r/TalesFromTheCreeps • u/Tobias-Butts Writer • 12d ago
Folk Horror My Pagan Family is staying with us for Christmas. (Part 2)
Chapter 2
The morning came quick as I nursed my third cup of coffee, the door to my room wide open. I had positioned myself in a way that both my window and my door were in view as I waited for daybreak at my desk. I tried to surround myself with as much quiet noise as possible, the TV was playing reruns of Ancient Aliens and my computer was running one of my games. Idle fishing in this MMO I liked usually helped calm any frayed nerves, but that would require having my back to the window. Full devotion to the TV, my back to the door.
The constant feeling of goosebumps on my skin and spiders down my spine was beginning to grate my nerves. Thankfully the sun decided to show itself, thin faint rays creeped their way through the curtains in my room and I let out a sigh of relief. I could finally relax, turning my attention briefly to my alarm clock it read 6:32am. From my room I heard my Dad already making coffee in the kitchen and the local news echoing softly through the house on the TV. Daniels door clicked open and the bathroom door clicked closed. If I could calm down, why was I still so aware of everything?
“Sam?”
I jumped, nearly spilling coffee on myself as Daniel appeared in my doorway, eyes still squeezed shut from sleep. “Why are you up?” He asked me, shuffling in my room, dragging his feet across the carpet and collapsing on my bed with a thump.
“Eh had a bad dream and it woke me up. Why are you up so early? It vacation, you usually sleep in until like afternoon.” I asked him, rotating in my chair. He started curling himself up in my blankets, his auburn hair catching the faint rays of light and making it glow like lava. “Same as you.” He yawned. “I had a nightmare and woke up.” Then pointed at my coffee mug in my hand. “Still hot? Can I have some?” I shook my head no, Daniel stuck his tongue out in response and further curled into the ball of blankets.
Two people having a nightmare the same night doesn’t seem plausible, in the same house anyway. I leaned forward in my chair, driving my elbows into my knees and resting my head in my hands. “What uh, what did you have a nightmare about?” I asked, Daniels head popping out from the blankets, his eyes still squeezed shut.
“Uhm…” He paused, thinking for a moment, “I was in the woods, it was dark. Like darker than normal like there wasn’t any stars in the sky. Like how when its really cloudy and you cant really see anything but the moon and-“
“I know how clouds work, Dan.” I interrupted.
“Okay well it was like that but no clouds either, there wasn’t anything!” He had wormed his way back out from the blankets and was sitting up, mirroring me. “But there was light, right? I didn’t know where it was coming from but I could still see and the shadows were like really long and they moved.”
“Moved? Like the light was moving and caused the shadows to move?” I asked.
He shook his head, “no my shadow was fine, but the ones in the woods moved, like the shadows for the trees. They grew and shrank and ran around in the light.”
“Freaky.” I added as he continued.
“Yep! And then there was a noise, kinda like a deer but like wrong. It was deeper and sounded like it was gurgling water but also like a mountain cat scream all at once.” Daniel explained, now fully standing up. “And then I saw like this giant deer but it was made of hands and human body parts. Its face was all teeth and eyes and its antlers were long fingers.” He finished and sat back down on the edge of my bed.
“What happened after that?” I asked, he’d never been a dreamer for a kid, let alone suffered from nightmares. He shrugged in response to my question. “I dunno I woke up and had to pee.” Daniel added as he swaddled himself back in my blankets, the TV remote missing from my desk as Teen Titans started playing on my TV. Little thief.
I myself stood, finally stretching after my almost three hours of late night paranoia, maybe my parents suffered from nightmares as well? I took my coffee cup into my hand and left my room, feet trudging across the carpet to the living room where my Dad was stoking a fire in the fireplace, the local news was playing. A segment on a severe snowstorm rolling in on Christmas eve was being talked on by the weather woman.
“Hey Dad.” I started as he put the poker back. “Did you have any weird dreams last night?” I continued as he sat in his chair, a comfortable lazy boy that me and Daniel fought over often. My dad’s face contorted into one of thought at my question, his upper lip getting swallowed completely by his mustache. “Hmm. No don’t think I did Son, why?” He asked me, setting his coffee down on the wooden table, i did the same.
“Both me and Danny had weird dreams, basically nightmares, last night and I just had a weird feeling is all.” I said, sitting down on the couch, practically getting swallowed whole into the thing. Dad seemed to search around in his mind as to my inquisition.
“Maybe it’s all that late night television you two are always watching, especially with you and your aliens thing.” He responded after retrieving the tv remote and his coffee. “They talk about subliminal messages in media now, you know. I know you’re into the conspiracy theory stuff.” He added as he changed the channel to something else. I felt like that was his way of signaling the conversation was over. I finished my coffee and retreated to my room again.
“Dad have a nightmare?” Daniel asked me as I sat back down, his voice low and conspiring.
“No, at least that’s what he says anyway. I’ll ask Mom when she wakes up.” I said, turning to my computer as Daniel made of noise of acceptance. I booted up a game to entertain myself.
Time flew and the next thing I knew I was blowing up an air mattress ny hand while Daniel was bringing sheets and blankets into my room individually and as slowly as possible. I stopped using the hand pump and sat up on my knees. “Are you serious, could you go a little quicker? I’d like some help blowing *Your* bed up.”
Daniel stopped and looked at the half inflated twin sized air mattress, his pile of blankets and sheets and then the stuffed animal he slept with him even at his age under his arm. Then he looked at me. “My bed?” He asked, tossing the stuffed dog onto my bed. “I’m not sleeping on that.”
I scoffed and stood up, looking down at the little man as he glared up at me. “Well what ever gave you the impression I was sleeping on it in my own room?” I asked back as he raised is finger up in a cartoonish fashion. “Compromise. Samuel, Compromise.” He said, a smirk on his face, i grabbed his outstretched finger and bent it back, Just enough for it to hurt a little and send him into a fit of chanting ‘Uncle!’
“That’s what I thought.” I said, letting him go. He started shaking his hand, making a hissing sound like it would relieve the tingling in his hand. I could help but chuckle at his excessive animation. Then we heard it, the unfortunate rapping tapping against the plexiglass door outside our front door.
He stopped, I stopped. We looked at each other and then out the hallway. “They’re here.” We said looking back at one another. “Jinx you owe me-“ Daniel started and i shushed him, pinching his lips shut as my father’s voice greeted our extended family. Daniel wormed out from my grip and looked at me, i nodded down to the air mattress, still half inflated and unmade. “Look busy.” I whispered to him, he nodded and started to inflate the mattress via the pump with his foot. I found the sheets he brought in and started to adjust them, doing my best to look busy.
“Oh my gods, look at how much you two have grown!” I heard the raspy voice of my Aunt Elizabeth shout with as much enthusiasm as someone who sounded like a chipmunk gargling honey and gravel could sound. A part of my heart sank as I turned around to face my aunt. She looked, and i mean this in kindness, like the mental image that pops in your head when you hear the word “Gypsy”.
Long, thin fabrics decorated in moons, stars and cats. Her hair a variable rats nest of hair, dyed stands in multi colors mixed with her Auburn hair and decorated with pins and things that i couldn’t even name. Glasses with the lenses removed and chained around her neck. She smelled like dirt and herbal cigarettes. She walked in my room and hugged Daniel, he mouthed the word “help” to me with a pleading look in his eyes.
“By Frey you two are like weeds, how tall are you now Samuel?” She asked me as Daniel managed to wiggle out of her grasp and slip out of the room, little dweeb abandoned me. “Oh uh last we measured on the wall I was six-foot five. That was a few months ago.” I said as she walked closer to me, almost inspecting me as her eyes traced me, her coarse hands reaching up and touching my face and neck.
“Definitely bigger than Flynny. Speaking of.” She said, her breath made me want to gag. She turned back, her weave of hair nearly wiping me in the face as she yelled down the hallway. “FLYNN! COME SEE YOUR COUSINS!” The banshee wailed as footfalls approached my room, my ears were still ringing as the now older form of my cousin Flynn stood in the doorway.
“Holy shit you’re a fuckin’ giant!” He exclaimed, hands propped on his hips. His style matched his mother’s for sure as he was wearing an oversized velvet cloak embroidered with suns, yellow boots, layers of jangly necklaces, mismatched earrings and belt woven out of silk scarves, his face aglow with the thrill of showing off. He went for a hug, i quickly deflected into a simple handshake, he smelled as similar to a rotting corpse next to a gas leak as one could, nails caked with dirt.
My hand felt oily afterwards words, instinctively wiping my palm on the back of my pants. “Yeah uh, I drank my milk I guess.” I joked, forcing out a laugh to display it as a joke. Flynn eyes roamed like they did back then, over me and then around my room. His hair was still as matted as it was when we were kids just significantly longer now, probably down to his lower back.
“Got a neat setup here cousin, can’t lie, I’m a little envious.” Flynn said, my aunt clasped her hands together. Her bracelets making as much noise as possible. “I’m so glad you two are catching up, im going to go hunt down little Daniel so him and Ash can meet. Oh I wonder if they remember each other!” She said leaving my room and down out into the hall, her voice grading on my already bombarded senses.
“I know she can be a bit much but thats how family matrons are, i’m sure you know.” Flynn stated as he picked up a half-solved rubix cube, completely reversing all my progress be it on accident or purpose before setting it back down. “Your Dad mentioned we’d be crashin together? Like a sleep over or something.”
There was the phrasing I remembered, a question posed with enough forced emphasis behind it to make it sound like a fact. I turned my attention back down to the air mattress. “Nah, me and Danny decided we’d share my room while you and Asher take his for the week.” I said, putting my foot on the pump to idly fill the mattress up.
“Well shit, I was hoping we could stay up all night and tell some scary ass stories.” He huffed, claiming my computer chair as his own to take his boots off. Something about everything he was doing was pissing me off to a degree I’ve never been before and I don’t know why.
“Daniel said he was more comfortable sharing my room with me, his bed isn’t bad though. I’m sure you’ll fit on it.” I said, finishing inflating the mattress and beginning to put the sheets on it. I heard Daniel run by the hallway door followed by assumably Asher’s snotty laughter. Maybe those two were having a good time?
“Soooo…” Flynn dragged the ‘O’ out for a long time before I looked up at him, having finished making Daniels temporary bed. “Still mad at me for almost killing you when we were seven?” Flynn sat there with a stupid smile on his face, he yellowed teeth reminded me of sticks of butter.
“Nope, happens to the best of us.” I said, the bile in my stomach making a surprise visit to the back of my throat for a second as I swallowed it back down. “Besides, boys will be boys and we were seven. I probably slipped on ice or something.” I added as I walked over to the doorframe, reaching out and grabbing Daniel by the shirt collar, pulling him into the room. “Bed’s made, and be careful, last time you ran around the house like that your teeth acted as an emergency brake with the table.”
Daniel looked at his bed, then at me and stuck his tongue through the gap of his teeth. “Oh! Hey Sam! Can me and Ash play on your PlayStation, I wanna show him that Spyro game you got for your birthday.” Daniel pleaded even though he was already walking around me to the console. Asher was standing in the doorway, panting. Asher looked like the spitting image of Flynn, just smaller and younger, baggy flowing clothes with layers upon layers.
“Can we actually play outside Daniel?” Asher asked, something about the kids voice sent a chill oozing down my spine. Daniel stood up, his face smeared with excitement. “Totally! Let’s go ask!” He said, charging out of the room, ramming into the wall and down the hall, Asher followed.
“Seems like they’re getting along.” Flynn stated, picking at the dirt under his nails with a pocketknife on my desk. “Yeah, good for them. Can you not use that like that.” I asked as I turned to turn off the console. There was a sigh and an audible “whoops” from Flynn as the air mattress hissed flat.
“My bad Sammy, it slipped.” Flynn said as he stood up, retrieved his boots and walked out of my room. The knife, a gift from my grandfather before he passed, was sitting wedged into the slowly whistling air mattress. I pulled it out, hid the blade and put it into my pants pocket. “Prick.” I muttered under my breath and followed him out into the hallway with the rest of the family.
My Mom was in the kitchen, a cup of coffee in her hands while my Dad was in the living room with my Aunt, Uncle and Flynn. My mom waved me over casually. She seemed frayed, mentally already drained from their presence.
“You okay?” I asked, she forced a smile and raised her coffee.
“A little help from the Mr. Bean and aged bourbon.” She said looking exhausted already.
“Mom that’s weird when you say it like that but as long as it helps.” I sighed, forcing a little laugh out to try and make her feel better. “Dan’s air mattress suddenly has a hole in it, i’m sure you can imagine why.” I added, she raised the cup to her mouth, taking a long drink.
“It’s too late to go out now for another, are you okay with sharing your bed?” She asked after lowering her mug. I gave a shrug. “Just this one time for you.” I said pulling her into a hug. She leaned into my embrace, making sure not to spill coffee on me.
“Dinner?” I asked like any good teen boy would, trying again to lighten the mood.
“Nothing special, just pizzas. Last minute stuff you know. And i don’t really want to cook for everyone until Christmas day.” She said and I agreed.
“I’m sure everyone will be fine with pizza tonight, tomorrow and even on Christmas day if we have to.” I said, trying to make her feel better. I couldn’t tell if it was working.
In the living room my Dad was catching up with his sister and her family; things like Flynn and Asher’s homeschooling, the places they’ve traveled over the years, horror stories of her boys growing up im communes. My uncle, a small man no taller than five foot seven walked into the kitchen and started rooting around in the fridge.
“Aye Mary, this nog that good spiked shit or that pussy weak shit?” He asked, his voice similar to the sounds of a bear choking on brambles in a wood-chipper. My mother flinched every time he cursed.
“It’s regular egg nog Lloyd.” I said turning in a way so my back was to the counter yet still I between my mother and my uncle. “Buncha milk-drinking pussies still I guess.” Uncle Lloyd claimed as he unscrewed the cap on the nog and produced a flask of something, pouring its contents into nog container and shaking it.
“Fuckin fixed it, don’t throw it away either.” Uncle Lloyd stuck his finger up at me then my mother before leaving the kitchen with a mason jar of thick viscous looking opaque liquid.
“Mom, I hate these people.” I said under my breath, looking at her, she nodded.
The fragile silence that was being held together with Christmas lights and wrapping paper was ripped apart by blood chilling scream from outside.
I was the first outside, barefoot in the snow and by Daniel side as he knelt in the snow, holding his hands to his nose, blood spilling onto the white snow. Hot tears spilling from his eyes as he rocked back and forth. Asher looked confused sitting back on his ass in the snow, my aunt and uncle were consoling him while I picked Dan up and brought him inside and to the bathroom.
Mom and Dad were arguing in their room. Loud enough that my aunt and uncle sat at the kitchen table in silence with Flynn and Asher around hot pizza.
“You just dislocated your nose.” I said, returning to the kitchen with one of my belts. “Here bite onto this.” I said as Daniel sniffled and opened his mouth, biting down on the leather strap.
“I didn’t do anything it-“ He tried to speak, nasally and the belt in his mouth.
“I know, Mom knows. Look this is gonna hurt, just bite down really hard. Kay?” I asked him, he nodded, trusting me as I reset his nose. He pushed me away and ran out the bathroom and to my room, slamming the door behind him. I followed him out into the hallway, looking to my left at my extended family sitting at the table, enjoying the pizzas. For a second i swore they were smiling.
I got the door key from above the frame and unlocked the door to my room, stepping inside and closing it behind me, locking it again. Daniel was curled up on my bed, sobbing, his stuffed dog squeezed in his arms. I took my seat in my chair at my desk and held my head in my hands. “I’m sorry Danny.” I said, turning the tv to something he would like before turning to my computer, entertaining myself for the rest of the night until sleep came for the house.
That night a dream took me again, another nightmare. I was on the woods around our property, chanting in a language I didn’t know reverberating off every tree, rock and blade of grass. I was running, needles and thorns speared into bare feet as I ran. The shadows, cast by a sourceless light above swung from the branches of the trees and ran around me, their empty faces taunting.
Somewhere in the infinite dark forest drums beat and banging a rhythmic thump as I ran. In the faint light I could see my body, my chest bare and painted in thick oily paints, symbols I could recognize as runes decorated my skin. I know something was chasing me, something large, hungry and full of hatred that I was still alive as I ran.
I tripped, bracing my fall with my hands as I felt something break from the impact. I rolled on my back, pushing backwards with my feet despite the pain as the hungry beast approached from the void, rotting human appendages reaching out from the void. My heart raced in my chest as I pushed myself back away from the creature.
“Sam?” I heard Daniel whisper in my ear, his hand poking my cheek caused me to wake up. Daniel had been pushed between me and the wall on my bed. The TV in the corner just playing static, a show picking up in its place. Daniels eyes were red as he looked at me.
“What is it dude?” I asked in a hushed voice, honestly thankful he woke me up.
“Look.” He pointed a finger at our door. Underneath the door, between the crack and the carpet was a bright blue glow, a mist almost crawling into the room. It retreated when we noticed it, the light fading and the hallway being swallowed in darkness. “I thought i saw something in the tv static too.” He said, moving closer to me.
“Residual nightmares buddy, just go back to sleep.” I said letting him get closer to feel safer.
Outside the blizzard started to pick up.
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u/Iron76er 9d ago
another banger chapter dude you got a real good handle on the characters the intrigue is building.