Hang the Ornaments

Thriller Stories | Dec 15, 2011 | 8 min read
40 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Thriller Stories

Hang the Ornaments

A man by the name of Jeremy Tucker was walking home in the whispering snow the night before the eve of Christmas. The snow encircled his joyous, bare face. He was smiling, but a troubling thought spurred at the back of his mind. Every year it was the same, innocent question. Jeremy desired for every Christmas to be unique, and he would stop at nothing to achieve that goal.


No matter how twisted the change was.

Jeremy knew exactly what joys he could unleash on the citizens of his small town this Christmas.

**

"I'm home!" he called to his three children.

They did not answer him.

His three beautiful children were seated at the mahogany kitchen table, as they were every night and day. Their smiles were forever mounted upon their cold lips. Stitches held the corners of their mouths up for their daddy.

Their daddy walked up to his children and planted a gentle kiss on each of their deteriorating foreheads.

"How are my angels today?" he murmured to his eldest, a brunette twelve year-old girl. She had tiny black ants crawling around her glassy sky blue eyes.

Her smile did not falter.

"Is Mommy upstairs?" Jeremy asked his middle child, a brunette nine year-old boy. His head lay on the table by his body.

They did not answer him.

"I'll be right back, children," he sang.

Jeremy walked to the stairs, but not before brushing past his youngest, a two year-old blonde boy with innocent blue eyes that were just the slightest too far from his sockets.

Jeremy bent down and kissed his forehead once more before ascending up the stairs.

"April," he called out in a sweet voice. Jeremy stood at the threshold of his bedroom.

He spotted her immediately, as he always does. "Ah, there you are, sweetheart."

Jeremy walked over to her and pressed her cherry lips to his. He kissed her cheek and beamed at her. "We have wonderful children, April."

He thought for a moment before pressing a hand to her clothed belly. "It's a shame you did not bear them …"

"Oh, well!" he announced cheerily. "They're ours, and we love them dearly."

April stayed quiet.

Jeremy unhooked her neck from the noose that suspended her body and carried her over to his bed.

"Why did you have to leave, April? Hmm?" He nuzzled her neck.

"I do miss you … But I much more appreciate it when you don't protest anything," he admitted. "You used to scream a lot …"

Jeremy ghosted his hand over her bare arm.

"Did you disfavour me that much?" he asked April's remains.

"Well, none of that matters, now," Jeremy concluded. "We will be together forever and ever. You always wanted that with a man, didn't you?"

"But not me …" Jeremy said sadly.

With one last demanding kiss, he crawled off the bed and propped his deceased girlfriend up on the pillows. He smiled at her and left the room.

**
Jeremy Tucker met his girlfriend five Christmases ago. April and Jeremy had met at a large party thrown by a local resident that participates in every town festivity. They started talking, and left the party for a more secluded area to talk by themselves.

Jeremy took April out on several dates, and she was convinced he was the perfect man for her. But April found out Jeremy was a lot more than she could handle.

He murdered his dear friend when he was seven with a wooden dagger he made of his own will, and he calmly admitted it to April one night after a nice date. April found out more disturbing stories that only Jeremy knew the details of.

Jeremy swore his friend was driving him mad at one point. His friend would speak to him during the night. He would follow Jeremy around. Jeremy talked to someone who didn't exist. Jeremy was teetering on the edge of insanity.

April and Jeremy started discussing the thought of children. Jeremy wanted children with April more than any other thing in the world. But April was barren.

One Christmas Eve during the night, Jeremy set out to find children for himself and April. He remembered that a married couple a couple blocks down. He found the children, and taped their mouths shut before they could utter a scream.

Their rightful parents were sound asleep during the whole occurrence.

Christmas morn, Jeremy was awoken by April's hysterical shrieks. She had seen the bound and gagged children.

Jeremy explain to April that they would be raising children of their own! Jeremy went through much trouble to acquire the children, and April would help raise them.

The children were nothing more than passive, because their sister talked to them about what would more than likely happen if they didn't. April complied after she ceased her crying.

Four days had passed, Jeremy went back to work, and April stayed home with their beloved children.

Jeremy came home after nightfall, and found his children, murdered. His eldest bore no obvious trauma. He then realized she had her stomach slashed open, entrails splaying out on her legs. The middle child was decapitated, but the slice was clean. The youngest evidently was strangled by their mother.

Jeremy chuckled to himself. He knew his girlfriend would never have the heart to kill an infant.

Their father set them up properly at the kitchen table, and stitched up their mouths so their mouths were turned up into a smile.

He ran upstairs to April, who had formed a noose and hung herself from the ceiling fan in Jeremy's room. He calmly strode over to her and stroked her hand.

"You are a psychopath, now, dear," he whispered.

Jeremy stood on the small stepladder and kissed her cheek. He spoke to her, "Only a true psychopath would murder three people differently."

"And I will stay perfectly sane," he murmured. "I will stay sane. I will."

Jeremy later stuffed her corpse after he removed her organs, and let her blood run free. He then stuffed the bodies of his children. These humans were special to him. They weren't murdered to him. Their shells left behind would suffice for a family.

**

Jeremy was seated at his kitchen table with his children. He was glancing around at each of them, admiring their lovely faces. He sighed as he walked around the table and stopped at his middle child to examine him.

Jeremy gently picked up his son's head and examined it in his hands. Then, his face lit up like Christmas lights.

He set his son's head down carefully and kissed his hair.

"Thank you, son," he whispered.

Jeremy slipped his shoes on and flung his jacket over his body. He picked up a large carmine sack that was trimmed with white fur. Jeremy was out the door before any living human could bat an eye.

**

Jeremy stopped at a house one block from his. He crept silently along to the back of the house and peered inside. He knew the residents here. Jeremy conversed with this middle-aged married couple occasionally.

The door was unlocked, of course, because it was such a safe and quiet neighbourhood. He cautiously grasped the ten-inch blade in his hand and pulled it out.

Jeremy sneaked up the stairs to where the couple lay sleeping in their room. He smiled slightly as he walked up to the bed.

The man sensed Jeremy standing by his bed and jolted.

"Merry Christmas!" Jeremy exclaimed cheerily.

He rubbed his eyes. "Wha – Jeremy?"

Jeremy grinned.

"What the hell are yah doin' here, son?"

The conversation awakened the man's wife. She turned over, dazed, and stared at Jeremy. Jeremy waved.

"Jeremy … It's early in the morning. What do you want?" she mumbled.

Jeremy's facial expression dropped sadly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I just needed to borrow some ornaments."

"Ornaments. What for?" the man asked.

Jeremy beamed. "I need to decorate a particularly large Christmas tree."

The couple groaned. "Jeremy. You cannot spontaneously come to someone's house in the middle of the damn night and request ornaments."

"Wh – Why?"

"Bec –"

Jeremy cut the man off with a slash to the throat. Cerise blood cascaded down his body in large, bubbling rivulets. The man coughed and a large blob of the liquid daubed on Jeremy's face. The man clutched at his throat, attempting in vain to tourniquet the wound.

During his untimely demise, his wife lay by his dying body, shrieking in disbelief.

At last, he reached the end, and the last bubble of blood popped in his vein and trickled down his chest.

"You monster!" she screamed. "Psychopath!"

Jeremy pouted. "No. I just need to decorate a Christmas tree."

"Get away from me!"

"Sorry, darling. I can't do that," he cooed. "You want to be with your husband, don't you?"

She was frozen in fear and contemplation. The woman had no other reason to live than her husband. He was her all.

Nonetheless, the woman bolted from the bedroom to wherever she could hide from this psychopath.

Jeremy shook his head with a sad smile. "Oh, well. I'll get her eventually."

He smiled down at the corpse, positioned his blade, and cut the man's head off cleanly. Jeremy picked up the head and plopped it into the fur-trimmed bag. He beamed.

Ten minutes of searching for the woman, he found her in the basement, cowering in one corner.

"Don't worry … It won't hurt," he promised her.

"Get the hell away!" she screeched, swatting her hand.

Jeremy rolled his eyes and stuck the blade in the midst of her swinging hand. The woman's hand came in contact with the blade, and three of her fingers were sliced. They thumped to the floor in a tiny slur of blood.

The woman's screaming increased in decibels as Jeremy's smile increased in inches.

"Now, now. Don't do something stupid like that … You might get hurt," he cooed as he stretched out his hand to her..

"No! No!"

Jeremy seized her neck with his hand and hoisted her up into the wall. She groaned in pain.

"Cooperate … And it might not be that painful," he whispered.

Jeremy took the blade and drove the blade into the side of her neck with such a force, the woman forgot to scream. Jeremy moved the blade as a shower of blood gurgled out of her neck. He began sawing her neck.

By the time he had gotten to the middle of her neck, her corpse slipped from his grasp and she plummeted to the ground. The last half of her neck lolled on her shoulder, and gravity snapped her head off.

Jeremy plopped her head in with her husband's.

Feeling quite proud of himself, Jeremy left the house and closed the door behind him. He would have to visit more houses before the end of the night.

**

Jeremy had visited a total of eleven houses by the end of the night. His crimson bad filled with heads of innocent people. They would serve a good purpose for Jeremy.

He finally went home six hours before dawn.

Jeremy arrived home, and he immediately went to his bedroom. His girlfriend was waiting for him, of course. He smiled. Jeremy delicately sawed her head off her body, and he carried it to another room, where he would "gut" the heads and fix them into gorgeous ornaments.

In two hours, he was finished with the ornaments. They were beautiful ornaments. He knew exactly where to hang them, also. But he knew his girlfriend's head must be at the top.

There was a two story mall in the town. It was bigger than any building or house for miles. It was the ideal place for everyone to shop. It was also the most decorated place in the town. A rather large Christmas tree was suspended from the ceiling. It was decorated with lights, ornaments, and bells.

But there would be new ornaments on the tree this year.

Jeremy walked to the mall, but had difficulty getting in. It took him over thirty minutes to enter the building without making anything look obvious. Although, night was the only time someone could decorate the tree.

He quickly ran to the tree, and stepped on the stairs that were beside the gigantic tree. He took the ornaments out of the bag one by one, carefully placing the hooks around the branches. This took him fifteen minutes to get this perfected.

After this, he leisurely walked up higher flights of stairs to reach the top of the tree. He held the last ornament to his chest securely.

Jeremy kissed her lips tenderly. "You'll make this tree beautiful, darling."

He fit her neck around the tip of the tree and turned it around so it would face the people of the town when they arrived.

Jeremy grinned at his work. "Excellent. Beautiful."

He ran home to his awaiting children and his beloved.

**

The town found the newly decorated tree early Christmas Eve morn. Jeremy could hear the town going up in hysterics. He grinned sleepily as he lay beside his sweetheart.

"Good morning, darling," he whispered as he nuzzled the top of her neck. "You're still perfect … You always will be."

Later that afternoon, the police force broke down the door to Jeremy Tucker's quaint house and instantaneously spotted the deceased children propped up at the table.

"This guy is sick," one policeman concurred.

They all agreed.

Jeremy Tucker heard the ruckus and flew down the stairs. He saw the police in his living room.

He smiled. "Hello, officers. What can I do for you?"

"Mr. Tucker, are you aware that you have three corpses sitting at your kitchen table?"

"Why, yes, sir. I am."

The policemen glanced at each other in worry.

"You're going to have to come with us, Mr. Tucker," the chief announced.

Jeremy grinned wickedly, but complied. Jeremy knew where he was going, and he knew he was going to be there for the remainder of his life. But Jeremy would live on, and he would make every Christmas memorable … Whether it be twisted or sick.

He would live on.

Tags:

  
Report This Story
Notice (8): Undefined index: User [APP/View/stories/story.ctp, line 227]
Notice (8): Trying to access array offset on value of type null [APP/View/stories/story.ctp, line 227]

Recommendations

Reviews

Angela Dec 18, 2011

wow this is a wonderful story.... i just could not stop reading it

Geeta Dec 17, 2011

Well written Rachel.. i really enjoyed the detailing of the concept...

Morgana Dec 16, 2011

macabre tale that kept me reading on. Your style of writing this was wonderful. Jeremy was a twisted creature indeed.

Download the Short Story Lovers App

Read and write stories anytime, anywhere with the Short Story Lovers app