The Christmas Curse

The Christmas Curse

         


              December 18,
         Tom was a house cleaner for a living. Working for the elderly, the rich, and the down right lazy, keeping their house's spotless. One day he was at one of his elderly client's house. Her name was Eleanor. She was very thin and frail looking, and her eyes had recessed a little in her head. Tom never liked working there, he always got a horrible feeling in that house. He was up in the attic putting somethings away for storage over the winter, when he found an odd looking Christmas ornament. It was a figurine of what looked like an angel, holding a gorgeous red gem.
         He brought it downstairs and showed it to Eleanor.
         “Hey I found this in your attic, do you want me to hang it on the tree for you?”
         “No you can take it for all the hard work you've done” she said with a almost sinister grin.
         “Umm.. Ok sure I'll take it, maybe my wife will like it, but everything is done Eleanor, so I'm going to head home before the storm starts.”
         After trading goodbyes he left and headed for his truck. He looked up and noticed that it was really cloudy. Earlier that morning it was sunny and blue skies, granted it was still 20 degrees. Living on the coast of New England was very difficult during the winter, and this storm was going to be a record breaker, dropping an estimated two feet of snow. So Tom got into his work truck and drove home. When stopped at a red light, he took the ornament out of his coat pocket and looking it over again. It was giving off a warm sensation in his hand. He found himself drawn to it, completely absorbed by its beauty, not noticing the light turning green. The truck that was behind him sped by and laid on his horn, making Tom jump back to reality. Noticing the green light he stepped on the peddle and raced home. It started flurrying out just as he got home.

         December 19,
         “This is Fox 25 news with your hourly weather report. Record snow fall last night, blanketing most of New England in snow. The coast got it the worst, with an estimated fourteen inch's and counting....”
         Tom was outside trying to shovel what he could off his stairs and sidewalk, but whatever he'd shoveled was covered back up in 10 minutes.
         “This is bad, I haven't seen a storm like this since the blizzard of 72.'”
         Tom went back inside in defeat. He banged his boots off at the door and slide inside. Once inside the smell of gingerbread filled the air. Tom's wife Susan was baking her famous gingerbread cookies, which was one of his favorite things about Christmas. Tom changed quickly into dry cloths, he ran into the kitchen like a little kid and reached for a cookie. Susan smacked his hand away.
         “Don't spoil your dinner hun.”
         Tom just mumbled and walked away into the living room. He dropped down onto his favorite Lazy Boy recliner and flipped on the TV. His gaze was taken away from the TV and he found himself looking at the ornament hanging proudly on the tree. Susan loved it like Tom thought, but he found himself loving it too. The gem glistened from the Christmas lights hanging around the tree. Tom was lost again to the beauty of the piece. He saw nothing else other then the ornament, as if the world around him was being blocked off. He felt a strange aura from it, giving him a foreboding feeling. But he ignored his gut feeling and stood up and took it off the tree, brought it upstairs to his bedroom, and hung it on the wall over his bed.
         “Perfect...” Tom stood there for about an hour before he finally broke his gaze and went downstairs for dinner.

         December 21,
         Tom was standing in his basement checking the breakers to get the power back on, but as he feared it wasn't the breakers it was the storm. There was a staggering three feet of snow. He also woke up this morning not able to open his front or back door due to the snow drifts. It was cold...dark, Tom was beginning to unravel, the thought that he couldn't get out of his house for what was looking to be a long time. He felt cooped up. He was just thankful to have the ornament. He started to keep it on him at all times. He was now obsessed with the object, treating it as if it was sacred. Last night his wife tried to hang it back on the tree, only for him to flip out and take it back down. Tom was starting to scare her, especially now since there’s no way out of the house.
         Later that day Tom was sitting staring at the ornament, mumbling to himself. Susan couldn't make out what he was saying but she didn't like it.
         “Tom! Whats gotten into you? Your acting like your crazy.”
         He shot up “No the only thing that's crazy is being trapped in this house with you!!” He walked upstairs and locked himself in the bedroom, leaving Susan tearing up in the living room.
         “I'm not crazy” he said holding the figurine firmly in his hands, “She just wants you” looking down at the ornament. “She wants to take you away from me and have you for herself.” He was burning red at the thought, “Over my dead body will she...” then he paused... looking up into the mirror in front of him... “shes going to kill me to get you,” he said now looking down at the ornament, almost waiting for it to agree. Then the gem started to sparkle, shining in his eyes. He was sure now...
         December 23,
         Jim woke up feeling really good, better then the past few days. He went to reach over on the dresser for the ornament but it was gone. He shot up and stormed downstairs.
         “Where is it!!” he screamed at Susan.
         “I don’t know what your talking about hun...” being cut off by Tom.
         “Don't call me hun like everything is ok! I know what your up too, you want it for yourself! But you cant its MINE!!”
         She noticed a crazy look in his eye, sensing she was in trouble, she had to play it smart.
         “Ok im sorry, I did take it, its in the basement...” before she could finish he was already heading downstairs.
         As soon as he reached the bottom step, Susan slammed the door shut and locked him down there. Tom already furious, realized she tricked him. Not seeing the ornament anywhere he ran up the stairs and pounded on the door.
         “Open the door Susan.... you cant hide forever....you cant keep me from it forever!!” he sounded mad, not angry, but lost to insanity. Susan went upstairs and locked herself in the bedroom and saw the ornament on the floor. She picked it up and noticed it didn't look as it looked before. Instead of a beautiful angel holding a ruby red gem, it was an old woman, very thin and frail, with recessed eyes, and the gem was no longer red but now all black. She was horrified at the sight and threw it in the draw and closed it. She kept the light on all night, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't sleep. Tom was up most of the night, slamming on the basement door, screaming obscene things about her.
         
         December 24:
         Tom stopped shouting around three am, allowing Susan to finally fall into a deep sleep. She had dream's of Christmas morning with Tom, opening presents , drinking their coffee, laughing and loving, how Tom used to be before this week. Then she noticed the ornament on the tree. Everything went black, should couldn't see but heard a faint voice.
         “He's mine now...”
         Then she saw the old lady, very thin and frail, with recessed eyes glaring at her. For what felt like an eternity, she stood there, just staring. Then everything went black again... but this time there was no voice just blackness. Then the old lady appeared face to face with Susan, letting out a horrible scream, waking Susan from the horrible nightmare, only to wake up in another more real nightmare. She opened the draw only to see that the ornament was gone. She still didn't hear anything from Tom in the basement. That worried her, no matter how crazy he was, he was still her husband.
         She went downstairs and stopped at the locked basement door.
         “Tom? Are you ok?” she got no response.
         Against her better judgment she unlocked the door and peered into the darkness. It reminded her of the nightmare she just had.
         “Hun?!” still no response
         She grabbed the flashlight that was on the ledge next to the stairs and headed into the basement. Fighting the urge to just turn and run away, she went deeper in... into the pitch. Her flashlight was doing little, the darkness seemed to absorb the light. Then she turned and saw Tom laying motionless on the floor, pale, face distorted, and he seemed drained, his skin wrinkled up like a prune. She was horrified.
         “What have I done! Oh Tom...”
         She started sobbing over his body. Then the basement door slammed shut and she heard the dead bolt lock. She spun around and pointed the flashlight toward the stairs. She saw nothing... only the darkness surrounding her. The flashlight started to flicker, and then died out. She was terrified. Then she heard footsteps heading down the stairs. She felt her stomach turn, hitting the light against her palm, in hopes it would kick back on. The steps got closer. She franticly started hitting the light. The footsteps stopped at the bottom of the stairs. She gave the flashlight one last good whack and it came back on. She saw nothing again... she spun around to look at Tom, but saw his body was gone. The light went out once more. Susan cowered in fear in the blackness that was entangling her. She heard breathing behind her.
         “Tom? Is that you?” she said starting to sob. She didn't get a reply right away, but the breathing stopped. She asked once more.
         “Tom this isn't Funny please stop!” she was almost in full tears. This time she got a reply, but not the one she wanted.
         “No...” Susan let out a blood curtailing scream, that was abruptly cut off.

         December 25:
         “Ok Eleanor, everything's clean, but I found this in the attic, want me to put it up?” said a young man who was hired to clean her house.
         She was an elderly woman, very thin and frail, her eyes were reassessed in her head.
         “No... Why don't you take it dear...think of it as a Christmas gift” she said through a toothy sinister grin.




                                                           The End                                    Word Count: 1870