Merry Christmas

An original story by Tony Knapman

Adapted by Gareth Wiper

Here is a simple tale called Merry Christmas. In the town the Christmas light were hung high, people were singing and laughing. It was Christmas Eve. Everything seemed happy. Above the town on some waste ground a young man stared down at the merriment. He was cold and lonely. His mind drifted back to last Christmas Eve. He had been with HER then. His wife I'm sorry his ex-wife now. Things had been so different. And they had sat in front of the fire. They kissed, opened presents, drank wine and wished each other Merry Christmas.

In January she left him for someone else. Everything just seemed to fall apart.

The oncoming months he struggled to come to terms with things and slowly fell apart. He lost his job through not going to work while this was going on. His wife divorced him to go off and marry the other man. He lost the house to everything and that's how he ended up here.

He turned to look behind him. There was an abandoned car. He'd been sleeping in there for the past four to five days. The backseat was still sort of OK. And he could lock the doors from the inside at least. His heart sank as he thought of last Christmas Eve and this Christmas Eve. Wiping away a few stray tears, he turned and walked towards the car. How do they come to this? Of course he knew all about it. He opened the car door, crawled into the backseat and pushed down the handle and locked the doors. He then cried himself to sleep.

He was woken by the rain on the car and the tabbing on the windows. There was someone outside.

The face that stared at him was soaked with the rain. Water running off his hair the man said, "Can you let me in please. I'm soaked and wet." Almost immediately Finn offered to open the door and moved over on the seat as the man climbed in.

He looked in a sorry state.

His clothes and everything was soaked.

The man wiped his face to get the water off.

"Thanks." He said.

After a few minutes of silence Finn introduced. The other man turned and smiled.

"I'm Noah. Thanks again."

Then Noah said to Finn, "I expect your wondering how I got here."

Finn just looked at Noah and asked, "you're gonna ask me the same question aren't you?"

Noah just simply smiled, "It's a long story. Do you wanna tell me yours first?"

Finn smiled and said, "Of course." and told Noah his story.

Noah just stared and said, "That pretty bad bud."

Finn smiled to himself. 'Christmas won't be so bad if you have someone to spend it with a fellow like myself' He thought.

"I know my turn" Noah said. "About fifteen years ago, I had a wife and children. Anyway, I was driving home one night when I picked up a girl hitchhiker. Of course I let her in. We hadn't gone half a mile down the road when she grabbed the wheel and took us off the road."

Finn looked in disbelief.

"What do you mean? She crashed the car on purpose" Finn asked.

Noah raised his finger, "The best is yet to come. I was seriously injured.

Finn asked, "And the girl?"

"Oh she was fine. She was a vampire you see. And I let her in. inviting her over the threshold so to speak. Of course I was helpless. She drained me. She drained my blood and turned me into one.

Finn looked horrified.

Noah just smiled. "Like you just did." Noah then grabbed Finn and bit him to his throat.

Finn felt the pain of the vampire's teeth sinking into him. But above the blame Finn heard the cheering of the town. It was midnight. It was Christmas day. Everyone was cheering "Merry Christmas." The vampire chuckled as if getting the joke and whispered, "Merry Christmas."

The end

I hope you all like this.