What Came Down the Chimney this Christmas

The Thing that Came Down the Chimney

The fire had been burning in the chimney for quite some time now. The house had warmed up, and in an attempt to seal in the heat, John had gotten up and closed the door. He and William had remained at the table as they had the entirety of the evening. Gran ventured out into the cold earlier in the night. She had taken the knife from the table, and a flat wooden plate she retrieved from the kitchen.

Returning to the house, Gran held the wooden plate her left hand. She loosely held the knife in her right hand, dropping it once on the floor with a clatter. She bent down to pick up the knife, and then hurled it into the kitchen where it clattered out of sight. At one point, probably while the knife was soaring through the air, John's cheek was dotted with a few drops of blood. He dabbed at it with his sleeve, smearing it across his face.

"Gran, what's that for?" William asked, looking at the bloodied strips of meat on the wooden plate.

"Oh this?" Gran inquired, bending down to sniff the dog meat. "It smells good," she told the boys, running one of her fingers down the strips of flesh. Gran licked the blood off her finger, as though she was a chef checking a soup to see if it needed more salt. "It's perfect," Gran clapped her hands, and lifted one of the strips off the plate, about to take a bite. She saw the horrified expressions on the boys faces, and sat the strip back down onto the plate. She patted the meat tenderly, in a similar fashion to how William would pat Jack's head.

"You know how we used to leave cookies out for the Father of Christmas?" Gran asked the two boys. John and William nodded at her solemnly. "This is the same idea," Gran told them, setting the plate near the edge of the fire.

"What are you leaving that out for?" John sat up in his chair anxiously.

Gran stood up, and ran her wrinkled hand down her chin. She thought about his question, and then right before she was going to answer him, there was a loud scream outside. William and John stood up from the table, their hearts beating fast It was the same scream they had heard hours before the henhouse had caught fire.

"What's that Gran? What is it!" William ran over to her.

Gran stared out the window, not looking William in the eye.

"You'll see soon enough William, I promise you."

There was a loud thump above as something made itself known on the roof. John and William looked up at the ceiling, watching as the beams bent under the weight of what was above. Gran walked into the kitchen, and picked up the knife on the floor. The boys feared that she was going to come at them with the blade, but instead she slipped it into the wash bin.

"Gran what is coming?!" John yelled.

"You don't think it's reindeer on the roof?" Gran joked with him.

Both John and William turned to look at the chimney. Soot began to fall down onto the fire, as something began to come down the chimney.

"It's okay, I don't think it's reindeer either," Gran told them, walking towards her room.

More soot fell on the fire, to the sound of claws scratching the sides of the chimney. The boys could hear heavy breathing and huffing coming from within the chimney. Both John and William backed away, as enough soot fell down onto the fire to smother it entirely.

A long hand reached down from the chimney, emerging into the room. Claws as black as charcoal curled around the chimney's opening. The claws drummed on the stone, just as Gran had drummed on the table before. The creature's arms were black, with fur the same color of the boys dog. The room was totally dark now, except for two yellow eyes which stared at the boys from within the fireplace.

"Gran!" John and William yelled simultaneously.

Gran walked into her room, and looked at the boys unsympathetically. John and William stared at her with eyes that begged for help, eyes that wanted mercy. Gran knew they would get none this Christmas. This Christmas the wheel would come full circle, and all of the bad behaviors of the years past would be atoned for.

"Naughty children must be punished," Gran told them, closing the bedroom door behind her.