12 Deaths of Christmas

by Paul Sating

  But then my thoughts were ripped from my mind. Ahead, the snow-covered road exploded, a cloud of white erupting into the air. I put the car in reverse in case I needed to make an escape from whatever was happening in front of me.

  An escape to where? half of my broken mind laughed. A dark form emerged in that cloud as the snow settled.

  The creature was hard to make out between the street lights and heavy snow, but I could see enough to tell that it was over eight feet tall. Its long arms reached well past its knees, past thighs three times thicker than its calves, twice as thick as a human’s torso. The creature’s legs would have reminded me of a mountain goat’s legs if they weren't so massive.

  As the cloud surrounding it was blown away, the monstrosity became clearer. It shook itself, clumps of snow falling off in small frozen pieces. Then, straightening its back, the beast stretched out its massive wings.

  Something inside the car whimpered.

  I was still alone.

  The wingspan of this monster was at least 30 feet.

  I didn’t think to move. I didn’t think to back up and try to race away. There was no way to get away from something like that, not in these conditions. If I tried it would chase me down. I slowly reached over to make sure the car doors were locked, doubting it would do anything to stop this beast.

  The gun.

  Without taking my eyes off that thing, I searched the passenger seat. When my hand wrapped around the grip, I pulled the gun into my lap, feeling a sense of confidence I didn’t deserve.

  The creature stepped toward me, tufts of soft snow exploded with each powerful foot it planted. All I could see was a dark outline of a demon from hell. Somehow, I knew that thing could see me.

  The wind whipped around my car, howling through the tiny seams as if this beast controlled the weather too and was trying to shatter my mind.

  It stopped, standing taller and beating its wings as it tilted its head towards the sky and loosed a horrendous screech. Even at this distance, through my sealed vehicle, I winced. The sound was so loud, so clear, it was as if I was standing outside next to it.

  Covering my ears, I refused to let go of the pistol. The pain was excruciating. My teeth rattled. It felt like someone was prying into my ear canal with a stake.

  The screech went on and on.

  And then it was gone, cut off as quickly as it started.

  For a brief moment, I heard nothing but the promise of a truce. It had left. I shivered, just me and the power of nature as the first snow blew through Ember Lake.

  I’d survived. The thing had let me live.

  My car shook in rhythm with the thumping of the demon’s wings. Pulling my hands away from my ears, I risked a look up. The creature had lifted itself off the ground. There, in the middle of Ember Lake’s Main Street, this beast of hell hovered ten feet off the ground, facing me. Behind its darkened face, I imagined it examining me. I felt violated. As if it wanted me to watch, the beast turned and flew into the night.

  I waited as the thumping of its wings faded. Sitting in my car for what felt like an eternity, I was unable to think or move. What was that thing and why did it spare me?

  When it had killed others.

  Had it spared Max too?

  Whatever the answer, I was alive and it was gone. But it might be back. I had to get to safety. But where was safety?

  Then I remembered what Smithy told me. He told me to get inside, to get out of the white night. He knew! He knew what was going to happen and instead of explaining the horrors that waited in the storm, he served cryptic warnings to save himself. Was the white night the same reason my mother urged me to get to Max?

  My mother.

  I had to get home to them. That thing might come back and, when it did, it wasn’t going to find me sitting here, a sacrifice.

  Putting the car in drive, I gunned the engine; the tires spun. For a second, I thought I was stranded. Maybe the demon anticipated that. That was why it left, to go kill more difficult prey, saving me for later because it knew I was stuck?

  Throwing the car into first gear, I tried again, breathing once more when the familiar sound of snow crunching under tires told me that I’d succeeded. The car jerked when I reached the place where that thing launched itself into the night. Its powerful flapping had cleared a broad swathe of snow from the road. In fact, as far ahead as I could see, the gray surface of blacktop carved through the white world around it.

  Within a few minutes, I was driving up the mountain, the town—and Max—falling behind me.

  I felt guilty about leaving Max, but there was nothing I could do for him. Not with my car, not with this small pistol. Once I got back to the cabin I would try to call him. Even if Max didn’t answer, I could take Dad’s truck and his guns. I’d be ready and capable of saving him then.

  I had a plan. There was something I could do.

  So why was I bothered?

  Then: clarity.

  A disturbing thought no more.

  The road was clear of snow except for the fresh dusting falling from the sky. Completely clear. From the spot where that monstrosity faced me down in the middle of town to all the way out here.

  Just for me.

  It made no sense. The town bunkered down against the storm. Only me and that thing were out in the elements.

  It had cleared the road.

  Why?

  I couldn’t deny what I was seeing. Blacktop cleared of all but the newest dusting of snow. I picked up speed, dismissing the obvious problem in my urgency to make sure my parents were safe and to prepare for my search for my boyfriend. Urgency required speed.

  Gripped by fear, I pushed the gas down and pushed myself through the apprehension of being too risky. I was less than a mile away from the cabin when I noticed the end of the cleared road. It stopped just behind my turn-off. The demon was done doing me any favors.

  It didn’t matter; I was almost home.

  Using the trees that lined the road as a guide, I navigated up the path to the cabin.

  Halfway up, the car got stuck. The only way I was getting to my parents was on foot. Mentally exhausted, I got out.

  As I opened the door that horrific screech filled the night air again.

  This time I didn’t cower. My parents needed me.

  The creature was here. Close.

  “No!” I pulled the pistol up and aimed at everything and nothing at the same time. This far out into the mountains there was no artificial light. Here, the world was untouched, untainted by mankind. The night was at its blackest. I couldn’t see anything except the few feet in front of me. The single light glowing in the living room was my only guide. The blackness cloaked the demon.

  I found the energy to slip and slide my way up the driveway. I couldn’t hear anything over top of my breathing, but once I bounded up the stairs I noticed how silent the night was.

  Too silent.

  Branches cracked back down the hill. I spun, aiming the gun where I thought I’d heard the noise.

  Nothing moved on the ground, but the night sky was alive with malevolence.

  Close, but distorted by wind cutting through the forest, the thumping of the creature’s wings filled the night. Slow and methodical, they beat against the cold air.

  It was here and it was on the other side of the cabin.

  I reached out for the door handle. It seized up and my mind imagined all the horrible ways I was going to die at the hands of this beast. My chest relaxed when I cranked on the handle and it spun. The door popped open, rubbing against the uneven floor. I jumped inside, slamming and locking it.

  My mother sat in the same chair I left her in, staring at me as if I was a madman.

  How had she not heard anything going on? Why wasn’t she half as frightened as I was? “Mom,” I huffed, “are you okay?”

  She smiled, setting her knitting aside. “Of course I am, honey. But you look like you’ve seen the devil.”

  Had I?

  “Mom, something, somet
hing happened. Is the back door … the windows … are they locked?”

  A quizzical, half-humored, look passed over her face. “Heavens no, honey. Why?”

  How could I tell her about the horrors I’d seen? Dad’s accident had robbed her of more than her share of a normal life. I dashed across the cabin to the back door, throwing the deadbolt. A sense of security came with the pleasant sound of the metal cylinder sliding into the lock. My heart stopped thudding so forcefully that it no longer moved my rib cage. Taking deep breaths, I tried to control my heavy breathing. Mom didn’t need to be upset. She didn’t need to know. I would stay up all night if I needed to, making sure my parents were safe. In the morning, if we survived, we’d leave. No matter how much snow the white night dumped on the world.

  The door had six small windows framed in it. I backed away, feeling too exposed. Standing inside the cabin meant that whatever might be out there could see me and I couldn’t see it.

  Something thudded on the deck. The window in the kitchen next to me rattled. The lump in my throat caught.

  Another booming thud.

  The creature was outside.

  Reaching as far as I could without moving in front of the door, I flicked on the deck lights …

  … and stared into the face of a demon.

  Its black, leathery skin was wrinkled and hairless, matching the utter absence of color of the night. The creature stood taller, as it had when it faced me down in the street, filling my view through the door. Its wide mouth opened. I swore that it was smiling. Looking at its gaping maw, its pointed teeth were covered in blood. I whimpered. Chunks of pink meat were caught between some of the teeth. Even without horns, this thing looked like something out of the depths of hell.

  It stepped closer, ponderous footfalls splintering the deck, reaching out with its ridiculously long arm. Its fingers were knuckled and jointed in at least three places. Graceless, black nails—claws—extended three inches beyond the ends of its fingers. The nails scratched the iron door handle.

  I backed away, raising the gun at the creature, looking into its eyes.

  It’s intelligent eyes. Familiar eyes.

  Almost human.

  The gun shook loose from my grip, thumping to the floor.

  Mom called out from the front room. She sounded annoyed, like when I was little and interrupted her shows with my playing. Or all those times since Dad’s accident when he asked her the same question over and over about going home. “What are you doing, Kai? Don’t lock the back door. Your father will be home soon.”

  Dad would be coming home? From where? He didn’t go anywhere alone; she didn’t let him. He couldn’t. He hadn’t driven since the accident in the woods. Since his first disappearance. How would he get around? He couldn’t be walking around in the storm; he’d get lost, like all those times before when …

  Mom answered my unasked questions as the realization struck. My father never came back out of the mountains after his accident all those years ago.

  Something else had.

  She said, “He went out to get a bite to eat.”

  END

  Hung by the Fire

  Blood surged through its loins as it watched the human. The Sender bit down, its fang piercing its bottom lip.

  It didn’t even wince.

  Pain was life.

  Satisfied that the game had begun, it turned back toward the forest. The trees parted as it approached as if they feared the Sender’s touch.

  ***

  Jeremy Baker let the front door drift closed after grabbing the paper someone left on his door stoop. He’d heard something from his sofa, where he was comfortably masturbating to girl-on-girl porn on his sixty-inch television. The noise interrupted what was otherwise a wonderful jerk session. But this was the Christmas season, and he’d ordered a few things off the Internet, and that sounded like someone dropping a package. Leaving packages sitting on the stoop, especially around Christmas, was a sure way of helping an order disappear. Living around a bunch of white trash neighbors almost guaranteed that. They’d steal the package before it even collected a few water droplets from the spitting sleet, stealing with the same hands they clasped in prayer every single Sunday.

  Bastards, each and every one of them.

  What he saw when he opened the door wasn’t what he expected. A tightly rolled piece of yellowed paper lay on his doormat, almost like someone placed it there with great care. The scrolled paper sat parallel with his doormat and front door. A red wax seal, centered on the scroll, peered up at him. Someone had intentionally laid this here for him to find.

  As he squatted to pick it up, a stiff breeze blew up his open robe. It felt good, encouraging his cock back to life after the ruined masturbation session. He wondered if any of the neighbors in the apartments across the way were looking out their windows at this moment. Exhibiting his man-meat for some horny unemployed housewife or girlfriend was exhilarating. The apartments held more than a few sluts; he knew that from watching them at the community pool during the summer. If they liked this sight maybe he could entice them to come over for a visit? Or invite him to their place? That would be fun too, especially if their husbands or boyfriends were working.

  Jeremy smiled at the thoughts of debauchery as he ran his thumb over the seal. Something was written on it. Letters bordered an outer circle, spelling out something he couldn’t decipher.

  Probably Russian. He couldn’t be sure.

  What he couldn’t make out in the lettering, Jeremy could easily see in the picture within the seal. A small figure in a forest scene. The figure had thick hind legs and looked like a goat with a human torso. Its face was indistinguishable. The details were so fine he could see matted hair on the figure’s thighs and its split hooves. Whatever the picture was supposed to depict, this was impressive artwork.

  Why did someone leave the scroll?

  An accident?

  The leathery feel of the aged paper and the fine detail of that seal implied opulent grace and, even Jeremy would admit, that was something he lacked.

  Surely it was someone else’s delivery.

  This was not meant for him or someone really fucked up their Christmas shopping. But then the thought hit him. As a teen, he went to the mall often, and not just for the girls. There was a comic book store that sold the hentai books he would soon become addicted to. Later, when he was older and after the advent of the Internet, he started buying them online. They were edgy and exciting, delivering on the promises of discrete, nondescript packages. Months later he found a visionary of an artist and started a monthly donation to support him in return for exclusive content. Jeremy wondered if this scroll was the surprise bonus the artist promised his patrons months ago. The artist promised to feature girls he didn’t typically release publicly.

  That could only mean one thing.

  Sweat formed on Jeremy’s top lip at the thought. Saliva bubbled in the corner of his mouth.

  Jeremy grabbed his hairdryer. He wanted to keep this seal intact as much as possible, it would probably be a collector’s item one day.

  This could be a gift from Haley. That little slut had promised him something special for Christmas, supplementing it with that cute giggle she used to hide her particularly perverse nature. The younger guys didn’t get it; that level of aggression from a woman was incomprehensible to teen boys. But Jeremy did. He loved it. She was mentally well beyond her chronological age, and that body…

  Oh, what a body!

  Now heated, the wax seal popped loose, still intact. His heart skittered as he set it off to the side to make sure that it remained that way.

  Taking one last, long breathe—god, how he loved the way Haley teased—he slowly unfurled the letter. The rich paper gasped at its release.

  Jeremy held the letter away from his face, arm extended. He’d left his glasses on the coffee table—porn was better when you could see it in clear detail—now forgotten at the promise of this new adventure with a real life slut.

 
; Moving the letter back and forth, further and closer, Jeremy squinted to read the few simple words written on it.

  I’ve called you by your name; you are mine.

  Oh, Haley truly was being naughty this Christmas, Jeremy smirked. What wicked plans was she concocting?

  The mall would be crowded this afternoon, filled with last-minute shoppers absentmindedly trying to fulfill the insatiable appetite of their equally insatiable, materialistic loved ones.

  The perfect type of night to hang out there.

  Hundreds of young, tight bodies in even tighter pants, idly milling between stores, hanging out at the slushy stand, picking up waffle cones filled with high-calorie ice cream. They could afford that; youth was on their side. For now.

  He was planning on heading to the mall after he was done jerking off anyway. This new opportunity solidified his plans. He hadn’t anticipated seeing her so soon after their last exhausting fuck. Jeremy wiped away the spot of blood from the bottom lip he hadn’t realized he was biting.

  I’m going to tear into her, he thought as he undressed in front of the mirror and started the shower. Waiting for the water to heat, Jeremy examined his naked body. He wasn’t in the shape he used to be in during his 20s and now, as he approached 40, time was winning the battle. A healthy diet and regular exercise were never high on his list of things to do, but he’d at least maintained a decent shape for the girls during his younger years.

  Now he was becoming circular, bulges appeared in places where he couldn’t tuck them away in a waistband to hide them from an unreasonable and hypercritical world.

  He slapped his flabby stomach in disgust. Thankfully there were still young women out there who didn’t care about men with enhanced bodies. They just wanted to be treated right. And he could do that. He had an income that boys their age couldn’t dream to match. Had a nice car, he’d made sure of that. Cars were whore magnets. And his respectable home outdid what most of the cunt’s parents could offer them.

  As long as they stayed away from his office there wouldn’t be any problems.

  His mouth filled with spit; his cock stiffened even as he looked at his flabby form. After a few hours at the mall, watching tight bodies saunter between stores, he’d devour Haley. She’d learned so much since she started college in the fall.