A Christmas Horror Story (7 page)

‘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 other 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.

‘What is this place?’ Emily asked, despite the monster behind sniffing at their tracks.

Katie knew, but she dared not reply. This was where the old Victorian mineshaft had once claimed the lives of all fifty miners. This was the old Victorian mineshaft that claimed the life of two hikers, walking in a winter storm. This was the old Victorian mineshaft that had claimed her father as he helped the rescue effort. This was the place she had seen in her dream. This was where she watched her father die. And maybe, just maybe, if monsters were real, the warnings of the dead were real and powerful also, and the warnings of loved ones even more so. The metal and wood tower that had lowered miners two hundred feet below into the dark ground had been removed years ago, but Katie knew where the entrance waited, weighted heavy with snow and so precarious for any one walking over the thin layers. Just as her father had once done.

‘Emily, stop here.’ Katie held her sister back. Emily’s face flickered with confusion and Katie kissed her cheek. ‘No more,’ she said’. ‘No more running.’ Katie collapsed and sat in the cold, bringing her brother down with her and gently cradling him. Emily shrugged and joined them. She snuggled in with the other two.

‘Are you scared?’ Jake asked. His eyes were closed and it was as if he was talking in his sleep. Katie knew otherwise. Hypothermia had settled within him. All things considered, letting Jake sleep in her arms was preferable to what was walking towards them.

‘Not anymore,’ Katie replied. She felt weak. Her leg was warm with blood but she felt the bitterness of the cold and her head felt strange, as if it had no weight at all.

‘I don’t want to look,’ Emily whispered.

‘Then don’t,’ Katie said, almost in a dream. The Child Eater stood only a few feet away amongst the broken buildings and the snow. Black as black against the grey, moon-bathed snow.

‘
Du warst sehr ungezogene Kinder, sehr frech in der Tat.
’ It spoke through those icicle teeth with breath cold and black as swamp mist. It stepped forward.

‘
Du warst sehr ungezogene Kinder, sehr frech in der Tat.
’ Angry and louder, the Child Eater stepped forward in huge strides towards it prey. It pulled the sack from its scaled black back and the sack opened like a chasm.

‘
Du warst sehr ungezogene Kinder, sehr frech in der Tat.
’‘ The blade came out—a hook for Christmas dinner.

And it stepped forward again, but before it could step any further, the snow and the wood that covered the mineshaft gave way, and with a creak and a snap the Child Eater and a large circle of the false ground disappeared into the deep void.

The gust from the collapse shook Emily. She looked through squinted eyes as debris billowed from the cavern. She stood blinking. Jake and Katie lay still, eyes closed. She staggered, dazed, to the edge of the gorge. The air was even colder around the top of the mine, suspended in the nothingness. She stepped closer and, shivering, dared to look over the edge. The walls that disappeared to naught were smooth and sheer. Yet the creature managed to hang on to the side. Its claws were deep in the dirt walls and when it spied Emily staring down at it, the thing scorned her with pure hatred. With great effort it began to scale the walls to the surface and the children.

‘
Du warst sehr ungezogene Kinder, sehr frech in der Tat,
’ it repeated, hissing the words as it climbed. Each syllable was followed by its terrible arms and legs crawling up the smooth, frozen surface.

Emily stepped backwards, her foot hitting a boulder of coal, discarded from the mine. As she looked up, the Child Eater slowly crept from dark like a nightmare spider crawling from under a bed. And as the beast finally rose, rearing its evil head, Emily slid the coal block over the gap. Under any other circumstance there would be no way a thirteen-year-old girl would be able to move the weight. But this was winter and the ground was an ice rink and when Emily pushed against the giant lump, it slid easily. The Child Eater managed a surprised, inevitable grimace before the coal rock crashed into its face and took the creature, crushed andloud curses, into oblivion.

‘He’s gone,’ Emily said to her brother and sister. They were still sleeping as Emily joined them. She closed her eyes also. Each one had their arm around the other.

‘Maybe someone will find us. Christmas is for miracles.’ She gave a little smile and a shrug.

Over the hill the sun began to rise and the world turned a shade of blue. The clouds began to snow.

Epilogue

Manchester Children’s Hospital, 25 December 2014

Tiny David, just six years old, woke from his dream, afraid but far from alone. His mother’s face smiled back at him as he lay in his hospital bed. It was light and most of the children were awake as their parents sat by their beds. Balloons and tinsel decorated the white walls and a huge green Christmas tree stood at the end of the ward, alive with all the Christmas decorations imaginable.

‘What’s wrong, honey? You look worried’, his mother said with a concerned look in her eyes.

‘I had a bad dream,’ he replied.

‘Oh really? No bad dreams on Christmas! It’s not allowed’.’ She smiled.

‘I dreamt there was a monster, a monster that only comes at Christmas, and there were three children and their Mummy and Daddy were gone’,’ he continued, tearful and breathless.

‘Oh, baby,’ his mother replied, hugging his tiny body, which felt clammy with fear. ‘There is no such thing as monsters. Your mummy is here, and your daddy will be right back. Mark my words.’

The boy held on a while longer and saw the nurses handing out presents to the sick, poorly and vulnerable children. One, an older girl, opened her present and immediately exclaimed in surprise.

‘Nurse,’ the girl whispered, ‘someone put coal in mine.’

The End…until next year.

Loved the brilliantly twisted
A Christmas Horror Story
? Turn over for an extract from
The Asylum for Fairy Tale Creatures
, another sensational story from Sebastian Gregory.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a forever more, a long time ago in the dark place where imagination and nightmare met, they built the asylum. Surrounded by a forest of dense thorns and crumbling on a precipice falling to an infested monster sea, the asylum held the most insane in the entire fairy tale kingdom.

To be poor abandon children in the forest, left to the whims of the nearby witch in her gingerbread house - imagine how frail your mind would become. Imagine the trauma of finding a house inhabited by bears who think they are people. How about being a boy made of wood who can think and talk yet is ridiculed and shunned. Or a girl given to a reclusive beast by her own father. It would be enough to drive a person to madness. And so many of the fairy tale creatures went skipping into the comfort of insanity.