Christmas Evil

A Christmas Treat-2

She shook the thought from her mind.

She still had a drive home, then a party to attend.

Sleep would be a long way away.

Janice rubbed her hands together. “Well, let me wish you both a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year if I don’t see you before then.”

The elderly couple looked anxiously at each other.

“Won’t you stay for a cup of tea before you go?” Thelma asked, sounding more desperate than she ought, in Janice’s opinion.

“Oh, that’s very kind,” she replied, “but I have to be going, we’re all gathering round at my aunts for our annual shindig.”

Janice moved towards the door but Wilf quickly blocked her exit.

She looked up at him, and he smiled at her, reassuringly.

“I wonder,” the old man said, his voice starting to slur into that all too familiar strange lisp they both seemed to share. “We hate to impose, but my back’s been playing up something awful lately, would you mind helping me down to the cellar with this meat so that we can store it in the freezer before it starts to defrost?”

Janice looked back at Thelma.

The old lady was standing a little too close for comfort as far as Janice was concerned, even though she had not noticed the old woman closing in on her.

Janice smiled, pleasantly, although she was starting to feel like a rabbit caught in headlights.

“No problem,” she managed, trying desperately not to show how uncomfortable she was feeling with the two of them at such close quarters.

Wilf clapped her on the shoulders, making Janice jump. “That’s lovely,” he beamed, “we were so glad it was you making our delivery, we knew that you wouldn’t let us down.”

The old couple edged aside to allow Janice access to the crates.

She walked over to the table to grab hold of the first one.

She felt a sudden, uncontrollable urge to make a break for the door and to get to her van before the old couple could figure out what was going on.

But she chided herself for being so ridiculous.

What plausible reason could she give afterwards for such behaviour?

Leaving two elderly neighbours to struggle down their cellar stairs with two huge pallets of raw meat.

What if one of the tripped and fell down the stairs as a result?

How would she feel then?

Being so old and frail they would doubtless break something, or worse!

Janice picked up the crate and smiled. “Which way to the cellar?” She asked cheerily.

Wilf led the way, followed by Janice and Thelma bringing up the rear. She was still too close for Janice’s liking, but she decided to ignore it and put it down to being the way some old people were.

They made their way across the living room and around the wooden staircase leading to the rooms above.

Behind the staircase was a large arched door, which Janice could barely make out in the poor lighting.

Wilf reached above the door and fumbled across the shelf until he located the key.

Once he managed to slot it into the lock he groaned and grumbled trying to get the key to turn.

Janice stood there, weighed down by her burden, wishing that they had thought to open the door before she picked up the hefty crate.

She was about to suggest that Wilf might find the task easier if he removed his mittens, but before she had a chance to speak, Thelma squeezed past her and nudged her brother out of the way.

The old woman wrestled with the key while Wilf offered some, less than welcome, suggestions.

“Wiggled it from side to side that sometimes works….Push it all the way in before you try and turn it….Take it out and blow some hot air on it then try it again….”

Thelma, for her part, managed to hold her tongue, though her frustration at her brother’s suggestions was obvious to Janice.

Finally, with a huge strain, Thelma managed to snap the lock open.

The old woman stepped back in triumph and beamed at Janice.

She took several deep breaths before stating, “We don’t go down here that often, that’s why this stupid lock sticks.”

Janice noticed the lisp starting to creep into the old woman’s speech, just like her brother’s.

“You should oil it while it’s open,” Janice suggested, helpfully. “It might help to lubricate the barrel for next time.”

“Good idea,” offered Wilf, “I might just do that.” He leaned into the darkness behind the door and flicked a switch.

Janice could tell that the cellar below was now illuminated, but unfortunately the light did not penetrate the darkness of the staircase leading down.

“Come on,” said Wilf, jovially, “I’ll lead the way; these stairs can be a little rickety.”

Without waiting for a response, the old man started down the stairs.

Janice followed as best she could, trying to peer over the edge of the crate to see where she was placing her feet.

The soles of her wellingtons were still quite slippery with mud from outside. Even though she had made a point of wiping her feet on the mat on her way in, she could feel them struggling to gain purchase on the old wooden staircase.

Finally, she made it to the bottom.

The cellar seemed bare save for a large freezer unit in one corner.

Wilf made his way over to the freezer and lifted the lid.

When Janice arrived, he unloaded the meat from the crate and placed it haphazardly inside the unit.

Janice had not noticed if there was anything inside the freezer before Wilf placed the meat inside, but when he was finished she saw that the chest was not even half full.

“Plenty of room for the next load,” she said, jokingly.

Wilf just smiled.

In the dim glow cast by the lone bulb in the cellar Janice thought for a moment that Wilf’s eyes were no longer human, but great bulging red orbs.

Janice took a quick step back and almost tripped over her own feet. She just managed to catch herself before losing her balance.

When she looked back up, Wilf’s eyes appeared normal again.

Janice decided that she was probably just tired from being on the road all day.

She gave Wilf a nervous laugh. “Oops, that was a close call,” she trilled.

Wilf’s smile seemed almost plastered to his face.

Janice could not be sure in the poor light but it almost appeared as if Wilf was leering at her, hungrily. For a second she could even swear that she saw him lick his lips, as if in anticipation of a tender morsel about to come his way.

Without wishing to appear as if she were studying him too closely, Janice turned on her heel and made her way back to the staircase.

Thelma was waiting patiently at the top of the stairs for her.

“Are you ok to take down the second lot too, hon?” She asked, eagerly.

“Yes, no problem,” Janice replied, nervously.

Thelma left her to make her way back to the kitchen to retrieve the second crate.

Once again Janice had to fight the impulse to make a break for it.

With Wilf down in the cellar and Thelma at the other end of the floor there would be no way that they would be able to catch her if she decided to run.

But she knew that she could not, even if all her instincts told her to.

She was just letting her imagination run riot.

There was nothing to fear from a couple of old codgers like Thelma and Wilf for goodness sake!

Janice left her empty crate near the door and picked up the full one from the table.

Taking a deep breath, she made her way back to the cellar door where Thelma waited patiently.

“Oh, thank you for this darling, we really appreciate this,” Thelma grinned, keeping the door ajar for Janice to enter. “We really do look forward to a nice treat for Christmas, me and Wilf. It’s not always possible these days, not with the price of things.”

Janice simply smiled in response as she walked past the old dear and began her descent.

In her mind she had visions of Wilf waiting for her in the cellar.

That same leer on his face with those big bulging red eyes she was sure that she had seen.

Janice shook the thought away as she approached the final steps.

To her surprise, she could hear Thelma making her own way down behind her.

She thought it odd that the old lady would bother coming all the way down here just to watch Janice unload the meat.

Still, she supposed that it was her cellar, and perhaps she had decided to come down here to choose their Christmas dinner.

Janice thought that it would have made more sense if Thelma had made the decision upstairs before she came down, but then Janice considered that Thelma might be growing forgetful in her old age and so she did not want to draw attention to the fact.

When Janice reached ground level she turned back and looked up as Thelma followed.

“Do you need a hand?” Janice asked, politely.

Thelma laughed. “No thank you dear, I’ll be fine.”

From the other side of the cellar Wilf too started laughing.

“Do you hear that Thelma; young Janice is afraid that you might trip or something?”

The pair of them began to laugh even louder.

Janice, unable to appreciate the joke, kept on walking towards the freezer and Wilf.

As Wilf came into sight, Janice was sure that she could see that weird look on his face again.

She chose to ignore it and made her way up to the freezer and began unloading the rest of the meat herself.

Lost in her task she did not notice Wilf move around behind her to join his sister.

The two old folk were still laughing at Wilf’s earlier joke, though not as heartily as before.

Janice finished her task and closed the lid of the freezer.

She contemplated asking Thelma if she needed her to help choose a joint for tomorrow, but then thought better of it.

Suddenly, Janice wanted to be far away from the farmhouse and the old couple.

As she turned to face them, Janice noticed that Thelma was in the process of helping her brother to remove his shirt.

Janice stood there for a moment, confounded by the scene before her.

Wilf’s jumper was draped over the banister and Thelma was tugging his shirt over his shoulders without bothering to undo the buttons.

As his shirt came off, Wilf leaned forward and dropped down onto all fours.

Janice’s immediate reaction was to help the old man up, fearing that he might have hurt himself.

But before she could take a step forward, Janice noticed the large protuberance on the old man’s back.

She had long suspected that the old pair had hunchbacks, but now in the flesh the growth looked gigantic.

Janice could not help but be fixated by the mound as it swelled and pulsated on the man’s back.

Suddenly, the sack which had held the expanse of flesh together exploded.

Janice screamed.

She dropped the crate and threw her hands up to her face as she pulled back.

The eruption on Wilf’s back took the form of four spiny limbs covered in tiny spikes of wispy hair.

As they unfolded they each came to rest on the floor, two on either side of the old man’s body.

For a moment Janice’s scream was caught in her throat.

The thing that had once been Wilf was now leering up at her with those same red eyes she had glimpsed earlier; the only difference now was that they no longer belonged to a man but to a huge spider!

Janice heard a gurgled laugh coming from behind what had been Wilf.

She looked up just in time to see Thelma’s hump explode also, revealing her own four spindly legs which, like her brother’s, unfolded to stand on the floor on either side of her body, giving her the same repulsive stature as him.

Behind the glowing red eyes and the hissing noises which emanated from the creatures, Janice could still make out some of the features which had once belonged to the old couple as they slowly began to close in on her.

Janice instinctively backed away, but only managed a few steps before her path was blocked by the freezer.

Almost hypnotised into being unable to take her eyes away from the hideous monsters before her, Janice forced herself to turn around, frantically looking for another way out.

But she soon realised that it was in vain.

She turned back as the spider-creatures closed in.

They seemed to be growing in size as their eight huge hairy legs brought them ever closer to their prey.

There was no way that Janice could jump over them or even run around them, not without being caught.

Janice froze.

Her mind rebelled against the scene before her.

Her rational mind told her it could not be happening.

Through the hissing and spitting noises which escaped through the spider-creatures’ gaping orifices, Janice could almost make out the old couple talking.

“We like us a nice treat for Christmas, don’t we Wilf?”

“Aye, we do that, Thelma.”