Never Fear
Authors: Heather Graham
Tags: #holiday stories, #christmas horror, #anthology horror, #krampus, #short stories christmas, #twas the night before
NEVER
FEAR -
CHRISTMAS TERRORS
Heather Graham, F. Paul
Wilson
Thomas F. Monteleone, E.
McCarthy
Lisa Mannetti, Don Bruns
Connie Corcoran Wilson, Lee
Lawless
Jeff DePew, Kristi Ahlers, Debby Grahl,
Aidan Russell, G. R. Linden, Liah Penn, Lisa Harris, Mathew
Kaufman, Richard Devin, Lance Taubold, Ed DeAngelis, Elle J Rossi,
Crystal Perkins
Jon Land
A
ll rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Any
similarities between real life events and people, and the events
within this product are purely coincidental.
13Thirty Books
Print and Digital
Editions
Copyright 2015
Discover new and exciting works by
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License Notes
This print/ebook is licensed for your
personal enjoyment only. This print/ebook may not be re-sold,
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the work of this and all
13Thirty Books authors.
COVER DESIGN
ELLE J ROSSI AT EJR DIGITAL
ART
www.ejrdigitalart.com
Copyright © 2015 13Thirty Books, LLP
Authors Cooperative
All rights reserved.
ISBN-10:0692576347
ISBN-13:9780692576342
DEDICATION
To Heather Graham and her incomparable
annual
Writers For New Orleans Conference
where the genesis of this book was developed.
And to all of the contributing authors
who were attendees at the
2015 Conference.
Thank you.
CONTENTS
CHRISTMAS TERRORS IN OLDE
ICELAND
THE GIFT THAT WON’T STOP
GIVING
NOTE TO THE
READER
Due to the unique nature
of this anthology with the inclusion of the story within a
story,
A Family Christmas
Terror
, it is highly recommended that the
stories be read in the order presented to thoroughly enjoy this
book.
13Thirty Books LLC.
A Family Christmas
Terror
written by Lance Taubold, Jeff
DePew and Ed DeAngelis
.
A FAMILY CHRISTMAS
TERROR
CHAPTER
1
Christmas Morning.
Upstate New York.
The Present.
On a perfect, white Christmas morning,
the MacDonald family were all in the living room. Dan and Judy
watched their three college-aged children opening the last of their
presents. Their eldest, Jack, was a senior, and their twins, Nick
and Nancy, were midway through their freshmen year. The
grandfather, Joe, sat in his favorite chair, quietly enjoying the
laughter and joking.
The perfect Christmas.
“
Is everyone ready for
fresh doughnuts and coffee?” Judy said, already on her way to the
kitchen.
“
Absolutely,” Nick said.
“I’m starving.”
“
You’re always starving,”
Nancy said, not looking up from her cell phone.
“
Well, can you blame him?”
Dan said, rising. “That’s all I’ve been smelling for the last hour.
I think I’ll go help your mother, make sure she puts enough
powdered sugar on them.” He winked at the twins and went to join
his wife.
“
Hey, we missed one,” Jack
said. “Over there in the corner.” He got up from the floor, pushing
his way through the mounds of festive, discarded wrapping
paper.
“
It’s probably for me,”
Nancy said.
“
Right,” Nick said. “You
got enough. You always get more than anyone.”
“
That’s because I’m a
girl. I need more things.”
Jack walked over to
Grandpa. “Here, Grandpa, you open it. It says:
For the MacDonald Family
. So, my
dear sister, it’s not for you.”
Nancy made a moue in mock
disappointment. “Open it, Grandpa.”
Grandpa tore the paper
off, revealing a colorful paperback book.
Never Fear—Christmas Terrors
. He
turned it over and read the back. “Huh. Who would send us something
like this?”
“
Santa?” Nick
asked.
“
It was probably you,”
Nancy said. “You would probably think it’s funny.” She punched her
twin in the arm.
“
Ow, that was hard.” He
rubbed his arm. “Let me see it, Grandpa.” Nick took the book, then
riffled the pages. “You know... it’s not too long, and we’ve got
all day. Maybe we should read it. It’ll be like spooky stories on
Halloween, but instead it’ll be Christmas.”
“
Like that Christmas
song,” Nancy interjected. “Something about ‘Scary ghost stories and
tales of His glories’—”
“
The song is called
“
It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the
Year
,” Jack interrupted. “I was thinking
the same thing.”
“
I don’t know if that’s a
very good—” Grandpa started.
“
Yeah, why not,” Nancy
said, ignoring Grandpa’s protestations. “What’s the first story
called?”
“
The Ghost of a Christmas
Past
.”
“
I do like ghost stories,”
Nancy said, reaching for the book. “Let me read the first
one.”
Nick begrudgingly gave her the book
just as Dan and Judy made their way back into the room with
doughnuts and hot coffee.
Jack grabbed a doughnut, saying, “Mom,
Dad, we got this book of Christmas horror stories and I thought it
would be a great idea if we read them out loud.”