THE KRAMPUS
An Original Listener Terror
Written by Hamdan Butt, age 13
Once upon a time, there was a boy named Brandon who hated Christmas. Everytime the clock struck December 25th, he would wake up furious and only settle down if he got the things he asked for. These things were out of his family budget. Last Christmas, he asked for a costly console. He said, “Mom, you’d better have got me the game-play 7 or else I will tell everyone that you’re not a good mother.”
His mom replied, “Brandon I…that’s…you know I can’t afford that yet. My three jobs barely pay the rent. Maybe this year you should be appreciative of what Santa got you.”
“MOM!” says Brandon, “I am going to call everyone and tell them how bad of a mother you are. But you can change that if you get me what I asked for!”
Brandon opens his present to see Elf socks.
“SOCKS…Elf socks,” says Brandon.
He is furious. He throws them at his mom’s face and leaves the room.
His mom sighs.
This Christmas when he woke up just as furious as every Christmas, he trots down the stairs heavily.
Thum..thum..thum
But he sees no one. He only sees one present under the Christmas tree. The present is in fully black wrapping paper with a yellow sticky note attached on the top, saying:
“Hey, Brandon, I needed to leave early today. Enjoy your present. It’s what you wanted. XOXO. Mom.”
Brandon says, “Wow, Mom can’t even afford festive wrapping paper.” He laughs. He opens it to see an all-black box. He can’t see inside it. He is confused, but then…
…a blue hand jumps out of the box to grab his face. Brandon screams at the top of his lungs. “Ahhhhhh!” But no one can hear him. He then manages to escape the mysterious blue hand’s grasp and falls on the floor, terrified. The blue hand grabs one side of the box, as another blue hand grabs the other. Then he sees two big, red eyes rise up from the box. Then, a six-foot-seven blue figure with a long red tongue, nails sharper than any knife, and a big black bag on his back.
Brandon stutters the words, “Wh..wh..who are you?”
The mysterious blue creature replies, “YOUR NIGHTMARE”. Then it laughs menacingly and walks over to Brandon while laughing. Brandon tries to back away but the monster grabs Brandon’s leg, dragging him towards it. Brandon screams. The monster holds him upside down as Brandon punches it in the face. The monster doesn’t even flinch. It opens its mouth, then wraps its tongue around Brandon’s neck. Brandon tries to breathe, but he is unable to. The monster opens his eyes to reveal them as red and glowing. Brandon turns pale white and the monster then says:
“I just love the smell of fear,” while cramming the boy into his big, black bag. He then eats the cookies that were meant for Santa and gulps down the milk. He leaves an all black card with the letter K in red, and sets it next to the where the cookies and milk were.
The monster then crawls back into the present, closing the lid over top, while saying “MERRY CHRISTMAS”.
Brandon’s mom wakes up and goes up to his room to see a clone of Brandon, who is a better person. Brandon’s clone says, “I don’t want a present, Mom. I just want to celebrate Christmas with you.”
His mom says, “Umm, who are you and where is my son?”
They laugh it off together and enjoy Christmas.