Fiction Fragment Friday
This week’s story is another story about Benjamin Eversole my Mystical Guardian of St. Louis. You can find his first story Restless posted in March of last year. This story is technically a prequel to that one, but all of my other stories about him have been. This is because the ending of that story was such a cliffhanger it is going to take a novel to tell. I did start that novel last November, but after my father passed I did not go back to writing it. I feel like I can’t do much more with this character until I tell that story.
As I put together this list of previous stories I realized I have written about him enough that I need to finish the novel so I can move on with his story. I don’t feel this story is nearly his best and part of that is holding myself back doing prequels.
Previous stories:
There is no stronger time of year for nostalgia than Christmas. Something about the holiday just brings back memories of childhood. Spending time with family, favorite gifts, and memories of times that probably were not nearly as happy as the memories lead us to believe they were. It calls back to youth and innocence before you learn what the world is really like and experience all the darkness that is inherent to it. Christmas is a time to remember when the world was simpler even if it was just your perspective of the world.
This is why Christmas is such a depressing time for so many of us. We remember what and many times who we have lost. There is a desire to get back things that can never be gotten back and a hopeless feeling when you realize that is the case. No matter how hard you try you can never get back that magic you felt as a child because once you see the world for what it really is you can never unsee it.
Don’t get me wrong, Christmas magic is a thing. You can’t have that much belief and strong emotions being exuded by so many without the universe taking note. It is an energy being focused just like any other magical work, but on a scale so much larger than most of us can ever hope to control. That doesn’t stop someone from trying every year though. There is always some well-meaning soul out there wanting to make the world better and another counterbalancing their desire with greed hoping to capitalize on the opportunity. Magical energies want to be balanced so each year two unfortunate people will always end up becoming the embodiment of Santa Claus and Krampus.
My first encounter with this phenomenon was on Christmas Eve thirteen years ago. I had only been married to my ex-wife Evelyn for a little over a year and back then we still liked each other. So much of that time is hard to remember for some reason, but I clearly remember the three stockings hung up by the fireplace. My brain explodes in pain as I wonder why there were three instead of just two.
Where was I? Oh yes, the first time I encountered the avatars of Christmas. It was thirteen years ago on Christmas Eve. My ex-wife Evelyn and I had only been married for about a year and we still liked each other at that point. We were sitting around the fireplace with our two stockings hanging up. I was telling her all about my childhood Christmases and she was sharing horrors of her own. My youth was far from perfect, but I had a magical mentor guiding me through it. She was rejected by one foster family after another as her suppressed powers caused chaos around her. That is what happens if you don’t have anyone to teach you control.
We were discussing the energy permeating the world around Christmas and I couldn’t help but think of how it could be used to do something truly special for Wiliam. My brain is once again racked with pain but through it I can see the strands of a spell weakening. Something is being hidden from me.
We were discussing the energy permeating the world around Christmas and I couldn’t help but think of all the good it could be used for in the world. Evelyn looked at me and I knew she could tell what I was thinking.
“That is brilliant. Of course we can use that energy. It’s just out there waiting to make all our dreams come true.” Evelyn looked so happy at that moment, but as much as I liked seeing her smile, I could tell that the temptation of all that power would not be good for her. She always struggled with walking the straight and narrow magically speaking. I was beginning to think that she was getting addicted to the power and losing herself in it. There I was being the ultimate enabler surrounding us with magical artifacts and energies while trying to set myself up as the mystical defender of St. Louis. For the first time I realized that I might not be the calming influence on her that I thought I was.
The room went cold as I reached out with my magical senses and tried to tap into the energies of Christmas. Snow began to fall in the living room and the fire danced in the blowing wind. It was then that my eyes met Evelyn’s and the realization that we had both tried to tap it hit me. We were fighting over the same energy calling it into our house and through all of my protective wards. We had reached out with very different purposes and each of us had been met with an answer.
I heard sleighbells ringing all around me and could feel another mind pressing in on my own. It wasn’t a being as much as magic with a purpose and it wanted to use me to fulfill that purpose. “I am no one’s puppet,” I screamed as my mental defenses fought back keeping me in control of the flowing power. Instead of being used we came to an understanding. An uneasy partnership to complete our shared goals without losing any of ourselves.
Mocking laughter drew my attention back to my wife. She likewise was becoming an instrument of magic with a purpose. Unlike me she didn’t have the years of training mental defenses to keep control. Her sheer power might rival my own, but it tended to use her as much as she used it. In that moment the energies of Krampus were taking complete control. There was a hatred in my wife’s eyes that I would not see again until our divorce. I assumed it was Krampus at the time, but in the years since I have come to question if it wasn’t her own. Did she ever care about me or was I just another source of power to be used?
Together Santa and I unleashed the loving Christmas energies into my wife. We were working together while she and Krampus were fighting for dominance. It was no contest. The energies of Krampus were caged and pulled from her to be imprisoned in the magical bag that was then sitting next to me. I could feel it corrupting the gifts within. The power of Santa could not be used that year without being twisted. Knowing this it left me taking Krampus with it.
Evelyn had collapsed on the floor so I rushed to her side. The rest of that night was a complete blur to me. I’m getting so frustrated with how poorly my memory of those years is and I can’t help but think that they are suppressed for a reason.
Over the years I have run into these embodiments five more times. I suspect having had one trying to merge with me for the night has made me a magnet for them. I know Krampus hates me with a passion that rivals that of my ex-wife.
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