Silent Night by RL Stine
Reva Dalby is an entitled pain in the ass. She has a “job” at Dalby Department Store at the perfume counter but “job” is a loose term, she doesn’t care at all. She spends her day thinking rude thoughts about the customers when she isn’t blatantly ignoring them, and being rude and obnoxious to her supervisor. After all, what’s the point, Daddy owns the store, it’s two weeks until Christmas so she only has two weeks of boredom to get through. Turning to the cosmetic mirror on the counter, Reva applies her lipstick, but soon her mouth is a bloody mess. Someone has stuck a needle in the lipstick, but who would want to hurt Reva? (Everybody.)
Two weeks earlier. Reva pulls her car over and looks at Hank Davis, her soon to be ex-boyfriend, like, immediately soon. She breaks up with him then and there. Hank has a bit of a temper, something Reva kinda liked before but she doesn’t want him to turn it on her now. This does not stop her from being cruel. Despite Hank asking why?, Reva coldly opens the car door and kicks him out without explanation for the breakup. Hank promises Reva will pay as she drives off wishing him a happy holiday and heading to her father's department store. Since Reva’s mom died, Reva meets her dad once a week so they can drive home together. Though she’s been in the store loads when it’s been closed, it never ceases to creep Reva out. Like right now. Oh look, a strange man! Eep!
It’s not a strange man. It’s not a man at all. It’s a mannequin, you idiot. A little breathless from her scare, Reva heads up to the executive level where she does bump into a real person, Mr. Wakely, the head of security. A moment later, Reva’s father explains he is the ex-head of security, he just got fired for drinking on the job, and he isn’t the only employee loss that week. Santa quit, and there have been electrical issues in the store as well as problems at other branches. Reva doesn’t care. Just before they get ready to leave, Mr. Dalby tells Reva there are some jobs available for anyone interested at school. Excellent, there is a guy Reva plans on stealing and a job could bring some excellent opportunities to get close to him…
At home, Reva calls Mitch Castelona and offers him a job which he gratefully accepts, but she doesn’t expect him to ask if there is also one for his girlfriend Lissa. Reva is unimpressed by Lissa, considering her plain and boring and in her way, but because Reva enjoys being a garbage person, she tells Lissa sure and also, she needs to wear her absolute best outfit as she’ll be on the Chanel perfume counter, but she's actually in the stockroom! What a hoot! A few moments later, Reva’s cousin Pam calls asking if there are any available jobs at the department store and again Reva’s garbage attitude slimes through as she tells her cousin no and, with a laugh, hangs up. Pam knows her cousin is lying and would love to pay her back.
Pam is pissed. She doesn’t know why Reva hates her, but she does. Pam entertains picking up the phone and calling Reva out for her lies or telling her the whole of Shadyside High actually hates her, but she doesn’t. Deciding that even though she’d love to talk to her boyfriend, Foxy, she best not interrupt him doing a school project, Pam calls her friend Mickey Wakley instead. He’s going to the 7-Eleven to meet Clay Parker, so Pam says she’ll meet them there. Mickey and Clay are getting snacks when Pam arrives. At the register, the cashier tells Mickey and Clay to empty their pockets, convinced they’re stealing. Despite their protests, the cashier shouts to the back for someone to call the cops. Clay grabs the cashier by the shirtfront and slams him into the register before vaulting over the counter and grabbing the cashier again and repeatedly slamming him into the register. The police sirens can be heard approaching the store.
Pam and Mickey make a dash for the exit, Clay following behind. As they dive into Pam’s dad’s car, the police sirens are nearly on top of them. Finally Clay is able to get the sticky engine to turn over as the police cruiser enters the lot, but he guns it and they’re off. The police follow but Clay’s driving is wild and he manages to lose them and drives them to his house. Thank goodness the license plate fell off last week, otherwise they’d be in real trouble. As they’re reliving the wild ride, Clay pulls a jar of dip from his pocket that he stole from the 7-Eleven! Despite crime, it was the most fun they’ve had in ages. Mickey is down because his dad lost his job at Dalby’s, then Pam finds out her suspicions are true, that Reva is a liar and there are jobs at the store. Pam swears she’s going to get her cousin.
Driving home from a sub-par visit to the health club, Reva spots Robb Spring, a giant labrador of a human who is too fat for her to date. Reva pulls over and offers Robb a job at her dad’s store which he gratefully accepts. Because Reva is incapable of doing anything nice, she tells Robb it will be in “public relations” and to dress professionally even though he’ll be playing Santa and have to deal with a parade of sticky kids, what a hoot! Later, at home and having just finished putting her little brother to bed, someone knocks at her door. It’s Hank, he’s been trying to call her, he heard about the jobs and would like one. Given their breakup, this is a really difficult favor to ask. Reva laughs in his face. Hank gets mad and makes to grab Reva, but Reva whistles for King, the family's Doberman attack dog who goes straight for Hank. With glee, and from the porch, Reva watches King go for Hank but calls him off before Hank is injured. Disgusted and defeated, Hank goes back to his car, swearing he’ll make Reva pay. What a laugh!
It’s 8:30 Saturday morning and the new recruits are in the staff lounge of Dalby’s. Reva is taking great delight in Lissa in her smart outfit ready to work the stockroom, and is her usual unpleasant fat-shaming self to Robb who walks in carrying the Santa suit. The stockroom supervisor is clearly sick of Reva. As she leaves to head to the perfume counter, Reva makes sure Mitch and Lissa aren’t assigned the same areas and isn’t subtle about it. On the way, someone grabs her and pulls her into a storage closet. It’s Hank. Supposedly it’s “revenge” for the other night. Turns out Hank got a job at Dalby’s too, he’s working security and will be watching the monitors. As she leaves, Reva tells him to get over her and go away, but Hank just tells her he’s watching.
Meanwhile, at Mickey’s house, Clay is playing with a knife (as one does), as Mickey’s dad is getting drunk in the kitchen after losing his job and Pam bitches about her cousin. There is no love lost for the Dalby’s. Pam wants revenge against Reva, Mickey wants revenge for his dad. Clay has an idea to solve both their problems. They’re going to rob the department store. What?! Clay knows the night guard, Maywood, and he wants in on the plan. Maywood will leave a back door unlocked and turn off the alarms, but they’ll have to tie him up or knock him out for authenticity, and then they can go for a five-finger shopping spree, all they need to do is pick up some stuff Maywood wants. Mickey is interested but Pam is reluctant to rob from her uncle, however Clay is able to persuade her to at least help by being the getaway driver.
Reva is on the phone with Pam, in her opinion Reva thinks Pam is poor and basic, and they should quit pretending to tolerate each other because they’re family. From Pam’s cold attitude on the phone, it seems like she’s already starting to. Already late, Reva gets ready for work choosing a white cashmere sweater to entice Mitch with. It’s already been two weeks since he started working at Dalby’s, Reva has subtly and unsubtly flirted with him so she decided today is the day she will make a move on him. Alone in the stockroom, Reva corners Mitch and grabs his face in a kiss, obviously Lissa walks in and is hurt by what she sees. When Lissa runs off, Mitch moves to follow while Reva tries to hold him back. She hopes Hank saw the kiss on his security monitors, and he just so happens to walk by, glaring at Reva who has draped herself over Mitch who is still trying to go after Lissa. Once this debacle is over, Reva actually goes to work. At the perfume counter, her boss leaves her to go to lunch, expecting her to help with the customers, but instead, Reva opens a gift someone left for her which is a heavy bottle of liquid. Thinking it’s expensive perfume, Reva opens the bottle and when she realizes it’s actually a bottle of blood, Reva drops it, smashing the glass counter, the bottle and causing the blood to explode over her lovely white cashmere sweater. WHOMP WHOMP.
Surprisingly, Reva doesn’t freak out out loud, but in her head she’s screaming. She notices a card on the floor, picks it up and rips it open, HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM A FRIEND is written on it. Stomping to the employee elevator, Reva is sure Hank is to blame and is going to get his ass fired. On the executive level, Hank is actually installing VCRs for the monitors - they’ll be able to record the footage now! Whoa! His protests that it wasn’t him to send Reva the blood fall on deaf ears, she’s determined to see her Daddy. Unfortunately for Reva he is in an Important Meeting and not to be disturbed. This takes the wind out of her sails so she decides to head home. As Reva is walking past the balcony, machine gun fire can be heard. She dives for the floor just as Mr. Dalby comes out of his office. Thinking his blood-soaked daughter has been shot, he promptly passes out. Thankfully, a worker is able to explain that it’s Christmas lights popping not gun fire caused by the electrical problems the store is having. Phew, Reva hasn’t been shot?
By now Reva is extremely paranoid. Her lip has been slashed, she’s been sent a vial of blood, and the electrical fault with the lights has her on edge, so when she’s followed home by a white car, Reva thinks she’s being rich-kid-kidnapped-for-ransom. She’s not, the driver broke her tail light and is just being a good citizen. Honesty, what could be next?!
Pam, Mickey and Clay are heading to Dalby’s to rob the place. Pam is a nervous wreck and doesn’t think she can do it even though she’s just the getaway driver. As Clay goes over the plan one more time (start at electronics in the back and work toward the loading bay where the car will be) Pam declares she’s coming in. She won’t take anything, just wait inside. Fine. They pull up to Dalby’s and as they approach the door, Clay pulls a gun out of his pocket. Nah, dog. He says it’s in case there are problems. By now we know Clay is the actual problem, especially when he shoots a security guard who tries to stop them stealing VCRs. Pam had been spooked by the silent department store, sure someone was watching, well that seems to be true and it wasn’t Maywood their contact. As Mickey and Clay were “shopping” the guard came up to them, Pam and Mickey ran, the alarms went off and Clay shot the guy. At the loading dock, they run outside into the silent night, unfortunately for them, Pam’s car is gone.
Well, if you look a little to the right, you’ll find Pam’s car. The trio came out a different door. They pile into the car and book it out of the parking lot before the police cars enter with sirens blaring. Somehow Pam takes Mickey and Clay home and somehow gets herself home. The next day a guilt-riddled Pam is listening to the radio, they report the murder of a Dalby security guard and theft of $25,000 from the safe. Hang on, that’s not right, they didn’t take anything, especially not from a safe! Pam calls Clay, he’s heard the report too. He says the whole thing is wrong, he didn’t have any bullets in his gun, it was just for show, someone else was at Dalby’s; the police, however, will never believe them.
Monday morning, Reva is catching a lift to work with her dad who's stressed because of the murder, the robbery, and insurance companies. Mr. Dalby heads to the executive level while Reva heads to the perfume counter. It’s a slow day, few customers are there for her to ignore and/or judge, the police have part of the electronics department cordoned off and crime scene technicians are working. At lunch, Mitch comes to talk to Reva, Lissa broke up with him so he thought they could go out and see a movie. Reva, thinking Mitch is a wimp for trying to run after Lissa after her planned incursion, tells him no and walks away. Mitch is pissed. Back at the perfume counter, Pam is on the phone but Reva tells one of the salesgirls to lie to Pam about her being there because she doesn’t want to hear Pam’s sob stories about being poor. There has also been a package delivery for her, a giant unmarked carton closed with a big red bow. Carefully Reva opens it and looks inside to find a folded up human corpse.
It’s a mannequin, it’s just very lifelike. Everyone saw Reva scream so she’s embarrassed and runs off. At Mickey’s house, Mickey, Clay and Pam are stressed about the murder-robbery even though they committed neither murder nor robbery. Clay insists it will all be fine, it's been three days already and the police haven’t knocked at their door! Well, tell that to the creep on the phone who has just called telling them he knows what they did and he wants $10,000. GASP! A couple of days later at Pam’s house she gets another blackmailer phone call, however this time Foxy is there so she confesses everything to him. Foxy’s first instinct is to contact the police which Pam refuses to do, instead they go see Mickey and Clay. Clay is PISSED and starts threatening the blackmailer's life. Pam is sure he means it too.
Thursday morning Reva decides to confront Hank about the not-funny practical jokes. Hank is already at the security monitors when she gets to work so she drags him into her dad's office to talk. Reva admits her remarks may have been unnecessarily cruel and hurtful but he needs to stop with the jokes. Hank has no idea what she is talking about and points out that no one likes Reva, she has literally no friends, so it could be anyone pulling the pranks. Reality hits Reva that she’s a garbage person.
That night Pam decides to walk the few blocks to see Foxy. On the way she is grabbed by the blackmailer creep who pulls her to some bushes and tells her not to look at him. Again he demands $10,000 and again Pam tells him they never killed the guard or robbed the store so they don’t have the money to buy his silence. As Pam is moving away from the creep she sees his face. He tells her that was a bad idea and pushes her into traffic but thankfully it is late at night and traffic is light. Foxy comes by, pulls Pam up, and she tells him she knows the blackmailer.
Reva is actually on time for work! Yes, we’re shocked too. She’s also thinking kind thoughts about Hank and how he tried to genuinely console her so maybe he isn’t so bad. In the store Reva finds Mitch and a partially Santa-suited-up Robb beating the shit out of each other. They don’t stop until the stockroom supervisor pulls them apart and tells them to get to work, they also don’t answer Reva’s questions. Later, after finally fulfilling her promise to her little brother to take him to see Santa, Reva returns to the perfume counter to find another gift-wrapped carton. With caution she opens this one, determined not to embarrass herself with drama queen antics. When she looks inside, fully expecting another mannequin, she finds Mitch dead with a knife between his shoulder blades and blood pooling at the bottom of the carton.
Reva can’t stop thinking about Mitch crammed and dead in the carton. She wanted to apologize to him. Finally, Reva falls into a deep sleep, only to wake suddenly at 2:30am. She knows who killed Mitch! Meanwhile, Pam is demanding Clay tell her the truth, did he kill Mitch because he was their attempted blackmailer? Clay won’t answer her, he just gives her an eating shit kinda smile he would probably describe as “enigmatic.” Mickey is struggling to believe Clay didn’t do it. Eventually Clay says that he didn’t kill Mitch. When Clay gets close to blows because Pam calls him a liar, Mickey’s dad, who is very, very drunk, kicks them out to sort themselves out. Clay walks off with that stupid smile plastered on his face. Yeah, Pam doesn’t believe him one bit.
Saturday morning Reva is dressed and ready for work, even her dad comments that she’ll be on time. Reva isn’t bothered about the perfume counter, she has a theory on who the murderer is and wants to look into it. At the store, Reva and Mr. Dalby head to the security room where Hank has just arrived. At Reva’s request he pulls up the Santa Land footage. Reva points out that the Santa on the monitor has to use a pillow down his suit in the footage, her little brother Michael even commented on it, but Robb doesn’t need a pillow because, she literally says, “he's a real chub.” Robb was going at it with Mitch HARD the morning of the murder. Mr. Dalby calls the police who come to the store and arrest Robb in full Santa regalia complete with child on his lap. They reveal to the many, many, many children in Santa Land that this Santa is a fake. Good job, cops [sarcasm]. As Robb is being taken away, Pam calls to him, calling him Foxy. Foxy Robb shouts that he did it all for Pam to get back at Reva. He did what though?
Reva finishes her shift and does actual work. Yes, we’re surprised too. Since she traveled in with her dad, and he had to leave for meetings, Reva starts walking to the bus stop when a figure steps out from the shadows. It’s Pam and she wants to talk. In her car, Pam explains that Foxy Robb was beating Mitch to within an inch of his life because Mitch was attempting to blackmail her for reasons that will no doubt come out later. When the security cameras showed someone covering for Foxy Robb, it wasn’t so he could kill Mitch, it was so he could see Pam as she’s not been great lately. Foxy Robb tampered with Reva’s lipstick, sent her the blood perfume and the mannequin, but he is not a murderer. Reva and Pam seem to have a better understanding of one another after the conversation. Pam offers to drive Reva home, but on the way Reva remembers she left her bag at the store so they turn around. Once inside Reva feels that usual sense of creepiness, but the tree lights are on and music is playing too, so she works through it. On the executive level she finds Hank still at the security desk… oh no that’s not Hank. That’s Mr. Wakely, Mickey’s dad, and he has a gun.
Mr. Wakely confesses to being at the store the night of the robbery. He and Maywood were going to use unsuspecting teens as a diversion for the other guard while they robbed the safe. When Mr. Wakely saw the guard pull a gun on his own son, he did what he felt he needed to do and shot him. He found out that Mitch saw Mickey and his friends at the store and was blackmailing them, but he couldn’t have that, so he got rid of Mitch too, hiding his body in a random carton. Reva realizes it must have been the same mannequin carton that was redelivered and that it wasn’t done on purpose; however, now would be a good time to get away from the murderer. Reva makes a run for it, trying to get to her dad's office but Mr. Wakely follows and takes shots at her. Eventually she ends up in front of the balcony over the rest of the store. Mr. Wakely makes a dive for her but misses and goes over the edge, landing in the Christmas tree, shorting out the lights, and as they pop-pop-pop, Mr. Wakely is electrocuted. Hank comes running up, he saw everything on the monitors and tells Reva it was all recorded, including the confession. Thanks VCRs!
Reva, Hank and Foxy Robb are huddled on a bench in the police station waiting for Pam. Foxy Robb won’t have any charges against him, Reva feels like the pranks are what she deserved for being a garbage person. When Pam eventually comes out, she tells them she is in her parents’ custody for trespassing, Clay’s hearing is the following week, and Mickey’s will be after his father's funeral. In the meantime, Reva revels in her feelings, the icy walls she built up after her mom's death are cracked and falling down. She holds Hank's hand as they leave, but best of all, she gives her cousin a hug which is reciprocated, all while the snow gently falls on the silent night.
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