Short Stories and Whatnot

Nick Claus: A Christmas Story

Everyone associates Santa Claus with giving kids presents on Christmas Eve, worshiped by millions of children and adults alike. But what did he do before that? I'd seen what that monster of a "hero" had done before. After all, I was one of his victims.

***

It was a brisk, snowy Christmas Eve evening. I snuck outside in my favorite red parka and jeans. Although a rare sight, I wanted to see the aurora borealis. We've seen it occasionally within the past few years we've stayed at this Alaska cabin for Christmas break.

It was dangerous to go outside on the night of Christmas Eve. I've heard legends of an evil snow king who terrorized people on the night before Christmas. They called him Nick Claus. Nick was known to have been born with ice powers. As a youth, he had quickly mastered his ice powers. However, he'd quickly realized the terror he could cause with them. The most famous tale about him tells of how he terrorized some innocent reindeer who trespassed on his territory by whipping up a violent hailstorm and launching sharp icicles into the storm. The reindeer had barely escaped with their lives, horribly gashed and bruised from the ice, leaving a red trail in the snow.

Did I believe them? Not really. I saw them more as silly fairy tales made up by adults to scare children so they wouldn't go outside and freeze to death on snowy nights. My parents had warned me as a kid about Nick, yet I still snuck out because I desperately wanted to see the aurora borealis. I hadn't seen it in years, and it was the most ethereal and beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

I peered out my room's window, and there was little snowfall. Perfect. I slowly opened the door that led outside, trying to not creak it as much. Once I finally made my way outside, I avoided crunching in the snow as I closed the old, creaky door. I wiped the snow off of a chair and pointed it to the forest in the backyard. At this time of year, the tree tops were covered in snow and looked like frosty mountains. I imagined that the aurora borealis would appear above them, illuminating the snow caps. I sat back and relaxed, despite the fairly low temperature.

A green band slowly appeared in the sky. I watched in awe as it grew brighter and stretched further across the ebony sky. It cloaked the snow caps in a mystical emerald glow. I stared, star struck at the magnificent aurora borealis.

I noticed the snow was falling much more frequently than before. At first, I took nothing of it; after all, it wasn't uncommon for snowfall to randomly pick up and slow down. But there was something particularly different about this- it happened ridiculously fast. I stood up from my chair and walked out to examine. The snowfall picked up even more, and between the snow and darkness, it became harder and harder to see in front of me. Then it all suddenly stopped, and there he was: Nick Claus, dressed in the ice blue cloak that the stories depicted him wearing.

My heart dropped to my stomach. "I thought..." I managed to say through the rising fear in my voice. "I thought... you were just... made up..." He chuckled. "I guess you didn't notice my warning sign," he responded menacingly, gesturing to the northern lights. He snapped his fingers together and the lights quickly disappeared, leaving the night sky a bland canvas of solid black and white speckles.

A sudden, slight breeze instantly intensified into a full-on blizzard. Through the snow, I could faintly see Nick glaring at me, concentrated, his hands waving around and encircling the storm around me. It got colder and colder, and I'm sure by now the temperature around me was in the negatives. I felt a chunk pelt my head, then another. I pulled my hood over, but the pelting got harder and harder. I picked up some of the hail chunks and tried to throw it at Nick. He stopped the ice just before it hit him, sharpened a needle-like point into it, and launched the icicles back into the swirling blizzard.

Now, I've endured some seriously low temperatures, but nothing like this. The cold was unbearable. My hands were completely numb and nearly blue. In addition, the sharp hail pieces were starting to cut into my parka and jeans, further exposing my small body to the harsh winds. The icicles were cutting my face, the wounds quickly freezing over. Round, unsharpened chunks of hail pelted my back, leaving several dents and bruises. It got harder and harder to stand up. I just wanted to wake up from this nightmare, snug and cozy in my bed back in the cabin. But this was reality. A huge hail piece, probably twice as big as a baseball, hit me square in the stomach.

I fell straight to the ground, nearly knocked out by the force alone. I curled up to preserve any remaining warmth, and tried to gather my breath. All the hail and snow disappeared. I looked around, confused. "Is he done torturing me?" I whispered to myself. I felt his ice blue gaze pierce my back. "Almost," he replied with a low, almost demonic voice. I slowly gazed up. Above me was the blizzard that trapped me, amalgamated into an enormous icicle waiting to crash down on me. I couldn't even imagine the temperature of it. It was probably even colder than absolute zero. His icy gaze continued to stun me, and his maniacal laughter pinned me down. I heard several footsteps approaching, but my impending doom distracted me from them. I stared straight at the icicle as it came closer and closer, petrified. The footsteps brushed right past me and whoever- or whatever- rammed straight into Nick. The enormous icicle shattered into a million tiny snowflakes that fell gently on my body, and I was freed from Nick's icy grip. I followed the footsteps in the snow to find that it was a reindeer. I examined the reindeer and saw that it had numerous scars and dark spots. I thought maybe it was abused before, but then it clicked: this was one of the reindeer that Nick had attacked in the past! I gently placed my frigid hands on its warm antlers. "Th-th-th...thank y-you..." I muttered. I gazed into its amber eyes. I could tell it was still troubled by that terrible day.

Nick must have been knocked by the reindeer hard, because he finally stumbled to where we were, limping and out of breath. I cowered behind the reindeer. He gazed at it, and then at me. It seemed as if he finally recognized the pain that he had caused to others. He nodded at us, as if he were trying to apologize but couldn't spit out the words, and disappeared into a flurry of snow. I looked back at the reindeer. It radiated relief that he was gone, and it seemed to recognize that he was regretful. It walked off into the forest, never to be seen again. I walked back to the cabin, still very cold and horrified.

A few days later, as we were leaving the cabin to head home, I went into the forest to say goodbye, when I was greeted by the reindeer. It looked healthier, its scars and bruises less visible. "Hey buddy!" I greeted it. I placed my hands on its antlers, and it seemed to relay a message to me. Apparently, Nick changed his name to be Santa Claus, which the reindeer seemed to explain that it meant "forgiven" in some distant language. He ditched the ice blue cloak in place of a warm red suit. He was also planning on using the reindeer he'd attacked, which he healed up, to help him do good.

***

Now fast forward to today, where Santa Claus is glorified by society as the reason for Christmas and the giver of presents. This was just so sickening to me- it almost makes me physically sick- to see that a former murderer is being worshipped by everyone. Yes, I am so grateful and proud that Nick- I mean Santa- has had a change of heart, but no one seems to know his frigid past. If only they knew what he had done to those reindeer or to me...

Merry Christmas! Here's an update finally after almost 6 months! I wrote this on a car ride today after my ipad died. Since I used up most of my data on my phone to use the hotspot and I don't get any more until the 19th of January, I didn't want to use up my data. There's hardly anything to do on my phone with no service, so I decided to write this story. Half I wrote in the car ride, the other half I just finished writing.