Fright Before Christmas by Shannon Delany

Author:Shannon Delany
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror, christmas, scary, monsters, folklore, middle grade, krampus
Publisher: Leap Books

Curre, Velint! Lest dawn take ye,

Be gone for present,

No tricks will we give ye.

Curre, Velint! Thy bowl is empty,

No caroles to troll, all pranks be ended.

Curre, Velint!

My voice cracked. Twice.

Shelly clenched the book so tightly her fingers turned white and her hands shook.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t hold it.”

Wind roared through the room. All the papers on Mr. B.’s desk flew into the air. Windows banged open. Then closed. Open. Closed. The wind whistled, higher and higher. And louder. I covered my ears. When a gust tugged the book from Shelly’s hands, she covered her ears.

The book smacked against the wall. It stuck for a second then slid to the floor. The pages turned by themselves. When they stopped, everything got quiet. Even the party down the hall went silent, like we were in some kind of bubble. Shelly wrapped her arms around me and pressed her cheek into my shoulder. This surprised me so much I forgot about the book for a second.

“Zach, look!”

Smoke curled up from the book’s pages. It spiraled higher and darkened, forming the shape of a tall, skinny troll-man with limbs no thicker than table legs. Spikes stuck out where his ears should have been. Now I could tell where the smoke came from; fire burned from each of Velint’s fingertips, like ten candles. The spirit’s smile was so huge it barely fit his face.

“Oh my God...” Shelly whispered.

Velint threw his head back and cackled. “My dears, what fun you’ve given me!”

“You’re supposed to leave,” I shouted. “We sang the song.”

“I shall, but first – one last prank!”

He darted at our heads, fiery fingers first. Shelly screamed and hid her face. Flinching from the flames, I threw my arms around her. But before he touched us, Velint burst into a million particles of dust that fell like ugly, dirty snow.

“He’s gone.” I tried to look all around me at once.

Shelly peeked with one eye. “Really?”

“Think so.”

She straightened, and that’s when I did something so crazy I couldn’t believe it even while it was happening. It was messed up. So totally messed up.

I kissed Shelly.

On the lips.

She smelled like the punch from the party; her lips were pink from it. They tasted pink. Her eyes, wide from the ghost, got even wider.

“Velint made me!” I jumped back. “I, I – ”

Velint’s cackling voice sing-songed all around us – “Tricks for ye. Tricks for ye...” – until his words faded to nothing.

I tried to look at Shelly without actually looking at her.

“Should we see if everyone’s okay?” she asked after a minute.

“Yeah.”

Before I could take a step, she slipped her fingers – with their red, glittery nail polish – into my hand.

Her hand was warm.

As we walked, she clapped her free hand over her mouth and giggled. “They’re all gonna be so embarrassed.”

“I know. Good thing we didn’t do anything we’ll regret.”

“Totally.”

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