The Watchmen Files // The Christmas Edition // Chapter Four // Stop That Santa!

Hey everyone!

   Well, today I woke up to the sound of thunder in the near distance and rain pelting the roof. Which accounts for my (sort of but sort of not) late posting. Sorry 'bout that!

   But anyway, onto a personal update.

   Whew! Busy week. We (Mom, Willow, and I) have been painting my new soon-to-be bedroom upstairs a beautiful blue, and it's going great! Blue is my favorite color, and this one works well over that old (*insert shudder here*) purple paint that has now been obliterated by my color! It's good for good.

   But even through the busy painting, I've managed another chapter. Mostly this morning and a bit last night. Yeah, I'm pretty bad at this. But you still put up with me, you awesome people! :)

   Okay, here it goes! Don't even ask about the title until you read it.

   A big, sopping wet tongue scrapped its way over half of Mason's face, covering it in the loving slobber. He jerked up, pushing whatever had committed it off of him (and falling off of the couch in the process). The tali-wagging canine pounced back on top of him, tongue hanging out of its mouth.

   "Here Cuddles, here boy!" Tessa cooed from across the living room, flailing a stuffed cow above her head to attract him. The rabidly happy dog leaped off of Mason's chest and raced away, grabbing the stuffed animal and thrashing it around mercilessly.

   Mason just kind of sat there, staring. "Why is there a dog in my room?"

   Ava rolled her eyes and helped him up. "This isn't your room, and this isn't just 'a dog'. He's a chocolate lab, and his name is Cuddles."

   'Cuddles' gazed up at him, tail thumping hard on the ground, and his big brown eyes not wavering. Mason smiled slightly, and bent down to scratch behind the dog's ears. His eyes closed with relaxation as he leaned into the soothing ear-rub, dropping the toy in the process.

   There were yawns and loud footfalls from the hallway, and Cuddles darted in that direction. A frightened shout came after, and Mason and Ava raced to the scene. "Down, boy!"

   Conner was busy pushing him away and shouting, obviously very panicked.

   Mason grabbed Cuddles' collar and pulled him off, quickly quieting the ruckus. "Are you okay?" He asked anxiously, helping Conner to his feet.

   Pressing himself against the wall, he nodded, wide-eyed and speaking quickly. "Yeah, fine. Do you have that..." he gulped hard. "...dog contained?"

   "I got 'im!" Ava called from the other room. "Sit, boy!"

   As Conner peered around the corner, Mason asked, "Are you afraid of dogs?"

   Brushing his hand through his must caramel hair, Conner answered as calmly as he could, "Yeah, well, I had a... a row with one w-when I was a boy."

   "Are you okay?" A half-awake Mrs. Harrison groggily stumbled passed them.

   After Mason confirmed that everything was fine, she asked quietly, "Would you boys take the girls to go see Santa Claus at the mall today? Isaiah and I are going to go shopping for them this evening."

   Mason shifted his attention to Conner, who nodded in return. "Sure, why not?"

   Making it to the mall through noonday traffic was one thing, finding a parking spot in the vast sea of filled ones was another.

   "C'mon, you blasted idiot!" Conner shouted at the driver who thankfully couldn't hear him. You would be yelling too, if you had been around and around the same packed parking lot for half an hour like they had. "Why've you got to sit there with your car on if you're not leaving?" Obviously, Conner was a different person on the road than on his feet.

   Eventually, after being pulled in front of as other people stole their spot, he found a place to park (which was at the exact opposite side of the mall as their destination).

   The girls all hopped out, Ava and Tessa holding Mason's hands, and Addie clutching Conner's (since she liked him better than the alternative).

   Weaving their way through the multitudes of crowing people, they followed Conner's acute sense of direction to the center of the mall.

   The space was decorated to look somewhat like a mountain forest, with fake trees and big rocks everywhere. And thanks to the enormous load of cotton balls, it appeared as if there had just been a record breaking blizzard.

   Mason lead the girls to the beginning of the line as Conner held back for a minute, considering his gut feeling. It felt odd, like something was wrong. Was it all of the greedy children petitioning a store employee to buy them everything they wanted and totally missing the real meaning of Christmas? Yes and no. If felt more like something else. Or someone?

   Well, the perky teenager dressed in a green elf outfit complete with a jingling puffball at the end of her drooping cap didn't look so threatening. She smiled brightly at Conner, then waved at little Abbie. "Are you in line, sir?" she asked in a sugary voice.

   "Oh, yeah, right. Sorry," Conner nodded, heading to where Mason was waiting.

   "Hey, how 'bout I go get everyone some hot chocolate from the Starbucks over there?" Mason suggested, to which they all heartily agreed to. He left the kids in the capable hands of Conner, who still felt sick in his gut.

   After at least twenty minutes (and Watchmen have a very sharp sense of time, you may recall) they were at the feet of the big man himself.

   Short, overly fat, and his skin a shade of burgundy, stared down at them from his white chair (which looked more like a throne, considering the size of it). His eyes peered over his excessive (and obviously strapped on) white beard and his fake red velvet suit, and he announced in a booming voice, "Ho ho ho! Come see Santa!"

    Conner was about to high-tail it out of there and go tell them the real Christmas story when Tessa raced up and pounced onto his lap. He made a "Oomph!" noise, but before he could complain, she spouted out everything (and I mean everything) she wanted.
   After Tessa's turn it was Addie's, who needed Conner to pick her up and plant her onto his lap. Then she promptly burst into tears.
   "Shut up," Mr. Jolly-and-kind insisted. But Addie really didn't feel like shutting up, and worse, she created a choir from all of the little kids waiting in line.

   That poor elf girl. She had to run up and down the line while making goofy faces, trying to quiet the screeching children (which really didn't work) and give an answer to their grumpy mommies.

   Conner sighed heavily and picked Addie up, trying to sooth her. Ava, seeing her chance at gifts, took the empty space immediately.

   "Shh... it's okay," Conner cooed as she buried her head in his shoulder. "Don't cry..."

   Spotting Mason from across the miniature forest, Conner watched as he threw his hands into the air as if to ask, "What did you do?" Conner shrugged in return, and smiled weakly.

   Suddenly, Addie started screaming and pointing behind him. Whirling around, Conner watched helplessly as Santa Claus snatched Ava up and raced away, into the rushing mall goers.

   "Here!" Conner shouted, nearly throwing Addie at the elf girl. And without another word, he bolted after him. Seconds later, teenaged-elf was shoved to the side as Mason chased after them, shouting for someone to stop that Santa!

   "Isaiah is going to kill me!" Conner whimpered as he threw himself into the bustling crowd, searching for the man in a red suit.


And on that bombshell, we can end! (if you understood that reference, I'm giving you an internet hug right now) Thank you very much for reading :)

Oh, quick side note, we had a gray hound named Cuddles (except she was a she). So I suppose this is sort of a tribute :)

Announcements...

 Willow posted a chapter last week, and is making for another one this Friday.

We've got a lot of tagging/award things to answer to, so that'll be coming at one point...

We posted the Sherlock cosplay photos on the website here (myself as Sherlock, btw).

And I'm not sure if I'll have the next chapter for next week, but I'll try!

 Anyway, wow, haven't done the announcements in a while... well, as always, have a great rest of the week! :)

Always Watching,

Darrion