Yule Be Sorry

Yule Be Sorry.

The date is December 25th, Andrea is sitting with her two sons unwrapping Christmas gifts, while Rob watches taking pictures. Everyone is smiles, until Brian the oldest son, 16 years old, opens a small gift that is wrapped in a wrapping paper different to any paper and bows that are under the tree. “Rob, is that from you? I don’t remember getting that for Brian.” She looked confused at the box. “No, I thought you got it.” Brian started to open the wrapping on the box, and inside there was some tissue paper and a note that rea, “YULE BE SORRY!” Brian laughed and showed it to his parents and then shook the box, to make sure nothing else came out of it. Nothing else fell out, “What does the label say, who is it from?” Andrea picked up the lid of the box and the wrapping paper and turned it all kinds of ways trying to see a name on it. It only read, “To Brian.”

Brian just kept laughing and then threw the note and box in the big, black trash bag with all the other wrapping paper. They thought nothing more about the mysterious note and went on with opening gifts and laughing. The youngest son, Lucas, who was 13 years old, wasn’t laughing as much as everyone else and always felt out of place, and his brother didn’t help because he always picked on him and made him feel like a freak. Brian was good looking, and Lucas was just average, Brian was good at sports and Lucas was more into computers and gaming and knowledge. Brian always had a joke about Lucas, and this caused a lot of tension between the two boys. Lucas went and got the note out of the trash bag as he was throwing away the trash. Brian was in the living room watching football with his father. Andrea was in the kitchen finishing up Christmas dinner.

Lucas looked at the note and, on the back, he saw a small symbol in the corner, barely visible unless you were looking for it. He couldn’t tell what it was, so he went upstairs and got his magnifying glass and looked more closely. It was a circle with a big S and a snake encircling the S, and then around the edge of the S was the word Klaus. Lucas was sitting at his computer and decided to scan the symbol into his computer and blow it up and try to figure out where it had come from and who had sent it. Lucas had read stories of an alternate Santa who would send notes to bad children and then when they least expected it, he would come and snatch them up if they didn’t change their ways. Lucas hoped that this wasn’t the case, but then again, the way his brother and father treated him he hoped it was too.

Lucas jumped as there was a knock on the door and the door opened and there stood Brian, “What you doing Freakazoid?” Brian smiled the smile that got all the ladies and his grandmother said lit up a room, but it was also the smile that Lucas got to see everyday as he was being tormented. “Nothing, just looking something up. Why?” “Mom says dinner is ready and to come and wash up and help me set the table.” “OK, I’ll be there in a minute, now shut my door and leave me alone!” Brian shrugged and shut the door laughing and calling Lucas a freak again. Lucas just seethed looking at the screen, “Please be what I think you are and take away my tormentor, he deserves your wrath and punishment!” Lucas then got up and went down the stairs and set the table and helped his mom bring in all the food.

While they sat and ate the dinner, Brian and his father kept poking fun at Lucas and how he was always on his computer and how he should just sit and watch sports with them and learn something. Lucas just shook his head no, as he wasn’t into sports and found it boring. Andrea tried to draw attention away from Lucas and started talking about what they were going to do for New Year’s Eve and what they planned on doing that night. Rob and Brian said they were going to watch sports, Lucas said he had some things to do on his computer, Andrea asked if Lucas wanted to help her edit the Christmas day photos on the computer. Lucas said he would do it and then would be going to his room. After the table was cleared and all the dishes were done, Lucas and Andrea sat down and downloaded the photos, and they made a slide chow and collage and Lucas liked helping his mom with these sorts of projects. After they were done and had emailed the slide show to the family, Lucas went back to his room. He then started searching out the symbol and its origins. He learned that the symbol was most assuredly the work of the anti-Santa that came and collected the bad kids. He tried to go to his mom, and she just blew him off, and he knew better than to go to Brian or his dad, they would think he was being his usual freakish self.

Later that night after everyone had gone to bed, Lucas was sitting talking online with one of his friends, when he heard a crash in the living room. “Hey Phil, I got to go check something out, I think someone might be breaking in downstairs.” “OK, dude, want me to call the cops?” “Nah, man just stay on the line and listen, OK?” He put his head set down and slowly crept over to his door, and opened it slowly and peeked around the door, he saw nothing and could hear nothing coming from downstairs now, but he was sure that there was someone down there. He opened the door and walked out on to the landing and looked over the banister and down the stairs. He couldn’t see anything, and was about to go back in his room, when he heard the shuffling of feet.

Lucas walked to the top of the stairs, he wanted to yell out hello, but he knew from watching too many scary movies that whoever yelled out hello usually ended up dead and like an intruder was going to yell out hello back. He started down the stairs slowly, his heart beating so fast he thought it was going to pound right out of his chest, the blood was pumping, and he thought he could hear it so loud in his ears and that whoever was downstairs would hear the sound of his heart before the footsteps coming down the stairs. Lucas got halfway down, and the stair creaked under his weight and the shuffling sounds stopped, so he stopped. He crouched down thinking he could hide behind the wreaths hanging on the banisters. Nothing happened so, he got the courage up finally to finish going down the stairs. He got to the foot of the steps and heard chuckling and whispers and the shuffling of feet sounds coming from the living and dining room areas. Then he heard a loud bellowing laugh as he heard the tree crash to the floor. It had to be the tree as he heard the smashing and tinkling of glass ornaments on the hardwood floor. He got to the door frame of the living room and peaked around the door frame, what he saw when he looked was a scene out of some movie. He saw little people in red and green outfits with bells on the toes running around throwing things and breaking things, and then there was the huge, black and grey fur covered man in the middle of the room with a sack that was big and black and shiny like a trash bag, but much bigger and it seemed bottomless as he kept putting things in, but it never filled up. The man had a dirty black and grey beard and eyebrows. His hat was like a Santa hat but black with grey fur instead of red and white.

Lucas breathed in a deep breath of shock at the scene that was unfolding in the living room. They were effectively cleaning them out of all Christmas decorations and gifts left under the tree and then breaking the rest of the things all over the floor. They were putting black foot prints all over the floor and furniture. Lucas thought his mother would be mortified if she were to see this. Gathering every ounce of courage he had, which wasn’t much, Lucas rounded the door frame and stood looking at the scene and yelled, “Hey!” Everything stopped and they all turned and looked at him and snarled their pointed teeth and the anti-Santa looked him dead in the eye, “I’m not here for you son, go back to bed Lucas and forget you ever saw me or what we are doing, or I’ll have to take you too.” Then they all turned back to what they were doing. “NO! You can’t make this mess, its not fair to my mom, she’s not done anything! If you are here for Brian then go get him and go, but stop trashing my house and home!” The Santa turned and looked at Lucas, before Lucas could blink or move, he was right in front of him, “Son, this is part of the process, do you not realize your parents allow your brother to do all he does and bails him out, so they deserve what we are doing. Now, go back to bed before you arouse my anger!” Lucas turned and ran up the stairs, he was going to wake his mom and dad up, he stopped at the top of the stairs and then thought, what am I going to say? There’s and anti-Santa and anti-elves downstairs trashing the place and they are here for Brian? No, I can’t do that, they will think I am crazy. He shrugged his shoulders and kept going to his parents’ room. He ran right in and swung the door open, “MOM! DAD! Wake up! You have to go downstairs there is someone breaking in and trashing the living room!” Rob got up and slid his slippers on and his robe looking all sleepy and not too happy at having been woken up. His mom just rolled over after telling him to go back to bed.

Lucas was standing there looking at the back of his mother’s head when he heard a scream and a thud from downstairs, his mom must have heard the noise too, because she got up out of bed. “ROB! Are you OK?” She ran down the stairs, by now, Brian was also up and out of his room standing in his boxers rubbing his eyes and asking what was going on. Lucas was mad at Brian because he had caused this. He just turned and walked down the stairs to see what was going on, Brian followed behind him. They got to the living room and saw their parents tied up with the lights from the tree and being poked and stabbed all over by the little people, they were stabbing them with sharpened candy canes. His dad had his head rolled forward on his chest and there was blood coming from all over their bodies as the little people stabbed them repeatedly. Lucas gasped as he saw what was going on. “Run, Lucas and Brian, we are OK, save yourselves!” Andrea cried as she was stabbed in the legs some more. Their father wasn’t moving, they stabbed him and his body rolled and bobbed because of the motion of the stabbing.

Lucas ran over to his father and tried to lift his head and look at him and kept calling his dad’s name. Nothing, “He is dead son, now, go back to bed and I will leave you alone.” The Santa looked down at Lucas and smiled reassuringly. Brian was just standing staring at the scene, mouth open and eyes wide, not knowing what to say or do, he was frozen in place. “Brian! Do something!” Brian just shook his head and ran back upstairs. Lucas begged the Santa to let his mother go. The Santa shook his head No. Santa pointed toward the stairs and nodded in that direction and a few of the elves ran away in the direction that Brian had gone. The next thing Lucas heard was Brian screaming and crying and the thump, thump, thump as the elves dragged Brian down the stairs. Lucas looked up and saw Brian being tied to a chair. Lucas sat down on the floor at his mom’s feet and held on to her legs and trying to feel comfort.

The Santa walked over to where Brian was tied to the chair, he then pulled out a candy cane stick and slapped it across Brain’s face, he kept asking why he picked on smaller kids and his brother, Brian just kept crying and shaking his head no, that he wasn’t doing that. Santa looked over a t Lucas and asked if that was true, Lucas wanted to say No, but then he knew Brian would get hurt, but he also knew that if he said no, then he would get hurt, and he didn’t want that. He shook his head yes. Brian screamed No at the top of his lungs, Santa just slapped him harder, then he dug the tip of the cane under Brian’s chin and asked if he would change and stop doing it, Brain shook his head yes, but Santa looked at him and smiled a sinister smile and told him he had heard it all before and he didn’t believe him. He then motioned for the elves to stuff Brian chair and all in the sack. Santa then walked back to where Lucas and his mom were, Andrea was barely hanging on, and Lucas looked up at Santa and pleaded for him to leave his mom and him alone and alive. “Lucas, because you are a good boy and you have told the truth tonight and your mom does try to make things up to you when your father and brother make fun of you, I will leave your mom and you alive, but if you tell anyone what happened here tonight then I will return and kill your mom and take you where your brother is going.” Lucas nodded he understood and Andrea who was barely conscious tried to nod and say she understood too. With a flash all the was gone, the elves, the dead dad, the sack, the mess was cleaned up and a note was sitting on the coffee table that read, “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH I AM LEAVING AND TAKING BRIAN WITH ME. DON’T LOOK FOR ME, YOU WILL BE MORE THAN TAKEN CARE OF! REMEMBER YULE BE SORRY!” Lucas and his mom sat there looking at the note, and she was all healed up now and OK now, “What do we do mom?” “Lucas, we don’t do anything, if anyone asks your father left and took Brian with him, we say nothing, we don’t want to end up like Brian and your dad.” They hugged each other and then Andrea kissed Lucas on the forehead and told him to go to bed and they both went upstairs and went to bed.