Line #2 NightmareFuel/ColdDays


1	* The sheer amount of times Harry slips in and out of his psychopath side is incredibly disturbing to him and everyone around him ([[IntendedAudienceReaction including the readers]]). Worst of all Bob said the influence will only grow over time and while he might not succumb to it yet, a few years could do a number to him until he makes Lloyd Slate look like a schoolyard bully.
2	** His psychopath side itself. It's scary to watch him slip into possessive, primitive desires for people he cares about, especially when before becoming the Winter Knight he wouldn't have thought ''twice'' about the things that set him off. And [[TheEmpath Molly,]] when she's close and accidentally triggers his anger, feels all of it, and knows what he wants to do. And worse, part of her still wants him badly enough that she’s ''willing'' to let him do whatever the Mantle prompts to her.
3	** Consider also the way Maeve (presumably under the thrall of her own mantle) played with Harry-as-Winter-Knight, as well as Slade before him... and consider that [[spoiler:Molly now bears that mantle, has the mental mojo to ''feel'' Harry tripping along the edge, and, worst of all, her own unrequited love for him]].
4	** There's an incredibly chilling moment where it's mentioned in an aside [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy who some of the previous Winter Knights were]] - Namely, Gilles de Rais, Andrei Chikatilo, John Haigh, and Fritz Haarmann. A.k.a., four particularly infamous ''{{Serial Killer}}s'', three of whom are also generally considered to have been pedophiles.
5	* Not as horrifying on an apocalyptic scale as most of the below-mentioned stuff is, but early on in the book Dresden shatters a fey lord into pieces. Which given the statement he was making is pretty awesome. But then he starts dancing with Mab as the pieces crunch under his feet. Harry dances with his queen on the crunching frozen gore of their enemies. There are ''supervillains'' who would draw the line at that.
6	* The terrifying reveal of what exactly ''is'' underneath Demonreach. The whole island was created and enchanted by the original Merlin, using magic so powerful that even '''Bob''' doesn't understand how it works. The kicker? All of that power was necessary because the island is a prison for {{Eldritch Abomination}}s so powerful that it has 6 ''Naagloshii'' in '''minimum security.''' The inmates are so powerful that the tiny amount of power leakage from all of the beings in the prison - in essence, their ''body heat'' - is the basis of the massive ley line of dark energy that runs beneath the island. If they ever get out, the world would ''end.'' [[SarcasmMode Don't worry, though.]] They'll never get out because if the enchantments on the prison fail, it triggers the fail-safe mechanism that will kill the majority of them and slow the survivors down long enough for reinforcements to arrive and get inevitably slaughtered. Oh, and that aforementioned fail-safe is an explosion that will take out most of North America.
7	** Just to cap it off, [[FridgeHorror try imagining]] what life must've been like for normal people ''before Merlin locked all those abominations away''.
8	** Oh, and there's at least one other way they can get out: As the Warden, Harry has the authority to ''release them''.
9	* While [[spoiler:He Who Walks Before]] (a.k.a. Sharkface) doesn't have nearly the same Nightmare Fuel quotient as He Who Walks Behind, he's still a creepy mofo. He's a tall, skeletal humanoid with a prehensile cloak, [[EyeScream scars where his eyes should be]], and a ridge of solid bone instead of teeth, and he's constantly drooling black saliva and has a seriously nasty psychic punch.
10	** It's still creepy as hell when you think about what his Name means. He Who Walks Behind, was always behind Harry, getting closer, and closer, and closer. With a guess [[spoiler:He Who Walks Before]] starts out beside you and walks further and further ahead, no matter how fast you run, you'll never be in time to save anyone because he's one step ahead of you. Either this is another advantage of Harry being a [[spoiler:Starborn, with power over Outsiders]], or he just didn't build up enough "distance" to render the situation entirely without hope.
11	** True to his kind, his first appearance is FridgeHorror. Just imagine sitting in a bar and a freaking EldritchAbomination comes in and threatens one of your fellow patrons. That's the stuff of nightmares.
12	*** More FridgeHorror. The Outsiders are under no laws like the White Council, no restrictions like angelic beings or fae (unless not being able to manifest in full power) and cannot be bound. And then they come after a specific individual...
13	* Titania's arrival in the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary after Harry summons her to get information on "the contagion" (a.k.a. Nemesis). Not only does she first manifest as a ''tornado'' touching down, but she lifts Harry up by his neck and rants about how she wants to inflict upon him such horrific torments that they would make "[[PretenderDiss Lloyd Slate's fate seem kind by comparison]]."
14	* The reveal of [[GreaterScopeVillain Nemesis]]. A sentient mental "disease" that [[MindControl subverts people]] to the cause of the [[EldritchAbomination Outsiders]]. Said to be responsible for most of Harry's major cases, and also corrupted the athame that was given to the Leanansidhe at [[Literature/GravePeril Bianca's masquerade party]], causing ''her'' to be infected, which in turn infected a Faerie Queen. What's worse? [[ParanoiaFuel There's no way to tell who's been infected,]] unless you confront them. If they're not infected, you look like you're crazy. If they ''are'' infected, they either [[HeKnowsTooMuch kill you]] or [[TheVirus infect you]].
15	* Mother Winter after Harry becomes desperate enough to summon her. Instead of her being summoned to Earth by the wizard, she ''grabs Harry by his face and pulls him through his gravesite into the farthest reaches of Faerie'', where he's pinned to the earth by her sheer willpower and trapped in absolute darkness. The only light being given off is from the sparks coming off her cleaver as she sharpens it, and Mother Winter then rasps to Harry how "I have a stew to make, and I will [[ImAHumanitarian fill it with your arrogant mortal meat]]." The only thing that makes the whole scene even creepier is how during this, Mother Winter's cleaver is described as being made of steel (''the'' KryptoniteFactor of TheFairFolk)... and the steel is ''[[TheWorfEffect visibly tarnishing under her very touch]]''.
16	-->'''Mother Winter:''' Ahhh, I like nice clean edges to my meat, manling. ''Time for dinner.''
17	* In the cottage shared by the Queen Mothers, Harry accidentally knocks over a jar, cracking it, and sees that the other jars in the vicinity include the black plague and countless other deadly diseases. The one he cracked? ''[[Literature/TheBible Wormwood]]''.
18	** What makes it even scarier [[FridgeHorror in hindsight]]? Those plagues were created by [[GrannyClassic Mother]] [[MotherNature Summer]], who shows them [[BewareTheNiceOnes the exact same tender attention which one might show to puppies or grandchildren]]. In all her (brief) appearances, Mother Summer ''seemed'' like [[OnlySaneMan a single truly good faerie in entire series.]] It is very easy to forget that she is just as powerful and [[LightIsNotGood utterly]] [[BlueAndOrangeMorality inhuman]] as Mother Winter.
19	* After his dismal failure at summoning Mother Winter, Mother Summer shows Harry [[EldritchLocation the Outer Gates]]. It's the literal ''border of reality'' where TheFairFolk wage a ForeverWar against [[EldritchAbomination the Outsiders]], and is described as looking like the Western Front of World War I cranked up to eleven. Suffice to say, what shortly follows Harry's full realization of what's at stake are easily the four most haunting words in the entire series.
20	-->'''Harry's Narration:''' [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm My senses and mind alike simply could not process everything I was seeing]]. But my heart was beating very swiftly, [[OhCrap and frozen fear had touched my heart]] like Mab's fingers.\
21	[[EldritchAbomination The Outsiders]] wanted ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt in.]]''
22	** The sheer scale of it all is what makes it truly horrifying on an existential level. As Harry looks around the battlefield, he realizes that the layers and mounds of shale making up the battlefield aren't actually shale, but ''bones''. '''Fossilized bones.''' Or, as he puts it, "millions and millions and millions of [[PrecisionFStrike fucktons]] of bones." '''That''' is how many who have fallen in service to defending the Outer Gates from the Outsiders.
23	** The timescale is also horrifying. This battle has always waged since the beginning of time. Only, time at the Outer Gates seems to pass much faster than in the mortal world. So for every few hours of fighting, dying, falling back and losing ground that the defenders of the Gates make it through, the mortal world only gets a few extra seconds of existence.[[note]]Granted, the fact that Harry came back to reality just after he'd left it implies that this was likely just a favor by the Mothers and the timescale might actually be slanted in ''favor'' of the mortal realm.[[/note]]
24	%%** The really horrifying thing? The one that had me feel like someone was hitting my brain's pressure points when I thought of it? An offhand comment Thomas made in ''Backup'', in the light of this new knowledge. He says that they almost wiped out the Fae, but "The G-Men" (aka, the Grimm Brothers and Gutenburg - he being the inventor of the printing press) stopped them. '''Imagine what would have happened if they succeeded'''. I don't think the Outsiders besieging the Outer Gates would have gone away nicely when their opponents faded away, do you? Even if an appropriate replacement could have been found, one with both the will and capacity - there is always confusion when one fighting force is pulling out, and another replacing it. Add to that the fact that the fairies would have had to either break contact for their replacements to step in, or fight until they disappear and have their replacements waiting behind them the entire time, a steady reminder of their own inevitable fate - it would have been a slaughter at a critical moment of weakness. And that's ''best case'', assuming the replacements could have been found ''before'' the fairies had completely lost their ability to hold the walls. Otherwise, the Venator in attempting to protect humanity, would have instead doomed it, and all of reality (possibly multiple realities, considering what Bob said), as Outsiders stormed walls undefended, Gates unguarded. The Gatekeeper of the time - the only one with the knowledge, apart from the Fae - would have either been slaughtered or elsewhere, trying to scare up replacements, and the Outsiders would have been able to sweep through all of reality. An army of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, whose only opponents suddenly vanish and suddenly have a nearly undefended reality, theirs to do with as they will. The road to Reality being overwritten by beings who make Giger look staid, Escher unimaginative, and Vlad Tepes kindly would have been paved with the best of intentions.
25	%%*** Not being known by mortals does not affect creatures in the Never Never, it only limits the power they can wield on the mortal plane.
26	%%** Even worse: Imagine all of the nasties that are currently allowed to rampage through the world only because the Venators wiped out their countermeasure. It's entirely possible that the Wild Hunt had something that served a similar function to it as Winter to the Outsiders, but because that something was more visible, it got wiped out. Basically the Venators are bad, and they should feel bad.
27	%%** The Venators aren't bad. They do the best with what information they have. Which makes it even scarier when they try to do what was described above. Takes [[PoorCommunicationKills Poor Communication Kills]] up to nuclear levels.
28	%%** WordOfGod has it that [[spoiler: the Archive secretly directs the Venatori under cover of her false claims of "neutrality". Presumably ''she'' knows the Winter Court is necessary, and wouldn't allow the Oblivion War to unmake them. Heck, one of Ivy's predecessors might even have introduced Mab to the Grimms for all we know.]]
29	* Nemesis "[[DemonicPossession assuming direct control]]" over Cat Sith. As in, Nemesis turns [[FightingFromTheInside a violently spasming Sith]] into a completely still EmptyShell through MindRape so as to have a MeatPuppet to kill Harry with. In particular, the description of the "smug, contemptuous self-assurance" in Sith's eyes being just ''gone'' is utterly chilling along with how "Not-Sith" turns Sith's head towards Harry in a graceless manner while speaking in a voice "[[CreepyMonotone completely devoid of anything like personality]]."
30	-->'''Not-Sith:''' [[SpockSpeak A pity. I would have been more useful to them as an active, covert asset.]]\
31	'''Harry:''' Like Mab wouldn't have figured it out. Like she did when you infected Lea.\
32	'''Not-Sith:''' [[PreMortemOneLiner Further conversation is not useful to our design.]] ''(jumps at Harry)''
33	* Nemesis corrupting Maeve's special veil which she covers Harry with, which turns all of his verbal peace offerings to Lily into threats, insults and taunts. And you won't know it unless you are looking for it. Excellent ParanoiaFuel and explaining how she managed to convert Lily to her side willingly.
34	** And here's a healthy dose of FridgeHorror; what if that power was zero Maeve, and fully Nemesis? It could put conflict between ''almost anyone''.
35	** And in a mix of both this trope and TearJerker, this scene has Lily finally flipping out and nearly killing Dresden. After going on a furious TheReasonYouSuckSpeech pointing out how [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Harry is (indirectly) responsible for]] saddling her with [[BlessedWithSuck the Mantle of the Summer Lady]], she basically hurls a miniature ''sun'' at him that conjures a column of fire '''thirty feet high with the width of a telephone pole''' where it lands. Literally the ''only'' reason Harry survived was that Fix was able to deflect the "mini-sun" from hitting Harry at the last second.
36	* The sheer MoodWhiplash when Maeve pulls out a gun and shoots Lily, who just wanted to do the right thing, and with it, taking Sarissa away from Mab.
37	** Then Murphy shoots Maeve dead on Mab's indication. Yeah, Nemesis literally forced Mab to kill her own daughter ''by proxy'' to save the world.

Context NightmareFuel / ColdDays