It was so terribly cold ...

It was so terribly cold, snow was falling, and it was almost dark. It was about time for Santa Claus to get down to business. Having finished sorting out the presents for the children from around the world, he put them in a sack that had a storage dimension of immeasurable capacity. Santa Claus donned his signature red costume, put on his pointy hat, and hopped onto his good old sleigh led by his trusty reindeer --- Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, and his favorite one of all, Rudolph with a big red nose. He was now set for his journey, grasped his reins, and took off. His first destination was a small town called Tristram.

Months before his journey, Santa Claus had his elfin employees scattered across the globe, not only to collect letters written by children on what gifts they wanted but also to spy on the children to report to him whether the children were bad or good. Santa sent two elves, Alabaster Snowball and Bushy Evergreen, to Tristram and they informed him that all the children there were evil. That intel bewildered Santa Claus. To his knowledge, the people in Tristram were all devoted Christians and an extremely elaborate culture of caring and sharing had been instilled in them for generations. The children there all had very high G.B.A (Good Behavioral Aptitude) scores. None of them had ever played truant, disrespected their elders, fought or bullied one another, shown signs of dishonesty, or stolen other people’s property. For so many years, Tristram was one of Santa’s top ten towns for having children who possess exceptional behaviors. Something must have happened in that town. But Santa could not tell what it was. Alabaster Snowball and Bushy Evergreen did not return to tell him that. The last signal coming from them was a message telling Santa had to go to Tristram. But Santa straight up dismissed it. He believed that the elves had the data mixed up with that of another town that had a majority of naughty children. Therefore, he already had presents prepared for the children of Tristram.

At mid-way, the already freezing temperature dropped even further and the gust of snowflakes that grazed him like tiny needles had gotten even worse. It was as if nature herself was trying to prevent Santa from moving forward. But Santa flapped his reins and charged. He had prepared himself extra clothing to brace the snowstorm.

Santa had the difficulty in locating Tristram, which was weird to him because he had visited the place for years. It was extremely dark and he had to use his night vision glasses. With great effort, Santa found the town at last. Tristram had no source of lumination, except for that bright crimson moon above the sky. This was pretty unusual as every town normally has streetlamps lit up even after midnight. But then again, thought Santa, Tristram could most likely have a blackout. Santa had lived a thousand years and thus a blackout was not so big a deal to Santa.

Upon arrival, Santa found the town to be extremely quiet, except for the howling of the cold wind. Although it was indeed the right time for him to do the usual stuff like climbing down chimneys and distributing the presents, there was an inexplicable eeriness to it. And besides, something was off. The Christmas tree! Whenever Santa visits a town, he is always greeted by a great big Christmas tree decorated with dazzling lights. But Tristram had none. And no garlands, no wreaths, no snowman, no festive ribbons or ornaments to be seen either. Oh come on! It's CHRISTMAS! And yet Tristram citizens were know to be devout Christians! This was awfully weird. Nevertheless, Santa decided the first house he was going to go to was Little Johnny’s. Little Johnny to him was an exceptional kid. Not only did Little Johnny attain a high G.B.A score last year, but he also frequently wrote sweet poems about Santa. And he always has Santa’s favorite cookies wrapped in beautiful paper and placed inside a big red stocking for him to savor. Little Johnny gave him so good an impression that Santa even considered recruiting him someday.

As Santa climbed down the chimney of Johnny’s house, he was surprised to see Little Johnny standing in front of him.

"Ho! Ho! Ho! Look, Little Johnny, I’ve got your favorite toy. Have you been naughty this year?"

Then, Santa was shocked to see what Little Johnny was holding in his hand. A bloody knife.

"Stop! Little Johnny! You aren’t supposed to play with those things!"

Johnny had these devilish red eyes and he let out a beastly screech. Santa was scared out of his wits and he immediately dashed through the door. Once outside, the menacing snow just stopped all of a sudden. Lights in every room were turned on and lamps in every street were suddenly lit up by a ghostly flame. Then, he got hit on the head by a stone. Santa turned to see who was the assailant only to find the townspeople coming at him. Their eyes were glowing devilishly red and they had a fiery torch on one hand and the other hand held a pitchfork, a pickaxe, and even a chainsaw. Everything was engulfed with red light. Layers of silvery snow instantly became a mirror, magnifying the red radiance to an extent that Santa could not tell whether it was night or day.

"Rudolph! My fellow reindeer! Get me out of here!" cried Santa.

But he found his reindeer all brutally slaughtered and poor Rudolph’s big red nose got chopped off and was rolling on the snowy path due to the wind and touched Santa’s boots before stopping.

All the town folks had gathered to form a huge angry mob.

"An outsider!"

"Outcast!"

"He who sullied the sacred soil of our mighty lord!"

"Condemn him!"

"Execute him!"

They all seemed to be brainwashed or possessed. They were definitely not the friendly folks Santa once knew. Despite the cold weather, Santa Claus was beginning to feel the intense heat, and big droplets of sweat formed on his forehead and were entering through his collar and creeping beneath his vest.

Soon, Santa was surrounded by the townspeople and he had nowhere else to go, no means to fly his way out. Then, Little Johnny stepped in and said in a very coarse and monstrous voice, "Hey! Why don’t we bring this outsider to the Great Ritual, to receive the greetings from our Lord Diablo!"

The townspeople all cried in unison, "Yeah! Let’s bring him to see our almighty Lord Diablo!"

Santa spotted a well besides what used to be a church but was now a pile of rubble and hoped in without a second thought. He did not know why he did it since the well did not seem to offer him a way of escape. Perhaps his instinct told him it was the only means to postpone his doom. There might also be a slim chance there might be a secret passage instead of just a pool of water. Holding As he slowly made his descent, Santa realized no further actions were taken by the townspeople above. Perhaps his instinct led him to the right track. When Santa was about to let out a sigh of relief, a wooden bucket fell and hit him in the head. That made him slip. He soon lost consciousness when he landed on whatever lay at the bottom of the well.

When he woke up, Santa found that he was all tied up in chains. His butt still ached upon impact. The ground he sat on was soft but scorchingly hot. Santa looked at his surroundings and saw that the wall had led him to a place beyond his imagination. Streams of magma were flowing everywhere. This hellish place was inhabited by orcs and goblins and even animated skeletons carrying a sword and a wooden shields. Throughout his life, Santa had never seen or believed in such creatures. It was like living in a fairytale. There were also severed heads on stakes and among them belonged two of his beloved elves.

"Oh, no! Alabaster and Bushy!"

"Ha! Ha! Ha! What have we here?"

The voice was coming from the empty throne facing him. Then, a huge flame burst from its seat and at the flame’s center emerged a humanoid entity, floating at first before landing gracefully with his legs crossed and his right elbow resting on the arm of the throne. The entity had the horns of a buffalo twice the size of his head and had the large wings of a bat behind his back. His ribs could be seen sticking out of his chest. He had the size and physique of a ten-year-old boy but like Santa, he had lived a thousand years. The entity had that aura of great abomination surrounding him.

"I, Diablo," he spoke, "was expecting to see a warrior or a sorcerer, not a funny-looking old man like you."

Then, Diablo picked up Santa’s red sack and looked inside, "Wow! What are these? Presents? You have presents for me?" He smiled, revealing his pure white fangs.