The Holiday from Hell

Charlie Dawson watches as the car almost skids off the icy road, and begins to roll up the steep drive that led up towards the large wooden lodge. For a moment, he thought that the thing might tip over, his thirteen years on this planet ended due to the fact that the car was rammed with what his Dad called: ‘Everything and the bloody kitchen sink.’ That was what he’d said to his Mum anyway as they left the house for the winter holiday.

His Dad, Montague, better known as Monty, thumbed the steering wheel, unaware of his own almost disastrous accident he’d almost caused. Next to him, and still clutching her seat from the abrasive manoeuvre was his Mum, Skyla.

If it had ended there, then this holiday may not have been such a potential nightmare for Charlie. That came from the person sitting next to him. His half-brother Jonah. That fact had been drilled into him. Half-brother. He was never to acknowledge him as a full brother in public. And anytime that point might be made, no matter how minor a chance. Jonah had always been there to make sure that their status was reinforced.

Despite the four people in the car. The trip had proceeded in something close to silence. With the only attempts at conversation coming whenever one of them requested they stop at the next services station.

That and the radio, which had been begrudgingly turned on when the silence had become too much for any of them to bare.

As the radio presenter began to rattle off the headlines in a soft feminine voice. “Our headline story, a local police station was attacked early this morning. Police forces from another constabulary arrived and took a fifteen-year-old boy into custody, where he awaits…”

Before the story could finish though, Marty switched off the radio. A sad smile on his face at the news story.

“Don’t want that on.” Monty declared to his family.

Charlie didn’t respond. He would have liked to hear the rest of the story. But he knew he’d be outvoted.

So instead, he contented himself with flicking through a sketchpad, filled with drawings from years gone by, all his. That was until Jonah grabbed it.

“Hey. Give it back!” Charlie makes to take the book back, but Jonah only smiles, whilst using one arm to hold him at bay, and the other to quickly flick through, eventually settling on a picture of a girl.

“Pity this is all you’ve got left of her.” Jonah sneered at him.

This was too far over the line, and seeing red, Charlie unbuckling his seatbelt, lunges at his older brother. Determined to do as much damage as possible. “GIVE IT BACK!” The pinging sound of the seatbelt alarm goes off the second that Charlie had launched his attack, and further adding its incessant sounds to the din.

“Give the book back, Jonah.” Skyla said calmly turning around to try and restore some sense of order. She probably hoping to reason with him, it was a laughable attempt to say the least. Jonah, for his part, simply ignores the request. As he always did whenever she spoke to him. That was until Monty gets involved, a lot less calmly than his wife. His face was red with rage, and caused Charlie to let his grip slip for the briefest of moments.

“For god’s sake, boy. Give your brother back the book, or I swear to god-”

“-Alright.” Jonah said as he hands the sketchbook back, smirking at Charlie all the while. “Just wanted to look. It’s only his stupid drawings anyway.”

Seeing that the fight was over, Charlie snatches the book back, holding onto it for dear life. This might have been a mistake though, as the action only makes Jonah smirk more. Before he could do anything to answer the smirk. The car rounds the final bend in the road, revealing the lodge in the middle of the woods. It was a simple, two-story building. Large windows that would normally have given a good view of the interior were covered in condensation, the only thing visible was that the interior also seemed to be of the made of the same wood. And directly above them, a large balcony had been constructed that gave view all the way back down the driveway.

“Well outside of any town limit, so they’ll be no light pollution.” Monty declared to his uninterested, yet for the moment, captive audience.

“Yeah and no phone signal either.” Jonah said, checking his phone.

Charlie also did the same. It was pointless. They were both on the same provider. But he had to check. Sure enough, the only thing that showed on his phone screen was the satellite feature.

“Why on earth would you need phone signal in place like this?” Their Dad said, seeming to take the suggestion as a personal affront to his carefully planned trip.

Monty pulled the car to a stop, and instantly Charlie opened the car door and bolted out. Though he still heard his older brother’s retort.

“I dunno. In case a psychopathic murderer comes. Isn’t a deserted cabin in the woods how most horror films start?” Jonah asked, looking around as he stepped out of the car.

If it hadn’t been for his half-brother’s last comment. Charlie would have very much enjoyed the view that greeted him. The words: Like a Christmas card, were, in his opinion, probably invented for this place.

“Well, that’s fiction Jonah. Plus, we have protection.” Monty replied as both he and Jonah stepped out of the car. And walking round to the boot, he opened it to reveal the shotgun that he’d acquired a few weeks prior, looking at it with a lot more affection than Charlie had ever seen his Dad look at either him or Jonah with.

Grabbing his own rucksack from out of the boot, Charlie watched as Monty continued to stare lovingly at the gun.

That was until Jonah got their Dad’s attention back. “Yeah. But you’ve never shot it before.” Jonah said, putting into words what Charlie had been unable to.

“Nonsense. If them inbred yanks can manage it. I’m sure that we can figure it out.” Monty said and laughed to himself.

As he theatrically loaded the gun, something strange began to happen.

The weather was already cold, but now, it seemed to be plummeting downwards a lot faster than was natural.

“What’s going on?” Charlie asked, the car had been heated, and thus he was only in jeans and a t-shirt. His coat was packed away somewhere in the myriad of suitcases that they’d brought with them.

“Nothing. This is what happens in winter dickhead.” Jonah said, who unlike Charlie, had his coat on him. A fact that he now exploited to its height by wrapping himself up in it.

“Enough you two.” Monty said, his breath cooling in front of him. “I will not have you two at each other’s throats at any point this holiday. Understand?”

Charlie and Jonah gave each other looks that were plain that they wished nothing but ill to the other. But under the stern gaze of their Dad, they both nodded their agreement.

“Fine.” Jonah said, barging past Charlie to grab his own rucksack, accidentally clouting it across the back of Charlie’s head in the process.

Charlie made to retaliate, but stopped at the look he was getting from his Dad. And said nothing when Monty grabbed a briefcase and led them up the front steps. In desperation, he looked at his Mum for anything. But she hadn’t seen anything of the altercation. So begrudgingly, he allowed himself to be led to follow his Dad to the lodge.

As they rushed up to the front door, eager to get out of the cold that was closing in around them. All Charlie wanted to do, was get inside and into the warmth. And judging from the way the rest of his family were acting, he wasn’t alone in that fact.

All apart from one apparently. As Monty suddenly turned around to address them before they could enter.

“Right before we go in. There are a couple of ground rules.” Monty said, and looked imperiously down on all of them, like an army commander addressing their troops before going over the top.

“Come on Dad, it’s freezing out here.” Jonah said, his face going redder and redder by the second.

But their Dad ignored him as he began to relay his rules.

“Number One: This place is to be kept spotless at all times. I want it in the exact same condition on our final day as it is today.” Monty declared to his unenthusiastic audience. It was like he expected one of them to try and argue with him, like he was hoping for that outcome even. But when he got none, he continued on. “Number Two: Under no circumstances is there to be any parties. If their last name isn’t Dawson, they aren’t coming in here. Understand?”

This seemed too much for his Mum, who chose then to come to the defence of fun. “Come on Monty. It’s a holiday. Not a boot camp.”

Their Dad however, bristles at the comment.

“Skyla. I will not have another holiday like last time.” Monty said, and puffed out his chest importantly, whilst glaring daggers at Jonah, who only rolled his eyes at the comment.

“Yeah, because who’d want to have fun on holiday?” Jonah said.

That fun holiday had involved their trip to Amsterdam, where Jonah had gone off late at night and had been discovered in one of the red-light districts sex shows, having given a fake ID to the guy at the door. Their Dad had lost his shit that time, and had ended the trip two days early, dragging the family back home as a collective punishment. Not that Jonah, the person who the punishment had been intended for seemed to care.

“Well. This holiday is going to go completely to plan.” Monty declared to the family at large, clapping his hands together and as serious as a heart attack.

This was too much for Charlie, who does his best to try and stop himself from bursting out laughing. But eventually relents, and under the pretence of going back to the car, he silently began laughing silently.

“Something you want to share, Charles?” His Dad asked once he’d straightened his face and returned to the front steps.

Charles, he hated that name. It made him feel posh and snobbish. Like he was some elderly person who only success in life had been inheriting a huge estate. But that was all his Dad would ever call him. He said that Charlie was too childish, and that he needed to grow out of that phase, as he called it.

“No sir.” Charlie replied, the funny feeling completely gone with the use of his birth name. He didn’t ’t see why he was being picked on. From the looks of his Mum and half-brother, they too had been only marginally more successful at hiding their smirks at the notion that this holiday was going to go well.

But his Dad glowered at him for a few more moments. As if trying to get him to snap and reveal that, yes, this was going to be a shit show, and no amount of pretending would change that.

 After everyone manages to keep a straight face, Monty, now seemingly satisfied, finally allows his family into the house.

Luckily, the house was a lot warmer than it had looked from the outside once the front door slammed itself shut. But the scene that greeted them in the hallway, half made Charlie want to go back out into the cold.

It looked like the house of someone who had the worst case of hoarding ever. Not only that, but it was also limited to one specific item.

Gonks, their eyes masked by the hair that covered most of their pointed faces, wearing pointy hats and ranging in size from those that barely past Charlie’s ankles, and going up to ones that almost reached his hips. All scattered across the hallway, lining the stairs, and continuing into every single room by the looks of an immediate glance.

“Well. This isn’t creepy at all?” Charlie said looking around and walking into the living room, to see even more of the gnome like creatures.

“What the hell are those things supposed to be?” Jonah asked, looking around at the collection of stuffed creatures.

As they walked into the living room, it was the same, the Gonks were everywhere, all staring at them behind their covered eyes.

Charlie saw his Dad also giving the things a contemptuous look, wrinkling his nose at them like he always does with things that he deems are beneath him.

“I think they’re called Gonks.” Monty said with the same disgusted tone that Jonah had had.

“Whatever they’re called, they’re fucking eery as shit.” Jonah said.

His Mum also picks one of the Gonks up, looking closely at the toy, though with curiosity and scepticism, rather than the outright hatred that his Dad and brother had. “I dunno. They’re kinda cute.” She said, sitting down on the nearest chair.

“Yeah, in a really creepy sort of way.” Jonah said, picking up one of the toys. Staring at it for a second. And then throwing it to the other side of the room.

Charlie watches the toy hit the wall with a soft thud. But that wasn’t what made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. No, that was the way the toys all seemed to be staring right at them.

But a second later, the moment was gone, and the stuffed toys were back to their passive states of being.

Clearly, Jonah hadn’t seen anything, as he threw himself onto the sofa, ignoring the way it creaked ominously under his weight.

He didn’t know what made him do it. Maybe it was the way that for the split second it had seemed like the Gonks had all been trying to murder them by staring. But Charlie walked over to where the thrown Gonk had landed, picked it up and put it more gently back onto the ground.

Jonah, however, apparently took issue with this simple move. “What the hell are you even doing you prat? They’re just stupid dolls. It’s not like they have feelings or anything.”

Unseen by the any member of the family, one of the Gonks twitches at the comment.

“It’s just. They seem angry.” Charlie said, then looked down at the ground. Remembering his promise not to start anything else on the holiday. “Sorry.”

Jonah could only roll his eyes at this as he dumped his rucksack onto the floor. And he turned to their Dad. “Please tell me I’ve at least got my own room?” He jabbed his thumb towards Charlie without even looking at him. “Last thing I wanna do is stay with the freak.”

Their Dad only scowls at this. Though notably not doing anything more, other than leaving it for Skyla to answer. What little good that would do, Charlie knew. The only person that Jonah hated more, was his step-mum.

“You don’t have to share with your brother.” Skyla said. Tired that she was once again, being used as the middle woman.

Jonah grunts at this, not even looking at her.

“Well. Happy holidays I guess.” Charlie said to himself. This was going to be the most awkward family holiday ever. Even worse than the previous year. There was part of him that wished that he’d been more insistent on spending the holiday with his, well, his now ex-girlfriend.

But he’d reluctantly agreed to come here instead. And as he watched his family split up. Charlie could only wonder if he’d made the right decision.

As the family disperse to their own rooms. The Gonk that Jonah had thrown, and Charlie had righted, turned to watch them all leave.