Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day 5 — Blood Brothers

(This story, and many others, can be found within the pages of Spirits of Christmas, available from Bookshop.org and Amazon.)   This tale comes from the brooding mountains and dark hollows of Appalachia. A young man from West Virginia was engaged to be married to a beautiful girl. But the dark clouds of World War I … Continue reading Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day 5 — Blood Brothers

(This story, and many others, can be found within the pages of Spirits of Christmas, available from Bookshop.org and Amazon.)

  This tale comes from the brooding mountains and dark hollows of Appalachia. A young man from West Virginia was engaged to be married to a beautiful girl. But the dark clouds of World War I loomed on the horizon, far across the ocean from his mountain home. The young man was called up sooner than he had expected, and he was shipped off to the front before he could marry his sweetheart.

  After he had gone, the man’s older brother came a’courting. He convinced the girl that the soldier had never really loved her. Why, if he had, he wouldn’t have left her all alone, now would he? Soon, he talked the girl into marrying him instead.

  On Christmas Eve, the soldier returned home unexpectedly. He went straight to the house where his brother lived with his wife — the wife that should have been his. The soldier knocked on the door, and the brother let him in.

  The brother was on edge during the whole conversation, as his wife was just upstairs. In an irritated whisper, he told the soldier that yes, he had married the girl simply for her money and for her family’s position in society. He warned his younger brother, in a low but urgent tone, that if he interfered with the marriage in any way, he would kill him dead.

  The soldier nodded in grudging understanding. The conversation had gone just about the way he’d expected it to. He left the house, hearing the door close firmly behind him.

  The younger brother returned to the house a little while later — with a revolver. He shot his older brother, then stormed out of the house.

  The young wife heard the shot and hurried downstairs. She found her husband dying in a spreading pool of his own blood on the floor. With his final agonized breaths, he told her what had happened.

  She called the police, who searched the property thoroughly. They could find no trace of the murderous young soldier.

  On Christmas Day, a telegram arrived. It was addressed to the older brother. His widow opened it and read it.

  The telegram said that the younger brother had been killed in action on December 21.