Through fields she trudged until she arrived at another barbed wire fence. Beyond it she could see the beginning of the forest. Between that, the flocks of birds they had discovered the day before lay dead and solid, a grim marker indicating where to go to follow Emily and Jake. But before that there was the wire, held by rotting wooden posts and disappearing into the distance on either side of the forest. Katie peeled her left glove back and peered at her watch, seeing under the stars’ reflections that a couple of hours had passed.
She busied herself with removing her rucksack and rummaging inside. She produced a blue blanket and folded it, placing it over the barbed wire. Fastening her rucksack again, she paused for a moment before climbing on the blanket. Underneath the material she could feel the razors sticking into her skin. It was painful, but she was numbed by the cold and her layers of clothes. She fell and landed on the embankment of snow on the other side of the fence, her jacket and thermal trousers ripping as she did. The tear went deep, and blood trickled from the scratches. As she moved across the field, droplets of blood followed, leaving tiny red stains against the white snow. The trees, although mourning the loss of dead leaves, were tall and thick enough to block out the moonlight, leaving only shadows.
It was then Katie realised that any fear she had previously felt was only a rehearsal compared to how she felt now. Now, she was truly held in terror’s grasp. She dropped her rucksack to the ground where it landed with a dull, soft thud. As she knelt by the bag, Katie couldn’t help but cry uncontrollably at the prospect of facing the creature that lay in wait for her inside the forest. So far none of this had seemed real but had been like a nightmare. But now, with the snow seeping through her clothes and blood trickling down her legs, her whole body screaming in protest, it suddenly felt real.
‘I have to go on,’ she said. ‘For their sakes, I have to go on.’
Wiping her stinging cold tears from her eyes, Katie took the large black heavy-duty torch and a hatchet from the bag. She stood and turned the torch on and instantly the beam cut into the trees. It was so cold here that white fog rose from the ground, covering the forest in a freezing mist, every bit as ghostlike as the breath leaving her mouth. Katie gripped the handle of the hatchet tightly for fear of it slipping away, and she stepped between the trees.
The snow was thinner here and easier to walk on. Her boots held to the familiar crunching ground with each step. The woods, however, were as quiet as a deadly secret and the only other sound was her own gasping breath. Katie’s nerves tickled unpleasantly with an eerie feeling that she was not alone. As she walked through the dark, slumbering trees, the feeling grew. However, she held onto that uneasy tingle, following the strength of it, using it like a sixth sense. She allowed it to take her into the maze of trees, until finally the beam of misty light from her torch fell upon her destination.
There was no mistaking this to be the grotto of the Child Eater. She gulped at the sight of it, not wishing to go further but knowing there was no turning away now. The torchlight formed a circle around the gaping, yawning maw of the tunnel. The dirt and snow, piled and overturned, made a mixture of twigs and soil, root and worm, scraped together with deep frozen claw marks in the frosted mud. She stepped closer and saw how the tunnel’s darkness consumed the light and gave no clue as to what waited in that miserable dark. Her eyes, however, were drawn as, in the entrance of the awful chasm, the torch illuminated discarded festive decorations. Moving into the cave, Katie stepped over sad and jagged baubles, crushed into the dirt, while dead fairy lights and filthy tinsel lay on the ground.
The entrance was huge and Katie was swallowed into it. Soil fell from the gouged ceiling that was riddled with tree roots and cobwebs. Mist swirled and danced around Katie’s boots like ghosts trying to trip her. She breathed in the dank air as thud, thud, thud went her heart, and the beam of light rattled in her glove, not from the cold but from the icy grip of fear. She thought back to when she was a child, when the dark held terrors created by her imagination. She was there now, dark and scared and alone. But her childhood memories also held her mother and she remembered being held and kissed. It soothed her, listening to the memories of her mother’s kisses and her father’s voice calling her name.
She sang to herself now. Her voice was timid, but the distraction helped.
‘Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.’
The tunnel, although wide, was low and Katie hunched as she walked deeper underground with only the thin beam of light keeping utter darkness at bay.
‘Oh what fun it is to ride, on a one horse open sleigh.’
The tunnel stopped its descent and opened into a chamber, with burrows cut into the earth. Again the beam of light flickered this way and that, wondering which way to go.
‘Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.’
There was a smell in there that overwhelmed the damp mustiness of the underground. It was an unmistakable aroma, one she had experienced many times. It was roasting meat, cooking in the heat of its own fat. Dread filled her heart as she followed the smell into a chamber. It was almost overwhelming as she entered. From the little light she brought, she could see a wooden table, the type found in a butcher shop. A stool was set at the end. A fireplace had been cut in the wall and dried twigs crackled on an orange flame. Above that, a large black iron pot bubbled and boiled. This was the least of it, for Katie’s attention was drawn to the table. A platter was set for dinner. A silver tray and dome cover twinkled in the dark. It was large and reflected Katie as she approached it.
She laid her hatchet on the table and pulled her glove off with her mouth. She had to see what the tray held. She had to see. She gripped the handle and closed her eyes and lifted the lid. She peered and the sight was as horrific as anything she had ever seen or would ever see again. Hog-tied and red like roasted swine, the meal was not her brother or her sister but someone else’s loved one, reduced to a recipe for the Child Eater. She gasped in horror and relief in one sickening mix. The dome lid fell back to the tray with a loud clatter that echoed into the tunnels. She held her hand to her mouth, biting on her fingers until they bled. There was no pain as the cold had taken it away, but she sobbed, tears rolling down her cheeks uncontrollably. She sobbed so much her sides ached. As the noise fell into the silence and the darkness, the echoes carried on into the dreaded tunnels.
To Katie’s horror, the chimes of sleigh bells answered the call. She listened, shaking and not daring to breathe. Yet the jingle bells heard her anyway and followed her fear, coming closer and closer. Slowly and precisely she turned to the entrance to see the shadow of der Kinderfresser sailing along the wall. The torch…the torch was still lighting the room. She fumbled for the button. The light refused to go out until the last moment and the room filled with merciful darkness. The shadow became form and entered the room. Katie ducked to the dirt; she crawled under the table and sat there with her arms around her knees, unable to move.
From her hiding place, she could see the Child Eater flow through the room with unnatural movements, but she could only see it from the waist down. This was enough for Katie to realise that the noise, the Christmas jingle that tempted children to their fate, came not from bells but from the set of cruel blades hanging from the creature’s rope belt. She could see in that horrific gloom the Child Eater’s leathery legs and its feet of sharp nails moving towards the boiling, bubbling pot.
Katie slowly reached her hand up and over, reaching for the hatchet on the table above, her fingers seeking the handle. She caught it and slipped into her hand, just as the Child Eater returned to the table. The creature sat on a stool. Katie could see its legs, mapped with boils and white pustules, and the scales covering its skin. Its legs were wrapped in black rags. She gripped the axe handle, shaking. The creature above began to attack the roast ravenously. As a smell like cooked and basted chicken filled the air, Katie knew that the ripping of cooked flesh and cracking of bone, the slurping of marrow that churned her stomach, w
as not from a fowl at all. She again held her hand to her mouth to stop herself from gagging.
Her gloveless hand. Her gloveless hand because her glove lay on the ground next to the Child Eater’s horrid foot. Katie spotted it as the chewing stopped and everything went still. Only her eyes moved. A chewed bone dropped to the dirt. The Child Eater reached for the glove with a long sinewy black arm. Its dark hair was bristled like that of a dead porcupine and its black beard fell to its feet. As it reached down, the Child Eater turned towards Katie, hiding under the table. As the white orb eyes took Katie in their glare, she was aware of her voice screaming, her body pushing itself out from under the table and standing to run. In one fluid movement the nightmare rose behind her, grasping and hissing. Katie spun, swung the hatchet and buried it in the Child Eater’s head, sending the creature writhing. It spun, trying desperately to grasp at the axe, but twisting and turning up the wall and along the ceiling like a poisoned spider.
Katie ran the tunnels, guided by the torchlight, until she tripped and fell into a larger chamber. The torch went spinning, as did Katie, falling into what she first thought to be twigs. They crunched and cracked as she crawled and rescued her torch, only to find she was sitting on a bed of bones. Some were chewed and snapped. They prickled her skin and tore her clothes in places. She frantically whipped the torchlight around the chamber. Skeletal parts and small human skulls covered every inch of the ground. There was a cold, cool smell to the area. The kind that fills the air when the freezer door is open. ‘All those children,’ she thought. ‘All those children in just one night.’
It was then that she heard weeping. Shining the torch in the sound’s direction, she came face to face with Jake, tied around the wrists and ankles with red ribbons, like a Christmas turkey. Next to him was Emily, tied similarly. All fear and exhaustion and madness in that moment left all three. Katie desperately untied them, pulling at the bindings. They cried and kissed each other and said prayers. Said how much they loved each other. With that done, they sobbed again and held each other more.
Katie pulled away. She wiped her tears and those of her brother and sister.
‘We have to leave. We’re all going to hold hands and go home.’
‘Then what?’ Emily asked, her voice choked with anxiety. ‘It will find us again.’
‘I don’t know, but we have to go,’ Katie replied, worry knotting her as she did her best to keep her feelings hidden.. Time was running out.
‘No,’ Jake said. ‘Christmas is almost over. We will be safe; we will be safe.’
The sisters looked at him. They pulled each other up. Katie used the torch to show them the way across the bones. Slowly they crossed the room. It was not unlike walking on broken glass, sharp and unsteady. No sooner had they left that darkest of rooms, than they heard the chimes.
‘Run. Just run.’‘ Katie took Jake’s small hand, and he then took Emily’s, and the three ran. The sound of the jingling knives came closer and closer until they felt foul breath at their necks.
They ran and stumbled and fell.. Katie pulled and screamed and they ran again. Lost in the dark, they followed the torch until they fell again and the torch smashed. Jake called out in panic , but Katie found him and hushed him as, through the dark and silence, the jingle blades crept closer and closer and closer still. Katie gripped the arms of her brother and sister, and they each dragged the other forward as fast as they could, with their exhausted legs wobbling like broken bones..
There was no way to tell if der Kinderfresser was only an inch behind, smiling in the dark and watching them stumble and fumble. Suddenly, the cold hit them with all the subtlety of air made of a wall of ice.. They paused to catch their breath, before running again through the trees and collapsing into the snow. The sky was now a light grey of clouds and, although dawn had not yet arrived, the moon had cast a silver veil over the woods. Katie checked to see if they were being followed, which they were, of course, but she could not see their hunter. She turned to Emily and Jake who were both still in their thin nightclothes and barefooted. They were turning shades of red and purple as they shivered in the snow.
‘Oh my God. You’re both freezing.’ Katie panicked and removed her winter jacket.
‘Really? I hadn’t noticed,’ commented Emily, still as sharp as the cold.
Quickly, Katie wrapped her coat around Jake. It buried him but would keep him warm. She then sat down and removed her boots, placing them on Jake’s poor feet.
‘Thank you’.’ He shivered. Katie smiled back in reassurance.
‘What about me?’ chattered Emily, white breath almost turning to solid ice as she spoke.
But Katie was also removing her socks. She had three pairs of thick dark woollen winter warmers and she helped put two pairs on Emily. She then removed one of the two jumpers she wore and placed it over her sister. The cold was still enough to brittle the bones. Katie noticed the silence and not even a breeze dared to make a sound.
‘Come on,’ she whispered while cautiously standing up and helping her brother.
‘What’s the point? We may as well let it have us. We’re probably going to freeze to death anyway’,’ Emily replied. Katie could see that her sister meant it. Emily was totally at a loss, and Katie clearly saw her resolve leaking into the snow.
Jake sobbed quietly.
‘Emily, listen to me. I have seen what that thing does. I’ve heard it, I smelled it and believe me you do not want that. We are going to run and hide and wait until help comes or Christmas ends. Whichever comes first.’
Emily thought for a moment and stood to join the other two. They trudged and huddled through the trees, until the dead woods watched them leave. The world that lay to greet them was pure white, and Katie knew they were lost. Yet somewhere in the back of her mind there was a familiarity about the bleak place. There were too many distractions for her to think on it further. She was so cold she could feel her skin chapping and beginning to crack. Her sister and brother were also becoming dark-eyed, and red sores split along their lips and pale skin. Katie turned to her brother. He stood shaking and pointing a sleeve at the woods. His eyes were wide and a puddle of urine had formed over his crotch and legs. Emily saw the thing too, and stood gasping.
‘Look, look.’ She could barely speak the words.
Katie followed their stares. She saw the creature dancing between the trees, jerking as if broken but moving with fluidity and floating all at the same time. It was nightmarish to see, so much so that Katie’s eyes watered before they could adjust to the strangeness of the movement. It was black as gangrenous rot, clothed in rags, its beard was dark needles and its coal Santa hat nearly hid its white orb eyes. Except now the left eye had burst from where Katie’s axe had severed it previously. Tied around its back with rope was a sack to keep the children in, while around its waist were the skinning knives that chimed as the Child Eater skipped on long gangly legs that seemed to be made of too many knees. And despite is tall frame, not one flake of snow was disturbed on the ground. Such was the lightness of its touch. Yet this horror was nothing compared to the grin that spread across its face. Thin lips opened, revealing teeth as sharp as razors and as white as pearls. A tongue, like a juicy red slug, slid over those teeth, savouring the feast that would follow.
‘Come on,’ Katie shouted and once again urged her siblings. But as they left the woods, the land went uphill and the snow was up to their knees and to Jake’s thighs. He fell and Katie quickly dragged him along. He was heavy and she too began to feel the strain pullingher to the cold, drowning snow. They could only pant for air as they fought to climb the hill. The Child Eater meanwhile slowly followed, grinning and grinning, in no apparent hurry. Katie glanced and watched as those horrible long fingers plucked a long dark blade from its belt.
By a miracle they covered the crest of the hill, barley able to stand, never mind run. They looked at each other; Emily shook her head at Katie, her eyes wide with desperation. At that moment Katie saw, at the bottom of the oth
er side of the hill, her dreams given form. A set of run-down, broken and snow-covered work buildings sat within a broken fence. Some were missing doors and others had torn walls with wooden frames exposed to the world.
‘We have to hide, there,’ she said pointing.
‘I can’t go on,’ Jake bemoaned. ‘I just want to sleep.’
‘Of course you can, my brave boy. Of course you can’.’ She lifted him against her and let him lean on her. Despite the jacket he was icy to the touch. She wrapped her other arm around Emily, and they almost rolled down the hill, swept along with a mini avalanche of snow. Arriving at the high chain-link fence that surrounded the abandoned complex, Katie found a hole in the chains and pulled at it, opening the gap further. The metal was so cold that it seared her hands, and she couldn’t help but scream as she held on with the last of her strength. Meanwhile, Emily helped Jake through the fence.
‘He’s coming,’ warned Emily, pointing back to the hill after she went through the fence.
Katie scrambled through the hole, letting the links go. As she did so a corner piece scraped her leg, ripping into her trousers and gashing her leg. Quickly a puddle of red formed on the snow as Katie collapsed, gritting her teeth through the white-hot pain in her leg. Katie began to crawl.
‘Just go,’ she said. ‘Run.’
Katie, Emily and Jake, battered, exhausted and bleeding, finally got to their feet. Jake could only hop from one foot to the other, unsure what to do and held in the grip of anxiety. Unable to run and unable to hide, each with the thought they were going to die, they slowly walked to a ramshackle building.
A Christmas Horror Story Page 5
