Oh Christmas Tree

For those who are sad Christmas is over, those who aren't, or perhaps just those who like their Christmas tales with an unusual twist..

*(consisting of his elderly parents, his younger brother, and only slightly younger sister, 36 - although Percy had been an old man from birth,he thought. Or at least, so he had been told.)



It sat innocently twinkling in the corner, all red satin bows and golden sparkle.

More ornaments this time than the previous year's one. In fact, it seemed to barely hold their weight, sagging slightly under the strain.
He glanced at it suspiciously.
While his family * seemed enraptured by the TV, it seemed to make up another family member, silently observing the comings-and-goings in the room.

A fire crackled in the hearth. Spare pine wood filling the room with an earthy, sappy, smoky scent.

And there in the corner it mutely looked on. Arms patiently outstretched, waiting for nothing.

He wondered how long it had stood before it was time for it to be felled. In a green, peaceful forest filled with its fellow trees. Unlike this unnatural twinkling abomination of a room, draped in decorations to the last spare inch.

He was startled by the sudden sound of laughter. Clearly something funny had happened on the TV that his family seemed so affixed to.

It was getting late.

The port was dwindling in its goblets, glistening dark, rich and bloody in the expiring glow from the fire as it crackled down lower, towards its last twig.

Soon it would be time for bed.

When his family began to gather up their trophies and traipse upstairs, he gave a sigh and scrunched further into his comfortable chair. He readjusted his position, and his spectacles, and reached back into his half-read book as the last sparks shimmered and sputtered in the fireplace. He would have to put another lamp on.

He did not know how long he sat for, but he was midway through an especially interesting passage, when suddenly his attention was alerted by a rustling. He frowned through his glasses over the top of his book into the gloomy corner.

What was there? The fire was dead now, only greyness and tendrils of smoke. He fancied he heard the slight patter of a spider in the corner, as it sat on the web that his mother had neglected to hoover away. Barely audible above the low whistle of his sister's snore.

Finding nothing, he glanced back down and returned to his reading. It was maybe quarter to 12 when the clock chimed. A sudden stir of movement came again, and he looked into the gloom again.

The tree jingled faintly on the far side of the dark room.

Except - when he looked, it wasn't on the far side of the room anymore. Where it had been almost leaning against the wooden mantelpiece, now it was several feet across the room. Towards him. He frowned again. How could the tree have moved? All of his family were asleep. Surely none of them could have crept downstairs and repositioned the tree, just to spook him?

With a shaking of his head, though more suspicious this time, once again he looked down resumed his reading.

It must have been coming up to half past twelve. This was good because it meant that now Christmas was officially over. And he did not like Christmas. Or Christmas trees. It was probably about time for bed. He stretched his legs, made to get out of his chair and- there was nothing for it, he had to get the axe that was still in the corner of the room from chopping firewood. This leafy opponent would not beat him. What was it thinking, sneaking about and creeping up on him to startle him in such a way??

* * *

The day after Christmas. The Vivare family at length stir from their beds and wearily make their way downstairs. They gather cups for tea, put the kettle on and it sings its familiar song of warmth and morning.

Percy's sister enters the room first. She doesn't think she heard her brother climb the creaky stairs to the landing and wonders if he has fallen asleep in his armchair reading again.

But when she looks, although all the cushions are out of place, puzzlingly, he isn't there. All that is, is the deadened fireplace and, amidst the feathers that seem to have spilled across the floor from someone attacking the chair, an overturned bucket of firewood. And in the centre of it all, an axe lying on the floor at the foot of the Christmas tree, in the centre of the room. That, and the copious amount of needles lying on the floor around it - and, halfway up the tree, half-embedded in the branches as if the thing had tried to eat it -one of Percy's shoes.

Author's Note

Please forgive the horrible formatting. After spending well over an hour trying to format this over word and then transfer it to here, it became clear there was no way to keep the original format and it wouldn't let me edit on here.

So I had to leave it as-is for now in order to get it online at a still vaguely relevant time of year!

Reviews

[Alex Kuiper]

Creepy. It reminds me a bit of the horror podcasts I listen to. My only gripe with the story is that I have no idea what could have happened to Percy. If the tree did swallow him, wouldn't it look larger or thicker? And how would it have swallowed him? I know I'm not really following the suspension of disbelief rule, but it broke immersion a bit for me. Also I would have extended the part where he suspects the tree is doing something. It happens a bit too fast IMO. Otherwise, this was an interesting read.

[Freya Scott-Rockel]

Hi Alex, thank you for this!

I have actually recently been reading an anthology of creepy stories, and this was inspired partly by that, and partly by other horror/ spooky-themed things I have read / watched over the years.

I agree it perhaps could do with a bit of extending. In all honesty I haven't really written much in a while and am only really now getting back into it, so all sorts of stuff is just coming out. So I suppose I am treating this as more of a first draft in some ways.

Anyway good points, thank you for your feedback!

[LuvFlyer Creations]

This was amazing!! Sorry about the formatting not working but it still is great!

[Freya Scott-Rockel]

Thank you so much!!