Christmas Morning

Thriller Stories | Mar 17, 2012 | 8 min read
80 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Thriller Stories

Christmas Morning

Daniel woke up long before the sun came up on Christmas morning. After several failed attempts to make Olivia get out of bed he gave up and headed downstairs alone, leaving on the bed where she lay on her side snoring blissfully. He loved Christmas and just couldn't understand why anyone would want to sleep in since there was so much excitement in the air.

He went into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee, fighting the urge to try at least one more time to wake Olivia up. He noticed a box of glazed doughnuts on the counter and briefly considered snagging one of them before he realized that he was too excited to eat anything so he ended up leaving them behind and making his way into the living room.

The living room was basically a shrine to Christmas. A huge tree loaded with ornaments sat in the corner with roughly a ton of wrapped gifts under it. There were decorations all over the walls and mistletoe hanging over the door. It was hard to walk across the room without bumping into a Santa Claus or snowman figurine. Olivia had complained that it was too much (her exact words had been "It looks like the holiday section of Target threw up in here"), but Daniel didn't agree in the very least. If anything he thought that they didn't have enough decorations and he wished he'd bought a few more.

The outside of their house was equally decorative. There were several blow up Santas, snowmen, and penguins stationed in the front yard as well as an assortment of reindeer and elves. There were enough Christmas lights on the house that it could probably be seen from outer space and Olivia had said that she hoped that an airplane didn't land in their yard because there were so many lights that the pilot confused it for an airport. Daniel didn't care what she said though, he loved Christmas and wanted everyone to know it. It he had it his way there would be a lot more lights on the house.

He glanced over at the clock on the wall and saw that it was just a little after 7:00. He found some holiday music on the radio and then started building a fire in the fireplace as he listened to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," humming along with it as he worked. Once he got the fire going he went back into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee before returning to the living room where he sat down in his recliner and enjoyed the Christmas music.

Olivia came stumbling into the room about fifteen minutes later wearing her robe and looking like she was still mostly asleep. She scowled at him before mumbling something about the music being too loud and walking into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee (she was always unbearable in the morning until she had her first cup).

Daniel got up and warmed his hands on the fire for a moment before he walked over to the tree and stood there looking at all the gifts. He started counting them and saw that at least seven of them belonged to him. He got down on his hands and knees and picked some of them up and shook them, no longer able to resist the urge to do so. Olivia came back into the room with her cup of coffee and shook her head when she saw what he was doing.

"Jesus, you're worse than a little kid!" she said before taking a sip from her cup and grimacing. She always complained that the coffee that Daniel made tastes like mud.

"Hey, Christmas is my favorite holiday, what can I say?"

"No shit. I would've never guessed."

"Can we open the presents?" he asked, ignoring her smart ass comment.

"Not right now, you know we have to wait for Teresa and the girls to get here."

"What time are they coming?"

"When I talked to her last she said that they'd be here around noon or so."

He frowned and his attention back to the fire so she wouldn't see the exasperated expression on his face. He loved Olivia's sister Teresa but hated that fact that she was never, ever on time. No matter what she was guaranteed to always be late and as he pushed around on the logs in the fire place with the poker he figured that since she claimed that they would be there at noon or so they wouldn't actually show up until somewhere around the neighborhood of 2:00 or even 3:00.

He glanced back over at all the gifts under the tree again and he realized that there was no way on God's green earth that he could wait that long to open them.

"Come on, let's at least open some of them," he whined.

"No Daniel, What did I just say?"

"Can we just open one a piece then?"

"Daniel!"

"Please?"

"No! We have to wait for Teresa and the girls!" she snapped, "It would be rude to open one without them!"

"Oh come on, it's just one! How are they going to know that we just opened one of them?!

She took a long drink of her coffee and sat there for a moment silently debating with herself if she should let him open a gift or not. He knew her well enough to know that she would most likely give up and let him have one of them just so he would shut up and leave her alone about it.

"OK, fine, open one!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in defeat. "I swear to God it's like I'm married to a ten-year-old sometimes.

Daniel put the poker down and made his way over to the tree with the same enthusiasm as a cat approaching an unsuspecting bird. He looked over all the gifts that he knew were his and tried to decide which one to grab. There was a huge one toward the back pressed up against the wall that he assumed was the big screen TV that he wanted (Lord knew he'd dropped enough hints about it around Olivia), so he made his way toward it when she stopped him.

"Not so fast, kiddo, I forgot to tell you about the stipulation." she said with a smile that he didn't much care for because it was the one that she only used when she was about to screw him out of doing something he wanted.

"What stipulation?" he asked, dreading her response.

"I get to pick the one that you open."

"Then pick this one!" he replied, pointing at the large one that he'd already set his mind on opening.

"I don't think so, I think that's the one we should save for the grand finale. Let's find another one for you."

He started to argue with her about it but changed his mind. He knew if he pushed it he would end up getting pissed off and then she wouldn't let him open anything. He kept his mouth shut and just nodded instead as he watched her rummage around through the gifts. As he suspected that she would do she picked up the smallest one that even a blind person could see was a bottle of cologne.

"Here you go, knock yourself out." she said as she handed it to him.

"Hold on and I'll get one for you too." he replied, planning on giving her either something that she'd picked out herself or the red blouse that he wasn't too sure that she was going to like that he'd grabbed at the store at the last minute.

"That's okay, I don't want to open one now."

"Why not?"

"Because unlike you I can wait and open them all together like we're supposed to do."

"Whatever." he mumbled, not really caring if she opened one or not.

He ripped the wrapping paper off of his gift and as he suspected it was a bottle of cologne. It was in a black box with "Lady Killer" written across the front in bold, blood red letters. He'd never even heard of it but it didn't surprise him since he really wasn't that much of a fan of cologne. The only kind that he ever really wore was Old Spice but for some reason Olivia always gave him a different bottle of cologne every year for Christmas. He supposed that one day he would have to just break down and tell her to stop buying them for him. He thought that the fact that he had six bottles in the bathroom that had only been used once or twice each would have been a pretty good clue, but so far she hadn't manage to catch on.

"Try it, it's supposed to smell really good." she said. "The woman at the store said that people had been buying the hell out of it and they were having a hard time keeping it in stock."

"Really?" he ask, trying to feign an interest even though he really did give a shit about what she was saying as he opened the box and took out the bottle.

He sprayed some on himself and immediately decided that he didn't like it. It had a weird musty smell that made his nostrils burn and his eyes water. It wasn't like anything he'd ever smelled before in his life and it made him actually feel a bit queasy.

"So, do you like it?" she ask, obviously not aware of the fact that he was fighting the urge to vomit.

Before he could lie and tell her that he loved it as he always did every year he felt a rage overcome him and all he wanted to do was to rip her to pieces. He'd never felt so enraged before and it was then and there that he realized that he despised Olivia.

He reached over and grabbed the poker then hit her across the face with it. She cried out in pain and fell to her knees holding her face. When he saw the blood pouring out of the huge gash on her forehead it seemed to make him even more angry so he hit her with the poker again, this time striking her right in the temple.

She fell back and hit the back of her head on the floor. He saw that her nose was broken and several of her teeth had been knocked out right before he leaned down and struck her once again.

She screamed at first but he barely even heard her. All he wanted to do was to kill her so he blocked everything else out and focused on hitting her again and again. It wasn't too long until her once beautiful face was reduced to a bloody pulp that looked like a special effect from a horror film that only Tom Savini could have created.

He didn't stop hitting her until he knew for certain that she was dead. Once he was sure he'd succeeded in beating the life out of her he felt the rage inside him subside and he walked back over to the recliner. He threw the poker across the room and picked up the bottle of the cologne again. He sprayed himself with it again and took a moment to enjoy the way it smelled before he took a seat.

He liked the scent of it a little better the second time around. Something about it just made him feel warm and happy like he didn't have a care in the world. He didn't know why he didn't care for it when he first used it but he was starting to really like it.

He flipped on the television and watched several Rankin Bass Christmas specials as he waited for Teresa and his nieces to arrive. As the hours passed they kept showing commercials for a new perfume from the makers of "Ladykiller" called "Maneater" and he couldn't help but smile when he saw them.

Next door Mrs. Tanner sprayed herself with the very perfume her husband had given her and a few seconds later Daniel her Mr. Tanner screaming.

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Reviews

Sandy Haines Sep 15, 2012

Good story. What a twist. But YES, FIX THE ENDING! And as for Johnny, the previous commentator, fix yours, too. "It's not too late to fix" not "It's not to late to fix." lol. Other that that, This was a really well written story. At first I found the Dani

Sandy Haines Sep 15, 2012

Now I need someone to point out MY grammar error. "The Daniel?"

Jul 20, 2012

Next door Mrs. Tanner sprayed herself with the very same perfume her husband had given her and a few seconds later Daniel her Mrs. Danial screaming. You ended your story with a Grand Cannon size mistake sir. It's not to late to fix what I believe is a mis

Cam Mar 31, 2012

very nice story! love the creativity!

Gabi Mar 25, 2012

Great story. Really wasn'texpecting that!

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