12 Deadly Drabbles for Christmas

Nothing says Merry Christmas like mini bites of horror

With my wife forced to stay out of town for work for Christmas, I find myself at a loose end. When that happens, my mind tends to drift off into the darkness. Here are 12 drabbles served up as mini Christmas gifts.

1. Lab Rats

It was a secure facility the government said, almost as soon as news of the incident broke. It is being contained they said, assuring the public that there was no reason to panic. When the first wave of people began to die, silence became the first order of business.

Bedore long, the streets were filled with the decomposing bodies of the dead, their skin covered in sores and blisters. The virus spread like the shock waves from an atom bomb, turning everything it touched into death and decay.

Everything died, except for the escaped rats, whose bodies hosted the cure.

2. Cloudbusters

When the kids were small, the parents in the small town of Griffin would warn them that the cloudbusters would come and take them away if they didn’t behave. Most fell for the story, keeping quiet whenever a tantrum began to take hold.

Will Champlain was not like the other kids. Defiant and angry, Will would scream to get his way. Just as the thunder would begin to roll, his parents would submit to his will.

One day, they let him scream, feeling a sense of relief when the storm came, the clouds parted, and the cloudbusters took their boy.

Untreated

Denny Millen hated kids with a passion. In his mind, they were hateful little creatures who did nothing but put their hands out and demand, always taking without giving.

Halloween was the worst. Even with his porch light switched off, they came. The pounding on his door and the calls for candy drove him crazy, so rather than giving, he began to take. One by one, he plucked them off the street on Halloween.

The collection of trick or treaters in his basement was growing, and while he couldn’t see their faces behind the masks, he knew they died screaming.

Trail Cam

Something clawed at the legs of his tree stand, causing the whole thing to sway from side to side. It wasn’t bear season, but Ted Boggs was not a man to play by the rules.

He pulled out his phone and opened up the feed from his trail cam. What he saw froze his blood. Not a bear or a deer, in fact not anything of this world. The thing was thin and pale, it’s eyes huge, lifeless orbs of the deepest obsidian.

And now it was climbing his stand, almost certainly looking for something tasty to chew down on.

Madness

It wasn’t the first one that did it. I killed him out of anger after he cut me off on the highway. I do remember the feeling of satisfaction surging through me as I watched the life blinking out in his eyes.

Numbers two and three were done as an experiment, as I looked for ways to extend the pleasure as they died. The fourth was when I learned that I had been born to do this.

Five was when I believe something finally snapped inside. The head doctors will never see it, but I am self-aware of my madness.

Haboob

I saw the look in grandpa’s eyes change when the dust storm began to form. We were on the porch, looking out across the vast expanse of land when it began.

He had been telling me about the good old days, but to my ears, there was a layer of darkness in every tale. Poverty, hunger, and death, sat below the surface of every tale.

As we looked out at the approaching storm, I saw where all three of those things came from. Grandpa grabbed the shotgun by his side, ready to do battle as the wraiths drew ever closer.

Death is Coming

I know that I am dying. The doctors smile and wave away my claims when I tell them. They say that my tests look fine and that I am on the road to recovery, but I know they are lying.

Death is not the way he is described by so many. There are no black robes, no scythe in hand. No. Death is a grinning maniac that comes creeping every night, head and hands propped on the end of my bed waiting for me to breathe my last.

He is patient and will wait for as long as it takes.

Reality TV

There was a time when reality TV was little more than beautiful idiots taking part in competitions where they would debase themselves for some monetary prize that would be gone in no time at all.

Nowadays, we get to watch nations fall in primetime. The government drones catch everything in glorious high definition as the military marches across land where black gold lies below the surface.

Failure to tune in is seen as treasonous, so we watch them crush everything in their path, telling us it is being done for the sake of progress.

Fed and warm, I believe them.

Lost Highway

Lines of static shot across the GPS screen like lightning flashes before the unit died. Moments later, the car engine began to sputter, the vehicle limping along for a few more moments before dying entirely.

Gavin used the momentum of the car to steer to the side of the road, right beside a sign that read, “Welcome to Derry.” He frowned, as he did not remember seeing that town on the GPS map.

Something moved in the trees to his right. Gavin turned toward the movement just in time to see a red balloon come floating out of the trees.

The Portal

For decades, people pondered the existence of alien life, looking to the skies and the oceans for signs of alien craft. It was nothing more than misdirection, as they all came from a single point.

They had all thought Mary Shivers to be mad when she spoke of the tear in the fabric by her farmhouse. She was mocked and maligned by the press and the people in her small town.

The laughing stopped when the portal tore open for good and the alien armada emerged, intent on claiming their new territory.

Mary was the only one spared.

Long Legs

For the third straight day, a fat spider sat on the bathroom ceiling, tucking itself into the corner. Dave had left the first two alone, only for them to bite them while he showered.

Enough was enough.

He poked the spider with a broom handle and smashed it beneath his boot when it fell into the tub, laughing gleefully at the crunching sound.

Another sound quickly followed, as the ceiling tore open and mother emerged in a flurry of hairy legs and snapping mandibles. Revenge was on her mind as she swooped down and wrapped Gavin in webs of silk.

From The Swamp

The rain hammered against the tent while distant thunder rumbled overhead. Terry huddled inside, shivering, and listening to the swamp water inching closer and closer.

It had looked like the perfect camping spot, but he knew the time had come to ditch everything and run for his car before his camp was swept away.

Bolting outside, lightning flashed, illuminating the area and the humanoid creatures rising from the swamp, red eyes glowing. He tried to run, but the sodden earth held him in place.

In a swarm they came, looking to add another to their masses. Mother Nature always delivered.