Page 10 of The Scrooge Effect

His maniacal glare matched a similar look Fox always had on his face when he got in one of his moods. I’d never been too afraid of Dash, but right now, my balls crawled up inside my groin and begged for me to hide them for the rest of my life.

“Fix this.”

I nodded vigorously.

“I’m serious. Fix it, or you deal with me.”

“I got it.”

He got in my face and narrowed his eyes at me before stepping back and slipping away into the night.

“Fucking crazy bastard.”

2

EDU

“It’s so great of you to do this,” Harper beamed as we stood in line with the kids to see Santa.

I forced a smile and bit my tongue. There was no way I wanted to do any of this, but I definitely did not want to end up in a torture room, trying to find Santa’s killer.

“Look at all the kids,” Harper grinned, checking out the massive line of kids. “They all look so happy.”

She squealed, tugging on my arm, and again, I bit back the retort tingling my lips. I would not tell her how ridiculous all of this was. Standing on my toes, I looked over the massive number of heads in front of me. The line extended from Santa’s chair to halfway through the mall.

We were nearly there. Only fifty or so people in front of us.

Tugging at my jacket, I pulled it off, tucking it under my arm as I wiped the sweat from the back of my neck. Why did it have to be so freaking hot in here?

“Edu, how does Santa make it around the world in one night?” Eden asked.

“Um…time travel.”

“What’s time travel?”

Harper chuckled beside me.

“Well, he can go back in time. So, as he’s hopping from one location to the next, if it’s getting too late, he can just go back in time.”

She looked confused by the whole thing, but thankfully, didn’t ask more about it.

“What about the chimney?”

“Huh?”

Her hair poked out from under her hat, curling around her face. “How does he fit down the chimney?”

“Uh…gravity boots.”

She frowned again. “What are gravity boots?”

“They uh…have weighted properties, so they pull you down to the ground.”

“If they pull him down, how does he stay in the air when he’s flying in his sleigh?”

“He puts them on once he’s on the roof.”

Cocking her head at me, she said, “But how does he actually fit down the chimney? He’s so fat.”