“Where’s home? You’ve never even told me where you come from.”
“Sheffield,” he says. “How about you?”
“Bristol,” I mumble. My heart sinks. Sheffield is miles away from Bristol. When this is over, I’ll never see him again. And he can’t wait for this to be over.
“I thought you’d be pleased,” he says again. “I thought you wanted to get out of here too.”
“I do, I just…” I just what? I just don’t want to leave Luke yet. I can’t exactly say that to him though.
“Today hasn’t been an entirely bad day,” I say instead.
He laughs. “We’ve been kidnapped by a bunch of elves and we’re stuck in the sodding North Pole. The days aren’t exactly fun.”
“But you liked making those toy trains today. I could tell you were enjoying it.”
“It was okay, I guess.”
“The elves were telling me why they make the toys in the first place. It made me feel kind of guilty.”
“Me too,” Luke says. “But that’s exactly what they’re doing. They want us to feel like that.”
I shrug.
“Don’t be such a good girl, Mis. We’ve been here, they’ve got what they wanted. I won’t steal any more Christmas decorations and you won’t set any more children on fire.”
“It was the tree.”
He laughs.
We’ve made it past the reindeer stables and into the woods now. Luke grips my hand tighter and tells me to be careful. Snow, ice, and tree roots don’t mix.
“How come you’re so eager to get out of here all of a sudden? I thought you’d given up.”
“I never give up.” He smiles back at me. “I just have to go.”
“This isn’t about some college lecture, is it? Surely a guy like you doesn’t mind missing a few days of college?”
“Like I give a toss about college. I’d happily miss a few years of it.”
“Then what?”
He sighs and shakes his head.
I get the feeling there’s something he’s not telling me, but I don’t pursue it for now.
We reach the opening in the trees where the runway is. In the distance, we can see the lights are on in the sleigh headquarters building, and we can hear music coming from there. Luke seems to know exactly where he’s heading, and I follow him along. He hasn’t let go of my hand yet. We pass the runway and head into the trees at the far end of it. I think Luke expected to come across a giant door or something where the sleigh would go through, but this place looks exactly the same as the rest of the forest.
“What are you looking for?” I ask him.
“Anything. There has to be something!” He sounds panicked and upset.
“Luke, what’s wrong?”
“They can’t just keep me here. I have to go back. I have to go home. This is ridiculous.”
“Why? Why now?”
“Because I’ve been here for days!” He shouts suddenly. “I can’t leave her any longer!”
My heart sinks even more. He can’t leave her any longer. He’s going to say a girlfriend. Of course he is. Why wouldn’t he have a girlfriend? He’s cute, funny, kind, and protective. Of course he has a girlfriend. What was I thinking?
“I have a little sister,” he says.
“What, no girlfriend?”
“Oh, yeah. Like I could have a girlfriend with my life.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I have a little sister.” He says. “I can’t leave her any longer.”
“Why not? Is she desperate to spend Christmas with you or something?”
“No, I just… She’s not… My dad, he…”
I step forwards and touch his shoulder. He turns to face me, and when our eyes meet, he seems to crumble.
Suddenly he’s hugging me. His face is buried in my shoulder. I squeeze him gently.
“If I’m not there, he might hit her instead.” His voice sounds unsteady and my heart sinks for an entirely different reason.
“Oh, Luke…”
He pulls back and pushes his hair off his face shakily. “Forget it, all right?”
“No, I…”
“I don’t want the elves knowing about this. I don’t want anyone knowing about it. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Yes, you should. Luke, listen, I’m not going to tell anyone, okay? I just… He hits you?” I take hold of his hand again when he sighs. “Talk to me.”
“He… You know I told you that Joe reminds me of him? Well, Joe is a pussycat compared to him. He calls me a fucking gnome because of my stupid ears, and he makes me self-conscious about them like nothing else. He’s embarrassed to be seen in public with me. That’s why Joe calling me Elf Boy got to me so much.”
I give his hand a squeeze. “And he goes further?”
“He’s… aggressive. If he doesn’t like something, well, let’s just say that it knows damn well he doesn’t like it.”
“You’re not an ‘it’.”
“I’m a thing that he doesn’t like. He makes sure I know that.”
“And you stay because of your sister?”
“She’s only ten. I can take it when he hits me. She can’t. I can’t leave without her, and I certainly can’t afford to get my own place and take care of her too.”
The thought of anyone hitting him is too much to bear. I hug him again.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble into his hair. I’m at a loss for what else to say.
I feel his smile against my shoulder. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“We could tell one of the elves. Maybe they can help.”
“No,” he says. “I don’t want their help. I just have to finish college and get a decent job. Then I can get us both away from him.”
“How long is that, Luke? Two years? And then how long until you find a job that pays enough for the both of you to live on?”
“I didn’t say it was a good plan. It’s the only plan I have.”
“We have to do something.”
“I have to get out of here. If I’m there, then he’s hitting me and not her. That’s what matters.”
“That’s not the only thing that matters.”
“I can take it. She’s tiny. He’ll break her.”
“Has he ever broken you?”
“Define broken,” he mumbles, and my heart bleeds for him.
“Luke…”
“Just forget it, okay? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Yes, you should.” I put my hand on his arm when he goes to pull away.
He rubs a hand over his face. “Let’s just see if we can find a way out.”
I understand his subject closed tone of voice, and I reluctantly agree as he takes my hand again and I follow him through the trees.
He’s silent until we come to another clearing, and then he gasps. I follow his gaze upwards.
“The Northern Lights,” I breathe.
“I didn’t even know they were real,” Luke whispers.
It’s gorgeous. Pink and green lights swirl in the sky overhead. Stars sparkle around them, and it takes our breath away.
“The elves certainly kept this quiet, didn’t they?” Luke mutters.
We stand there for what seems like forever. When I look up at Luke, I realise he has tears in his eyes. I lean my head against his shoulder and give his other shoulder a squeeze. He presses a kiss to my hair and rests his head against mine.
I know he’s not crying just because of the lights, but also because he’s probably never told anyone about his father before. I wish there was something I could do.
“Thanks,” he whispers.
My only response is to tighten the arm I have around him.
We watch the lights in silence until it grows darker and they start to fade away.
Luke heads towards a few more trees and then he stops. “Mis, this is it. Look—the glass.”
Shimmering in front of us is the dome wall. Just like the part we saw in th
e village, solid and tough, and extending way beyond what we can see.
“This is crazy,” I mutter.
Luke thumps his fist against it and it does nothing.
“Jesus,” he mutters. “I’m gonna find a branch or something.”
I cup my hands over my eyes to block out reflections and look through the glass.
I can’t see much. It’s snowy and dark out there, and it takes my eyes a while to adjust. When they do, I jump back in shock.
“Holy shit! Luke, look!”
He appears and cups his hands around his eyes too.
“Bloody hell,” he mutters after a minute. “Of all the things I thought they were making up to scare us.”
“It can’t be… can it?”
But it is. There’s a zombie out there. Actually there are two zombies, but one is further away and sitting down. The other is closer to the glass and moving in a sort of jerking rhythm, and it takes us a while to work out what it’s doing.
“It’s the music,” I say. “It’s moving to the music.”
We can still hear the strains of Chilly Chunes Radio coming from the sleigh headquarters, and obviously this zombie can too.
“This is ridiculous,” Luke says.
“Of course it’s ridiculous. We’re in the North Pole, watching a freaking zombie dancing to ‘Jingle Bell Rock’.”
“You call that dancing?”
“Well, swaying then. Whatever it’s doing, it’s a zombie. Zombies don’t exist.”
“Neither do elves, flying reindeer, and Father Christmas, but apparently they do up here.”
The zombie waits until the song is finished, and then it turns its dead eyes directly to us. It’s like something out of a horror movie. One eyeball hangs out of its socket, dangling against the zombie’s cheek. One arm is clearly broken and it flops around uselessly.
“Jesus.” I jump back.
“Wow. I think we should go,” Luke says.
There’s a crash from outside and the glass rattles.
“Shit.”
I don’t want to see any more, but Luke looks back through it. “Er, yeah.” He pulls away as the glass rattles again. “I think that zombie really likes us.”
“Tinsel did say they fling themselves at the glass sometimes.”
“Yeah. Let’s hope it’s as unbreakable as she seems to think it is. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
We make our way back through the trees hastily. The glass rattles a few more times before we get further away. I haven’t heard any shattering yet, so we stop to catch our breath.
“Well, that was fun,” Luke says.
“Oh yeah. Let’s come out here and get attacked by zombies every night.”
He laughs. “Didn’t find my exit though, did I? Funnily enough, I have no wish to find out if that glass breaks now.”
“I can’t believe it’s real,” I say. “I mean, zombies aren’t real. They’re horror-film fodder. They don’t exist. And yet we’ve just come face-to-face with one.”
Luke shrugs. “I’ve given up on what might be real or not real. None of this was real until I came here. Now I don’t see any other explanation.”
“What are we going to do now?”
“Let’s go back,” he says. “They didn’t give me a curfew, but we’ve been out for hours. I don’t particularly want anyone finding us over here, especially with a zombie trying to fracture the glass.”
“I meant about you. You can’t try to break that glass. You can’t go out there. That zombie meant business.”
“I’ll figure something out.”
“Luke…”
“Don’t, Mis. It’s okay. I dealt with it well enough before. I just have to get home before he hurts my sister, and then nothing will have changed.”
That’s exactly the problem, I think.
He squeezes my hand when we get back to the main street. The adrenalin has worn off, and I suddenly feel tired to the bone.
“Thanks for listening tonight, Mis. I mean it. I didn’t mean to tell you all that. No one else in the world knows that. I really didn’t mean for it to come out. But thank you. For being there and for listening.”
“I want to help,” I tell him. “I wish there was something I could do.”
He smiles a slow, sad smile. “It’s the way life goes. I’ll be all right, don’t worry.”
But of course I’m going to worry. Luke’s going to break out of here, and without even thinking of the zombies or the polar bears that might be outside this dome, he’s going back to a father who hurts him.
I want to do something.
I just don’t know what.
Wenceslas gives us a disapproving look but doesn’t say anything when we get in. It’s almost midnight, and everyone else is in bed. I’m about to say goodnight to Luke when he pulls me to him and hugs me hard.
“Thank you,” he whispers again.
I don’t know how to respond.
I don’t sleep much that night. I keep thinking about Luke and getting the overwhelming urge to hug him.
I want to tell him I like him. I want to tell him someone cares.
I want to do something.
I don’t want him to go home to that.
CHAPTER 20
“Good morning! Welcome to the Naughty and Nice Intelligence System!” an elf chirps as we walk through the door of the building Navi has directed us to. “I’m Poinsettia! I’ll be your training advisor today!”
It’s way too early for this kind of excitement.
“Luke, Mistletoe,” Luke grunts.
“Ooooh, what a lovely name!” Poinsettia reaches over and tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. “So Christmassy!”
I wonder if half these elves realise we’re here because we hate Christmas? Also, if they have any concept of personal space?
I instinctively take a step back, but she doesn’t seem to notice.
“Follow me—I’ll show you to our office!”
Every sentence that comes out of her mouth is a high-pitched chirrup, and I wonder how many sugar cookies she’s eaten this morning. We follow her up the stairs, and although every building we walk into here is surprising in some way, this one takes the cake. It’s a huge, white, open-plan office. Rows and rows of cubicles with an elf sitting in each one. When the door shuts behind us, most of them look up and give us a wave. It looks like a normal office, although the cubicles are smaller than they would be for a human-sized person. Poinsettia leads us through the rows and into an office separated from the rest of the cubicles by glass walls.
“This is where you’ll be working,” she says. “With me!”
“Yay!” Luke says sarcastically.
There are two big desks in the office, and she goes to sit behind one and pats the other. It has two chairs behind it, so Luke and I take one each.
“Now then,” she says happily. “I’m sure you know what the naughty and nice list is. Nice children get a toy from Santa; naughty children get a lump of coal in their stockings. As I’m sure you’ve heard, Santa makes this list and checks it twice. Well, the first part is a lie. It’s the elves who make the list. Santa just sits on his bum all day drinking hot chocolate and taking all the credit. He does, however, check it twice, and it was on that final check last year where we ran into problems. The new Santa was, shall we say, enthusiastic about the job. Some might even say overly enthusiastic. He checked it twice, he might even have checked it three times, but he didn’t take enough time or look into the cases on an individual basis. He didn’t trust us elves to do the job. First year in the job too, the bloody nerve of him.”
I catch Luke’s eye and he grins at me.
“I take it you aren’t overly fond of Santa around here?” Luke asks.
“Oh, we aren’t allowed to say that. The elves love Santa. It’s just that this most recent one is, er, perhaps a law unto himself would be the best way to put it.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He’s a little headstrong. Last year wa
s his first year, and he came in all high and mighty. Thought he knew the job better than anyone and had no time for elves who have been working here for years. He didn’t trust us with the N and N list and insisted on checking it twice, but the problem was that he didn’t check it well enough. He didn’t have time for all the paperwork, you see. He took every case at face value, and that’s not what we do at the North Pole. He put far too many children on the naughty list, but you can’t argue with him. He is Santa, after all, as he repeatedly told any elf who questioned him. But it doesn’t matter now. This year, because of his actions, we have been forced to do a hefty review of the list. There must have been so many disappointed children last year. Can you imagine waking up to only a lump of coal on Christmas morning?” She shudders.
“Oh yes, that must be terrible,” Luke mutters.
“Well, we can’t let it happen again. This year we’ve changed the way we do things and have become the N and N Intelligence System. All the elves you see out there monitor each child on a daily basis. They are alerted immediately to naughty behaviour, and then they supervise the situation until Christmas. Personally, I am at the tail end of the review of the naughty list. This is what you’ll be helping me with today.”
She pulls her candy-cane wand out, and with a flick of her wrist, it extends across the room and she taps on the glass with it. Another flick and it returns to normal size and she pops it back in her pocket.
An elf scurries in with a mountain of files. He deposits them on our desk and scurries away again.
“There we go,” Poinsettia chirps. “That’s your work for the morning. Those files are some of the children Santa put on the naughty list last year. Please review them and decide whether they should stay there or be moved to the nice list.”
We both stare at the mountain of files on the desk.
“This is crazy,” Luke says. “How the hell are we supposed to do that?”
“Simply read through them. You’ll get all the facts from each file. You then decide if the child is naughty or not. And don’t do what the last moron from your group did and mark them all as naughty because he simply hates children,” she says, deepening her voice.
“Joe,” Luke and I say together.
“Yes,” she says. “What a horrible creature. He did nothing but complain about paperwork and insist on telling every elf in the office the most ridiculous joke that wasn’t even funny.”
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