The Christmas Killings ♕ dancemoms

PROLOGUE

Kalani hummed to herself as she decorated her family's large Christmas tree, set up in the foyer of their holiday house in the mountains.

She loved the house to death, and was in an extremely good mood as her parents had decided it was acceptable to leave their eighteen year old daughter and her friends alone for Christmas, while they went off to Vienna or something.

Kalani would have liked to go to Vienna, but a week over the break alone with her friends? She wouldn't pass up that chance for the world.

Well, some of the people weren't her friends. Actually, some of them she didn't even know, like, at all. She'd been made to invite them by her parents, apparently they were "friends of the family", that Kalani had never met, somehow. But whatever, she was sure it was going to be great anyway. Nothing could tarnish Christmas.

She climbed the stepladder she'd brought out, and began to string some fairy lights around the tree. The lights were small, each one designed like a little bird, in alternating colours. Her family had them for as long as she could remember, and Kalani remembered thinking they were some great heirloom, passed on from generation to generation until they reached her. Then, when she was about ten, she'd found out electric fairy lights were a pretty recent invention, so that belief had been dashed.

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me..." She hummed, placing the lights between the branches. She'd mentally mapped out the best way to place them, so as the tree would look best when lit up.

Some here in the house, a chattering could be heard. It was most likely coming from one of the living rooms. The house was already quite full - Kalani's boyfriend and other friends had arrived earlier that day.

Jesse and Kalani had been dating for years now, since they were thirteen. Back then, it hadn't really been a proper relationship, seeing as the most contact they'd ever had was texting via snapchat and "hi"s in the school corridors. Somehow though, they'd stuck together and become a power couple. And one of Kalani's friends, Paige, had heard from her boyfriend, Jason (who was also here), that he actually planned of proposing soon, seeing as they were both technically adults now.

Kalani couldn't wait. She peeked a glance at her bare fingers - she didn't like wearing rings, but she was sure she'd make an exception if it was one given to her by Jesse.

She stepped gracefully down from the ladder; Kalani had superb balance; and walked to the wall, where a power point was set low to the ground. Crouching on her haunches, she flicked the switch on, taking note of the breeze that filtered through the small opening in the wooden door that led to the kitchen beside the switch. She flipped around, ready to watch the tree light up.

The lights flickered for a moment, but then went out. Frowning, Kalani switched the flick off and stood up.

She made her way back to the tree, hopping over the boxes that had once held decorations. Lips tilting in confusion, she hopped back up the ladder and pulled off the red casing outside of one of the bird lights. The bulb wasn't blown, so why wasn't it working?, she wondered.

There was a creak as the door to the kitchen opened a little, but Kalani ignored it, instead focusing on the light. Investigating, she pulled off the glass part of the globe, sticking her finger against the wire coil inside, hoping that she would find a problem she could easily fix.

There was a small click - the sound of a switch being flicked.

Kalani's head shot up, and her reflexes went to pull away from the exposed metal coil, but she wasn't fast enough.

A shot of electricity raced through her body, and she grabbed onto the tree as she experienced practically a seizure, caused by the energy, toppling back down towards the cold, marble floor.

She was dead before she hit the ground though, the electricity having stopped her heart mid-beat.

There was a creak and a slam as the kitchen door banged closed, and a muffled humming could be heard, growing fainter and fainter.

"A partridge in a pear tree...."

✯

and the prologue is up! I'm not sure if this is any good, but I hope you enjoy it!