Christmas Horrors

Family Nightmare.

It was the night of December 25th, 2009. My family was having a Christmas dinner and everybody came round to my parents house for it. Around this time I was about 9 years old and only had one sibling which is Tom, my big brother.

It was around 5pm when all our family finally arrived. My parents were still in the kitchen finishing up food while me and Tom were in the living room playing board games. ''Dinner is ready!!'' my mom shouted, passing plates down the table.

Me and my brother took a seat and began eating, and there was a sudden pause in the family conversation as there was a loud knock on the door. My mom and dad looked concerned as we had a quiet neighbourhood and nobody really knocked like that. 

''Who is it?'' My mom asked, looking out the peep hole.

''Please, lady. I need help. I have nobody to spend Christmas with. I have no home and nowhere to go, and haven't eaten anything for 2 days.'' An old mans voice stated.

My mom was a kind woman and willing to be helpful to anyone who needed it. She opened the door without any hesitation and told the man to take a seat in any free space.

He sat in the space opposite me. The man had balding hair with wrinkles all over his body, and he was covered in dirt head to toe. ''Hi, young lady.'' He said smiling. I just waved back at him and carried on eating. My cousin James was upstairs on call to his girlfriend, as they had a fight minutes before he left the house. It was about 6:30 when the man said he needed the bathroom and my dad pointed upstairs and to the right. He thanked us and walked upstairs.

My family was bickering about how sorry they felt for him, and how he must be extremely grateful for my mom's kind actions. We thought nothing suspicious of him until we heard loud bangs in my parents bedroom.

My dad rushed upstairs with a baseball bat in hand, and when he got into his bedroom a loud blood-curdling scream echoed across the house. Me, my mom and my big brother all ran upstairs and came into the bedroom where we saw James on the floor, bleeding rapidly with gunshot holes all over his body. 

The man was in the bathroom with the door locked but my dad's baseball bat prevented him from escaping. He broke the door down and knocked the guy out, pinning him on the floor as he called 911.

From that moment, we knew to never let anybody unknown into our home again.