Page 9 of Scary & Bright

HOLLY

“Of all the possible ways that could have gone, I have to say this was not even kind of, sort of, what I expected!” Starlight exclaimed, rocking herself across the floor.

Adrenaline was still pumping through my veins. It felt like I had just stared down a bear and won against all odds. As much as I had wanted to retreat in the creature’s presence and make myself as small as possible under his intense gaze, something had told me to be still and stare back. I couldn’t explain my reaction, but there was something enchanting about the creature. Not in a whimsical, fantastic sort of way, but in a strange, darkly curious sort of way. As frightened as I was, I was also intrigued by the beast, by this opposition to all things jolly and joyous, and I was nearly certain I could put a name to the creature.

“Was that… Was he…” I stammered, still trying to make sense of what had just happened. “Krampus?”

I had seen illustrations of the creature in books and online. There had even been a fairly popular movie a few years ago. The folk tale of the demonic entity who would whip and torment misbehaving kids with birch rods was one that had been almost as prevalent as the image of Santa Claus—at least in some circles. He’d definitely had a bit of a resurgence in recent years. I’d even heard people say things like “Merry Krampus!” in jest to one another as a play on the standard holiday greeting. While I hadn’t initially believed in the magic of the North Pole and the reality of Santa Claus, seeing his opposite in all his dark and menacing glory made the situation come to perfect clarity.

“You’re pretty and smart!” Starlight chirped as she rocked underneath a massive wooden shelf. “But yes, who you just met was Krampus. The Krampus. And frankly, I have never seen him be so kind to a guest. Really took me by surprise!”

The horse reared back on her rockers and thudded against the stone wall underneath the shelf.

“Tuff!” she called up to the shelf. “Tuff! Wake up!” She thudded against the wall again with as much force as she could muster.

“That was him being kind?” I asked sarcastically as I watched the rocking horse in her endeavor. “If that was his version of kindness, I would hate to see him when he’s being cruel.”

“You really would, sister.” The horse snickered. “But let’s just take this one day at a time because this is truly uncharted territory we’re in.” She giggled again with a hint of nervousness. “Tuff, I swear on the glue that holds my mane in place. If you don’t get off that shelf and help me, I will… I’ll tear your other arm off with my teeth!”

I pulled my legs into my chest and refused to look directly at the dark red stains on the wall. As evident by Starlight’s awkward shift in tone, I wasn’t ignorant of how close I likely had been to adding my own blood to the decor. I wanted to ask more direct questions, but I was frightened to find out the answer. As it stood, I was alive, and how precious that was. If I was here because Krampus had to take care of the Naughty List, I could connect the dots well enough without outside confirmation. Starlight was right. The only thing to do was to take things one step at a time.

“I’m up, holy cripes!” a new voice shouted.

My eyes shot to the shelf above Starlight to what I could only identify as some sort of doll from where I sat.

“Keep your frickin’ rockers on and tell me what is so pressing that you need to act like some sort of wild animal,” it continued.

The doll stood up and stretched his arm over his head, and only then did I realize what type of toy he really was. I remembered seeing commercials for toys like him in my own childhood. He was a Stretch Armstrong-style toy, except he was styled like a luchador with a red and blue mask over his face. He moved to grab the side of the shelf with his one available arm and flung himself over, using the stretch of his arm to lower carefully to the ground. The toy wrestler had been very well loved—definitely too well loved. There were obvious busts in his rubber, and one arm was completely removed, with staples holding shut the damaged area to prevent the stretchy goo inside him from seeping out.

“You would already know what I needed if you didn’t lay up there like a corpse day in and day out,” Starlight scoffed as she caught her breath from all the rearing and yelling. “Krampus wants her brought to another room. One of her choosing, actually.” She tilted her head in my direction, guiding the wrestler’s gaze toward me. “So, I need you to go ahead and reach on up to unlock the door for her if you wouldn’t mind.”

The horse was doing a terrible job trying to disguise her confusion as happiness. I could tell she was doing her best not to make me any more panicked or worried than I already was, but she was a horrendous actress. My anxiety was already through the roof but watching her flail about as if nothing was wrong was only making things worse.

The wrestler looked at me with a deadpan stare and then looked back at Starlight for a moment before turning back to me. There wasn’t a flicker of emotion on his face, and I wondered if he was processing the information before making his opinion known.

“All I know is that I really wish I had been awake to see it with my own eyes,” the wrestler—Tuff, I understood his name to be—said with an understated chuckle. “I’m not much for the hoity-toity emotional gobbledygook, but to see that the old bastard might be turning over a new leaf might have brought a tear to my eye.” Tuff waddled his top-heavy body over to the door of my cell in the center of the barred wall. “Probably not, though.”

Tuff was an odd-looking specimen, his upper body comically oversized in a cartoony fashion, and the act of being alive and having to move his awkwardly proportioned body seemed to challenge him a bit more than I assumed he would ever admit.

“All right, Blondie, sounds like it’s your lucky day,” the stretchy wrestler said with a bounce in his voice as he stretched his one capable arm up toward the release mechanism on the cell door. “Let’s get you moved to somewhere a little more comfortable.”

They were the first words the wrestler spoke directly to me, and I knew he was trying to be polite, but I was still too shaken up to make small talk. Still, I forced myself to respond.

“Thanks,” I said softly, not wanting to appear ungrateful or rude in my nervousness. There was no way to know how long I would be here, and the last thing I wanted to do was make a terrible impression on the toys who were being kind to me, even in such strange circumstances.

Besides, I had a strong feeling that if I wanted more information about literally anything, it would behoove me to make something of an alliance with these two, along with any other toys who gave me the time of day. If these two were down here, I had to assume there were more upstairs. With any luck, they would be more similar to Tuff and Starlight rather than the intimidating hulking mass that was Krampus.

Even thinking his name sent a shiver down my spine.

“Don’t think twice about it,” Tuff said as the iron door swung open to the outside. “Just doing my job.” The wrestler extended his stretchy arm toward the stairs as he took a step back away from the door, offering me a clear path out of my prison. “After you, little lady.”

I took a deep breath and rose to my feet, steadying my shaking knees as I went. When faced with the choice of being stubborn and staying down here until my fate came to me or taking charge and meeting it head-on, the path was obvious. I wasn’t just going to let things happen to me. I had done too much of that in my life back home. A cycle of self-sabotage and stoic acceptance had done nothing for me except drive away everyone and everything I cared about. Krampus’s decision not to splatter me to pieces ignited something within me—something that wanted to fight rather than accept defeat.

“There you go, Holly!” Starlight cheered as I dusted myself off and vacated the cell. “Now Tuff’s gonna help you find a suitable spot upstairs.” She shot a sassy look at the wrestler, who looked less than enthusiastic about being volunteered to stick with me for longer than he had planned. “Aren’t you, Tuff?”

“You’re not coming?” I asked, recognizing a sliver of sadness in my own voice. I had known her for maybe an hour, and I already felt like we were friends. I had grown a sort of emotional attachment to the rocking horse as if she were my security blanket in this uncharted land.

“I’d like to. I just, uh…” She looked downward at her rockers for a moment before looking back up at me with a sad smile. “I’m not really made for stairs, it turns out. I’ve just been down here… hanging out with Tuff and anyone else who might decide to wander down to the basement.”