Chapter Eight
And then Amber heard large items being shuffled around on the other side, voices increasing in volume and urgency, and she enveloped Cam, keeping him close to her body in case the creature decided to attack them.
She wasn’t going down without a fight. She would protect Cam until her last breath.
“Look!” Cam shouted. He pointed to the door as it gradually slid open, and Amber shoved him forward, needing him to reach safety first.
“You shouldn’t have let them in—it’s too great a risk!” a well-dressed middle-aged woman snapped to the group of passengers who had moved the luggage away from the door.
“What did you want me to do? They’re just kids. Whatever’s out there, I wasn’t going to just let them die when it’s within our ability to save them,” a young woman with long black hair and piercing eyes retorted. She gestured for Cam and Amber to take a seat while she and the others hastily piled up the luggage against the door once more.
“Did you see it, what’s out there?” another stranger pressed them.
Amber nodded, holding back the bile rising in her throat.
“Well,” the first woman prodded with impatience, “what was it?”
“It’s Krampus,” Cam responded very matter-of-factly.
Everyone seemed bewildered. When Cam noticed this, he sighed. “German folklore says that he comes out around Christmas to steal bad kids and eat them. Didn’t anyone in here pay attention in history class?”
Amber looked down at him. “Cam,” she whispered. “You just found out about Krampus less than an hour ago.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m a kid. They had their whole lives to learn about him.” He turned back to the skeptical audience. “Anyways, we can’t stay here. We need to get off the train.”
A man wearing a tight sweater across his muscles crossed his arms. “If you haven’t noticed,” he began, gesturing out the window, “we’re moving pretty fast. I’m guessing this train is cruisin’ without a driver. We can’t exactly jump off.”
Cam pushed his glasses up. “The back is the same as the front, and you can drive the train that way. We need to get to the back and stop it from there.”
Several passengers’ expressions exhibited equal parts surprise and aversion. “We’re not going anywhere. We’re safe here.”
Amber placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter how much stuff you put against that door,” she chimed in. “The monster can make it through. I saw it happen.”
“We’re staying put,” the man with the tight sweater emphasized. “There’s a reason why they’re dead, and we’re still—”
Suddenly, jagged claws punctured through the metal ceiling of the train, and they swooped down grabbing the man, digging deeply into his torso and tugging him up through the gouge above. The man was much too large to fit through the hole; there was only enough room for his head. The passengers listened to him scream as the monster yanked on his body, trying to force it through the opening. His skin curled and ripped along the uneven edges of the metal, and the creature pulled up and down forcefully until with one last wail of agony, there was a sickening, wet pop, and what was left of the man’s ravaged body plopped down to the floor, skinned and shredded and ruined beyond recognition.
Broken electrical circuits sparked and sizzled around the hole, and the lights on the train flickered a few more times before shutting off completely.
The remaining passengers huddled down, ducking beneath seats and staying close to the floor, hoping their hiding places would be obscured in the darkness. A few took their phones out and scrambled to find the flashlight feature.
“Put your phone away! It’s shining too bright! That thing will see us!” someone hissed at her.
“It already knows we’re in here; we have to get out!” another protested.
Amber’s heart was racing so much she was sure the creature would know their location just from the loud, rapid, unsteady beating of her heart. She pulled her phone away from her chest and tried to dial their parents once more. Maybe this time the call would go through. Maybe this time they’d answer.
Metal screeched, and everyone fell silent. The creature was prying open the hole with its claws, making it large enough so it could fit into the car, able to swoop down on them like a hawk capturing its prey.
The car catapulted into chaos as passengers stampeded past one another, scrambling and shoving, throwing the luggage away from the door in a desperate attempt to flee.
Cam saw the middle-aged woman who did not want to let them in earlier lying motionless on the floor, her body trampled in the fray. Her eyes were wide open, frozen in shock.
Not wanting his sister to suffer the same fate, he crawled under a seat and pulled Amber with him.
Amber turned to Cam and grabbed his hand. “We have to lay low for now. It’ll be okay.” She tried to appear calm in front of her brother, grown-up, in control, so that he wouldn’t have another asthma attack, but she knew they were trapped. Stuck in the madness, the disarray, entombed in a train full of people who were soon going to be reduced to nothing more than puddles of flesh, food for the beast.
She turned away from him then so he wouldn’t be able to see the tears pooling in her eyes and trickling down her cheeks.
He happened to look up in time to see the creature’s enormous head appear through the hole, its glowing red eyes staring right at him. Its long tongue extended, seemingly salivating just by looking at him.
Amber was still trying to reach their parents, but when she heard Cam gasp, she froze. She followed his gaze and whirled around, inadvertently bringing the phone up with her, its blinding light illuminating the hideous visage of the monster.
So close to her, just above their heads, she couldn’t help but scream. But when the creature bellowed and shrieked, retreating to the darkness outside, it took the whole car by surprise.
“What happened?”
“Where did it go?”
The door that Cam and Amber had entered through was finally cleared as passengers began shoving their way through it. But then Amber noticed people changing their direction, running to the back of the car following an explosion of metal and blood.
The horned creature stood just outside the now-disfigured door, struggling to wedge its giant shoulders through the opening. One arm swatted at the passengers as they fled, while the other dug claws into the metal, shoving it apart, hooves smashed against the floor of the train to try and gain traction.
Amber grabbed her brother and hurried down the aisle. Three other passengers made it out of the car with them, and they all raced further and further into the depths of the train as the temporarily restrained beast let out a fierce howl.
Amber’s heart sank, but something within her continued to propel her forward, if anything, to save her brother.
Chapter Nine
Amber and Cam ran through the cars, followed by the three men. They were so close to the end of the train, only a little more to go. If they could just stop the train, they could make it to the nearest town, to safety.
They reached the locomotive, an eerily empty seat in front of an array of panels with colored buttons and levers and switches.
Cam looked up at his sister doubtfully. “Umm… which one makes it stop?”
Amber shrugged, casting a glance behind her. “Just try them all.”
The adults who were running behind them finally caught up. “How do you stop a train?” she asked one of the three men.
“Hell if I know.” He leaned down to look at the controls and pushed a couple, but nothing happened.
Another man reached for the radio. He pressed the side button. “Hello? Hello? Can anyone hear me? We need help!”
He released the button and was welcomed by a painfully long burst of static. Then a garbled voice answered, “Copy that. What is your location?”
The man looked questioningly at all of them, including Cam, who returned the same unknowing look
. “Uh, somewhere in the mountains. I don’t know. We left from the Cherryton station en route to Piedmont. Bring help now! We’re being attacked by some bear—”
“It’s not a bear!” Cam interrupted in frustration.
“—a bear that got onto the train,” the man continued. “It’s tearing us apart.”
“There aren’t any bears in those parts,” the garbled voice answered.
“And I ain’t never seen a bear like that,” another passenger agreed.
“It doesn’t matter what the hell it was!” the man shouted. “Just bring help! Now!”
“We can’t help you if we don’t know where you are,” the voice repeated.
Amber snatched the radio from him. “This is pointless. They won’t believe us anyways. We need to stop the train.” She thumbed the button on the side of the radio. “Which button makes this train stop?”
When she got nothing but static on the other end, she tossed the radio down. “Just start pushing buttons. Something has to work.”
Everyone began pulling on levers and pressing various controls, and in spite of the cold, sweat dribbled down their faces and pooled at their backs, dampening their clothing.
Cam was studying one red lever that sat lower on the control panels than everything else, almost out of sight, but perfectly eye level with his height. His breathing quickened, and he tried to calm himself so he wouldn’t bring on another asthma attack. What if the button made the train explode? He would be the reason why they all died.
But that was stupid. This wasn’t a bomb.
This could be the only lever that saved them.
Without saying anything to anyone, he wrapped his hands around it and yanked down.
Immediately, screeching and hissing, like nails on a chalkboard, gears grinding, metal against metal, the train gradually began to slow from its dangerously high speed.
Breathless with anticipation, they all waited until the train came to a complete stop. Without thinking, two of the men bolted out the door and leapt into the snow, shifting about nervously to figure out which direction to go.
The third man grabbed Amber by the arm and tried to pull her out with them. She hesitated and attempted to wrench herself free.
“What are you waiting for? We’ve stopped!” the man barked at her with impatience.
She shook her head fervently as she stared at the darkness ahead of them, the only light coming from the moon as it cast its beams across the snow. Everything was so still, so peaceful. She could even hear the gentle sounds of snowflakes as they gracefully sank to the ground, the pine trees straining and creaking under the weight of the snow on their branches. “Something isn’t right.” She yanked her arm away. “It’s too quiet. Something isn’t right!”
The man threw his hands up in exasperation. “Suit yourself. I’m outta here!”
Cam and Amber looked out into the forest, holding the edges of the doorway, fearfully watching as the men scampered across the tracks, fading deeper into the darkness.
And then there was a thud in the snow and something darted by them towards the men.
Cam knew it was the creature, and he started to yell to them, to warn them, but Amber clamped a hand over his mouth.
She remembered how the monster had looked at the two of them, how it seemed fixated on them when it peered down from the hole it had gouged after dragging a person through it.
The other kills were just a distraction for the beast, an appetizer, an obstacle to getting what it really wanted, a barrier between it and the children.
The old man had been right. This was no polar bear, no rabid wolf.
This was a German folklore brought to life.
The fabled devourer of children, Krampus.
Krampus bounded through the air and landed on the first man, massive jaws unhinging as it chomped down on the man’s head, easily crushing his skull like an overripe pumpkin, blood, hair, and gray matter spurting onto the snow below.
His companion stumbled backward, whimpering and pleading. He fell into the snow and continued backpedaling toward the trees, but it was too late. Krampus descended upon him and raised its long, thick arms high in the air before sinking its claws into the man’s torso. With a low growl, it tore his ribcage in two, sternum destroyed and ribs sharp and broken, pointing wildly in all directions.
The last man, the one who had tried to drag Amber out of the car, realized it had been a grave mistake to leave the train and wander into open hunting ground. He had already started running back to the train. Krampus grabbed him mid-step and flung him against a tree more than twenty feet away. There was a sickening sound when he hit the trunk, and then his body collapsed at the base of the tree.
Cam was staring at Krampus, and Krampus was staring back at him, clutching the detached arm of the man it had just flung against the tree.
Then the beast tossed the arm aside and marched toward them, its eyes unblinking as it focused in on its prey.
Chapter Ten
Amber stepped in front of her brother, her chest heaving. Cam grasped her arm, his fingers digging into her skin as he watched the creature get closer.
She hastily turned and handed her phone to her brother. “Cam, I want you to run. Run as fast as you can, and get help.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to leave you!”
She swallowed hard. “I’ll be okay,” she lied. Amber knew she would be anything but okay when the creature was done with her. She shoved him out of the car. “Go, Cam! Run!”
Cam was bawling, shaking his head adamantly as he began stepping back. “I love you, Amber.”
“I love you, too. Always. Now run!”
Cam wiped his nose and started sprinting away from her, away from the train, looking over his shoulder at his sister, watching as the monster closed the distance between them.
He saw Amber, blonde hair flowing behind her, her stance defiant, her fists balled at her sides as she stood her ground before the creature, determined to protect her brother even if it cost her her life.
The beast lifted its arm and hit Amber hard with the back of its hand, sending her reeling into the side of the train. To Cam’s horror, she didn’t get back up.
It marched toward her with purposeful strides, ready to finish her.
Cam’s breathing quickened painfully, and he felt the all-too-familiar feeling of an approaching asthma attack.
He looked at the phone in his hand, and then his eyes grew wide as he remembered how the monster had recoiled and fled when Amber had inadvertently shone the phone light in its face.
Then it dawned on him.
It was scared of light. As the old man had said, that was why it came at night to steal the children.
Cam already knew before he made it into the forest that he would never be able to leave Amber behind.
And even if he survived because of her sacrifice, Cam didn’t want to live in a world without his sister.
He activated the flashlight feature on Amber’s phone and turned around, fiercely tearing through the branches and snow, back to his best friend.
When he got closer, he saw the beast lifting Amber’s motionless body into the air, opening its maw to devour her.
Cam took a deep breath, feeling a sense of calm wash over him.
He screamed as loudly as he could as he drew close to the creature, and just when it whirled around to face him, fangs wide as they prepared to consume Amber, Cam reared his arm back and threw the phone into its mouth.
The monster tossed Amber to the side and spun around wildly, roaring and clawing at its own body, trying to rip out the phone it had just swallowed.
The bright beam of light shone through its pale fur as it slid deeper and deeper into the beast’s core.
Then, what began as a small flame following the trail of the phone, suddenly erupted into giant flames as the fire expanded through its thick fur, instantly engulfing the creature, climbing its flesh like a dried Christmas tree.
Cam crouched by his
sister’s side, cradling her in his lap in the snow, as he watched Krampus writhe in agony, limbs ablaze, until its charred corpse finally collapsed to the forest floor.
“We made it, Amber,” he whispered. “We made it.”
Epilogue
Curled up on the microfiber sofa in the basement, crackling flames dancing in the fireplace, Amber scrolled through her social media for the first time that weekend. One photo she’d posted had garnered a multitude of likes, but that wasn’t why she loved it, why she’d made it her profile picture.
It was a selfie of Amber, with her brother photobombing her from the side, less than an hour before pandemonium had overtaken the train.
The photo meant a lot to her. It reminded her of how brave they both had been in the face of an impossible evil, how much she loved her little brother, how she would do anything for him. And after saving her life that night, she knew he would do the same for her.
“Hey,” Cam said as he peeked over Amber’s shoulder. “You kept it.” His voice sounded pleasantly surprised.
She ruffled his hair. “Of course, you goofball.” She smiled and set her phone down. “That picture’s my favorite.” Opening the door to a storage closet in the basement, Amber reached for something, blowing off dust from its surface.
“Mom and Dad are working late again tonight. So...” Her voice trailed off, and she grinned mischievously. “I’m thinking pizza, Sour Patch Kids, a very competitive game of Jenga, and an all-night movie marathon. I mean, if you’re okay with that, of course. If not, it’s totally cool.”
Cam couldn’t help but run up to her and hug her tightly.
As he and Amber lay sprawled on the blanket in front of the fireplace watching their second movie, Cam realized he had gotten his Christmas wish after all.
And no matter how grown-up they became, or how swift the passage of time, the deep undercurrent of love for each other would always be there beneath the surface.
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