Knock knock!
I turned around from my bedroom door and looked right at the shadow in front of my window.
‘‘Siara?!’’
Relief overwhelmed me when I saw the feisty redhead waving at me. I opened the window and let my friend in. ‘‘Come, hurry!’’ I said, after which I closed it shut.
‘‘What’s up with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’’
I glanced outside before swiftly drawing the curtains. ‘‘Listen, something awful is happening. But before I say a word, try not to freak out!’’
She looked at me questioningly.
‘‘Someone’s out there! He’s trying to get me!’’
‘‘Oh, I see. You mean that Santa guy I saw snooping in the yard?’’
‘‘You’ve seen him?!’’
‘‘Yes, I have.’’ She gave me a naughty smirk. ‘‘Very interesting roleplay I must say.’’
‘‘Wait, you think that I’m…? No, it’s not like that, he’s trying to –’’
‘‘– Oh I know what he’s trying to. Tell me, where did you find this one?’’
‘‘There is nothing to tell! I mean, there is! But it is not what you think!’’
‘‘Well, if you’re not going to spill the tea, then let me. I just came back from church with my family, and guess what? Before the start of Midnight Mass, I made a personal visit to pastor Levi’s office. He got me to pray on my knees while handling his cross. Then he took me onto his desk and made me cry out the Lord’s name with so much devotion – dear heavens, I didn’t know I had it in me.’’
‘‘Siara, shut up!’’
‘‘Jeese, what has gotten into you? Was it something I said about the church? I thought you didn’t care about all that religious stuff anyways.’’
‘‘I don’t! Just listen for a moment!’’
Suddenly a loud bang came from the roof.
‘‘What was that?’’
‘‘Psst, be quiet!’’ I hissed.
‘‘Seriously, what is going on?!’’
‘‘I’ve been trying to tell you. That Santa you saw, he’s killed one of my neighbors – and now, he’s trying to kill me. He’ll probably come after you too as soon as he lays eyes on you. If he hasn’t already.’’
‘‘You’re kidding right? – Wait, why is there blood on your hands?’’
As I looked down at my hands, I saw that they were indeed smeared with red. Which must have been from when I touched the body of miss. Pawlowski. ‘‘Do you believe me now?’’ I said agitated. Then finally, Siara started to look worried.
‘‘Give me your phone so I can call 911,’’ I said.
‘‘I can’t, my battery died about an hour ago.’’
‘‘Fuck! As you know, my cell is broken, and he cut off the landline.’’
I got up and searched the drawers of my desk for my phone charger, but the only thing I found was my damaged device. When suddenly I remembered the present under the tree. If it really was a phone, I could place in my old SIM card.
‘‘Wait here,’’ I said. ‘‘I have to get something downstairs, but I’ll be back in a minute.’’
With buckling knees, I rushed down the stairs and back into the living room. I was filled with so much anxiety that when I got there, I had to take a moment to adjust.
What was I doing again? Right, the present!
In a hurry I ran to the tree and teared the gift wrapping from the small box. I sighed in relief when I saw it was indeed a new phone. But once I walked back past the coffee table, my euphoria quickly subsided.
I froze when I heard another loud bang coming from the roof. Then an awful rattling came from the fireplace, and a big pile of ash dropped down the chimney. I caught my breath while I was rooted to the spot with disbelief. I had seen the movie, but this wasn’t actually happening, was it? Good or evil, Santa did not exist!
The rattling became louder, followed by a sweeping sound, as if someone was sliding down – going faster and faster, until…
BAM!
The fireplace exploded and a wall of bricks collapsed into the room. Dark ash blew out of the passage and wrapped itself around a tall figure, until the screen of smoke subsided, and I saw him clearly standing in front of me.
I slowly backed away, dropping the box out of my hand, as I witnessed the humongous man stepping out of the fireplace. It was him – it really was him! Santa Claus did exist, and he looked exactly like Bill Goldberg! Or was it the other way around, and did Saint Nick pose as a WWE wrestler when he was not on his annual massacre? My head was spinning as I was starting to lose my mind, and I found it hard to stand up straight. I took a deep breath to keep myself from fainting – blinking my eyes a few times. But the image kept being the same.
‘‘Did you really think you could escape me, you little punk?’’ He smiled menacingly while his devilish eyes penetrated me.
He was not even a man, he was a giant. His seven-league boots could easily crush me as if I were Tom Thumb. Unless he would choose to strangle me first with his massive shovel hands. Dressed in his white fur trimmed red coat he looked nothing short of a polar bear, and the broad buckled belt almost seemed to have been made to restrain his magnificence from striking a man dead on sight. Never had I seen someone with so much hair, and I kept staring in amazement at the long white manes springing from all around his head.
I tried to say something, but I could only squeak. ‘‘What’s the matter, reindeer got ya tongue?’’ he hissed.
‘‘You killed miss. Pawlowski!’’
Santa, a.k.a. Goldberg, clapped his hands. ‘‘Real observant Sherlock Dipshit. And now I’m gonna kill you.’’
He came at me before I got a chance and seized me by the throat. Then he lifted me up as if I were nothing more but a rag doll. I grabbed on to his wrist, but it was no use. His grip was solid as steel. Which immediately answered my question as to how he was going to off me: strangling it was.
Tears welled in my eyes as I desperately tried to get loose. He laughed diabolically and squeezed my windpipe shut.
‘‘Let him go! – NOW!’’
Goldberg turned his head around to face Siara who had just entered the room. Then he threw me into the corner, where I smacked into the Christmas tree. The whole pine came down on me and I got trampled by a sea of branches. I tried to get up, but I was buried under the weight of the tree. Looking up I saw Siara confronting Goldberg with a baseball bat.
‘‘You silly little bitch, you think that is gonna stop me? Bring it on missy!’’
Siara screamed as she went in for the attack, lifting up the bat and aiming for Goldberg’s head. But as soon as she brought down the club, he caught it in the palm of his hand and ripped it out of hers. Then he broke it into two on his knee, as if it were just a silly twig. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked obviously scared.
Why was I still lying there? – there was no time to waste!
I pushed the pile of branches off me with all I got and scrambled to my feet. But before I could take a single step, I witnessed before my eyes how Goldberg made an unexpected turn. Within seconds he snatched the fire poker and rotated his body. Sticking the pointy steel right through Siara’s throat and nailing her up against the wall.
I screeched in horror.
Desperately I ran up to my friend, who was hanging there like a pinned butterfly. Blood gushed through her open mouth and the usual warmth of her amber colored eyes suddenly looked cold as ice. Eternally frozen in the shock that had hit her right before the poker went through. I could see that all the life had washed away from her face, but I refused to accept it. ‘‘Siara, please!’’ I cried. ‘‘Don’t you dare die on me!’’