Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Four

On a cold Christmas Eve night, high above a city whose name he didn't even know, Justin Flinchley was about to die.

He would have been lying if he'd said he didn't care. He had narrowly escaped death three times in the past week. He couldn't say he was thrilled at the prospect of dying anyway, after all that work. But at least like this, he got to choose how he died. More importantly, he knew that his death was serving a greater purpose.

I'm trusting in you, Santa, he thought. Just like everyone keeps telling me to.

Krampus loomed in front of him, arms spread like he wanted to embrace Justin.

There's only one thing I want for Christmas.

Justin tried to activate the death ray in his nose, but his antlers stayed discouragingly dark.

And that's for Lucas to live to see it—and a hundred more Christmases after it!

Knowing he was a fool—Lena was probably cursing nonstop back where he had left her—Justin balled his fist and drew it back. Krampus simply hovered in place, not the least bit intimidated, the space between him and Justin shrinking more and more by the second.

Wait for it…not yet…NOW!

Just as he came within arm's reach, Justin threw his fist forward with all the strength he could muster, aiming for the nightmarish cluster of skin, muscle, and bone that was Krampus’ face.

Krampus vanished.

Justin reacted without thinking, shooting off to his left and spinning around. Sure enough, Krampus’ hand lashed out at the spot where he had just been, claws mere inches from slicing his gut open.

What would Lena do in this situation? he thought, backpedaling wildly in midair. The answer to that was obvious: she wouldn't have been stupid enough to wind up in this mess in the first place. What about Willow? She'd probably run, but I can't do that. What about…

What would Lucas do?

“A reindeer with claws?” he found himself saying. “That's just wrong!”

A ball of purple light appeared as Krampus charged his shadowbeam, lighting up the inside of his hood again.

“Just one of many, many things wrong with you,” he quipped, the words coming out of his mouth unbidden.

He dropped a few feet just as the shadowbeam fired. It passed above him, lowering the nearby temperature instead of raising it. With his heart beating in his throat, Justin shot back upwards and closed the distance between himself and Krampus again as quickly he could, raising his fist for another punch.

Is that how you think this is going to work? his cynical side demanded. You're going to beat the lord of darkness, master of shadows, punisher of mankind's sins…BY PUNCHING HIM IN THE FACE?

Justin threw the punch anyway. This time, Krampus didn't dodge. He simply caught Justin's fist, then closed his own fist around it. Justin couldn't help but squirm at his touch. He was as cold as a corpse, and parts of his hand were moving that shouldn't have, like there were maggots writhing just beneath his rotten skin.

“I know who you are.” Krampus’ voice made Justin flinch. It was like a pair of half-frozen worms slithering into his ears. “So, the lightless one has come to challenge me?”

Now would be a really good time for my nose to start shooting lasers! he thought desperately.

But nothing came out of his nose except frightened breaths.

“I had plans for you, boy,” Krampus went on. “You were so close to succumbing to the darkness. Can you imagine the great and terrible things we could have accomplished together if you had just let go of that worthless little light?”

“I don’t want anything to do with you!” Justin forced himself to say, and then kicked out at Krampus, his hoof sinking a little too deep into his stomach.

Krampus took the kick without flinching, and then whirled around in midair, slinging Justin across the city. Justin fought to regain control, slowly coming to a stop on the outskirts of town—and then Krampus appeared out of nowhere before him. Justin tried to get out of the way, but the dark one’s claws were too quick, and Justin felt pain flare across his face. Warm blood soaked his fur, steaming in the cold air.

“You can’t lie to me,” Krampus hissed. “The darkness in your heart. The sins you have committed. They speak to me more clearly than you ever could.”

Justin flew at him, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. What else could he do, though? His goal had never been to win this fight. Just to keep Krampus distracted for as long as Santa needed to heal Lucas.

“Every secret you keep, every wicked desire you push down into the bowels of your heart.” Krampus moved leisurely out of Justin’s way, and his fist struck only open air. “I know you better than you know yourself…Justin Flinchley.”

Krampus knows my name, Krampus knows my name, KRAMPUS KNOWS MY NAME!

Suddenly Krampus was less than a foot in front of Justin, his rotting stench invading the young buck’s nose.

“I know what you were thinking when you looked at that pretty young doe earlier,” he crooned. Justin could almost feel the knowing grin hidden beneath that hood. “I know what exactly what you were yearning for. Primal. Animalistic. But was it truly wrong?”

“Don’t you talk about Willow!” Justin yelled, his temper flaring. Without thinking, he backed away, shifted into his four-legged form, and leveled his head. Then he rushed back at Krampus as fast as he could!

Again, Krampus didn’t so much as flinch as Justin’s antlers pierced him straight through the chest. Thick, foul smelling blood—or what Justin desperately hoped was blood—gushed from the wounds, coating Justin’s head like tar. Shifting back, he cried out in disgust and ripped his antlers free—only for Krampus to grab hold of one, immobilizing him.

“These desires are only natural,” he said. “Who was it that told you such things are wrong? Why do they get to draw the line between morality and immorality?”

“Get…off!!” Justin yelled, shaking his head from side to side, but Krampus’ grip was like iron.

“Is nature wrong for being nature? Is the wolf evil for hunting and eating its prey? Is the rabbit immoral for its instinct to breed? Darkness and light only have what meaning you give them, Justin.”

Again, Krampus spun around, hurling Justin away. This time, Justin flew downwards, and wasn’t able to stop himself before he struck the ground. He bounced one, twice, then went skidding and rolling down the street until he crashed into a nearby store window. It shattered, sending knifelike shards of glass slicing through his skin all across his body. Justin collided with a posing mannequin, and finally came to rest as pain exploded from a hundred different places in his body at once.

Somehow, Krampus was already there waiting for him.

“Why deny yourself the things you know you want, Justin?” he demanded.

Justin blinked, his vision blurry, and realized that Krampus was holding a hand out toward him.

“Forget about good, forget about evil,” he said in an almost comforting voice. “I will let you pursue your desires with the passion they deserve!”

“No!” Justin yelled. Grabbing the mannequin, he sprang back to his hooves and threw it at Krampus.

Krampus caught it with one hand, setting it down next to him as if he were merely putting it back where it belonged.

“You can’t tempt me!” Justin shouted, pointing accusingly at the wicked thing. “I know what you’re trying to do. You want to extinguish the Light and make a world where everyone is miserable and hopeless!”

“Justin, Justin, Justin,” Krampus said, shaking his head. “Don’t you realize what a infinitesimal minority you are? You may have chosen not to succumb to misery, but the rest of the world has.”

He thrust his hand into the mannequin’s chest. Darkness began to course across its painted wooden body. Cracks appeared, and thorny vines sprouted from them, wrapping themselves around its limbs and torso. It jerked, spasmed, and then turned to limp toward Justin in a gruesome mockery of life.

“You speak of misery and hopelessness as though they were bad things,” Krampus went on, watching his puppet close in on the young reindeer. “You couldn’t be more wrong. They are mankind’s natural state.”

The mannequin raised one arm wrapped in thorny vines and swung it at Justin. He dodged it easily. The dummy was clearly just a distraction to keep Justin busy while Krampus told his lies. Justin was fine with that. As long as Krampus kept his focus on Justin and not Santa…

“Darkness is the natural state of everything! Look at the sky if you want proof! What is the sun but a speck of dust in the endless, incomprehensible vastness that is the universe? And when that feeble spark of light sets, what does it leave behind? Blackness! Darkness! Emptiness!”

Justin rose a couple feet into the air, backing away, and then shooting toward the mannequin hooves-first. He rammed into it, his rock-hard feet not caring about the thorns that protruded from it, and the two of them went flying across the store until they crashed into the far wall.

Will it ever occur to the owners, he couldn’t help but wonder, that their shop was trashed by one of Santa’s reindeer?

The mannequin fell stiffly to the ground, but promptly began to pick itself up again.

“Hope, joy, and light,” Krampus spat from the other side of the store. “They’re like drugs for the soul. Pleasant, but addicting. And when they run out, you realize that you don’t know how to cope without them!”

Justin backed away to rush the mannequin a second time, but it surprised him by moving faster than he thought it could. It lunged, wrapping its arms around him, and he cried out in pain when it drove its inch-long thorns into his flesh.

“By spreading his light, Santa is only enabling this addiction. I am freeing humanity of it! Rehabilitating it! Returning it to what nature intended!”

Justin tried not to listen as he fought to break free, but Krampus’ voice almost seemed to be speaking directly into his heart.

The mannequin was too strong. No matter what Justin did, its arms remained wrapped around him, his own arms pinned to his sides. Given no other choice, he took to the air again. Then he leveled himself out, his back to the floor…

And then he shot straight up into the ceiling.

Pain wracked his body as he struck the solid metal surface. The thorns were driven even deeper inside him. But more importantly, he felt the mannequin’s grip loosen a little. Falling back down, he caught himself before he hit the floor, and then launched himself back up into the ceiling again, then again, and again!

The third time, the mannequin finally shattered. As it fell to the floor in pieces, Justin frantically pulled the thorns out of him. Even more blood began to pour from his body.

I can’t keep this up for much longer, he thought, the pain almost causing him to fall out of the air. Santa, please…hurry!

“Nature is never wrong, Justin Flinchley,” Krampus said, gliding over to him. “And misery is nature. People wouldn’t choose it time and time again, set themselves up for it, force it onto others, if it weren’t true.”

“You’re wrong!” Justin shot back.

Krampus held out his hands, palms up. “If Santa and I were to both disappear tonight, and the world were to be left to its own devices, which side do you think would prevail?”

Justin balled his fist and threw a feeble punch. Again, Krampus caught his fist, and then hurled him back out into the street. Justin crashed into a car that was parked on the side of the road. For a moment he was worried it would set off the alarm and wake everyone up to see Santa hovering above the town.

You’ve got bigger things to worry about, he told himself. Still, the fact that it remained silent was a small—albeit short lived—relief.

“Would mankind rally to one another?” Krampus demanded, following Justin outside. “Would the strong begin protecting the weak? Would the rich begin providing for the poor? Would those in power rewrite laws that benefited them while driving the common folk to despair?”

Justin struggled to his hooves. He was so close to passing out that he could barely keep his eyes open.

Just…a little…longer!

“Would they cast aside every selfish goal, forget every prejudice, forgive every grudge? Stop lying to yourself, Justin! The darkness in humanity can not be defeated!”

He stopped a few feet away from Justin and raised his clawed hand in offering again.

“The darkness in humanity,” he declared, “is humanity!”

Justin just stood there, gasping for breath. This was it. The end. He could barely stand, much less keep this hopeless charade going any longer.

“So why fight at all? Join me, Justin. Let the light be extinguished. Force humanity to embrace the world as it truly is. No more hope, only suffering! No more joy, only despair!”

“No more Christmas,” Justin whispered.

“It’s for the best. Just as a mother must eventually take her baby from the safety of its crib, so too must we tear away the facade of comfort that Christmas has instilled in people.”

Justin looked up. Santa’s sleigh still floated above the city, a beacon of light a thousand feet high.

“Do you really believe that Santa Claus,” Krampus growled, “is the paragon of goodness that he claims to be? What have they told you about me?”

Justin looked back at him. “W- What?”

Krampus’s hand clenched into a fist. “Where does Santa Claus come from? Do you know? Do you think that he’s some kind of god, existing forever in a state of eternal youth?”

“I…I don’t,” Just shook his head. “Whatever you’re about to say, it’s a lie!”

“The man in that sleigh,” Krampus snarled, “is not Santa Claus! He is nothing but a vessel! A shell for it to wear!”

“SHUT UP!”

“He is not the first Santa Claus, just as I am not the first Krampus!”

Justin stepped backwards in shock.

“Do you know what happened to the last Krampus?” the creature asked. “Is that a story the Council of Eight allows to be told? I can see by the look in your eye that it is not.”

Don’t listen to him! Everything he says is a lie!

“They wouldn’t want anyone to know about their greatest embarrassment. They weren’t always called the Council of Eight, you know. Once upon a time…”

“Stop talking!” Justin yelled

“...they were known as the Council of Nine!”

Justin took another step back. He desperately wanted to fly away, but he didn’t have the strength. How much blood had he lost? Too much.

“They would never allow anyone to know about him.”

Justin took another step, and his legs finally buckled underneath him. He collapsed to the pavement with a grunt.

“So many names. The one who fell. The lost brother. The lightless one.”

He reached down, and there was nothing Justin could do to resist as he wrapped his cold hand around Justin’s neck and lifted him up off the ground.

“Ask them about the one Santa left behind,” he growled. “The one Santa Claus betrayed!”

“I don’t…believe you,” Justin forced himself to say.

“Ask them how I came to look like this!”

Krampus swept off his hood, exposing the hideous, disfigured mass of flesh that lay beneath to the cold night air. Justin fought to keep from vomiting just from looking at it. He glared at Justin for a few seconds…but then what remained of his lips curled back into a cruel, wicked smile.

“But I’m letting myself be dramatic again,” he said. “You aren’t going back, Justin Flinchley. Either you’re going to join me, let the light inside you fade, and become my gateway to Val Luminara…”

“Never!” Justin snapped.

“...or you will die, here and now! What is your choice?”

His grip around Justin’s throat tightened, and Justin had to force his words out.

“Did…I…freaking…stutter?”

The grin fell from Krampus’ face. “Is that your final decision, then?”

“Just get it over with, you dollar store Halloween decoration!”

Krampus sighed, shaking his head. “And here I had hoped you would make this easy for me. Is there any way I can make you change your mind?”

“Not in a—”

“Perhaps by killing your friends?”

“HOLD ON, JUSTIN! WE’RE COMING!”

Justin froze, his eyes widening in horror. Two shadows shot above them, one carrying the other. The smaller shadow dropped from the larger one, and Lena came plummeting down toward the street. Her staff gleamed in the night, and she spun it as she fell, aiming a killing blow directly at—

Krampus waved his hand disinterestedly, and a pillar of shadowy vines burst out of the ground. Before Lena could react, they had her ensnared, wrapping her up in their dark, writhing lengths until only her face was visible.

“No!” Justin yelled. “Let her go!”

“Lena!” Willow yelled.

The doe swooped down out of the night sky. A second deluge of vines sprang from the ground, but she deftly dodged around them. But instead of going to Lena’s rescue…

No, Justin thought.

…she went straight for Krampus.

Willow was going at top speed, but her reflexes were as sharp as ever. As she came within arm’s reach, she grabbed Krampus by one of his thin, skeletal antlers—and abruptly came to a stop when Krampus didn’t budge an inch.

Willow cried out in pain, the sudden halt nearly dislocating her arm, and she fell to the ground. Immediately, more veins appeared, mummifying her as well.

“Now, I will ask again,” Krampus said to Justin. “Will you join me?”

“Let them go!” Justin yelled back.

“Only if you say yes! You are my key to ending all of this long, pointless war, and I won’t let the opportunity slip through my fingers! Now, will you join me?”

“Don’t…you…dare!” Willow gasped as the vines snaked around her cervine form.

“You don’t have to join me willingly, Justin,” Krampus growled. “There are other ways I can extinguish your light. Such as…”

He waved a hand, and thorns began to grow from the vines, starting at the base and moving further up, closer to his friends.

“How long can you watch your friends suffer?” Krampus asked. “How long can you allow them to squirm, and squeal, and writhe in pain before that little pinprick of light goes out, whether you want it to or not?”

“Be strong, Justin!” Lena yelled, almost inaudible behind the layer of vines. “Don’t give in!”

“You’re mine one way or another, Justin Flinchley! The only choice you get to make is whether your friends live or die tonight!”

Again, his grip on Justin’s throat tightened. Justin began to feel light headed. His head lolled back until he was staring up at the sky. Just like Krampus had said, it was vast, endless, and completely black. The stars were just microscopic specks of dust in an eternal sea of darkness. He knew that, scientifically, each star was massive beyond comprehension. But compared to the yawning abyss that was the universe, they were nothing.

And yet, said a voice in his head, there they are.

Justin’s eyes opened a little wider. Both of those statements were true. They were nothing in comparison to the vast darkness of the cosmos. And yet, they continued to burn, sending their light quadrillions of miles to brighten this Christmas Eve night. And that meant…

“You’re right,” he croaked.

Krampus loosened his grip and held Justin closer. “What did you say?”

“I said you’re right. Darkness is the universe’s true nature. Just like misery is mankind’s.”

“Justin!” Willow gasped in horror.

“No matter what we do, people will never stop killing, stealing, and destroying. It’s what comes naturally to them. I should know, I used to be one.”

“Yessss,” Krampus hissed in pleasure, the grin stretching across his face again.

“But that doesn’t matter.”

The grin vanished.

“Look at the stars!” Justin whispered, turning his eyes skyward again. “It doesn’t matter how deep the darkness is, because even the weakest light will always be able to pierce it! That’s what we’re fighting for! Every reindeer who flies for Santa Claus…every elf who builds toys in his factories…we’re stars, each and every one of us! Surrounded by darkness, maybe even crushed by it, but we keep shining anyway!”

“I will make the stars go out!” Krampus snarled.

Somehow, Justin found the strength to laugh at that. “You can’t! You can kill and torture as many of us as you want, but there will always be more! With every gift we deliver, we make the light in a child’s heart shine a little brighter. There’s something special about a child’s light, isn’t there? It’s purer than a grownup’s. It hasn’t been tainted by the hatred and disappointment of the real world. And that’s the kind of light that burns you the most, isn’t it?”

Krampus didn’t respond.

“My answer is no!” Justin declared. “I will never help you destroy Santa, Val Luminara, or Christmas! Do whatever you want! My light will shine to burn away your darkness until the very end!”

He leaned in close, until his face was almost touching Krampus’.

“Merry Christmas!”

Suddenly, Krampus dropped Justin to the ground, his eyes widening in agony as he held his hands against his face. He stumbled backwards, and a scream that would haunt Justin’s nightmares tore from his throat. Justin stared at him in disbelief. He almost thought he could see thin trails of smoke rising from the fallen reindeer’s skin between his fingers.

“I’LL KILL YOU!” Krampus howled, throwing his hood back over his face. “I’LL KILL YOU, I’LL KILL YOU, I’LL KILL YOOOUUUU!”

With a monumental effort, Justin managed to get back on his hooves. The dark light appeared again beneath Krampus’ hood. Justin stood steadfast, facing off against the evil creature. He looked at Lena, then at Willow. The fight was over. He had done all he could. Now he had to put his trust in Santa, and face the end like…

Like a reindeer.

“DIIIIIEEEEE!” Krampus shrieked, and the shadowbeam shot from his snout. Justin closed his eyes and waited for death.

“Justin!”

Justin felt a gust of wind as something moved in front of him, followed by a cry of pain. His eyes shot open, and he gasped when he was greeted by the last thing in the world he expected to see.

Tornado.

His fur was frozen almost solid, and what little skin Justin could see was blue with frostbite. Fresh cuts and scratches crisscrossed his entire body. One of his antlers was missing entirely. If Justin didn’t know better, he would have sworn that Tornado had gone through Val Luminara’s portal of his own volition, fought his way past the Yule Cat, and then flown all the way across the ocean to get here, just to…

The larger buck fell against him, nearly knocking Justin over again. His breath was coming out in ragged gasps, his eyes bulging with pain.

“Tornado!” Justin exclaimed. “What are you…What did you just…”

He sank to his knees. Justin looked at his back, and gasped in horror when he saw what Krampus had done. The shadowbeam had punched a hole straight through Tornado’s clothes. Ice and frost crystalized on the frayed edges. And beneath that…

It was almost as horrible to look at as Krampus’ face.

“Had to get here,” Tornado gasped. “Had to help. Had to…make things…right.”

“You flew all the way here alone,” Justin asked in disbelief, “for me?”

“I’m sorry!” the buck said, his breathing becoming more ragged. “I’m sorry for everything! You’re…not lightless. You never were! I was…such an idiot!”

“It’s okay,” Justin said, looking up at Santa’s sleigh. Could he carry Tornado up there too? Even if Tornado weren’t so heavy, Justin wasn’t sure he had the energy to fly anywhere. “I already forgave you, Tornado! Now hold on, I’m going to—”

Tornado grabbed him by the collar. “I wish…I hadn’t been…so stupid. Wish…we could have…been…”

Then the larger buck collapsed in the street and died.

“Thank you, Tornado,” Justin whispered. Looking at the bully’s…no, at his friend’s prone, lifeless form, he felt tears begin to well up in his eyes.

Then he looked up. Krampus was still standing at the end of the street, though he looked just as surprised by Tornado’s sacrifice as Justin. The vines still writhed and twisted, Lena and Willow trapped within them. Santa’s sleigh remained steadfast in the sky.

And on the eastern horizon, a light appeared.

“Looks like you took too long,” Justin said, glancing toward it. “The sun is coming up.”

Krampus growled and retreated a single step. “This isn’t over. I’ll return to Mantombra, but you know I’ll be back again next year! The world is drowning in darkness! One more Christmas won’t make a difference! Enjoy it, Justin Flinchley, because next year I will destroy you and Santa Claus once and—”

Justin crossed the distance between them in a flash.

“—for…uh…” Krampus stammered, his eyes widening.

“It’s Christmas morning,” Justin whispered.

His antlers began to glow with blue light.

“And I got you a present.”

Justin still didn’t know how his new powers worked. But somehow, he managed to channel every speck of energy his body had left into this attack. A beam of blue light shot out of his face, and straight into Krampus’. The beast screamed, his voice echoing nightmarishly up into the rapidly brightening sky. Justin grabbed him by his robe, keeping him in place as he poured more magic, more power, more light directly into his face! Smoke rose from beneath his hood. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. Justin paid it no attention. He needed more power! More, and more, and more and more and more and more!

Then a sharp pain exploded in his back, and Justin fell to his knees. Krampus stumbled away, bent over double, his hands pressed against his face. What it must look like now, Justin didn’t want to imagine.

A lone straggele appeared from behind Justin, the tips of its horns stained with his blood. The savage little creature looked like it desperately wanted to finish him off, but its master was clearly the bigger priority.

“I’LL SEE YOU AGAIN, JUSTIN FLINCHLEY!” Krampus wailed as he was led away into the shadows, not to be seen again until next Christmas. “YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!”

Justin couldn’t bring himself to care. He couldn’t bring himself to think. He couldn’t bring himself to do, or feel, anything. He was empty. Every last ounce of his energy had gone into that attack, leaving him nothing but a husk, an empty shell.

He was vaguely aware of the vines disintegrating behind him, freeing Willow and Lena. Good. That was good, even if he couldn’t quite piece together why it was good right now.

You knew you weren’t coming back from this, the voice whispered in his head.

“Justin!” Lena called, running to his side. “Justin!”

Two figures appeared by his side. He didn’t recognize them—couldn’t even make out their faces. But somehow he was glad they were there, all the same.

“Merry…Christmas…” he whispered one last time.

And then the final gasp of breath passed between his lips, and Justin Flinchley died.