He Sees You When You're Sleeping

Hey guys, here at EDATE we are celebrating the tenth day of Christmas, and today we have something cool and new for you. It's a short story about Christmas that I wrote especially for today! Check it out:

HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPING

One Christmas Eve while she was at the park, a mean little boy told her that Santa Claus didn't exist.

"Only babies believe in Santa.", he said.

The news broke  her heart. She had never met him, but she loved him, and had never once even considered the possibility that he did not exist. She felt betrayed by her parents. Why would they have lied to her for all of these years?

It couldn't be true. Where had all of the presents come from? Her parents couldn't afford them. She was very young, but not too young to understand that they struggled with money, at least from the bits of conversation she overheard at night while she was supposed to be sleeping. The cookies, what about the cookies? She had never known either of her parents to be particularly fond of sweets. Even she, who loved cookies (more than any other food in the world, probably), felt quite certain that she would never be able to eat a mound of them as big as she had left out year after year. Not by herself, at least. She was certain he brought them home for the elves, as a reward for building all of the toys. The boy was wrong. It had to be Santa.

She decided the best course of action would be to confront her mother (her father worked into the evening most days) about what the mean little boy had said, just to be sure. She walked home by herself. It was only two blocks from the park and visible from the house, so her parents didn't mind. She carefully avoided patches of ice, thinking about what she would say to her mother when she got there. Even considering the slow pace at which she had been walking, it had only taken about five minutes to get there. She stomped her boots on the welcome mat to shake off the excess snow, and she walked inside. She found her mother in the living room watching some old black and white Christmas movie. All of her feelings hit her at once and she began to cry. Her mother asked her what was wrong, and the girl told her.

"Of course Santa Claus exists, sweetheart. That mean little boy was just trying to ruin your Christmas. He's probably just worried that he's going to end up with a lump of coal.", Her mother assured her.

This satisfied the girl, and even made her giggle a bit. She trusted her mother. She knew now that the boy had been lying, and she couldn't wait to prove  him wrong. She watched Christmas movies with her mother until around 9 pm. Together, they put out the cookies, and the milk, and she was sent to bed. She had to go to bed, her mother had said, because Santa would be coming soon. She thought she would never fall asleep, but eventually she did, and she slept well.

She woke at about 7 the next morning, and rushed to wake up her parents. They all went downstairs together, and it was beautiful. There were so many presents under the tree, almost all of them addressed to the girl from Santa Claus. She got everything she wanted, and will always remember it as being one of the best days of her life. She even kept one of the address labels as proof, to show the boy the next time she saw him. She never did see him again, though.

His parents had woken up on their own at around 10 that morning, puzzled. Their son always woke them up early for Christmas, he had never missed a year since he could walk and talk. It was his favorite holiday, because he was a selfish boy who loved to receive gifts. They went to his room to check on him, but he wasn't there. They assumed he must have woken up early and opened his gifts by himself, so they walked to the living room together and screamed with terror at what they saw. Their son had been hacked to bits, neatly wrapped up, and stacked under the tree. They called the police, but no one ever did find out what happened to that little boy.

I know what happened to him, of course. Because I can see everything, and I don't take very kindly to those who don't believe.

Well that's it everybody. Hope you liked it. Check back tomorrow for DJ Funkenstein and the 9th day of Christmas!

- JJ