Christmas Day was always a special time for me and my family. It was a day for family and togetherness, but most importantly, presents. I always loved the feeling of waking up way to early, realizing that it’s Christmas day, and rushing downstairs where my presents awaited. But it’s always Christmas Day here.
I don’t know exactly where I am. I’ve terrorized a lot about where I am. Maybe it’s hell or some other plane of existence I can’t comprehend. But the most logical explanation is that I’m in some sort of purgatory. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me explain.
It started like any other day. Except it wasn’t any other day. It was Christmas, and I knew that soon my two kids, Max and Taylor, would come rushing in to wake us up. Predictably, that’s exactly what happened.
I took a few minutes to get up before following our children into our living room my wife, Ashley, not very far behind.
I peered into the room to see the giant pile of presents we took a while wrapping just a few hours earlier.
The reddish greenish glow from the lights reflecting onto the drab walls could almost be described as eerie. To be blunt they made me feel uneasy.
The moment both of us came into our living room our children started shredding into the presents, and before we knew it the room looked like a tornado had picked up all the presents and ripped them up, leaving a flurry of wrapping paper in its wake. This would suck to clean up.
Ashley gave me the look, plainly communicating to me to go get some trash bags. I did exactly that, but when I got back I found out that I wouldn’t need them.
The room was entirely clean, no wrapping paper insight. But it wasn’t empty. I looked over to the couch to see Ashley, Max, and Taylor sitting on the couch. Not saying a word.
Ashley then beckoned to the seat next to her, slowly open her mouth and said “come sit with us.”
I’ll admit I wouldn’t have thought of myself as the first person to go off the deep end, but it wasn’t the biggest shocker. If I ever experienced something weird like this, that deep down I knew wasn’t right, I would usually just shrug it off. But this, not so much.
I started to slowly walk over but I suddenly snapped out of my trance-like state by my children’s laughter.
I looked to the ground to see my kids playing with their new toys. I then looked to over to Ashley to see her sipping a cup of coffee and watching some bad Hallmark movie.
Maybe that didn’t happen. No… NO… It definitely happened. where was the wrapping paper? It was simply gone. I definitely couldn’t just shrug this off.
Ashley knew something was wrong. When she asked me about it I just said I hated how all Hallmark movies were so formulaic. She frowned at me, knowing I was lying. I had never been good at lying. Either that or Ashley was an amazing guesser, but I decided to go with the more likely former.
I smiled at her “Just a bad dream.” That was technically a half truth considering I had no idea what had just happened. That seemed to put her at ease.
The rest of the day was spent with my family. talking, laughing. This is exactly why I loved Christmas.
Before I knew it the day was over it and it was time for a new day. I walked back to my bed and fell right asleep.
I woke up groggy and disoriented, like most mornings.
Our two kids came rushing in. It took me a second to realize why that wasn’t right.
“Hey, why are you guys up so early? We usually need to power tools to get the covers off of you.” The simply looked at me and shouted, “It’s Christmas!”
My heart skipped a beat.
That wasn’t right. It was The 26th. Right? Had I somehow dreamt everything in that happened? It would explain a few things but I decided it would bring up more questions than answers.
Ashley sat up beside me. “We better get into the living room before they make a complete mess of it.” I simply got up and emitted a vague sound that I didn’t even know the meaning of.
It was all the same. They said the exact same things. Even if I said something different than yesterday it didn’t matter. Same response. even if it didn’t make sense. and It’s not like my family had any reaction to this odd behavior. they didn’t do anything. It was like watching a video with slightly more interactivity.
The only thing missing from this was the odd experience with Ashley trying to call me over to the couch.
It ended the exact same way it did last night. I went to bed. But I didn’t sleep right away. in fact I stayed up till 5. But after that I blacked out. the loop started over again.
And it kept going. Loop after loop the exact same thing. Exact same reactions. It didn’t matter what I did. Nothing would change. I could scream, I could leave the house entirely and go as far away as possible. But it wouldn’t change. I would always wake up in my bed. I don’t even seem to age. Even as Years go by in this hell that was once my home.
I thought that I was trapped for eternity. Which if you ask me is worse than death. But something happened. I got my wife to say something different for once.
It was completely impromptu. She just started talking normally. Well not normally, Ashley sounded quite distressed, but it wasn’t the same Ashley repeating everything day after day.
It’s the only thing that’s been keeping me motivated to not give up. I know that this is only the beginning. I don’t even know how to get my real family back. maybe that’s how you solve it. maybe not. I know Ashley is in there. I know I can save her and my kids.
PS: Oddly enough I have access to the internet. Even odder than that is that this post stays up even after the day resets. I don’t know If it’s really Christmas Day in the real world, because I know that this is not the real world.