Married to Krampus - Marina Simcoe Page 0,16

ago. She hadn’t been trying to scare me. She told me the Krampus story as a part of all the different ways that Christmas had been celebrated by people around the world.

Never, in a million years would I have thought I’d get a chance to spend Christmas with a typical Krampus one year. It was still over two months before Christmas, however, and there was no way I could stay here another night after what had happened.

I didn’t feel safe in this house. After the Colonel had barged into my room last night, I could hardly sleep. I was too flustered and agitated to even cry myself to sleep. The look on his face as he lunged for me from the door still sent a rush of goosebumps down my arms.

I glanced at the side table I’d moved in front of the doors last night. Barricading them didn’t do much since they were sliding doors, but it had calmed me down enough for the sleep to finally claim me. The night table was still there, as was the dresser next to it, littered with mirror shards.

“Omni...” I called hesitantly, afraid to make any sound that might send the Colonel my way again.

The frame on a stick rolled out of the closet.

“Good morning, Madam Kyradus.”

I winced at his name again. That had to be fixed as soon as possible.

The doors slid open, and I leaped up in bed. Grabbing the bed sheet, I quickly covered myself up to my chin, even though I’d slept in my own nightshirt not that diaphanous excuse for a cloth.

To my relief, instead of the Colonel, a chubby drone flew in. It then started promptly cleaning up the shards of glass from the dresser and around it.

“I’m sorry for the mess.” I felt the need to apologize, though it was hardly my fault the mirror was broken.

“This is nothing to worry about,” Omni assured me in a cheerful voice. “Your breakfast,” he announced as another drone, with a tray on top of it flew in.

Breakfast in bed was a great idea. The later I had to face the Colonel, the better.

“Where is...he?” I asked.

“I assume you mean the Colonel Kyradus, Madam?”

I nodded, taking a cup of warm, bitter-sweet tea from the tray that had been placed in my lap. I had hardly eaten anything for dinner. The ravenous hunger had returned at the sight of the food on the tray, and I quickly stuffed my face with the small, round pastries that tasted like sweetened packs of clay.

“The Colonel Kyradus has left for work already,” Omni informed me. “He wakes up at six. His work hours start at eight.”

“Oh, he is gone. Good.” Tension drained out of me at the news, my shoulders dropped with relief. I picked up a piece of fruit from the tray, it was the same size and shape as the pastries but purple in color with blue and pink swirls through it. “Did he, um, say anything?” I bit into the fruit, the thick sweet-and-sour juice coating my tongue.

“Yes, the Colonel said you’re free to explore the house as you please. He will see you at dinner.”

I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him at all. But dinner still seemed far away. I had a whole day to myself, enough time to figure out what to do about this situation that I’d found myself in.

First, I had to call Nancy from the Liaison Committee. I couldn’t wait a week until my scheduled meeting while staying here, in his house where apparently no room was safe from a late-night invasion.

More drones flew in. A few of them moved the night stand back in its place. The others disappeared behind the latticed planter to the left of the bed. When they flew out, they were carrying hangers with gray army coats and white shirts.

“What are those?” I watched the drones on their way out of the room.

“Colonel Kyradus’s clothes,” Omni explained. “He left the instructions for me to move them to the spare bedroom upstairs.”

“What are his clothes doing in my bedroom?”

“This is the Colonel’s bedroom, too. It has always been.”

I set the half-eaten fruit down on the plate.

“You showed this room to me as mine last night.”

“As the Colonel’s wife, you are to share your husband’s bed. From the information we’ve received about Earth and your country, this is the tradition in your culture, also.”

“Yes, but...”

I thought back to the Colonel coming in here last night. He’d appeared calm when he’d first entered.