Happy Horror Days

It only took Brian a short while to jump over the fence—or, in more adequate terms, to slide over it. The snow had fallen for three straight weeks, a little here, a little there, but the cold temperatures—the coldest of the year so far—did not allow any of the white stuff to melt, and the accumulation was now over thirteen inches. to this date, nearly eight of the twenty-one days broke a low-temperature record.

This unusual cold for the early part of December kept many inside their dwellings with the thermostat on high, a few logs in the fireplace, or both. Burning logs were perfumed for blocks with an intense smell of smoke.

Brian had planned the robbery since last winter. He didn't want to rob the elderly lady, knowing that as soon as his handgun was drawn on her, she might faint or even die; which meant if he was caught a murder charge would be added to the robbery. But he had heard too many stories of how the old woman, living in the same house her entire life had inherited so much money from her past deceased relatives. And he knew no one would see him in these outside conditions, even if the nosiest of neighbors were watching.

He knew things wouldn't be too difficult because he only saw the old lady maybe three times a year, which meant she could be malnourished and wouldn't give him a struggle once he was inside the house. And he never saw anyone come over to visit her.

At the back of the house was something he wasn't expecting. There were nine small structures in the shape of what was supposed to be miniature houses from what he could make out through the ice and snow.

Even though it was already dark outside, he wanted to scrape the ice and snow off the structures to get a better look. But without gloves and a shovel, he would have to let his imagination tell him the structures were small houses. Besides, he wanted to get things over with as soon as possible because the cold had gone through his clothes, and was about ready to chill his bones.

Brian made his way up the slippery back stairs, almost falling numerous times. He needed to hurry, not because the plan was nearly a year in the making, but because no human could stand this cold weather outside much longer.

Looking through the back windows of the house all was dark inside. He figured the old lady must be asleep by now, which meant everything was now in perfect order to quietly search the inside of the house and hopefully find what he came here for.

Boom!

The old house seemed to shake off its hinges as he tried to slam his fist hard on the back door to break inside. So much for being quiet, he thought to himself. A pile of snow as hard as a brick narrowly missed his head with no canopy overhead falling off the roof from the impact.

He could see the dull glow of light from inside the house and knew that his plan was about to go in ruins. So much for my one-year plan, he thought silently again.

To avoid being seen, he squatted into a low position so the old lady wouldn't spot him and call the cops. But what freaked him out was the nine small structures behind him somehow had a dull glow of light inside each one of them. the same glow that came from inside the house.

The back door to the old house squealed while opening slowly; nine doors slowly opened behind him squealing,.

The snow began to fall again, but this time in a blizzard fashion. Within minutes what was a deep and icy surroundings was slowly becoming much dangerous. A full moon was overhead and a few streetlights illuminated everything in sight into a winter wonderland.

Behind the back door stood a figure unlike anything Brian had ever seen. The old lady didn't even look like a human. Her face resembled the hard plastic glow of...a doll! Behind him stood nine figures...all resembling the features of dolls.

They all stared at him motionless; all he could do was shiver with his teeth chattering, not from the cold, but from the disembodied voices they spoke to him.

The money meant nothing by now.

Escaping would be too difficult.

Yelling out loud for help would be of no use.

That's when he knew that coming alone was another bad choice.

Brian made the mistake without a plan put in place of listening to fake rumors and lies about how to get money the easy way and now was in the middle of a group of possessed dolls fully capable of moving on their own and able to kill.

Even the ice and snow in the area seemed magical. the snow that fell from the roof had somehow expanded and now held his shoes solid to the concrete back porch; somehow expanding as he looked down at his soon-to-be frostbitten feet.

Because the people who told him the stories about the old lady were spirits of the dead themselves, and all they cared about was gaining more souls. And when the entire neighborhood had him enclosed behind the old house in these frigid temperatures, the ice and snow now solid as the concrete that made up the back porch to his knees holding him in place, the tears that fell from his eyes and the snot that escaped from his nose glowed the same as the dolls' faces; it didn't take long to see the effect. Soon he will have two choices: a new doll house in the backyard to guard his master's dwelling, or a normal house in the neighborhood to trick the living into a lie to get them into the back of the house where a rich old lady is supposed to live alone by herself, easy bait to rob, while living off past inherited riches.

"Merry Christmas, Brian!"

After hearing those words spoken in their spooky tone, and the fact he was about frozen to death, he wanted to die.

"And a Happy New Spirit Life!"