The wind was raging outside, the snow dark and horribly threatening.
“I shall take your life and your soul!” the storm yowled fiercely. It seldom blew through this area, you see, and had to make a grand show of it whenever it did. “Nothing shall survive my treachery!”
The bird, if it still lived, most surely wouldn’t make it through the night. Peter smiled at this, considerably cheered.
“I never want you to be lonely, Bryony,” he vowed earnestly. “You were meant to be happy, and happy you shall be, and after all of this ‘living’ business is behind us, we shall have the most exquisite of eternities!”
Last of all, he wrapped a scarf that a dear friend had given him when he was in high school. She was a pretty thing, all dark hair and dark eyes, and a smile that made him warm even when it was the coldest nights. She had died prettily, as he had supposed she would, even though he was still new and his hands shook in a most unseemly way.
“I’m sorry,” he had whispered to her. “This is what I am meant to do, but I am so very new at it, you see. One day it will be instinctive, and my hands will automatically do what needs to be done, but as for now, I am still a little nervous.”
“Oh, it is quite all right,” she said. Or at least Peter is sure that is what she would have said, for she was so very understanding and sweet, but she wasn’t really saying much of anything by that point, being quite dead. But how beautiful. How divine. They were closer than ever, and he had never parted from that scarf before, but this was different. This was for Bryony. This was for love.
He pressed the scarf to his face briefly, then set it in the box and wrapped it. Sitting back on his heels, Peter saw his lonely living room transformed into something wonderful, something full of magic and promise.
“This is what a real holiday is like,” he told himself, and then nodded, because it was just right. The table was perhaps a little bare, the chairs empty because he had killed most of the people who would otherwise sit there, but all in all it was a festive scene that would warm every heart.
Ah, but would it warm Bryony’s? Would it?
He set his knife on the seat next to him, leaned back in his chair, and hummed merrily while he waited for her to arrive.
A Serial Killer Christmas is based upon a yet-unpublished novel that holds the working title PRETTY LITTLE DEAD GIRLS. A related story, The Container of Sorrows, is available as part of BEAUTIFUL SORROWS. For more info: https://abrokenlaptop.com/
Old Mexia Christmas Brew
It's the end of the Mayan World as we know it...
by Claudia Lefeve
After dinner, everyone left the Everett residence and headed back to their respective homes--with the exception of Jenny and Chase, who loitered just a little too long saying goodbye to their friends. Jenny could tell Chase was deliberately stalling because he wanted tell her something.
She also knew that if she didn’t speak first, he’d lose the courage to say whatever was on his mind. “Okay, Chase spit it out. What’s up?”
“What do you mean?”
His mock confusion didn’t fool Jenny. It was no secret that the guy had been crushing on her for months. She figured he was bracing himself to make the first move.
“You’ve been acting weird the last couple of weeks. First you keep baking me those incredibly delicious chocolate truffles, then you offer to take one of my night watch shifts so I can sleep. What gives?” Jenny figured he’d been wanting to ask her out for awhile now, but he was so socially awkward she figured he just didn’t know how.
“Well... I thought maybe...” Chase began to stutter.
“Are you trying to ask me out?”
His only response was a nod and she almost felt bad for the guy. Chase wasn’t bad looking by any means – he was, by Jenny’s standards, pretty hot – but his über-intelligence kind of made him a bit of a dork at times. In another world, she would never have given him a second’s glance, but here in this reality, she really didn’t have anything to lose by agreeing to go out with him. Jenny was just grateful it wasn’t his twin brother Chance. He was more socially inept than his brother.
“Sure. What’d you have in mind?” It’s not like they could go out and do something fun. Not in this world.
Chase just stood there and gaped at her. He probably thought she’d turn him down and hadn’t quite thought this through. “To be honest, I played the odds and figured you’d turn me down. Maybe this is a bad idea. Forget I brought it up.”
“Correction, I brought it up. Hey! All that talk about Christmas has given me an idea. What do you think about going on a little trip?”
“What kind of trip? You know I don’t celebrate Christmas and besides, it’s summer.”
“Duh, I was there when we went over all that. We’re capable of traveling, right? Plus you’re the brains behind the time-travel portal aren’t you? You can take us to Christmas!”
“Oh, I don’t know about that, Jenny. We have to conserve what little power we have for the rebellion. I don’t think Etta or Cooper would appreciate us traveling outside of our mission.”
“Blah, blah. Rules are meant to be broken, college boy. Don’t you want to have some fun? With me?” Her fluttering eyelashes worked on vapid jocks back home, now she hoped it worked on a genius scientist.
His stutter almost brought Jenny to hysterics. “Of... of... course I want to spend time with you. What would you like to do?”
“We’re going to Mexico, mi amigo and we’re going to have ourselves a very merry Navidad.”
“For the record, I don’t feel comfortable doing this,” Chase said as they crossed over the portal to the other reality where they would board the plane that would take them to Mexico. It was a bit tricky logistically, since they couldn’t fly from their present reality--commercial airlines had been defunct since the overtaking. That and they had to travel forward in time, since it was currently the month of May.
“You’re such a worry wart. Trust me, this is going to be fun. Besides, who doesn’t like celebrating Christmas?”
Chase was still apprehensive about traveling, not only to another reality when they should be concentrating their efforts on the rebellion, but simply traveling to another country. What if he got Montezuma’s Revenge? That was a Christmas gift he wasn’t exactly excited to receive. “I haven’t celebrated the custom since Chance and I left home for MIT.”
It was Jenny’s turn to look dismayed. “Why? Don’t you believe?”
“The holiday is based on the premise that Jesus was born on December twenty-fifth and all scholars know this not to be the case. The Christmas you know is a result of Christianity trying to get the pagans on board by promising they could still celebrate the holiday of Saturnalia the last week of December.”
Jenny giggled at his attempt to intellectualize the holiday. “Oh, pooh, that’s just semantics. I’m going to show you the meaning of holiday spirit you’re never going to forget. Don’t you want our first date to be special?”
“Of course I do.”
She could tell he didn’t want her to realize just how much, but it was totally obvious by the way he kept glancing at the ground and shuffling his feet.
In the end, Chase put aside his reservations and decided Jenny was right. He did want their first outing together to be memorable and was willing to do whatever it was she wanted to do. Even if it went going beyond his normal comfort level. It wasn’t like they could do much in the reality they presently came from. He was well aware that in any other time or place, someone like Jenny wouldn’t give him a second glance. Perhaps this was a Christmas miracle of sorts after all.
After an anxious flight on both their parts – for different reasons, of course – they finally arrived in Mexico City. Being back in her home country made Jenny excited about what they were about to do. She left the finer details about their impromptu excursion out, because she knew once Chase knew what her real plan was, he’d get all agitated again.
“So where do we go from here?” He asked as they made their way toward the rental car counter.
“Well, now that we’re here, we need to travel back in time.”
He stopped right in the middle of the terminal. “You mean forward in time. We’re only a few months ahead of December.”
A very impish smile forms on Jenny’s face. “Yes, I know, but for this little exertion, we’re going to need to go back several years.”
“Years?”
“Yup. We want to be in Mexico, December 20, 2012.”
“That’s the day before –”
“Exactly,” Jenny said, cutting Chase off.
“But first, we need to head over to the Mexia brewery and pick up some provisions.”
“Provisions?” Another look of confusing crossed Chase’s face.
“Yeah. Beer.”
“Jenny, I realize that drinking is part of the holiday celebration, but can’t we just go to one of the local grocery stores and pick up alcohol? Logistically speaking, it would be much easier.”
“We could, but they wouldn’t carry enough for what I have in mind,” Jenny replied with a twinkle in her eye. “Plus, I get a very nice discount from the brewery.”
Jenny’s family had owned and operated Mexia brewery since her great-grandfather started the business. Her parents had long been deceased, having been blown up in an explosion due to Thornberry – the man they hoped to overthrow from power in their current reality – but she remained the sole shareholder of the company, even if she didn’t reside in this reality anymore. Currently, the brewery was operated by her relatives, who believed Jenny was off on an indefinite vacation to clear her head over the death of her parents. One day, she hoped to come back to this world and reclaim her position as el presidente.
There wasn’t much Chase could say at this point to talk her out of the plan she had in mind. He was just going to have to trust she knew what she was doing. Jenny knew he didn’t want to get in the kind of trouble that would prevent them from going home.
After fielding questions over her absence the last couple of years and promising her cousins that she would visit more often, Jenny and Chase loaded up the rental car with the seasonal Christmas beer their brewery was renowned for.
“All set?” Jenny asked after loading the last case into the rental.
“I would be if I knew what we were doing will all these cases.”
“You’ll see,” she said, her sly smile returning. Now, let’s go back to 2012!”
After a lecture from Chase about how twenty cases of beer would affect the weight capacity of their rental, Jenny finally stopped the car in the middle of what at first glance appeared to be a deserted village.
“This town looks abandoned,” he noted, getting out of the car. He mumbled something else about why they didn’t just stay in Mexico City.
Jenny looked around the little village. It wasn’t as developed as some of the other towns that surrounded the country’s capital, but this is exactly where she wanted to be. “It’s not abandoned. People are hiding.”
Chase raised his eyebrows. “Why are they hiding, do you suppose?”
“Wouldn’t you be, if you thought tomorrow marked the end of the world?”
Both of them were well aware that the myth behind the Mayan calendar was just that, a myth. They came from a world five years into the future, so they already knew there wasn’t going to be an armageddon any time soon. Well, at least not tomorrow. And not in this reality, anyway.
“Good point,” he said, helping Jenny take the remaining cases out of the trunk.
“You know, I missed all this nonsense. Getting to spend time with friends and family on the day everyone thought the world was going to end,” she said softly. “I was recruited by Cooper and Etta right before we all thought this place was going to go kaboom.”
“Kind of like what we’re facing right now, huh?”
It was true. In their own reality, they were fighting a rebellion that could ultimately result in a state of chaos if they lost. This was why it was so important to them to come here. Jenny hoped Chase would figure out the reason for them being here wasn’t to save the village from death and destruction, but perhaps to offer some peace of mind.
Jenny nodded. “But this is different. We know how it turns out. There is no end of the world. So tonight, we’re partying like it’s 1999!”
“I don’t follow that reference. Is that year significant?”
“Sorry. I’ve been hanging out with Etta too long. I think that’s how the lyrics go. She got that Prince song stuck in my head.”
Chase looked confused. “I still don’t get it. What does the year 1999 have to do with the end of the world?”
“Ugh! The millennium? Y2K? Ring any bells? Sometimes, Chase, you’re hopeless. You of all people should have gotten that one.”
Jenny instantly regretted saying that. The last thing she wanted to do was embarrass him, so she kissed him on the cheek. “But not entirely. There’s hope you for you yet.”
Chase blushed after the quick peck and went back to the cases of beer they finished unloading. “What do you plan on doing with all these cases?”
“If you build it, they will come,” Jenny said, as if that answered his question. “I also took that line from Etta. I’m not sure exactly what it means, I think it’s from some movie, but I think it’s appropriate.”
“I still don’t get it.”
“Think of it as bait. We’re going to draw them out with beer.”
They sat on the cases of Mexia Christmas Brew as they waited for the villagers to come out from hiding. As they waited, Jenny wasn’t entirely sure her plan was going to work. It was wishful thinking on her part that a whole village in hiding would be enticed by beer, she thought to herself as she silently prayed her plan would work.
“This is pretty important to you, isn’t it?” Chase finally asked.
Jenny turned to face him. She’d been concentrating on all the little homes, willing them to come out of hiding, and she almost forgotten he was sitting there beside her. “Well, yeah. I mean, we have the chance to commemorate the non-end of the world, which is something I’m not entirely sure I can say concerning our own futures. This is an opportunity to celebrate, not to mention it’s Christmas. I’d hate to think the folks around here will miss the festivities because they believe they won’t be alive come tomorrow.”
Chase considered this. “Did you know that Isaac Newton predicted the end of the world to occur in the year 2060?
“No.” Now it was Jenny’s turn to not know a random fact. “You’re not going to get all Nostradamy on me are you?”
“Who’s Nostradamy?”
“Nostradamus,” she said, only this time using the correct name. “He was a famous... oh, never mind.” It was kinda ironic that she was having this conversation with someone who could see the future, yet had never heard of the famed seer. That’s what happens when you come from different realities, she thought.
“Sorry. I’m not being a very good date, am I? You should have brought Etta, or one of the other guys with you.”
The thing was, as much as Chase was brainy science guy, Jenny actually enjoyed his company. “Actually, I’m having a great time.”
“You are?”
“Sure. I mean, if I’d brought Etta along she would have totally stopped me back at the airport.” She laughed. “Hell, I doubt we would’ve even gotten that far.”
“Oh, I get it. I’m a pushover.”
He looked so glum, Jenny wanted to hug him, but she didn’t. Aside from the chaste kiss she gave him earlier, she wasn’t exactly known for exhibiting any form of affection. “No, you like me enough to believe in me. Not that the others don’t, but it’s different with you.”
A few of the men from the village came out of hiding to investigate Jenny and her wares. It only took an hour of sitting on top of the cases waiting for them to retreat from the safety of their homes. It was just like
shopaholics during Black Friday at Macy’s.
Jenny hopped off the cases. “Ha! I knew they’d come out eventually.”
After she managed to somehow convince the villagers that they were safe – Chase wasn’t exactly sure what she said since she was firing away in rapid Spanish – everyone slowly began to enjoy themselves. From the little Spanish he knew, he gathered the villagers figured they might as well party if the world was going to end.
It didn’t take long for the men to get drunk and Jenny looked like she was having a good time, taking turns linking arms with the locals and dancing to music Chase had never heard before. She finally extracted herself from one of the borachos and headed over to where Chase sat.
“You need to loosen up, Chase. Come on, have a beer. It’s considered impolite to not drink during La Posada.”
“Posada?”
“That’s what this is. During Christmas, we celebrate the posada for the nine days leading up to Christmas. It means 'lodging' in Spanish, symbolizing Mary and Joseph’s quest for shelter. From what I gathered from the crowd, they haven’t been participating due to the impending Mayan apocalypse.”
“Is the posada a Mexican tradition?”
“Yeah. Generally it involves everyone going door-to-door each of the nine nights before they finally reach the last house. Needless to say, it entails a lot eating and drinking. I have a feeling that after tomorrow, when they realize that the Mayan prophecy is bogus, they’ll go back to celebrating the tradition until Christmas Day.”
Some of the ladies took their cue from their husbands and got into the holiday spirit. In a couple hours time, they managed to bake the most delicious buñuelos, a kind of little donuts. It was certainly a fiesta for the record books.
She was having such a good time surrounded by who she considered her people. It was always a magical time here in Mexico during the holidays and tonight was no exception. Being stuck in the future, in another reality no less, she’d almost forgotten what it was like to indulge in the simple pleasures: good food, great company, and yes, even spiked beverages. Living in a war-torn universe had stripped her of some of the finer things in life. She was considered rich, but she never really understood the meaning of the word until now, watching the villagers dance and sing, drink and eat. They were the fortunate ones.