“and to all a good night” | Short story

I used to love thinking about Christmas, but now all I hear are the screams. We were going to fix things and finally mend the bond between us. In a moment, everything changed.

My family’s cabin was nestled in a clearing surrounded by a thick forest at the end of a long dirt road that was now covered in snow. My boyfriend drove at a glacial pace with white knuckles gripping the steering wheel for dear life. We could barely see two feet in front of us, so I didn’t blame him for leaning as close to the windshield as he could. Everything outside of the yellow glow of our headlights was pitch black.

“We’re almost there, I promise,” I offered feebly. Our SUV fishtailed slightly, and I felt my stomach ever so gently punch me in the throat.

Finally, the narrow strip of road opened, and Mike pulled up next to a beat-up sedan I could only assume was my brother’s. He turned the engine off and sat back with a sigh. I could see him out of the corner of my eye looking at me with a gentle smile and my heart melted. “You ready?” He asked, placing his hand on the nape of my neck. My skin warmed at his touch.

I took a deep breath in and let it out. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Growing up, I convinced myself that my family were witches and that they were keeping it from me. Whenever we’d walk into the cabin, I was sure that we had stepped through a magical gate. The enormity of it compared to how it looked from the outside blew my mind. As an adult, though, not so much.

Mike and I stood in the doorway, shaking off the powder from our shoulders. “Hello!” I called out. I told Mike to leave our bags at the door and walked down the narrow hallway into the main living room.

Two large leather sofas faced each other next to a roaring fireplace. A pair of mismatched socks dangled over the arm of the sofa closest to us and when we drew closer, my sister Karina popped her head up. “Anthony!” She launched herself over the back of the couch and into my arms, practically knocking me over. “And you must be Mike. It’s nice to finally put a face to the name we’ve heard so little about.”

From a doorway behind Karina, my other sister Stephanie appeared with a bottle of wine and two glasses. “Oh, my goodness, what a surprise! I didn’t know we were bringing anyone else this weekend,” she cooed politely, handing Karina a glass and filling both.

“I’m going to grab us a drink,” Mike said, “Let you guys catch up.” He excused himself with a smile and disappeared into the kitchen through the same door Stephanie had come in from.

I waited until he was out of earshot before turning on my sisters with a raised eyebrow. “Since when are you two so chummy?” I slipped my jacket off and flung it onto the arm of the sofa facing them and plopped down next to it.

“They’re already two bottles deep. You’re late.” My brother Joe emerged from the staircase across from the kitchen that led upstairs to the bedrooms. I felt my face flush down my neck, and I knew it wasn’t the fire that was making me hot. “But you took the time to build a creepy ass snowman.” In an instant, I was ice cold. All the anger building in my body dissipated, but I had no idea why.

Karina joined me on the couch and refilled her glass of wine. “You built a snowman?”

“No, we just got here,” I croaked.

Mike came back into the room with two glasses of whiskey and placed one in front of me. “I forgot my phone in the car,” he said, kissing the top of my head, “I’ll be right back.” Had I known then what I know now, I would’ve begged him to stay inside, but I just sat there silently watching him walk out the door.

As the latch clicked shut behind him, I felt the air go out of my body. Something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Stephanie, ever the mother of the group, stood up and cleared her throat. “I just want to say that I’m happy we’re all finally together again. And I think this weekend will be good for us to let some things go from the past and move on. It’s what Mom would have wanted.” I took a big sip of my whiskey and felt it burn down my throat, but no warmth followed. “Does anyone else have anything they’d like to say?” Stephanie asked.

Their voices lowered to a dim in my mind. I couldn’t tell you what they talked about if I tried. It had been several minutes, and Mike hadn’t come back inside. “Where’s Mike?” My voice was barely a whisper.

“Have you even been listening? This is about you,” Karina said, rolling her eyes.

A loud thud slammed against the front door, and everyone stopped. It was like I was moving in slow motion. I felt myself stand and make my way toward the door as if in a dream. I reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open. Standing at the foot of the steps was a snowman. Its black coal eyes sunk into its white head; the mouth pulled back in a twisted smile. Something was dripping from it, but I didn’t know what. I opened the door wider and then I saw it. At my feet was Mike’s head, chewed off at the neck.

I didn’t realize that my brother had followed me to the door until he yanked me back inside and slammed the door shut. Joe locked it and grabbed me by the arm, ushering me into the main room quickly. “What was it?” Stephanie asked, standing up to join us.

“Are all the windows and doors locked?” Joe asked, more lucid than I had seen him in years.

“I don’t know. I think so,” Karina offered feebly.

Suddenly, the lights turned out. My sisters screamed. I sank to the floor.

“Grab a weapon,” Joe ordered and rushed into the kitchen.

I couldn’t move. The love of my life was dead, and I was frozen in place. Stephanie didn’t know what to do, it was like she was running in circles unsure of what to grab. Karina on the other hand grabbed a fire poker and armed herself. The fire was the only light left in the room.

Joe came back out with two knives and handed one to me and Stephanie. “I’m going to check upstairs. Don’t go anywhere alone.” That snapped me out of my paralysis. No matter what I felt about my siblings, Joe was still my big brother. I wasn’t going to leave his side.

“I’m coming with you,” I mustered, pulling myself up from the floor. He looked at me and gave a nod. He told Stephanie and Karina to check the downstairs doors again and stick together, and we made our way upstairs.

Maybe it was the fact that I saw my boyfriend dead or that I was scared out of my mind and in shock, but it felt like we were kids again. Playing hide and seek. As we got to the second floor, I could feel a draft coming in from one of the rooms. Behind a closed door, a window must have been open. Joe took hold of the doorknob and mouthed a countdown from three. We burst in but saw nothing.

Screams pierced through the silence from downstairs, and Joe and I flew back down to find our sisters. Karina’s body smoldered in the fireplace, lifeless. I scanned the room, my eyes bulging from their sockets. The snowman stood in the doorway to the kitchen, snow tracks leading from the back of the house into the room. We couldn’t see Stephanie, but the shattered window with blood stains on the jagged edges told me all I needed to know.

Joe grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me in the eye with a seriousness I had never seen before. “Get to your car and leave now. Make it as far as you can and don’t look back. I love you, bro.” And with that he ran at the snowman.

I didn’t think, just did as instructed. I hurdled over the corpse of my boyfriend, and slip-slided toward our car praying with every fiber of my being the keys were still inside. They were, thank God, and as I started the car, I heard my brother’s final scream.

It’s been a year since the incident. I write this so when someone finds my body, they know what happened.

There’s a snowman in my yard.