Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 093

Holly's face turned beet red and she threw a glance at Mike. He nodded in agreement, letting her know that Santa spoke the truth.

"I was once a man. And men are capable of becoming monsters. I am not a being who walks solely in the light, and when it became necessary, I became the monster needed to save this beautiful land."

Santa took a deep breath, and then closed his eyes. When he opened them, they blazed with red light.

"I am the Krampus, Holly. I am an amalgam of both the dark and the light, a being capable of good and evil. Unlike most, I cannot choose one or the other at a whim. When I am Santa, I am only the good parts of me. But when I'm the Krampus?" He shivered, then looked at the others. All but Mike stared at him in shock. "I have no control. I am him, and partake in his deeds while I weep from the inside."

"No." Holly's voice was little more than a whimper. "That can't be true."

"It is, my child." Santa smiled weakly. "I wish I could have told you in person, but the Krampus knows all that I do. When this Christmas Day is over, I intend to imprison the Ghost of Christmas Present to keep Krampus from gaining access to this conversation later when they become a ghost of the past. I wrote vague notes for myself to avoid the gifts I've left for you. Tomorrow, I will eat one of Mrs. Claus' special cookies to erase all knowledge of these events and this conversation, for whatever happens to one of us must happen to both."

Holly said nothing. She buried her face in her arm and sobbed.

"She will need you," Santa said, looking vaguely in all of their directions. "For the road ahead is tough, and she will struggle to walk it. Even now, Future is uncertain that my efforts will bear fruit, but I have to try." He stood, suddenly weary. "And Freyja?"

"Santa." The goddess' lips were thin on her face.

"I'm happy that you're back." He bowed to her in deference as the scene turned to smoke and faded away. They had returned to the cabin, the Ghost of Last Christmas standing in the center of the room.

Nobody spoke for several minutes, the room quiet except for an occasional squeak from Holly. Mike knelt by her side, but she turned away from him.

"So what now?" Yuki looked at Freyja, then the spirit. "Santa's been pulling strings this whole time, so why fight it? Everything we've done has led to this moment and..." she shrugged, and then put a hand to her stomach and winced. "Shit, cramp."

"Language," Holly whispered.

"If you wish to know more, I'm afraid that I have no knowledge about what is yet to come." The spirit shook its head. "But I was told that I would not be merged with my siblings so that the Krampus could not command me. I am free of his influence, but only because I am following Santa's orders. Should I meet the Krampus, I will be obedient to his whims."

"Maybe you should fuck this one, too," Freyja muttered.

"Christmas Present was a fluke," Mike said. A hot, sexy fluke, he admitted mentally.

Holly stood and walked out the front door of the cabin, leaving them behind. Yuki raised an eyebrow at Mike. He nodded and went after the elf. She was sitting on the steps of the cabin, her feet buried in the snow.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"I don't know." She kicked at a clump of snow. "What I just learned, I...it's like there's a storm inside of me, and I can't control it. All my thoughts are just spinning around, and when I try to examine them, they..." she gestured helplessly and pulled her knees to her chest before burying her face in them. "I don't know what to do," she groaned.

"It's hard." He put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't know this, but my childhood was pretty messed up. My mom was...kind of like the Krampus. She would say and do terrible things. Even after she was gone, all I could do was hate her for the things she did.

"However, the Ghost of Christmas Past, not the one in there, the main one, or whatever, they showed me a memory from when I was very little. It was before my dad died. My mom was...normal. Happy, even. She was reading me a book, acting like a mom should. During this trip down memory lane, I learned something about her that changes how I see her now."

Holly tilted her head so that she was looking at him.

"Before my dad died, my mom was taking medication to help with her mental state. You see, that Krampus thing that lived inside her, it came out when she no longer had my dad around to keep her on her meds. Learning that this ugly person used to be so nice, well...it was hard. Humans are complicated. The worst of us are capable of acts of kindness, and the best of us will sometimes fall from grace. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Santa used to be human, just like me."

She shrugged, and resumed looking at the ground. "I was created to look up to him," she said. "He's a huge part of me, and everything I've done has been for him."

"Are you sure?" He put a hand on her knee and squeezed. "Because if I remember right, you've been pursuing some things to learn more about yourself. It's like what that memory was telling you, about how he wanted to make an elf who was truly free. A good parent doesn't want their kids to worship them. They want their kids to live better lives than they did."

Holly grunted in agreement, then sniffled and wiped her nose. "But he's had that monster inside of him all this time," she muttered. "I just...I don't know what to think."

"And that's okay. Your feelings are valid. Sometimes we just need time and support to process things. But you need to remember there's a reason for everything he does. He told you the truth because it was important that you heard it from him and nobody else. Santa trusts you, Holly. Despite everything else that's going on, that has to have some worth."

She sighed. "It doesn't make me feel better, but...he was right about the human thing. Ever since we...did the deed, the world feels less confining. When you guys swear, I don't get dizzy like I used to. I have stray thoughts that aren't about sex or Christmas. It's small, but out of character for me."

"Well, part of your soul is human now." He chuckled. "And part of mine is elven. That'll manifest somehow, I'm sure of it."

"What do you mean?"

He held up a hand and summoned a lightning spider. "This isn't something I did on my own," he told her, setting the spider in the snow. "It's a mark left behind by someone I loved. It's a thing my magic does."

Holly stared at the spider, its sparkling exterior reflected in her eyes. "So we left a mark on each other?"

"Yep. You gained something from me, and I gained something from you."

"Will I stay this way?" She looked away from the spider and gazed into his eyes. "I mean...I'm going to live a lot longer than you, so..."

"I can't say for certain. But the woman who left this mark on me, she died months ago. My magic still carries that imprint, so it will probably be the same way for you."

"Good." She scooted closer to him, put her arm around his waist, and then leaned her head on his arm. "Because maybe it's confusing, and a little bit scary, but I like how I feel. It's different, in a good way. It's like I fit into the whole world a lot better than before."

He sat with her for a few minutes, his eyes on the Northern Lights as they danced about in the sky. Her sniffling had subsided, and she was motionless at his side.

"Is it okay that I don't know what to believe anymore?" she asked.

"It is. Doubt is a very human quality."

"I hate that the one person I believed in is...well, I don't know how to put it into words." She sat away from him and looked into his eyes. "It hurts not having anything to believe in. So maybe...maybe I should believe in you instead."

He smiled at her and shook his head. "You really shouldn't. Do you know why?"

"I don't."

"Because the most important person you should believe in first is yourself."

Holly looked down at the ground and chewed her lip in thought. "I don't know if I can do that. I'm not even sure who I am, anymore."

"Join the club." He patted her affectionately on the head. "But you don't need to have all the answers to believe. I learned that from you."

She smiled. "You're really good at making me feel better."

"I've had a lot of practice at it." He put his arm around her and hugged her tight. "But you should know that I believe in my friends, and that includes you. Whatever lies ahead, we'll face it together. Agreed?"

Holly sighed and leaned her head against him.

"I agree," she replied.

Lily was taking a break with a large mug of cocoa when Christmas Present and Dancer appeared in the sky. The spirit dismounted and hovered across the distance between them before landing pertly in Lily's lap.

"Just taught a little boy how to ride a bike." The spirit grinned, then traced a little heart on Lily's chest. "Feeling pretty good about myself. Any chance that the bone daddy will be away for long?"

The succubus snorted. "Doubt it. He's already been gone an hour, so I expect him back any minute."

The ghost pouted, then shifted off of Lily's lap as the rope ladder dangling over the sleigh's edge became tight. A few moments later, Death's bony visage appeared, with him clutching a candy cane between his teeth.

"Well?" Lily asked.

"It went very well." Death climbed into the sleigh and tucked the candy cane into his robes. "Lucille shall no longer fear the monster beneath her bed."

"Good job." Lily offered Death a high-five, which he accepted. "No problems?"

He shook his head. Lucille was born blind, giving the Reaper a rare opportunity to make a house call. "She felt my beard and my hat, but I told her I was wearing my anti-monster mask and that it would feel scary, so she skipped that part. A child's innocence is rare, and I was grateful she took my word."

Lily chuckled. "So what was keeping her up at night?"

"A monster." Death took the thermos from the console and poured himself a cup.

"An actual monster?" Christmas Present asked.

"Indeed. I beat it with my bat, and when it became incorporeal, I strangled it until it agreed to leave her alone." He sipped at his cocoa, then turned his attention to them. "Afterward, Lucille read me her favorite bedtime story in Braille. She even taught me how to read a couple of the letters, it was so interesting!"

"What the heck was living under that girl's bed?" Lily shook her head. "You know what? Nevermind. Who is next on the list?"

"We have a few options." Death pulled the scroll from his robes and unrolled it. "There's a young woman about a hundred miles north of here that wants to learn how to braid her hair. Apparently her mother passed away two years ago, and her father is bald and there's nobody to teach her."

"I can do that one." Christmas Present took a peek at the scroll then looked at Lily. "Does it feel weird that we're only twenty miles from your house?"

Lily shrugged. It felt like she'd been gone for years. Technically, she'd lived in the sleigh far longer than she had in the Radley home. If not for Mike, she couldn't care less where she was. According to Christmas Present, he was somewhere in the US right now. She had almost teleported to him upon learning this. There was a big difference between seeing him in spirit versus in person, and she missed him. If not for Death's boundless enthusiasm and knowing that they were still accomplishing something, she would have bailed long ago.

"Guess I'll see you when I see you." Christmas Present hovered over to Dancer, and the two of them took off. The spirit looked back and winked, then lifted her robes to reveal her bare ass to Lily before disappearing into a cloud.

"I'm not sure which I enjoy more: seeing her come or seeing her go." Lily smiled at the double entendre, happy to have pulled another one over the helper hat.

"Mmmhmm." Death was staring intensely at the scroll, the lights in his eyes flickering.

"Everything okay?" Lily asked.

Death said nothing. He took the reins, gave them a snap, and Cerberus pulled them to their next destination. Concerned about the Reaper's sudden silence, Lily peered over the side of the sleigh to figure out where they were headed.

The downtown area appeared, then they were zig-zagging between the buildings. She had flown through here more than once. In fact, she and Abella had once had a race to see who got Mike for the evening. To this day, she was certain the gargoyle had cheated, but wasn't certain how.

A building festooned in Christmas lights appeared between a church and a telecommunications building. A large tree had been decorated in the courtyard, and the bottom of the building had festive designs painted on all of the windows.

"Death?" Lily was concerned when he landed the sleigh in front of the doors. They hadn't seen the Yule Cat in a long time, so to watch him throw away caution worried her.

The Grim Reaper sat perfectly still for several minutes, his eyes on the automated doors of the Children's Hospital. Lily hopped out of the sleigh and walked around it, scanning the area for any signs of movement.

"Lily." Death's voice was barely a whisper. "I will need your help with this one."

"No poop, you've needed my help with all of them." She threw him some side eye. "You got a kid who wants to eat something other than jello in there?"

Death rolled up the scroll and tucked it into his robes. "We shall both go in," he declared, then got out of the sleigh. Despite being an immortal psychopomp held together by his love of maps and tea, the Reaper moved as if his bones may come apart at any moment. "Cerberus, if you wouldn't mind."

The hellhound grunted and pulled the sleigh into the sky, circling the building twice before disappearing into the clouds above. Death walked up to the sliding doors of the hospital, then squeezed between them.

Lily followed, taking a moment to survey the lobby. Another large tree had been set up inside the lobby with gifts beneath it. She paused to pick one up and was surprised when it had some weight to it.

"Do you think they just put some rocks inside or what?" When Death failed to answer, she looked up to see that he was already entering the stairwell. "Darn it, don't leave me behind, it will take forever to find you in this place."

They climbed up to the seventh floor, then stepped out into a foyer decorated with rainbow colors. A golden bell hung on a wall opposite where the receptionist, an older woman in a red Santa hat, sat. There was a plate of cookies sitting on the counter, so Lily took one.

"Peanut butter," she announced. "A top-tier cookie choice, the best that healthcare can afford." When she took a bite, she discovered she was wrong. "What the heck is this? It tastes like cardboard that is trying too hard."

"It's a hospital," Death informed her. "Nut-free zone."

"So then what flavor are these supposed to be? Regret?" Lily tossed the cookie into a nearby bin. "You seem to know your way around here."

"I do." Death was already moving down a nearby hallway. "In the first weeks of December, Tink convinced me that the Krampus was real and that I could catch him. Since children were his prey, she suggested I hunt where children congregated. I came here many times in order to hunt for the Krampus and got to know several of the children."

Lily chuckled. "You probably scared the poop out of them."

"You'd be surprised, actually." Death stopped in the hall and turned around to face her. "In fact, almost everyone here can see me. The staff, they're interesting. More often than not, they have mistaken me for another member of the staff. I suppose it's because I am a regular occurrence in this building. The parents? Many see me, but pretend that they don't. I chalk that up to denial, and do not fault them for it.

"But the children? Maybe it's because they don't properly understand what I represent, or maybe they do and just want the pain to stop. They not only see me, but have shown me much kindness. I know many of the children here on a first name basis. It's odd, but I can sense that these kids needed me. They ask me questions about dying that I am unafraid to answer, and we play games with each other while the staff pretends I'm some imaginary friend that the children invented. See?" He pointed to a nearby bulletin board. Lily was surprised to see several drawings of children playing with a skeleton. A bunch of them had been labeled Uncle Bones.

"Uncle Bones, huh?" She walked over to the bulletin board and tapped on a drawing. "And how come you're naked in each of these pictures?"

"Because when they drew me with my robes, it terrified the parents. The woman in charge of this wing thinks that Uncle Bones is just the skeleton they keep in the supply closet for educational purposes. It certainly makes the parents feel better." Death resumed walking down the hall, then stopped outside of one of the rooms. "We're here."

He pushed the door open, the hallway suddenly filled with the soft beeping of a heart monitor. The room was decorated with hundreds of colored pencil drawings, most of them of other children. Lily paused to appreciate a fairly realistic depiction of one of the doctors. It wasn't quite photo-quality like some of the stuff Zel could draw, but it was really good.

"Death!" A raspy voice greeted the Reaper, who now sat at the foot of the bed. Lily walked in to see a young woman no older than fifteen crawl across the bed and embrace Death. "What are you doing here so late?"

"I am out running errands for a friend," he replied, the twin flames of his skull flickering orange. "Speaking of friends, this is my really good friend Lily."

"Hi!" The girl turned to Lily and gave her a wave. She was missing all of her hair and had dark circles under her eyes that stood out on porcelain skin. When she extended a hand in greeting, Lily noticed that several of her nails were simply gone. Those that remained had been painted with Christmas colors. "My name is Reagan. It's nice to meet you."

"Um...yeah." Lily didn't know how to reply, she had been caught off guard by the girl's appearance. "I just found out that Death has been coming here and didn't know that he was friends with anyone."

"We love him here." With Death's help, Reagan scooted back to the top of her bed. She thanked him and picked up the small sketchpad next to her bed. "It's always a lot of fun when he visits. This place can be a little...grim."

"I bet." Lily sat in a chair by the bed. "So...what are you in for?"

"Stuck a crayon up my nose." Reagan picked up a pair of colored pencils and mimed shoving a red one up one nostril. "You know how doctors are, so over dramatic."

Death chuckled, then patted Reagan's knee. "Reagan has an inoperable tumor in her brain."

"It was a restaurant crayon." Reagan's eyes sparkled. "Probably made with lead in China or something. Doctors have been trying to melt it with space lasers."

"Oh, you're fun." Lily smiled. "So this is going to sound strange, but did you write a letter to Santa this year?"

Reagan's eyes widened, and she looked over at Death. "I did! But I never got a chance to send it!" She leaned over the side of her bed and picked up a folder full of artwork. Flipping straight to the back, she pulled out an envelope labeled with the letters SC.

"May I see it?" Death asked.

Reagan faltered, clutching the envelope tightly against her chest. "I'm not so sure about that. Isn't it kind of like keeping a birthday wish secret? If I tell you, it might not come true."

"Ah, but we are Santa's helpers this year." Death pointed to Lily's hat. "So it would make sense that we get to see it."

"You're so cheesy." Reagan looked at the envelope. "I know Santa isn't real. There's no use pretending."

"Wait, you're literally looking at the Grim Reaper himself and you doubt Santa exists?" Lily laughed. "That's too cute."