What surprised me was she arrived near the time the occurrences had taken place at the other houses and apologized to me for something, and before she left gave me a book to read, to which I believed she had given me as she felt sorry for me, leaving me there doing nothing, in the dark, with whatever it was, and I considered if she intended to use the story of it for somewhere for some reason.
Though when I started to read the book I sat back staggered, as the book was full of paranormal and ghost stories, which were claimed to be real accounts, which were written like they actually occurred, and I realized it could be part of their plan to persuade me something was there.
Though after reading through it, trying to see what was there, I was left staggered as there were accounts of occurrences actually taking place in the same region.
There were ancient inhabitants of the region claiming to have seen alarming evil spirits and the devil itself, dwelling there.
I realized that the place had not always been a city region as it was, many centuries ago, and it sent a chill through me as I thought what could be buried there.
There were ancient newspaper accounts of reported unexplained ancient occurrences, and one of the worst told of travelers that had come upon the remains of people left in pieces in the region by some hideous occurrence, with their remains being found scattered throughout the area, and others of people being attacked and chased by things.
I was mesmerized and my eyes for no reason fell upon something in the woman’s living room, and I recalled seeing it a few seconds earlier but had not noticed it, as I was engrossed with the accounts, and I stared at it for almost a minute trying to figure it out but was unable to form a mental image of what was there, and what I was looking at, as it had no real form, from what I saw, and in the darkness my tired unfocused eyes never allowed me to grasp what.
It was the appearance of the house that brought me to, and I stood behind the door, and I could say little, and I wondered what could happen if I revealed myself, or even turned on the light.
After going through all the things that had happened I realized that there had to be something actually there, and I realized with all the stuff I had learned I did not positively know what to do, as even with all the knowledge I had heard I did not know what it was, and I did not believe it all, and I realized my mission was to discover what was there, and proceed from there.
Going by everything that I had heard I knew it would do what it did and vanish, and I quickly glanced out, and stood staggered as it was the Santa Claus, and how I imagined him as a child, and it was startling, and also gasped in horror, as it seemed real.
I spotted a faint glowing energy around its shape, and twinkles of light, like miniature starlight, and realized it looked magical, with fantasy powers.
I was sure that I could solve the case by examining it up close!
I was sure it might be affected by things, and I could find a way of getting rid of it, and stopping it haunting the region.
I became even more fascinated, wondering what it was, as it was so realistic, and unlike any normal human I had ever seen, and as I moved closer to it I realized it detected me, and at that point I collapsed over the floor.
Chapter 5
Things seemed somehow different when I awakened, on the floor, and I studied everything about me everywhere trying to grasp what, and I watched the woman studying me sprawled across her living room floor, surprised, and she apologized, and took the blame for what had happened, and I had a bad time recalling what had happened, and strange meaningless dreams I had.
Later I recalled the moments before I collapsed repeatedly, wondering what the hell happened.
I was badly depressed all evening after it, still trying to grasp it, and not believing I had blown the end, and had not found out what it had been doing there! If only I had stayed where I had been I could have found out and have remained undiscovered, and the woman had not been able to tell me anything either.
Back at the detective agency I read through the letters again and gasped at the occurrences that had been mentioned, and still could not understand how the Santa could be mentioned as being deadly, but realized that I could have been killed if it had been.
I thought of telling Marple but I left it as I wanted to solve the case myself, and could not believe such a thing could happen on a case, as I was trapped trying to solve it and stuck with one of the strangest menaces I had heard of, and it had not occurred to any of the other investigators of it being anything, and that anything could happen with such a case! It was absurd!
I had only one thing left I could do and that was to contact the next house, next to the house, and arrange to do it over again, and this time use cameras to record it and watch it as well, and find out what the hell it did, and if it did exist to use it to contact the paranormal scientists!
I needed to give them evidence of something, as they would have to travel all the way there from Scotland.
The man in the house the Santa Claus was to arrive at welcomed me in, and told me his neighbors had told him everything, and he would allow me to set up a camera and other equipment to check it out.
Once again when it turned night I got a room on the ground floor, next to the living room, and I quickly placed a seat at the door of the bedroom and left the door partly opened, just enough to see into the living room, and entire area where I knew it would arrive, and I sat reading a book I brought with me, and I started to see sense and I wondered what it really was.
Again I realized the place had not always been a proper city region, many centuries ago, and it sent a chill through me as I thought of what could be buried away, and my eyes for no reason fell upon something in the living room, and realized it was there and I suddenly jumped back startled, and my heart leapt, and I saw its red figure shifting into the room, shifting out from nothing and the darkness of the corridor, and I activated the camera and equipment I had set up.
Even though it was dark it was identical to a Santa and I watched its strange figure move in making Santa sounds, and I realized how similar it was to a department store Santa, and I tried to grasp what it was doing!
There was something strange that I just could not grasp, and it moved and did things far differently than anyone I had seen, and I was shocked as it suddenly had a lethal appearance.
I suddenly spotted the man who owned the house on the stairs in the darkness, watching it in horror, unable to decide what to do, and I realized he could actually do something stupid and confront it, and I did not know what to do and sat stunned.
I studied its strange Santa features and tried to see if it had detected the man, and what it might do.
I watched the man realize the danger of it and become aware of its deadliness and I saw the Santa react to something, and march up to the man’s Christmas tree and remove something from its sack and place what looked like a Christmas present down.
I sensed the man would do something stupid, and he did, and he walked right up to it, and nervously stood in front of it, and gasped at what he saw there, and stood staggered with his mouth wide open, and in the darkness of the corridor what looked like two of Santa’s reindeers rushed out and attacked the man, like lions, and devoured the man and in seconds, and all that remained of him were his bones on the carpet, and the creatures rushed away, back into the darkness of the corridor and vanished, and the Santa followed, not reacting to anything, as if it was somewhere else!