The good bad reason. A Christmas inspired short story

Waking up to a loud crash rarely means something good is happening. 

I quickly climbed out of bed and grabbed the baseball bat standing next to the door. 

“Come on Max” I said to the dog that was still sleeping at the end of my bed. 

He peeked at me with one eye open, waiting.

“I don’t want to do this alone” I added and he jumped straight off and followed me. 

We took the stairs step by step and we tried to make almost no noise. More strange sounds come from the living room, cabins opening and closing, things crashing to the floor, the fridge opening and closing or at least I think it is the fridge. I open the door and quickly turn the lights on. 

” Who’s there!? ” I screamed . 

“I got a baseball bat and a big mad dog and I’m not afraid to use them.” I quickly added. 

“ho-ho-ho wait a second, you don’t want to end up on the naughty list do you?” he replied.

“Santa!?” I asked confused. 

“That’s me,” Santa said blissfully.

“But why are you breaking in and eating all my food?” I questioned him, still confused about what was going on. 

Why is he even here? I thought

“Put the baseball bat down and I’ll explain everything, it’s quite a funny story” he said joyfully. 

“Fine, but it better be a really good story for me to wake up at 3AM in the morning like this” I stated bluntly , throwing my hands around the room that has been ravaged. 

He grabbed his glass of milk and sat on the sofa and gestured to me to do the same, instead I sat on the opposite chair with Max by my feet, who was watching his every move. 

“Well, it is like this” he said and took another sip of his milk 

“Me and Mrs Santa got into a little fight and told me to get out of her face, I went to the sled and went for a drive that ended upon your roof, apparently couple of the reindeers took her side and went back and took the sled with them. So now I’m stuck here and I need your help to get back” He stated chuckling. 

“Woah woah woah… Wait a minute, how do you think that I can get you back there?” I demanded. 

” Well I heard you can do stuff other people can’t” he responded matter-of-factly. 

“Perhaps that’s true but why would I help you? ” I asked curiously. 

“So you don’t end up on the naughty list.”

“Well you really should update your list then.” 

“How so? It is up to date,” he informed me. 

“Well look again” I told him honestly while scratching Max’s ears. 

He grabbed his phone( yes a phone because it is the 21st century) , opened his special Santa app and went to the naughty list 

“It might take a while, have to scroll all the way to Section G. Aahh found it, G… GI.. Oh, oh my, you are right. It says it right here Gisele.” he said looking rather surprised.

“What did you do? Did you use dark magic again Gisele?” he added questionably. 

“How do you know I have magical powers , you might be Santa but even the Easter bunny doesn’t know about that ” I stated sarcastically. 

“To be honest, I know because I’m not stranded here by accident. I do need your help but I lied about what” Santa confessed.

” Wait , what? You lied? I thought Santa couldn’t lie” I questioned, astonished. 

“Yes well, hard times need hard measures. The bottom line is, the very North pole needs your magic touch” Santa said dreadfully. 

“So what does the very north pole need my help with then?” I asked curiously 

“And how do you think that we are getting there? Don’t think your four legged friends are still here ” I added. 

Santa looked at me miserable and said ” yes they have indeed left, about that I didn’t lie to you. So how we are getting there , that’s completely up to you. And the problem? I’ll explain once we arrive.” 

“Hmm okay , I’ll think of something. let me get my grimoire ” I responded. 

“Your what?” Santa asked very curiously. 

“My Grimoire, let me get it and I’ll explain what it is” I answered him politely. I got up and Max automatically jumped up intending to follow me. 

“Max stay , I will be right back.” The dog complied and sat back down and stared at Santa while I continued into the next room, it was already laying upon the desk, waiting.

 I grabbed the Grimoire and walked back. “thanks” I muttered softly to whoever placed it there. 

“So this is my Grimoire, they all can look different but mine is this big black leather bound book ” I told Santa who looked quite interested in my story so I continued. 

” It contains spells, recipes and all other kinds of things that I find useful. It is very old , it belonged to my great great great grandma. Don’t tell the Easter bunny or Mrs Santa about this book. I’m already on the naughty list so I wont feel bad about putting a little curse on you if you do tell someone ” I said giggling trying to let him know it was a joke ( sort of).

“So how is this gonna take us to the very north pole?” Santa asked. 

“I don’t know yet, let me find it in here, ” I said, opening the grimoire. Page by page I search for the one thing that could possibly help us. However, what that might be , I have no idea , the page will tell me when it reveals itself. 

Suddenly one of it’s pages is warm , hot even. “That must be it,” I thought . “

 Portals’ ‘ It read and I said it out loud so Santa could hear me too.

 “Portals ?” He questioned. 

“Yes it seems so, it says here I have to focus on where I need to go and say this line 3 times’ ‘ I explained to him pointing towards the page. 

“Well what are you waiting for?” he asked me joyfully. 

“Just give me a second to focus,” I said and closed my eyes. 

“The very North Pole ” I thought a couple of times. 

“Light ways reach the realms of dimensions, provide me passage to which I seek.” I repeated it three times in a row. 

A small purple swirling dot appeared in my kitchen, growing larger and larger by the second until it’s big enough to fit 3.

“Woah..” Santa said surprised 

“yeah, but let’s go fast. I don’t know how long I can hold it, ” I said anxiously.

 “after you ” Santa said unsure.

“No after you, I’ll have to go last otherwise it will close again. Come Max , we’re going” I said to my dog and then to Santa. 

He jumped up and walked in like it was nothing, Santa quickly followed and I entered last. The temperature dropped quickly and I regretted immediately that I didn’t think of bringing my winter coat. “It’s not far from here, Follow me!” Santa said, strolling up ahead of me and Max. I looked up, and thousands of swirling auroral lights lit up the sky. Purple, green , pink and blue there was so much to look at, it was truly magical, the Northern lights.

We walked for a couple of minutes. Along the way we passed some Polar bears, who seemed to be waving at us, but that couldn’t be right. Must  have been a mind trick because polar bears don’t waive to people. Right? Some arctic foxes started to stroll besides us , chasing Max for a while, trying to make him play along. That is until they lost interest in us and hurried away. After what seemed a half an hour Santa suddenly said “We are here! Please understand that it is a mess, the elfs are chaotic right now” He opened the door and let me past him

“What the H…” before I could finish he spoke again. 

“I told you, I need your help. The whole system is crashing , the elves can’t keep up. Like this we won’t be ready for Christmas in a few days!” Santa said miserably. 

“But who did this? ” I asked him curiously 

“My evil brother did, Krampus. ” he stated miserably.

“Hmm okay , I’ll try to find something in my Grimoire , maybe I can try something.” 

Suddenly something in the corner of my eyes caught my attention. There was a creature, lurking behind one of Santa’s machines. Eating away the wires that connected one and other. He glanced up, stared me directly in the eyes. When he rose up, he became 5 times bigger than he was just seconds before. He resembled Santa but his face was just more mis-formed, not human-like at all. 

“Stop what you’re doing! I won’t let you ruin Christmas !” I yelled at the beast. He laughed and took a step forward. “I’m not letting you get through with this! Leave Now!!” I yelled, not sounding very convincing. 

The sound of little footsteps rushing my way caught my attention and I looked around. Thousands upon thousands little elves came to my aid.

 Looking ready for a fight. One was even holding a little fire torch. The beast took a step back, there was a hint of fright in his eyes. Unsure of what the little creatures before me could do, before I could even say a word, they marched forward. Towards the beast before us. 

One by one they jumping up at him, clawing, biting and kicking at Krampus. The one with the fire torch was at his feet, slowly burning it’s toes. Krampus got all the elves off of him and started running towards the nearest window and jumped out. Much to my amazement , the scattered window mended itself, however the machine stayed utterly broken. 

“You gave the elves the courage to fight!” Santa said amazed

“But I didn’t do anything?

“You stood up against the beast, and they apparently felt the need to stand up against it too” Santa said smiling.

The elves started to yell in excitement but upon seeing the machine broken killed their joy swiftly. 

“Can you do anything?” Santa asked carefully. “I might?” I replied, opening the Grimoire on the nearest table. 

Something magically strange  happened. Out of nowhere it seemed that the book had a mind of its own and it rushed itself to the page I needed. 

“Oh a healing spell, that might work” I said to no one in particular. I looked up and I saw that the couple of hundred elves now stood in front of me wearing green and red overalls staring at me with their round faces with toylike eyes and pointy ears.

 “Okay, I might have a solution” I say out loud to them all.

 “Yeaah ” they all cheered in unison. 

“I said , I might. I can’t promise anything” I told them politely and began to focus and chant the final words.

“Heal on the outside, heal within , let the healing power begin. Make the clock reverse, Save what has been lost, heal on the outside, heal within, heal  like it was in the beginning.” Yellow light began to shine, swirling in and out of the machine. Surrounding it completely until you couldn’t see it anymore. 

The yellow bursted into a thousand shining pieces, dancing around us like beautiful confetti. It was strange, nothing psychically had changed from the machine. 

 “Uhm try it again?” I asked doubtfully. 

“Well you heard her, go and try it” Santa ordered his little helpers. They all sat to work, turning every switch on that would make it work again. Dreadful sounds came from it, cracking and whining. 

With even smoke coming from one end.

 “I don’t think it worked,” Santa said in agony.

 “Maybe just wait?” I stated somewhat hopeful. 

“Maybe it just needs to work out the bad before it can do the good?” I quickly added. 

More smoke, crackling and popping sounds came from the machine, until it suddenly stopped.

 “Check again Santa, just turn it off and on again” I demanded. Without a word from Santa, his little helpers sat to work. Turning every switch off and then every single one on again.

There must have been at least a hundred buttons!

 The machine gave one last little puff of smoke and started to work magically again. 

“You did it Gisele!, You did it!. ” Mrs Claus said joyfully

 “It’s a good thing I sent Mr Clause away to find some help. He didn’t want to go to you, because he is THE Santa Clause and doesn’t need help, well see you did need her!” she added joyfully

I saw that the cheeks of Mr Claus started to turn red and said to his wife 

“Yes darling you were right” and let out a deep sigh. 

“Consider yourself off the naughty list forever Gisele” he added towards me.

“Oh, Woah , thank you Santa. You can just do that? Even if I do some black magic now and then?” I asked him curiously. 

“Yes, I can and even then, Only if you don’t use it on other People” he said strictly-fully. 

“yeah of course thanks Santa, it was nice meeting you Mrs Clause” I said thankfully. 

“Do you want to get a ride back in the sleigh? ” Santa asked joyfully again. 

“I think the reindeer would be delighted to do you this honor, after all You saved Christmas this year.” 

“Yeah that would be so awesome, never been flying. Could we do the long version of the way back?” I asked hopeful. 

He looked at Mrs Clause , who gave him a little nod and the elves all chanted ” YES!”  

Santa looked at me with his twinkling eyes 

“Of course we can!”

The end