Book Two, Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

If Lucas hadn’t known better, he would have thought that Charlie must have been the real Santa Claus. That was the only explanation he could think of as to how a bubble seemed to form around the stage the moment his voice rang out through the mall. While the chaos of Black Friday continued all around them, nobody came within twenty feet of the little white picket fence that had been set up around them.

Nobody except the line of children.

It was like watching the Red Sea part so that the Israelites could cross…except, the “sea” was made of rabid, bloodthirsty shoppers, and they didn’t “part” so much as go a few steps out of their way not to trample the kids.

“Joyce,” said Charlie, a twinkle in his eye. “You know what to do.”

“Yes, sir!” Grinning, Joyce snapped her grandpa a salute, then ran to the front of the stage where a little white gate had been erected.

Their first customer was a little girl, not even three years old. She was wearing a festive red dress, and an elaborately tied bow held back her curly blonde hair. As soon as Joyce drew near, she started jumping up and down, pointing.

“Mama!” she squealed. “Thee Thatha! Thee Thatha, Mama!”

“Yes, sweetie, you’re going to go see Santa!” her mother agreed.

Joyce produced a scroll and unrolled it. “Name, please?”

“Mawggin!” said the little girl.

“Morgan?” Joyce took a moment to study the scroll. “Morgan…ah, here we are! Santa knew you’d be coming, Morgan, so he put you on his list of super special visitors. See?”

She turned the scroll toward the girl for a moment and pointed, though as far as Lucas could tell, there were nothing but lines of looping scribbles drawn across the entire thing.

“Thee Thatha!” Morgan demanded.

“Right this way, Morgan!” Joyce opened the gate and let her step inside. “Oooh, Balderdash!”

She turned to Lucas, and the reindeer looked up in surprise.

Did she just call me Balderdash?

“Over here, Balderdash,” she said again, grinning when she saw the look on his face.

Lucas stamped his hoof and snorted, but trotted over anyway. Balderdash my fuzzy butt! Just when I was starting to like her.

His irritation lessened somewhat when Morgan’s eyes widened at the sight of him. She looked at her mother, then back at him, and pointed excitedly. “Waindee! Mama, Thatha waindee!”

“Do you want to ride Santa’s reindeer?” Joyce asked.

“Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!”

Lucas gave Joyce a sharp look. It was an unwritten rule in Val Luminara that nobody could ride a reindeer without asking their permission first. It was a matter of respect, and showing the reindeer that they were more than beasts of burden. The relationship between a deer and their Rider was special, and not something either of them took lightly. He knew it wasn’t realistic for Joyce to know about that, but still. She hadn’t even asked if he was okay with letting these kids ride around on his back, pulling his fur, yanking his ears, drooling on his…

He looked at Morgan, saw the excitement in her eyes at the prospect of riding on a real, live reindeer, and before he knew what he was doing he had knelt down to let Joyce put her on his back.

The little girl giggled as Joyce picked her up and set her gently on Lucas. She couldn’t have weighed thirty pounds. After three years of pulling Santa’s sleigh, he barely noticed. Being careful not to let her fall off, he stood up…

And Morgan promptly grabbed his ears and gave them a mighty pulllll!

“Wheeeee!” she cheered as he sauntered across the stage. Charlie beamed when they reached his chair, and he plucked her off Lucas’ back and sat down with her in his lap.

“Can you say thank you, Balderdash?” he asked.

“Ankyoo, Bawadaaa!” Morgan burbled.

Lucas rolled his eyes and backed away, eyeing the rest of the kids. The line was only getting longer. His heart sank into his stomach at the thought of every single one of those little snot goblins pulling on his ears the way Morgan had.

They’re going to stretch them until I look like some kind of mutant jackalope, he thought. Assuming they don’t rip them off entirely!

“I’m so glad you came to see me today, Morgan!” Charlie said. “Have you been a good girl this year?”

“Uh huh!” Morgan answered, nodding her head energetically. “I wakkadawg!”

“You walked the dog?” Charlie asked, astonished. “Did you do that all by yourself?”

“No, Mama hepped. Den I ate alllllll my brocky, Thatha!”

Charlie nodded sagely. “I see! You must be a very good girl if you ate all your broccoli! Well then, what do you want for Christmas?”

Morgan’s face lit up again. “I wanna heckopper!”

“Oh, a helicopter? I love helicopters! If I didn’t have my flying reindeer, like Balderdash here…”

Lucas snorted.

“…I would fly a helicopter everywhere! Can you imagine that? Santa Claus in a big ol helicopter?”

Apparently, Morgan could imagine it, and the thought sent her into a fit of giggles.

“What kind of helicopter do you want?” he asked once she managed to settle down.

“A pintheth heckopper!”

“A princess helicopter? What’s a princess helicopter?”

This man must be psychic, Lucas thought. I can’t understand a single freaking word this kid is saying!

“PINK!” she yelled, the world’s biggest smile spreading across her face.

“A pink princess helicopter? Hmm,” Charlie put a hand to his chin. “I’ll have to check with my elves to see if that’s something they can do. Moriah?”

“On it, boss!” Moryta called, giving him a thumbs up. “I already sent a letter to the boys back home.”

“Well, Morgan,” Charlie went on, “how about we take a picture? Does that sound like fun?”

Morgan nodded, and Charlie pointed at the camera, where Joyce was already lining up the shot.

“Then give us your biggest, prettiest smile, and say jingle bells!”

“JIBBUH BEZZZZ!” Morgan yelled at the top of her lungs.

The camera flashed, and Lucas stepped forward to give Morgan a ride back to her mother. Charlie raised her up, and he cringed, already imagining what she would do this—

Morgan reached out and gave him an affectionate pat on the forehead. “Ankyoo, Bawadaaa! Luffyoo!”

Curse my soft heart, Lucas thought, and licked her hand. Morgan yanked it back with a shriek of laughter.

“I think he’s saying he loves you too, Morgan!” Charlie laughed as well. “Bye, now! Be good, and I’ll see you again real soon on Christmas Eve, okay?”

“Otaayyyyy, Thatha!”

Lucas managed to deliver Morgan back to her mother without getting his ears ripped off. The little girl waved goodbye—she was probably waving at “Santa,” but Lucas let himself think it was for him—and she and her mother were promptly carried away by the raging river of Black Friday customers.

Lucas couldn’t help but feel a touch of emotion as he watched them go. He tried to pretend otherwise, but he had a soft spot for kids. It was a side effect of spending so much time in Laetitia. There was nothing more pure—more full of Light—than a little boy or girl who was excited for Christmas. He glanced over his shoulder at Charlie, who was taking a drink of water from a bottle he had hidden behind his chair. No, he wasn’t Santa Claus. Not even close. But he had found his own way to spread the joy of Christmas to the children in his community, and that made him every bit as important as the big man up north himself. Lucas smiled…then quickly stopped smiling when he realized it made him look like he was baring his teeth…and stepped over to where Joyce was preparing for their next customer.

There are more ways to fight Krampus than rap battling shadow demons, he thought. I can do what I can here, and make these kids’ lights shine even brighter than they ever have before!

“Good job, Balderdash, Joyce laughed, and gave him a wink. “One down!”

They turned, and Lucas’ ears drooped when he saw how long the line had gotten. At first it had only been about twenty or so kids, but now it stretched all the way across the food court, through the doors, and into the parking lot.

And they hadn’t even been open five minutes.

“About seven hundred more to go!”

————

Justin…

Willow couldn’t stop herself from reaching out and touching his face, letting her fingers run through the fur on his cheek. He was lying on his back in the bed Charlie had given him. Nearly his entire torso was covered in bandages, but his breathing was coming more easily than it had last night. He looked like he was just taking a much needed nap, and could wake up at any moment. Perhaps he would wake up if Willow were to poke or shake him. As much as she longed to see his eyes open and hear his voice, though, she contended herself with dabbing lightly at his forehead with a wet cloth. He had been running a low fever for the past few hours. Nothing serious—far less than he would be suffering if it weren’t for Santa’s badge—and the water did little to help, but she had promised to take care of him to the absolute best of her ability. She still would have done that even if she hadn’t promised. What else could she do?

“I love you,” she whispered into his ear.

When had it happened? She’d known that she had feelings for him for months now, and had known what he felt for her even longer. At first she had been shocked. They’d barely known each other for a month at that point, but it was obvious that he had fallen in love with her the moment he’d woken up in the hospital on Christmas day. She supposed she couldn’t blame him for that. Those had to have been the hardest weeks of his life. Ripped away from the world he’d always known, transformed into a monster against his will, only to be accused of a crime he couldn’t even begin to comprehend and made an outcast in what should have been the happiest place on Earth. Was it any wonder that he had fallen in love with the first doe who had shown him the slightest hint of kindness?

At first she had planned to let him down as gently as she could. She valued his friendship, but she didn’t feel that way about him. But every time she had tried to tell him, something had stopped her. Maybe it was guilt. Maybe it was some kind of premonition. Maybe it was simply the magic that permeated everything in Laetitia stopping her from making a terrible decision. Whatever the case, the words had always seemed to evaporate off her tongue when she needed them.

And so it had gone for months, with Justin thinking he was hiding his feelings, and Willow’s guilt gnawing at her for leading him on. They saw each other constantly, and each time they parted Willow would swear to herself that she would tell him next time. But then the next time would come, the hours would fly by, and before she knew it they would be saying their goodbyes, and she would once again swear that she would tell him next time.

And then, eventually, she had simply…stopped telling herself that.

She could still pinpoint the moment she’d first realized that things had changed. It had been in July. They didn’t celebrate Independence Day in Val Luminara, but they still leapt at any chance to throw a party. There had been a huge cookout in Aurora Square that had lasted the entire day, followed by fireworks when the sun went down. It had just been the two of them. Lucas and Tanraak had decided to do something stupid, like try to catch a firework before it exploded, and Lena had gone to visit her family. Willow and Justin had gone out to the outskirts of Laetitia and sat down in a tree to watch the show. Sitting side by side on that giant evergreen bough, at some point during the night—Val Luminaran celebrations could go on for hours, or even days—she had felt Justin’s hand touch hers. She had jumped a little, thinking that Justin had finally overcome his nerves and was going to confess how he felt to her. But when she looked at him, she’d realized that he was too transfixed by the fireworks to even notice that their hands were touching. He didn’t pull away, but neither did he move any closer, and…

And the disappointment had struck Willow like an arrow to the heart.

Her pulse had quickened, both in excitement and in fear. All she wanted was to wrap her fingers around his, and feel him do the same to her. Her breathing had started coming in shallow gulps. She’d felt dizzy, and had nearly fallen right out of the tree. When, exactly, it had happened, she didn’t know. But at that moment, there wasn’t a shadow of doubt in her heart.

She loved Justin, just as he loved her.

After that had come the worst few months of her life. She wanted to confess to him just as much as he wanted to confess to her. But she didn’t. For reasons she couldn’t quite explain, not even to herself, doing that felt wrong to her. Justin had fallen in love with her first. He had been struggling to find the courage to tell her for over half a year. This was a battle he needed to fight, and win, on his own. And when he did, she would be waiting, ready to begin their new life together.

Silly? Perhaps. But strange things happened in Val Luminara, and sometimes it was better not to question them.

I love you.

What was going to happen now that he had finally said those words? Would they get married? That seemed like a huge step to take all at once, but these were huge emotions they were both feeling. Could they even continue living their lives the way they had before, now that this was all out in the open? No. Things were never going to be the same. That much was obvious. But did that mean that everything in their lives was going to change? Were they going to—

No.

Willow forced herself to stop those thoughts in their tracks. All she was going to do dwelling on things like that was stress herself out. There would be plenty of time to figure things out once Justin woke up and Mari Lwyd was dealt with. Then they could return home to Val Luminara, and—

Justin sat upright in the bed with a gasp.

“Yeep!” Willow exclaimed, recoiling in surprise. Justin turned to look at her with wide, frightened eyes.

“W- Willow?” he asked. His chest was heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

“Justin!” She was back by his side in an instant. “Are you all right? You need to lay back—”

He grabbed her by the arm, the terror on his face growing deeper by the second. “Where is everybody else?”

“You were hurt,” she answered, her heart beginning to race again, but for entirely different reasons now. “I stayed to take care of you, but…”

“The others, Willow! Where are they?”

“Vixen and Lena went to look for clues about where Mari Lwyd is going to go next,” she said, her words tumbling over each other in their haste to get out of her mouth. “Lucas, Tanraak, and Moryta all went to help Charlie and Joyce with their mall Santa thing.”

“We need to get to them!” Justin swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. “We have to warn—”

He gasped in pain, and his legs gave out under his weight. He would have collapsed in a heap on the floor if Willow hadn’t been there to catch him.

“Justin, you can’t be out of bed!” she yelled, pushing him back onto the mattress as gently as she could. “Didn’t you hear me? You were hurt! You nearly died!”

Justin blinked. “I…I what?”

“Tell me what’s going on,” she said, sitting back down across from him.

He looked at her, then paused when a flicker of a memory danced behind his eyes for a moment. “Willow, did…did I…”

Despite the scare he’d given her, Willow couldn’t help but smile a little. She reached out, taking his hand. “Yes, you told me. And I love you too.”

He squeezed her hand, a look of disbelief on his face—but then he shook his head.

“We can worry about that later,” he said, the urgency coming back into his voice. “If I can’t go myself, then you’ll have to tell them yourself!”

“Tell them what?”

Justin looked around the room, and his eyes fell on the remains of the jacket that Mari Lwyd had shredded the night before.

“That Mari Lwyd is coming.”

————

15 Joyful Orchard Road.

Mari Lwyd read the little yellow sticky note for what must have been the thousandth time. Then she read it again.

15 Joyful Orchard Road.

She hadn’t noticed the tiny scrap of paper stuck to her claw until she had already fled those wretched reindeer. Now, hidden from the sun’s wrath in an old styrofoam cooler that had been discarded by a muddy riverside, her remaining eye flicked back and forth as she read it again, and again, and again, and again…

It belonged to that reindeer. The one who had taken her other eye. Mari Lwyd’s gaseous body churned inside her skull. Nobody but Vixen, or one of Vixen’s vile spawn, would stoop low enough to gouge somebody’s eye out. The eye would grow back, given enough time, but the pain had been tremendous. She hadn’t felt pain that intense since the last time she had been banished from this world, and at least then the pain had been fleeting since she’d been completely burned away a moment later. This time the pain lingered.

And it made her furious.

15 Joyful Orchard Road.

She didn’t know what was at 15 Joyful Orchard Road. A house, ostensibly, but what use would a reindeer have for a house here in the human world? Whatever the case, it was obviously important to him. Important enough for him to have the address written down and kept on his person so that he wouldn’t forget it.

Well, what goes around comes around. Mari Lwyd would make that reindeer pay for the suffering he had caused her. And she would start at the address that he had so graciously provided for her.

15 Joyful Orchard Road.

15 Joyful Orchard Road.

15 Joyful Orchard Road.