The sounds of battle behind them weren't helping Thomas stick to the escape plan. Bursts of magical lightning made the earth shake beneath his feet and every time he heard Santa cry out in pain he wanted to turn around and go help him.

My father would never have run away. He would have done something... anything but run away. That thought was gnawing at him. On the other hand, Mikaela was right. What could they do? She wasn't being a coward, quite the contrary, when the direwolf nearly made him pee his pants, she was the one who kept a cool head and saved their lives. By saying they needed to get away, Mikaela had just stated the obvious and made them see things for what they were. Three teenagers couldn't do anything to help Santa Claus in his battle against those creatures.

The golden glow of the scepter Mikaela carried in her hands caught Thomas's attention. Here was something he could focus on. They needed to keep the magic scepter away from his enemies, that was their mission. Looking from Daniel to the baseball player, he realized something else, he also needed to keep them safe. They had gotten into this mess together and would have to look out for each other.

As they made their way through the woods, back to Drake Lake, something cold landed on his head, interrupting his reverie. Thomas looked up in time to see the first snowflakes falling from the sky. To his amazement, in a matter of seconds, it turned into a snowstorm.

"This can't be good." Daniel said, behind him.

"We need to move on, the lake is not far from here." Mikaela tried to shield her eyes from the snow with her hand.

Thomas nodded and moved on. The loud blast of music at the party made him smile and the three of them quickened their pace. They left the cover of trees and approached the lake, but he stopped walking as soon as he approached the parked cars, where the music blared so loudly that it strained his ears. Something isn't right... He thought, looking at the interior of the nearest vehicles.

"What are you doing?" Daniel looked at him.

"Why isn't anyone else around the cars?"

"Because they're all close to the shore of the lake." Mikaela replied.

"Look at the snowstorm that's falling now, do you really think that no one would have tried to seek shelter in a car?"

The two seemed to understand his suspicions. Thomas squinted to try to see any movement near the lake, and what he could make out among the snow almost made his heart stop.

"Hide." He whispered.

No one questioned his order. They slipped behind a silver truck that was playing rock, heavily distorted by the sound of the snare drum.

The sound of something moving in the snow caught their attention. Thomas pressed his lips together tightly to keep from screaming when two unconscious boys, being dragged, came into view. Hands made of wood held each of them by the ankles. Those same hands, with fingers that ended in sharp claws, were attached to a body made of snow.

Even knowing the risks, Thomas popped his head out of the truck's cover and took a good look at the thing that had passed by. The creature that dragged the young people across the ground was a snowman, almost six foot tall. The monster headed straight for the forest, where it disappeared along with its victims.

Mikaela crept closer to him and watched the entire scene in horror.

"This is very bad." She said.

"I know, the stereo is destroying this song, some idiot must have pressed the bass button and..." Daniel started to explain, but stopped when he noticed how they were staring at him. "Sorry, it's just that I lose control of sarcasm when I get nervous and scared, it's a defense mechanism."

"Wait here." Thomas ignored him and, before he could lose his nerve, got out from behind the truck and, using other cars as cover, got as close as he could to the lake.

What he saw was not encouraging. Other creatures like that were there, capturing the others on the party. Thomas realized that everyone there were lying unconscious on the ground. He counted at least thirty snow monsters, some of them opened their mouths, showing very sharp teeth made of ice. Wasting no more time, he returned to where Daniel and Mikaela were waiting for him and told them everything he had seen.

"Evil snowmen?" Daniel said. "Okay, now I think I've seen it all."

"And what do we do now?" Mikaela asked. "Do we go back to town and ask the police for help?"

"I don't know if they'll believe us, but I think it's the best thing we can do." Thomas agreed. "It's just going to be hard to get out of here and walk downtown."

"We can take a car." Daniel suggested.

Mikaela stared at him in as much surprise as Thomas.

"Do you drive already?"

Daniel shrugged.

"I was from North Dakota, where we got our learner's permit at fourteen. If I hadn't moved here, I'd know how to drive a lot better than I do now, but..."

"But it will have to be enough." Thomas cut him off.

"Okay, so what's the next step? Do we break a car window, get in and hot-wire?" Mikaela wanted to know. "That sort of thing should only work in movies."

Thomas smiled. For the first time since joining the high school basketball team, he felt lucky to be the team's 'mascot'. His mates always made him carry things they didn't want to have to worry about.

"It won't be necessary, we can take my team's van." He pulled a bunch of keys out of his coat pocket.

They left the safety of their hideout behind, Thomas was grateful that he had paid close attention to where they parked when they arrived at the party because the snowstorm was already hampering his sense of direction. The Christmas cane hanging around his neck crumbled out of nowhere, and he imagined that Santa's protective magic had run out, a quick peek at his colleagues told him that they also no longer had protective magic because their necklaces were empty.

Luckily, they didn't encounter any snow monsters on their way. As subtly as he managed, Daniel opened the van door and took the wheel. Thomas sat in the passenger seat and Mikaela in the back.

"Wow, this smells like a men's locker room." She complained, bringing her hands to her nose.

"The whole team uses it here, what did you expect?" Thomas defended himself.

Daniel put the keys in the contact and turned. The vehicle's engine sprang to life, only to die in the next second.

"Seriously?" He hit the steering wheel.

Thomas mentally cursed himself for forgetting how long that wreck took to start. To make matters worse, it was at that exact moment that one of the snow monsters decided to walk close to the van and the sound of the engine caught his attention. A roar escaped its mouth full of sharp teeth, and it began to crawl towards them. Daniel tried to bring the vehicle back to life, without success. Thomas knew they would never make it out of there before that thing caught up with them. Opening the door, he jumped out.

"Keep trying, I'll distract him!"

Running towards a snow monster was the last thing he wanted to do in his life, but he needed that being to notice him and give him his full attention. Luckily for him, his plan worked, and the creature tried to catch him. Thomas got as far away from the van as he could before running into more evil snowmen. Two of them obstructed his front and he ran to the left, heading towards the lake. Snow was already piling up on the ground, making his efforts more difficult. It wasn't easy to run in the snow in sneakers.

Soon he realized, he was surrounded by five monsters that roared at him in a very threatening way. But before the siege was completely closed, the loud sound of a horn sounded, drawing everyone's attention. Daniel accelerated the van, hitting one of the snowmen hard enough to dismantle it. The wooden arms dropped to the floor and Thomas saw that they were still moving. It really was like a bizarre horror movie.

"Come on!" Mikaela shouted and opened the van's door.

He ran and threw himself inside. Daniel accelerated again and, even sliding a lot because of the snow, managed to take them away from the lake.

Yeah! Things are getting hot! Or should I say cold?

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See you next week!