A Twisted Christmas

Chapter Seventeen

Krampus slammed open the strawberry wafer door and stepped into the kitchen. His hoof was immediately met with a cluttered mess. The checker tiled floor was littered with plates, pans, crumbs and cloths, making him wonder if he'd stumbled into the wrong room.

Alas, the fresh scents of cookie dough and a variation of spices proved him otherwise. He welcomed the cozy fragrance with a sigh. In sniffing out the source of the smell, Krampus' attention was drawn to the corner of the small room. There, he spotted a small elf woman pushing a tray of what looked like chocolate chip cookies into a brick oven.

She jumped at his sudden entrance, holding an empty tray close to her chest. "What can I help you with, Sir?" Her cheeks were tinted red as the lone cook gathered her composture. Whether it was from embarrassment or exhaustion, Krampus couldn't tell. After wiping her head clean of sweat, she smiled at him politely. "I'm a little busy right now, but if there's anything you need-"

The goat demon held his hand up and shook his head. "Never mind that. But I am curious; what exactly are you doing? No one's here. Are you the only servant who knows how to cook?"

She paused while squeezing the side of her apron. "I'm... making a snack for the king." A spark of recognition crossed over her features. "You must be the prince everyone's been talking about. You've caused quite the uproar, y'know," she huffed with a frown.

Casting her brown eyes across the floor, she pushed her braids behind her back, falling to her waist. "As for the others... well, you should already know since you've been here long enough. They're dead."

Krampus glared at his hooves. He grew more frustrated as days passed. With his fists tightened, he muttered, "Don't worry, soon he will be too."

The cook gasped, dropping a tray as she stepped back with wide eyes. "Wh-What do you mean?"

"Well," he started before moving closer to her, "I mean the old coot will be rotting under the ocean. Wouldn't that be fun?" Krampus grinned at the frightened girl, clutching her hands with intensity. "We could take him down together! Imagine, everyone'd be free to live how they wanted!"

The cook stared at him while attempting to wriggle out of his grip. "No, no! You don't understand― I have a family to protect! I can't get involved," she muttered, shaking her head. She then snatched her hands from his and stepped back. "Y-you need to leave. I can't afford to be a witness to a crime that will lead to the death of my loved ones."

She reached behind her back, rummaging through the cluttered mess on the countertop until Krampus spotted a glimmer of light. The cook was holding a rather large kitchen knife with trembling, sweaty hands as she glared at him. "I have too much to lose!"

He grinned. "My, my. That's an awfully dangerous tool you have there. But let me remind you; that king of yours is the one responsible for your family's fear, as well as everyone else's. Wouldn't you rather not have to worry about whether or not the food you make is worth him keeping you alive for another day?"

She persed her lips and looked away. "That's just a pipedream. I'll be dead before whatever your plan is goes into action, and so will the ones I'm protecting."

Krampus smirked before ripping the knife from her hands with his tail. "It won't be if you let me do what I need to with these cute flowers here." He gestured to his tuff of fur, where the flowers were nestled near his chest. "I can't take them out because this is the only way I can hide the miasma, if only a little bit. Anyways, you don't need to be involved. You can just leave and pretend that you messed the schedule up."

Her head continued to shake, brushing off his suggestions. "They'd still know. One of the servants would report my suspicious actions to the king and I'd... I'd die."