The Carrion: Tales of the Dead



Twas the night before Christmas, the sun was setting, and young Sophia was excited to go to bed with no haste. not knowing later her fate. Sophia planned to wait for Saint Nick to go down the chimney and take a photo of him so she could prove to her friends, parents, and brother that Santa was not a fake; he is as real as a snowflake. She got ready for bed, brushing her teeth and grabbing her old camera to take a photo of Santa while walking to bed. with the lights around the house turned off, sophia rushed to her room, afriad of the dark

Sophia could hear the snow falling through the closed windows; her lights were turned on so she didn’t fall asleep or become scared.She lied on her dark blue bed, waiting for the jolly Saint Nick to come to her house. While waiting, Sophia wondered, “Why has no other kid actually done this before?“. Sophia was bored waiting for Santa, so she wouldn’t fall asleep. Sophia pulled out her old radio to play Christmas music as she waited.

She listened to Christmas songs quietly in her room while she was playing with toys. Suddenly, the radio started to go staticky and glitchy. She tried to fix the radio but saw that the lights in her room were also flickering as she started hearing a very low and static version of “Santa Claus is coming to town.” Sophia was greatly frightened and let out a yelp when everything in her room turned off.

Sophia ran to her bed and quickly put herself under the covers as she cowered in fear. She waited for a while, scared by every noise she heard around her, whether it was the house settling or the wind outside blowing. Sophia began to hear something tapping constantly on her window; she was scared and shaken, not wanting to get out of bed. The tapping got louder and louder as it kept tapping twice every second.

Sophia tried to wait until the tapping stopped, but it didn’t. Sophia gathered all the courage she had to look at what was tapping at her window. Sophia slowly pulled down the covers over her head and saw him. Santa, looking into Sophia’s room while tapping on the window, thought it looked like him with the red festive hat and the white furry beard, but there were things that were off with his sunken eyes and an unsettling smile with food all over their beard.

Sophia gasped at what she saw, which caused him to turn his face right towards Sophia and start tapping on her window faster and louder than ever before. Sophia hid under her covers, she closed her eyes tightly while making as little noise as possible. The tapping stopped, and Sophia felt the air around her getting colder. Sophia decided to look again, but when she did, all she saw was that her window was wide open.

She looked frantically around her dark room, knowing that whoever was outside was now in her room. The moonlight was the only source of light, but there was nothing she could find. Sophia was ready to get out of bed when she suddenly heard the same tapping in her closet near the door. Sophia focused on the closet door that was open slightly, and then she saw the man’s face staring at her through the cracks. Sophia was frozen in fear, not knowing what to do. Knowing there wasn’t a way out, all she did was stare at the closet door for what seemed like minutes but felt like hours to her.

The door to the closet slowly opens. All the noise in the room is now Sophia’s breathing and whimpers. Slowly, the man’s head started to become more visible, which looked like a more deformed Santa’s. While it slowly peeked out of the closet as Sophia tried to back herself into a corner to stay as far away from this deformed Santa as possible, this creature’s head is finally fully out, showing more of his neck. This creature’s neck was very long, making it look like a huge worm with a human head.

Sophia took everything that she had in her to scream for her parents’ help. Before Sophia got a chance to yell for her parents, the creature quickly lengthened its neck to get to Sophia’s bed, then extended its mouth really wide, enough to fit Sophia in and swallow her whole. There was barely any room for Sofia to move around, and all she felt was a slimy substance all over her. With what little air there was in that tight space, Sophia tried kicking and screaming and doing whatever she could to get out.

It felt like forever until the creature started making noises and spat Sophia out. Sophia was covered in snot and slobber, making her colder in what appeared to be a very cold and dark room with only one door and no windows. Sophia put her ear against the door, hearing strange noises behind the door. Without any other choice, Sophia opened the door to see dozens of other children of all races making toys. The children looked tired and dirty, all of them so fixated on what they were doing.

There was a door behind the children, and above it said “Santa’s workshop.” When all the children heard Sophia walk into the room, they all stopped what they were doing and looked at her. The kids being Sophia’s age made them appear emotionless and blinkless, as if their entire lives had been drained from them; the older children had fear in their eyes and shook terrified.The huge door behind them opened. The creature poked out its head with its long, flimsy neck, making unspeakable noises that made Sophia light-headed.

The monster’s neck was long enough to circle the room next to all its prey. Its eyes were fixed on the older children as it came up towards them and sniffed every single one of them. The monster stopped at a boy who spoke Turkish. He begged the creature, but it didn’t seem to care. It quickly wraps its neck around the boy like a snake with its prey. While the boy screamed for mercy, the monster pulled him into the door that it came from, and all the children just looked at the door; some of them were relieved, but the rest just stared blankly.

A few seconds later, all the children stood up and entered the room, and the creature took the boy. Sophia followed them slowly in the room, and she saw a big table big enough to seat all the children. The boy was strapped onto the table. He shouted and pleaded, and the other children swarmed him and began to feast on his flesh, tearing him apart and eating him. Sophia backed herself into one of the corners and watched how the other children ate. One of the kids, a girl wearing a hijab with blood on her lips, gave Sophia a bloody chunk of the torn boy. That’s when Sophia realized this was her new life—constantly working and waiting to be eaten by the children who would come after her.