For several moments, Meghan didn't even dare breathe. The covered face of Santa's brother faced her direction. She couldn't tell what he might be thinking. Officer Jyles was rigid in his tight grip, but his brown eyes spoke urgently to her. Only, Meghan couldn't decipher what they were saying.

"What do you want?" Meghan finally whispered, but immediately shook her head. "Nevermind. I know what you want. But I can't..." She didn't continue.

Giving the fawns to him wouldn't ensure her family's safety at all. Meghan had seen enough movies to be suspicious of that thing's intentions. Even with the fawns given to him, he could still kill them all. Nothing could stop him.

Brek grabbed Meghan's hand reassuringly. However, his warm grip was quickly wrenched away from her by a swarm of elves that flooded into the room, yanking them all apart. Ryder hit the ground hard and gasped in pain as Gordon was dragged away from him.

Santa's brother held his hand out to Meghan, with the knife pressing further into Officer Jyles' chest. Meghan swallowed hard, cautiously getting to her feet. The wicked elves around her bared their teeth and scratched at her legs but didn't stop her. She shifted her weight to her good leg, her gaze never leaving the figure before her.

"You want the fawns," she said slowly, her voice cracking. "If they're given to you, would you let us all go?"

She could feel the mens' eyes immediately snap to her, analyzing her carefully. She didn't look at them.

Santa's brother tilted his cloaked head slightly, decaying fingers grabbing her sleeve and pulling her closer. She tensed beneath his touch. She was close enough that she could see a dim light hidden under the hood.

"I can give them to you if you promise you won't hurt us."

"Meghan, what are you doing?" Brek hisses.

Meghan ignored him. A deadly silence fell. A silence only interrupted by small wheezes from Ryder. Meghan's chest tightened painfully at the sound.

Finally, Santa's brother released her sleeve, his familiar raspy moan haunting the air. She stumbled away, biting her lip to keep from groaning in pain. When he bobbed his head in a nod, the air released from her lungs in a slow exhale. "You...You won't hurt u-us?"

He shook his head.

"Good."

An uncertainty fells across the room. Now what?

When Santa's brother pointed at the door, some elves began shoving her toward it. The rest kept Brek and Gordon trapped in place. She met Gordon's pained gaze with her own before they were out of sight.

Santa's brother joined her in the hallway, grasping her shoulders and leading her roughly toward the stairs. The elves gnashed their teeth together excitedly.

"Where are you taking me?" Meghan demanded, trying to hop on her good leg. But his shoves kept her firmly planted on both. She could only limp painfully along.

When they reached the kitchen, Santa's brother shoved her harshly. She didn't catch herself in time and gasped as she fell forward into the counter, sliding to the ground. Tears blurred her vision. The figure loomed over her silently, yanking her to her feet again. She hissed, her shoulder burning. "Y...You are n-nothing more than a bully, aren't y-you?"

When a burst of pain spread across her side, she cried out again, jerking away. The gingerbread-man knife was slowly pulled out from her skin, leaving a deep slit in its place that immediately sent crimson blood to soak into her shirt and plaster it to the wound. Meghan grasped it tightly with a shaking hand, trying to apply pressure.

He was more than a bully. It felt like something out of a book, but the situation couldn't be more realistic. Beads of sweat formed at Meghan's hairline.

As they reached the front door, Meghan glanced sideways at the room Carly was hidden in, gasping in strained breaths. Blood slipped between her fingers and dripped to the floor.

Santa's brother began pushing the large front door open. Were they going to kill her?

"Hey!"

The timid voice sent them all whirling around, the elves hissing angrily.

Carly stood behind them with a sword taken off of the decorated walls held out in front of her. Her hands viciously shook, but her pale face was set in the fiercest scowl Meghan had ever seen.

"Let my mom g-go!" she shouted. Her voice echoed across the spacious entry room.

"Carly, no!" Meghan said, her stomach seizing. She was going to get herself killed!

When the elves turned to Santa's brother, he nodded, and they lunged at Carly.

"No!" Meghan screamed, the word tearing out of her throat. Never had she imagined that a word she normally used to answer her childrens unwanted questions would be used with such force and horror. But her voice rang out in a quaking echo that was only drowned away by a battle cry from her baby girl.

Carly swung the sword at the elves, catching several of them in the neck and making them keel over with nearly severed heads. She continued swinging ferociously, barely managing to dodge sharp swipes from the elves fingernails. Meghan writhed around in Santa's brother's grip, but it only tightened. The knife pressed dangerously into the back of her neck.

If Carly noticed the knife's threat of slitting Meghan's neck, she would be forced to freeze and put the sword down to keep her safe. Luckily, she was too sidetracked to notice her mother's life on the line. Santa's brother couldn't use that against her if she didn't even notice.

Meghan gasped as she was shoved to the side, slamming into the wall and falling over. The tall figure advanced toward Carly with the bloodied knife glinting in the light.

"No!" Meghan gasped, nearly inaudibly. She forced her legs beneath her and whimpered at the pain spiking through her body. Her injured leg throbbed; her side bled profusely. With a body trembling from over-exertion, she managed one last surge of energy to help push off with her legs and lunged for the threat heading toward her daughter.

Her arms wrapped around the cloaked waist of Santa's brother, knocking him to the ground. He disappeared from beneath her and reappeared beside Carly, but his hood was down and a glittering object lay in front of Meghan's face.

A gasp lurched out of Meghan as her eyes met sunken, empty eye sockets. Santa's brother screeched, showing jagged red teeth. The sides of his mouth cracked open, splitting the skin. The sight churned Meghan's stomach.

The item in front of her resembled a tiara, almost, but with a more plain appearance. A sleek, silver surface with small emeralds embedded into it. The diadem! She grabbed it and hoisted herself to her feet for the second time in less than a minute. Her sweat dripped off of her chin. Her blood smeared the ground beneath her.

"Mom!" Carly cried, still hacking at the elves. Santa's brother turned to her, raising the gingerbread-man knife.

Before either of them could make a move, the sound of a gunshot caused Meghan to jump, her eardrums shaking from the sound. Santa's brother grabbed at his shoulder, shrieking and stumbling back. Meghan looked toward the kitchen entrance. Gordon, Brek, and Officer Jyles races toward them in determination. The police officer had his pistol raised.

Gordon's eyes met hers.

Meghan didn't know what caused her to, but the sudden thought of one night back at their house flooded her mind. The night that a police officer had stationed himself outside of their house for them. Where Meghan went to wake Gordon up. When she went to check on Carly and Ryder. All of their faces had been so peaceful in sleep. So peaceful.

Swirls of color billowed up around Meghan. She shrieked, stumbling away. Santa's brother screeched loudly, lunging for her. The diadem burned in her grip. She tried to let go but her fingers wouldn't budge.

"Mom, what's happening?" Carly screamed, being whipped to the side by the wind.

Meghan couldn't answer her. Couldn't speak. Her throat closed off, cutting off her air.

"Meghan!"

The bright colors grew tighter around her and her vision went black.

The next thing she knew, she was opening her eyes, jerking up into a sitting position. Her fists clenched the bedsheets beneath her. For a moment, she remained rigid, staring absently ahead. But then she gasped, her eyes darting around.

She was back in her bedroom. Her bedroom in her house. But how? It was burned down!

Her hand flew to finger her side. No pain. No wound. With trembling hands, she pulled the blanket off of her legs. No bandages. No splint.

What was happening?

She turned to grab her glasses from the familiar place on her bedside table where she would always put them. When she slipped them on, an object on the dresser came into focus. The diadem.

The diadem.

She grew rigid again. She went back in time. She went back in time! She was quick to slide out of the bed, gingerly pressing weight onto her leg. Not a single spike of pain erupted. In the silence her breaths, heavy with disbelief and fear, echoed loudly. But as she reached for the bedroom doors handle, a crunching sound from outside the window jerked her attention around.

A figure stalked past and out of sight. Meghan tensed immediately, her hand shooting up to cover her mouth and muffle her breaths. Going against all of her better judgment, she slowly and cautiously approached the curtained window. And when the figure backtracked to stop directly in front of it, all of the air rushed from her lungs.

It was this night.

That night had terrified her so much. But if she'd gone back in time, she knew how things would play out.

Her first instinct was to rush and wake Gordon up to help her. On her backward steps to the door, though, she stopped in her tracks. He didn't know of any of the things going on at this time. Things had only just begun. He would probably be but dead weight to her than a support.

Meghan tried to recall that night instead. At that point, she was probably out the door. She quickly dived for the side of the bed, feeling fueled with energy as a result of no longer having a busted body. Outside the window, Santa's brother grew closer, stopping directly behind it. For a moment, nothing happened. But then his slender hands were forcing the window open, splintering the frame. How did Meghan never notice the broken wood when it first happened? She bit her sleeve to keep her breaths silent as the window slid open completely. She pressed herself as deep as possible into the shadows, watching him climb silently into the bedroom.

He looked around beneath his hood before heading for the door. Meghan scrambled back closer to the dresser, hearing his raspy moans mix with the sound of the moaning wind outside.

When he was out the bedroom door, she waited a moment before following as quietly as possible. The wood beneath her feet strained, wanting to release a creak. She felt her chest tighten. Don't creak. Don't creak!

She froze in the hallway when Santa's brother stopped. His head slowly turned to Ryder and Carly's bedroom, making her body tremble in fear. Did he...?

He slowly turned the knob and eased the door open, stepping into the doorway to look inside. Meghan released an involuntary gasp; nearly inaudible but filled with horror. To imagine he was roaming all over the house that night - even into her childrens bedroom. A shudder ran down her body.

How was she going to kill him? What help did getting sent back in time by the diadem do to give her an upper-hand in their battle?

He didn't know that she was aware of who he was, what he wanted, and where he came from. He was unaware that she was fully educated in what was happening. He didn't remember - or know - what happened in the future. Because, right now, he thought the family was vulnerable and were fragile victims to his torment.

And, she thought, I have a fully functional body on my side now.

Santa's brother closed the bedroom door and proceeded down the rest of the hall to the main areas. Meghan followed slowly, desperately trying to think of what to do. If she could get her hands on a weapon...a kitchen knife or something.

She slipped into the kitchen as his back was turned, his head facing where the two first fawns they took in - Vixen and Comet - lay staring back at him. Their bodies shuddered violently against one another, despite the warmth circulating the house. Meghan winced at the soft scraping noise of the knife drawer as she slid it open. Her fingers wrapped around the biggest knife in the lot, pulling it out. She tried to steady her trembling hand.

A few steps forward, she grew immobile when Santa's brother turned.

For several moments, they only stared at one another. A terror tried to build itself up inside of Meghan, but she continuously knocked it over to keep herself calm. Santa's brother moaned loudly, his clenched, decaying hand opening to drop a note on the ground. She didn't care about that, however, as she moved toward him. He didn't budge until she was almost directly in front of him. Then he shifted slowly, hood still covering his face.

"You're not going to touch my family a moment longer!" she told him, knife still shaking in her grip.

His fingers reached toward her face, but she swung the knife at them. Suddenly, he was gone, reappearing several feet away. Meghan clenched the knife more tightly. Obviously, whatever darkness touched him at birth had given him these dark powers. She recalled when he had suddenly been right on top of her the day she took the trash out when a gingerbread house was being decorated, even when moments earlier he had been all the way down the street.

Meghan watched as he produced the gingerbread-man knife out from beneath his cloak. She narrowed her eyes. She was tired of seeing that thing!

Before any logical part of herself could keep her from doing it, she lunged at him. His towering figure moved forward at the same moment, and they met in the middle, her knife sinking into his shoulder, and his knife slicing across her side; opening a slit in her shirt to reveal a deep gash. She hisses in pain, but didn't dwell on it too long. He, however, released a shriek, grabbing her neck - despite her attempt to lunge away - and looking down at his shoulder where a wound was prominent.

She tried to pry his fingers off of her throat, feeling pricks of pain spike down the fragile bones in her neck to spread into a burning in her lungs.

As dark spots began dancing around the edges of her hazy vision, she heard a thump, and the hold on her neck slackened enough for her to claw it completely loose. As Meghan regained a steady breathing rhythm, gulping down air to relieve the pain in her chest and lungs, she kicked Santa's brother's knee. He stumbled back, and she was able to see Vixen and Comet floating in the air. They immediately dived for the creature, attacking him with their tiny hooves.

"Mom?"

The alarmed and terrified call drew her attention. She pushed herself to her feet when she saw Carly and Ryder near the hallway, their tired eyes frightened. Santa's brother saw them too. He swung his knife at the fawns, forcing them to retreat momentarily, and giving him enough time to disappear and reappear next to Meghan's children.

"No!" she screamed, lunging toward them as he began to swing the knife at Carly - no hesitation in his movements. But Ryder - despite his obliviousness to what was happening - was able to yank Carly away, and the knife met only air. Meghan reached for them, shoving them behind her. "Stay back!"

"What's happening?" Carly cried, reaching frantically for something to use to defend herself. "Mom, what's happening?"

"Just trust me," Meghan hissed, turning in circles as Santa's brother prowled around them in a wide oval. She kept her knife extended out in front of her.

Vixen and Comet floated above their heads. Meghan could tell that the kids found it just as confusing as Santa's brother, but Santa's reindeer were easier to believe in than an evil being out to kill them.

She could sense that the creature's eyes were set on her children. They seemed to sense it too as Ryder leaned over to hastily grab the fire poker from where it fell in the commotion. His free arm was wrapped around Carly, keeping her close to him. She, in return, positioned herself in front of her older brother to protect his torso.

Meghan didn't have time to admire the situation, but flashes of what Ryder's actual state in the current time was, and how much pain he was in, clouded her mind. She thrust the knife out as Santa's brother charged, but another shape barreling into him from the side caused the three of them to retreat and stumble back in fright.

Gordon.

The creature disappeared from beneath him. He jumped to his feet, his eyes glazed with an anger that disguised whatever panic Meghan knew he was feeling. "Where is it?"

"I don't know!" Meghan spun in circles, waiting for him to reappear. Vixen and Comet remained loyally on either side of Carly, looking like furry bodyguards suspended in the air.

"What even is that?" Ryder asked, spinning too with the poker stick ready to swing.

Gordon raced into the kitchen, yanking the whole knife drawer out of the counter and dumping the contents onto the countertop. Meghan escorted the kids quickly over so they could both grab a knife or two.

"Should we call 911?" Carly asked fearfully, her shaking hands harboring two sleek knives.

"No," Meghan said, grabbing a second knife for herself, "there's no time."

Gordon's eyes scanned the room. "How did that thing vanish?"

Meghan swallowed thickly. "There's a lot you don't know right now."

"But you do? You know what's happening?"

She didn't reply, turning back around to keep an eye out as well. How come it hadn't reappeared yet? The thought unsettled her already horrified heart. She could hear it thumping harshly against her chest.

"There!" Ryder suddenly shouted. Meghan whirled around to see him chuck a smaller knife at Santa's brother, who stood near the fireplace.

He easily dodged that and the one Carly threw as well. Meghan charged forward to try and get a blow in. Her two knives barely caught the hood of his cloak before he was grabbing her arm. With a loud snap, a horrible sear of pain overwhelmed it. She cried out, stumbling back.

"Meghan!" Gordon came up behind her, stabbing at Santa's brother with his own knives. She forced herself not to double over, tears flooding her vision.

Santa's brother got a blow in with his knife, stabbing Gordon through the chest, before he disappeared. Gordon immediately collapsed. A scream tore out of Meghan's throat. But when he pushed himself up onto his knees, wheezing and with sweat beading his forehead, her quaking legs nearly gave way.

He could have died. But, as she studied him, she realized he still would. Blood poured out of the hole in his chest. He couldn't rise any further than his knees, collapsing back against the wall. Tears streamed down Meghan's cheeks. However, she had no time to try and help him before a shriek from behind her turned her around.

The gingerbread-man knife was buried to the hilt in Carly's back. Both Meghan and Ryder cried out and lunged for them. Meghan caught Carly as she fell forward; Ryder's own knife found home in the creature's stomach. Her son was thrown backward against the mantel by the creature's long arm, a sharp crack following the collision of his body.

"You monster!" Meghan screamed as Santa's brother clutched at his stomach. With shaking shoulders and sobs tearing out of her throat, she gently laid Carly on the ground. Blood pooled around her daughter. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with her choked wheezes - but she was still alive. Temporarily.

Ryder was motionless by the fireplace, only his stomach heaving the sign that he was still alive. His body was at an odd angle, making Meghan's stomach churn weakly.

Vixen and Comet dove for Santa's brother again, distracting him so that Meghan was able to knock him over. She wrapped her hands around his exposed neck, but he was quick to disappear from beneath her. A shriek of frustration and pain escaped her. She jumped to her feet, spinning frantically.

If she could kill it and go back to the current time before one of them died, maybe they'd be alive and okay...

He reappeared behind her, but she was prepared. He was becoming predictable.

She thrust both knives she picked up backward, feeling them sink into flesh. Santa's brother shrieked hoarsely, and she felt a knife plunge into her own back. She gasped out loud, her legs giving way beneath her as the agonizing pain traveled up her spine and across her back to flood her body. Her vision grew fuzzy, but she managed to grab a knife lying on the ground as Santa's brother lunged for her and rolled herself over to shove it deep into his neck.

He gurgled and sputtered, blood squirting from between his fingers. Some droplets landed on Meghan's face. She twisted the knife, feeling his hands wrap around her neck and squeeze as hard as imaginably possible. She could feel something pop and break beneath his grip, her breaths becoming irreversibly strained. Her darkened vision didn't keep her from yanking the knife out and plunging it into his neck a second time, that time sawing at it to try and severe it.

His grip loosened as he screamed, his hood falling away in his attempt to yank Meghan's hand away from his neck. She could only watch as he picked up a knife and swung it at her wrist.

A shriek escaped her as her hand fell to the floor, blood streaming from the stump. Santa's brother stumbled backward, clutching at his mangled throat. He fell back against the wall. Meghan watched feebly as Vixen and Comet dove at him, kicking his torn neck to worsen the wound.

With a few more sputters and moans, Santa's brother's chest stilled, his empty eye sockets pointed up at the ceiling. Meghan gasped for air, forcing her cracked neck around to search frantically for the diadem.

She left it in her bedroom.

Sobs wanted to escape her throat, but they couldn't push past whatever internal injuries her neck received. She managed to hoist her body forward, using her upper strength to drag herself. Blood still pumped out of the stump where her right hand used to be. She was forced to use her broken left arm for most of the support.

She was able to curl her body slightly and push off with her numbing legs to boost herself forward. Each thrust sent new waves of pain through her back. Moans and gasps escaped in strangled cries through her mouth. Vixen and Comet touched down beside her, nuzzling her with their noses.

"M-Meghan," Gordon gasped from beside the wall, his hand slick with blood. He tried to push himself toward her, resulting in his face paling further.

"Don't!" she rasped, tears filling her eyes. "Stay...Stay...Stay a-awake. I'm g-going to...to fix...this."

"We n-need to call...9-1-1," was his reply before his eyes rolled back in his head.

"Gordon!" The cry tore through Meghan's throat, sending fire to curl around her nerves and burn them.

His unfocused eyes met hers. He tried to push off of the wall again. Meghan forced herself to turn away and continue pushing herself down the hallway to her bedroom. She couldn't waste time trying to stop him. She couldn't even tell if Carly or Ryder were already dead.

Please, they weren't. Please!

By the time she reached her bedroom, the strain had killed almost all of her nerves. Just moving herself in the slightest made her whimper in pain. But she willed herself toward the dresser, and using her severed hand to push herself upward to reach closer to the dressers height, she reached up with her broken arm - crying in pain - to wrap her numbed fingers around what she hoped was the diadem.

Pulling it down to study it, it was the diadem.

She clutched it tightly, squeezing her eyes shut and letting her body completely slacken. Her cheek pressed into the wooden floor, which was quickly pooled with more crimson blood. The diadem remained rested between her loose fingers. Vixen and Comet stomped their hooves anxiously, nudging her face gently to keep her awake.

Please don't let any of them be dead, she thought through a painful throbbing in her head.

The mansion. Ryder was still hurt. Carly fought off elves. Gordon was trying to protect them. Brek was helping and searching for Gwen. Officer Jyles went with them.

Like last time, colors swirled around Meghan, consuming her. The diadem burned in her grip as the colors grew tighter, whipping her hair. Only, this time, she gladly welcomed the feeling.

❄⛄❄

OH MY GOSH!! GUESS WHAT HAPPENED?!?!

Like...WHAT?! Thank you so much mystery!!

*takes deep breaths* Okay...I'm calm...but only on the outside!

Also, there is only ONE more chapter left in the book! *UGLY CRYING* Thank you all so much for reading and supporting!!! I can't describe how thankful I am!!!

Question: Do you think things are going to work out okay for Meghan and her family after all?