"Right, for your homework, I want you to create a Halloween themed image. You can use photography, pencils, paints, whatever you want, but it has to be Halloween themed! I want them in on the thirtieth, so I can look them over fully and reveal my favourite at the Halloween disco on the thirty-first!" Mr Collins said, pacing backwards and forwards across the room.

"Great, another failure for me," Niska whispered, grinning as she turned her attention back to Mr Collins, who was still talking.

"You can plan in this lesson seeing as I've spent most of it talking, but this is the only class time you're going to have. Off you go," he said, waving his hands around the room like a mad man.

I grabbed a piece of paper from in front of me and began doodling. Halloween was definitely not my strong suit, I had never even celebrated it! Well, unless you call staying up all night binge watching horror films celebrating. If you do, then I guess I have! But the traditional Halloween stuff, the pumpkins, the apple bobbing, the costumes, I have never had the pleasure of partaking in. Though I have to admit, I really wanted to.

Beside me, Joel flicked a pen around his thumb several times, how he did it, I don't know. It was like magic, but I doubted that was what it was. Just some weird, strange, insane talent he had learned. As the pen spun around his finger, he chewed on the inside of his cheek, probably trying to figure what the snowglobe he was going to do with his project. Halloween, although came with a broad range of ideas, was a really difficult thing to draw, particularly if you want it to reflect the true horror that comes with it.

Personally, I didn't have trouble picking what I wanted to draw. The event during the Maths exam had freaked me out enough and I was more than willing to convert that into a drawing, though I was going to manage it, I didn't know. How does someone who saw nothing but a white light draw something that the heard? Truthfully, it's impossible. I had no idea who was the cage, what the cage looked like or how they ended up there, all of which was important to matching the true meaning behind a Halloween, or 'scary' themed picture. I hoped I could do it in the two weeks we had been given.

"How did the Maths exam go?" Niska asked, tapping her pencil rapidly against the table in front of her. The tapping reminded me of that clock in the exam and I hated that clock so much.

"Oh, ya know. It was alright," I shrugged, drawing a few light curved lines on the paper before me.

"You came out of that room so fast I thought you were the Flash. Plus you were stupidly pale when you left and I don't think I've ever seen anyone come out of an exam that pale before, not even Jay," Niska said, dropping her pencil to the table with a loud bang.

"Okay, it didn't go as well as it could have. I have a bit of a," I paused, "moment, right before the end. Thought I was going to puke or something, that's why I left the room so fast," I lied. There was no way in a workshops chance that I was going to tell Niska and Joel what really happened in that exam, it was confusing and strange enough to me, let alone them.

"You should've told them. They take something like that into account when they mark," Joel said, grabbing a sheet of paper from the pile and quickly scribbling down an idea. Classic. I didn't tell them that I felt sick because I didn't, well, minus the little head spin that occurred when the white light faded from my view. I doubt telling them I was hearing and seeing things would work in my favour, at least not what it came to my final marks.

"It was right at the end, I'd finished the paper," I shrugged.

They dropped the topic of conversation as quick as it had begun. Neither of them mentioned the exam or the fake illness. At least not for the rest of that lesson anyway. The lesson itself dragged. I thought Maths lessons dragged, but that Art lesson was slower than Nick trying to understand a joke. Don't get me wrong, I love Art, it's one of the few things I can do that Nick can't, but having to create a Halloween drawing, without experiencing Halloween was really hard. That and I couldn't think straight after the event. It was still playing on my mind and I didn't know what I was supposed to do about it. It's not as if I could tell someone what had happened, let's face it, the entire thing is damn right crazy (as is being related to Santa Claus, but I can't change that).

I suppose, my Grandparents were the best people to talk to about something that strange, particularly if it included Magic. But how do you start a conversation based on a weird blackout you had during the exam? You don't. You keep it to yourself and hope that it was a one-off event and that it never happens again. At least, that's what I decided to do. Keep my mouth shut and hope for the best.

"What on Earth is that?" Niska asked, peering over my shoulder to look at the drawing on the page before me. I furrowed my eyebrows at her and glanced down, looking at the drawing that had materialised on the piece of paper.

I didn't even know I had been drawing, my hand and moved without my brain even being aware of it, and the results were particularly interesting. On the paper, there was nothing more than a lightly sketched bird cage. And I mean, bird cage. It had long, curving metal bars that met at the top in a ring, upon which was a hook. Unlike a bird cage, the bottom was not covered in newspaper. Instead, it looked as though it was covered in small icicles. Some of which also hung from the bars that constructed the cage. It was as though the cage had been dipped in water and then shoved in a freezer before the drips had a chance to fall.

"I don't know. I didn't even know I was drawing," I replied, blinking several times and trying to figure out what the image was or what it meant. I had no clue what it was, nor why I had drawn it. It was bizarre.

"You were staring straight at the paper, Kenz. Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, just tired."

"If you say so," Niska said, looking at me with a small head tilt and furrowed eyebrows. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joel giving me the same look, though he looked marginally more concerned than Niska did, though I couldn't figure out why.

By the time the lesson had finished, I was done with the entire day and I wanted it to be over. The Maths exam had taken up the first two lessons, with Art being the third. I still had two lessons to go, plus lunch until I was free to go home and sleep. Sleep was the only thing I wanted, at least that way I wouldn't have the time to dwell on my weird actions and strange occurrence in the exam. But no, I still had to deal with Jason and the stupid Drama thing. Christmas was not going to make any of this any better.

Walking into the room, I noticed Jason sat in the middle of the floor, cross-legged, palms face up on his knees. None of us quite knew how to react. It was not every day you walked into a room and saw your teacher looking as though he was trying to summon the power of air, or whatever. Definitely strange. Though I must admit, it wasn't the strangest thing I have witnessed in my life, in fact, I don't think it makes the top ten. It did manage to make me laugh, though.

Antaeus was the first to approach Jason, tiptoeing across the floor so he didn't disturb him. Then again, if a group of teenagers almost rioting as they entered the room didn't affect him, I doubted Antaeus could, even with the speakerphone voice he possessed. We all watched as Ant got closer and closer to Jason, water bottle in one hand whilst his other was pressed tightly to his lip, ensuring all of us that we were dead silent. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was going to do to Jason, though none of us knew how Jason would react. And that was terrifying.

He may have been calm in pretty much every situation, but Jason was scary when mad.

Watching from the sidelines, everyone began to get extremely nervous. Knowing Jason it wasn't just going to be Ant that got punished, it could be all of us and, let's just say, Jason's punishments were far from ordinary. Once he was close enough, Ant began to slowly unscrew the lid of the bottle, his tongue stuck out to the side in what I could only describe as a look of complete idiocy. Seriously, anyone with a brain could see how it was going to end.

Holding the lid in one hand, and the bottle in the other, Ant began to tip the bottle to the side, the water running along the side and towards the rim. "Don't you even think about it, Antaeus," Jason said, not even opening his eyes.

"I wasn't gonna do anythin'!" Ant protested, quickly holding the bottle behind his back and trying to look innocent. It didn't work, he spilt half the bottle on the floor when he tried to hide it.

"Yeah, of course. Put the bottle away and take a seat. That goes for all of you. Butts on the ground if you please," Jason said, clapping his hands together and opening his eyes to look at us all.

Hanging out bags up on the coat rack, we all took our seats in a circle around the room, Ant being forced to sit next to Jason so he could keep an eye on him. Niska sat beside me, with Joel on the other side of her, as though he was trying to keep away from me. Wouldn't blame him, the events in Art were a little bit odd.

"Righty, let's kick this lesson off, shall we?" Jason said.

"Do we have to?" Sophie asked, leaning backwards so she was against the wall. Sophie was never particularly interested in anything, especially if the lesson fell close to the end of the day. She just didn't care. Wanna know what made it worse? She was in our group for the competition.

"Yes, Soph, we do. Now, I have a question. How many of you have been meeting up after school to rehearse your competition pieces? Either here or at home?" Jason asked. An awkward silence spread the room remarkably quickly. "Thought as much. If you want to stand a chance at doing well, you need to rehearse more often! This is something you're going to need when your GCSE's hit next year. Well, some of you."

"Think he's talking 'bout you, Kenz," Ant said, leaning backwards on the palm of his hands.

"Shut up, Ant. Now, get into your groups and start rehearsing!"

There was a collective groan across the room as Jason shooed us into our groups so we could start rehearsing. The idea of a non-Cliché Christmas contest had long since passed and we were all getting sick of doing it, and it had only been a week. At first, it had been fun. Being able to manipulate Christmas to something darker and far more interesting was a lot more exciting than it had been at home. But the novelty had officially worn off and I was sick of Christmas for the second time in a week. Halloween was going to be a welcome relief, but that wasn't for another two weeks. Honestly, I was beginning to debate how much longer I would last.

Getting into our groups, it took a while for any sort of conversation to form. But when it did, we instantly went to who's house we were going to rehearse at. No one particularly wanted to volunteer. Why would you? Having a load of strangers in your house going through your stuff and looking at baby pictures? I would rather have to clean the Reindeer stables by hand, and that was a disgusting task. "As much as I'd love to host, my sister wouldn't give us a minute's peace," Niska shrugged.

"Mine either," Sophie added.

"What about you Joel? You ain't got any siblings," Leo said.

"True, but my mam wouldn't want my to bring large groups of people home. Might ruin her carpet or somethin'," Joel replied.

"Kenz? Your brother's still with your parents, isn't he?" Niska asked, causing the entire group to look at me.

I wanted to lie, tell them he was going to come and stay with us until Christmas, but I wasn't going to get away with it. My entire existence at that school may have been built on lies, but I wasn't particularly good at it. How I was getting away with the whole 'I'm from Canada' story I don't know. The number of times I had almost slipped up with my stupid Christmas related phrases was concerning. If anyone was onto me, though, they didn't exactly let it show. So, maybe I was doing a good job.

"Yeah, but I don't know if my Grandparents would let me," I said.

"Sure they will! They were fine with me and Joel spending the past week around yours, trying to get your Maths skills up. Even if we did accidentally knock over that plant plot."

"I'll see what I can do, I can't promise anything, though."

Not how I wanted that conversation to end. My plan was to avoid having everyone round at mine, in case they got suss about the whole 'relation to Santa Claus thing'. Although Niska and Joel hadn't picked up on it, there was nothing to suggest the others wouldn't, I mean, it's not like Grandpa is good at hiding it. He almost got caught out by Niska and Joel, more than once, during one of our after school revision activities. How he would cope with a crowd of people in one room, I have no idea. Actually, I don't know how he managed to survive the past twenty-odd years without getting caught. I suppose normal people really are oblivious to things that are right in front of them.

Anyway, after securing a possible means of after school rehearsal time, something I was not looking forward to, we began actual rehearsal for the scary Christmas. So far, it was anything but scary. More hilarious. I mean, it's not every day you get a fifteen-year-old girl to play a creepy doll spirit thing whilst their friend plays the child who gets given the doll. Yeah, bit weird. In case you're wondering, I play the doll spirit, Niska is the child, makes the whole thing that much weirder to be honest, but it was fun. Whether or not it was going to work on stage was a different matter, one we were looking forward to finding out, if we could hold ourselves together long enough that is. That was the tricky bit.

*

That evening, I was so tired, I thought I was going to fall asleep in my spaghetti, seriously. Not only had Drama and Art dragged, but the stupid image of the cage and the man's voice followed me pretty much everywhere I went. I just couldn't escape the unnerving feeling I had about the man in that cage, and what he was going to do. Hearing about his plans just made the whole thing even worse. Siphoning someone's Magic is one of the worst things a person could do, particularly if Magic is something the person relies heavily upon. Plus, it can be really dangerous.

I know, I know, how can taking a person's magic be considered dangerous? Well, you'd be surprised. It is possible for a person to forget their Magic overtime, for it to be buried deep within until the person has use of it. That is common, it happened to my Aunt Ivy, she has her Magic, but only uses it in emergencies. However, completely removing a person's Magic can leave them vulnerable to things that never posed a threat in the past. A person is often their Magic, it consumes them, it is them, to lose that means they lose themselves, to become something they're not.

Magic is a powerful weapon in the hands of those who don't know how to use it, and in my estimation, the man in the cage certainly doesn't know how to use it, and if he does, it won't be for a good reason. I didn't want to see the outcome, it wasn't going to good. But how in holly berries do you stop someone you've never seen? How do you put an end to a plan that is unknown? That is impossible to judge? You can't. If I was going to put a stop to this, I needed help from someone who might have a clue about what was going on.

That meant one thing. The Grandparents - cue the dramatic music -.

Now, how does one approach the Grandparents about a weird voice in your head of a guy who's determined to drain the Magic out of someone? Simple; during dinner. So, that's exactly what I did. When we were gathered around the table for dinner, spaghetti lumped on the plate before me, I mustered the courage to ask a question that would hopefully not put any suspicion on me. "What would happen if someone had their Magic taken away, forcibly?" I asked, twirling some spaghetti around my fork.

"You know what'll happen, you were told," Grandpa said, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Why'd you ask?"

"Oh, no reason. Just curious," I shrugged, shoving the spaghetti in my mouth so I wouldn't have to answer any more questions. It didn't work.

"Mackenzie? What are you hiding?" Granny asked, dropping her fork onto her plate. She used my full name. I was in trouble.

"Nothing! Honestly!"

"You are a terrible liar. Come on Kenzie, what's going on?"

"Okay, okay, fine. I had the Maths exam today and whilst I was taking it, I was momentarily blinded by this weird white light thing. Weird, right? It gets weirder. Whilst unable to see, I began to hear these two voices, one was really loud, the other squeaky. The louder one was looking for a way out of this cage or whatever and the squeaky voice said they had a plan, to siphon Magic from someone and use that to open the door," I said in one big breath.

Granny and Grandpa stared at me for a moment, as if processing what I had said. After several minutes, they glanced at each other, concern flooding their faces. I don't know if the concern was for the voices I heard in my head, or if what I told was alarming. Whatever it may have been, the silence they responded with was a little, if not entirely alarming. They were never silent, particularly Grandpa who spoke like his life depended on it.

"What did this person look like, Kenzie?" Granny asked.

"I dunno, I never saw their face, just heard their voice. What's the big deal anyway?" I asked, taking a sip of my water,

"I need to contact your Father. Haven't you got any homework you could be doing?"

"Yeah, but why do you need to talk to Papa?"

"Kenzie, go and do your homework," Grandpa said, his voice strangely shaky.

"I'm going, I'm going," I replied, holding my hands up in mock surrender. Dropping my fork onto my plate, I pushed my chair back against the floor, standing up before leaving the room and heading upstairs.

Normally, I would have stayed behind the door to listen to their conversation, but I knew that if I got caught, I was going to be in serious trouble. So, I did what I was told and went upstairs, though I didn't even touch my homework. I had too much going through my mind to be able to concentrate on anything. First, there was the Maths exam, if I didn't pass I wasn't going to be able to stay until Christmas and that was something I never wanted to happen. Then, there was the weird guy in my head. Not just what he was talking about, or who he was, but why he was talking in my head, why did he come through to me? Thirdly, why Granny was contacting Papa, what had I told her that required her to talk to him?

So many things, so little time to figure it all out. Why did being a Claus have to be so complicated?

~~~

A/N - After a month, we finally have a new chapter! Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be able to update over the next few weeks because I have just over a month till my exams and I need to get some serious revision done for them. It's intense and stressful so please don't kill me for the lack of updates! 

Anyway, we have a small explanation as to Magic and how it works in this chapter which is something I never thought I would write in all honesty, but hey, first time for everything!

Also, non-Last Christmas related thing, I made my first ever Trailer using a homemade audio piece. I'm hoping to turn it into a book in the future, but we shall see. Anyway, I'm going to leave the trailer below and any input would be largely appreciated!

https://youtu.be/iS10uDrsu5k

Don't forget to vote and comment on this chapter if you enjoyed and add to your reading list so you never miss an update!

Dedication - This chapter is dedicated to violetgo_ who is writing an amazing Teen Fiction called 'The Cheerleaders Secret' and I totally think you guys should check it out! 

First Published - May 7th, 2017