Twelfth Krampus Night Read Online Free PDF

barrel next to the girl.
    It left the horse to be picked on by a mother bear and her cub, both of which would be scared away by knights who would later find Hans, slouched face-first against a tree, his intestines wound several times around the trunk, the gut’s end stuck in place by a crossbow arrow.

Chapter Four
    â€œDo you think he’ll come for us?” The girl, Anna, was ten years old, as was her identical twin sister, Sarah. Both girls cowered in the corner of the family’s one-room wattle-and-daub house, the cold and their nerves jiggling their blonde pigtails.
    â€œHe knows when Mother and Father go to the village—he counts on it,” Sarah said. They scrunched themselves into little balls, covering themselves with a big woolen blanket, their knees tucked under their chins. Waning daylight filtered through two small, shuttered windows, which both girls focused on, hoping his shadow wouldn’t cut the sunlight.
    â€œIt’s been a while since he last visited. Maybe he no longer fancies us,” Anna whispered. “We’ve been good girls, not told anyone about him.”
    â€œNobody would believe us anyway. Said he’d kill us. I believe him.”
    â€œIt’s punishment—that’s what it feels like to me,” Anna said.
    â€œThat’s not the way he sees it. He enjoys it, laughs at our pain.”
    â€œBut why us ? Of all the children who live in and around the village, why does he pick us?”
    Sunlight flickered through the latched shutters, fast enough so that the girls couldn’t tell if a bird or their imaginations caused it.
    â€œHow do you know we’re the only ones?” Sarah pulled the wool up to the ridge of her nose so that only her blue eyes peeked above the blanket.
    The knock on the door caused them to bounce on their bottoms.
    â€œHe never knocks,” Anna said.
    Sarah knew it wasn’t him either—he always opened the door, unannounced, and snatched them up one by one, leaving the other too terrified to help. Neither moved to answer the knock.
    â€œAnna? Sarah? Are you in there?” came a grandmotherly voice.
    â€œWho do we know who sounds like that?” Anna whispered to Sarah.
    â€œYou don’t know me at all, but I know you ,” the reply came cheerfully.
    The girls stared at each other, each thinking, How can she hear us?
    â€œOr were you expecting someone else, my dearies? I think you’ll prefer my company over anybody else’s. I understand you’re both good seamstresses, like your mother. I’d love to see your work.”
    Anna swept the blanket aside and stood.
    â€œ No ,” her sister pleaded.
    â€œMaybe if he sees someone in here with us, he’ll skip our house.”
    Sarah thought about it and enthusiastically nodded yes.
    Anna walked to the wooden door, which rested on hinges and had no lock. It took some effort for her to push it open and see standing outside an old woman holding a bucket and sack.
    â€œWhich one are you, little one?”
    â€œI’m Anna.”
    â€œMay I please come in, Anna?”
    He could be making his way through the woods now, the girl thought.
    â€œPlease do.”
    The old woman hobbled inside, nudging Anna aside. One lighted candle, centered on a small wooden table, lit the home. Straw had been strewn all over the floor. At night the girls’ parents would bring in the family’s milking cow so that it wouldn’t get stolen, and because its body heat would help warm everyone where they huddled on the floor to sleep. Father slept with a dagger close by because he had built the thatched-roofed house—with the baron’s permission—in the woods, away from the village’s relative safety.
    â€œThat’s a wonderful blanket, Sarah.” The old woman placed aside her belongings “Bring it here. May I please see it?”
    Sarah rose and bunched up the scratchy blanket in her arms and brought it to