.
    “Who—who is he?” I demanded.
    Aunt Greta turned to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Jaclyn,” she said
softly, “I moved back here because I thought he might still be here. And yes, I
was right. He is here.”
    She squeezed my shoulder and smiled at me, tears welling in her eyes. “Conrad is your father,” Aunt Greta whispered.
    Conrad and I both cried out at the same time.
    He rushed across the icy ledge and wrapped me in a hug. His long beard
scratched my face as he pressed his cheek against mine.
    “I don’t believe it!” he cried, stepping back with tears in his eyes. “It’s
been so many years—I didn’t recognize you, Jaclyn. I’m so glad that Greta
brought you back to the village.”
    “You—you’re really my father?” I stammered.
    Conrad didn’t have a chance to answer. Rolonda and Eli came running up to us.
“Are you okay?” they cried.
    Conrad pointed to Rolonda and Eli. “They saved your lives!” he told Aunt
Greta and me. “They told me that you planned to climb to the ice cave. As soon
as I heard that, I worked my magic. I sent the snowmen up to rescue you.”
    “Wow!” Eli exclaimed, seeing the monster frozen in the ice. “Look at that!”
    “That was the evil snowman,” Conrad explained to them. “He’ll never threaten
the village again.”
    Rolonda and Eli stepped closer to view the frozen monster close up.
    I turned to my father. “I don’t understand,” I said. “Why did you stay behind
in the village when Mom and Aunt Greta left? Why do you live up here near the ice cave?”
    He scratched his beard and sighed. “It’s kind of a long story. When you were
little, your mother and I were practicing powerful magic. Our magic got out of
control. We accidentally created this monster.”
    He motioned to the monster and shook his head. “We froze the monster inside
the body of a snowman,” he explained. “Your mother—she wanted to leave. She
was so frightened and upset. She wanted to move as far away from the village as
she could. She wanted to forget it ever happened.”
    “And why did you stay?” I demanded.
    “I stayed because I thought I owed it to the people of the village,” he
explained. “I owed it to them to keep the snowman in his cave. To keep him from
harming people.”
    He uttered another sad sigh. “And so I stayed up here, close to the monster
we created. But… but… leaving you, Jaclyn, was the hardest thing I ever had
to do!”
    He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. Again, his beard scratched my face.
    “I always dreamed that someday I could leave the mountain and go find you,”
he said softly. “And now the monster is dead. The horror is finally over. And
Greta has brought you back. Perhaps…”
    His voice broke. He smiled at Aunt Greta and then at me. He took a breath and
tried again. “Perhaps… we can try to be a family again.”
    He kept his arm around me as we turned to go down the mountain.
    “Hey—!” I cried out as I saw the snowmen move to block our path.
    In all the excitement of finding my father, I’d completely forgotten about
all the snowmen!
    Now they circled us. Surrounded us.
    Staring at us with their glowing coal eyes. Staring at us so coldly.
    “Wh-what are they going to do?” I stammered.
    Before