I Don't Go to Christmas Parties Anymore

My family was very well known, and every Christmas Eve, my parents help close friends host a party, that was complete with someone dressing up as Santa for the younger kids. I was sixteen at the time and the party could get boring, especially since my parents weren't cool enough to share some champagne with me. I had a younger brother named Steve and he was in another room with other kids playing. My dad's best friend Mike was the man dressing up as Santa that year so after about an hour, he had disappeared to go get ready.

The party was crowded and a lot of the older men who had their wives with them were drunk at this point. Steve came out to bug me and I told him to get lost since I was trying to be a mature teenager at an adult party. Then, Santa emerged in the room with a loud "Ho, Ho, Ho!" People began to cheer and Steve could barely contain himself as normal. Whoever dressed up as Santa always sat and took pictures with the kids and had a huge sack of gifts for them. Steve had asked for a big set of HotWheels, and I could tell he was already getting anxious from waiting.

Only, Mike was acting strange. He kept his face down to the floor and grabbed the sack that was by the tree. He handed a few to a man before taking the bag with him. I heard him saying something about he had to go organize them before he came back. But an hour later, Mike had come back. No Santa came back. Steve was definitely concerned and the other kids were confused. My dad approached me with a stern look on his face.

"Have you seen Mike?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No. He came out as Santa for like five seconds and left."

"That wasn't Mike."

I froze where I stood and I could see my dad and a few other guys about to leave the room to go look for him. Me being sixteen and wanting to be cool, I went with. We noticed his car was gone from the parking lot, but his wife and daughter were still inside, so he couldn't have just left without them. The gift sack was gone as well. My dad and the others went back inside to call the police for help and I wandered to the back of the building.

Behind it was a jungle gym and the forest, and in the tree lines and through the falling chunks of snow, I could see what looked like a body. They were upside down and were moving violently to try to escape. The closer I got, I realized it was Mike. I ran for him and helped get him untied and down from the tree. He explained when he was trying to get changed into the Santa costume, someone came up behind him and cracked him in the head and dragged him out to the tree, and he dizzily watched them take his wallet and keys to his Mercedes and leave.

"Could you tell who it was?" I asked him.

"No, my vision wasn't right. I do think it was a wide range of ages though. It had to be."

Mike limped back to the building and I double checked the trees and ground for possibly anything of Mike's. Then, I was shoved from behind and was sent flying into the snow. I turned and saw a middle aged man named Henry and his trouble-making son, who was my age, Donnie. Glancing around, I only saw the two of them, but there could have been more who pulled off Mike's kidnapping. Donnie went to school with me at one point, until he got expelled for pulling a knife on another student. Henry used to always come to the Christmas parties, but last year, his wife divorced him and he showed up and destroyed everything so my dad and Mike banned him from returning.

"What did you with Mike's car? Where are the Christmas gifts?" I demanded. I found myself scooting away from them as they continued to step toward me.

"You're all only getting what you deserve after what you did to me," Henry said. "So I took Mike's car, all the gifts, my brother is out with all of it right now. We came back to take care of Mike but now, we got a bigger problem in our hands."

Donnie took his pocket knife and waved the blade around. "You know too much."

That was when the wind picked up and the snow was blowing in every direction possible. The temperature must've dropped at least twenty degrees within seconds. When it fell silent, I held back a scream when I looked up at Henry and Donnie. A figure was standing behind them. The first thing I noticed were its horns, that were long, and curled back. It had a red cloak on with the hood up and was hunched over. I noticed its legs were hairy and its feet were hooves. Its face was wrinkled with black eyes and a jaw that fell open, revealing a long pointy tongue. It held up its hand, and its long, bony fingers was around a snow globe. It growled, deep down in its throat and that caught Henry and Donnie's attention.

They spun around to face the creature and I gulped down a large lump in my throat. "Krampus," Donnie breathed in fear and disbelief.

I ran for it and I had never ran so fast in my life. I went back into the party and tried to hide my fear from my family and the others. Mike was holding a bag of ice to his head and I noticed the police were there already. I wanted to leave, go home but I couldn't. The only thing I could do was sit and hope that whatever that was outside, didn't have any desire to come inside.

Mike got his Mercedes back, and Henry's brother was arrested. The police didn't find Henry or Donnie that night, but I couldn't tell them why. I didn't want to be seen as that crazy teenager, especially on Christmas after all that had happened.

The next morning, I sat and watched Steve open his presents from Santa, and he was obsessed with each and every one. I got an iPod and a few movies and clothes. My dad handed me one last gift and I didn't recognize the paper.

"Who is this from?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. We must've gotten it at the party last night from somebody."

I tore open the paper and peeled back the brown, cardboard box and I felt my heart fall to my stomach. I pulled out a snow globe that had a group of trees in it, and next to the trees, I recognized the little figures to be Henry and Donnie. Their mouths were wide open like they were screaming and their arms were up like they were shielding themselves. I shook the globe out of habit and the fake snow inside swirled around. I heard the wind howl from outside and stood to look out the window. The only thing to be seen was hoof prints in the snow.