when all through the house | round ii

[Anahera]

while the morning stars sang together

She is silent...hoping…praying he won’t figure out that she is just behind the very cabinet doors he is standing in front of. A small droplet of nervous sweat rolls down the side of her face and down to her chin. Her breathing was hard and fast, her chest moving swiftly, like a frightened small bird in the clutches of a careless, unknowing toddler. But, her hopes are crushed...he speaks to her through the crack of the little pass through doors…. she knows now, she can’t get away now. He is words were true though….she should have been sleeping, all tucked into her pretty pink princess bed, but of course her naive curiosity to see Santa got her in this bind. Suddenly the doors to the pass through fly open with such a force that makes her squeal loudly. The frying pan she was clutching ever so tightly was now gone from her grasp. She tried to sink further back into the pass through, but the Grinch’s henchmen on the other side kept pushing her further out into the living room. Soon she was pushed all the way out and was sitting just before the Grinch.

Her eyes are wide...staring fearfully into that glowing green gaze. He shakes his head, telling her he was not to harm anyone...but his last words echo in her head over and over for what seems like an eternity.

but since you’re up…

That didn’t sound good at all...but she couldn’t move, she couldn’t break from the green stare. She was stuck here. She has no choice but to watch as he flicks his wrist and a pair of reindeer antlers are produced out of thin air. Yes, the kind you would find in the Holiday section of a Kinneys or Walgreens. She is silent still, his voice is smooth and entrancing...she can’t look away, full attention on him. Could use her help? Santa's elves are swarming? Trying to do everyone a favor??? She realizes now that she is beginning to understand...she was beginning to feel a small twinge of...trust? No Anahera, you poor girl…

As he pauses his speech, she can now hear the commotion outside her destroyed home. The sound of elves screaming, smashing of things, demons cackling, and bells...lots of bells. She felt wrong...why was this happening? Why now? But questions had to wait, for she notices the Grinch is not at all interested in what was going on outside...he was fully focused on her...but why? He begins again, proceeding to tell her how Christmas was too commercial and that it had to be saved since it is no longer about family. She could understand...and it was seemingly the truth. All of the Christmas light and decoration competitions, all of the people hurting or even killing each other over “great Holiday deals” at stores….presents and material things...it was true...it was not about family anymore. But still...there was something off about his tone...something bad. But Anahera being the naive and too trusting girl she is, believes him. He had a point there right? That is a seemingly good reason for what he is doing.

He then poses a proposition...he would not harm anyone no matter what she chooses to do...he calls her friend, and asks for her help. She is silent for a moment...to say yes or not to say yes...she didn’t have time to dilly dally. But, poor Anahera being an easily convinced girl felt the desire to reach out and grab the antlers from the Grinch’s gnarled hand. She does. And she can see his TOO satisfied smile...she nods to him her voice light.

”I….I will...help you…”

She then gets up and starts up the stairs, surprisingly everyone is still asleep. She quickly runs into her room, throwing on her very pink converse and a navy blue peacoat. She then grabs her little red hat and mittens and slips the antlers on over her hat. She then slipped back down the stairs and down to the kitchen. She looks around out the windows, seeing that her backyard was seemingly safe. Slipping through the back door quietly, she begins her Christmas adventure. She runs through the snow swiftly to the broken fence board, sliding through it with a little bit of a struggle. But here she is now standing in the Patterson’s back yard. Human Anahera’s family had known the Patterson family for a long time, they were quite close family friend’s but Anahera knew how dangerous this house was going to be. She may know them well, but, Mr. Patterson had just acquired a new dog...a big black vicious guard dog with teeth that could rip clear through a car tire with ease. She shakes a little nervously...looking around the yard to make sure the coast is clear. As soon as she sees no threat she bounds across the snow covered back yard and slips up their back stairs and onto the back porch. She knows for a fact the door is locked, but thank goodness for that doggy door!!

She crawls through quietly, slowly making her way through the house and into the living room where the presents sat perfectly under a beautifully lit and decorated tree. She tries hard to be quiet while destroying everything she possibly can. She shreds through boxes and bags, ripping clothes, breaking toys, and even tossing some into the fire. The toys in the fire place crackled and burned as she continued on, this time she started on the decorations...then..a quiet growl catches her attention.

There at the top of the stairs, a large black shadow stepped slowly round the corner. The flickering light from the fireplace illuminated the tags on his collar and lit up his large ivory fangs. There was no time to plan...it knew she was here...and it DID NOT want her there that was for sure. The dog snarled and started down the stairs at her. In her quick thinking she ran to the tree and started pushing as hard as her little arms could. If she could knock it over in time she could delay the dog enough to get out and get to the next house. Her pushing works, and the large tree crashes to the floor just at the end of the stairs. She makes a run for it, though the dog is not delayed for long and just jumps over the tree and started after her. She begins to panic, she had to make it to the shrubs outside, it was the only way to get out onto the main street. She is there...she jumps, and it feels as if she is in slow motion as she glides through the air and grabs onto the thick light covered shrubbery. But as soon as she gets a grasp on the bush she feels an intense pain….the worst pain she has ever felt in her life. She is soon being pulled back down...and she looks behind her to see the black dog sinking its teeth into her little calf. She screams in pain, crying as she tries to struggle to get out of its grasp. She feels helpless...this can’t be the end….she can’t fail this early. She had to think of something and fast. Soon she can hear a slight cackling...the Grinch’s demon reindeer….Three of then skittered down into the yard trying to distract the dog as another comes down to whisper into Anahera’s ear. Soon she knows what she is to do...the antlers begin to glow a slight green color, and she thinks hard of what she wants. Soon the pain in her leg is dulled, but their is still a pressure there. She looks down and realizes the dog’s teeth are no longer shining white bone...but rubber. She doesn’t know how she managed to make it do that, but what she does know is that the antlers were full of dark magic.

Finally able to kick the dog off of her, the reindeer help her as she manages to finally pull herself over the hedge and down to the main road on the other side. She can see now, the Christmas battle between Santa’s elves and the Grinch’s demon “elves”. Battling in the streets and in the windows of homes being damaged. She tries to look around quickly to find a house that looks to be untouched yet...and she is successful. Just across the street, past a rumble of battling elves, lie a house decorated nicely with no commotion in the windows...this was her chance. She began to run...with a painful limp. Her now ripped red pajamas soaked through with the blood from her dog bite. She finally made it up the stone path to the house, and managed to find an unlocked window and lets herself in, the reindeer follow quietly. She looks around. Making sure the coast is clear...no humans..no elves….time to get busy. She starts again with the presents. One by one ripping through them and making sure they are too damaged for repair as the reindeer ripped the decorations off the walls, one began eating the stockings...ew. But as she is about to ruin the first ornament on the tree, a high pitched voice stops her in her tracks…

”Stop it right there…how could you...you were on Santa's nice list!!! How could you team up with these...these....disgraceful, disgusting, hateful creatures!?”

The real Santa’s elves stood before her, a group of almost ten...they outnumber her and the three reindeer demons at her side. She doesn’t know what to do now...she is too far in now to back out of this. There was no going back. She looked to the elves, she felt strange, she wondered if it was the influence of the dark magic filled antlers atop her head. She gripped the ornament a little tighter, her voice is stronger now. At this point she does not care about the naughty and nice list...the black magic courses through her.

”Why are you trying to stop us? We are doing what is best. Christmas is for families and being thankful for having one another...STOP INTERFERING!!”

The ornament leaves her hand and smashes over top of of one of the elves’ head. She doesn’t know what had come over her, she is shocked, but there is no time now to ponder...this was war..the elves then began to charge. The head elf ran toward her, jumping onto her, trying to take the antlers from her head and ripping her hair out in the process, but she once again uses it’s power to aid her. She is knocked to the floor, kicking and screaming, it’s difficult to concentrate on the antlers but she has to. She thinks hard, trying to ignore the ripping out of her hair and the scratching of it’s little sharp nails into her skin, and the antlers begin to glow again. This time the elf is lifted up off of her and it is thrown far across the room, hitting the other elves and one of the reindeer (accidental casualtyyyyy) down like bowling pins. But alas they get back up and keep on coming. More are coming now, attracted to the sound of battle in the home. She is becoming tired...she doesn’t know how much longer she can hold on, especially with her leg injury..this battle was becoming too intense...elves and demented reindeer wrestling and attacking each other brutally all around her.  Little did she know it would get worse from here...this was to become the battle of a lifetime.

ANAHERA

Marijuana x Freiya