Enjoy my original short Christmas horror tale. It is copyrighted, so
please just share the link with your friends so they can come and read
it here.
By Midnight (Copyright by Pamela K. Kinney)
You better watch out, you better not cr. . . .
A
strange jabbering woke her from her nightmare. Mrs. Piers sat up and
switched on the lamp on the bedstead by her bed. Light flowed over her
and the bed, banishing the darkness back to corners of her bedroom. The
only other light came from moonbeams stretching fingers through the
glass of the window .
Nothing. Must have been a revenant from the nightmare. She stared at the clock. Shoot! She’d overslept. The woman leaped out of bed, showered, and dressed in her custodial uniform.
It
was Christmas Eve, but that didn’t matter, as she was scheduled to work
tonight. It had proven to be the only way to get Christmas Day and
night off. As she walked into the eat-in kitchen, her daughter, Jenny,
brought their dinner, bowls of chicken noodle soup, to the table. Both
sat and began to eat, though Jenny only ate a few spoonfuls of soup.
Mrs.
Piers lost her husband a year ago and had to go to work to pay the
mortgage on the house, besides to support both her and Jenny. Luckily,
she saw the ad for someone to clean the local hospital during third
shift and when she applied, she got it. That meant leaving her daughter
alone in the house at night. A pretty teenage girl going through changes
due to puberty could get into trouble, least what she had heard.
So far, nothing happened. Knock on wood.
Tonight though was Christmas Eve. Though Jenny promised she would go to bed early after watching It's A Wonderful Life
on TV, as she admitted to feeling ill all day. Still, Mrs. Piers felt
uneasy. Jenny handed Mrs. Piers her purse and bagged lunch, and followed
her mother to the front door.
Mrs. Piers said, “I feel uneasy about leaving you alone tonight. Don’t know why either.”
“’Night,
Mom.” Jenny threw open the door. “I’ll make sure the place is locked up
tight, besides, I’m sixteen! Geesh!” She shook her head. “What do you
think could happen?”
Mrs. Piers reminded her. “There have been those people that vanished.”
The
girl snorted. “That was last Christmas and they were homeless people
that disappeared from a shelter downtown, not teenagers. There’s been
nothing since. The police even said they think the men just snuck out of
the building and took off for parts unknown.”
Mrs.
Piers needed to get to work, so she stepped out into the night. The
moon and a few stars sparkled up in the black velvet of the sky. Many
houses had Christmas lights and other decorations. The whole street was
lit up. Some people strolled along the neighborhood, only stopping to
view the lights. Everything looked innocent and Christmasy. Nothing
scary.
She whistled to the Christmas music that sang from the radio as she drove to the hospital.
****
As
Jenny turned to go back indoors, a tease of jabbering reached her from
the darkened area beneath a tree on the side of their home. A squirrel? This late though?
With a shrug as she heard nothing further, Jenny locked the door and
ambled into the living room. Raps resounded on the glass of the sliding
doors that led to the back yard. Her friends and the guys they brought
were here. Thank God, her mother had left already. Unlocking, she let in
two girls and three boys. They strolled past her into the house,
carrying bags of snacks and drinks, along with stuff for entertainment.
Jenny shut the door and stared as they began to set up. One of the boys
put two bags in the living room, while Lisa and other set bags on the
kitchen counter and began taking things out. Things like bags of chips,
cans of nuts and microwave popcorn overflowed the counter. Jenny thought
back to the last day of school, just before Christmas vacation.
Jenny’s
friends, Lisa and Debbie, had approached her as she was taking things
out of her locker at school and jamming it all into her bookbag.
“Hey,” said Lisa, leaning a shoulder against the ,locker next to Jenny’s. “Your mother works all night—right?”
Jenny slammed the door on her locker and slung her bookbag over one shoulder. “Yeah, but you knew that. So?”
Debbie
grinned. “Well, our parents will be out at a party that night until two
o’clock. Be kinda cool to have a party without adults staring over our
shoulders. There are these three guys—”
Jenny
finished for her, “and you two have the hots for two of them. Guess the
third was dug up for me? An incentive to have the party at my house?”
Lisa shrugged. “Well, your mom is gone all night—”
Jenny
sighed. The other girls looked at her. She nodded. “I don’t feel good
about this, but all right.” She shook a finger. “Not all night, okay.
Just ‘til midnight.”
Lisa
grinned. “Of course, we don’t want to do it all night. Christmas is the
next day and we want to be rested for that. Besides our parents will be
home by 2 a. m., so midnight is great.”
Jenny
had been worried about agreeing then. Wore, all day today, she had not
been feeling good. Couldn’t eat and stayed in her room most of the day,
as her stomach twisted into tight knots. Least the need to barf had
calmed down. It was only until midnight. She could handle that. Surely?
She
chided herself. It’s not as if there would be alcohol. . . One of the
boys, a tall, gangling one, laughed as he lifted a six-pack of beer out
of a grocery bag. Another boy, dressed all in black and sporting
earrings in his big ears, nose, and even his lower lip, laughed too,
braying like a donkey.
Jenny’s
stomach boiled as she fought not to run to the bathroom. She stomped
over to Lisa and Debbie who were opening packages of cookies and bags of
chips as they gossiped.
She grabbed Lisa’s arm, snarling. “You didn’t say there would be alcohol!”
Lisa
glanced with disinterest as the boy withdrew another six-pack of beer.
“Wellllll. . .I never said there wouldn’t be. John’s adult brother got
them for him at the liquor store tonight.”
Debbie piped up. “It’s not like we’ll all get drunk on twelve bottles of beer, Jenny.”
Jenny
blinked. Debbie wasn’t the brightest girl in town. Remembering the
incident with Debbie and the horse last year, well, not even in the
whole world either.
She sighed. “All right, but be forewarned, first time anyone starts to act drunk, the party is over and everyone goes home.”
Lisa shrugged a shoulder. “Sure. That’s doable.”
Lisa
popped in a DVD of a Christmas comedy she brought and both she and
Debbie settled on the couch, a boy each nestled against them. Lisa got
John, who was the tall, gangling type with the beer, while Debbie got
Roy, plump and dumb. Jenny ended up with Spider on the floor. Spider was
the goth who brayed like a mule earlier. She had thumped down in the
chair that matched the couch, but Spider had slithered in like a snake
about to snatch its next victim, sliding his arms round her so Jenny got
down on the floor. Unfortunately, so did Spider, looping an arm over
her shoulders.
“You know why they call me Spider?” he whispered into her ear. “It’s like I got eight arms.”
It
felt like he had eight hands too. They slid up and down her body,
searching for permanent places to nest. Like her breasts, and other
unmentionable spots.
She
hissed in his ear, digging an elbow into his ribs. “Hands to yourself. I
don’t know you enough for you to do that. Honestly, in my opinion, that
will be never ever. Understand?”
He glowered as he grabbed the bottle of beer beside him. “Your friends didn’t say you be a class A bitch.”
He
took a swig of beer and ignored her after that, staring at the
television. Which was fine with her. Jenny rose to her feet and headed
for the kitchen to get herself a bottle of soda and some snacks.
Alone,
she opened the fridge and peeked in when she heard a sound. Closing the
door, she listened and heard it again. It sounded like someone saying
something, except so slow that Jenny couldn’t catch the words. It came
from the back of the house. Jenny stared down the shadow-dark hallway. A
chill skittered up her spine. The only people in the house were her and
her guests.
The jabbering grew a little louder. Now, it sounded like there was a crowd back in wither hers or her mother’s bedroom.
She
jumped when something touched her shoulder. Her pounding heart slowed
when she realized it was Spider. His bottle hanging limp from his
fingers, the boy’s brow knitted together.
“What’s going on?” He peered down the hall. “I thought we were the only people tonight? Your mother working, right?”
Jenny rubbed her arms with her hands, as she felt cold. “She is. We are.”
“Hey, what’s going on? Sneaking off to do some neckin’?” Lisa and Debbie plus their guys joined them.
Spider
pointed with the neck of his now empty bottle at the hallway. “No.
Doesn’t that sound like people are talking back there?”
Debbie bit her lip. “Really?” She turned to Jenny. “Thought you said your mom was at work.”
Jenny spat out. “She is. We’re supposed to be the only living bodies in the house tonight.”
Debbie giggled. “Cool. Maybe it’s ghosts.”
Lisa
snorted. “There are no such things as ghosts, dummy. It’s just Jenny
playing a trick on us.” She merged with the darkness as she walked down
the hallway. “I’ll prove it. Hey, John, coming?”
John
asked, “You sure you want me? I mean, I doubt there’s anything back
there.” He gave Spider a nasty glance. “Spider watches too many horror
flicks, you ask me.” But when Lisa told him to come with her, he hustled
to join her..
Jenny
heard the rustling of their clothing, their footsteps barely audible on
the carpeted floor. All sound quiet as even the voices stopped. She
back stepped until she found herself against Spider’s front. His odor
flowed over her. He stunk of sweat, some male cologne and . . . . fear?
How would she know what fear smelled like?
Lisa called out. “Hey, there’s a glow coming from a bedroom back here. It looks like—“
Silence. Nothing from her or John.
Debbie said, “Lisa? Lisa?” Roy yelled, “Yo, John?”
Lisa didn’t answer. John neither.
More
chills skittered along Jenny’s nerves. She was ready to turn around and
get her cell lying on the coffee table in the living room, then dial
911. But she didn’t as Debbie, along with Roy and Spider tiptoed to
where Lisa and John were. Spider hadn’t wanted to, but Roy dug his
fingers into the thinner boy’s shoulder and forced him along.
Jenny called out. “Come back. I’m going to call the—“
Suddenly,
screams and growls rent the air. Frightened, and not even looking back,
Jenny bolted, snatching her cell phone and the house keys. She ran out
of the house, not even shutting the door behind her.
Breathing
heavy, she stopped in the street and stared back at the looming
darkness of the open doorway. Nothing surged out of it, not the others
or whatever had gotten them. With a shaking hand, she called her mother
at the hospital. After she got off the phone, she felt pain wash over
her. Smells rushed at her. Iron-like, like when there was bleeding. She
drooled. Confused and still in agony too, she leaned against a car
parked on the street. Until she realized it was Lisa’s car, then she
stumbled across the street. She stayed there.
Thirty
minutes later her mother drove up and after parking the car on the
street, joined Jenny who hugged her, crying. “Mom, something’s in the
house, and it got Lisa and Debbie.”
Her mother patted her back. “Did you allow them in the house?”
Jenny
sniffed. “Yeah. I allowed them and three guys to have a party of sorts
at our house. Now something has got them and it’s my fault.”
Her mother nodded. “It is, Jenny. Mine too.”
Jenny
looked at her mother and noticed how strange her face looked in the
light of the moon. A kind of blurring. “What do you mean?”
“After
your father died, I was called back to my people. But they wouldn’t
allow you to come with me. I couldn’t leave you. Oh no. They said you’re
a halfling. That you couldn’t survive in my world. But I noticed you
had some of my powers, something most Halflings never inherited from
their few parent. So staying here, I had to get a job to support us, but
still worried about leaving you alone as you were entering puberty and
with puberty for a fey, the changes come. Some of my people came to stay
with us.”
Jenny
backed out of her mother’s arms. “What do you mean? I never saw anyone
but us in the house since daddy died. And what’s a fey?”
Her
mother sighed. “That’s because of the glamour. Like what I use to keep
me appearing human to humans, like your father. A fey is another word
for what humans call fairies. I am part of one race of the Sidhe. We can
change shape with will, besides having other powers.”
Jenny
saw with shock as her mother’s form shorted out like a television
reception. Where her mother had stood, a tall, pale being with
shimmering hair that fell to its feet towered over her. It gave a parody
of a smile, revealing a mouthful of cannibal sharp fangs. “I saw your
father from a distance when he was hiking with friends in the mountains
and I fell in love with him. So I stepped from my world into his,
changed my looks, and made him fall in love with me. I don’t need to
feed most of the year on what my kind subsist on normally, but on
Christmas Eve, before midnight, the hunger calls to me. So I would sneak
out to hunt my prey as your father slept deeply due to enchantment. It
grew worse when I became pregnant with you. I had to feed for two then.”
Her
mother snatched her up and they flew to the house, entering. The door
slammed shut behind them without a sound. Jenny was let go and she found
herself standing over Spider. A crowd of beings like her mother
surrounded them, blood on their lipless mouths and bare skin. Her mother
pointed at the scared boy.
“You’re
half fey, dear, and you must eat the right food tonight to survive.
Just as our relatives had gnawed on your friends. Just as I fed on a
dying person at the hospital earlier tonight. Your magic is growing
stronger each day and if you don’t feast on human flesh before the first
strike of midnight, you will burn up. Don’t you feel the heat in you
now? It’s our particular type of fairies’ Christmas curse.”
Jenny
did. It felt like a roaring fire centered in her. It hurt. She stared
down at Spider and saw how large and rounded his eyes had become. Even
smelled his fear like an overpowering perfume. The pulse at his throat
drew her eyes. It teased her, begged her to take a bite. But his hands
interested her more. Spider had wanted his hands on her earlier that
night. She had said no then. Why not be in a place they should? Like her
mouth? Yes.
With
a smile, Jenny leaned over, her jaws popping to accommodate the
feeding. She grabbed Spider’s hands as he tried to screamed, but
couldn’t, thanks to the magic she used.
His hands tasted so good when they were in the right spot. Like down her throat and in her tummy.
the end.
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