The house appeared abandoned; but Mrs.
Claus knew it wasn’t. Barry, the Head Elf, took a step back from the front
door as she knocked on the large, darkened door.
He really didn’t wish to be here, but she
forced him to be.
This woman had courage – bigger than his –
and he wanted to...
The door swung open and there stood Krampus,
glaring at them both, “What in all Hell and... oh it’s you!”
She smiled sweetly, “Good evening, Krampus,
how nice to see you again too.”
He half-turned, appearing a little embarrassed
about the state of the living room with all the boxes of The List sitting around,
“I’m busy with the list, and the half-elf kid is helping me. After a few
hiccups, she’s going well.”
She stood there, “We’re not here to check up
on her. We’re here to check up on you.” She pushed past him into his house and
Barry quickly followed her, avoiding eye contact as Krampus glared at him,
knowing he had something to do with this.
“What do you mean, woman?” he snapped, “I
have done nothing wrong.”
“Well, it’s the 19th, December,
and Santa isn’t at home.” She looked around the large house, “This place is
bigger on the inside than...”
“What? He’s not home?”
“After that trick you played on him, and he
turned into you...” she started.
“That was for only twenty-four hours. He turned
back into himself the next day; I’d never keep him like that. There’s the
Family Business to consider.” He growled, “And if he goes missing, even for one
year, I have to take over.” He looked down at himself, “Do you really think any
child would like to see me showing up in their living room?”
She sighed, “No... good point.”
The five of them sat in a circle in the
dungeon and concentrated.
Santa tried to keep his long, black horns
from scraping the ceiling while the rest of them tried to keep in mind that
under all that hideous demonic ugliness was their lovely, kind friend.
“Okay, let’s try this again...” the Blue
Fairy was close to tears, “It’s been another day; let’s see if we can do more
this time.”
“We have to be getting close to getting out
of here... the time for my trip this year is coming close. I can feel it.”
Santa said.
Odin smirked, “We can see it... your beard
is growing longer and is white.”
“Oh, that was white when I woke up.”
Barry turned from the two having their
conversation and started looking around the place. He didn’t know that the
half-elf was living it up so well. He couldn’t smell any of Santa’s candy in
the air and knew that Krampus was treating her like a Human as much as
possible.
This meant, that Santa’s cousin wasn’t as
bad as he was making out to be – that the rumours he had created about this
ugly, horned beast had stuck well and truly over the centuries.
He had to make sure the truth about his
kindness never came out. Turning back, he made eye contact with Krampus for
just a moment and that gave the beast the right amount of time to know
something about him... something he had kept from Mrs. Claus very well.
