Holiday Advent Story 13

Toby Jones: six years old. Missing since Tuesday. Current location: a warehouse on the East side. Locked in a closet.

Mickey, Jones, Mac, and Carver sat in the next room playing cards. Mickey glanced at the closet where the occasional sob could be heard. Toby was crying again.

Carver hurled an ashtray at the door. “Shut up or so help me god I’ll come back in there.” Carver had entered the room twice since they’d gotten back with Toby. The screams still echoed in the back of Mickey’s thoughts.

“I swear,” said Mac. “I can’t wait for the brat’s old man to pay up so we can be done here.”

“I don’t understand what’s taking so long,” said Jones. “You think he’s gotten one of them negotiators?”

“Nah,” said Carver. “It’s the old man. His plan was to wait a couple of days before contacting the family for money. Get them good and desperate. Then ask for cash.”

“Mister Mason would not appreciate being called the old man,” said Mac.

“Is that what he told you his name was?” asked a voice from the shadows. “Mister Mason. Stone work, sounds hard. I can see him finding that appropriate.”

A…person walked out of the shadows. He was wearing green and red from head to toe. A pointy hat rested on his head with a jingle bell hanging from the tip. Mostly though the men around the table noticed that he was only about a foot tall.

“Gentlemen, my name is Shawn,” said Shawn. “I’m here to offer you a choice.”

Carver stood quickly and grabbed a pistol from the table. He aimed the weapon at the Shawn and pulled the trigger. A spray of silver tinsel sprung from the end. Carver grabbed a knife from the table and hurled it at Shawn.

Shawn watched as the blade whipped straight for him. Then at the last second Shawn stepped to one side. He then reached out one hand and poked the knife. He then used his other hand to keep the knife spinning. Shawn spun in a circle. He kept the knife spinning around him. When he finished rotating the knife flew away from him and slammed into the wall just to one side of carver’s head.

Carver stood and grabbed the knife from the wall.

“Please,” said Shawn. “I can keep this up all night. However, time is short and I have a message to deliver. Then you can go back to your cards.”

Carver was moving around the table, knife in hand.

“CARVER,” yelled Mac.

Carver stopped and turned on Mac.

“Hear him out,” said Mac. “I think he came from Mister Mason.”

“Is he right?” asked Carver. “You work with Mason?”

“To the first question,” said Shawn. “He is right. I came from Mason. To the second, I don’t work for him. He was given a choice that I now also give to you.”

“What choice?” asked Mickey.

“In three hours it will be midnight and Christmas day,” said Shawn. “You can give me Toby now, and he will go home and enjoy Christmas with his family. Or you can keep him and in three hours Toby will be taken from you.”

“What’s in it for us?” asked Jones.

“Traditionally, a good deed is its own reward,” said Shawn. “In this case however, you will gain the bonus of not eating through a straw and having to relearn how to walk.”

“There’s a third option,” said Carver tightening the grip on his knife.

“Shut up Francis,” said Shawn. “You’re not that scary.”

“Who’s going to do this violence to us?” asked Jones. “You.”

“No,” said Shawn. “I’m merely the herald for this evening.”

Mickey looked at the gun with tinsel coming out the end. “We just give you the kid and everything is okay?”

Shawn looked at Mickey. “Absolutely.” Shawn brushed his hands together. “It looks like you have a choice to make. Call my name between now and midnight if you wish to return Toby to his family. After that, I’m afraid there will be nothing I can do for you. Remember gentlemen, He is coming.”

Shawn turned and walked into the shadows and was gone.

Carver ran off after him screaming obscenities. They listened to him tear around the warehouse looking for Shawn for several minutes while the rest of them talked.

Mac called Mister Mason. There was no answer. They couldn’t know what happened between him and Shawn or if anything had.

After a while Carver calmed down enough to come back and talk. Three of the men spoke at length. Mickey sat to one side and listened as the men discussed the pros and cons of what they should do. Carver was for violence from the start. He was angry at being called Francis. Jones just wanted his cut and figured it was due any time now. Mac hung to his loyalty for Mister Mason. Mickey nodded in agreement with the team.

However, once things had calmed down Mickey took a moment to sneak into the room with Toby. He knelt down next to the sleeping boy and whispered, “Shawn?”

Shawn stepped out of the shadows. “Hello Mickey.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know if we can do it but I’d like to help you sneak Toby out of here. I don’t trust what Carver will do even if we get the money.”

“I understand,” said Shawn. “I’ll get Toby out of here. That’s what I do. You should stay in this room though. When he comes for them in a couple of minutes, it won’t be pretty.”

“Okay.”

“Listen, before I go. I understand that times are tough and you’re scared right now. For your family, your sister especially. There are better ways than this Mickey. There are always better ways.”

Shawn took Toby’s hand and the tow vanished in a cloud of sparkling dust.

A few minutes later Mickey heard the sound of sleigh bells. Something clattered on the rooftop of the warehouse. It grew quiet for a long time. Then he heard Jones yelp. Mac cried for help. Then Carver screamed. That scream still haunts Mickey in the back of his mind. It just lasted so very long.

end
Santa Clause is Coming to Town