Krampusnacht: Twelve Nights of Krampus Read Online Free Page A

have a real toy store you need real magic.” He gestures at the hole. “This is mine.”
    I take a step to the side. The trees crowd together, shuffling subtly so there’s no way through. Real magic is real.
    “You’ll have to remove the costume,” Payne says. “It’s an antique, and quite infused with certain… properties. I don’t want it to burn with you.”
    “So that’s it?” Still stalling. “Krampus is sacrificed?”
    “Take. It. Off.”
    The jolly has come off the Saint Nick. I dawdle as I undo the wooden toggles. I talk quietly.
    “If I’d thrown the kid in, then what?”
    Payne takes a step or two closer to me. “You’d have been part of the team. Part of the family.”
    I bend down to undo the strap on the hoof and step out of it. I’m feeling the cold now.
    “He didn’t do it, did he?” The voice is high-pitched and comes from behind Payne. Lennox. She’s here, no doubt, to watch the grand finale.
    I wonder if Lennox has played Krampus. I wonder if she sacrificed a child to earn her place on the team.
    Gwendolyn steps through the trees behind her. Her eyes are rimmed red and she’s sniffling. At least someone feels bad about my imminent demise.
    “Gwen,” I say. “Please, you can stop this.”
    She shakes her head. Her expression is hard. “I thought you were meaner. I thought you would do it. Do you know what you’ve given up?”
    I stare at her. I’ve always thought she was the most beautiful woman, but it’s like I’m seeing her for the first time.
    She scowls. “You actually became Krampus. That power you had, that strength. It could have been yours forever. I could have been yours.” She turns her head away and two perfect tears roll down her cheeks.
    I’m still trying to process the idea that Gwen was looking to bone a monster when Payne speaks to me for the last time. “Guess she was wrong.” He shrugs. “Oh well.”
    When he makes his move, I’m ready. He rushes me, hands out in front, aiming a classic shove straight at my chest. I’ve watched him for a long time, though. You have to watch a guy when you’re in love with his daughter. He’s top-heavy. I’m channeling all the Kung Fu movies I’ve ever watched as I grab his red velvet coat and pivot. Instead of moving me, his force carries him around me and forward. I let go just in time for him to pitch into the hole.
    A gout of flame spouts up around him, towering ten feet into the air and plunging back down again like a frisky burning porpoise.
    On some level, I must be aware of what Lennox is going to do. I step out of the way as she rushes me and she plunges into the hole after her rotten boss.
    I figure it’s done: two human sacrifices for one.
    Gwendolyn surprises me. One moment she’s walking toward me, arms outstretched. I’ve been so in the habit of thinking of her as a gentle, almost fragile beauty that I imagine she only wants to collapse in my arms and thank me. For what, I don’t know. The end of the story? Some kind of happily ever after? I just killed her dad, but he was an evil wizard. Thanks for a job well done, then.
    I walk into her embrace.
    Her hands are around my throat and she’s choking the crap out of me. Her grip is surprisingly strong. I struggle to push her hands away, but the best I can do is throw my weight backward and take her off balance. The world goes dark and we fall straight toward the hole and this is not what I wanted, not at all.
    We hit the ground hard. Real snow poofs out from under us. We’re in the circle of rocks, but the hell hole is gone. Gwendolyn is out cold.
    I stand up and dust snow off the costume. I look down at Gwendolyn, at her perfect red lips and her white skin, the white trim on her costume, and for the first time I see that red glow, the same one I saw around the bad kids. She has it. Some people don’t grow out of it, I guess.
    This is clarity, I realize. Whatever this night has done to me, it’s given me something I never had: a way to evaluate