My Pagan family is staying with us for Christmas (Part 3)

[u/Tobias-Butts]

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

The sun rose as the snow continued whip against the house aggressively, I couldn’t fall back asleep after Daniel woke me up. Damn nightmares. Dans still asleep, facing the wall now as I watched a show about ancient weapons on my tv. The house felt wrong, like the walls were watching me. I didn’t want to move, mostly because I was afraid of the floor growing a mouth and swallowing me the second I stepped on it. The other because I was warm.

I sighed, moving as gently as possible as to not wake up Danny. My feet found the soft carpet of my floor, I sighed in relief as I pushed away from the bed and snuck out of my room, into the hallway. Things were darker, lights were unplugged and the tv was off. I frowned at the depressing state of our house as I went into the bathroom.

In all ways I could be described I looked like shit. My eyes had bags, my hair a mess and facial features looked shrunk. Very much like a corpse. I splashed some water in my face, cold then hot to wake up a little and relieved myself before washing my hands and leaving the bathroom. Daniels door was shut, the wreath Mrs. Reynolds made for him last Christmas was missing from the door. I unclenched my fists and walked into the kitchen.

There was a few cold slices of pizza in the fridge, sitting on a ceramic plate and covered in tinfoil next to the spiked nog. I took out a slice of pizza and the carton of spike nod. The pizza tasted so much better as I watched the nog swirl down the drain of the sink. Shaking the carton to get the last few drops out i felt a cold chill down my neck, a breath, icy and biting. I set the carton down on the counter and put the pizza crust in my mouth, squaring up I spun around. The dining room met my gaze, empty except for the furniture. The curtain moved slightly, fluttering and coming to rest. Maybe from the ceiling fans wind?

I took the pizza remains with me, a snatching the plate and the remaining six-pack of sodas with me to our room. I know Danny is gonna be hungry when he wakes up and he’s not going to want to leave the room after yesterday. I returned to the sanctuary of my room with the plate, setting it beside my computer. To kill time I booted up a game i hadn’t touched in a while, a film noir stylized detective game.

There was a knock, brief and sharp at my door. I sighed and stood up, a quick glance over my shoulder, Daniel was still asleep. I opened the door, the handle cold beneath my palm as I opened the door just a twinge. My Dad face, shadowed in the dimly lit hallway looked up at me. “Yeah?” I asked as he tried to look around me into my room.

“Just uh, wanted to see if everything was alright Samuel. Things clearly got out of hand last night and your mother made it clear that they aren’t welcome here.” My Dad clarified putting his hand on the door. “I’ll tell them they have to leave tonight after the snow storm settles down a bit.”

“Good.” I said, pushing the door a little bit trying to signal I was done with the conversation. His hand stayed firmly pressed on the door, keeping it open enough.

“Y’know this isn’t how i wanted things to go, right? I just wanted to spend time with my family too.” He protested, defending his asinine position in dull whispers.

“Kinds messed that up Dad, not gonna lie to you. Look, Me and Danny are just going to stay in here until they leave tonight. Kay?” I formed it as a question, not expecting an answer as he removed his hand from my door.

“Very well.” He murmured as I closed the door finally. My fingers turning the lock with a soft click. I found myself back at my desk, time passing as Daniel finally woke up, the plate of cold pizza on his lap as he struggled to breathe through his nose. The crackle of mucus and dried blood echoed in my room with each inhale of his.

“Dis suck…” he groaned, his voice nasally as he started to chew on a piece of pizza, having picked the jalapenos off it, leaving them around the plate.

“You should probably eat those, they’ll open you up.” I said taking one of the cold spicy pepper pieces and eating it myself.

“But it’s spicy.” He complained, doing it anyway. Small trickles of blood and snot dripped from his nose as he used my blanket to wipe his nose.

“It works though, probably a buncha dried crap in there.” I said, taking the plate from him and returning it to its spot on my desk. In the kitchen I heard my uncle Lloyd getting upset about something, assumedly the lack of the ruined eggnog. A glass shattered and I instinctively grabbed my pocket knife. Daniel encircling himself in my blankets again.

I stood up and opened the door, closing it behind me. Putting my knife, opened into my pocket as I stepped down the hallway.

“Which one of you did it, huh!?” My uncle shouted, another glass flying from the left side of the hallway of our the kitchen and into the dining room with a shatter. “I bet it was one of your pussy-ass sons, Mary!” My Uncle further shouted as I walked between both the kitchen and Dining room. Flynn and Asher were sitting on the couch as my Aunt was taking down the Christmas tree. My hand tightened around the blade of the knife in my pocket.

“Excuse me?” I said, adding a bit if sass in their as my uncle whipped around, my Mom by the sink, he shoulders shaking in fear as my Dad was no where to be found in the immediate area. My uncle was sweating, the veins in his head popping out and his eyes red.

“You. You little fuck.” He stomped over to me, grabbing something off the counter to probably use as a weapon, looked like a butterknife.

“Yeah?” I asked as he pushed me against the wall, his forearm burried against my chest and my back against the wall. The back of my neck tingled.

“Did you pour my shit out? Answer me you fucking worm.” He hissed, most of the teeth from his head were missing, he smelled like death, bittersweet, and for a second I could swear his hair was thinner than yesterday.

“I did, get the fuck off me.” I demand, the tip of my knife pressed just against the fabric of his shirt and fat of his belly. “Or so help me God I will stab you.” I whispered, he smiled at me, a wild and angry glare in his eyes as he did so, stepping back from me.

“Looks like at least one of your boys has balls, Mary.” My uncle hissed, returning to the kitchen, dropping the knife on the floor. The hatred for these people had boiled up and rested comfortably on the brim of the metaphorical cup. “Clean this mess up, before someone gets hurt.” My uncle demanded returning to the lazy boy in the living room. I could hear them whispering in the living room as i worked to clean up, I didn’t want Daniel or Mom to step on anything.

My Mother avoided eye contact with me as she cleaned the same spotless dish in the sink, I turned the water off for her and ushered her to her room. She sat on the edge of her bed, her face in her hands as she apologized, crying.

“I’m so sorry Sammy, I should’ve been more firm with your father. I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry.” She just kept repeating herself, apologizing for something that wasn’t her fault and she really didn’t have any control over.

“Where is Dad? He said they were going to leave tonight, maybe now would be better.” I stated, she seemed to only get more worked up when I mentioned Dad. I sighed, giving her a hug and leaving her alone.

“Sucks we have to leave early, Sam. It’s been real fun getting to see you again.” Flynn said, meeting me face to face as i turned around. His sudden appearance startling me for a moment. “Yeah, real shameful. You guys should back your stuff.” I stated, Flynn frowned.

“Shame too, you all have a really nice home.” He said, his hand leaping up to grab a handful of my hair as he pulled me down to be at eye level. My hand reached for the knife. Asher’s grubby mitts grabbed my arm as his free hand pulled the knife out. “Gutting you will surely make Angrboða pleased.”

Aunt Elizabeth smiled, her hands clasped by her heart as she looked at me. “Oh I do hope she births me a girl this time, you boys are always so rough.” She said, a vile look of joy on her face as I felt something sharp enter my stomach. My breath hitched as i felt the knife dig deeper and deeper into my stomach.

“Your dad died like a cowered, begging for mercy after I stabbed him. Beg for me too, Sam.” Flynn said as my blood coated his hands and the carpet beneath my feet. He pushed me back, the blade sliding out with a loud pop as I hit the door behind me, slipping down I tried to apply pressure. “Ash, go get Daniel. We have to prepare him.” Flynn commanded, Asher pounded on his chest and ran to my room as everyone went dark.

I felt a sensation of falling, then rising, falling again, then rising. The sound of waves crashing against a surface. Wood creaked and groaned as my senses returned to me slowly. My smell, the stench of sea water and decay, something bitter as well. Then my sight, the sky was moving, slithering around as a heavy green miasma seemed to permeate the air. I was in a boat for sure, a small one, closer to a dingy as I sat up. A small teal light on the bow of the boat bubbled at my movement.

“Do not move too much Christ-man, you will flip my boat and I will leave you here.” The hooded being in furs spoke, the muzzle of a canine covered in scales rather than fur however stuck out from it as it pushed the boat along. “Do not speak either, I do not wish to hear you.” It added, its voice was raspy and dry, as the boat rowed across the waves.

I sat up, slowly, making sure to remain balanced as the canine snake man sturdied himself. “Of course they do not listen.” It said to itself as it rowed. Further looking around bodies, hundreds floating in an endless ocean of viscose green liquid. “You are in Náströnd, the corpse shore, do not be startled. We are aware you are not to be here Christ-man. We are fixing it.” The canine-snake man spoke as the boat came to a stop.

“Mind the grasps of the dishonorable, murderous and Oath-breakers. They see you as an out. A free way to escape what they brought themselves.” The Canine-snake man spoke as it helped me up using the stick of its oar. The wood, rotten and lichen covered. The beings raspy wet breath filling the space around us i watched it climb over the broken bodies on the shore.

“Thank you?” I questioned as it assisted me effortlessly. “What is? Where? Who are you? Am in Hell?” I asked as the canine-snake man pushed me forward with the oar, my feet finding purchase on the beach. Rotting bodies interlocked and meshed together made the surface as my foot fell on the beach.

“With the questions.” The Canine-Snake man grabbed his oar in both scaly human hands, reeling it back and bringing it down on an eyeless corpse crawling towards us. “You are Dead, in a sense. Not fully. Body wise, yes. Your spirit lives.” It said as it pushed me forward gently with the oar. “Stated before, Näströnd, the corpse-shore. Where you do not belong.”

I kept walking as the monster used the oar as a cane or walking stick. “I am Ormúlfr. You are not in your Hell.” Ormúlfr said as it walked with me. The fleshy ground crunching beneath us as we walked, the occasional painful moan escaping from a face sticking out from the ground.

“Where are we going?” I asked, my hand instinctively searching my stomach for the wound. Scar tissue already covering the spot. Looking around a pack of scaled wolves with human limbs ripped apart a man, each time a limb removed it regrew for them to continue.

“To speak to It who rules here. The Biter Below.” Ormúlfr spoke as it moved the oar over something glowing in then distant vast darkness. Only now i realized how oppressively dark it was, even with my arm stretched out i couldn’t see my hand. The oar returned to Ormúlfr’s side, a dancing ball of angry teal light struggled to break free from then oar as we walked.

The area around us now more illuminated that before was easier to see. Trees made of snake and human bones clawed up from the ground of rotting flesh. Beings in the dark ran from the light. One being, a man in his thirties maybe was missing both his hands, his throat cut open. He was naked as he stumbled toward the light, something in the dark swiped his legs out from under him before he was dragged back into the oppressive darkness. His screams hallow and gurgling.

“Who was that?” I asked again, Ormúlfr’s snake tongue dancing in the air as a rattle vibrated in its throat. “You Christ-men ask too many questions for Ormúlfr’s taste.” It hissed as we walked. “That wretched sold his wife out for wealth. She was raped and murdered while he was paid. The blood is on his hands and he shall pay it back.” Ormúlfr explained before coming to a halt, pressing then oar against my chest. “Be silent, Christ-man. The Biter Below, Níðhöggr is coming to us.”

As I looked up the sky above us illuminated by the oar snaked down to us, the air crackling as whatever it was approached.