I am currently recovering from what can only be described as the most unnerving Christmas of all time. I'm lucky to be alive, to be honest, and now my poor girls are roped into this, too.
Christmas Eve was spent at our cousin's apartment. We chatted, drank out after dinner coffees and exchanged a few gifts here and there. We stayed until nine-thirty, in which we returned home to wait the arrival of St. Nick himself.
Our house had been Christmas central for a long, long time, becoming a tradition. My family and I threw ourselves into the holiday and every level was exquisite. In the happily blinking outdoor lights I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a flash of someone moving to a darker area. I blinked and my heart began to race a bit. Would I have another note tapped to the door in the morning...or something worse?
As soon as we got into the house I made sure that all the doors and windows were locked. I chastised myself for doing something so foolish--they would find a way in no matter what, and that alone made me terrified for my family.
Sleep didn't come easy, but I managed.
Christmas morning should have been a happy one, and at first, it was. We opened up presents and ate Christmas-y pancakes, drank eggnog and played with the gifts we so loved. For a few hours we watched classic movies and enjoyed one another's company until it was time for the party. I went upstairs to my room and stopped dead in my tracks.
The Nutcracker was out on its box (which had been shoved in the back of a closet) and stood proudly on my bed, staring at me intently. I honestly didn't know what to expect from the thing, but I was terrified of going any closer. I grabbed what I needed and ran out of my room like a coward. I refused to go back into my room.
Finally it came time for our little party, and just as promised my girls came. There was a voice in my head that wanted to tell them that the party was cancelled and that they had to go home, if only for their safely. The only good side to what happened was no mysteriously locked doors.
We mingled, we laughed, they asked me how I was doing after the Halloween incident, and even though I said I was alright, I could tell they weren't buying it. Eventually I would have to come clean about everything.
Then Naomi looked behind me, her brow furrowing into a confused knot, and said, "Hey, who brought your nutcracker down?"
I spun around and there it was again on the dessert table as if it always was there. Florence was the first one to make her way over to it, and soon they all crowded around the table.
"Woah, it looks like someone put a lot of love and effort into making it." Rebecca sounded really, really impressed. "This is something you would see in museums or sold online for hundreds of dollars. Who sent you this?"
So I told the rest of them what happened. Vivian smiled a bit, "looks like someone likes you enough to do this. Save those notes and call the cops if they try to do anything funny. Until then, maybe we should try breaking a walnut with its mouth, just to see if it works."
"We didn't buy any walnuts, Vivian. Where do you see them?" I was out shopping with my parents the majority of the holiday season. I would have known for sure if we got any. In a small bowl near its feet were several nuts, all of which seemed to beg to be crushed. Without any prompting, Vivian took a walnut and was seconds away from trying it out.
Rebecca grabbed Vivian's wrist. "Vi, no! This looks priceless! That's actual gold leaf and Swarovski crystal on this thing! Don't break it!"
"She's not gonna break it, Becks. Chill out." Florence almost rolled her eyes. "I don't see the point of a nutcracker if it doesn't crack nuts, you know what I mean? Just one isn't going to kill it."
"I think we should go play some games and forget about this. Come on, my brother got a new fighting game I think you'll like... guys?" I tried to sway them away from their object of interest, but they were so fascinated by it that it was hard to drag them away.
Without even a second thought Vivian took her nut of choice, opened its mouth and pushed the handle down.
It cracked the walnut perfectly. But the shell didn't yield anything edible--inside was a tiny skeleton key. Vivian whistled her surprise. Next thing I knew, Florence took another nut, and yet another key appeared. Soon all four of my girls had beautiful keys as their prizes.
I didn't like where any of this was going. Unluckily for all of us, things didn't get any better. It was just getting started.
