Beauty In Her Madness (Winterland Tale #3) - Stacey Marie Brown Page 0,92
in front of me. “I couldn’t live with seeing that. Oh, elf biscuits, I can’t handle blood. I would be so traumatized, and when I get upset, I eat, and I am trying so hard to watch my figure.”
“Way to not make this about yourself, PB.” Dor snorted, shaking his head. “You are truly gallant.”
“Thank you. Everyone tells me how selfless and giving I am. It’s a curse, really.”
Despite what just happened, a laugh emanated from my chest, my adrenaline crashing, making me punch drunk.
“We should get out of here.” Blaze glanced around nervously. “It’s not safe.”
“This place is a buzzkill, man.” Jangle peered around, his lids half-mast. “Bad vibes, bro.”
“Totally, bro,” Jingle, the shorter, brown-haired one replied, pulling a bag of cookies from his pocket. “Makes me so hungry.”
“Totally craving French fries in maple syrup.”
“Ah, man…totally.”
Dor groaned, rubbing his head. “You two idiots are totally making me crave mead, and a sledgehammer to my brain.”
“How about gooseberry tea with fresh mint and a sledgehammer?” PB asked.
“Just the sledgehammer, thanks,” Dor groaned.
“Come on, we need to leave this place.” Blaze twined his fingers with mine, pulling me with him, his gaze shifting around, bringing me back to the current situation.
“We need to talk.” I faltered as I walked, my head feeling heavy.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “But not here. Let’s go back to my house, where it’s warm and safe.” He curled his arm around my back, jerking away. “What the hell?” He searched my back, plucking something from my jacket. “Are these nettles? Were you attacked by the trees?”
“Yeah. Assholes,” I muttered.
“Cinnamon rum!” He blanched. “I’ve never seen someone get stuck this much and still function. Come on, you need someone to look at those.”
The group turned, heading back in the direction they came.
The awareness of eyes on me made me pause to peer deeper into the woods. I didn’t see the monster, but I knew it was there, watching me, almost like there were webs that connected and bound us from the moment I stepped into the dungeon so many years ago.
My heart still bounced from the terror, understanding how easily it could’ve taken my life. But it didn’t. It remembered me. I understood what happened now.
My friend didn’t die that night.
He became the beast, or the beast became him.
And not just any beast…
Frost had turned into one of the most feared legends of Christmas.
Krampus.
One of them was hunting me…and it wasn’t the beast.
Chapter 24
Krampus.
The name triggered my lungs to beat like wings, whirling my head into a frenzy. The European legend of a half-goat/half-demon, who, during the Christmas season, stole children who misbehaved and took them to his lair. The counter to Santa Claus. The tale you told kids to scare them into being good. A far more sinister threat than getting on the naughty list.
The block I had kept up tumbled to the ground, exposing the truth I had kept from myself for so long: What I had seen that night. What I had done. The reason I cut off this world and never looked back. The terror scarred my seven-year-old mind deeply, marking me forever. The night terrors followed me—images of the brothers kidnapping me, taking me back to Winterland, where the beast lay in wait to finish off what slipped through his claws.
As much as Alice and I loved holiday movies, it was the one area I would never venture into.
Christmas horror.
It terrified me to the point I remember crying uncontrollably when I saw a preview on TV for a movie about the beast. My nightmares were already full of the boogeyman. The fear almost debilitated me, and no one had any idea where it stemmed from.
Little did any of us know I had come face to face with the real thing. Had released it back into the world.
It was my fault.
“Th-the monster—” My mind and mouth struggled to work together, air only teasing my lungs, distorting my vision.
“Whoa.” Blaze grabbed me, stopping me from falling. “Dinah? Shit! You’re burning up.” His voice sounded far away. My eyes circled to the others, their faces contorting and twisting like a carnival funhouse. Except nothing was fun about this.
“I-I did it. It’s my fault,” I muttered, not sure what came out coherent, my muscles slumping.
“Dinah, hold on.” Blaze picked me up, cuddling me to his chest, but I floated from my body, no longer feeling or understanding anything. I felt like I was on fire, burning from the inside with no relief. His touch was making it worse.