Creepypasta: Christmas Folklore – Krampus

The holidays… Normally I’d be overjoyed about it but ever since my mother married my new stepdad, Joseph Black, things have never been very cheerful around the holidays. Joseph himself is pompous, arrogant, ignorant, and for the lack of a better word, an asshole. His son, my new step-brother, Bradley, is even worse if that’s possible. He’s entitled, violent, prone to throwing tantrums whenever he doesn’t get what he wants (obviously, he inherited that from his father), and a bit of a psychopath who lacks empathy and enjoys torturing innocent creatures. 

It’s safe to say the holidays aren’t pleasant. Not that any time spent in our house is. But Bradley will most certainly throw a hissy fit when he doesn’t get enough presents or doesn’t get the one present he wanted and of course, with the long list of toys he gave, one will most certainly be left out and that’ll be the gift he wanted most. God, I can’t stand that little brat. Meanwhile, his father will indulge him and reinforce the behavior. I can only take so much of it. If I could, I’d spend all of the Holidays in college, but I love my mother very much and I’m willing to endure a few days of torture with the Blacks, my stepfamily, to spend time with her. The irony that their last names are the Blacks and the fact that they are whiter than printer paper isn’t lost on me. Not that race has anything to do with their poor attitudes. I just found that that was an interesting bit of irony considering my mother and I are black. I of course kept my father’s last name of Knight. 

Anyway, it’s safe to say, I’m not looking forward to the holidays. Driving home in this terrible snowstorm has already proven to be a sign as to how this weekend is going to end up. 

I arrive home to find my mother and step-dad snoozing in the living room. I didn’t bother to wake them up as I went up to my room. The little shit’s door is wide open and I spotted him sitting in the middle of his pigpen playing video games, eyes glued to the screen, and he’s shouting obscenities at it. 

I sigh and head into my room which is just how I left it and pass out for the night. The following morning I awake to the sounds of an argument. 

“I don’t want to go. Their family is a bunch of weirdos,” Bradley’s voice echoes through the hall. The last thing I want to wake up to. 

“Bradley, it’s just an evening. You’re going,” his father asserts. Then Bradley screams and things go crashing as he throws a tantrum. I grab the pillow and cover my ears with it. 

I finally pull myself out of bed and get dressed before walking out to see my mother getting things ready for the trip to my grandmother’s.

“Good morning, sweetie.” She pulls me into a hug. “How was the drive?”

“Terrible,” I say. “Mother nature chose to bring on the snowstorm during the hour and a half it took me to drive home. It was a complete whiteout.”

“Morning, Jazmin,” my step-father says in a stiff tone as he walks in and kisses my mother. 

“Morning, Joseph,” I say right back in an equally stiff tone. His face never wavers from its perpetual scowl. 

We eat breakfast as Joseph goes on and on about how he’s the only one who’s competent at his job and everyone else who works there are a bunch of useless sacks of garbage. I try my best to drown him out. I still can’t quite figure out what my mother sees in him. Bradley eats his way through a mountain of pancakes in a pig-like manner, getting syrup everywhere. After breakfast, I withdraw to my room where I spend the rest of the day hidden away. 

We eventually head over to my grandmother’s where all my relatives are bunched up in her cozy but far too small house. My grandmother greets us with a merry smile and she of course says I’m way too thin and accuses my mother of starving me. My cousins, all of whom are children, flutter around me like bees around a flower. Not that I mind, I love my cousins. They’re all adorable even if they have way too much energy. I keep an eye on my step-brother to make sure he doesn’t bully any of my cousins in which I have caught him doing in the past. I spend most of the night keeping my cousins entertained before we eat a huge dinner. Bradley throws a huge fit when my mother politely asks him to finish what he has on his plate before going for dessert. Then he has a meltdown when he’s asked to help clean up. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my entire life as he screams obscenities. I can just tell my uncle Lavell would love to take him out back and introduce him to his belt by the look on his face. All of my relatives give me a sympathetic look and hate my step-family just as much as I do. My grandmother gives me a present as we go to leave. It’s a book that was one of my grandfather’s favorites. She knew how much of a book worm I am. 

When we finally get home, I unwrap it to find a really old leather-bound book that has no title. I opened it once I came into my room and read through the table of contents. Apparently, it’s all short stories. One story really caught my eye. A tale of Krampus. It is the holiday, after all, might as well give it a read. 

“My name is Macy Robertson and what I’m about to tell you is not just a tale, but the truth. And it is a terrifying experience that is quite hard to believe, but every bit of it is as real as the paper I write on. I’m an orphan and I spent most of my childhood at Saint Brigid’s Orphanage. My stay there was for the most part pleasant. Our guardians, Sister Renata Garcia and Father Isaac Gordan were two of the kindest people you’ll ever find. Sister Renata was an elderly plump woman with white hair but had a very kind heart and a motherly nature about her. Father Isaac came off as a stern man, but he was just and fair, and deep down, we all knew he truly cared for us. 

Now, not everything was peachy perfect. Some kids were truly despicable in the worst way. There was a boy named Declan Roberts who was the most entitled, disrespectful, and rude boy you’ll ever come across, although another boy named Finley Porter was even worse if that’s possible. There was something not quite right about him. He was the kind of boy that enjoyed cruelty and got off on torturing poor helpless animals.”

These two boys sound a lot like Bradley, cruel, entitled, and disrespectful. God, I still can’t believe how embarrassing he was at the party. His tantrums are the worst.

“As if they weren’t bad enough, there was also Renee Bates. She’s a psycho. She has the audacity to be kind to your face only to stab you in your back as soon as you’re not looking. When I first arrived here, she was the first to greet me with open arms, however, as soon as Sister Renata took a liking to me, Renee spread a rumor about me saying I burned my own house down and my family disowned me for being crazy. Fortunately, she has a reputation for being a liar and I was still able to make friends with a boy named Enzo Watson and a younger girl named Aya Gill. The three of us stuck together and became close friends.

As the holidays came closer, something seemed off. Both Father Isaac and Sister Renata seemed a little worried. It was as if they were expecting something. They told us all sorts of stories about a demon named Krampus who took bad children. I think they tried to scare us into being good, but it did not work on Declan, Renee, and Finley.

Meanwhile, the three of them were at their worst. Finley had killed one of the cats I was so fond of. We don’t have any proof that it was him, but everyone knows it. The poor thing was strung up by a noose. Declan on the other hand was making everyone miserable. He’d purposely go out of his way to be extra cruel to the rest of us. He’d try to single out Enzo when he’s all alone. Make remarks to Aya and me about any little flaw he could find, always attacking our insecurities. Of course, Renee was always with him and helping him. It was to her delight to see the rest of us suffer. Always spreading lies and rumors about the rest of us, while Finley would plant dead animal carcasses in our beds and he’d try to get us alone so he could physically hurt us. Enzo, Aya, and I had to always stick together. 

Father Isaac and Sister Renata, as kind as they were, didn’t seem to notice any of it. Which I find hard to believe. However, they seemed to subtly treat Declan, Renee, and Finley as if they were marked or something. They’d have that sad look on their faces whenever they talked to them or punished them for doing something horrible. It’s as if they knew something was going to happen. Little did any of us know, something was going to happen. 

As Christmas came, we all were excited to see what we’d got from Saint Nicholas. I had found an adorable little teddy bear in my stocking along with a diary in which of course I’m writing this all down. However, Declan, Renee, and Finley all threw a fit when they received nothing but coal in their stocking. They gave everyone hell for it. None of us could enjoy our presents. 

I was in tears when I came back from breakfast to find my teddy bear torn to pieces. Luckily they didn’t find my diary, however, both Aya and Enzo’s gifts were destroyed too. 

Now here’s where things get scary. That night, we all got in our beds as any other night. Sister Renata seemed to wish us all goodnight. She took one last look over to Renee before heading to the boys’ room. 

I had barely fallen asleep when I was awoken to some eerie clapping noise echoing through the halls. It sounded like hooves. Aya heard it too, for she shot up from her bed. The clapping grew louder and louder. My heart started to beat faster. We heard the creak of a door across the hall to the boys’ room. There were screams. Aya jumped and rushed over to my bed. She was crying. 

We heard both Declan and Finley screaming for their lives. We heard them plead and beg before being muffled out. My hands started to sweat, but the air seemed to chill as the windows became covered in frost. We could see the steam of our breath. Suddenly the door creaked open. 

A long-clawed hairy hand wrapped around the door. It was not human. Its skin was a sickly leather texture. The door swung open and what met us was truly horrifying. It couldn’t be anything other than a demon. Great long horns shot out from its head. It wore a cloak like Saint Nicholas, but it was tattered and had dark red stains in it. It also had a white beard, but it had been tinted red around the mouth where fangs tinted black lurked. Burning red eyes seemed to bleed out from a hood. It was like some kind of twisted Santa. It stomped into the room carrying a giant red bag over its shoulder. The bag seemed to have what could only be children inside it. They were moving as if they were trying to escape it. I grabbed Aya and held onto her, trying to keep her safe from this monster. 

However, it didn’t bother with us. It gimped into the room and stopped at the end of Renee’s bed. She was mortified and screamed as the demon grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her off her bed and into the air. He opened his bag as she screamed, cried, and pleaded with it, but he said not a word and dropped her inside before closing it shut. Her screams were silenced. He then took the coal and ate it before its eyes fell upon us. It took one sniff at us and then gimped out of the room. As it left, I felt like I could finally breathe. Krampus does exist.

Ever since that night, I made sure to be as kind as I could. You never know who or what is watching you.”

I closed the book as my heart was pounding in my chest. What a story. I stowed the book away and fell asleep. As Christmas arrived, to no surprise of my own, the tree was flooded with presents and most of them were for Bradley. His father had outdone himself and yet, Bradley still found something to complain about. He threw a tantrum about not getting the game he wanted with the console his father bought him. What a spoiled little brat. However, no one expected him to open up a chunk of coal. Even my mother thought I gave it to him. I had nothing to do with it. I found it rather eerie, to be honest. Especially after reading that story. 

For the rest of the day, Bradley spent it in his room, playing his new console while I helped my mother cook, while Joseph spent his time down in his man cave. We prepared a huge dinner and spent a good amount of time catching up. Turns out things aren’t well in paradise. She and Joseph have spent a lot of time arguing recently. He thought it’d be best if they’d move out west to be with his family and she didn’t like the idea of leaving our family. Regardless, that argument created a lot more arguments and they found themselves nagging at each and every little thing the other did wrong. She told me all about how he continues to criticize everything she does and how nothing is ever good enough for him. It made me wonder what exactly she found so attractive in him, to begin with. 

Dinner was a complete and utter disaster. My mother and Joseph spent it arguing while Bradley played on his handheld for most of it until he threw a fit when my mother asked him to put it away. By the end of it, my mother was in tears. I helped her clean up and she went to bed early that night. I followed suit. 

At some point, after I had fallen asleep, I was rudely awakened by a load crash. It was oddly freezing in here. I could see my own breath. I rushed out of my room to hear the sound of loud clapping. It grew closer and closer as my step-father stormed out of their room downstairs, baseball bat in hand. He marched out from the hallway across the stares to where the clapping seemed to grow closer. I heard him scream which was followed by another loud crash.

My heart was beating faster as I stood at the top of the stairs, trembling. What the hell is going on? Did someone break-in? Is Joseph okay? That clapping seemed to get louder and then I saw a clawed leather hand wrap around the side of the entryway to the Dining room from the living room. My heart froze as tears started to fall from my eyes. 

Out from the dining room stepped a figure with long horns draped in a tattered and torn Santa style cloak. It had a long white beard that seemed to be stained in red. I heard my mother scream as she came out of her room. It looked up at me with those burning red eyes and long black-painted sharp teeth. It then made its way up the stairs. I backed all the way down the hall until my back met the end of it. It gimped closer with its hooved feet, towering over me as its horns dragged across the ceiling making a horrifying scraping noise. I was still at a loss for any words and frozen in place. It was as if it crawled out of that book. Krampus was the title. 

It stopped before it got to me and turned to Bradley’s door. It opened it and I heard Bradley scream out. He cried and pleaded as I heard him struggle and then he went silent. The demon gimped back out of his room, chewing on a black lump of coal with a red sack slung over his shoulder and I could see the shape of a chubby boy trying to claw his way out of it. I heard the clapping sound slowly disappear as it left our house. 

After I was able to pull myself out of my shock, I rushed downstairs to find Joseph dead, his head was twisted unnaturally. We couldn’t quite explain it all to the police after my mother called them. Neither she nor I mentioned Krampus. The report that was filed mentioned a figure in red, attacking Joseph and kidnapping Bradley. I still don’t know what happened to Bradley. One thing’s for sure, I followed that girl’s advice and made sure to treat everyone with respect. You truly don’t know who or what is watching you. 

The End.

Remember, you’re never safe in the dark…

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