And All Through the House (The Vault of Horror #35, Feb/March 1954)
Her husband was dead and it was the best Christmas present she ever had. She stood over the lifeless body sprawled at her feet and smiled.
MOTHER: "Ha, ha! Merry Christmas, Joseph. You're sleeping so peacefully. Dreaming of Santa Claus?"
She lingered, thinking of the months of planning that had culminated in one swift blow with a poker. From upstairs, she heard a child's cries.
MOTHER: "Carol! She's awake!"
She hurried upstairs, opened the door to a small bedroom.
MOTHER: "Carol? What's the matter, dear?"
CAROL: "Did Santa Claus come yet, mommy? Did he?"
MOTHER: "No, dear, not yet. It's not time. So you go back to sleep."
CAROL: "Can I see him, mommy? Can I see him when he comes?"
MOTHER: "I'll see, dear? Now you be a good little girl and go right to sleep or Santa won't come at all! Alright?"
CAROL: "Alright, mommy! Good night."
She remained until her daughter was sleeping again, then returned downstairs. She stepped over her husband's body, moved to the table. Casually, she lit a cigarette and inhaled.
MOTHER: You were such a mouse, Joseph. You'll never know how wonderful it is to be free of you at last."
There was no hurry. She had planned too long and too well. There were no neighbors within miles and she had all night to dispose of the body. She thought of the insurance, drifted across the room and turned on the radio. The music floated through the room. Christmas carols! She hummed softly and looked again at the corpse. The stained poker lay nearby. She picked up the poker, fondled it, cleaned it, set it in it's place by this fire.
MOTHER: "~Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!~"
She turned and gazed at the gaily decorated Christmas tree and the presents beneath it.
MOTHER: "Tsk, tsk. Now I'll never know whether or not Joseph would have like that tie I bought for him. Oh, well."
Abruptly, the mantel clock chimed the hour. It was time.
MOTHER: "Oh! It's 11! Time to get rid of Joseph! And Carol will be alright until I get back."
She crossed the room to turn off the radio then stopped, listening.
RADIO ANNOUNCER: "Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin! We have just received a report from the Worldwide News Bureau that a homicidal maniac has escaped from the State Hospital for the Insane! He has brutally murdered four women and all citizens are warned to remain off the streets! This man is extremely dangerous! We repeat, he is extremely dangerous! Another report had just been handed to me! Here is a description of the escaped maniac! He is 6 feet, 3 inches tall, 210 pounds, has dark eyes and shaggy black hair! It is reported that he is now wearing a Santa Claus costume which he had taken from a man in the village of Pleasantville!"
MOTHER: "Pleasantville?! My god! That's just south of here!"
RADIO ANNOUNCER: "He is believed to be headed north! Police officials state that he will not harm children and will only injure men if he is provoked! It is said that he is obsessed with the killing of women! All four women he already had been attacked and viciously disfigured!
MOTHER: "Oh, my lord!"
RADIO ANNOUNCER: "All women are warned to remain indoors! This man is extremely dangerous! Further bulletins will be brought to you as soon as they are received! Stay tuned now for-!" Click!
MOTHER: "My god! I can't take a chance on leaving now! Yet, I have to get rid of Joseph's body! I hadn't figured on anything like this! Still, Carols will be okay if I leave her. The radio said that he won't harm children! And I have to get rid of Joseph! I'll go!"
Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!
She tiptoed quietly to the window and peered through. In the darkness, she could discern the red costume, the white fur trim...
MOTHER: "Oh, god! Oh, good god! IT'S HIM!"
In a fit of sudden panic, she rushed to the telephone and snatched up the receiver to call the police. She stopped and an icy fear clutched her heart.
MOTHER: "I..I can't call the police! They'll find Joseph's body! Oh, good heavens! What will I do?"
Slowly, she lowered the receiver. She stared at the body, at the the door and the house was quiet as death.
MOTHER: "Maybe he'll go away! But I'd...I'd better put Joseph's body in the closet. If Carol woke up..."
The front doorknob rattled loudly. She moved away from the corpse to the door.
MOTHER: "He's trying to get in! He isn't going to go away! He wants me!"
In the silence, she heard him stomp from the porch. From within, she followed the footsteps crunching the snow.
MOTHER: "He's going around the side of the house! He's going to the backdoor!"
Madly, she raced through the house to the back door. She locked and bolted it nervously.
MOTHER: "There!"
She heard his steps clumping onto the back porch and she stood away from the door, fearfully watching the knob as it was turned and rattled. Again, she listened in terror as the footsteps left the porch and moved through the snow.
MOTHER: "The windows! He'll try the windows!"
Frantically, she rushed from window to window, making certain they were all locked, all the blinds lowered. The radio announcement thundered in her mind. She shuddered convulsively.
MOTHER: "I've got to hurry! I've got to hurry! One of them may be unlocked!"
While locking all the windows, she noticed Joseph on the floor. A strange expression flicked across her face. For a moment, she seemed bewildered.
MOTHER: "Joseph, heavens! I've got to get him out of sight! If Carol ever woke up and came downstairs!"
She started dragged the body across the floor to the closet, then stopped and looked at the front door and then at the windows. She dropped the body.
MOTHER: "The windows! I've locked all the windows! But he could break them! He'll come inside and kill me!"
She hurried down to the cellar, stumbling and almost falling in the dim light. She swished her hand across her forehead, wiped away the drops of perspiration. There was lumber in the cellar. Joseph was always buying and picking up the pieces of lumber and silently, she thanked him. She gathered as many boards as she could, grabbed a hammer and a handful of nails. Loaded with her burden, she clumsily climbed the stairs and entered the living room. She saw the body.
MOTHER: "Oh, I still haven't put him away in the closet! If Carol ever saw...!"
She put down the boards, the hammer, the nail and now, trembling, she lifted Joseph and began once more to drag him to the closet. She stopped, suddenly remember the breakable windows and the fiend somewhere outside. She dropped the body, picked up the lumber, the nails, the hammer and started boarding the windows. From the rear of the house, she heard a pounding on the back door and she dropped the hammer and dropped the nails and snatched up the phone to call for help. Then she remembered the body. She let the phone slip from her grasp and tumble into it's cradle and she picked up the hammer and the lumber and all the little nails and finished boarding up the windows. She finished the windows and wondered what the maniac was doing and remembered the dead body and went back to dragged it into the closet.
She went over all the windows again, checking to see if they were all boarded up and made sure the body was in the closet and went down to the cellar to check the cellar door. The cellar door was locked and she ran upstairs and checked the windows and made sure the body was in the closet and raced up to the attic to make sure it was all closed up. And after she checked the attack, she checked the locks on all of the windows on the second floor and thought of the fiend and all the insurance and went to her daughter's room.
MOTHER: "Carol? Carol? My god, she's gone!"
The room was empty and she tore the bedclothes from the empty bed and slammed the door of the empty closet and checked the lock on the empty room's window.
MOTHER: "It's locked! She's still here! She's still in the house. Carol? Carol! Where are you?!"
CAROL: "Here I am, mommy! Here I am! Downstairs!"
She rushed head long from the empty room, clattered frantically down the stairs and stopped.
CAROL: "Look, mommy! Look! Santa Claus is here! I let him in!"