The World's Last Breaths: Final Winter, Animal Kingdom, and The Peeling

by Iain Rob Wright

  Mia wanted a more sensible answer for what she was seeing, but Tim was right. She had found a real life elf under their tree. And it was hurt. “Mummy, we need to look after it.”

  “Until Santa comes back!” said Tim excitedly.

  Mummy was clutching at herself like she was cold, and she didn’t do anything but stare at the elf. Mia reached out and touched her. “It’s okay, Mummy. Don’t be scared.”

  Mummy snapped out of her daze and rubbed Mia’s back. “I’m not scared, sweetheart. Just a little shocked. I think I should call someone.”

  “No!” said Tim. “They’ll come take it away. We have to look after it until Santa comes back.”

  “Honey, Santa isn’t…” She trailed off, and Mia thought she had been about to say Santa wasn’t real. But he must be because there was an elf on their floor.

  “Mummy, can we just make sure it’s okay? It’s bleeding.”

  Mummy rubbed at both of her eyes and then shuddered as if she had a chill. “This is not how I expected Christmas Day to begin. I’m going to need a drink after all this.”

  “I can get you some water if you’d like, Mummy,” said Tim.

  She rubbed his back and smiled. He looked tiny, standing beside her in his Paw Patrol pyjamas. “Mummy means a different kind of drink, but thank you, sweetheart.”

  “What are we going to do, Mummy?” Mia asked.

  “I honestly have no idea. Just… let me deal with it, okay? Stay back.”

  Mia and Tim did as they were told and moved over towards the sofa. Mummy knelt next to the elf and shoveled her hands underneath it. She lifted it carefully, in the same way she got steaming pasta bake out the oven. Then she took it out of the lounge and into the dining space next to the kitchen. They all flinched when the sleeping creature gave a sudden yip! But it remained asleep.

  Mummy lay the elf down on the table and stood with her hands on her hips. Outside, the leaves on the trees rustled.

  “Are you going to wake him up, Mummy?” Tim asked.

  “How do you know it’s a boy?” Mia didn’t like the assumption. Why couldn’t it be a girl?

  Tim shrugged. “Pull down its trousers.”

  “We’re not doing that!" snapped Mummy. She seemed angry about all this, and Mia couldn’t understand why. Perhaps it was because Mummy didn’t believe in elfs, and now she had been proven wrong. Mummy hated being wrong. She took her hands away from her hips now and used them to grip the edge of the dining room table. “I think we should put a blanket over it and switch the heating on. It’s pretty chilly down here.”

  In just her pyjamas, Mia should have felt the cold too, but she was so excited that she felt like she might start sweating. “Yes, Mummy. I think a blanket would be nice.”

  “Can I get the blanket?” Tim begged.

  Mummy nodded tiredly. “Yes, yes. Go into the kitchen and take your dad’s smoking blanket from the broom closet.”

  Mia saw the sudden hurt in Mummy’s eyes at the mention of their dad. She knew the blanket she was talking about--a tatty, multi-coloured thing daddy used to wrap around himself to smoke in the garden when it was cold. Mummy didn't allow smoking in the house. She was always very serious about that. Mia didn’t understand why she had kept the blanket because Mummy didn’t smoke.

  Tim ran in and out of the kitchen in a flash, bringing with him the tatty old blanket that smelled of smoke and Daddy. Mummy took it and held it for a moment, like she’d forgotten what she’d wanted it for, but then she turned and lay it over the sleeping elf. She asked Mia to turn the dial up on the heating, and she whopped it all the way up to 35. That was much hotter than she was usually allowed to turn it. The radiators clonked like they always did.

  Soon the house was warm, and the elf, underneath its blanket, was as snug as a bug in a rug. In fact, its cheeks were red, and it began to wriggle about.

  “It’s waking up, Mummy!” Tim hopped up and down.

  Mia was excited too. She watched with wonder as the little elf clutched at the blanket and twisted and turned. In fact, it was thrashing about in the same way their goldfish did when Tim lifted it out of the water for a few seconds. It looked unhappy.

  “I don’t think it feels very well, Mummy,” Mia said.

  Mummy nodded and looked worried.

  The little creature leapt up on the table and screamed.

  Chapter 3

  Mia covered her ears. “Mummy! Make it stop.”

  The elf’s screaming was scary, and it made Mia want to run away. The little creature was up on its feet, racing around the dining room table and clutching at itself like it was on fire. Its fat little cheeks were bright red.

  “It looks hot, Mummy,” said Tim. “He didn’t like the blanket.”

  Mummy moved both of them behind her again. The little elf stopped screaming and bent over huffing and puffing. Its pink tongue was hanging out.

  Mia realised something. “Elves live at the North Pole. It doesn’t like being hot. We shouldn’t have put a blanket on it.”

  Mummy put her hands out to the elf. “We’re not going to hurt you. It’s okay.”

  The elf straightened up and stared at Mummy. It didn’t look scared, it looked upset. Maybe it didn’t know where it was. Mia had another thought and rushed off into the kitchen. Mummy shouted after her so she made it quick. She grabbed a glass and filled it with cold water from the sink. When she brought it back, she set it on the table as close to the hopping elf as she dared. When it clunked against the table, the elf flinched and hissed at her. Mia hurried back behind Mummy.

  “I don’t like it, Mummy,” said Tim. “Make it leave.”

  “Shoo!” said Mummy, waving a hand at the elf. But it ignored her. It scurried over to the glass of water Mia had brought and peered into it. Mia held hope that the little elf was thirsty, and that her gift would be accepted, but the elf swatted the glass aside and sent water spilling all over the table.

  “Bad elf!” Mia shouted.

  Mummy moved them back another step. The elf was growling at them now, its eyes small and black.

  “Elves are supposed to be friendly,” Mia stomped her foot and wagged a finger in the air. “This is our house and we’re just trying to help you.”

  The elf stopped growling. It tilted its head and stared at Mia. She was angry, but also worried, so she clung to Mummy's leg.

  “Get away!” said Mummy, still waving her hand. The elf flinched and cowered. Mia felt like things were moving in slow motion. Even though Mummy didn’t seem to see what was happening, Mia knew the elf was about to do something nasty. It crouched down like a cat and let out another angry snarl. Mummy waved her hands closer and closer to it, and she didn't listen when Mia told her to stop.

  The elf jumped at Mummy and bit her finger. Blood squirted everywhere and the dining room filled with screams. The elf landed on the carpet with a thud and raced away. Mummy waved her hand about frantically, and Mia saw her finger was missing. Tim screamed.

  In the lounge, the Christmas tree shook, shedding tinsel and plastic pine needles onto the tops of the presents piled beneath. At the back, against the wall, the elf hid away, munching on Mummy’s finger. It must have been hungry, but that didn’t mean it could eat people parts.

  Mia hated the elf. “Santa will put you in jail!”

  The elf peered out from beneath the tree. Blood stained its mouth, and it seemed to grin as it reached a tiny white hand into its coat and pulled something out. It looked like a Christmas tree decoration, a small metal shape, but it was black and sharp. The elf held it out on a string and made sounds that reminded Mia of a grumpy pig.

  The black dangly spun on its string, twirling in a circle.

  Then it flashed. Just once.

  Mummy and Tim were still screaming in the dining room, but Mia heard one of them grab the phone from its cradle on the wall. Mia didn’t want to take her eyes off the nasty elf in case it tried to bite Mummy again, so she looked around for something to shoo it off with. Her tummy sloshed, a
nd she wanted to be sick, but Mummy needed her. It was a daddy’s job to protect a family, but their Daddy was gone. So it was her job now.

  She grabbed Tim’s hobby horse—a giant unicorn head on a stick. Mummy said it used to be hers, but Mia didn’t remember. She used the toy now to poke at the elf beneath the tree, trying to dislodge it. It hissed and spat at her like a cat, but she felt safe behind the long wooden stick. At one point, it lashed out and bit the unicorn’s head, tugging at it and thrashing side to side, but Mia fought back, and flicked the elf into the air. It flew out from beneath the Christmas tree and crashed against the television. The panel tottered back and forth before tipping forwards off the cabinet and landing on top of the elf.

  Mummy and Tim heard the noise and came rushing into the lounge. Mummy’s arm was covered in blood, but she wasn’t screaming anymore. Tim was trembling beside her.

  “Mia, get back. It’s feral!”

  Mia's heart beat fast, and it made her fear go away. She wanted to chase the monster right out of their house, so she hit the back of the television with the hobby horse and tried to crush the thing beneath. “I hurt it, Mummy!”

  “Get back!”

  Mummy came and moved Mia away. Then, cautiously, she shoved at the overturned television with her foot. The elf was not underneath.

  Tim screamed. “Mummy!”

  The elf was hanging from the light shade, and it dropped onto Mummy’s back and yanked at her hair. It tried to bite her. Mummy raced around the room, hitting herself in the head. as she tried to get the elf

  Mia took charge again. She would not let this nasty little monster hurt Mummy again. She raised the hobby horse and swung it as hard as she could.

  Mummy yelled in agony when the unicorn head smacked her in the face.

  “Oops. Sorry, Mummy.” She swung again, and this time managed to whack the elf. It flew again and landed on the shelf above the sofa. There it sat for a second, cross-legged and confused, before standing back up and preparing to leap back into the room. Before it did, something flashed in the middle of the room and distracted them all. Mia glanced and saw the metal dangly lying on the carpet. It was flashing over and over again, faster and faster. The elf stood on the shelf, grinning and chuckling. It even grabbed its fat little belly.

  “Mummy, call the police,” Tim begged. “I want the police. And Daddy.”

  Mummy snarled. She yelled at the elf and ran across the room, but before she could grab it, the lounge flooded with light. Mia had to cover both eyes. It was like the sun had come out in the middle of the lounge. Mummy lost her balance and fell backwards across the coffee table.

  The sound of bells jingling rose among their frightened screams, and Mia had the strange sense of a crowd watching them. Shielding her eyes, she felt her way over to the window and fingered open the blinds. It was the middle of the night, but the road outside their house was lit up like a funfair. At first she thought she saw dozens of cats—pairs of golden eyes rowed up all the way to the end of their street—but then she realised what she was looking at. Hundreds of elves stood outside the house in a long line. In the middle was a pair of eyes set higher than all the other. A belt buckle glinted in the glaring lights.

  Santa Claus had come.

  Mia wanted to shout out to the fat, jolly looking figure in the road, but she knew, somehow, that this Santa was not the jolly man she'd read about in story books, or sang about on Christmas Day. He stood outside their house with an army of elves—and she already knew that elves were not friendly.

  Mummy got up from the coffee table and sprung across the room again. This time she got her hands on the distracted elf and tossed it against the wall. It struck with a horrible thud and crumpled to the floor on its face. Mia thought it might be dead.

  “Mummy, what have you done?”

  Mummy was panting. She looked to Mia like a wild dog. “What?”

  Mia pointed to the window. “Santa’s here. He came for his elf.”

  Chapter 4

  Once again, they found themselves with a sleeping elf. It wasn’t dead, as Mia had feared, but it was hurt badly. The wound on its head had started bleeding again, and it was terribly still.

  “Are they still out there?” Tim asked Mia.

  Mia peered through the blinds. Santa and his elves were still lined up out there. “I think they’re waiting.”

  “For what?”

  “What do you think?”

  Mummy was cradling the elf, even though it might wake up and bite her again. Her finger stump had stopped bleeding, but it looked horrible. The smell of the blood made Mia feel sick.

  Mummy gave them both a weak smile. “It’s okay, you two. Let me try the police again.”

  “I heard you try to call earlier,” said Mia.

  “The phone was crackling,” she said. “Let me try again.”

  Mia shook her head. “No. The phones won’t work. Santa won’t let us call the police. He doesn’t like people seeing him.”

  “We can see him,” said Tim.

  Mia nodded. She didn’t want to think about what that could mean. “Mummy, we need to give Santa his elf.”

  Mummy laughed, but it was a horrible sound. She nodded at the injured elf in her arms. “I don’t think he’ll accept it like this.”

  “That’s how it was when we found it,” said Tim. “Just throw it out the window. Maybe Santa will leave. Why did it even come here? What does it want?”

  “To bring us presents,” said Mia. She had noticed the strange presents earlier, but now she wanted to investigate. Mummy’s presents were all wrapped in red or blue, but two presents were wrapped in green. She picked up the one marked with her name and ripped it open.

  The elf flinched in Mummy’s arms.

  Tim shook his head. “You’re not supposed to open presents until Christmas morning.”

  “And elves aren’t supposed to be nasty,” Mia shot back. Her tone made her little brother cry, so she went over and hugged him. She still held the present in her hand, and she continued to unwrap it once Tim was okay.

  “Huh,” she said. “A Care Bear. I asked for one of these.”

  Mummy frowned. “No you didn’t.”

  Mia nodded. “I wrote a letter at school. We all did. It was during lesson.”

  “I always ask you to write Santa a letter, but you never do.”

  Mia shrugged. Writing letters had always seemed silly to her. No way could Santa read them all. “I told you, it was for lesson. I had to do it.”

  Tim nodded. “I wrote one, too, for Mrs Tanner. We did a big one for the wall and we all wrote one Christmas wish on it.”

  Mia looked at the fluffy pink Care Bear. She didn’t even really want the thing, but she had needed to think of something to ask for at the time. “What did you ask for, Tim?”

  “A robot.”

  Mia went over to the tree and picked up the second green present. She unwrapped it, but already knew what she would find inside. She handed the toy robot to Tim, who took it with a smile, but then he pulled a face and threw it on the floor. “I don’t want it.”

  Mia threw her Care Bear down and stamped on it. “I don’t blame you, Tim.”

  The elf twitched in Mummy’s arms. “Children, I want you to go upstairs. This animal is waking up again and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  Seeing Mummy so scared made Mia angry again, but it also made her think about something. “We won’t get hurt, Mummy. Only you will.”

  Mummy frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Mia couldn’t be sure of what she was about to say, but it made sense. “Santa can't hurt children. And neither can his elves.”

  “Mia… what are you going on about? Please, just go upstairs.”

  Mia marched up to her Mummy, unsettled by the fact she felt like she was the one in charge. But this was no problem for an adult to take care of. When it came to Santa, it was a kid’s area of expertise. “Give me the elf, Mummy.”

  “No! Mia, get away. It’s waking up.”r />
  “It won’t hurt me. I’m a kid. Every time it’s attacked, it’s gone for you, Mummy. Even when I was the one hitting it with Tim’s hobby horse. The reason it was here was to leave us presents. Santa wants his elf back, but it has to be a kid who goes out and sees him. Mummy, I won’t let you get hurt again. Give me the elf.”

  Mummy looked very old. Her eyes were locked on Mia and she stood completely still, but her arms moved in front of her. Slowly, she offered the elf to Mia.

  Mia took it carefully. It stirred and whimpered and was cold as ice. They must have nearly killed it when they'd wrapped it in a blanket. Its head was still bleeding, but that wasn’t their fault. How on earth it had ended up hurt beneath their tree, she did not know, but it was not their doing. Santa needed to know.

  “Open the front door, Mummy.”

  “Mia…”

  “Mummy, it’s okay. Just do it. If anything happens, I’ll run right inside.”

  Mummy opened the door and ice cold air blew in. In just her pyjamas, Mia was freezing, but there was no time to worry about that now. The blinding light outside was too painful to look at, so she had to squint at the ground. At the edge of her vision, she saw a line of shadows—elves lined up, watching her. She could be wrong about everything. They might attack her at any moment.

  There was a frost on the grass and it crunched underfoot as she crept away from the house. The elf in her arms opened its eyes, confused again, but when it saw her it did not get angry. She clutched it over her shoulder like a baby and patted its back. “It’s okay. I’m taking you back to Santa.”

  And to Santa she went. The lights were still too blinding to see properly, so she had to blink rapidly and steal brief glimpses of the giant man stood at the edge of their front garden. She heard quiet chattering all the way down the road—the elves were talking.

  Looking down at the ground, Mia offered out the elf. “I’m sorry Mr Santa. We found your elf. He was hurt beneath our tree, but when we tried to help him he got very nasty. You should really be more careful about how your elves behave.”