Jingle All the Way

Jingle All the Way.

Poppy was Santa’s new first in command, she had come from the toy factory about three months prior and had been promoted to Santa’s first in command since his actual first in command Bruno was out fighting off the Flu. It was strange to Santa that Bruno came down sick right after Poppy had arrived, she was a new Elf in the factory and had set her sights high from day one. Usually new Elf’s went to the Reindeer stables for no less than three years to prove themselves, but in less than three months she had made her way all the way to the top, by passing Elves that had been working their entire lives in one department. Most were happy to just stay put in one department though. Not, Poppy, she had made it clear upon arriving that she didn’t want to stay put she had goals and had set her sights on Bruno’s job right away. Mrs. Claus was suspicious of Poppy because she didn’t hang out with the other Elves when on break and she didn’t like the usual Elf foods and drinks. Mrs. Claus was a very good judge of a person and so if she said to watch out for Poppy then Santa was going to watch out for her.

No one knew where Poppy had come from or where she had worked before, she said she had worked for the Snow Queen since she was small, but when Santa had called the Queen to talk to her about Poppy, she had no idea who she was and that all her Elves were ancient, and she didn’t have any young elves working for her. So, he had called Jack Frost and the Easter Bunny and had gotten the same answer, so now he really was keeping an eye on her. If he couldn’t find out where she had come from then it was a safe bet nothing good could come of her being there. Now, Bruno was down, Santa was even more suspicious and so, he had promoted her to keep her close. Poppy was a good worker and very meticulous in everything she did, she had lists upon lists and memos were constantly being sent out, and she ran random quality checks on the factory output. She was nothing more than the most efficient Elf Santa had, had as his first in command. It had been a year now, Christmas had run smoothly, more smoothly than any other year which had been a little shocking since it was a new first in command. Santa was impressed by Poppy’s work ethic and how efficient she was, but in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder if she had, had something to do with Bruno and a couple other Elves getting sick and Bruno, had gotten so sick that he had died from his illness which at first seemed like Elf-Flu, but had turned into something more very quickly. He had been kept in relative comfort by the doctor and with them help of pain killers, but something just seemed a little fishy, that every time he looked like he was improving, Poppy would go see him and then within days he would get sick, until in the end she was seeing him every day, supposedly to go over schedules and lists and he had died.

Bruno was well-liked and would be dearly missed and now, Mrs. Claus really was out for blood, because she knew in her heart of hearts that something foul was going on. “Santa, you have to believe me, that Poppy is bad news, she is spending way too much time in the office and going to see the sick Elves, who just so happen to be her competition to keep her job.” “My dear Mrs. Claus, I am keeping an eye on her, I am keeping her close to me and watching her, it just seems like we have an outbreak of Elf-Flu, because it is warmed than usual up here in the North Pole. Do not worry my dear, I will keep my Elves and you safe.” He kissed her gently on the forehead and went back to his reading. Mrs. Claus huffed in indignation that he was too impressed with Poppy to see what was really going on. Poppy was getting rid of all the Elves that usurp her position. Mrs. Claus vowed to find proof and to put Poppy on trial.

“Doctor, do you have the lab results back from Bruno and Shelly’s blood and fluids?” Mrs. Claus was talking to the head doctor at the Elf hospital. Bruno and Shelly’s husbands had opted not to have autopsy’s done, but had allowed for lab tests to be run on their fluids. “Yes, Mrs. Claus, but I am confused as to what you are looking for.” Mrs. Claus took the paper results and read that they had found trace amounts of toxins in their blood and tissues. “Doctor, what are these levels here?” Mrs. Claus was pointing to levels of an unknown substance that had been found in high quantities in both the Elves blood. “I honestly do not know, even the machine didn’t pick up on what it was, it is like it is a substance that is foreign to us and our medicine.” “Will, you look more into finding out what it is for me? Also find out who the last person was to visit both the Elves before they died.” The doctor nodded and went on about his business. Mrs. Claus had made a mental note of what the machine had thought was in the substance, but with it being an unknown there was no way to see just what it was. She would have to do some snooping around in the Elves quarters and see if anything “Foreign” was found in their bunk house and rooms.

“So, my dear did all go well at the hospital, or do we have a serious mystery on our hands?” Santa smiled and laughed his jolly laugh and Mrs. Claus swatted him away and told him what she and the doctor had found and what she was having the doctor look into. She wasn’t going to tell him she planned on going through the bunk houses and rooms, because he would flat out deny her from doing it. He hugged her close and she noticed he felt warm, a lot warmer than usual. “My dear do you feel OK? You feel a little warmer than usual?” Santa just laughed and waved her away like he always did when she tried to worry about him. Mrs. Claus saw that all the factory elves were hard at work so she decided she would start in bunk house one right now. She took the chief security Elf Robin with her. They hunted all through the bunk house and nothing was found. Robin shared Mrs. Claus misgivings about Poppy and the sudden appearance of a mystery illness that had so far claimed two lives and there were four more in the hospital.

“Mrs. Claus, why don’t we have the doctor take some blood samples from the Elves who are sick right now, with the same symptoms as Bruno and Shelly?” “That is a great idea Robin, why didn’t I think of that, I’ll go and call the doctor right now.” Mrs. Claus hurried out of the bunk house and left Robin to continue searching. Robin was reaching under the very last bunk in the bunk house when he felt a stabbing sensation in his side, it felt like a bee sting and it shocked him, and he tried to stand up, but his head was under the bunk and he smacked his head hard on the metal rails, and everything went dark. Robin slumped to the floor in a heap. The bunk he was searching was Poppy’s and he was reaching under the bunk for the small box, that was hidden under it. “Now, that will teach you to go snooping around my things. What shall I do with you? I can’t get rid of you just yet, I’ll have to wait until night fall, when all the Elves are asleep, so for now, you will be finding yourself kept in this steamer trunk at the end of my bed. Don’t worry I’ll give you something to make you stay asleep for a long time.” With that Poppy pulled another syringe from her pocket and stabbed it into Robin’s neck and pushed the plunger all the way down, until the white cloudy liquid was all gone. She then picked Robin up and dumped him into the steamer trunk. After that she went back to work.

A little before supper Poppy came back to the bunk house and retrieved the steamer trunk and slowly drug it out to behind the reindeer barn. There she left it until after dinner. She couldn’t be absent from dinner or someone would get suspicious. She gave Robin another dose of the cloudy liquid and went back into the main hall and had dinner with the other Elves. After dinner she made an excuse to go to the Reindeer barn alone. A lot of the Elves didn’t like being alone with Poppy, so any time she said she was going to go somewhere alone, no one volunteered to accompany her. She got to the barn and the doors opened wide and a pale faced Elf came running out, yelling. He almost ran Poppy down. “Earl what on earth is wrong with you?” Poppy was not too happy at having almost been plowed down by this overweight oaf. “Behind the barn, I….I…..I…..I found a trunk and in it was the body of Robin, he still had a pulse so I tried to give him water and splash it on his face to wake him up, but he just spluttered and choked and now I think I have murdered him.” “Earl, stop being so dramatic, take me to where you found Robin and we will check on him together.” Poppy tried to sound reassuring but by the look on Earl’s face he wanted no part of going behind the barn with Poppy. “How about I just go get Santa and Mrs. Claus and the Doctor?” “No, Earl we need to check on him now, what if he is still alive and we could save him, and we don’t?” Earl looked at the ground and shuffled his shoes and then he looked up and nodded. Poppy smiled; this was easier than she thought.

Poppy and Earl rounded the back of the barn and sure enough there was a small bucket of water and a cup and the lid to the steamer trunk was open and Robin was leaning half in and half out the trunk. “He don’t look alive to me, I’m going to go get Santa and Mrs. Claus.” Poppy shot an arm out and stopped Earl from going anywhere. “Sorry Earl, you aren’t going anywhere.” Poppy then took another cloudy white liquid filled syringe and shot it into the neck of Earl. He fell to floor instantly. Poppy grabbed him by the legs and drug him over to the trunk where Robin was laying in and out of the trunk. She then took the shovel that was beside the trunk and began digging a hole large enough for the two unfortunate Elves. “I’m going to take over Christmas if it is the last thing I do, no one is going to get in my way, not you fatso and definitely not you Robin!” After a while of shoveling and cursing Poppy had the hole dug large and deep enough to throw Earl and Robin in. She first threw Earl in because she wanted the weight of dirt and Robin to suffocate him since he was still very much alive. Then she threw Robin into the hole. After she was happy with their positioning, she began to shovel the dirt back on top of them. When she was done, she patted the dirt down and threw some straw from the barn over it, to make it look like they were trying to regrow a patch of grass. Earl and Robin definitely couldn’t get out of that hole and dig their way up and out, Poppy was sure of it. She went back to her bunk house and found Santa and Mrs. Claus looking around the bunk house. “What’s wrong Santa, you lose something?” “Not, something, someone.” Santa looked distressed and so did Mrs. Claus, but she was throwing daggers at Poppy with her eyes. Poppy had stopped off in the bathroom to clean the dirt off of herself before entering the bunkhouse. “Poppy, why do you have dirt on your boots?” Mrs. Claus pointed to Poppy’s boots, they were covered in dirt, like she had been working in the garden. “Well, it is muddy out behind the barn, Earl thought he saw something and asked me to look at it with him, I did, and it is muddy behind the barn that’s why.”

Santa eyed Poppy suspiciously, “And where is Earl now? What did he think he saw?” “He said he saw Robin choking back there, but I think he maybe had a little too much mead at dinner, because when I got back there, there was nothing and no one there.” Santa was suspicious now, because if there was one thing he knew, and that was that Earl never drank mead. “So, behind the barn you say?” Poppy hadn’t realized her mistake until now. “Yes, Santa behind the barn. Would you like me to show you?” Poppy motioned for him to go to the door. “We will all go, Santa, me and Chief Petal.” Mrs. Claus was not allowing any one to go with this lunatic alone. They had just received word from the doctor that another of the sick Elves had died, and the last person to see all of them was Poppy. She also knew that the last person to enter the bunk house before Robin had gone missing was Poppy. Every thing was coming together that Poppy was a crazed killer, but what was her motive?

Poppy led the way to behind the barn, as soon as she got half way to the barn, she took off running into the woods behind the barn. Santa, yelled for her to stop and that all would be forgiven for her to just admit what she had done, but Poppy wasn’t sticking around to find out. She ran and ran and ran, until her little legs couldn’t carry her no more. She then plopped down behind a tree, listening, and breathing heavily. She was listening for any evidence of someone following her. She knew that Santa would send his hunters after her, but she didn’t hear them right now. She caught her breath and pulled out the last syringe in her pocket, there was enough to kill herself with if need be.

Suddenly she heard a commotion behind her. They had found her. She took the syringe and pushed the needle into her neck, if she couldn’t have Christmas, then they weren’t getting her alive or answers. Then she pushed the plunger down and instantly dropped the syringe and fell dead at the base of the tree. The commotion she had heard was a mother bear and a cub looking for food in the brush, Santa and the Elves were a long way off from catching her or even coming close to catching up to her. Too bad she hadn’t waited another few seconds and she would have seen she could have still gotten away.