The Santa Clause: Krampus's Return

Chapter Twelve

Bernard was now back at the compound, and yanked open the hatch before closing it hastily and nearly fell off the ladder when he got inside the room, breathing heavily. Curtis and a few of the other elves were shocked and ran to him with concern.

Curtis narrowed his eyes in frustration,

"Where have you been?!"

"Holly and I left to go and get the pocket watch by ourselves." Bernard felt his legs collapse and he sunk to the ground, staring at the cement floor with disappointment. "She... she created a distraction. And I went for the watch. It was so close I could almost touch it. But then I had to hide because someone was coming. A dark elf took the watch... Holly was probably captured by Krampus... I messed everything up... I've failed..."

Tears started to sting his eyes now and he tried his best to hide them from the others.

"It's all over... we're finished... we might as well give up."

All of the elves gasped in unison after what he said. Curtis's eyes widened with horror,

"Give up?! Like we should just go surrender to Krampus and his army of dark elves?! Are you insane?!"

"Or what else Curtis?! We wait here and starve?! We can't get the watch... at least if we surrendered we wouldn't..." Bernard looked up at all of the elves standing around him. Their eyes were wide with fear and terror. He felt bad now. He was probably scaring them... and acting the way he was probably wasn't helping the situation. Suddenly, the sound of the door opening made everyone freeze with fear. Someone was coming. And it wasn't Holly...

"Hello? Are you guys in here?" A voice asked in a whisper. All the elves ducked down fast and Bernard quickly hid behind the corner with Curtis, who quietly grabbed something that looked like a big toy gun and got it ready. Everyone was still silent...

The figure came into view and Curtis shot the gun at it, a bar of fruitcake flying through the air and hitting the figure square in the head.

"Ouch!"

After a short pause, the figure asked with confusion, "Wait, did you guys just hit me with a fruitcake?"

"Spirit!" Curtis cried out and all the elves came to attention. Normally very cute and jolly, they all looked angry and dark, closing in on the Spirit of Halloween with fury. His pumpkin head looked frosted over and he waved his hands innocently,

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on! I'm here to help!"

"And why should we believe you?!" Bernard perhaps looked the most angry of all, like he might even try and physically fight the Spirit of Halloween he was so mad.

"Because... I have this..." Spirit pulled something that was slung over his back into view and all the elves looked at it with confusion.

"What is it?!" Bernard asked angrily and Spirit sighed,

"It's Krampus's bag of wonders. He tried to change Holly into a dark elf, but when he couldn't, he stuffed her inside. I don't know how the bag works, so I decided to come to you."

The dark velvet bag was soaked and freezing and Curtis looked up at him with fear,

"What happened to the bag?"

Spirit's eyes clouded with worry,

"The dark elves... he wanted to drop the bag into the ocean, so she'd be lost forever. I told him I'd do it, so I could save her. I tried to come straight here with the bag, but Krampus made the dark elves escort me in the sleigh. I pretended to fall out of the sleigh so I could go and retrieve the bag after they left it... I had to dive into sub-zero waters to save her and the bag."