Page 35 of Scary & Bright

“But I can promise you there’s nothing that anyone, including Nik, could do to make me harm you,” I said with absolute certainty. If I were being honest with myself, it actually felt nice to say it out loud. Like it made my sentiment more real or something.

It was in the open now, and I’d never felt more vulnerable in my entire life.

“What about you, though?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper. “What will happen if you don’t follow through? Besides ruining Christmas, that is.”

“Don’t worry about me.” I shook my head. “I’ve been here long enough. I’ve done this old song and dance for centuries. It’s time to try something new.” I draped my arm around her middle and pulled her into me.

She reached for me and shoved my hair over my shoulder before running her hands down one of my horns, making an almost musical click, click, click noise as her nails glided over its texture.

“Let’s just make the most of the time we have.” Holly sighed. “I think that’s the only thing we can agree on, and it’s the only thing we can be absolutely certain of.” She let go of my horn and curled into my chest.

All I could do was hold her and hope with all my heart that she believed me.

16

HOLLY

I had officially been in the South Pole for ten days, and more had changed for me in those ten days than I could have ever imagined. I kept thinking of Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller saying, “Life comes at you fast…” because it sure as hell did.

My life in the castle had been a whirlwind and a calm breeze all at once. Simultaneously, it was also a bleak march toward my own death and a serene winter vacation, complete with a devilishly handsome otherworldly creature who definitely knew how to touch me. The more time I spent with Krampus, the more I liked him, and the more he liked me. I could hear it in his voice and feel it radiating off of him every time he was nearby. However, we both felt the crushing weight of our timeline, like it was a stain or a dark cloud over each and every moment we spent together. Krampus made sure to remind me as often as possible that I wasn’t in any danger, but I couldn’t shake the reality of the situation.

Even if push came to shove and Krampus stayed true to his word and didn’t end my life—who was to say Santa Claus himself wouldn’t come to finish the job? Something told me there were stakes in place that Krampus hadn’t told me about. If it could have been so easy as to just not kill all those people for all those years, why hadn’t he made the decision earlier? There wasn’t any way he’d faked the pain I saw behind his eyes, so I knew he felt genuinely forced to finish the task year after year. Why not now?

The question nagged at me like a mosquito in my ear, which is how I ended up in one of the several libraries scattered around the castle. Krampus had wanted to come with me, and while I felt bad telling him that I just needed some time alone but-please-don’t-think-you-did-anything-wrong-I-am-not-mad-I-swear, I also didn’t want him to catch a whiff of what I was actually searching for. New Holly was not as comfortable lying as Old Holly had been. Luckily, I was quickly distracted once I began to comb through the shelves, looking for anything that could give me the information I needed.

“Well, hey there, stranger!” a familiar voice called from the doorway.

I yelped in surprise, feeling a lightning bolt shoot through me as my eyes were pulled from the shelf.

Starlight was there, trying her best to stifle a big grin. She was practically glowing with excitement. With me and Krampus being practically fused at the hip the past several days, my loose friendship with the toys had ground to a complete stop. Not to mention, I hadn’t actually apologized to Starlight for pulling a fast one on her during my escape attempt—although the look on her face told me she had already forgiven and forgotten and was craving gossip.

“Well, hey, back,” I said, allowing my shoulders to relax. I didn’t want to be rude, but I really wanted, needed, to get back to my limited research attempt. “You wanna come hang out with me while I browse?”

I figured the invitation would at least open the door for her to ask the thousands of questions that I knew were bubbling just under the surface, but not give her the impression that I could give her one hundred percent of my undivided attention. It also opened the door for her to ask what I was doing, thus opening another door for her to tell me something Krampus had left out of his story. The toys were all miraculously loyal to him, and I was starting to understand why, but I hoped Starlight was enough of a chatterbox to let something slip.

“You don’t have to ask me twice!” she exclaimed as she began to rock herself into the library.

This particular library was the one closest to Krampus’s room. Considering there were several, it made the most sense to peruse them in descending order. So, I’d started there and meant to tackle each of them as I made my way down to the first floor. This one felt especially dark. Almost ominous, like the library in an old college late at night when most of the students have vacated, save for the most serious of scholars. The lights were dim, the windows were few, the dark wood shelves sat on dark hardwood floors, and the walls were painted a dark green. It was the sort of place that actually suited the castle itself, rather than being a unique testament to Krampus’s design capabilities. The whole place felt heavy, and Starlight’s sudden cheerful, rainbow-haired presence felt remarkably out of place.

“Soooo, how are things?” she asked as she settled herself behind me. I could already hear the anticipation on her tongue.

“Things are good,” I said, trying to find a decent balance between being too honest and too vague. “Though part of me thinks you may have already known that.” I looked over my shoulder and winked, letting her know she didn’t have to beat too wide around the bush.

“Listen,” she snapped back, “you can’t blame me for being curious, and forgive me for being forward, but you owe me after you tried to make a break for it! I thought we were going to play games, and next thing I know, you’re gone!”

Ouch. I knew it was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier.

“I am genuinely sorry about that, Star.” I sighed, turning to give the horse my full attention for a moment. “I had no idea what to do, and nobody was being honest with me, and I was just really scared.”

“I’m not actually mad,” Starlight reassured me, tilting her head to one side sympathetically, her yarn hair tumbling in the same direction. “I think I always knew in the back of my mind that it was quite the long shot to assume that a prisoner in the castle was going to want to just hang out and be friends. Wishful thinking, I suppose.”

Ouch, again.

“You’re only half right, honestly,” I said with a shrug as I shifted my weight to the opposite leg. “I mean, yeah, I was terrified. Still am, since we’re being honest. At the same time, though, you were kind to me. So was Tuff. Despite the circumstances of how and why I ended up here, I did enjoy the time we spent together.”

“Fool me once, shame on you,” she began. “Fool me twice—”

“I mean it, Star,” I insisted, cutting her off. “It’s no secret that Krampus and I, well…”