Holiday Spirits Read online

  She laughed. “Yeah, I agree.” She set down the catalog and settled beside me on the sofa, taking my hand. “Mom, what happened last night? Whatever it is, it’s really bad, isn’t it?”

  I winced, dreading telling her, but she’d find out sooner or later and I’d rather be the one to break the news. “Your brother got himself in a fair bit of trouble last night.”

  “What happened? Was it Sly?”

  I shrugged. “Yes. Well, Kip could have said no.” As quickly as I could, I outlined the basics of what had happened. “I have to go to court Monday with Kip. We’ll know more then.”

  “Poor Mrs. Standers. Oh man, a gun? I didn’t think Kip had it in him to do something that stupid.”

  “Well, Sly was the one with the gun, thank gods. Not Kip.”

  Randa glanced at me. “What’s going to happen to him?”

  “I really don’t know, sweetie. If we’re lucky, a fine, restitution, and probation. Maybe community service, which I think would be a good thing. If we’re not lucky—well…I don’t want to think about that right now, if you don’t mind. Don’t say anything about this to him. We can’t be sure what his punishment will be till then.” I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it. “Don’t tease him about it. Kip knows he’s in for some hell about this, and he also lost his best friend. As for Sly, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for the boy. His mother was cooking up meth over there and Sly might be addicted.”

  Randa made a noise between a grunt and a sigh. “Wouldn’t surprise me.” She paused, then, just as she was about to say something, a shriek echoed from upstairs. Kip.

  I was on my feet before Joe shouted from the kitchen. Jimbo rushed in behind me and we thundered up the steps. One thing working out had done for me was to ensure that even though I was still basically a couch potato at heart, I could move when necessary.

  I raced down the hall to Kip’s room and slammed open the door. I skidded to a halt.

  Kip was huddled in bed, cowering from Santa Ghost, who was leaning over his bed. But the ghost’s face had distorted into something wild and feral, with spiraling horns instead of the Santa hat. The spirit reminded me of a creature out of Where the Wild Things Are. Combined with the red suit, he was a freaky-looking monster and he was attacking my son!

  “Get the hell out of my son’s room!” I charged toward the spirit. He whirled to face me, letting out a rumble worthy of a freight train. Before I could reach him, he vanished, fading so quickly that he was a blur.

  Jimbo stared at the bottom of the bed. “What was that?”

  “Our latest visitor from the spirit realm. Before you ask, I don’t know what exactly he is, or where he’s from or why he’s here.” I dropped to the bed beside Kip. “Did he say anything?”

  Kip nodded. “Yeah, he did.” His voice was hoarse and I had the feeling he had cried himself to sleep. “He showed up looking like Santa and said, I’ll show you what happens to bad little boys. That’s when he turned into…whatever that was.”

  Lovely. Just what we needed. A vengeful spirit out to punish my son. “Get dressed, Kip. Let’s go down and have breakfast.” I turned away, giving him privacy, and Jimbo stepped out of the room. But I wasn’t about to leave him alone. Not with a crazed spirit roaming the house.

  JIMBO EXCUSED HIMSELF. He needed to go home and feed his animals. “Just call if you need me and I’ll be over.” He waved on his way out of the kitchen.

  Randa was making waffles and bacon under Joe’s tutelage. Joe wheeled himself over to the espresso machine and made me a quad-shot for breakfast, adding enough creamer and cocoa to turn it into mocha. I gratefully cupped the mug, savoring the steam as the fragrance stirred my senses.

  “And you have no idea what the spirit is?” Joe asked.

  Randa shifted from one foot to another. She wasn’t comfortable with the psychic side of life, but she was slowly coming around. She had her own flashes, but she was grounded in science. The seeming solidity made her feel safe. Ghosts tended not to provide that same sense of security.

  I shook my head. “I have one possible thought. Maybe we’re dealing with the ghost of a man who believed he was Santa Claus. Perhaps the delusion stuck around, even after death? He might have heard our conversation with Kip last night and put Kip on his ‘naughty’ list. I don’t know, but I’ll do some research today. I should go down to the shop given the holiday rush, but this is more important so Lana will have to fend for herself.”

  Randa glanced over her shoulder. “I can help, Mom. I’ll head down there after breakfast and work the morning shift with her. I have study group this afternoon, but I can help until two o’clock.”

  My heart surged. Miranda might be a handful on an intellectual level, but she had a heart of gold. I ducked my head, ostensibly tasting my mocha, but in reality, I blinked back tears. I was tired and worried, and all that it took to set me off was one nice gesture.

  “Thanks, kiddo. You’re good to your mother.”

  Kip let out a sniffle. “I’m not.”

  Randa shoved a waffle and some bacon in front of him. “Mom loves you. You know it. You messed up. Now you have to dig yourself out.”

  Kip twisted his lip, then shrugged. “Yeah, I do.” He turned around. “Mom, when do we find out what’s going to happen to me?”

  “I told you. Monday, when we go to court. I’m going to call a lawyer today. I’ll try Todd Givens. He’s a friend of Murray’s.” Visions of hourly fees began to dance through my head, pushing all thoughts of sugarplums away. “There’s a lot to do today, so everybody needs to pull their weight. Kip, you have to stay home today. You’re grounded for longer than you want to think about. Expect it to be well past Valentine’s Day before you see the outside of this house or the school. You can help Joe. He’ll need someone to be his gopher, given he’s stuck in that chair.”

  He gave me a frantic nod. “Sure. I’ll help however I can.” I could hear the hurt behind the words.

  After accepting my waffle from Randa, I paused, propping my elbows on the table as I rested my chin on my hands. “You messed up big time. But as I told you last night, I love you. We will make it through this, but you have to get it together. No more screwups because now you have a record. That means if you get yourself in trouble again, it will be a lot worse.”

  After breakfast, Randa took off for the Chintz ‘n China and I called Todd. Joe and I had worked with him to draft our wills. Todd agreed to see us at four o’clock. That done, I fired up the new computer we had just bought to replace our sluggish old monster of yester-yore and began searching out reports of ghostly Santa sightings. There were a few reports but from what I could see, none had ever been fully investigated.

  I was weeding my way through a lot of grainy pictures purporting to be real when Kip called out from the kitchen, where he was doing his homework.

  “Mom, Mom! He’s back!”

  I raced in to find Kip backed up against one of the counters, a panicked look on his face. He pointed out the kitchen window where a monstrous face was peering in. It vanished the moment I caught sight of it.

  I slammed open the back door. The clouds were setting in again and snow was beginning to flake down. My feet bare, I plunged into the yard. The icy chill of the snow burned against them as I waded through the blanket of white over to the bushes beneath the kitchen window. I shoved them apart, looking for anybody who might be hiding there, but there were no footprints except those of squirrels and an opossum.

  “Mom? Are you okay?” Kip’s voice echoed from the porch steps.

  I turned to see that he was holding my slip-ons for me. My boat shoes had a tread that actually steadied me on the slick surfaces. I stared down at my bare feet.

  “Thanks, but if I put those on now, I’ll just get them dirty inside.” I glanced back at the window. “How long was that thing at the window?”

  He nodded. “I don’t know. I looked up and saw it watching me.”

  Hands on my
hips, I gave one final look at the side of the house. I closed my eyes, trying to suss out the energy. There had definitely been something beneath the window, but whatever it was had cloaked up really well. Either that, or I just hadn’t had any experience with its ilk before.

  “You believe me, right?” He sounded so plaintive that I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and escorted him back to the kitchen, stopping at the door.

  “Bring me a towel, would you? And Kip, yes, I believe you. I saw him, too.” I smiled at him, wishing that puberty would hit him a lot easier than it looked like it was going to.

  He brought back a towel and I dried my feet, then slid into my shoes should any more sudden flights outside be necessary. Obviously my wards weren’t working, so I decided to make another trip down to the basement. I motioned to the table.

  “Go back to your homework. I’m going down to the basement again to see if I can find out anything.”

  As Kip settled in to his math, I hurried upstairs to retrieve my dagger from Nanna’s chest again, along with a bottle of spray that I had amped up with some quartz crystals. Santa Ghost hadn’t wanted to be smudged, so maybe a shot of sage water would work instead.

  As I passed back through the living room, Joe cocked his head.

  “Where are you headed with that?” He nodded toward the blade.

  “I’m off to do battle with those damned ghosts. One of them—probably Santa, since he seems to be the troublemaker and the elf just tries to calm him down—was staring at Kip through the kitchen window. I’m fed up with this crap.”

  Before Joe could say anything, I had already closed the basement door behind me. I headed down the steps cautiously, senses on high alert. I wasn’t about to let myself be startled like Joe. One of us laid up was enough. As I slowly made my way down, it hit me that my spell of good luck had broken. It felt like we had been under an umbrella of protection for quite a while, but now it was gone, yanked away, and we were caught in the downpour.

  At first I couldn’t hear anything, but I knew I was being watched. I turned around and there they were. The elf and Santa were both there, but Santa hadn’t bothered to pull together the complete guise. He was even scarier looking than before.

  In fact, the red-suited old man had vanished altogether and in his place stood a beast, seven feet high, with long fur in shades of brown and white. His face was gnarled and wrinkled, with a malformed nose and large, fanged teeth that protruded from a wide mouth. The creature’s eyes glowed white and, from the hairy head, horns protruded, curling into the air like a ram’s horns.

  Between the horns, he was wearing a large black top hat. Over his body fur, he had draped a fur cloak that was belted with a rope of chain and bells. My first thought was demon, but he didn’t feel exactly like a demon. Nor was he Sasquatch or the Klakatat Monster.

  As he stepped forward, tilting his head, he roared. At that moment, the elf darted around from behind him, motioning for me to get out of there.

  But I wasn’t leaving my basement without finding out what was going on. I stood my ground, waiting as the creature approached. Raising the bottle of fortified sage spray, I let off a good blast in his direction, then raised my dagger.

  The spray hit him in the eyes and he let out a low growl. “You’re a fine mother, to raise your son to be a thug.” His words were hard to understand but the meaning came through.

  I bristled, about to answer, but then I caught sight of yet another spirit. This one I knew. Nanna shimmered into view, stepping between me and Santa Ghost. She was dressed in the Bavarian dress I remembered from her funeral, with a wide apron splashed across her tummy and chest.

  “Nanna!”

  My grandmother’s spirit had returned often enough when I needed help or needed encouragement that I wasn’t surprised to see her. But she seldom spoke, seldom said a word. She turned toward the creature and held out her hand, a warning look on her face.

  Santa Ghost pulled back, giving her a wary look. The elf took that moment to race over to my side and shove me toward the steps. He was as physical as I was.

  “Go,” he whispered. “Get out of here. He can’t hurt her, but he can harm you and your son. You must break the spell to rid your home of him. Go now.”

  I blinked. “But what is he? Why are you running interference?”

  “Search your heart. You’ve heard of him before. You’ll remember what he is. I cannot speak his name, but I am sent to keep him from making mistakes. He hates me for it, but he must acquiesce. But he’s not fully mistaken, being in your home. You must break the spell that invited him in.” And with that, the elf shoved me toward the steps again. Nanna was waving me on, a strained look on her face, and I realized she was holding the creature back. Fear settling in my heart, I turned and raced up the stairs, not looking behind me.

  JOE LOOKED UP as I skidded, panting, into the room. “Did you find out what’s going on?”

  I shook my head. “No, but I have more to go on.”

  I looked around, wildly trying to latch onto something that would keep him at bay. And then, my gaze fell on a bright blue star ornament. It had been Nanna’s. Hand blown and from the old country, the star twinkled with more than glitter, more than sentiment. There was magic attached to that ornament and I’d never realized it before. I cautiously took the star off the tree and carried it over to the basement door, where I hung it on the handle. Instantly, I felt a barrier go up, creeping through the walls. At least for the coming night, Santa Ghost wouldn’t be able to break through.

  “I have to think.” I told Joe about what the elf had said, and about Nanna’s visit. “The elf thinks I know what this thing is. And Nanna has some part to play. She was able to keep the ghost at bay. Spirit. Creature.”

  “What did it look like?”

  “Not at all like Santa Claus anymore. It reminded me of a scarier Sasquatch or…well…the Klakatat Monster.”

  “I think I know what it is, Mom.” Kip poked his head into the living room. “I saw a video on the internet of a parade in Germany.”

  “What do you think it is?” I was ready to consider any help at this point.

  Pale as the snow falling outside the window, Kip answered. “Krampus.”

  Chapter 5

  KRAMPUS. OH HELL.

  I caught my breath, trying not to hyperventilate. Kip couldn’t be right, could he? I prayed not. But memories started to flood back. Memories of Nanna telling me stories about Krampus when I was little and I complained that I never got what I wanted for Christmas.

  Krampus dealt with naughty children by dragging them back to his lair and eating them.

  “Oh, holy hell. No, it can’t be. Not all the way from the old country?” But I settled down at the computer and brought up a search engine. I typed in “Krampus” and watched as the results came up. Leaning over my shoulder, Kip pointed out one video link.

  “There, that’s the video I watched.”

  I clicked on it and found myself watching a parade in the Netherlands with all sorts of devilish-looking creatures parading through the streets. The kids watching from the sidewalks were laughing and pointing excitedly, though a few looked as frightened as I had felt when Nanna had threatened me. But the Krampus players, like Morris Dancers, did their job well. As I stared at the beasts lumbering along the parade route, I realized they mirrored what I had seen. Krampus was hanging out in my basement.

  A little more research told me that scholars thought it likely he might be a variant of the Horned God/Forest Lord of the pagans. The Christian church considered him a variant of Satan, of course. I read all the info I could find and then sat back. I decided that he was neither. My gut told me that Krampus was a form of spirit found worldwide under various names. These spirits focused on children because they were easier to feed on. They had fewer wards, they were usually more curious than adults, and they made better targets. What better way to catch young victims than to forge a connection to Santa Claus?


  I glanced at the clock. We had to leave for Todd’s office soon, but I knew I was on the right track. “Kip, I think you’re right. Somehow, we’ve attracted Krampus. Or one of the Krampus-like spirits. At least I know where to start now. Come on. Get your jacket. We have to go talk to the lawyer.”

  I gathered my purse and keys and turned to Joe. “I can’t leave you here alone. Not with that creature in the house. Since Jimbo put the ramp on the porch last night before we went to bed, bless his heart, I want you to roll yourself across the street and stay with Horvald while we’re gone.”

  Horvald Ledbetter, our neighbor and a retired security guard, was a champion flower grower. He kept gardens in honor of his late wife, but he was dating Ida Trask, a retired schoolteacher who had watched my kids since we first moved to Chiqetaw. They had been courting for some time, but I had the feeling we’d be seeing a wedding invitation before too much longer.

  “I’ll be fine—” Joe started, but I held up my hand.

  “Happy wife, happy life. And the happy wife part is only going to happen if I know you’re safe while I’m gone.” I punched in Horvald’s number and moments later, the matter was settled. “Horvald’s about to watch the big game. Some big game. I have no idea which one. You go over there and do guy stuff with him while I’m gone.”

  Joe stifled a snort. “Guy stuff, huh? Like drink beer, scratch ourselves, and grunt?”

  I smacked him lightly on the arm. “Dork. Do as I say.”

  “Yes’m.” He rolled himself toward the door. “I have my phone. Call me if you need me.”

  “Will do. We’ll see you when we get back from Todd’s.”

  As we trooped out and I locked the door, Horvald meandered across the street. He was dressed in a jacket over what looked like a sweat suit. Ida had him exercising more, though he really didn’t need it with all the gardening he did. He took hold of Joe’s wheelchair.

  “I thought I’d come give you a hand. The road’s a tad icy. Oh, and Emerald? I’ll be over later to shovel your walk for you. I doubt your young man here will be able to tackle that for a while.” Horvald also happened to be one of the sweetest neighbors around.