My body laid between aisles of unsold clearance items. I stare blankly at the fluorescent lights above. A few flickered. They were dying. Like me.

“Leena?” A voice called out. “Leena!”

Josh sprinted over to me, skidding on his knees halfway down the aisle. He scooped up my head in his hands. “Leena! Can you hear me! We made it, Leena!” He sobbed. “Leena, don’t you dare give up on me!”

The sounds of ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ died down over the store’s speakers. One of his tears fell on my cheek. “Leena, come on! The Christmas rush is over!”

“Can we go home now?”

“No!” He cried. “We have to work overtime to fix up the mess.”

“Dammit.”

Kriv the elf punched in the last several commands, prompting a beep from the terminal.

"All systems are online and ready, Sir!"

"Excellent," the massive figure said in a deep baritone that rumbled through the chamber. He was big, bigger than any living thing Kriv had ever seen. The puffy red coat and trousers added to his girth, while the thick-soled black boots added to his mountainous heighth.

If you can call him alive, Kriv thought. If you can call any of us alive.

The Demon King of the North could be considered alive, in a way. The energy that he and his helpers drew their forms from was a living energy after all, siphoned from any and all that invoked the Demon King's true name.

Kriv moved aside as the Demon King took step after thunderous step towards the dias and the obsidian throne that stood behind it. Each step sent a tremor through the floor.

He seated himself upon the throne and pulled a silver-domed cap down over his head; a tangle of soft white hair beneath the relective cap.

"Activate the temporal flux," the Demon King said. "Be sure to link all time zones. I want them all to hit at once."

Kriv nodded and then flashed a questioning glance to his partner, Evenia.

She offered him a nervous smile in response, then flicked a series of switches on a panel in front of her.

Lights flashed to life within the emotion siphon, a mysterious device as old as the Demon King, indicating the procedure was ready.

The device hovered above the silver cap, connecting to it by way of a single cable. It sparked and popped with electricity as the cogs within the machine synced with each other.

"What is our theoretical output this year?"

Kriv glanced at one of the displays and performed a series of quick calculations in his head.

"About seventy percent of last year's output," he said.

The Demon King muttered a curse under his breath, then said, "Oh well. It can't be helped. That should still be enough to get us through until next year. Barely."

He just didn't understand it. Where had all of their spirit gone? Humans numbered exponentially more than in previous centuries, but their Christmas spirit had dwindled to half of what it used to be.

It made the Demon King ravenous.

"Proceed," he said, his voice a rumble of thunder.

The Demon King tilted his head back and opened his mouth as wide as it would go.

This part always made Kriv nervous. If humans only knew what they were actually doing when they invoked the name of Klaus, they would run screaming and dive under their beds.

The Demon King's mouth expanded wider, stretching far beyond its natural limits. His teeth elongated and split into multiple rows.

This continued until the Demon King's gaping orifice was as wide as his body. It was a miracle that the domed cap stayed put on his head.

The emotion siphon hummed as it increased in power.

A thin stream of chromatic light streamed down from the machine's pinched tip and drifted down into the maw that was the Demon King's mouth.

Kriv heard the sounds of the memories pouring out of the machine. Laughter, joy, love, and some sadness-there was always a little sadness as not everyone had an occasion to be happy on Christmas-all flowed down to be consumed by the Demon King.

The entire process lasted fifteen minutes before the machine fell silent, the flashing lights within winking out.

The Demon King closed his mouth and licked his lips. A warm red glow emanated from his cheeks.

"Ho, ho, ho!" he said and rubbed his belly. "Not bad for seventy percent!"

Both Kriv and Evenia grinned at the Demon King before powering down their equipment.

The Demon King approached the two and in one smooth motion, scooped them up and placed them on his shoulders, one per side.

Together the three exited the workshop and were met with the sounds of laughter from the other elves as they danced and played in the snow.

A snowball rocketed out of the darkness, headed straight for the Demon King's face.

He threw up a nonchalant hand and caught it, smiled at it, then tossed it aside.

"Until next year," he said, and continued out into the snow-dusted night while the northern lights shimmered and sparkled overhead.

#fiction #fantasy #Christmas #Klaus

What happens after Christmas? You're lucky to not know. You'll be even luckier to never find out. Those who are smart will hide for the six days following Christmas Day. Those who are foolish? Well, let's just say, whatever possesses them sure isn't the Christmas spirit. Ignorance is bliss, and in this case, it's a lifesaver. For six days, there is freedom. For six days, your sins will not be documented. For six days, there is no naughty or nice, and this is because, for those few days suspended between Christmas and the new year, Santa isn't watching. And it would seem,

neither is God.

The apocalypse begins on the 26th of every December. When people know their actions bear no consequences, their actions wreak havoc. Crime. Vandalism. Murder. Treason. Riots. Gangs. Shootings. If humanity has no reason to behave, why should they? Yeah, Santa Claus came to town, but then he left. And in his wake, destruction. Chaos. Darkness. It's the descent of humanity. An ongoing cycle of suffering and pain, and all for what? So we can get revenge for the rewards we didn't receive this year? So we can give ourselves the Christmas we know we deserve? Or is it so that, for the other 359 days, we can be on the nice list? Trust me when I say, if you think you want to know what happens after Christmas, you don't. Because, until the first day of the new year, the world you thought you knew turns into a living hell.

One you don't want to be a part of.