The Holiday Spectacular Nightmares

The Holiday Spectacular Nightmares

     Viona kissed Greig on his forehead while morlin brushed his lips again Lillai’s cheeks. Then they switched children, but the forehead and the cheeks stayed the same. After that Viona and Morlin tucked them into their beds. Viona did it a way too tight. Morlin untucked them a little. Once that got done they turned off the light on their way out the door.

     Morlin closed the door behind them. As they headed back downstairs they started arguing. “You didn’t have to tuck them in so snuggily,” said Morlin.

     “After what they just went through I felt it was better to be safe than sorry.” Viona kept her voice low. Even so she glanced back at the kid’s door every few seconds – until they got to the stairs. Even then she continued doing it until her head got too low to see it.

     “It wasn’t that bad. I went to go see The Holiday Spectacular when I was about their age.” Morlin stepped down one step that creaked while Viona stepped on it.

     “You were twelve or thirteen at the time. Lillai is only ten – and Greig is eight,” responded Viona.

     “They are going to be just fine. Millions of people see The Holiday Spectacular every year, and they don’t get scared by it,” said Morlin.

<<<<<>>>>>

     A couple of hours later Lillai woke up screaming. She looked over at her brother who wasn’t there. Lillai got out of her bed – and knocked on the bathroom door. “Are you in there?”
No reply.

     Lillai appeared to be an average looking kid with long blond hair that reached down the middle of her back, but she used it to cover her development. She only had on her under clothing. So she grabbed a night wrap on her way out of their bedroom.

     It’s completely dark in the hallway. The two overhead lights there, and the ones one the stairs, were out. Lillai used the walls opposite their bedroom to find her parents room. Once found she knocked on their door. “Mom and dad, are you in there?” Again no response.

     Next Lillai headed for the downstairs also using her hand to feel along the wall until she got to the top of the stairs. She almost fell down them because of the darkness. Lillai pressed so hard again the stair walls as she slowly, and carefully, walked down to the first floor. It was completely dark too. “Where is everybody?”

     Lillai started to check out the downstairs, but thought better of it after bumping into several pieces of furniture – and almost knocking over a vase on a table. She barely caught it before it smashed to the floor. ‘That was close.’

     A single dim street light could be seen through the large living room window. ‘I think I need to go get help. It’s probably only a power failure, and my parents are going to restore it any second now – but just in case they don’t…’ Lillai left the family house as fast as she could in the darkness. Except for the street lights it was dark everywhere.

     Stepping under the nearest street light to be seen Lillai scanned first up then down the street. She was the only one there. Suddenly she heard screaming and a few seconds later about twenty kids started running past her. ‘those are the kids from the musical my parents forced me to go see.’ As the kids ran past her some of them said, “Run,” “Hide,” “Get out of here,” etc.

     Right behind the kids were two large rats with crowns on their heads and about a sixteen tooth showing mice following them. Lillai ran back into her house. She cuddled herself in the dark under the stairs. A minute later she heard pounding on the doors and windows - and some clawing too. She tried to scream, but couldn’t.

<<<<<>>>>>

     Greig threw his covers off of his bed while he thrashed around as he continued to scream. He was tall for eight. Like Lillai he barely fit on his bed. Greig and Lallai could be twins – except for his face and body. They made him look his true age.

     Suddenly Greig stopped screaming – and opened his eyes. He was in complete darkness. Greig could hardly move his head under some kind of a metal dome. Repeatedly Greig tried to move his head only to bang it against what had to be metal.

     ‘Where am I?’ Greig took a deep breath. ‘Why can’t I feel anything below my head.’

     Greig could hear voices nearby. They were faint, but they were definitely there. He tried to scream, and he did, but no one responded to it. Greig tried to bang his head real hard against the metal to get their attention. ‘All that did was give me a headache.’

     Suddenly light could be seen as the dome got lifted off of his head. At both ends of a large fancy dressed table were two adult rats. Along both sides of the table were around sixteen mice. ‘They look exactly like the rats and mice from the play I just went to see.’

     Like the other heads on platters on either side of him Greig tried to scream, but couldn’t. “Let’s eat,” said the female rat.

     “Eat all that you want. There’s plenty for everyone,” the male rat replied.

<<<<<>>>>>

     Lying down on a couch Morlin stared up toward the second floor. “You deal with it. It’s your fault they have been screaming like that for almost an hour.” Viona said from a chair.

     Lazily Morlin got up and headed for the open entrance leading into the living room. As he reached the opening he said, “I’ll go up, but they are going to stop yelling any time now.” Suddenly they did.

     When Morlin and Viona got to the kid’s bedroom the kids weren’t there. The kids weren’t the only ones who had a nightmare that night.

The Word Count, including the Title, is 995.