✔ |The other side of christmas | ✔

3. He knows when you're awake

I left Santa's office to go to my new room. He had given me a map over the workshop, so that I could easily find it.

The atmosphere not changed, even a bit, from earlier except there were not any elves working. I guess they were on a lunch break?

Even though I had a map, I got lost. All the long, thin, dark corridors looked alike. It felt like I was running in circles and there was not a single soul in sight until around a corner there was a shadow and a tall female with her very thin hair made into a pathetic bun. As soon as we got eye contact her eyes widened and she immediately ran back the way she came from, but I had to get her help "ma'am- ma'am please I jus-" I yelled but when I turned the corner she was gone.

Suddenly a small voice sounds "What are you doing here? You should be in your room" and a sigh of relief left my lips as I saw a small elf make its way towards me "Well I kind of got...lost. Could you maybe help me?" I asked as nicely as I could.

The elf was walking bare feet even though it's almost -40 ° celcius outside, he was also only dressed in some old very worn down cloth. And as the elves I saw before his hands were also bleeding. Instead of saying something he only looked at me with tired eyes, turned around and walked away. If it hadn't been for me following every person ever in this type of situation, I would still have been at that corner of the corridor. "You aren't supposed to be in that hallway, that's Mrs. Claus area" He said to me, not looking me in the eye "oh, she must have been the woman I saw" I said trying to make conversation "...she barely leaves her room nowadays."

He had led me to a plain door that was the only one in the area, and left me alone again. When I opened the door it didn't get much better, what I expected to just be plain like the door, was rotting walls with mold or fungus on them, giving the room a greenish and grayish hue, a small child sized mattress on the floor in the corner with a pillow and very small greenish blanket, the only window in the room was even closed with bars.

The smell was almost giving me a headache, but I desperately just blamed it on the long and exhausting flight here... After all, elves gotta be happy and cheery right?

I wanted to write to my sister Suzy about my experience here so far, and who doesn't love to write a letter once in a while:

𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒮𝓊𝓏𝓎

𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝓁𝒾𝑒𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓉! 𝐼'𝓂 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 - 𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒩𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒽 𝓅𝑜𝓁𝑒.

𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝑜 𝒻𝒶𝓇, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒾𝓈 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁𝓎.

𝐼𝓉 𝓈𝓂𝑒𝓁𝓁𝓈 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝑜𝓀𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝑜𝒹 𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝑜 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓎.

𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌, 𝐼 𝓀𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓌𝒾𝓈𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 - 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒽𝑒𝓎 - 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝓂𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝐼 𝑔𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓈.

𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝑜 𝓂𝓊𝒸𝒽!

𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 - 𝒥𝑒𝓃𝓃𝓎, 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒶𝓂𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒷𝒾𝑔 𝓈𝒾𝓈.

I felt pretty satisfied with the letter and I went to put it in my pocket, when I noticed a scrap piece of paper I didn't remember putting there. I took it up and folded it out:

𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒿𝑜𝒷 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓁𝒹𝓇𝑒𝓃, 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉?

- 𝐸𝓁𝒻

My eyes went wide, my breath catching in my throat, forming a lump and my hands began to shake making me drop the paper.