DESCENDING INTO MADNESS

by Brown, Stacey Marie

  “Hell no!” I shoved at his hand. “Get off me!”

  “Stop,” the man ordered, grabbing the hood and tugging it off.

  “Holy shit!” Scrooge barked, double-taking the man who was under the hood. “Rudolph?”

  I thought I had been shocked enough tonight, but my killer and savior was none other than my deer man. His body was ripped and gorgeous. His half-deer/half-man face stared at me.

  “No time! Hare, Dee, Dum, and Penguin are waiting.” He pulled me along, but I wiggled out of his grip, weaving and shoving at the mass of people scrambling away from the fire as we ran toward it.

  I spotted the four familiar figures as we rounded the pyre, my chest bubbling with excitement at seeing them.

  “Fuck. I’ve never been so glad to see your ugly face,” Hare huffed at Scrooge.

  “And you, my lucky charm.” Scrooge winked at the white rabbit.

  “Screw you. I’m not lucky,” he grumbled.

  “Still have the other one.” Scrooge nodded at his working foot. “Call that lucky.”

  “Asshole.”

  “Enough.” Rudolph cut them off, waving for us to follow him. “Before she releases her monster on us.”

  Not up to asking what he meant, I started to jog after the reindeer, Hare and Dee keeping pace next to me.

  “I thought fire was illegal?” I asked. “How did you guys do it?”

  “You think you’re the only one who can create sparks?” Hare grinned at me as he hopped and ran with one foot, almost better than I could with two. “Alcohol, coal, and two sticks, sweetheart.”

  “Sounds like what I got for Christmas last year,” I quipped, looking back at the bonfire, figures still scrambling around like headless chickens. It wouldn’t be long before they headed this way.

  “Sounds like someone was a good girl.” Hare winked at me.

  “Or very bad.” I grinned back.

  Scrooge glanced over his shoulder at me, shooting heat down my torso through my limbs.

  Don’t go there, Alice. Stop it. But it was too late. Which list did I need to be on to get him in my stocking?

  Commotion and yells raged behind us. Our group ran into the dark forest, slipping into the shadows. I could have sworn I saw Frosty next to a tree, tipping his hat at me, but when I looked again, nothing was there.

  Chapter 14

  “Where are we?” I circled around, taking in the woodlands surrounding us, fright tickling the back of my neck, chills running over my skin.

  “My home,” Rudolph replied, motioning for us to keep moving forward, our energy lagging. We hadn’t talked much on the trek here. Well, except Penguin, who jabbered endlessly about being locked in prison before being turned into a waiter. It seemed our journey went on forever. Afraid of being caught, we went from the forest behind the castle grounds through several abandoned villages, over a mountain, and along a river before we reached this place.

  “H-Home?” I sputtered. The place felt anything but homey. Every forest in Winterland had felt alive, spooky, but this place was the mothership of creepy. I would have been okay to miss this location on the Winterland tour.

  Even with no noble firs or Christmas bushes, this place was straight out of a haunted forest. The moonlight ignited the ghostly fog coiling around the base of the trees and slinking up through the branches. Twisted, crooked limbs bare of leaves curved in every direction like thousands of moving snakes. Knots and holes in the trunks resembled screaming faces with dagger teeth, petrified in their evil horror. This time I didn’t feel life… I felt death.

  “Welcome to Tulgey Woods, Ms. Liddell.” Scrooge waved his arm out. “Where not even the Queen of Death herself will venture to.”

  “Funny, and here I thought she’d have a timeshare here.” I rubbed my arms. I wasn’t cold but couldn’t fight the shivers quaking my limbs. “Looks like somewhere she’d vacation.”

  “A what?” Hare hopped next to me. “What the hell is a timeshare?”

  “Duh, Hare. It’s when you share time together.” Dee rolled her eyes at the rabbit.

  Scrooge smirked, shaking his head. “At least we’ll be safe here. For a while.”

  “Was it always this way?” I stepped closer to Scrooge, winding through the horror-stricken trunk faces, ready for one to come to life and lurch out for me.

  “There is always a dark side of light, Ms. Liddell. A yin and yang. You can’t have one without the other. Christmas is full of love and joy, but it also comes with great loneliness and sadness. This is where that sorrow and pain lived. Tulgey Woods used to be alive. The trees and land thrived off pain and sadness, consuming it.”

  “Used to?”

  “The Queen has changed Winterland. Now all the land is filled with sorrow and bitterness. This place has no yang. No balance. It petrified itself.” Scrooge dipped his chin at one of the frightening faces formed in a tree trunk. “Why your realm gets more angry, unhappy, and bitter. It has nowhere to go. Anything that gets stuck rots and festers.”

  My feet slowed, taking in what he said. How true his statement was. My world seemed to be getting more violent, hateful, and intolerant—all stemming from a core unhappiness in everyone’s lives. You couldn’t blame Winterland for all the hostility building on Earth. Christmas was only a season, but it was another reason for the Queen to decay everything with hate if there was nowhere to free it.

  Another realization hit me. Were Scrooge and the others getting more insightful, or was I now really hearing them, understanding their madness as truth?

  Scary thought.

  Rudolph kept up a quick pace. My legs wobbled with fatigue; the adrenaline I had from earlier was long gone. Finally, down a ravine, deep in the woods, hidden behind dense trees and up against a hill, a small cabin with a stream trickling beside it came into view. Rudolph galloped toward it with familiarity, his shoulders lowering with the ease of being home.

  I let out a breath at seeing it. A real house with walls.

  “What did you imagine, Ms. Liddell?” Scrooge faced forward, his lips curling. “That Rudy would live in a cave, under a tree, or worse, inside one of these trees?”

  “Honestly?” I let out a small laugh. “Yeah. I mean, he is a reindeer. Deer in my realm don’t have houses.”

  “We’re not in your realm, are we?” Scrooge ran a hand over his hair as if he was searching for his hat. “Rudy is simple, but he is also part man.” Scrooge leaned in closer. “And he never lived in stables. Or played reindeer games where all the other mean reindeer made fun of him, which your stories like to illustrate.” Scrooge jerked his chin at the outline of Rudolph opening the front door to the cabin, his antlers and shoulders barely skirting through the entry.

  “Who the hell would make fun of Rudy? Shit… that’s asking for trouble.” Hare bounded between Scrooge and me. “He’ll shish kebab your ass.”

  “No one could…” Dee sighed, staring at the deer man. “He’s so handsome.”

  I watched Scrooge out of the corner of my eye. “You seem to know a lot about our fables, Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, when no one else here does.”

  “Of course he does.” Hare barked out a laugh.

  “Hare.” Scrooge only said his name, but it was filled with context. Shut up was the general theme. “It is in my best interest to know what is going on everywhere. Survival lasts only as long as your aptitude. Wisdom is not knowledge, but all knowledge is wisdom.”

  “Are you back to riddles and nonsense?”

  “Or you’re back to not understanding them.” He winked at me before moving ahead, strolling into the dark cabin.

  The side of my face twitched. My heart puttered as I watched him disappear, my fingers scrubbing at my temple. I needed a shower, nap, and a drink. Not necessarily in that order.

  “He’s so dreamy too.” Dee came to my side, leaning against my leg with an exhale.

  “Who?” Dum strolled past her.

  “Mr. Scrooge.” Dee placed her hands on her chest. “Don’t you think so, Ms. Al
ice?”

  “Scrooge? Ewww. Gross.” Dum crinkled his face. “He’s the size of a gigantic Christmas tree. You’d need a ladder to reach him. Plus, he has round ears, Dee. Oh, and his scruffy beard with the strangely strong jaw… and muscles, like he’s never eaten a sugar cookie in his life. You are really attracted to that?”

  Fuck yeah. Wait, what?

  “Yeeeaaahhh.” Dee nodded dreamily.

  “Seriously, Dee-Puck, it is the grossest thing I ever heard.” Dum stuck out his tongue, shaking his body like he got the shivers. “Rudy at least has normal ears.” Dum touched his own pointed ears. “But still, he’s another one who nibbles on foliage instead of pies, cakes, and cookies. It’s not normal.” He shook his head at his sister, trudging on to the cottage. Penguin and Hare joined him, leaving us girls alone.

  “I know they’re different from me, but I think I like them more because of that.” Dee peered up at me, the moonlight striking the deep scar down her face. “I’ve never liked the ordinary elf-boys. Does that make me weird?”

  “You think that’s what makes you weird?” My hand went to my mouth, but I bit back my smile, seeing how serious she was. “No, Dee. Not at all. We are all unique, and liking someone different from you is even better. It shows you follow your heart, not the norm.”

  With clarity, I really understood when Scrooge said, “Normal could be abnormal, and abnormal could be quite ordinary.” Crap. I was starting to become one of them, wasn’t I?

  “I know he’d never see me that way, and I’m far too old for him… but still.” She grinned, her little girl face altering into a salacious glint. “I enjoy fantasizing about all the things he would do to me… especially on a plate of cookies.”

  Oh. God. Get the image out of my head.

  “Okay then.” I pinned a fake smile on my face, patting her on the shoulder, wondering how old she really was. “Good talk.”

  She let out a crazed laugh and started skipping to the entrance, her braids flopping around her arms.

  “Oooo-kay…” I cleared my throat. “Definitely need a drink first.”

  When I stepped into the cottage, a small fire was flickering in the fireplace where Rudy squatted creating the room’s only true source of light. The living space was only big enough for an overstuffed brown sofa and leather wingback chair facing the fire. My bare toes curled in the fuzzy rug covering the stone floor, feeling divine after running over rocks and dirt all night. A single windup lantern was placed on a round dining table. The table divided the small galley kitchen on the back wall from the living room. There were two doors on the other side of the cabin, and I figured one was a bedroom and really hoped the other was a bathroom. It was clean, and had no personal decoration, but it still felt cozy and homey.

  “The fire won’t draw attention?” I stepped closer, letting the heat absorb into my skin.

  “We are too deep in the woods for anyone to see the smoke.” Rudolph stood, forcing me to stumble back from his antlers, but he regained the space, his bare feet curling over mine. “I do not usually have guests, so I do not have much to offer,” he said to everyone, but his gaze stayed on me. Serious and intently, he watched me, his regard moving over me. I couldn’t decipher anything sexual in it, but he still made me suck in my breath by his proximity. “I have never had a human woman here before.”

  “Oh.” I blinked up at his striking face, not sure how to respond.

  “Do you require things?”

  “Things?” I questioned.

  “We just need fucking alcohol, and I know you have that,” Scrooge growled from across the room. “And you can step back from Ms. Liddell. She requires personal space.”

  His tone made my head snap to him, trying to decipher his meaning, but he already joined Hare in the kitchen, opening and shutting cupboards.

  Rudolph didn’t move, his attention on me.

  “I’m fine,” I assured him. “Except a drink sounds really good. Maybe some food?”

  “Any cookies?” Dum perked up.

  “No,” Rudy replied.

  “Pie?” Dee chirped.

  “No.”

  “Candy canes? Ohhh, how I love peppermint.” Penguin clapped his fins. “Or fudge?”

  “No.”

  “Hot chocolate?

  “No.”

  “What do you have?” We could be here all night.

  He twisted back to me. “I have fruit, acorns, and chestnuts.”

  “What did I tell you? Foliage!” Dum motioned at Rudy but looked at his sister, jumping onto the sofa with a pout. She followed her brother, climbing up after him, her lids already drooping. Penguin plunked down in front of them on the floor, his fins creating circles into the fur rug. He muttered quietly to himself, still wearing his bow tie.

  “I don’t even eat that rabbit shit.” Hare hopped into the room, holding up a bottle filled with brown liquid. “But this? This is a meal, beverage, dessert, and sleeping pill all in one. Heaven in a jar.” He bounced up into the wingback chair, taking a huge swig of the bottle and sinking deep into the chair with a happy sigh.

  Scrooge strolled out, holding a bottle in each hand, an eyebrow arched at me. “Ms. Liddell?”

  “Does Bing Crosby dream about a white Christmas?” I practically leaped for the bottle in his hand. It had been a long day… or week. Who knew how long I had actually been here.

  “Who the hell is Bing Cottlebee?” Hare exclaimed.

  “Cr-os-by,” I corrected.

  “Don’t care.” Hare waved his hand. “Plus, who names their kid Bing? Did he go off like a dinner timer? Bing! Your kid is ready.”

  A snorted laugh came from me as I twisted off the lid, smelling the rich, sweet, nutty aroma. I couldn’t recall ever smelling anything so delicious, and it made my stomach growl. “What is this?” I glanced up, not realizing how close Scrooge was, his mouth only inches from mine.

  “It will get you extremely inebriated.” Scrooge’s low, deep voice slid down my body like melted butter. “All that matters.”

  A grip wrapped around my lungs as I stared up at him, my entire body flushing with heat.

  Scrooge watched me, but unlike Rudolph, his gaze held intense heat, fluttering everything from my neck down, pulsing the insides of my thighs. A trace of a naughty grin drifted across his mouth before he brushed by me, his entire body rubbing against mine.

  I heaved in a shaky breath, my skin tingling from his touch.

  He took the far end of the sofa, sinking down into it, his legs out wide… and inviting. Think of curmudgeonly old, ugly men named Scrooge… not this one.

  I took a massive slug of the liquor, the alcohol scorching my throat, but I liked it, waking me out of whatever stupor Scrooge seemed to put on me.

  Then the flavor bloomed over my tongue and holy nutcracker, I almost moaned in pleasure. It was like I placed the most delicious treat in my mouth. A sugary, buttery, cinnamon-y bundle of scrumptiousness.

  “Oh god.” I stared at the bottle. “This is the best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.”

  “Is it?” Scrooge’s eyebrow curved up at me, watching me intently as he took a swing himself. The insinuation was perfectly clear.

  The burn from the alcohol or him went from my toes to the roots of my hair.

  “Oh. Hey…” I flipped to Rudy, not able to look at Scrooge anymore. Rudy grabbed something out of a box on the mantle and settled himself on the rug. “Did you have a glass? I can share.” I pointed to the bottle I held.

  “No.” Rudy shook his head. “I don’t drink that stuff.”

  “Oh.” I padded back onto the rug. Dum, Dee, and Penguin were already sound asleep, taking up half the sofa and floor, only leaving the spot on the rug by Scrooge. “But you have three bottles of it?”

  “He has several cases of it under the floorboards. But it’s mine.” Scrooge took a drink, staring at the fire. “It’s another thing the Queen made illegal. Alcohol makes people lose their fear, their inhibitions. Get a little liquid courage in people and t
hey are more likely to act out. Rebel.”

  “So what was she serving at the party?”

  “A drug she’s been pumping into their water for years, making them no better than zombies. You think all those people agree with her?”

  “But she has magic, right? She got into my head.”

  “Yes, but she can only control one at a time. The drug is her way of keeping her minions in line.” Scrooge peered up at me. Watching. Digging underneath my skin. Shit. Everything about him was so intense.

  “You want to have a seat?” He motioned to the slim space between him and Dee’s sleeping form. “I can move her.”

  “She looks so peaceful. I’m fine on the rug.” I lowered myself down on the soft sheepskin, my back hitting the sofa, his leg only centimeters away from my shoulder.

  Rudy stared down at his hands, his finger rolling what looked like a joint. He leaned over to the fire, igniting the bud and inhaling deeply, smoke curling and winding around his antlers as it rose.

  “You smoke weed?” I choked over my sip of liquor. Funny how the stories forgot to mention Rudolph getting high as a kite. Maybe that was why he could fly.

  “Yes.” His lids narrowed. “It is organic. Found in nature. It is better for you than the crap you’re drinking.”

  “Possibly, but I’ll stick with this.” I tipped my bottle at him, guzzling down more. My insides felt toasty and warm, relaxing all my tense muscles; my stomach felt like I had just feasted on yummy treats. Damn, I felt good.

  “Cheers to that.” Hare lifted a bottle to his lips, looking as if he were about to melt into the chair. Soft snores from Dee, Dum, and Penguin buzzed from the sofa, the crackling fire filling the silence.

  “Rudy, are we going to talk about what happened tonight?” I pushed my legs out, noticing all the cuts, bruises, and dirt covering them. “How did you know to save us? How did you become the executioner? And, can I add, it was a very close call. I barely got a nibble of the cookie before the blade came for my neck. And on that topic, how did you know?”