Broken Chains

#5 Dark Santa (Part 2)

***

 “Cody?” she said upon seeing Cody who was right beside her. It was already evening when she woke up. “What time is it?”

“It’s 5pm. Why?”

“I just realized that I have not finished my homework! Mind helping me. I think you are better at this than I am,” she hurried to retrieve her book from her bag, “How long was I out for?”

“Not long. About an hour and a half. - Well anyways, homework?”

“Yeah, it’s just some complicated math equations,” she replied as she started showing him the book.

“Oh, this is easy, first you-” The words that came from his mouth slowly faded into noise as she slowly got lost in confusing math equation.

“I love you, Cody...”, her words seemingly forming by itself. She was not thinking straight as the words accidentally came out of her mouth without her even realizing it.

“You mean like in a brotherly way, right?” he was stunned and also asked himself, Did my powers do this to her?

She did not have a choice when the truth was already out, “No, I really like you since the day I saw you, it was like I had found that missing piece of my heart. You have always been there for me in my times of need. And whatever you do never ceases to surprise me.”

“Are you really telling me this?”

She took a bold step closer to him and firmly replied “Yes, I am.”

“Honestly, I’ve felt the same way too but then after finding out that we were going to be siblings I gave up all hopes on ever getting you. But this Sky, this is really unexpected,” Cody responded.

“I know. It’s just that something came over me that must have made me do it, but I am not lying about my feelings for you.”

“The funny thing is that I have also been waiting for the right time to tell you but then it’s just that when I knew you were going to be my sister, I knew that it was wrong to be in a relationship with you, especially now when you’re my sister.”

“Just forget whatever I just said-”

“Why?”

“It’s just stupid of me to think that I could ever stand a chance to be in romantic relationship with you. Let’s just get back to work.”

Cody felt a sense of pity as she seemed heartbroken enough and what she needed now was a shoulder to cry on. But instead of calming her down, he just pushed her into pressuring herself with more homework.

“Skylar, look, I know that this may sound a little weird to you at first but then I am actually not what you think I am,” he decided he was about to tell her the truth after wiping out her memories previously. This time he was going to leave out the things he had told her about the other world. When the time comes, when she is safe from Nick then only will he tell her the truth about his family. This meant that he was going to stop keeping secrets about his own life from her. He had owed her that much as he had wiped her memory.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember finding out about me being a vampire? - Since you are curious, I am going to tell you the truth of why I had chosen to become what I am. The thing is that when I was young, I’ve always feared death and after dad passed away, I had to find a way to combat death so I went to find a friend of mine who knew a vampire so that he could transform me into a vampire-”

Skylar looked at him like he was a lunatic explaining everything to her like she was some king of noob. “Stop, Cody. You are starting to sound crazy.”

“No, you deserve to know the truth, Skylar.”

“So, you are telling me that everything we had ever read about vampires and werewolves actually exist in the society?”

“Yes, but I still do not know why unlike the rest of the vampires, I had the ability to walk under the sun, the ability to live a normal human life. And unlike them, I need not to have a clan.”

“What about cravings for blood? I thought vampires cannot control themselves around humans.”

“That was what I had thought too but then I have never bitten a human after my transformation. Mostly I have been feeding on animal blood-”

She apparently could sense that he wasn’t telling the complete truth when he told her that he had never bitten a human, but it wasn’t her secret to tell. “Ewe, gross!”

“But then it does help me control the cravings.”

“So how old are you? Your real age.”

“I am still my own age because not much time has passed since I transformed.”

“So, you’re telling me that you’re really sixteen years old right now?”

“I would never lie to you Skylar. But you have to keep all this from Tyler, no matter what he cannot find out.”

That night while Skylar was going to sleep, she was awakened by the sound of sleigh bells ringing. She thought it was all part of her dream but after hearing footsteps on the rooftop, she just had to know whether it was the legendary Santa Claus; the one who had been believed to send gifts, the one that every kid would kill to meet at least once.

She got out of bed to get out of the room quietly to not wake anyone or kill any suspense. But when she got to the stairway she saw a fat old man in a red suit, just like how all the books had depicted Santa Claus to be. Little did she know that that night was going to take a tremendous turn when she went down the stairs.

Once she took a step down the stair, the Santa Claus figure heard her and turned around to reveal his true face which looked like Krampus, a half god, half demon being with a cloak that seemed to look slightly ripped, his eyes glowed in the night that made her tremble in fear. It apparently had sleigh bells hung around its neck, which had made Skylar confuse about whether it was Santa Claus or not earlier. She stood frozen on the spot, facing the beast, Krampus, which was towering 5 feet over her.

Next thing she knew, she was pulled backwards by a strong force. “Stay here and stay hidden,” the dark hooded figure who’d single handedly saved her life warned. She was too scared to move anywhere. For now, she could only just stay at where she was and watch from a distance. Everything happened so fast that she did not even realize that Krampus had already been sent back to hell.

How the figure had slayed the beast still remained a mystery for Skylar. “Are you alright? No broken bones?” the figure said to her while reaching out a hand to help her up from the ground.

“Yes, I’m fine. But how...how did you kill it?”  she continued to ask curiously. “And what was that?”

“With time all this would make sense but for now you can say that it was a demon if anyone does ask - And how rude of me not to introduce myself, I’m Nicholas.”, he said while putting down his hood to reveal his face which looked so identical to Cody’s that there was no difference.

“Cody has spoken of a cousin who looks just like him, are you that cousin?”

“Oh, how silly of me. Obviously, he had already introduced me to his one and only sister but yes I am his cousin-”

But before he could continue, a voice came from the dark, “Nicholas! -” It was Cody. Speak of the devil. Nick thought. “I thought I told you to leave Skylar out of this,” he used his vampire speed to dash over to where they were standing in a blink of an eye.

“I was just about to tell her about the whole other world that she obviously does not know of - Or were you planning on telling her when it’s too late?” Nick said to Cody with a crooked smile followed by a slight chuckle.

“Tell me what Cody?” Skylar interfered.

“It’s none of your business!” he exclaimed and turned to face Nick. “If you are here to make my life a burden keep her out of this and leave her alone.”

“Still headstrong, I, see? You know it better than me that you can’t keep this from her forever. She'll have to find out eventually that you are not what you always put yourself out to be. It’s now or never Cody,” warned Nicholas and he disappeared into thin air.

He reached to take her hand but then this time she was more aggressive and demanded an answer there and then, “Tell me Cody...”, her voice seemed to trail off.

“Are you really that willing to know?”

She nodded in the silence though she knew that she was going to regret it.

“Sit down it’s a long story - The truth is that my whole family are descendants of demons who had rebelled and refused to remain in hell-”

“So, you’re a demon?”

“One-fourth of it actually. The last existence of a full-blooded demon was my great-grandfather.”

“But how are you a demon? You don’t even look a little demonic unlike the beast that Nicholas slayed.”, Skylar asked innocently.

“We can always hide our true form whenever we want,” he demonstrated and transformed half of his face into his demonic form, which caused Skylar to be taken aback for a moment as a vision of her dream clearly illustrates the similar face. “And that demon you saw was Krampus. It was summoned by Nicholas himself. And as I’ve said, he is the total opposite from me – Call him the Prince of Mischief - and that is why you really should never trust him. He just wanted to use Krampus to scare you but you’re fine now, right?”

She nodded silently so he continued, “About how we’re demons it’s because our great-grandfather fell in love with a human girl which ended up causing them to have a child - a half human, half demon child - which surprisingly did not scare my great -grandmother, Taylor. She was instead thrilled about the peculiarities of the child and brought him up as her own. As time progressed, she had another three children - triplets - two boys and one girl. She loved all of them as a mother would love her children.”

“How did all of them find out the truth of them having demon blood in their bloodline?”

“When they were old enough, my great-grandfather told them the truth and let them accept it. None of them took it personally though. And all of them lived their lives just like any ordinary human would.”

“I still don’t know why Nicholas sent that demon after me though?”

“Because Nick was always like the Dark Santa in our family, guess he decided to really put that name into good use.”

“Dark Santa? What do you mean?”

“He has always wanted to meet Santa Claus when he was a kid just like every other child. It was his dream. So, after finding out the truth that there was no such thing as Santa Claus together with all the rest of the legends, he decided to make his own version of Santa Claus, the dark version to entertain all of us. Because all legends are made up just to bring children's hopes up, he chose to make up his own legend by sending Krampus to the earth realm just so that he could pretend to save a mortal’s life.”

“But why does he do it? Has he ever done this to any other human?”

“Well Luna, one of my more decent cousins, always says that he never actually matured while grandpa always says that he was just doing all this to get people’s attention. But then it’s weird because I thought his pranks had already quiet down and he had already stopped pretending when grandpa had already given him the last lecture.”

“What about all the rest of the legends?”

“Well, that depends on what you want to know about?”

“Sorry to interfere into your family again but where is the origin of your last name; Frost?”

“Not a problem at all. Well, I don’t really know about my family’s heritage, but I should know just about enough. There had been myths saying that great-grandfather was a guardian, and just like what they say, I only believed that it was only a myth.”

“Guardian? You mean like Jack Frost?”, she immediately presumed.

“No, we’re nothing like that, he was a demon guardian. Though he was the one who rebelled against the rules of hell, we as his descendants were not really at fault so then the Frost family is still under the royal blood of hell. Additionally, Frost wasn’t really quiet our last name. We all took our great-grandmother’s last name.”

“Wait doesn’t that mean that you’re still of royal blood?”

“That depends on the way you see it. You see, I am not really that much appreciated as of a royal blood after well you know - I became a vampire. And the more I rebelled against the rules like the way I am just using my charms, then the more I am seen as a rebel.”

“But why do you want to play the bad guy in this thing though.”

“I just do not want to take over Nicholas’ place as the ruler of hell especially when I am the one who is notoriously known for my rebelliousness.”

“Wait...I seriously don’t get what you mean. Ruler of hell?”

“Did I share too much again? Well, the fight I spoke of previously was the fight for the throne of hell and he always used the fact that grandpa preferred me over him as an excuse that he was not good enough to be the Lord of Hell. - Alright that’s enough, don’t tell Tyler that I told you all this. And also, don’t write it in your diary either. I know how nosy my brother is. - It’s getting late, I think you should really get some sleep. Come on I’ll walk you to your room.”, he was getting up to reach out a hand to help her up.

She walked past the Christmas Tree which was lit and beautifully decorated and she also saw how there were gifts already stacked up under the huge tree. She was too busy mesmerized by the shinily wrapped gifts under the tree that she was not looking where she was going. It was also dark, that she tripped over something and the thing she knew it, she was in Cody’s embrace. While in his embrace, she looked up at Cody, his blue eyes were glowing in the dark just like a cat’s.

“I think you’re too tired to stand on your two feet so if you don’t mind?”, he was about to pick her up in bridal style to carry her to her room. But before she could say anything she had already dozed off and he carried her to her room. When they were in her room, she remained asleep. However, he still had to erase some of her memories to keep her safe.