Rebecca Besser Read Online Free PDF

followed without even a glance
back at the doctor, who stood in the middle of the hospital exam
room, staring down at his chart with a frown.
He struggled to keep up with the little
nurse as they hurriedly twisted and turned around many passageways,
finally coming to a flight of stairs, leading down into the dimly
lit basement.
“Almost there,” she said over her shoulder,
fidgeting with her uniform nervously.
    Lyle and the nurse came to
a stop outside a room at the end of the final corridor. The door
was locked and barricaded with a heavy desk. The plaque on the door
read: MORGUE .
Stepping cautiously forward, Lyle forced
himself to look through the small circular glass window; it had
been swirled to make it look like a piece of candy, but he could
still see through it clearly. Beyond the transparent boundary, he
beheld his family. They were huddled together over a small body. He
accidentally bumped the desk and it, in turn, bumped the door; the
noise got Mandy and Kally’s attention. Their heads spun in the
direction of the door and he saw what they’d been doing. They were
eating the body of a dead elf, who’d been with them in the morgue
when they’d turned.
He gagged, seeing bits of muscle and other
bloody tissue dangling from their chewing mouths. It was a horrific
scene to behold. He stepped back quickly and they went back to
eating.
“I think you should go back to your room at
Santa’s house and try to rest,” the nurse said, coming forward and
laying her hand on his arm gently. “He wants to talk to you, but
was called away for another emergency.”
Lyle, shell shocked and unable to process
everything that was going on, let the nurse guide him to the
entrance of the hospital, where another elf met them and guided him
through the busy lanes of the North Pole, back to Santa’s house,
and even inside to his room.
    Once the door closed
behind him with a dull thunk , Lyle fell to his knees and
leaned back against the door. He stayed that way for a long time,
staring off into nothing, trying to process what had happened to
his life, in what seemed like mere seconds.
~
Someone knocking on the door, right above
his head, some time later brought Lyle back to reality.
Slowly turning and using the door to
support himself, he stood on stiff legs to open the door. He wasn’t
really in the mood for company, but he didn’t know if someone might
be bringing news about his wife and daughter.
He was shocked to see Santa standing
outside the door, frowning with concern.
“Hello, Lyle,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t
greet you earlier, and I’m even more sorry that I couldn’t be with
you after your family was attacked. It disturbs me greatly. May I
come in?”
Lyle nodded and stepped back, opening the
door wider to allow the big man admittance. He closed the door
after him and rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the floor and
around the room, not really knowing what to say.
Santa took a seat on a chair sitting in the
corner of the room and motioned to the second. Lyle walked briskly
over and sat down, still not looking at his guest.
“I know things are hard for you, Lyle,”
Santa said. “But I’ve come to help you try and figure things out.
There is hope. . . You did read the story with Kallalaya that I
sent you, didn’t you?”
Frowning, Lyle nodded.
“So you know that I too was one of these
undead. . .creatures, and there can be something done about
it?”
With the light of hope in his eyes for the
first time since the attack, Lyle looked up and grinned. “You
really think there’s something we can do for them?”
“But, of course,” Santa said and laughed in
his ‘ho, ho, ho’ manner. “You are, after all, at the North Pole
where the Magic of Christmas is the strongest. We just have to
figure out what the right recipe of that magic is for your
family.”
“So,” Lyle said slowly, “you think I can
just go give them a hug and tell them Merry Christmas and they’ll
be good as new?”
Santa