The Nightmare Hunters Before Christmas

Hannah Carter

“Coppelia Potts, full-time Nightmare Hunter and part-time… babysitter.” Coppelia sighed as she watched the snow fall outside. “I’ve thwarted mummies and captured magical menaces. I think I’m a little bit overqualified to babysit a toddler.”

Wolfgang Potts shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re complaining about. I’m glad we aren’t in mortal danger for once. Sure, Gwenny beat me with a stuffed giraffe because she didn’t want to go to bed, but I’d take that any day of the week over becoming an undead mummy.”

Coppelia grunted. “To each their own, I suppose.” Multicolored Christmas lights glistened on the tree beside her. “I just hope Mom and Dad are having fun fighting that banshee.”

A scream split the air, so loud and awful that it could have been mistaken for the keening of the aforementioned monster. Coppelia leapt from the couch and clutched her ears as she darted toward the one thing in the world that could rival a banshee’s scream: a toddler’s wail.

“Gwenny!” Coppelia careened into the nursery only to stop short. Wolfy collided with her back and added his own screams as they both saw the creature bent over their sister’s bed.

“Krampus—” Coppelia squealed. “The real, live Krampus is kidnapping our baby sister!”

“You don’t have to sound so happy about it.” Wolfy shoved her aside and reached for the sword on the wall.

Normal people might accessorize a child’s playroom with cutesy animal or princess decor, but a Nightmare Hunter had to be a bit more practical.

Coppelia grabbed a second blade from the wall. The creature picked up the sobbing Gwenny and opened his pack, even as she kicked and pummeled him with her stuffed giraffe.

“Children,” Krampus hissed. Its long, forked tongue unrolled from its mouth, almost as if it were drooling over a feast. “Naughty children.”

Coppelia and Wolfgang both charged at their enemy.

Krampus dropped Gwenny into his pack, tightened it back, and turned to meet their attacks. Coppelia swung her sword at the creature’s head. It swatted her weapon away with its horn and kicked her with a cloven hoof. Coppelia took the blow to the stomach and stumbled backward. Her blade clattered to the floor.

Wolfy fared worse, though. Krampus had managed to grab the boy’s ankle with its tail and hoisted him into the air. Wolfgang bellowed, his shirt over his eyes as he dangled upside down. He swung at the creature in a blind attempt to make contact.

From inside the pack, baby Gwenny cried, “Bad Tampus!”

With one hand holding his bag and his tail grasping Wolfy, Krampus wrested away Wolfy’s weapon and tossed it to the floor. Then he uncinched the drawstring and dropped the second Potts sibling into the sack.

Krampus licked his lips. “Naughty Nightmare Hunters. Hunt. Kill.” Its feet clicked against the hardwood floor as it approached the last sibling standing.

Dazed and disarmed, Coppelia struggled to recall any sort of strategy that would help her. She’d read about Krampus several times in the Nightmare Hunter Guidebook, but what? All she could remember was something about oranges and sticks, and that the creature’s worst enemy was…

Coppelia snatched a talking Santa from Gwenny’s pile of toys and smacked the button on his rotund belly.

“Have you been naughty or nice this year?” Krampus’s red-suited rival asked in a mechanical voice.

Krampus’s fur bristled, and he snatched her throat with his three long claws.

He brought her close to his face, reaching out his long tongue to lick her. Coppelia shuddered as his warm saliva dripped down her chin.

“He cannot save you.”

Coppelia clawed at Krampus’s hand as he tightened his grip, and when that didn’t work, smacked him on the head with Santa to play the next recording. “Santa Claus is always watching!”

Krampus hissed and thrashed his tail. He dropped her and the bag and covered his ears.

“No, no! Do not say his name!”

“Ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas!”

Krampus collided with Gwenny’s bed and tripped over her toy box.

Coppelia grinned and mashed the button one more time—which made Santa dance as he burst into a cheery rendition of “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.”

Krampus writhed on the floor. His wild kicks sent princess paraphernalia across the floor and dislodged a hapless stuffed elf from a shelf.

“Haven’t you monsters learned yet? Don’t mess with a Nightmare Hunter, especially before Christmas.” Coppelia reared back and chucked the toy across the room. A moment before contact, Krampus vanished in a puff of smoke and snow.

And someone still sobbed.

Coppelia whirled around. Thankfully, Krampus had left behind his bag when he dissipated. Coppelia collapsed next to the burlap sack and tore it open. But it must have been made from the same material as Mary Poppins’s bottomless carpetbag. A black void rested inside—with no sibling in sight.

“Wolfy! Gwenny!” Coppelia screamed. She plunged her hand into the blackness and wiggled it around. She could still hear Gwenny’s wails, at least. The poor cherubic baby must be terrified. “Grab my hand!”

Nothing.

“Gwenny, I need you to calm down, okay? I know this is scary, but Cop’s got this. Wolfy, grab my hand.” Coppelia sucked in a breath and sang her favorite carol. “Silent night… holy night… all is calm, all is bright.”

Someone grasped her hand from within the void.

Coppelia yanked hard. She tumbled onto her backside as she jerked her siblings back from the unknown. Gwenny cheered and waved her giraffe around like a victory flag.

Wolfy, on the other hand…

“Oh, my gosh. You were crying, Wolfy?”

Wolfy sniffled and wiped at his eyes.

Coppelia squeezed both her siblings in a bear hug. Tears bubbled up in her own eyes, and she dropped a kiss on both of their foreheads before she claimed her sweet sister from Wolfy.

Gwenny laughed, her eyes bright. “Yay!”

Coppelia smiled and bopped Gwenny’s pert nose and whispered one last Christmas tune. “Jingle bells, Krampus smells, from fifty miles away…”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hannah Carter is just a girl who loves to dream and write, and still wakes up every day hoping this will be the day she figures out she’s secretly a mermaid. She currently has two published novellas, Amir and the Moon and Seashells. She has had over a dozen devotionals published in various magazines. She also won a competition with her short story “Lara.”

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