Coal

A man watches the clock as midnight approaches

Counting the seconds

Facing the fireplace

A loaded shotgun pointing at the hearth

"Come on, you big-sacked fatty", he murmurs

Ghostly, in the distance, the sound of bells

A faint "Ho, ho, ho"

Ho

Ho

Ho

The fireplace explodes in a storm of snow and soot

A red blur streaks out

The shotgun blares but misses

A voice from behind booms, "YOU'RE ON THE NAUGHTY LIST, SONNY"

The shotgun wheels around but before it can fire the barrel is jammed with coal

The fat man chuckles again, his too-white teeth lengthening, sharpening

"NAUGHTY CHILDREN GET COAL"

His arm whips forward, faster than humanly possible, clenched fist breaking through teeth and forcing its way down the throat

The hand pulls out but the throat is still blocked, a lump of coal cutting off all air

The shotgun falls to the ground, followed soon by a body gasping with broken and bloody teeth

The last thing he hears before darkness claims him is the sound, faintly, of bells.

Not a very long or polished piece, but I suppose that's sort of the point of a snippet. I wanted to write a Christmas piece that was a little different from the norm so I bashed this out in the space of about five minutes.