The library was practically empty when Nova walked in. Much like many of the students who couldn’t be bothered to let the door shut itself, Nova closed the door behind them. They turned to gaze upon the usual expanse of the building, now dolled up for the holiday season. A giant Christmas wreath hung over the center of the floor, stuffed with ribbons, pinecones, bells, and brightly shining orbs of gold, red, green, and white. A couple of students lay scattered across the room bundled in layers upon layers. Every chair and sofa Nova walked past smelled of gingerbread and peppermint.
The walking ball of fluff made their way to the checkout desk, worrying slightly about the oncoming storm. They hoped Splats would make it there okay, and hoped even more the rest would come back just fine. But now was not the time to get their priorities rearranged; they still had a job to do.
The desk was just as decorated as the library itself, adorned with sleigh bells, white felt on the counter to act as snow, and a big banner hung between either side, spelling out “Have a Good Break!” in red and green letters. The librarian stood behind the counter, smiling amiably.
“Good afternoon, Nova,” Hikari said in her soft library voice.
“Afternoon yourself, Miss!” Nova beamed back, matching their friend’s volume. “I think you know what I’m here for, bud!”
“Oh, the ornaments, of course. I’m guessing Pearl sent you for those,” Hikari guessed.
“Yup! Thanks again for helping us out with this party, we really appreciate it.”
“It’s no worry at all, the boxes have just been collecting dust in the basement, anyways.”
“Basement?” Nova tilted their head. “I didn’t know you also used that room for storage.”
Hikari shook her head. “We didn’t, until those rotten kids summoned all those snails and destroyed half the books down there. We didn’t want all that extra space to go unused. At least the contents of those books weren’t too important.”
Nova chuckled. “I would have to disagree on that. I think all books are important in their own ways. Within every paperback and hardcover is an entire world of knowledge and imagination for the whole world to see! That’s what still amazes me about human literature. Besides, if we never invented books, well, we wouldn’t have libraries!”
“I guess you make a strong point when you put it like that,” Hikari agreed.
“Oh! Sorry to cut our talk short, but I should probably get those ornaments before Pearl and Skyber wonder where I am…” Nova checked their watch, which was just their fur indented in the pattern of a very small clock face. The face model was inspired by Brown’s.
“No worries, let me just find my key to the basement. We had to get a new one printed since the last copy got destroyed, and I think one of my assistants misplaced it again. Feel free to look around in the meantime, I’ll be sure to find you.”
Nova held out two thumbs up while the librarian left the counter to find her key. Once she was gone, they explored the shelves of the library to see if any new releases came in for the holidays. Unfortunately for them, the only new books were non-Christmas themed, since not many would’ve stayed around during the break to read any.
Suddenly they heard a voice upstairs. Or was it two? Maybe more? The demigod felt too curious to resist checking for sure. Spanning their wings, they swooped up to the second floor of the library, landing softly as to not make much sound. Passing by several shelves in the Religion section, they noticed an area around the corner of the last shelf before the wall, dimly illuminated by what seemed to be candlelight. The voices were much clearer now.
“For the last goddamn time, if you try to get me killed in another one of your fuckin’ spiritual stunts, Carrie-”
“Silence, Cultured One! We have come too far for any one of us to back out now. This must happen tonight!”
“OOH, ze suspense is killing me!”
Nova rounded the other side of the shelf, discovering Carrie, Xander, and Dr. Ernst sitting crisscross around a small pentagram drawn in Crayola chalk and lit up by peppermint-scented candles. Carrie was in the middle of meditating. Xander sat in boredom. Ernst scribbled notes on a notepad.
“Wow! Heya guys! What a surprising combination of friends! What’s going on here?” Nova’s everything perked up.
Carrie held out a finger. “Hush, Infinite One! Please do not break my concentration. My preparations have all but concluded.”
“Hallo, Mister- er, Miss- hm… Hallo, friend Kami!” Ernst greeted. “We’re just about to watch Miss Carrie speak with ze infamous Krampus, haha! Care to join us?”
“No, you gotta get the fuck outta here,” Xander answered for them. “And wherever you’re going, take me with you.”
“Krampus?” Nova put their hands on their hips. “But he’s just a folk tale, I thought.”
Carrie rose, nodding to herself. “You thought wrong, friend. He is all too real in this world. And soon that will be proven to you all. We must be the ones to bring him here, so that we may learn each and every secret about this Pagan holiday, so we can dismantle it from its core and establish a new day, in the name of the all-powerful Cthulhu!”
Nova had many questions. Why contact Krampus of all beings? Was Santa too busy? How was Carrie planning to make a new holiday? They decided to ask one of the bigger elephants in the room.
“So if I may ask, whaddya need Ernst and Xander for?”
“Well, Infinite One, despite my many abilities I am still short on manpower. Since I no longer have use for my haunted attraction, I let my old assistant go as well. However!” She shot her finger up and whipped it around to Xander. “This man will be of much help as my new assistant! He has even sworn his allegiance to the Great Old Ones themselves!”
“Piss off,” Xander gruffed. “I read one Romance author and now I’m part of your idiotic cult?”
“This idiotic cult leader is the one leaking your Mathematics test answers so you don’t fail for the third semester in a row. Remember that.”
Xander gruffed harder.
“Now, about the doct-”
“I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!” Ernst saluted. “As you can see, I’ve been invited by zhese lovely individuals to partake in ze action of a lifetime! ALTHOUGH, zis is not ze only thing I was called for! I am also here to ensure zhat everyone does not die a horrible death while contacting my childhood bedtime monster! And I’ve yet to repay my client for her brilliant contributions to science, haha!”
Nova was pretty sure he had it the other way around; Carrie should’ve been the one repaying him.
Then the masked girl gasped. “Everyone, to your places! The hour is almost nigh!”
The boys sat down again, as did Nova. The fluffball couldn’t have it in their heart to tell them this seance wouldn’t work. At best, they could just humor her until she gives up and goes home like usual. They watched nervously from a distance.
Carrie, of course, led the seance. She laid out a single loaf of fruitcake in the center of the pentagram, motioned the boys to take each other’s hands, opened her third eye from beneath her mask, and instructed them to recite this speech, which they complied in varying degrees of passion:
“O powerful Krampus, hear our call. We bring you gifts from our world to yours. Commune with us, Krampus, and share your secrets.”
The library seemed to still. So still Nova could sense a door opening from the floor down. The group chanted again.
“O powerful Krampus, hear our call. We bring you gifts from our world to yours. Commune with us, Krampus, and share your secrets.”
Footsteps sounded from the staircase below, heading their way towards them. Carrie perked up, somehow encouraged by the noises. She was ready to chant once more, until her excitement was contested with disappointment by the noticeably human footsteps.
“Nova, I found the box,” a soft voice called out.
Hikari popped her head around the corner of the bookshelf, a big dusty box of ornaments in her hands. She was taken aback by the gothic display, turning to an equally confused Nova.
“What’s going on here? This behavior isn’t tolerated in the library!”
“They’re not harming anyone,” Nova tried.
“SILENCE, FOOLS!” Carrie growled. “We almost had him! You heathens will not waste my efforts tonight! Once more!”
Before either spectator could stop them, they started again.
“O powerful Krampus, hear our-”
The lights went out. The candles were snuffed. The building went dark. For a moment, the only sound they could hear was the flurry blowing outside. Then, Xander pulled up his sleeve and set his arm ablaze, shedding some light on the group.
“Good job, fuckers,” he said.
“Vhat happened!? Did it work?” Ernst’s goggles switched to Night Vision mode.
“Yes! And this mortal has angered our Christmas spirit!” Carrie pointed to Hikari.
“Hold on a minute, Carrie!” Nova interjected. “Hikari was just checking in on us! She would never mean any disrespect to your… passions. Maybe it was just a power outage.”
“Nay, I have seen this far too many times…” the masked girl stood once more, and declared, “This library is now haunted!”
“Haunted?” Hikari said.
“Oh, fuck me,” Xander rolled his eyes, “How long do you really expect us to believe that bullshit? Krampus doesn’t exist, for God’s sake. Just pack this up already, I’m going home.”
“NO! Everyone must stay right where they are!” Carrie yelled, loud enough to set everyone off guard. Nova wondered how long they’ve stayed here.
“Miss, don’t make me report you again,” Hikari furrowed her brow. “You don’t have any proof that your Krampus person is coming.”
“I need not proof,” Carrie explained, “for he is already here.”
This slightly unsettled the audience, long enough to let her continue.
“One may suspect this spirit to be a mere fairytale. A hoax, a sham, an urban legend. However! Krampus is no mere tale. He has shown himself on many an occasion. He is the coal in every misbehaved child’s stocking. He is the hail in a weeklong forecast of light flurry. He is the disorder of a crowd on Black Friday. He is the anger that manifests into our anger! Wherever there is hostility, he comes.”
“Ah, he sounds just as I remember!” Ernst reminisced.
“But that’s still just a bedtime story. Another supernatural bogeyman made to scare kids into behaving well for the winter,” Hikari shook her head.
“Are we not all supernatural beings? Who is to say our infamous spirit is no different?” Carrie argued.
“She’s saying not to believe in myths about magical beasts, dipshit,” Xander piped up.
“Then what does that make someone like our Nova?”
This halted the debate for a second. Everyone turned to the void, who felt increasingly unsure about the whole ordeal.
“If beings like Nova exist, then we cannot rule out the validity of Krampus’s existence. I would not be warning you all if I did not believe this to be true.”
The storm outside blew harder than they’ve ever seen before. The darkness outside seemed to close the building in isolation.
“Vell, I’m convinced!” the doctor said. “Should ve start evacuating ze students?”
“It’s just us, everyone else left a while ago,” Hikari answered.
Xander yelled in frustration. “God dammit! Why does this shit always happen in the library!? So what, now we gotta kill this thing?”
“If he is here to punish us, we may have to fight back,” Carrie put a hand to her chin.
“But this was all a misunderstanding,” Nova said. “We don’t have to resort to violence! If he comes because we fought, we can prove to him we can work together so he’ll have nothing to-”
“Not if, but when he comes,” Carrie corrected. “And that is a great idea. We will work together to defeat him! We must prepare ourselves in the meantime! Librarian, bar the doors! Doctor, research this beast! I want to know his every weakness. Cultured One, prepare your defenses! And Infinite One, you shall remain by my side to help relight this building until his arrival.”
“Wait, I didn’t say-”
Hikari split herself up to four separate bodies, each one taking a corner of a table to the door. Ernst started flipping through books while Xander grabbed the sharpest pencil he could find lying around. Nova just had to go along with it for now.
“Carrie, is it okay if I could at least drop off these ornaments?” Nova said.
“And abandon those you call your friends?”
She had them there.
The night grew even darker. The wind blew harder. Nonetheless, the defenses were complete. Nobody could get in or out of Hikari’s front door barricade. Xander and Ernst were arguing somewhere in the first floor whether to follow the English or German translation of their encyclopedia. Carrie and Nova sat looking outside the second story window. A plethora of candles and gas lanterns lit up the library with what little fuel they had in their reserves.
“So what does this Krampus fella look like?” Nova sipped on a mug of hot cocoa from the library’s break room coffee machine.
“He takes on many forms,” Carrie stared intently through the open blackness. “His most common is straight from a horror film. Take a large man, and curse him with the most foul features of a goat. And that only describes a fraction of his terror.
The boys came up the stairs, Ernst being the first to speak. “Ve found somezing!”
“Speak, Medicinal One!” Carrie was obviously excited to hear the news.
“Ve cannot kill Krampus! Haha!”
If only they could see the expression on her face. She facepalmed, quelling the urge to punch someone.
“We must rethink our strategy. Who knows when he will plan to strike!”
“Uh, maybe now?” Xander pointed out the window. The other three rushed to find what he was talking about, and their eyes fell towards a humanoid figure approaching the library. Their stomachs churned.
“It is him,” Carrie said.
“Where’s Miss Hikari?” Nova looked around.
“Went to hold the door, as if the entire fuckin’ floor’s worth of furniture wasn’t enough,” Xander said.
The figure walked closer. The more it came into view, the larger and more intimidating it looked.
“Vhat do we do now?” Ernst seemed less nervous and more fascinated by the encounter.
“We attack before he attacks us!” Carrie resolved.
“Way fuckin’ ahead of ya, squid bitch!” Xander opened the window, picked up a mechanical pencil sharpener, set it on fire, and chucked it out. It landed feet away from the figure, catching it off guard.
“The beast is distracted! Now is our chance!” Carrie exclaimed.
Nova watched in concern as the other three began throwing flaming stuff out the window at the monster, including several heavy books. Hikari was not going to be happy about this.
One book got the figure square in the head, making it stagger a bit and backing off. It stalked around the snow, not advancing yet but pacing left and right. It seemed to stare straight at the group.
“He must be plotting somethin’,” Xander guessed.
“Perhaps he’s onto us! He’s figuring out how to get past our defenzes!” Ernst hypothesized.
But surprisingly, the monster retreated.
Hikari came up the stairs again. “Is he gone?”
“Yes, but not for long,” Carrie said. “He shall return. Much stronger than before, even.”
Nova wasn’t sure what to say or do. Everyone seemed too bent on violence. It looked like the group was too spooked about Krampus to reason with him, or even themselves. They wondered when this would all be over; the short trip to the library was getting way too long. For the momentary period of ceasefire, they at least tried to ease the tensions.
“So while he’s gone for now, any of you want some hot chocolate?” Nova lifted their mug. ”We can get some at the break-”
Xander walked up and took the cup from their hands before the void could finish, downing the rest of the beverage in two gulps. “Damn, you put too much milk in this.”
“…room. Y’know what, I’ll just get some more myself.”
“Too late, he’s back,” Hikari said, looking out the window, grimacing at the tossed books.
Krampus stood in the expanse of cold white snow below them once more. Although they could not see his face, the way he stood was clearly and undeniably very annoyed. It held something, raising it to its head.
“A weapon!” Carrie cried.
“Wait, wait! I think he’s trying to say something,” Nova said.
A loud sound pierced the air, then a voice sounded through what they then realized was a megaphone.
“Whoever’s up there, get down right now! The library is closed and I need to get my equipment for a very urgent mission. Don’t make this difficult for me!”
The voice sounded surprisingly human. Some of the group glanced at each other. Did they have the wrong monster?
“Do not be fooled, pagans! Krampus can take on many forms! He is known for tricks like these!” Carrie reassured, then called out from the window, “You cannot sway us that easily, spirit! We will have you in our grasp yet! Soon, we will extract all that you know of this Christmas holiday!”
The figure paused for a moment.
“First of all, I’m Jewish. Second of all, if you pelt one more book at me, I’ll have you arrested for assaulting an officer. Whoever you are, I have the right to breach this facility by any means necessary, so I would suggest you peacefully call off this stunt of yours while you still can.”
“Shit, I can’t afford to go back to jail!” Xander blurted.
“Carrie, we have the wrong person,” Nova said, “he’s not Krampus.”
“I should’ve known not to go along with her,” Hikari facepalmed.
“Vell, zis vas a bit anticlimactic!” Ernst started packing his things. “Das zis mean ze seance yielded no result after all?”
Carrie exploded. “Silence, you fools! Can you not see he has caught you all in his trap of lies?! This monster is nothing but pure evil! If we cannot retrieve the information we need from him, be it by interrogation or force, he must be eradicated! There is no alternative! And I, for one, will carry out my sworn duty as servant of the Great Old Ones to fulfill it! Cultured One! Hand me the box to your right!”
More hesitantly than even he expected, Xander complied. He suspected this arrangement between this crazy squid lady grew very one-sided.
Carrie nabbed the box from his grasp. As she pulled out an ornament from the inside, Nova immediately recognized what was about to happen.
“Carrie, no! Those are for the party!” the void held out her arms.
But it was too late. In one mighty thrust, Carrie shoved the entire box out the window. Only the one in her hand remained unthrown. Some ornaments spilled out of the box midair. The cardboard itself bumped straight off the figure’s chest, a couple stray orbs breaking against it, most of which falling into the knee-deep snow.
“Take that, you putrid goat thing!” Carrie shouted in premature victory.
Nova could not believe their entire purpose for coming to the library had just been yeeted off the second floor. They could not imagine the disappointment their friends would feel when the void would come back to the lobby empty-handed.
“Here, take this must you need to defend yourself!” She tossed Nova the last ornament.
Well, empty-handed for the most part. They stuffed it in their void pouch.
Hikari spoke up for them. “I can’t believe you, young lady! You can’t just destroy property lik-”
“Hush, Librarian! Krampus is weakened, but he will not remain that way for long. We must find something sharp to finish the job!”
BONK! In a split second, something crashed into the doctor’s head out from the open window. As it plopped onto the floor, they could recognize it as a solid orb of ice… with an ornament inside? Nova and Hikari rushed over to check on the victim.
“Woah! You ok, buddy?” Nova asked.
“How did you remain standing with a hit like that?” Hikari wondered.
“Ooh! It vas a good thing I wore my safety hat today!” Ernst pulled off his hat to reveal a metal skullcap lining the inside of it. They could see the dent where the ice bounced off. “I vanted to be extra prepared if the spirit actually came, haha!”
CRASH! In a split second, another ice ball broke the window next to the open one. It flew with such velocity the object whizzed right by them, only to be stopped by one of the bookshelves behind.
“Holy fuck! That dude’s off his damn chain!” Xander jumped to cover, prompting everyone to do the same. Within moments, all of them abandoned their original post. Every ten seconds or so, another ornament came crashing into a new window. Some people switched their hiding spots when an orb flew too close for comfort.
“Everyone, get to the first floor!” Hikari managed to yell.
Between shots, Nova quickly spread their wings and grabbed the librarian and the doctor, gliding them down to the ground floor safely. Xander slid down the stairway handrail, while Carrie was left to run down herself.
“What now?” Xander said.
“Help me cover up these windows!” Hikari ordered, splitting herself up again to take apart some of the front door barrier and redistributing the furniture in front of the remaining windows. All hurriedly obliged but Carrie.
“You are all misguided. This will not stop the monster,” she said.
“The only misguided one is you, you stupid asshole!” Xander said. “That’s just a really pissed off man out there, who wants to fucking kill us now that you lobbed those dusty ass holiday decorations at him!”
“I did that to save us! We would have already faced his wrath by now had I not slowed him down! You should be grateful!”
“Oh, I’ll be grateful when he busts in here and tears you open a new one!”
“I’ll tear you a new one!”
“The fuck did you say to me?!”
“Both of you, please!” Nova interjected. “We’ll solve nothing if we fight like this! Maybe Krampus isn’t real, but if Carrie’s right about one thing, it’s that he lives on in our hate! Christmas is supposed to be about love and togetherness, and spreading joy to one another! If we can’t do that, then who’s to say we’re not just like Krampus?”
The two stopped. A long, awkward moment passed. Carrie hung her head. Xander scoffed in annoyance and kicked the floor.
“Hey, we might have to cut this moment short,” Hikari piped up, “look at the windows…”
One by one, the windows around them fogged up. Somehow, the crystallized frost on the outside glass liquidized, and from the water turned into steam, rising up the stormy air and blowing into the open windows upstairs. The steam blurred the group’s vision both inside and outside the library. The figure was nowhere to be found.
Xander snapped from his moment, and was now in defense mode again. Ernst yelled something about the physical improbability of this phenomenon, but his voice was drowned out by the other two raising their own voices. In the midst of the chaos and the other three panicking to one another, Carrie spoke again to Nova, in a chillingly calm manner.
“So. You all take me for an idiot.”
“Huh?” Nova tilted their head. “No no no, it’s not like that!”
“Save your pity. It matters not what any of you think of me. What matters is how they will think of you, Krampus.”
“…Pardon me?”
“Did you not expect me to figure it out, spirit?!” Carrie pointed her finger. “I am no idiot, mind you!”
“I don’t understand, what’re you trying to say?” Nova took a step back.
“The signs were too obvious! A supernatural being with goat-like features? A creature who can take on many forms? Do these not sound familiar to you?” Carrie took a step forward.
“You got it all wrong! I’d never trick you like that!” By now, the exchange caught the attention of the others.
“Lies! I know the truth now, Krampus! I do not yet know how you managed to create that illusion outside this building, or how you knew I was attempting to summon you before the summoning began, or why you have decided to reveal yourself now, but your cheap deceptions will not tempt me a moment longer!”
“What the… is she seriously now trying to say that Nova was Krampus the whole time?” Hikari raised an eyebrow.
“Bitch, you are out of pocket,” Xander snarked to the masked maniac.
“I concur,” Ernst fixed his goggles, “your dress haz indeed run out of pockets. Another thing, YOU ARE ALSO CRAZY! Zat method of logic makes no sense vhatsoever!”
“And you!” Carrie swiveled around to the other three. “How long was it before you all admitted to me you were siding with this creature all along? Or was I supposed to find that out myself as well? Well, I see now how it is! You may have bested me at a game of wits, but I will still not fail at my mission!”
Her third eye opened from beneath her mask, casting a blinding light at everyone in the room aside from Nova. The humans groveled to the cold wood floor, their eyes stinging.
“Carrie, please just calm down! You’re getting yourself too worked up,” the Void reasoned.
Carrie didn’t listen. While everyone recuperated from the light, she lunged at her enemy, taking them both down. She took a swing, which seemed to hurt her knuckles more than their face.
Ernst came in to hold her back, yelling “Zis vas not part of ze plan!” before Carrie flashed her eye again. Hikari and Xander then tried to overwhelm her but were met with the same fate. The library looked like it was in a giant, cold cloud now. The only thing Nova could see in front of them was a steaming squid mask.
“I’m not Krampus, I swear,” they attempted one last time, “just take a deep breath. We can try again tomorrow.”
“Enough. I cannot fail myself again this year. I will not allow it.” The girl grabbed a nearby sharpened pencil, in the hopes that it counted as a wooden stake. Carrie raised it for the final blow.
Nova could only shake their head in disappointment.
A loud clunk! sound filled the air, something the void didn’t expect a stab to sound like. Suddenly, Carrie slumped to the floor, leaving her victim completely unharmed. Slowly, Nova got up to figure out what just happened.
A gloved hand stretched out from the haze, followed by the arm, then the body of a school officer limping on an artificial leg. The young man’s face came into view, shaped with annoyance and concern. His helmet was slightly cracked by the visor and his chestplate was scratched with ceramic fragments.
“I take it you’re not affiliated with that woman?”
Nova took his hand and pulled themself up. “Oh, well I am, but not like, uh…”
“I get it, don’t worry. She won’t be bothering you guys anymore. We’ll be taking her in to do a lot of questioning over break.”
“How did you manage to get inside?”
“Climbed. I think enough windows were broken today. I could’ve gotten here a lot faster if I had my gear. Which just so happens to be in the library, where your group attacked me for whatever reason.”
“Hehe… we kinda thought you were Krampus…”
“Who?”
“Nevermind. What was the big rush you said you were in anyways?”
“Right, I wasted too much time already. Some group of kids got themselves stuck in the snowstorm on their way back from the shopping district.”
“Oh, that’s horrible!” Nova was shocked for sure, but then remembered Brown and Knowledge were supposed to be at the district, too. Could they be…. no, those two were too responsible to get themselves into trouble. “I hope you find them okay!”
“So do I. Name’s Charlie, by the way.” He brought out a key to the janitorial closet as he talked, opening the door and grabbing a belt and a backpack. “I’m supposed to be called Officer Walker on duty, but I can’t be bothered with the formalities.”
The other three gathered their senses again, mumbling as they got up.
“My eyes… zey are BURNING!” Ernst cried.
“This is the last fucking time… I ever make a deal with Carrie,” Xander vowed.
“Don’t worry… she’s being banned here for the rest of the year, anyways,” Hikari rubbed her face.
Charlie collected the rest of his things and walked by the collection of poor, confused misfits. “What happened here?”
“I would be more worried about the lost students. It’s kind of a long story.” Nova grinned.