Page 42 of Scary & Bright
And for Santa to host the Authority in his own home over the convenience of the Workshop meant that he was willing to deal with being overcrowded along with a grumpy wife who would surely balk at the prospect of having to feed all the visitors—and she would absolutely feel obligated to. He’d deal with all that over having anyone more than the bare minimum witness the meeting.
“See if you can get ‘em sent over right after lunch. Maybe two in the afternoon? Perfect. I’ll ring the Mrs… Uh-huh, thanks again, Ginger!” Santa smiled as he spoke, as if the she-elf might be able to hear the expression on his face, but as soon as he dropped the phone back on its cradle, his face darkened.
“You’ll be coming along to the cottage, Spirit,” Santa said flatly. “I’ll need you to tell your story again, so the Authority knows what we’re getting into.”
“So, you intend to leave as soon as possible, I imagine?” the Spirit asked as he fidgeted with the pointed end of his night hat as it draped over his shoulder.
“Indeed.” Santa sighed as he began to make his way to the elevator with the Spirit floating at his side. “The sooner the better, if you ask me. With any luck, we can take care of business in the South Pole and be back here without too many folks noticing we’ve gone.” The large man paused before stepping onto the elevator and turned around. “I should be back later today, everyone! Keep up with the great work and help yourselves to lunch whenever you’d like—you know I trust you all to handle things around here.”
He was met with a chorus of agreement and farewells as the working elves wished him well on his way.
Santa Claus was demonstrating in perfect execution how easy it was for him to toe the line between the abundantly kind authority for an entire working community and the secret overseer of a yearly murder. The Spirit had never noticed the juxtaposition illustrated so obviously before him, and it sent a shiver down his ghostly spine. One would never think to call Santa unsettling, but there was no better word for it.
Once in the solitude of the elevator, the Spirit spoke again.
“How long do you think until we can be on our way?” he asked, moving from fidgeting with his hat to fidgeting with his thumbs.
“As soon as the Authority is ready to go,” Santa said with a firm nod. “I’ll obviously need you to stay prepared and stay nearby as we’ll need you to send everyone to the South Pole. And it is as I said, I am hoping we can handle this quickly. Maybe within a day of leaving.”
“That would be ideal,” the Spirit agreed, suddenly feeling entirely unprepared to be attached to this plan. When he’d first found the pair of brothers all those years ago and assigned them these new roles, the concept that one death for a year of magic and wonder to provide happiness for all the world felt like a noble and necessary sacrifice. Now, he was starting to feel a sensation of guilt in the pit of his stomach, and for the first time, he wondered if it was as necessary as he’d thought. The Spirit had seen with his own eyes that Krampus was not just a savage, bloodthirsty monster like Santa had assumed he was for all these years. And while he understood the importance of keeping the balance and Krampus’s role in all of that, he wondered if force was really the best avenue. What if there was another way?
But he kept his mouth shut. Santa Claus had to know what he was doing, and the Christmas Spirit was in no position to question the man’s long-standing position of authority. Still, though, the Spirit’s conscience hovered over his head like a dark cloud as he sat in and observed the meeting between Santa and the Authority. He stayed silent as they discussed how, if push came to shove, they could storm the castle. The Spirit never even spoke up when the Chief Bear Rider said they could be ready for departure in just a few days, as they were waiting for half their cavalry to return from a scouting mission, and he didn’t want to leave without full numbers considering the dire nature of the circumstances.
Full force… they were going to ride in with full force. It made the Spirit feel dizzy, as if he’d set something in motion so far out of his control, he’d thrown off the trajectory of the world.
Though his words continually failed him in the meeting, he did, however, thank Mrs. Claus profusely for the hospitality. Even though being a ghost meant he couldn’t fully enjoy the platter she had provided on such short notice, manners maketh the man. He even put on a good show for Santa, and as the Authority filed out of the cottage at the end of the meeting, the Spirit assured Santa Claus that he was ready for what was to come.
Even though he absolutely wasn’t.
19
HOLLY
I looked at myself in the mirror one last time and tucked a loose strand of blond hair behind my ear. Mister had come to find me earlier that day as Starlight and I were still in the kitchen enjoying each other’s company and deciding what exactly I should say to Krampus to let him know everything he needed to know without allowing myself to be too vulnerable. Of all the things he could have presented me with, the last thing I expected was a written invitation to dinner with Krampus—formal attire requested. He offered me a short bow before padding away with a quiet chuckle, leaving Starlight and me to stare at one another with an odd combination of awe and excitement.
“Formal attire requested?” Starlight said. “How fun! Forget the letter you’re writing, we gotta go and get you ready!”
She immediately began rocking out of the kitchen with more speed than I had seen from her so far, so I took the letter, folded it into fourths, and jammed it in my back pocket. Maybe it would come in handy, maybe it wouldn’t, but I certainly didn’t want to leave it lying around for any random toy’s eyes to come upon.
Starlight and I took our time sorting through my formal options, and I was surprised to find that I actually had options. Almost as surprised as I was to find that the green bedroom I’d picked that didn’t previously have a closet suddenly did. It must have been Krampus’s doing at some point, but I wasn’t sure when, considering I had spent every day beside him and every night sleeping in his room.
The process of picking out a dress and matching shoes gave me the same excited butterflies that I got on the night of my senior prom. There was something inherently magical about the ritual of dolling yourself up for something like this. On one hand, it was just dinner with Krampus—something that he and I had been doing together every night for over a week. On the other hand, it was dinner, with a capital D. Paper invitation dinner. Formal attire dinner. It was special, I was elated, and the weight of the paper folded in the back pocket of my now-discarded pants became substantially more bearable under these conditions.
We had settled on a sleek satin dress that hugged every curve and spilled over my body like a waterfall. It was emerald green and held up by spaghetti straps that hung daintily over my shoulders and showed off my slender neck and prominent collarbones. I had gone with a bold ruby lipstick to contrast against the green of the dress, and besides, I thought, it was the holiday season. Not wanting to go overboard, considering Krampus had really only seen me in casual wear and no makeup, I kept my eyes light—just some mascara and a thin flick of eyeliner on my upper lashes. I curled my hair in big, bouncy curls and gave Krampus a silent thanks for thinking of everything, including the curling iron.
“You look ravishing, darling,” Starlight assured me in a comically snooty voice as we both inspected the final result of our labors. “Krampus is going to be so blown away. You’ll have to tell me about it as soon as you have a free moment, which who knows when that’ll be.”
“I won’t forget about you, Star,” I said with a sideways smile as I looked down at her. “I promise. We’re real friends. You don’t have to worry.”
“I don’t, really.” She shook her head. “Worry, that is. I just get so excited I forget that everyone else has a life too, and not everyone lives to feed me the daily news and drama that I crave.”
I couldn’t help but smile. At least the rocking horse understood her own very minor character flaws, while I found them to be humorously endearing.
“I s’pose I’ll leave you to it, then,” she mused, tilting her head to the side. “You’ve only got a little while longer until he’s expecting you. You know where you’re going?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod. “Door behind the big tree.”
I was supposed to be meeting Krampus in the conservatory—a room I hadn’t explored yet. Starlight had been nice enough to give me directions, and I was almost certain I had seen the door when Krampus brought me out to the garden.