Santa is at the center of most Christmas stories. What happens when Santa is just a man who plays the role of Santa at the mall? Suppose he were really good at his job, and people could really swear he was Santa? Like so good at being Santa, it is this Christmas miracle for many people who come to see him.

Santa is real, of course. Don't be naive' and think that Santa isn't real. He just isn't the commercialized character everyone thinks he is. Santa is generous, it is true, but not with like gifts and toys and cookies and shit. Santa is a war-god, a general, a powerful warrior saint that fights for good. A holy ghost, of sorts. Every Christmas he is unleashed to wreak havoc among the forces of evil, driving darkness from the land and lighting up the night. And the rest of the year he resides in Limbo, a cold and desolate wasteland. Many evil beings can visit Limbo and just as many seek a way to destroy Santa.

"Dear Lord God in Heaven!" the Nun was screaming.

There was a whole crowd of people and after her initial breaking of the punctuated silence, there was a whole cacophony of screams and outbursts from the crowd at the dreadful sight.

Oh wait, something happened before the Nun shattered the silence:

A little boy sat on Santa's lap, crying like a very sad little kid. Nearby was the good fairy, a beautiful shimmering dress was upon her and she had a sparkling wand.

A green little elf was on Santa, in the silence; as the woman like-a-fairy scooped up the child.

There was a disturbing amount of shocked silence, a whole crowd unable to react to what they were seeing suddenly.

Almost silent; just the gargling noises of the Santa impersonator as the people gaped in shocked horror for a moment, unable to process instantly, what they were witnessing.

The elf had a meat hook and was repeatedly swinging it into Santa's neck. Each time he pulled it out it made a noise and each time he swung it again it made another noise.

The sound of a meat hook chunking into flesh and then sucked free of the wet catch.

The blood was spurting out everywhere and the people finally started screaming as the elf wandered away, vanishing into the mall's huge Christmas Tree.

The Christmas Tree was where the little elf had gone and he had vanished into it without anyone noticing, in all their panic. It was all lit up and had many fine ornaments on it. Atop the tree, strangely, was an angel with a flaming sword. That was because the mall owner was a weirdo and had insisted upon the bizarre decoration. A generation before might have found it slightly odd, for the sword and for its general militant presence; but nowadays the Uriel on the tree was just weird to have in a public mall.

The elf got to it and used it to climb into some ventilation to escape to the rooftop of the mall.

The elf started snickering evilly as its pointed ears listened. The moment was gone.

Sooner or later, any moment is gone...

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This one shattered into screams and panic. People ran from the Santa spurting a jet of fine gory mist into the air. They ran with their kids, trampling the mall security guard to death.

Each footfall, grownup or those of the child with the parent, caused a new injury and it seemed like every foot had to stab into him. Someone tripped and drove their knees into him. The fall had knocked him out and the stampede passed over him and killed him.

Above the crowds, Yohiro watched with wide eyes from the second floor. He had seen this in his dream, the tormented psychic that he was.

"Yohiro you are not even listening to me! I want to go to another store, they don't have any more shoes that are cute!" his girlfriend, Masha was spewing her words at his back.

Before the slaughter below, he had already decided to end his psychic existence. He knew that he could not escape more shoes for Masha. The bitch was insatiable. He had decided to jump to his death, rather than shop for more shoes.

"Fuck it." He decided. He could hear her thoughts:

"God I hope he gets dizzy and falls over the railing, what a jerk." She was thinking that at him, and she loved him, probably the only woman that ever would, and those were her thoughts. "Yohiro you are going to fall, leaning like that. C'mon I want to go to another shoe store."

"You don't need any more shoes." Yohiro said quietly. She didn't hear him over the screams of the crowds below. People had fled in all directions and their screams had trailed after them. The fear and distress burrowed into Yohiro's mind, psychic-empathy concentrated from all the crowds. His girlfriend hated herself except when she was trying on new shoes. Her feelings had seeped into his own mind over the months.

"What did you just say to me?" She demanded. She had known he had said something.

"I said no more shoes!" Yohiro suddenly snapped. "Some green elf just killed Santa!"

"What?" She seemed surprised by that, but not entirely. Yohiro could sense her feelings, annoyance and thoughts: Oh great, now we have to stand here and watch cops come and people crying and standing around and I can't keep shopping, Yohiro will make me watch all of it...damn jerk...

"I hate this too." Yohiro told himself. Then on impulse, driven to it by the violence, fear and intolerable indignation of the moment, he flung himself headfirst to the ground below.

He struck with a body shattering impact in front of the two cops with their guns drawn.

"Shit." said Officer Clayton. He had accidentally discharged his weapon. The bang resounded and gun smoke drifted away like a cloud of vape, smelling of gun smoke. This was a sweet charcoal-like smell, almost pleasant.

"Um..." The other cop said in the ringing echo after the loud gunblast had resounded. He had looked from the horror wrought by the stray bullet to Officer Clayton.

A pretty teenage girl had caught the bullet in her right eye with impossibly bad luck. She was still standing there with her head tipped back. Then she fell over, dead. Her two friends started shrieking over her dead body. They had grown up with her and had known the dead girl all their lives. Like a little sister.

Dead, just like that, because of a reckless and gung-ho cop that was too incompetent and arrogant to ever use his safety.

There was another problem, one that was sheer coincidence, but a serious problem. The girl he had accidentally shot just-so-happened-to-be the baby sister of someone nearby. The other cop.

He instinctively aimed and fired his own weapon, quite deliberately, and then dropped it clattering to the floor as he sank to his knees. Then he retrieved it and aimed it a second time, joining his partner, Officer Clayton.

There was some sobbing from the two girls. A few dazed people walked around the carnage.

Those with their wits about them did nothing to help the others.

They held their phones out, recording.

Some even looked amused by all of it.

The elf couldn't stop laughing, the sound of its hysterics gradually gaining dominance in the sounds of the great empty spaces.

It didn't last, sirens overtook all of it. The scene was boring after that, as Masha had predicted. She frowned, cursing all of it.

The moment was gone, moments are eventually always gone.

The mall fell silent again.

Outside the darkness of night had come and it began to snow gently.

Silent and gentle little white snowflakes.

Each unique from all other snowflakes.

Falling silently in the night.