by Johnny Miles
More streamed toward the remaining portal, now flickering as though it would close. Scooping up as many Magicals as she could, Gaea flung them through the portal unceremoniously. She was like a madwoman, clearly possessed with saving as many lives as she could, even as she nearly fell herself, one foot at the edge of the newly formed chasm.
As the realm continued to rumble, another crack in the ground appeared, this time beneath the portal. Woden appeared to help Gaea but only for a second or two. When the crack grew too wide, Woden gave Gaea a kiss and shoved her through, followed by the Elves in the split second before the portal closed. In a rush of wind, Woden whirled away from the remaining Magicals.
“Wait! What about us?” one of them cried, struggling to speed up.
“No! Don’t go! You can’t leave us!” cried another.
“I don’t want to die here! Please!”
Griffin swallowed hard, fighting the urge to collapse under the weight of hopelessness that came with watching someone die and the misery of realizing loss was sometimes unavoidable.
“Go!” Woden urged.
“Woden. You know we can’t. Those poor Magicals. My father—”
“Gavin is more than likely dead. As for the others, there is no one left who can open portals. And we do not have room in the sleigh.”
“But, Woden,” Griffin protested. “How can you? This is—”
“Kris? You know what to do.”
Griffin jumped, startled, as Kris wrapped his arms around him. In a flash, they disappeared from where they stood just as the ground gave a final groan.
A second later they stood on narrow footing by the sleigh.
The reindeer snorted frantically, stomping at the vibrating ground with their hooves.
Griffin felt Kris toss him up and into the back of the sleigh. Jackson appeared beside him.
The ground heaved. It lurched and buckled. A hole opened beneath them. They screamed. Dunder and Blixem brayed loudly but managed, somehow, with Woden at the reins, to muster the strength to pull them out of free-fall and into actual flight.
Except the sleigh wobbled.
Woden glanced over the side. Kris hung precariously from one of the runners.
“Hang on Kris! We just need to get to the next portal.”
“There’s no time. Just go!” He looked fearful but resigned.
“Like hell! You’re part of the Wild Hunt now and no one in the Wild Hunt gets let behind. Jackson? Griffin? Hang on to your balls or something.”
Woden cackled as though he’d just heard the funniest joke.
“Don’t let Bucket fall out!”
Woden manipulated the reins, guiding the reindeer.
“Oh my God. What’s happening? What’s happening? You’re not gonna… Oh my God. Are you fucking…?” Griffin screamed as Woden maneuvered the sleigh in an upward loop.
Woden laughed aloud with gusto.
Was he standing? Was Woden actually standing? Griffin wondered with a frenzied panic. What kind of lunatic does that?
Beside him, Jackson held on tight even as he squeezed Bucket between them.
“Let go when I tell you, Kris! I’ll catch you,” Woden hollered.
Griffin held his breath as they reached the top of the loop. Upside down, he felt gravity working against them. Still, he held on and pursed his lips to keep from hurling.
“Now!” Woden cried.
Kris let go and screamed.
Oh, Kris. I’m so sorry. It was nice knowing you, Griffin thought and closed his eyes. A moment later the sleigh bucked and rocked. Surely it must have hit an air pocket. Griffin opened his eyes as they leveled out and shot through the sky. Woden and Kris both whooped while Griffin hung over the side and hurled.
In a flash, they were gone.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Griffin opened his eyes. He tried to make sense of where he was, but his mind was in a haze. It didn’t help that his vision was cloudy. In his peripheral vision, he detected movement. Kris looked down at him with a worried look on his face.
“Mmmy dead? Christ, you look old. Whappened to…?” Griffin was certain he’d made himself clear, but his lips felt heavy and his tongue didn’t want to work. Why was his throat so dry? And why was Kris laughing? He sounded like Santa Claus with his ho, ho, ho. Definitely amused the bastard, Griffin thought and closed his eyes. He opened them again minutes later. At least, he thought only minutes had passed. This time, Woden loomed over him.
“Wham I?” Griffin asked.
“You’re safe. We’re at the North Pole.”
“The North Pole.” Griffin laughed. “Yeah, right.” He closed his eyes and drifted.
A hand on his shoulder awakened him. Griffin blinked. His vision was still fuzzy, but he smelled Jackson near, refreshing and cool like freshly fallen snow mixed with a light, airy pine. Griffin could make out Jackson anywhere.
“Jax…wham I? ‘M I dead?”
“No, Griffin. You’re not dead. We’re at the North Pole. With Kris and Bucket. Father is here too. Gaea stopped by to see you, but she couldn’t stay. She was exhausted after—”
“Mmm fah…’m fath…”
“I’m sorry, Griffin. Gavin didn’t…”
Griffin closed his eyes and faded once more, vaguely aware of a wetness that trickled down the sides of his face.
He dreamed.
He was in a dark, cramped space like a prison cell meant for smaller people than him. He couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face. Suddenly, everything around him began to crumble. Someone screamed. In the dark, Griffin inched his way toward the cry. Except there was another. This time from a different direction. Then another scream. Another. They came from everywhere at once, it seemed.
“Wait! What about us?”
“No! Don’t go! You can’t leave us!”
“I don’t want to die here! Please!”
Even in his sleep, the words haunted him. Griffin choked with the inability to save the last of the Magicals and mourned their loss.
Then came another voice. A woman. So familiar.
“Griffin? Are you there? Is that you? Help me, please. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what’s happening to me!”
His mother’s face swam to the forefront of his mind, then disappeared. Griffin wanted to drown in his sorrow. A different voice pulled him away from sadness. This time, a man’s voice.
“Griffin, I don’t know if you’re listening, but we really need your help here at the North Pole. How’d you like to be the next Santa Claus? Think about it and let me know.”
Darkness once more. Then, a small, old, and frail voice.
“I just wanted to say thanks.”
Bucket?
And then, finally.
“Come back to me, Griffin. I’m here. Waiting. And I’ll keep on waiting, as long as it takes. Just…come back. Please. I lost you once already. I won’t lose you again.”
“Jackson! I’m here, too. But I can’t find my way.”
The voices drifted away.
Suddenly, a dark-haired man with rugged, chiseled good looks appeared, though Griffin couldn’t tell if he was still dreaming or if the man was actually there. The man stood naked with a salacious grin. He was hairless, impeccable, not an ounce of fat. Griffin hated the man instantly. He’d always fought the battle of the bulge. In fact, as a boy, Griffin was big-boned. At least, that’s what his mother had called him. Their next-door neighbor had called him husky, and Griffin had the jeans to prove it. And now, here was this man putting him to shame, perfect in every way.
“Fuck you very much, asshole. At least my cock’s bigger.”
“Not by much.”
Griffin tried to look away, but the man’s physique began to change. Curious, Griffin stared, noting the skin tone. The limbs lengthened. Thick, long hair grew from the waist down, covering every inch of skin. And were those…hooves? Bumps sprouted on either side of the man’s forehead, and as Griffin watched, the nubs grew. They thickened and curled into
horns, becoming massive. The salacious grin on the man’s face turned into something malicious.
The muscle-bound creature roared with anger.
Krampus!
Griffin tried to run but couldn’t. Something heavy slammed into him. He fell with Krampus above him, looking down at him, into his eyes as if he were about to be fucked in the most brutal and merciless way.
Tumbling.
This time Griffin looked down at Krampus. Surprisingly, he was excited by the fear in the demon’s eyes. They continued to flip and tumble—Krampus… Griffin…Krampus…Griffin…Krampus—over and over, as they fell, plunging into deeper darkness.
But then Krampus’s face became Griffin’s father, Gavin’s. Griffin watched through Krampus’s eyes as Krampus plunged a fist into Gavin’s chest. Gavin screamed horribly.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Griffin somehow detached from Krampus’s point of view and stood off to the side, still behind the demon. He watched as Krampus ate Gavin’s heart and then, still chewing, glanced over his shoulder. A moment later Krampus chuckled and locked eyes with Griffin.
“I’m coming for you, motherfucker. And this time I will kill you.” Krampus laughed with evil intent.
Griffin gulped. Wasn’t this supposed to be a dream?
With a jolt, Griffin awakened, screaming. He thrashed and slapped at the air, as though fighting an invisible force. Jackson came suddenly into view, and after nearly punching him in the face, Griffin eventually calmed down.
“Where…where are we?” He sat up.
“We’re at the North Pole. In Kris’s house.”
Griffin glanced about. It was a large ornate room with peach walls and a wood floor. Thick drapes covered an entire wall, and incredibly intricate tapestries with various Christmas scenes embroidered into them hung from various spots. A decent fire burned cheerfully in the hearth at the opposite end of the room.
“Are you okay?” Jackson asked.
“Yeah. I guess. I…” Griffin sighed heavily. “How long have we been here?”
“Nearly a week.”
“A week? And…I’ve been asleep the entire time?”
“Yeah. But if it’s any consolation, Kris and Bucket were out for about twenty-four hours straight. I was out nearly twelve, which is unusual since I don’t sleep all that much. My father, on the other hand, napped a couple of hours and was up and about like nothing ever happened. At least, that’s what they tell me.”
Griffin couldn’t stop thinking of Gavin, of finally meeting his father after decades of not having a paternal figure in his life, only to lose him so tragically.
“I think…I think I wanted to die.”
Jackson reached for his hand. Their fingers laced together. Silence surrounded them like a warm blanket.
“Bucket? How he is?” Griffin asked after a while.
“He’s…coping.”
“And Kris?”
“He seems…” Jackson thought a moment. “A bit shaken but okay. He’s stopped in to see you a couple of times. Bucket has too. As a matter of fact, you’ve had a lot of visitors! Father, Gaea, members of the Wild Hunt. One of the Elders came too.”
“Elders?”
“Yeah. They’re like… Think of your government. The Elders kinda enforce the rules. Although truth be told, they don’t have a lot of rules, and they don’t really govern. Still, it’s just protocol, according to Kris.” Jackson cleared his throat. “He tells me…he tells me you said yes. To being Santa Claus.”
“I don’t know. It’s not like I have anything to go back to. Just a tiny apartment I rented from a retired Chicago couple who moved to Greensboro to escape the cold. It’s not even a proper place. It’s over a garage. I’ve no money. No job and low to zero prospects of ever finding one in my field again.”
Griffin took a deep breath and let it out slow.
“And…Mom’s gone.”
“I’m sorry, Griffin. I wish I could’ve been there for you.”
“Don’t apologize, Jax. I was the one who pushed you away.” This time, the silence between them held a certain awkwardness. “I don’t even know why.”
“It’s okay, Griffin.” Jackson squeezed his hand. “You’re here now. And we’re together again. That’s what counts. That is…if you still want to be together.”
Griffin gazed at Jackson, absorbing every detail of his face. He looked exactly the same: frosty blue eyes, fine nose, kissable lips. Even his hair was the same, white, thick, and spiky, pointing every which way. Except he seemed older, somehow more grown-up.
“I fought this. I fought you. I didn’t want to believe any of this was real. It was easier to think you were all crazy than accept there truly was Magic in the world. And because I was so busy fighting everything, dealing with my mother, I lost you.”
Jackson leaned forward suddenly and kissed Griffin softly. “You never lost me, Griffin Kloss. Not ever. Not really.”
Griffin cleared his throat. “I’m sensing a big but here.”
“Well…let’s just say I can get a bit…impetuous at times.”
“You? Naaaahhhh. I don’t believe you.” Griffin chuckled.
Jackson smiled. “Listen. I know I came on strong when we met, but I’ve never felt so comfortable with any one person. Not even…”
“Not even?” Griffin prodded. He watched Jackson carefully, saw how he furrowed his brow and pulled away as if he wanted to retreat.
“There’s…something you should know. It’s about Black Pete.”
Griffin felt a dark presence come between them. “I know you guys had…a thing.”
“It wasn’t a thing. Not really. I was curious about him. Really curious. I’d heard so much weird stuff, you know? Like…that he once accompanied his father on unofficial sleigh runs. Before Krampus became Krampus. Only instead of gifts, he’d leave chunks of coal and—”
“Yeah, I know that part of his story.”
“Yeah, but did you know he was also married?”
“Krampus?”
“No. Black Pete.”
Griffin shook his head.
Jackson stood. “He was. Married. He had children as well, though no one knows where they are. Then I came along.”
“What about his wife?”
“He killed her. He said he did it for me. Chopped her up into bits. People all over the world got macabre surprises in the stockings they’d hung by the chimney with care that year. And to think I once…”
“Were you in love with him?”
“I thought I was. But then, who doesn’t love a bad boy? I was much younger then. It was more like lust. I mean, did you look at him? Really look at him? He had a rockin’ bod then. Still does.” Jackson blushed suddenly and lowered his gaze with embarrassment. “Not sure what that says about me, that I’m still turned on by a sick and twisted freak in a lumberjack shirt.”
“Would it help if I wore that lumberjack shirt?” Griffin teased.
Jackson chuckled. “My father saw what Black Pete did to me. My father knew I’d been sniffing around after Black Pete. He warned me. Told me there’d be nothing but heartache if I even had sex with him. You see, there’s something…not quite right with Black Pete. It’s not just his mind or his heart or even his soul. His children were born with physical disabilities. One, supposedly, was born so deformed that Black Pete crushed its skull just minutes after pulling the infant out from his wife. At least, that’s the rumor.” Jackson paused. When Griffin didn’t reply, Jackson pressed on. “I didn’t see it then, how fucked up he was. I assumed Father didn’t know what he was talking about. And so, I made it my mission to seduce Black Pete. It didn’t take much.” Jackson let out a sigh. “I’m— I’m sorry, Griffin. Truly.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. It’s all in the past. Assuming you don’t still—”
Jackson drew near. He sat at the edge of the bed. They kissed. Softly at first, then with a burning passion. In that one kiss, Griffin knew all he needed to know. Anything t
hat might have happened, anything either of them might have felt for anyone else no longer existed. It was all in the past.
Still, there was one thing that had been bothering Griffin even before leaving Fort Lauderdale since Virginia’s death. It had kept him from sleeping, kept him from grieving and moving on. It plagued him with guilt, and it wasn’t until Woden had rummaged through his memories that Griffin had been forced to confront it. But even then, he’d managed to push it aside, push it deep down until Krampus practically raped his mind.
“Since we’re sort of…confessing…” Griffin paused. “I need you to know my mom didn’t exactly die.”
“What do you mean?”
Griffin hesitated, then looked away, ashamed.
“I-I killed her.”
“What? Griffin, no. That’s not—”
“Let me finish. Please.” Griffin took a deep breath and forged ahead, telling Jackson what had happened. They remained quiet long after Griffin had finished. Finally, when the silence had become unbearable, Jackson spoke.
“I remember that night.”
“You remember? What do you mean? You weren’t even there.”
“There was one night—all right, there were many—but this one particular night, I was thinking of you. A lot. More than usual. And I hated you. I never wanted to see you again. I thought, how dare this jerk come along, make me feel what I felt from the moment I lay eyes on him, then pull the rug out from under me? But I think you must have been thinking of me too, because I felt you near. I felt the connection. You were in a pretty dark space, but you spiraled big-time after that.”
“She…groped me. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t let her…maul me.” An unexpected thought popped into Griffin’s head. “You don’t suppose other creatures—Magicals, I mean—could have…I dunno…started poking around in her head?”
“Anything’s possible, but without proof… Griffin, you didn’t kill her on purpose. You were defending yourself.”
“I just don’t now how to get past this.”
“Together. We get past this together.”
