In the latest hours of the day you still can’t be sure that you’ll ever see the sun. It’s dark - impenetrable and suffocating. There’s a stillness that fills your ears and sinks into your lungs and weighs heavy on your dreaming mind. It’s that exact stillness that causes Astri’s eyes to part open and make sense of the dark room around her. It’s Christmas, she knows this without having to know it. The air around her is warm, she’s laying quite comfortably on her back … her back? With minute effort the woman slides her hands softly from underneath her covers, holding them open, splayed in front of her face. Fingers. Arms. She was human, but she was not human. There’s a sudden wave of nausea that overcomes her, the sense that she’s been out all night binge drinking.
Astri swings lucidly out of her bed - an empty, too large sort of thing - and stumbles over to her vanity. With cautious eyes she peers into the mirror and sees something that has her head tilting nearly to her right shoulder. She’s herself, but not the same as the way she remembers. Her hair is cropped short in a severe bob, hovering just below her jawline. It’s a halting shade of viridian that clashes with her pale skin tone. She’s all angles, all sinew, crows feet just beginning to show themselves at the corners of her bi-colored eyes. A tentative left hand rises into view to stroke her jawline. She looks fierce.
There could have been time here for Astri to admire the woman in the mirror, time for her to wander and make sense of her surroundings, but she’s out of time because a clatter above her has her gripping the edge of her dresser in shock. “What the shit?” She thinks, darting nimbly to her frosted window. Her house is roughly ‘L’-shaped, with her room being near the top of the letter. From where she stands she can see the short jut of the bottom of the L, and what waits there nearly stops her heart.
A creature - no, surely a demon - lingers there, eyes slitted on a face that could have spoiled milk. The overreaching incisors that spout from his mouth glint in the hard moonlight. He’s surrounded by other vermin, and they scurry on top of her roof, searching for something. Astri’s eyes narrow, her brows coming together to form a hard line. A cry arises in the night, a sharp scream. The demon swings about, festering hind claws digging away at her shingles. When Astri sees what he’s clambering towards, her stomach convulses.
“Mom?” A soft voice calls, and Astri pivots to view the young girl [Dacia, it’s Dacia!] standing in pajamas at her doorway. With a forceful leap across her room Astri swings the young girl into her arms and flies down the hallway, terror gripping her. “Where’s your brother?” She asks, holding the green-haired child to her tightly. “Lupei!” She screams, and her cry sends a feverish howl through the gremlin bastards. Down the stairs, into the kitchen, Astri is fumbling for anything she can use, flinging open cabinets and drawers in order to secure a blade. Poor Dacia waits near the fridge, trembling.
A noise behind her has her swinging around, a serrated bread knife wielded in her hand. But it’s not the demon lord that awaits her - it’s her son. She’d forgotten that he’d come home to visit for the holidays. Lupei is staring at her with wide, blue eyes and a shock of teal hair, his hands raised in defence. “What the hell is going on?” He asks. His question is answered by a snarl, and then he cries out on his own. A mutated little gremlin has shimmied his way down the chimney and snuck up behind him. The creature clings to his back and bites hard. Dacia screams and Astri follows suit, jumping across the kitchen so that she can wrestle the spawn of satan off her son. With a heated cry she swings the knife down and sends it straight through the shoulder blade of the assailant and it does the trick - the beast screeches and falls to the floor, scurrying away much faster than Astri would have given it credit for.
“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?” Lupei yells, his shirt torn and bloodied. Astri holds him, trembling from the effort of her attack. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to wait around for another one. There’s a much bigger one - their leader - he’s here and I’m not sure for what.” She explains, motioning for Dacia to come close. Another screech quiets them, a resounding howl followed by the feral sound of something ripping. They wait, motionless, but a large, black creature pads around the corner with the wounded [now dead] gremlin in it’s fangs. “Mongrel?” Astri calls the dog. “Good boy.”
They’re together now - the lot of them. The three humans and one dog against God’s own nightmare. Astri thinks and Dacia begins to quietly sob. “Think Lupei - is there anyway to defend ourselves?” Astri asks, her hand on his shoulder. The blue-haired man turns to her with an almost incredulous look. “Mom,” He says, as if she’s gone crazy, “We live in the south - we have a whole gun rack in our basement.” There’s a moment of silence then, and Astri finally nods. “To the basement it is.”
The three stand, Astri gathering Dacia once more into her arms while Lupei grabs Mongrel’s collar, they fly across the house, past the living room where the heads and claws of the demon’s workers are already beginning to pry their way in - “Run run!” one squeals, and Astri can feel an overwhelming sense of panic begin to set in. The group swing around a corner, and Lupei flings open what seems to be a closet door, hiding a set of stairs that lead down to the basement. They file in and Astri slams the door behind her while locking it. Down the stairs, into the far corner of the game room where a rack hangs along the wall, sporting a black .12 gauge, a semi-automatic hunting rifle, and a weathered-looking .10 gauge shotgun.
Astri deposits Dacia on the couch, covering her with blankets and pillows until she’s nearly hidden. She rises then, striding over to where Lupei holds the rifle, already beginning to load the chamber. He watches as she lifts the .12 gauge, a rather sinister-looking beast, before handing her rounds from his own pockets. “What do they want with us?” He asks her, and Astri can only shrug her shoulders. She loads the gun out of habit, a strange memory that makes sense but also doesn’t, before keeping the extras in her own pockets. “They’re not getting it without a fight.” She says with finality, her words halted by a thundering sound. The door from the top of the stairs breaks free and flies down with force, like an ominous projectile. The demon descends, claws raking against the wall as he lowers himself to view them.
“That’s the Grinch…” Lupei whispers, terror evident in his voice. “He steals children as a sacrifice.”
The nightmare chuckles, head turning slowly so that his eyes can pinpoint Dacia. His mouth stretches, yellowed teeth run over by a forked tongue. Mongrel snarls, and Astri raises her weapon, cocking the gun with determined badassery. “Not tonight, motherfucker.”
astri