Christmas Day part I

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.

Unlocking Part 1

I've been hiding in my room like a coward, though I know that at any time it can pass through the locked doors. I don't regret going to the house...but I know now that things are only going to escalate

On the 15th I grabbed the keys (just in case), filled up my car with gas, and drove all the way to the ends of town to see the place overrun with ivy, but still intact. I took one final sip of my Coke before going right up to the door. Unlike the dream it wasn't open, but a quick turn of the handle fixed that.

The place could not have been more quiet. The only sounds were of my feet stepping carefully on the old floors. I turned to the left and beheld a somewhat clean living room scattered with relics of the late fifties and early sixties. I know nothing about that place, not even rumors, but in my gut I knew something went very, very wrong here.

The grandfather clock in the corner chimed, and that's when the floor gave out beneath me.

I screamed as gravity fulfilled its purpose, sending me careening to the basement. instead of plumes of dust and cobwebs, I was confronted with the unbelievable.

A forest. There was a goddamn forest in the basement. Trees that should been poking through the above floors stood with thick trunks and bare branches, their paradoxical existence only frightening me more. The floor was now dirt, partially wet and bereft of any insects, and the hole that I fell through was now the sky.

My heart caught in my throat and my stomach felt like it was filled with lead. But even with this, I pursued. It was not as claustrophobic as one would think, but even then I looked behind me to be aware of where I was going.

I saw a large tree with a bronze chain encircling it. No lock, though, but I pulled out the bronze key. A hole near the roots grew wider and wider until it became easy for me to go into.

Right in the center there was a dog so big it was like a small horse, staring at me with eyes as big as teacups and sitting calmly in the center. It didn't lunge at me or bark, but it did pant heavily as if it was thirsty. I slowly walked closer to it, mumbling platitudes as I willed my feet to move. Suddenly, when I was just close enough, the dog stood and closed the distance between us, nudging my hand with the key open. My finger shakily exposed my item, and in the blink of an eye the dog gobbled it up.

I yelled at it to drop the key, or rather, I would have had the dog not melted away into a large, unlocked chest. My jaw could have fallen from my skull. It took a while for me to collect myself, but when I did I opened the chest and found one third of a DVD.

I fond another large tree with a silver chain around it. I took out the matching key, went through the hole, and what did I find? Another dog, just as big as the last one, also staring at me with eyes as big as pinwheels. It ate the key like the one before it and turned into an chest. I took another third of a DVD within it and quickly left.

Not far along there was the final tree. There was one last dog, also big with eyes as big as a human head, that swallowed my final key and it, too, turned into a chest. I grabbed the final piece and made it out of the tree.

I thought that maybe, just maybe, that would be it and I could figure out a way to get out of the forest-basement. Little did I know that they weren't done with me.

At least fifteen feet away I saw three figures, dressed all in black, wearing Venetian masks that concealed their faces. One wore large goat horns upon her head, another with cardinal feathers that made up her earrings, and the last had a multitude of fish scales entwined in the veil she wore.

They were watching me, and I realized then that they had been doing so this entire time.

Still Here

I still have the keys. They're out of their pouches and lined up neatly on my vanity. They are normal, every day keys; at least I hope they are. The last thing I need are these three things summoning demons from the ninths circle of hell.

My dreams have been quiet. I can't remember most of them, and those that stay lodged are so mundane that they're useless.

As much as I want to,  I don't want to show my girls. They want answers just as much as I do, but I don't want them to get hurt in the process. Losing Catherine destroyed me, and even after so long I still can't get over her death.

Losing them would destroy me even further.

I almost wish for a nightmare--it would bring be closer to finding her killer. I want to know where these keys go to.