Up the steps it goes
Hooved feet plodding
Long hands lingering
On the banister
Its horns scraping
The stretched ceiling.
Past the old dog
Who groans in his sleep
And the parents
Who lie sleepless
Caught in-between.
There they are
In the next room
A small boy wrapped
In blankets;
A larger one
Snoring loudly.
He takes the sack
From his back
And opens it
A bottomless abyss
Into which he throws
The naughty
And not-nice.
These boys yell;
They beat each other,
They mutter obscenities
And promise retribution
Tenfold
On any who wrong them.
Their parents have their gifts
Locked up tight,
Lest they uncover
Their unearned spoils.
Father has threatened them,
Told them that the Krampus
Will come and take them
Down to hell
Where they will endure
Unceasing spankings
And sparse meals
Of broccoli
And kale.
Bad boys that they are,
They have taken the wrong lesson
From what he's tried to teach them.
When the goat-demon
Pulls back the covers,
He finds that
The little one has
A pair of scissors
Clutched in his paws.
The big one keeps
A screwdriver
With a sharpened tip
Wedged in-between
His crooked teeth.
The eyelids open slowly
Of the littlest
To see a looming monstrosity
Opening a sack
Of writhing darkness.
He lets out a yell,
A fierce cry
That awakens his brother.
Bonds forged
In brotherhood
Do not fray
Easily.
The boys leap up
From their slumbers
And crash into
The digitagrade legs
Pushing the demon back.
It stumbles onto
The old dog
Who lets out a howl,
Echoed by that of the monster's,
Who has just experienced
The pain of a screwdriver
Plunged into a knee.
Down the stairs he goes,
Having been sent
By two hearty pushes
Tumbling stair to stair,
The horns sundering,
The whole facade crumbling
As his body
Lies in a broken heap
In the entryway.
"We killed the Krampus!"
The boys yell in triumph.
Father rushes out of bed
And stands at the top
Of the landing
Horror spreading across his face.
"Boys," he says,
"What the hell did you do to Steven?"
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