Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 080

The elf put a calming hand on Kisa's shoulder. "Relax. This place is special. The ice outside is magical, and wouldn't melt even on the hottest day. And floating really isn't the right term for it. If you dig into the ice, you'll just keep digging down and down without ever reaching water."

"Almost like it's a separate plane." Yuki nodded. "Think of it like the tower-world. It's a separate place entirely, but has been plugged into our world."

Kisa crossed her arms and glowered. "Doesn't make me hate it any less."

The elevator dinged at intervals as it continued its descent. Eventually, it stopped and the doors opened, revealing a chamber full of pipes and vents. At the other side of the room was a gigantic furnace surrounded by abandoned tools on the ground as if they had been dropped when work stopped. The group stepped out of the elevator.

"Tink come, save day!" The goblin smacked her hammer on an abandoned cart. The resultant echo made Mike wince.

"Tinker!" Holly clapped a hand over the goblin's mouth. "Someone might hear you!"

"Isn't that the point?" Yuki walked forward, her eyes on the ceiling. "Might help you figure out where everybody went." She took a few steps into the room, then turned to face the elf. "In fact, what are you worried about, exactly? You said that everyone vanished and you were afraid, but what exactly are you afraid of? It isn't like Santa eats elves or something, is it?"

Holly opened her mouth to respond, but a sharp metallic ping rang out against a nearby wall. In a moment, Yuki summoned a cluster of icicles and sent them across the room like daggers, pinning a small figure to the wall by the fabric of his overalls. A pair of earmuffs fell off his head and slid across the ground.

"Allie!" Holly ran across the room to the trembling figure. It was an elven man with white skin and a massive wrench clutched in his right hand. His eyes were wide as he stared at the group, his gaze lingering on Tink the longest.

"Holly? Is that you?" His voice wavered as he struggled to free himself from the ice. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing here?" Holly moved to his side and helped him yank the icicles free. "Everyone, this is Alabaster. He's the head of security and maintenance here at the Workshop."

"I'm not the head of anything right now!" Alabaster grumbled as he used his wrench to smash an icicle and free himself. He brushed some dirt off his overalls and then adjusted his hat, which had become crooked. His voice had a thick grumble to it. "As for what you're doing here, I thought maybe you were with the others."

"I'm not. I was out on assignment. Allie, what happened here?" Holly took Alabaster's hand in her own. "I'm really scared!"

"As you should be. Do you still have your earmuffs?"

Holly nodded, then pulled them out of the pouch on her belt. "I do."

"Good. Keep them ready at all times." The elf looked at the others as he moved to pick up his own. "You all probably won't be affected. If you hear that intercom click on, you make sure to get those over her ears."

"You aren't exactly telling us what's going on." Yuki's features had gone hard. "Or what we're up against."

"I'm not entirely sure," he grumbled. "I happened to be wearing my earmuffs because I was using the forge to repair one of Santa's runners for next year. I needed something from storage, so I didn't bother taking them off. It's a great way to avoid meaningless conversation.

"Anyway, I came out of storage and see everyone else staring at the speaker like it was the big man himself. I was about to take off my earmuffs to hear what was going on, but their eyes!" Alabaster shivered. "It was the early symptoms of severe Naughty Sickness. They dropped everything right where they stood, and started shutting things down. There were a few others like me wearing earmuffs, and they were held down, their earmuffs removed. I hid myself away, nobody knows the Workshop like I do. When they shut the furnace down, I came here to see why, but that's when the power went off."

"Santa's missing, too." Holly's eyes were full of tears. "The world is caught in the time freeze, so it must have happened right before he left."

"Does Santa have any enemies?" Mike thought it was a perfectly reasonable question, and didn't expect both of the elves to laugh.

"Boy, does he ever!" Alabaster chuckled, then his face became serious. "Several, actually. He's got a good rep with you humans, but he had to step on a lot of toes to get to where he is today."

Behind them, the elevator dinged. Mike turned around to see that the dial above the elevator was now moving.

"That...shouldn't be doing that," Yuki said. "Unless somebody called it."

"Nobody should know that we're down here, right?" Mike looked at the others, then Alabaster.

The elf shrugged. "The power's out, so any surveillance would be magical."

The dial moved all the way to the right, then stopped at a cursive L for lobby.

"There are dozens of stops on this one," Holly explained. "Maybe they spotted the alterations, but have no idea where we are?"

"I think we're going to find out," Mike replied as the dial began moving. It rotated through the other floors without stopping, and was nearly on their floor when his whole body filled with icy dread.

"Everyone! Hide!" He grabbed Tink and Kisa by the hand and dragged them away from the elevator. Alabaster and Holly put on their earmuffs as they squeezed between a couple of pipes. Thinking Alabaster knew best, he helped Tink and Kisa squeeze into the same space.

However, he couldn't fit. Everywhere in the Workshop had been built for someone smaller, and he couldn't think of anywhere to go.

"What are you doing?" Mike hissed at Yuki. She had summoned her magic and was using it to build a wall of ice in front of the elevator doors.

"I should be asking you the same thing!" She shot back. He turned around and realized that the door to the furnace was big enough that both of them could easily fit inside. It seemed unlikely that someone would casually start it back up, but it also meant that nobody would look for them inside. "C'mon!"

He ran toward the furnace, and was happy to hear Yuki right behind him. The elevator dinged on their floor, and there was a scraping sound as the doors tried to open. He and Yuki were inside the furnace now, and he saw that the walls were covered in large, silver filters. Cold air blasted him from every direction as they ran into the darkness.

Behind them, there was a sound like someone taking in a deep breath, and Mike looked back to see the ice wall explode.

🏠🏠🏠

Welcome to the North Pole, monster lovers!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I have been having an absolute blast writing book 6 so far. The sheer volume of mythology has been a real treat to dive into, and it doesn't make you feel all shitty afterward, like eggnog.

Stay tuned for next chapter, because things are about to get frosty. As for Lily, Death, and Tick Tock, certainly they won't get into any trouble...right?

Most important of all, don't forget to do something kind for yourself. You matter, and you deserve it.

~Annabelle Hawthorne