These events happened months ago before the fated business trip...

"Ho! Ho! Ho!"

A loud laugh reverberated throughout the snowy neighborhood, disturbing the silent night of this Christmas Eve.

In the backyard a certain house, four people stood with dumbfounded looks, gazing at the source of the laugh.

"Hey, Mom... Could you tell Dad to stop already? He's really, really embarrassing," asked Joan with a frown, pointing at the man in a Santa Costume standing on top of the roof of their house.

"Huh? How did he cli-- ...A-ah! No no no! That's not your Dad! That's obviously Santa!" replied the Mother in a panicky voice as she showed an obviously forced smile on her face.

The two other people, John and Cindy, just watched the exchange between the Mother and Daughter with blank looks on their faces.

"Ho! Ho! Ho!"

The costumed man on the roof still continued to laugh, not noticing the commotion below.

After giving a skeptic look towards her Mother, Joan gathered some snow from the ground and made a fist-sized snowball. She prepared to throw the snowball, aiming for the man on the roof.

"Wait-wait-wait-wait! What are you planning to do with that!?" Asked the Mother as she quickly placed herself in front of Joan to block her view.

"This is like an insult to me! How old do you think am I!? Just give me my gift already!" angrily yelled Joan, side-stepping before quickly moving past her mother, snowball in hand.

"Aaah! Honey! Watch out!"

As the Mother warned the man on the roof, Joan threw the snowball with all her might.

"Ho! Ho! Ho! H-- Ophh! Wha-whoaa! Aaaaa--!"

*Thud!*

The man in Santa Costume, standing unsteadily on the roof while laughing, got hit on the face and fell a few meters down with a loud thud.

The Mother immediately rushed to the location while screaming.

Meanwhile, Joan just calmly walked back inside the house after saying, "Hmph. It's cold and boring in here. I'd rather watch the television than to be with you losers."

Such a fall would normally be considered fatal no matter how one looks at it. It would be impossible to ignore the victim and not call for an ambulance.

However, both John and Cindy who observed everything from the sides did not seem to be concerned. Instead, they started their own conversation while standing idly.

"Looks like I'm right about how Joan would react on this... Dad should've listened... Well, at least the snow is thick."

"...Yeah, but don't you think the sound of the fall was a bit too loud?"

The two exchanged words as they hugged their own shoulders. Apparently, even their winter coats could not protect them completely from the cold winds.

"Hey, Cindy."

"...What?"

"Why aren't you joining Joan right now? On trampling the efforts of our parents I mean."

"...Don't lump me in together with her. How many times have I told you already? She was just forcing me to join with her."

"Liar. This is why I hate you two. Why didn't Mom and Dad send you girls to a rehabilitation center yet anyway?"

"How rude. Sigh... It's getting cold so let's go inside. Look, even Mom already dragged our unconscious Dad inside."

After the two finished their conversation without even making eye contact the entire time, they went inside the house.

<><><><><><><><>

Inside the master's bedroom, a man laid on the bed while being nursed by his wife.

"Owww... My head hurts. And I think I broke my neck too," said the man, holding his head in pain.

"You're fine, dear. The fall only gave you minor injuries. But still, the children didn't like our little presentation..." replied the wife with a concerned tone, still treating the man's injuries.

"No, don't worry about that. It's my fault. I should've listened to John's warning," said the man in a mocking tone.

The wife made him drink something afterwards.

"...Just take a rest for now. I won't let our hard earned free time with the children go to waste. I'll figure something out."

After saying that, the wife stopped nursing the man and walked outside the room after taking some of the many gift boxes on the floor with her.

The man felt sleepy all of a sudden.

"Wai-- Ahh... She used the sleeping-- Okay, I'll leave it to you... But... don't, mix up, the, with... zzzzz..."

The man's words entered no one's ears as he slowly fell asleep.

<><><><><><><><>

The television showed the Christmas Special of a certain show.

"...Tsk. I can't believe all the shows right now are also boring," said Joan as she watched the television with blank eyes, hugging her knees while sitting on the floor.

"Come on, Joan. Cheer up. At least we'll finally get Christmas gifts from our parents this year."

"!!!"

Startled by the sudden voice from behind, Joan looked behind her only to see Cindy.

"...So what? I'm still mad! This is their first Christmas with us and they try to pull off an embarrassing stunt like that!?" yelled Joan as she stood up to face Cindy.

Due to the sudden action, Cindy got startled and backed away a little bit.

"Uh-uhmm, don't get mad at me. I didn't do anything wrong," said Cindy as she signaled for Joan to calm down using her hands.

Upon seeing Cindy with a fearful expression, Joan stopped moving and showed an almost crying face as if she saw something sad.

"...Ah. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you like that," weakly apologized Joan, looking on the ground as she said it.

Despite the occasion being Christmas Eve, the atmosphere of the entire house became gloomy.

John watched the conversation of the two sisters from afar, not letting the two of them notice his presence.

"Oh, so those two demons can also get sad like that too, huh? Nyehehehe~ Look's like I might enjoy watching them suffer for the upcoming days!" said John with a smile, rubbing his palms together as he slouched while standing.

After a few seconds, John straightened up his posture and looked around him for a bit.

Confirming no one's around, he resumed his earlier pose while saying,

"Nyehehee~ I should tell Mom and Dad to keep doing what they're doing! With this, I might be able to see the beauty of the cute teary eyes of my sisters!"

"Uh huh. And? What would you do next?"

"Nyehehehee~ I'll engrave it to my memory so that I can tolera-- Wait, what!? A-aahh!"

John screamed upon realizing that his Mother sneaked up behind him. The two sisters didn't react despite the loud scream, so they may not have noticed or just didn't care.

"Y-you, you heard everything?" asked John, trying to keep a poker face as he stood up straight while averting eye contact.

His mother, who for some reason hid her hands on her back, just gave him a wordless smile as she stared at him without moving an inch.

"Ahahahah... Say something... Please."

Smile.

"Ahahahah-haha-haha--"

Smile.

"--Hahaaa... Can we please pretend nothing happened?" asked John, this time while making eye contact as he forced a smile to imitate his Mother.

Only then did John's Mother finally respond.

Still with a smile on her face, she showed the things she kept hidden on her back.

Two identical red boxes wrapped and tied with ribbons. She held one in each hand.

In short, they were gift boxes.

"Please deliver this to your sisters, John. Who knows? They might shed some cute tears of joy after receiving it from you," said the Mother as she held out the two gifts towards John.

John blushed upon hearing his Mother's words.

"O-okay. Sure. Haha!" said John as he reluctantly received the wrapped boxes, feigning ignorance of his Mother's choice of words.

John started walking slowly towards his sisters, gifts in hand. However,

"John," suddenly said his Mother from behind.

He turned around and saw his smiling Mother's full figure a few feet away.

"Y-yes, Mom?"

"I know you're fond of your sisters, but please limit yourself to Cindy only," said John's Mother with a concerned face.

"W-what are you talking about!?" asked John, almost letting go the gifts in the process.

"Isn't it obvious? You and Joan are blood-related so it would be bad if you got her preg--"

"No, stop! You're not making sense so you must be misunderstanding something. Let's just talk about it later."

John suddenly interrupted his Mother upon realizing where the conversation would go.

"...Is that so? Okay then. Hurry and give them the gifts."

"Yeah. I was just about to do that," said John as he started walking towards his sisters.

"Since your Dad doesn't know about this yet, we'll talk about this later. Alone."

After John's mother said that, she walked away and went up the stairs just behind her.

"I just told you that you're wro-- Sigh, whatever. Where is my gift anyway?" replied John as he walked without looking back, holding the two gift boxes tighter.

Of course, since his Mother already went upstairs, she didn't hear the reply.

<><><><><><><><>

"Zzzzz... --Ahh!"

Feeling a stinging pain on his olfactory senses, the man sleeping on the bed woke up.

"Mhmm, and I was just dreaming about my dead ex-wife... Why did you wake me up with that?" asked the man, looking at the bottle held by his wife just standing beside him.

He saw the words 'Instant Wake-up' written on the label of the bottle.

"I tell you now; I already gave the girls their gifts!" replied the wife with a smile on her face.

Feeling a bit dizzy in the head, the man only gave his wife a perplexed expression. However, after a few seconds,

"...Oh! The gifts! Did they lik-- No, wait... Did you check if you gave them the right ones first?" asked the man, still laid on the bed despite struggling to sit up.

"Huh? I gave the girls the two red ones, their favorite color. Why? Is something wrong?" replied the wife with a confused expression as she took a seat on the bed.

"......." The man did not move for a few seconds, staring blankly at his wife.

"Aaaaaaaaah!", "Hyaaaaah!!!"

A moment later, a scream erupted from outside. Judging by the pitch of the voice, it came from the two girls.

"....."

"....."

It took an entire minute for the two of them to realize that those were screams.

Despite the body pains, the man forced himself to stand up and dashed outside the room.

"Ah! Wait for me!" shouted the wife as she followed the man outside the room.

<><><><><><><><>

Five seconds after the girls screamed, this Christmas already became a nightmare for John.

John, with teary eyes, curled himself into a ball as he laid down on the floor.

"I'm sorry! Ow! I didn't know! Why me!? Ow!" said John as he defended himself while receiving kicks from his sisters.

Kick, kick, stomp, kick, stomp, drop kick, football kick, kick.

The sisters wordlessly used all kinds of kick on John as they glared at him with fierce eyes.

"Ahw! Shtohp! OW! Pleash!"

Despite John desperately begging them to stop, the sisters did not listen and instead increased the force of their kicks.

"How cunning, John. You wanted us to have these as our gifts?" asked Joan as she continued kicking John while holding two flesh-colored rod-shaped vibrating objects in one hand.

"She's right, John. This time, I'm willingly beating you up," said Cindy, also kicking John while looking at him with a frown.

"No! I did nothing wrong!" replied John, still shielding himself while laying on the floor.

Although, that reply didn't ease down the situation. Instead, the girls showed an even fiercer expression.

"Y-you! Did nothing wrong, huuuhhh!? Come heeere!" angrily yelled Joan as she picked up John by the hair.

"No! No! Please! Really!" said John, struggling to get himself away from Joan.

Cindy stopped kicking. Then, after she stepped back, she silently watched the two of them from the sidelines .

"See this, my faggot brother? These are the gifts we received."

Joan pressed the vibrating objects she held against John's face.

John, with even more tears flowing out of him, wordlessly nodded.

The two vibrating objects Joan held against John's face, no one would ever imagine those things being gifted to girls as young as her.

Toys not suited for children. Or in other words, adult toys.

Joan pressed the Dil-- Adult toys intended for women against John's face.

"Now, my faggot brother, you will become a full blown faggot!" said Joan as she raised her hand holding the two vibrating adult toys.

"No! No! Nooooo-- --Mpphfff!"

Joan swiftly jammed both of the toys in John's mouth as he screamed.

*Thud*

She let go of John afterwards, letting him powerlessly fall down with a thud.

*Vrrrrrmmmm*

*Vrrrrrmmmm*

Only the echoing sound of vibration remained as John silently cried without moving.

A few seconds later, both of their parents arrived.

"What happened!? ...No, don't tell me. I think I know. That's your Mom's gift..." said the father as he displayed a sad face, struggling to stay standing up as he looked at the sad scene.

Meanwhile, the mother's delayed reaction appeared a few seconds later.

"...Ah! What happened here!? Oh is that-- J-John!" said the mother with a surprised look upon seeing John's state.

Everyone present could only look at John's pathetic state.

"Mfff(Please) *Vrrrmmmm* fmmm(don't) *Vrrrrmmmm* mphhh...(look...) *Vrrrmmmm*" muttered John as his tears trickled down on his cheeks.

Inside John's mind, this Christmas became the worst day of his life.

Well, at least for now. Since he didn't know yet. About the events that will happen in the near future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Notes:

Ah! Yes, Christmas! Time to celebrate! Hurray!

This is a Prequel chapter. Extra chapter. Christmas chapter. Or whatever you wanna call it.

This is a chapter designed to be a standalone in case anyone hasn't read the chapters yet. I don't know if I succeeded on that part though.

It seems like I'm bad at writing comedy as long as it doesn't involve dark elements. I need to practice.