Santa Daddy, I’m Not the One

8

LANDON

I clung to the reins, my body thrumming with adrenaline and the cold air biting at my skin. Below me, the townspeople had gathered with Nils, their voices a distant roar of disapproval and accusation. Nils was looking up at me, his figure standing out against the swirling snow and the dark shapes of the crowd. He’d sided with the people. And why wouldn’t he have? He was one of them. I was an outsider.

The feeling of betrayal, of being right about not trusting people, cut deeper than the chill of the night.

I tightened my gloved hands, the leather creaking under the strain, and I snapped the reins anew. The sleigh soared higher, away from Twinkle Glen, its lights twinkling dimly. Just when I’d started to hope and believe that maybe this wasn’t such a terrible place, that maybe I’d been wrong about the world, it had turned on me. But the dimming of the tree, their accusing stares, and Santa’s hesitation had shattered that fragile thought.

Yet again, I was running away, although I didn’t know where I was going. The Whispering Woods spread out below me, a dark, undulating sea of trees. I couldn’t go back to the workshop, not after what had happened. I needed to find a way back to my world, back to a place where at least the disappointments and pains were familiar.

Tears blurred my vision as I navigated the sleigh, the reindeer’s breaths puffing out in steady, rhythmic clouds. I’d never felt so alone, so utterly lost. The night seemed to close in on me, and for a moment, I considered letting go, surrendering to whatever fate awaited me in the frigid wilderness below.

The sleigh jolted violently, and a sharp cry of pain cut through the night. Has one of the reindeer been struck? The animals panicked, breaking their formation as we started a steep descent.

“We have to land!” I shouted, though no one could hear me over the wind’s howl and the reindeer’s distress. I pulled at the reins, trying to guide the terrified creatures down through the trees, branches whipping past us in a blur.

With a final, desperate effort, I steered the sleigh into a clearing. The vehicle crashed into the snow with a bone-jarring thud. I was thrown forward, my breath knocked out of me, and landed in a heap on the cold ground.

For a moment, I lay there, dazed and shivering. With a groan, I pushed myself up, my body aching from the impact. The reindeer were huddled together, one of them nursing a wounded leg. I approached them slowly, murmuring words of comfort, my fears momentarily forgotten in the face of their pain.

A sinister, mocking laughter echoed around me. What the…? I wasn’t alone. My heart pounded fiercely. The laughter grew louder through the quiet, snow-filled glade. I scanned the edges of the clearing, trying to discern where the chilling sound was emanating from. The once tranquil woods now felt threatening. A shiver ran down my spine that had nothing to do with the biting cold. The reindeer shifted restlessly behind me. Whatever this threat was, they sensed it too.

A shadowy figure stepped out of the woods. The figure emerged with an eerie grace, its footsteps barely disturbing the pristine layer of snow. A cloak of shadows seemed to cling to it, fluttering with every step like the wings of a nightmarish creature. He stood tall and imposing, his form vaguely humanoid but twisted in a way that made my stomach churn.

His skin was a pale, icy blue, almost translucent in the moonlight, veins of darker blue crisscrossing like frozen rivers. His eyes were the most terrifying aspect, glowing with a malevolent red light that seemed to pierce right through me. They were eyes that knew no warmth, no mercy.

Horns, long and twisted like the branches of dead trees, curled back from his forehead, giving him an even more demonic appearance. His mouth was twisted in a cruel smile, revealing sharp, jagged teeth that gleamed like icicles.

He moved closer, and a chill emanated from him, frosting the surrounding air. “At last, we meet. Shouldn’t you be thanking me for bringing you here?”

I took a step back, my legs shaking. “You brought me here? Who are you?”

Was he Frostheart, the person the elves talked about so much?

“I’m not sure yet that you are worthy of knowing my name.” He stopped, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply. “Ah yes, you did better than I could have hoped for.”

My breath hitched in my throat, and my heart pounded painfully. “What do you mean?” I asked, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice.

The figure laughed again, sending a fresh wave of chills down my spine. “Why, your isolation, of course,” he said, his voice as cold as the wind that whistled through the trees. “Your resentment, your bitterness.” Those terrible eyes glowed brighter with each word. “It has created such a delicious scent. A scent I’ve been seeking for a very long time.”

I felt sick to my stomach, terror constricting around me like a vise. “I just want to go home.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

“Then kill the tree.”

“What?”

“You believe them that if the tree dies, the town will die? Come now, Landon. You are smarter than that.”

“Then why does the tree mean so much to them?”

“It keeps your world out of this one. If the tree dies, you get to walk out of here and go home. It’s as simple as that. Kill the tree, and you’ll get your heart’s desire.”

“I don’t want to kill the tree.”

“Too bad. It’s already dying. Soon, they’ll be asking for your head.”

“You’re lying.”

He moved so swiftly that in the blink of an eye, he was standing right in front of me. I opened my mouth to scream, but he gripped me by the neck. Icy fingers dug into my skin, and a chill, a frigid cold more intense than anything I’d ever felt, spread across my body. His glowing red eyes stared into mine, and fear paralyzed me.

“If you’re going to prove useless, I might as well find another purpose for you.”

He pulled aside his black cloak, but instead of legs, his limbs were the gnarled, twisted roots of a tree. Between them was his cock, which looked like a thick wooden trunk, pulsating with a sickly glow.

I let out a bloodcurdling scream.

He merely laughed. “Your fear makes me excited. Maybe I’ll let you live after all. You can serve me the way you serve him.”

“No. Never!”

He thrust me away from him, and I fell to the ground, coughing and rubbing my neck.

“Go back to him,” he said. “Only you can kill the tree.”

I shook my head. “He hates me.”

“No, he doesn’t. He’s weak and pathetic. Why do you think I chose you? He loves pale blond boys who are eager to please him. You were chosen well.”

A sob tore from me. I was just a pawn in this sick game of his. The reindeer whined pitifully as though sensing my distress. Tears welling up, I glanced back at the reindeer, their gazes sympathetic and their noses twitching in unease. I straightened, not for my sake, but for theirs. “I won’t go through with this scheme of yours.”

“You have no choice.”

He reached out a hand, and a surge of icy energy shot toward me. I tried to dodge, but it was too late. The force of the magic hit me in the chest, sending me sprawling back into the snow, my body numb and my mind reeling.

As darkness closed in, his voice reached me as though from a distance. “Just a bit of ice to make the heart go numb.”