Flying over the needlessly long driveway, she immediately went for the front door, leaving her sleigh to fall into the snow as she carried Dagon towards the wood, banging heavily against it.

She waited for a moment, but if no one was going to open soon, she was not above throwing a stone through one of the windows if she had to.

Had the minutes already passed? Shouldn’t the wife be looking for her unconscious husband at some point? Especially after there had been multiple, nay, even many shots earlier?

Oh, what was she thinking? These people were so hopelessly oblivious she could…

Something moved at the door, and Shida didn’t wait a nanosecond before barging right through it, nearly shoving the older lady behind it to the ground as she forced her way through, carrying Dagon over to one of the larger couches in the large living room and carefully putting him down.

“What in blazes is going on!” the woman shouted before she got a full view of the unconscious man, her face turning ghost white. In a step back she snatched a cross decoration from the mantle and held it close to her chest in fear, “What act of the devil did you just bring into my house!” she panicked before starting to recite chants and prayers.

“He was attacked,” Shida snapped back at her and contemplated only for a moment if she could be of any help at all, before deciding that she wasn’t, and thus beginning to try and get rid of her. “Your husband, too. Last I checked, he was unconscious in the shed. You should probably go check on him while I try to stabilize Dagon. Do you have any first aid stuff anywhere?”

While waiting for an answer, Shida began to abuse one of the many ornate blankets that were strewn around different pieces of furniture in the room, ripping it into pieces to stop at least some of the bleeding from the many cuts on the man’s body.

“I knew that man was part of something sinful… I just knew it.” The woman sneered as she backed away towards the front door, keeping the cross between her and the whole scene. As she left to presumably attend to her husband there was a flash of translucent long fingered hands covering her eyes.

Oh, he best be thankful that Shida had her hands full here…

“He was attacked, you insufferable hag!” she still yelled after the old woman, not willing to let her off completely without a fight. “And your Christmas is pagan anyways!”

Then she focussed back on patching up Dagon’s injuries to the best of her ability.

“It’s… all… lies…” Said the minute air escaping the lips of the otherwise unconscious Dagon, “Lies… and… pretty… curtains…”

“Yeah, something’s not right here, buddy,” Shida confirmed to him as she made another tight nod around his arms. “But you gotta save your strength here.”

Once she had “bandaged” him up as good as she could, she tested the crown again. However, there was nothing to be done with her bare hands. Maybe some of the tools they had in the shed - But with the crazed mother still on the loose, she couldn’t leave him alone for that long while she searched.

“Just wait one moment,” she therefore announced, as she quickly sprinted away towards the basement, hoping that Mary may have woken up in the meantime. And even if she hadn’t at this point, Shida was becoming an expert at dealing with magical nonsense.

Sitting in a corner with her journal still pressed to her chest. She looked rather small, almost childlike in nature. Her expression was unreadable, but there was a sense of life. As her form resumed to dump a stream of sparkles that blackened and disappeared. As Shida approached, the woman hid her face in her knees.

“What do you want from me now?” she asked, although her voice wasn’t bitter or combative, just asking the question.

Basically flying down the stairs while constantly keeping an ear out for anything happening in the house, Shida quickly approached her.

“Okay, I know you’re not having the best day of your life right now, but Mary, I’m going to need you to pull yourself together;” Shida said, already in the process of pulling her to her feet. “Dagon and your dad were attacked. Dagon’s badly hurt and your mother’s completely off her rocker. I can’t leave him alone while she’s running around the place doing who knows what, but one of us has to try and get some tool from the shed so we can remove that darn chain around his head before it causes serious damage, alright? So, please, try to remember why you said ‘yes’ when he proposed and look after him for just a few minutes.”

“...I said ‘yes’ because it’s not what my parents would’ve wanted.” Mary initially replied, seeming to not fully emotionally connect with Shida’s words, “But he’s here because of me. So yeah, I’ll help him. It’s the right thing to do. And he doesn’t deserve this.” she reasoned before making her way up the stairs.

Great, so apparently, she was always a terrible person. At least she seemed to be starting to realize it now.

Hurrying after her, Shida led her to where here fiance was laid out, watching out for Mary’s shocked reaction to his general state for a second, before hurrying towards the door again to try and look for any sort for means she could find inside that shed to get that darned crown off the man’s head.

There was shock in Mary’s face from the unexpected ‘theater’ of his condition, but it was second to regret, and anger. But she did as she was directed and looked after the man, not saying a word.

As Shida neared the shed she could hear the rather loud conversation.

“-for crying out loud honey! What did we expect letting her go off to that college!? You and I both know the crap that they teach people! Exactly the satanic crap she went through as a kid! All that discipline, for nothing! And now she’s brought it back home to us and this town!” The mother’s voice ranted, “I really thought she was coming back to us with that Bell fella, but I guess not! I can’t believe this, I really can’t.”

“...Maybe hun… maybe we were too hard on her. She was never the same after you threw that journal in the fireplace-” the haggard father spoke as if he was pushing through a lot of pain.

“You didn’t see the things she was writing in it, Frank! Sinful, horrible things! It was for her own good! And I was right, she fell in line as soon we peeled her out of her room! Until she left and came back with that- that- city boy! I don’t know what we’re going to do with her! She’s not going back, that’s for sure! She’s going to move back in with us, and we’re gonna take her bright and early to the church every morning to pray for her soul!” the woman argued resolutely.

“...Hun…” the man grunted, “We should just let her be. She’s all grown now.”

“No. I’ve made up my mind. We’re going to call her stupid company, have her resign, sell her car and make her right again!”

Throwing all subtlety to the wind, Shida kicked the door open at full force, causing it to loudly crash against the garage wall as she stepped inside with echoing steps, immediately walking past the sorry excuse for a human being that stared back at her with shock as she skulked over towards what looked like tool storage at the wall.

“Hey old man,” she announced, only acknowledging Mr. Light’s existence as she moved around. “You ‘got a bolt-cutter or anything like that? We need to get that chain off of Dagon’s head before it cuts off his circulation or something like that, but it sits firm as a bunker, so we need to cut it.”

While waiting for an answer, she already began to browse through the tools that she could see, seeing if she couldn’t find it already before being told where to look.

“Keep quiet Frank.” the woman ordered coldly, keeping her back to Shida.

Frank held a slightly dirtied rag to his head, his eyes locked to whatever stare his wife was giving him. However as he maintained eye contact, something snapped. Faster than anyone previously, the sparkles suddenly pouring off of him blackened and he stood, leaving his fading afterimage sitting on the stool.

“Yeah right on the back wall rack here.” he pointed out as he hurried over to a pair of heavy duty bolt cutters, “You go ahead and hold those for me.” he picked it off the rack and held them out to the young woman.

“Frank!” the woman snapped like a venomous snake.

But the man ignored her and grabbed a battery dremel with a metal cutting bit.

“Gon’ need this in case the bolt cutters are too bulky. Safer for the boy’s head too.” he added before moving out of the shop towards the house.

As she passed her again, Shida gave the lady of the house a sharp “Don’t make me threaten you with the weapon I am very obviously holding” look, as she hurried after him. Out of all of the nonsense she had heard around here, this one wasn’t even worth her time.

As she stepped outside, she very briefly paused.

“Doodle? You alright?” she yelled out into the empty looking yard, peeking around for a hint of the previously injured elf.

“Some gingerbread and cocoa ‘n I’ll be good as new boss…” his wheezing voice came from the outside corner of the shop, sitting up against it he otherwise just watched the snowflakes fall, “Maybe…” he then uttered in an uncertain whisper.

“Well, I would be more thankful if you weren’t supposedly immortal,” Shida said as she moved towards him, reorganizing the items she was carrying underneath her arm so she had one free hand to pick the tiny figure up. “But don’t think I don’t still appreciate the save. Now come on, let’s get you inside. If a crashing escape pod couldn’t put you down, what are some bullets going to do?”

Carefully, she hoisted the very light elf from the ground, semi-carrying him but mostly helping him to stand and come along with her. “I think there should be some ginger-stuff left from earlier.”

“I don’t know boss… bullets aren't my real problem.” he mutters as he steps forward sloppily, “ Remember I’m only immortal when there’s Christmas spirit, and right now… I’m not feeling much of it…” he admits as he snapped his fingers, only presenting a miniscule spark like a dying lighter, “Maybe boss… I just sit down for a bit? Watch the snowfall? That’s pretty Christmas-sy…right? Maybe… boss… Maybe I… Maybe I… Maybe it’s time to just… let go of Christmas…” Doodle’s form briefly faded from existence, becoming noncomporal for long enough to slump to his side on the ground.

Staring his eyes up at the cloudy night sky full of descending flakes, the scent of peppermint released as tears broke free.

“Sorry boss, if that horrible lady is who Christmas is for… I don’t want to be any part of it”

Shida stopped, going to her knees next to the elf.

“And what? You’re just going to let her have it?” she asked glumly, pushing her worry far into the back of her mind as she looked at him. “Just give up on it all and leave it to the lunatics? I mean, don’t get me wrong, it would definitely be easier. Just saying ‘screw it all’, leaving it to ruin itself while we get out of dodge. But then what happens? Do we just leave any good thing to bad people just because they besmirch it with their deeds. Just leave them to hurt more and more people like Mary, like Chak, like us, while letting them justify it to themselves with their twisted logic because nobody’s opposing it? Because, while the same may not be true for me, I know that you do love Christmas. Maybe not the enslaving magic or the crazy schemes, but all the other stuff for sure. Never had the impression that you were faking it. And so what, you want to give all that up because a few people decide to justify their own awfulness with it? What about the others? Nobody can enjoy gingerbread anymore because crazy Ms. Light is also baking some? Nobody can decorate a tree with their family anymore because that’s also what some bad people do? From the start, I wasn’t ever out to ruin anyone’s Christmas here, I think I made that much clear. I just wanted people to see reason. And honestly, if all the good people dip out and just leave Christmas or whatever to the loonies, then who does that really help? Because, you’re losing a good thing, and those people will still be as terrible as they ever were, only now, they’ll feel justified. They’ll feel like they won. So you know what? I’ve made up my mind. I say, I AM going to save Christmas…and I’m going to do it for real. But I won’t tell you what to do any more, Doodle. After such a long life, if you think your time has come, well, who am I to tell you otherwise? If you just want to slip away, I understand that. However, as long as I’m still stuck in this costume, I think you still have some juice left in you as well - but only if you want it.”

Doodle remained staring up at the sky, his body fading and solidifying like the surface of gently disturbed water. It was unclear if he was even listening to Shida’s words, but as she finished, he closed his eyes.

“That… was the worst Santa speech I’ve ever heard… But… a pretty dang good one for a cool boss.” Placing his hand down in the snow, he snapped his fingers. Nothing. Narrowing his eyes he snapped them again.

Launching up from the snow was a candy cane. As in a literal cane, made of candy. Holding on to the top handle the upward force pulled Doodle up to his knees. Then, even as his body still faded in and out he pulled himself up with great effort on his part, using the cane for its intended purpose. Clenching his teeth and still feeling the pain of several bullet wounds he stood up.

“Okay, boss… I’m part of your problem… and a lot of people’s problems… ‘least I can do is try to fix it.” His bared teeth into a pained smile, “Maybe I’ll hang up the jingle hat when this is over, that still sounds nice… but it ain’t-” He reached his hand out to Shida for help to walk again- “-over yet. I wanna see what happens.”

Shida firmly held him upright, appreciatively nodding down at him as she helped him limp along towards the house.

“You just want to see if any “Ms. Claus” shenanigans are going to happen, don’t you?” she carefully joked at him as they slowly approached the front door together.

“I heard what you said to Chak…” he nodded in jesting affirmation, “Clearly, someone’s gonna have to be there to hold the camera.”

Sighing, Shida replied,

“Just this once, I’ll let you have that.”

Then she brought the elf all the way into the house. Making a quick detour to the kitchen, just as she had hoped, some of the earlier baking escapades of the psycho outside were still around, even if they had not been stuffed into metal cans. Popping one of them open, Shida hoped that the strange magic would work its wonders now, even despite Doodle’s apathetic feelings.

“I’ll be right back,” she said, sitting him down at the table and leaning his tiny crutch against a leg of the chair. “Call if you need anything.”

And with that, she hurried back over to assist with freeing Dagon.

-

In a steady fast pace Zithra crunched through the snow as an increasingly tired Chak rode on his back.

“I swear we weren’t this far out…” Zithra mutters, becoming increasingly paranoid.

“W-what’s that?” Chak asked as she snapped back from nearly falling asleep.

“Just taking longer than expected.” the Manarian replied before he began to run a bit faster, “Hey uhhh, thanks for what you did in that horror-show. Seriously, what you did was stupid, but I’m glad you did it.” he admits.

“Oh you’re welcome… honestly I thought I made Shida very upset with me when we came back out. As it turns out, quite the opposite.” Chak softly laughed.

“Nice, you now back in the seventies I-” Zithra started to respond before he heart a low chuffing grunt to his far left.

He slowed only a little in an attempt to get a line of sight of what made the noise. But before he could, another chuff sounded out to his other side. This time he saw a massive dark blur moving between the trees.

No… he saw several.

“Shit. Hold on.” the Manarian uttered before he pressed into a dead sprint, causing the tired Chak to nearly lose her grip on the man’s neck.

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“What is it now!?” she squealed in fear and frustration.

“I’m not keen to find out!” Zithra countered before putting all of his focus in bolting in the direction he knew the house should have been.

Despite not being in his more agile form, he was a man who knew how to sprint through the roughest of terrain.

More and more grunts and sharp low pitched whistling echoed all around them.

Chak pulled out her pistol and took shots at the large blurs that now ran parallel to them. Trees exploded and snow perfumed the crisp air as her shots narrowly missed the undefined persueres.

“Come on, come on! Where is it!?” Zithra snapped as he couldn’t make out where the house should be. There were just more trees, more snow blanketed foliage, and the descending snowflakes fogged the line of sight past a certain point.

Did he go the wrong way? No, that’s impossible. His sense of direction was impeccably refined, even with his muffled hearing he had a firm grasp of their original location. Whatever was going on, it’s more of this Christmas magic bullshit.

Chak fired again and again into the trees, hoping to at least keep them at bay long enough to escape this forest of building dread.

Then suddenly, a clearing. Expecting to see a driveway, the Princess looked forward in hope only to be crushed by confusion. It was a clearing alright, but a completely barren one.

Zithra had no choice but to keep running ahead into the open expanse of undisturbed white.

Looking back, the Princess watched the treeline with her pistol drawn. With her other hand she risked falling off the man carrying her to pull up her phone.

It refused to even turn on.

A loud call vibrated the air as three, five, eight dark quadrupedal blurs came charging out after them. With the lack of trees and blanket of snow contrasting the silhouettes much more sharply, the forms of eight ghastly reindeer pursued the two in undead wrathful vengeance.

Chak lifted her pistol again now that her line of sight was improved, but her vision betrayed her as senses and voices not of her own came intruding in.

“Dasher… Dancer… Prancer… Vixen…”

“And if you ever saw it…”

“Comet… Cupid… Donner…. Blitzen…”

“As they shouted out with glee…”

“With your nose so bright…”

“You’ll go down in-”

“Snap out of it! Quit that humming and shoot!” Zithra’s voice shattered into her mind.

Shaking her head Chak grit her teeth and readjusted herself.

“They want me.” she replied before taking a shot that glanced one of the legs of Comet, causing it to topple over in a harsh tumbling roll.

But before she could shoot at another, Zithra came to a staggering halt.

Before him, stood a giant hunched figure, face obscured by gray hair and long curving horns. It’s then the two realized that they weren't being hunted, they were corralled.

Slowly, Zithra lowered the Cali back to the ground so that he could access his bow.

“What do you want!?” he snarled as the shadow-deer formed around in a caging circle.

-Released-

Lifting both of its stretched hands, Krampus summoned blackening snowflakes that resembled toxic ash. In a controlled spiral of tight wind two portals spark to life. One of Earth in a different season, where an abandoned lighthouse stood. Zithra knew of it well.

The other was a bedroom, where Chak witnessed her fiance sleeping with their children next to her.

“If you’d think we’d trust anything you offered, think again.” Zithra responded, readying an arrow.

“Even if this was genuine, what about Shida!?” Chak demanded.

Krampus' sickly yellow eyes pierce through the darkness of its hidden face.

-Remains-

“Then I’m not going.” Chak said before shooting without hesitation at the horned creature.

In the blast, a tree explodes. The environment around them now shifted back into the forest.

“Nothing but tricks…” Chak reiterated bitterly, confident in her action.

Zithra placed his bow back and looked around for more potential dangers. Instead he sighed in relief. Pointing out he directed the Princess’s gaze to the illumination of the overly decorated house.

“Come on.” he said, picking her up once more.

Amping himself up he hurried for the last stretch, never being more thankful to feel cement under his feet. Slowing to a trot up the entrance steps he could hear someone throwing a violent fit in the shop behind the home. The clattering of tools and devices being casted around in rage.

Not sure if that should be a good or bad sign, he decided to take the gamble and try rapidly knocking on the front door.

“Shida? You in there?” He called out, nearly out of breath, “We had another incident, but we’re okay.”

It took a few moments, and some hushed voices on the inside were mumbling to each other first, but finally, someone came to the door.

“What’s the codeword?” Shida yelled back out at them, her voice sounding hesitant.

“Sharra.” the Manarian replied, remembering the hashed out agreement, hoping he recalled the proper name, “Now yours, before Chak gives hers.”

“I serve on the U.H.S.D.F. ‘A place in the Sun’. Also called ‘The Sun’ for short,” Shida replied through the door, and there was a bit of a grounding sound that sounded like something being removed from the wood slowly.

“Mizar.” Chak quickly followed, “The photo she’s in still makes Simone chuckle out loud.”

“Oh thank goodness,” Shida mumbled from the other side of the door, before locks were audibly opened and the wood moved aside.

Before the two arriving could even react, Shida was upon them in a wild whirlwind, prodding and inspecting them all over for damages and injuries. Zithra just about managed to set Chak down during the check up, and it ended in Shida pulling her into a tight embrace for a moment.

“I swear to the first ones, if you two are copies somehow, I will make you regret the day that you were made,” she mumbled into Chak’s neck, before letting go of her again.

Zithra noticed that her rifle laid on a small sideboard behind her, and he surmised that she had held it against the door, ready to turn them into swiss cheese had their answer been wrong.

Maybe he should’ve let Chak answer first, given that he wasn’t entirely confident in his answer…

However, Shida seemed to not pay half a mind to her murderous thoughts as she stepped aside and started leading them into the house.

“Dagon’s in bad shape but we’re trying to fix him up,” she explained while walking swiftly. “Mary’s still a sparkler, but her dad shed the spirit in the meantime. Her mom’s completely lost it though. And frankly, I’m not sure if I should even try to fix that. Seems like she has enough issues even without Krampus’ games. Doodle also had a bit of a scare, but I think he’s fine now, even if it’s just his hornyness that keeps him going.”

She chuckled a bit at that. Obviously she knew that wasn’t entirely true, but it was easier to cope with than the alternative.

“So that’s what I was hearing…” Zithra mumbled, “Not the horny part, but someone is trashing that shop like a coked out grizzly.

“Krampus briefly trapped us again.” Chak reported as she rubbed the heavy bags under her eyes, “It tried to convince us that it was letting us go back home… but we didn’t buy it. And I wasn’t risking leaving you here alone.” she added honestly as they looked upon Mary’s father ever so carefully starting to cut away at the chain around Dagon’s head with a handheld power tool. Seeming to have paused his work for Shida to check the door.

“Probably a good call,” Shida replied, and although she sounded genuine, there was a bit of hesitancy swinging from underneath her voice. However, she seemed to shake it off relatively quickly. “I doubt that you could trust a literal demon, even if you wanted to.”

She then turned to the working man, obviously not wishing to linger on the thought for any longer than she had to.

“Is it working, Frank?” she asked, quickly changing the subject.

Adjusting the leather jacket he used to protect the unconscious man from the raining metallic sparks Frank leaned back to show his work.

“Yup. Through the first half of the link and about halfway through the other. Can’t guarantee I won’t leave a mark on the poor bastard, but I’ll get him out.” Frank informed before wiping his brow with his forearm.

“Sorry about your shop, by the way. I’d go and stop her, but for that I’d most likely have to hurt her at this point. I will still do it if you want, but I figured you wouldn’t,” Shida added before moving over towards Mary, who had kind of turned into a catatonic, sitting statue ever since her father had arrived to work on her fiance. The woman didn’t really react as Shida crouched down next to her, but wild sparks still flew out from her head for everyone who could see them to observe.

“It’s all on my security camera, whatever she does just adds more uphill battles for her divorce lawyer’s case.” Frank replied from behind the feline.

It’s then Mary blinked in a flash of recognition.

“Divorce…?” she whispered too quietly for most people in proximity to hear. Raw guilt bled through her eyes as she felt her own actions ruined even more lives than she already had.

Shida lifted her hand and put it on the woman’s shoulder.

“Sorry,” she said carefully. “It’s probably better this way. I mean, we’ll see how things are once all this crazy magic blows over. Maybe there’s still something to be salvaged there. But, hearing how she talked about you, personally I think your dad’s making the right choice. But I know it still sucks. Or, I guess anyway. Never had parents. But I think I can imagine. Well, maybe.”

Realizing how out of her depth she was here, she quickly glanced up at her more socially competent friend for support.

Chak stepped up and sat down next to Mary.

“I have to apologize to you Mary, I read what you wrote in your journal. I didn’t know it was yours at first, but I kept reading after I figured it out. I’m very sorry, you deserved your privacy.” the princess admits.

Mary’s brow furrows but she doesn’t say anything right away, instead she adjusted her grip on the treasured item.

“Where did you find it? I saw mom throw it in the fireplace a long time ago.” she finally replied.

“In a not fun place. But I’m glad that I could return it to you. Could I ask you something about it? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” Chak inquired gently.

“Okay…” the woman hesitantly grants.

“After all this time, do you feel the same way?”

“I…” Mary started to say before her mind shuts off, “I just want to be normal…”

“What’s ‘normal’ to you?” the Cali questioned.

Mary looked away, curling her legs up as if trying to disappear by crumbling into nothing.

“Whatever mom wanted me to be. A good daughter. One who isn’t- who’s not- who’s…” she eventually said.

“But is that who you are?”

“No…”

Shida stood up, sauntering a few steps away from the conversation.

“We’re deathworlders!” she announced, slowly twirling in place before looking back at Mary. “We don’t do normal. Especially not for those who want us to be.”

She then leaned a bit closer to Zithra.

“I’m gonna check on Doodle,” she mumbled so quietly that only the Manarian would hear it. “Keep an eye on things.”

Zithra gave a subtle nod before leaning against the wall to overwatch the room and keep a watchful angle through a window.

“Death…what?” Mary asked, confused.

“She’s right.” Chak agreed, “Normal is often just something people try to blanket over others. When in truth, the real ‘normal’ is whatever you choose it to be. Especially for yourself. You don’t owe anyone your identity, your personhood, or even the time in your life. Because those are yours. Your mother brought you into this world, but her responsibility was to make sure you grew happy and healthy. No parent owns their child and decides who that child is. I’m sorry you were failed, and that you're hurting, and that your hurt caused you to hurt others. But there’s still time for you to course correct and repair the damage caused in the best way you can.”

“How?” Mary replied softly, “Do you see Dagon right now? This is all my fault…”

“Partially, it is.” Chak granted in earnest, “So, how are you going to move forward from here? Because that’s a choice you can still make. Are you going to sit here and continue to dwell in the hurting and guilt, or will you try to make things right so that you and the people you care about can thrive sometime in the future?” the princess gently settles a hand on Mary’s knee, “Take it from a girl who is planning on marrying another girl despite many saying I can’t. You have a choice, you always have a choice.”

The sparkles start pouring out of the individual to a near blinding degree for those who could see it. As if dumped free from a nearly bottomless pit, the spirit blackens and presumably breaks. The afterimage of Mary wavered back and forth with her physical form as she remained in place.

“I’ll try.” she agreed as the afterimage dissipated away.

Doodle now sitting at the dining room table took a finishing bite of gingerbread cookie, chasing it with a warm apple cider. Gargling it in his mouth, he retched and spat out another bullet onto the wooden surface. It clacked, clattered and rolled up to stand right up against a growing perfectly neat line of removed projectiles.

“Alright… two more… I think…” the elf encouraged himself as he reached for another cookie.

“Seems like your immortality hasn’t failed you yet,” Shida commented as she observed the very strange scene, not even beginning to imagine how all this might work. The answer most likely was ‘It doesn’t’, since, you know, magic and all that. Therefore she decided to not waste the energy. “The others made it back alright. At least I hope it’s them. I mean, I have no idea how good these copies actually can get and how much of our memories they have in there. But I’m at least reasonably confident. Meanwhile it seems Ms. Light is going full on Domestic out there. Just to keep you up to date.”

She walked over to the window for a moment and glanced outside. Then she remembered,

“Oh I should probably update the Sheriff. And maybe even the Assistant.”

Now that she thought of it, it was actually extremely important. Therefore she pulled out her phone. However, she did take another moment to make exactly sure and made eye contact with Doodle.

“You holding up?”

“Boss, I’ll hold up whatever you need!” he chuckled, making a finger gun, though his mischievous smile disappeared before he wretched again for another bullet to come clacking out, “Ack… Yeah, I’ll be back in order soon… Ho-ho-ho…”

Shida nodded and then put in the Sheriff’s number, holding the phone up to her ear and waiting for a reply. There was a lot to catch her up on.

The phone rang for longer than expected, though it was getting late. Still, with everything going on it would be perdent to answer calls from the ‘aliens’ promptly. The crack of what sounded like an old-style corded phone finally picked up.

“Brainwashed half the town have you? I’m not fooled. They haven’t seen what I’ve seen. No… they do not know the truth. But I do know, more than I initially thought. It has told me of your lies. Your deceit. Your plans to destroy everything. I am the hero of this story. It told me itself. I will save this town. I will save Mary. I will save Christmas. And I now have the power to do it, thanks to the Christmas spirit...” the voice of a familiar man spoke in a dark deranged tone before the slam of the other end of the line sharply cracked through the cell phone's speaker.

The line was cut, but before Shida could react her phone lit up again as a call from the Sheriff’s phone came up.

Shida grumbled while a chill went down her spine. Although her agitation was by far overpowering her dread. Picking up the call, she spoke without hesitation,

“So, Bell has escaped, huh?”

“He- yea- yes.” the sheriff’s voice replied a bit flustered “But it doesn't make a lick of sense… Had him locked up and on camera and in a flicker of the power we was just gone.”

“He had help,” Shida informed her before shaking her head. “You can likely do little to stop him now. Meaning I’ll probably have to kill him sooner or later when he comes for me or my friends. But that’s not important now. Well, it is, but it’s not worth discussing. Much more pressing is that there are duplicates running around now. Strange, magical…somethings that impersonate real people. They look like them and manage to act reasonably similar, to the point where you could be fooled if you’re not paying attention. You have to be extremely careful from now on, and always verify someone’s identity before trusting them, you got that? These things are reckless and violent, so we can’t let them run amok while dealing with this situation, but I can’t promise that I can take care of them all. We already took out three of them, and were almost killed in the process. They also attacked Dagon and Frank Light. This whole thing is getting really dangerous, and we need to keep people safe somehow. The whole town might get dragged into this if we’re not careful.”

“My lord…” the woman’s voice uttered in complete bewilderment, “In-in that case, I suppose I’m not going to be of much help to you then? You might not know that it’s me talkin’. Or anyone… I’ll do what I can on my end. I don’t suppose you know of some concrete way of telling the difference? People in the department and town know each other well enough, but something like what you're describing… Would a test like in that movie ‘The Thing’ work at all?”

“I am STILL not from Earth and have no idea what you’re talking about,” Shida gave back slightly exasperated. “But if you absolutely have to know: They do bleed black. Getting them to bleed for you might be a tall order, though. And when you have a chance of revealing one, you better be ready for a fight right away. They don’t hold back once they’re found out. Doodle can also tell somehow, but I think that’s unique to him…”

She briefly glanced over at the elf, wondering if he had any more input on the matter.

“Well for me it’s like a… magic-recognizes-magic kinda thing. I just know when things are made of the stuff I am… or like… the opposite of what I am? I don’t know for certain, but if you used your own Santa mojo you might be able to ‘screen’ people in person. Though… you might as well be pricking for blood at that point. I’d offer my services to the cops, but I’m just one lil’ guy.” Doodle responded before the -hopefully- final bullet gets hurled out of his maw.

“Yeah, sounds like blood is the only real option. Though if someone behaves really strange or turns irrationally violent all of a sudden -and isn’t called Bell- it’s probably fair to make an educated guess at some point. My recommendation: Stay armed. Stay alert. And let nobody stand behind you for any extended period of time, unless you can trust them 100%. And even then double check,” Shida advised over the phone. “We can handle ourselves. It’s your job to keep your people safe, so focus on that while we do our thing.”

“Roger all that. I’ll do what I can. Though I won’t be taking anyone’s word, including yours, over the phone from this point out. Come to me in person if there’s something more you need from me. Lordy-lord… this really is a horror movie… uhm, best of luck to you.” the Sheriff replied before the call came to an end.

“One more thing,” Shida quickly interjected. “A friend of ours, Zithra, the…green or now purple haired guy, he also bleeds black, but that’s natural. If you see him around without us, chances are he’s up to no good, but you can’t really guarantee it. So…be careful about that. And good luck as well.”

Then she hung up, hoping that that message had sunk in.

Sighing, she looked out the window again.

“I hope Bell makes it quick,” she mumbled, lifting her rifle. “I don’t want to have to anticipate him all day. If he wants to die so badly, he better not waste time with it…Still we need to warn the others. How are you feeling?”

She glanced over at Doodle again, who seemed to be marveling at the number of bullets he had spit up in the last few minutes.

Leaping out of the chair -and nearly toppling his face into the hardwood- he adjusted himself and gave his santa a salute.

“Still missing a little bit of my spirit but I’m ready and willing, boss.” he reported, “If you need me to take more bullets for you I’m happy to do it at least two more times, after that… I’ll begrudgingly do it! After the tenth or so time though I might ask for a raise…” he took another bite from his cookie and started marching back to the rest of the group.