Christmas Chaos

 

It was two weeks before Christmas, but I was far from being prepared; the tree wasn’t put up, and nothing had been bought. With the constant lockdowns this year, I had just lost all interest and energy, but I still wanted to shed the negativity from my body. When I went downstairs, however, I found that my husband, Preston, and son, Joshua, had already put up the Christmas tree and even decorated it.

“Mommy look at what we did!”

“It’s beautiful, hun. Good work!”

The three of us then fixed the wall decorations and the crib. Even though it was a simple task, doing it with my family was rejuvenating to my soul. I was called in for work the following day, even though I was on leave; lockdown or not, law enforcement found no rest. To make matters even worse, we were understaffed as seventeen of my colleagues were already under quarantine. It was heartbreaking seeing my son plead with me to stay, but I had no choice.

When I got back home that evening, Joshua was asleep on the couch; he had refused to go to bed until I came back home. I woke him up and put him in his bed before getting ready to crash, myself. But not long after my head hit the pillow, I heard a noise downstairs. I woke Preston up and told him to go to Joshua’s room, which was next to ours, while I took my firearm and went downstairs. There was an armed man sneaking into the living room. I pointed my gun at him and got him to drop his weapon. The Police arrived in five minutes and hauled him away.

The next day, I questioned the criminal; he said he was breaking in to steal whatever he could, that he didn’t mean to harm anyone. We found no clues or connections of his that would say otherwise, so there was nothing solid to nail him with aside from breaking and entering and attempted burglary. However, I wasn’t going to take any chances as the safety of my family was compromised. I sent Joshua to stay with my sister who was just a couple of blocks away and hid some pillows under my blanket to make it look like I was in bed. Preston was working till late that night, so he was out of harm’s way. I stayed quietly in Joshua’s room to listen if there was an intruder.

Hours passed without even a hum or a creak, but around 11, I heard the front door open. It wasn't forced open or broken down, so I wondered if Preston was home, but he was supposed to arrive around 1. I remained in the room, keeping my eyes wide and my ears sharp. Footsteps began to slowly rise up the stairs. I cocked my gun and approached the room door. I listened as the intruder opened the other room door and stepped inside. They began shooting at the bed and I came out of Joshua’s room to point the gun at them. The assailant was hooded and masked.

“Drop your weapon!”

They wouldn’t obey or reply.

“Drop it now!”

They turned around fast, forcing me to fire two rounds into their chest. It was a man.

The gunman grunted and groaned as he dropped his gun and held his chest. But his voice, I knew it too well.

“Preston?”

I pulled off the mask, only to be left dumbfounded.

“What... Why?”

“I wanted to leave you, Athena. I’m in love with someone else.”

“But why go this far?”

“Because of Jo—”

He gasped and coughed one last time before shutting his eyes. He was gone. I found out the next day that Preston had been having an affair with one of his colleagues, and that he was also the one who had hired the ‘burglar’. Preston had paid the man to kill me and injure him to take any suspicions off him. The woman was also taken into custody as she knew about Preston’s plan as well. I had to lie to my son about his father, and what really happened that night; he wasn’t ready for the truth.