Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Santa Claus is well known throughout the world as a kind and gentle figure. He goes from home to home, giving presents to children who have been nice, and giving coal to children who have been naughty. He and his wife, Mrs. Claus, spend their days up in the North Pole overseeing the elves, making sure that every child has a fitting gift.

Or so the world thinks.

Every year, children everywhere look forward to Christmas morning where they’ll find the gift of their dreams beneath the tree, given to them personally by Santa Claus himself. What they don’t realize though, is that Santa harbors a dark secret.

As Santa goes through the preparations for Christmas and is checking through his list, not only is he checking to see who’s naughty or nice, he’s also checking to see which of the kids looks the juiciest. Then, on Christmas Eve, as he’s delivering presents and coal, he finds those kids and stuffs them into his bag to take back to the North Pole with him. It’s a long and arduous process but luckily Santa has the power of time manipulation on his side, as well as the power to sedate any curious adults who may overhear the commotion.

At the end of the night when Santa has visited everyone on his list, he flies back to the North Pole with his bag of goodies where the elves take over the duties of handling the plump and terrified children. The elves usher the children into a special room where they are locked away with only the bare essentials to stay alive.

Throughout the next year the children get called out of the room little by little without any explanation. The children who are left in the room are left confused and fearful of what lays for them outside those doors, as the children who leave never return. The elves don’t give them much confidence either as every time they call a child out, they seem somber and remorseful.

The elves absolutely loathe what they do, but they have no choice. You see, if they don’t do as Santa orders, then the same fate that befalls the children will happen to them as well.

This year though, things didn’t go quite as planned. One fateful summer evening, just before one of the elves were scheduled to go and retrieve another child, the children decided to gather in their prison and come up with a plan of escape. As soon as the doors opened and the elf walked in, they would all bombard the doorway and make a break for it.

An elf walked into the room, right on schedule, and gravely called yet another child out of the room. As soon as the doors were wide open, the children ran as fast as their little legs would carry them out the doorway and into the hall. The elf, who was trampled in all of the chaos, didn’t even have time to register what was happening.

The children were immediately met with hundreds and hundreds of elves all around them, most of which were too shocked at what they were seeing to do anything about it. A few tried and failed to capture them but the children were overpowering and just knocked them down.

Eventually the children reached a flight of stairs at the end of the bright and colorful hall which they eagerly climbed but upon reaching the top they were met with a large figure with a big and frightening smile.

“Now what do we have here?” Mrs. Claus asked the children, who had stopped dead in their tracks. “You aren’t trying to escape now are you? That would be very rude, and Santa would be so upset.” Her voice was sugary sweet, almost overly so.

A few of the children shook their heads at her, the rest remained frozen in their terror.

“Are you children hungry?” Mrs. Claus went on. “Here, come with me to the kitchen, I have a special surprise for you all.”

The children, not having anywhere else to go besides back from where they came, had no choice but to follow Mrs. Claus and hope that along the way they were able to find an escape.

They walked down the hall for what felt like ages, walking past dozens of stations where elves were hard at work making toys and tending to other duties, though not a single chance of escape was to be seen. Every now and then they’d come across a few rogue elves which Mrs. Claus directed to go and do something, though the children had no idea what, as she did not speak to them, just waved her arms at them and possibly even mouthed instructions to them.

Finally, they reached a set of double doors with candy canes decorated all over them and small windows at the top that were too high up for any of the children to see through. Through them, the children could hear faint sounds of knives hitting against wooden boards, water boiling, and ingredients being added to pots and pans. These sounds would normally sound appealing, but for some reason they just felt very ominous.

Mrs. Claus burst open the doors and the children were greeted by an awful sight. The kitchen was splattered with blood and all throughout the room were body parts. Arms and legs hanging from the ceiling, fingers and toes on cutting boards, and the heads of all the children who have been taken, lay on a large table at the back, looking ready to be mounted up onto a wall.

The children screamed in horror and tried to run away but were soon met with a wall of elves blocking their path.

“I told you it was rude to escape,” Mrs. Claus said, dropping her sickly sweet voice down to a sinister snarl as her eyes turned red and her nails and teeth grew into sharp points. She then reached for the closest child and tore into his throat as he and the rest of the children yelled in terror and his blood was sprayed everywhere.

She tossed the boy’s limp body behind her as she licked her lips and crooned, “Now unless you little brats want to end up like him, I suggest you head back downstairs and behave yourselves.”

The children stared fearfully at the scene before them for a moment before slowly turning back, feeling defeated, but one brave child hung back. He was sick of feeling helpless and trapped, and in his anger he jumped onto Mrs. Claus and began attacking her everywhere he could reach. Mrs. Claus was taken aback at first but was able to quickly pry him off and he too ended up with a torn up throat. Mrs. Claus smiled menacingly at the remaining children. Many of them had tears in their eyes by what they had just witnessed, and in their anger they attacked her as well. Soon after, all of the children were upon her and Mrs. Claus was fighting off a hoard who easily tackled her to the ground until she eventually couldn’t breathe anymore and her body stopped moving.

Once the hoard of children got up from her body, they and the elves just stared at her lifeless form, not knowing what to do next.

After a minute, a few of the elves went up to the body and together they hauled her body into the walk-in freezer. “Let’s go get Santa,” declared one of the elves after closing the freezer door.

With the elves leading the way, the children marched up another flight of steps until they reached yet another set of double doors, though these were a little more eccentric looking with candy of all varieties decorating them all over. The elves paused for a short second before storming through.

Santa was sat at the far end of the room at his desk going over his list and upon seeing the mass of elves and children entering his room, his eyes turned red and his nails and teeth sharpened just as his wife’s had just a moment ago. He tore through many of the elves and children that came at him easily. He was bigger than Mrs. Claus was so taking him down was a bigger challenge but eventually the elves and children were able to pile up onto him until he too became a lifeless corpse.

It took some effort, but the elves had managed to get Santa's body down the stairs and into the freezer with Mrs. Claus.

While the children were eager to get home, the elves had convinced them to stay a little while longer so that the ones who survived could recover from their injuries before being reunited with their families. They also promised a big feast for them before they left.

When all of the children had finally recovered, the elves called them into the large dining room for the goodbye feast before they would return them back to their homes. When everyone had taken a seat, the elves brought out the banquet of food consisting of many variations of meat, all of which the children found delicious.

Once everyone had finished every last bite, the elves smiled widely, as they hadn’t done in a very long time, and escorted the children out of the dining room past the fireplace where the heads of Mr. and Mrs. Claus were hanging just above it.