My Favorite Christmas Tree

Christmas vacation had started like it usually did with Mom and Dad taking me to the Christmas tree lot to pick a tree. I saw one tree and I loved it; Dad looked at it and he seemed to hate it. But it was Mom that agreed with me.

“Let’s get this one, dear.” Mom had said.

“Are you sure, it is wide.”

“Yes. This is a good one and it will protect us. It’ll protect Abe when we can’t.”

Mom put her hand on Dad’s shoulder and smiled at him; he finally nodded and soon the tree was on top of the car and we were on our way home. Mom and Dad set the tree up and then Dad left to get Holly from the airport while Mom and I decorated the tree.

Holly would be coming home from boarding school and she would be in a bad mood like she always was. She walked in the door, Dad behind her with her suitcases weighing him down; Holly looked down at me as I sat in the chair.

“Hey brat.” Holly said in the nasty tone that she always spoke in, it was like she thought I was a piece of trash under her designer shoe.

“Hi Holly. Merry Christmas.” I said quietly and she scoffed at what I said.

She hated Christmas, ever since Dad married my mom and I came along. Holly just went inside the living room and looked at the Christmas tree. I liked it; it was dark green and it was tall enough to almost reach the living room ceiling, it had a lot of branches for the decorations but it was really big around at the bottom. I was proud of the tree; we got all the decorations up and the bell garland around the tree. I knew that Holly would not be happy because the lower branches were in front of Holly’s recliner and she would not be able to lean back all the way like she always did.

“Who picked the piss poor tree?” Holly asked, and I looked down at my Rudolph slippers, she knew that I would have picked out the tree now that she never did.

“Holly! The tree is beautiful and it was the best to pick out. I think we did a great job at decorating it,” Dad said. He was trying to scold her but Holly always ignored him and my mom.

Holly just went to her chair and sat down in it; she reached for the remote and changed the channel, gone went the Jack Frost cartoon I was watching and she changed it to a movie with a lady being chopped up. I left the living room; I heard the bells on the tree ring as Holly kicked at the lower branches by her feet. I knew that Holly would only watch what she wanted so I left to see if Dad would let me play a game on his computer.

The rest of the day was spent playing on Dad’s computer and he even let me watch my Christmas cartoon on his laptop when he needed the printer. I heard the tree bells ring whenever Holly kicked the tree, she hated Christmas but I didn’t know why and I was too scared to ask her. Mom saw Holly’s bags by the door when she came home and she only sighed as sounds of screaming came from the living room; Holly only wanted to watch scary movies because she knew that Mom and Dad did not want me to see them. I knew that this was going to be the routine until Holly went back to boarding school; this was how it always happened when Holly was home for the holidays. I knew that I would have to try to stay out of Holly’s way until after Christmas, like always. I heard Dad go into the living room to tell Holly that he and Mom were going to go out for dinner alone tonight. The bells on the tree kept ringing as Holly kicked the tree but she did not argue with Dad, she must have been into the movie that she was watching. I did not want to bother Holly but when Dad and Mom left, they turned off the computer and put away the laptop. Mom had already ordered a pizza, paid for it and everything; it just had to be delivered.

I watched Mom and Dad get in their car and then I looked into the living room, there was a lady covered in blood on the TV and I really did not want to go in there but I knew that I would have to if I wanted any chance to maybe watch one of the Christmas specials that were on tonight. I just slipped into the living room and sat on the couch, it was away from Holly and I could hide under the blanket if I got scared or if I did not want to watch people getting killed and eaten.

“Hey brat. You wanna hear how you got your name?” Holly asked suddenly.

I just looked at her but I didn’t give her an answer; she must have taken my silence as a yes because she went on talking.

“You were born on the day a famous guy got shot in the head and killed in front of a whole bunch of people, over a hundred years ago. You were named for the idiot that got shot, Abe Lincoln.” Holly said, knowing that I hated hearing stuff like that.

I watched as Holly kicked the tree and the bells rang as the entire tree shook.

“Holly? Why do you always kick the tree?” I finally asked and she looked at me with a grin, she was going to have a fun time scaring me.

Holly turned off the TV and she walked over to me, her expensive high heels clicked on the hard wood floor. She sat next to me with a grin that reminded me of the Cheshire Cat; it scared me when she smiled like that.

“You see, Abe, there are some Christmas trees that have all sorts of creatures living inside and they sometimes stay with the trees when the trees are brought into a house. So we have to keep shaking the tree so that any creatures do not come out of the tree and into the house, these creatures love little kids like you and they like to cause trouble and madness.”

She paused and looked back at the tree as if she was daring it to argue with her.

“These little creatures are little trolls and imps, they cause mischief and they love to make people crazy. They sneak into houses by the trees and they like to climb into beds when people are sleeping and they whisper terrible things in their ears. They whisper to the sleeping person and they make them crazy, the person then wakes up and they …”

Holly waited to see if I was scared, I was. I was curled up with my knees to my chest, I did not want to be listening this but I knew that she would continue.

“The people wake up and they walk slowly, like they’re sleep walking and they go down to the kitchen and they get a knife. The trolls and imps watch the people carefully as the people walk through the house and they…” Holly stopped as she leaned in closer to me; her blue eyes had the usual sadistic glee in them.

Holly started in a whisper, “The people go into every room and they KILL EVERYONE!” Holly shouted the last two words as she grabbed my shoulders and I screamed.

Holly just laughed like she just saw the funniest thing; I was just someone she could scare and get a laugh at.

“And I know that there is a bunch of little trolls and imps in that piss poor tree that you picked out!” Holly said with a cruel laugh as she pointed to the tree behind her.

I screamed again and ran upstairs to my room; I knew that I could be safe in my room. I stayed in my room until the next morning. Holly said that I went to bed early because I was tired; she didn’t tell them that she scared me because she knew our dad would punish her by taking away her cell phone and her laptop.

The next couple days were the same, Holly took control of the TV and would tell me about the trolls and imps in the Christmas tree, and how they would make Dad crazy and kill us all. She knew that I was scared of her stories but she kept telling them to me because she knew that I wouldn’t tell our parents. Holly would stay up late and watch her killer movies; she would kick the tree and make the bells ring as long as she was up. The bells would wake me up when I tried to sleep; my room was right above the living room. I would wish and hope for the bells to stop ringing and for the faint screaming to go away. I just could not get used to the screaming and I usually could not sleep until Holly turned off the TV; even then, I would have such bad nightmares that I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would not be able to go back to sleep.

I can remember that I would go downstairs and lie down on the couch, I would watch the Christmas lights on the tree and I would be able to fall asleep and I wouldn’t have nightmares. Mom used to tell me that trees are protective of children and they would protect children if they were in danger, I always felt safe around the tree. I can remember falling asleep to the feeling of someone brushing my hair. I can even remember one time that I was almost asleep and I was cold, then something covered me up with a blanket but I never heard any footsteps, only the bells on the tree.

A couple nights later, Mom and Dad went to a Christmas party and Holly had to babysit me again. I was curled up on the couch trying to ignore the screaming on the TV.

“Hey, Abe. You wanna know how your mom met Dad?” Holly asked as she watched blood spurt out of a man’s neck on the TV.

I stayed silent and I did not say anything and like always, she took my silence to mean that I wanted her to tell the story.

“Dad was married to my mother, eight years ago, and then Dad met your mother. Your mom is a witch and she made a potion to make Dad fall in love with her. When my mother tried to stop her, she killed my mom and then Dad tried to leave her so she made a potion to make sure that she had you and Dad would have to stay with her.” Holly had stopped to make sure I was listening before she continued with a sick grin on her face.

“Now your mother has to make a new potion, it is going to be for a spell so that she can tie Dad down with another kid because he wants to leave you and your mother out on the streets.” Holly took a breath and turned away from the TV, a sick smile was on her face.

“You see Dad actually hates you and your mother but he is just now starting to come out of the potion’s power, he is breaking away from your mother. Soon both of you will be out on the streets!” Holly laughed, the story did not scare me as much as it upset me but she knew it would.

I knew that my mom was different; I knew that from when she burned that funny plant stick and waved it around the house or when she burned the funny sticks and told me strange stories about protective spirits. I also knew that Dad loved my mom and that he had left Holly’s mom for a reason.

“That’s not true!” I shouted at her, raising my voice to her for the first time in my life. “Dad left your mom because she cheated on him!” I shouted. I knew that because Dad had told me once when I asked about Holly’s mother.

Holly was out of her recliner and across the room so fast that I almost didn’t see her. Her hand raised and she smacked me across the face, hot pain ran over my cheeks.

“Shut up! You little bastard! My mom is a saint and your mother is nothing but a whore! Dad will throw you and her out the day he realizes that. I will make him see that bitch for what she is!” Holly yelled as she smacked me again.

My face felt hot and my ears were ringing, no it was the bells on the tree, and they were ringing. I watched in shock and the tree shook on its own and it moved! Holly seemed to be too busy in her own rage because she did not see the tree; she just grabbed my neck with both hands and began to squeeze. I did not look at Holly; I looked behind her and at the tree as it moved on its own.

The tree branches stretched themselves out and grabbed a hold of Holly, and that was when she realized what was happening and she opened her mouth to scream. Before she could though, one of the branches plunged itself deep into her mouth and throat. The branches pulled Holly away from me, I watched in sheer shock as the tree pulled Holly to itself. I knew it had to be real, I felt the pine needles as they brushed against my cheek when the branches grabbed her, but it was so strange. I watched as all the Christmas tree lights and ornaments moved away from the center of the tree and a huge black hole seemed to open in the center. The bells on the tree continued to shake and ring, like some bizarre music that people play during dinner. I saw Holly’s eyes widen as the tree pulled her to the hole in the center. I watched as the tree branches threw Holly into this strange black hole and I heard a strange sound come from the tree, it was like the sound when I swallow the nasty cough syrup. That was when it hit me; the Christmas tree just ate my sister!

I looked at the Christmas tree in shock and wonder as the tree righted itself, the lights and ornaments went back to their places, and not a trace was left of Holly. I walked to the tree after a few moments, I wanted to see if it would eat me but it did not move and the branches did not come near me. I leaned in towards the branches to see if it was waiting until it attacked.

“Thank you.” I whispered to the tree when it did not attack me.

A branch moved and knocked the remote towards me and I nodded, thinking that the tree did not like all the violent TV that Holly had been watching since she came home, and I changed the channel to a Christmas cartoon. I saw a branch from the tree move I froze in horror. Was it going to eat me now? The branch just stretched out to me and ruffled my hair, like Mom would, and then another branch patted Holly’s recliner like it wanted me to sit there.

“Okay.” I said with a smile and I hopped into the comfy chair.

I sat there, next to the tree, and watched Christmas cartoons until Mom and Dad got home. They saw the scratches from Holly’s nails on my face and the handprints on my neck; they thought she ran away. They still think that Holly ran away; I never told them the truth.