I'm going to make this as short and as clear as possible: if you find any Christmas presents under your tree after Christmas day that you didn't place there, call the police. Leave the house immediately, and whatever you do, do not open the gift.
I lived with my wife Maria and my two young boys in Melbourne, Australia. That's where my wife is originally from, and most of her family lives less than an hour from us. On Christmas day, we usually have a lot of presents under the tree. Gifts from me and my wife, gifts from grandparents, gifts from the boys, all are placed there. That's why last Christmas, we weren't worried when I found a present under the tree that neither me or my wife had put there. It could have been from one of our parents when they came to visit on Christmas Eve. It could have been from one of the boys. It could have been from many people, and we didn't give it a second thought. It had no gift tag on it, so we decided to leave it there and not open it until we found out who it for and who sent it.
So when I got up on the 26th early to make coffee, that was the only present left under the tree. It was a small box, maybe six inches tall and six inches wide, wrapped in bright red wrapping paper. There was a little green bow on top, and it all looked expertly wrapped. But when I came out into the living room that morning, there was something off about that present that I couldn't place. It wasn't until later that I realized the wrapping paper had been completely green on Christmas day, and it wasn't until later that I noticed that red had leaked on the floor around the present as well.
Throughout the day, our kids played with their new Christmas loot as Maria and I called different relatives asking if they left a little red gift under our tree. As the day went by and more and more family members told us that they hadn't sent a gift, we started to get confused. We weren't worried, but we were definitely puzzled. There had been no signs of a break in or any forced entry, but the gift had to have come from somewhere. Mary and I spent the entire day trying to figure it out, and when night came around, we were mentally exhausted. We put the kids to bed, and followed soon after.
Now I'm usually a pretty heavy sleeper, but something woke me up that night. I'm not sure if it was a noise I heard or if I just had too much coffee during the day, but I found myself wide awake at 2 AM and my throat was dry as hell. I finally slid out from under the covers and slipped into my slippers, careful not to wake Maria sleeping next to me. I walked out of our bedroom to the kitchen, almost slipping on some spilled water on the floor. Muttering a curse, I turned on the kitchen light and poured myself a glass of water from the refrigerator.
I stood there in silence for a few minutes, drinking my water as I leaned against the kitchen counter. My mind was occupied with travel plans (we were going to Japan for New Year's), and when I finished the water, I put my glass in the sink and turned around to turn off the light. By chance, I happened to glance over to the hallway that connected to the living room, and that was when I froze.
From where I stood, I could see right to our Christmas tree, and I saw that the mysterious present had been opened. And what I had almost slipped on, what I had first thought was spilled water, was revealed to be a trail of bright red blood leading from the opened present towards the bedrooms.
My body was frozen in shock for a few minutes, but I quickly snapped out of it. I grabbed the biggest kitchen knife we had and I crept over to the hallway, careful not to make a sound. My heart was racing as I followed the trail of crimson back towards the bedrooms, and my blood froze when I realized that it was leading me into the boys' room.
I stood outside the bedroom doorway for a moment, trying to build up my courage for whatever waited for me in the darkness. Then I sprang into action, running into the room and switching on the lights in one quick movement. I had tried to prepare myself, but what I saw made the knife slip out of my hand and my jaw drop in horror.
My boys had twin beds, one on either side of the room. Micah, the oldest, was on the left side, and Jamie, who was a year younger, was on the right. I saw Micah first, sleeping soundly and wrapped in his sheets. But when I turned to Jamie, I almost threw up. His sheets had been thrown off the bed and he was sprawled out across his mattress in an unnaturally rigid pose. His limbs were bent back in ways that no bones should be able to move, and his unseeing eyes were open and stared up at the cieling. Blood covered his pillow, his mattress, everything.
Attached to his neck was the most hideous thing I'd ever seen. It was like a cross between a leech and a slug, and was easily almost two feet long and almost a fourth of that in width, and the thing was latched on to his neck. It was smooth and slimy and dark green, almost the exact same color of a Christmas pine. But as I stared at it for a moment, I realized it wasn't attached to his neck. It was in his neck.
The creature had torn open Jamie's throat, and had burrowed its head into the exposed wound. As I stared on in horror, I saw the thing pulse and writhe as it fed off of my dead son's blood and God knows what else. For a cursed minute, I couldn't move, I couldn't even look away. I stared on in frozen horror before I finally tore myself away and stumbled back into the hallway.
I knew Jamie was dead without having to check, and I knew that I had to call the police. But I think I was going into shock, because all I could think of in the moment was to stagger into the living room to inspect the present. It was then that I saw that the box was logged through with blood, and the top of the box had been ripped off by the creature that was held inside. There was something in there that I couldn't make out, which the police later identified as a dismembered hand, most likely put there to feed the creature once the box had been sealed. Yet when I bent down to inspect the box, I saw a small scrap of white paper that was perfectly unstained by the blood. I picked it up with shaky hands, and I was barely able to make out the words written on it in impeccable cursive.
"This is the gift that awaits everyone on the Naughty List, let it be a warning to you all. Coal is hungry, and he will feed. Merry Christmas. - SC"
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