Hello everyone.

So this is a Christmas story that I came up with. I decided to put it in the fairy tales category since I figured it was the most suitable one, as it's kinda like a fairy tale. I know it isn't technically a fanfiction but I guess it can be for fairy tales in general, since I've seen original stories for fairy tales on here before, so I guess it counts.

It's not your typical fairy tale either. It doesn't take place in a far away land or have any princes or princesses, but rather in an old secondary school in the modern day. And our hero isn't all that noble at first.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present:

Christmas in the schoolhouse

Christmas eve, nine o'clock at night. The streets were all empty as everyone had gone home to spend the wonderful season with the most appropriate people in their lives to spend it with. There were but few cars in the street parked up along the side, only one of the them actually had people inside of it.

"Ok, you sure there's no one about?"

"Of course there's no one about, look, everyone goes home early on Christmas eve don't they" the driver replied to the passenger.

"Have you checked for CCTV camera's?" he asked the passenger again.

"Yeah I've looked, there seems to be none on this street."

"Don't ya think that's kinda strange?" asked the passenger.

"Not really Sam no. All the cameras are gonna be where the front of the shop is, no one thinks to put them round the back" The driver reassured.

"Why are we hitting an antiques shop anyway?" Sam complained in stereotypical teenage angst.

"Mate, it's an antiques shop, no one cares about those. And besides, they ain't gonna exactly have the best security system here are they" the other teen driver replied.

The pair waited a little while longer just to make sure there was no one else around. It was like waiting for it to stop snowing in a snowstorm. They eventually decided it was time to get out, but just before they did, Sam's stomach decided to growl loudly enough for both to hear. "Geez, you eaten today?"

"I told you, I haven't eaten anything since yesterday, and that was just a six inch sandwich from subway."

"Well don't worry, you'll be having a merry Christmas after this. There's bound to be some shops open until midnight" smiled Nathan.

The duo slowly stepped out of the car and onto the snow; gently as if they were trying not to wake someone. They locked Nathan's car and crept towards the fuse box at the back of the shop. Nathan quickly used a hammer to break the lock and the box opened. Sam got to work on the wires, disabling the camera's and the alarms.

"All done." Sam brushed his gloved hands. "Now let's go."

The two silently smashed a window at the back and climbed in. They appeared to be in a back room, full of Christmas decorations, and although not as neatly trimmed as the front room of the shop, still could be mistaken for a grotto saint Nicholas himself could use.

"There's the safe, hand me the knife" whispered Nathan.

Sam passed him the knife, and made his way to the manager's room whispering back to his partner "You do that, while I go and check something out."

"Where you going?"

"Manager's office."

"Ah, good choice."

Sam silently slid into the the office and made his way to the desk. Behind it was a painting, which the teenager knew too well was an obvious way to hide a safe.

He pulled out a small hand drill and began to cut a circle around the lock. It took him about five minutes but he succeeded.

He opened the safe, and although he already knew something valuable would be kept inside, he was still shocked to see four golden objects.

Reaching his arm in, he took the four, golden, very old, and shining coins. Sam knew this was an antique shop but this was something that even he didn't expect. Smiling at the sight of these coins, and slid them into his bag. He stepped outside the office and met up with his friend again who had a bag full of cash.

"So what was in there then?" asked Nathan.

"I found-" Sam was about to reveal the golden coins to him, but decided quickly to hide them away, as he remembered, he needed the food and warmth more than his friend did. "Not that much really."

"Well let's try the front room, c'mon" urged his accomplice.

The partners in crime crept onto the main shop floor past the counter, and decorations aplenty awaited the teenage robbers. "Wanna take some of this tinsel?" Nathan joked chuckling

"Why? What's the point?" dismissed Sam in a serious tone. "What use would we have for it?"

"Fair enough. Let's just take the valuable stuff" replied Nathan.

"It's an antiques shop, it's probably all valuable" Sam reminded him.

"Take anything then" Nathan called back as he made his way to the shelves. "What about all these 'season of giving' and 'goodwill to all men' cards. Should we take them?"

"Why? What goodwill has Christmas ever done us?" Sam sarcastically scoffed. "I mean look at us, look what we're doing right now; who's ever given to us at Christmas? What family and friends have been spending time with us?" he ranted a bit more seriously.

There was a short pause. "Feeling better now?" Nathan sarcastically asked.

"Sorry mate. It's just-,"

"I know about your family and all that, but can we please keep personal matters out of business ones?" suggested Nathan holding a bag of items, that he was soon planning to call his own.

"Yeah, sorry, let's just carry on with-" Sam was slowly cut off by a growing siren noise. It became louder and blue lights were flashing in the distance, heading towards the antiques shop.

"What the hell? How do they know we're here?" Nathan exclaimed in a whisper. Two seconds later the realisation came to Sam.

"The wire for the silent alarm! I must've not cut it right!"

"You idiot!"

"What do we do?" Sam whispered desperately.

"Go out the back. They'll go to the front of the shop first. They always do."

The pair ran to the back room and to the window they originally came in through.

"We'll have to run on foot, they'll track the tyres of the car" warned Sam.

"What? No they won't. We have to take the car, they'll catch us on foot."

"But they'll-"

"I know what I'm doing! C'mon hurry up!" they threw the bags of items out the window as quietly as they could.

Meanwhile a group of police cars pulled up outside the shop, and a few officers stepped out.

"Have you got the keys from the owners Smith?" asked the officer who seemed to be in charge. This was the chief. He wasn't in the same uniform as the rest. He wore a large brown coat and had a thick brown moustache.

"Yes sir, I'll open it now" the next officer replied walking up to the door.

"Have the squad cars go around the back; that's where anyone would be if they were attempting a break in" the chief ordered.

"Get this stuff to the car quick!" Sam told Nathan hoping to get out the situation quicker, as Nathan ran to the car carrying the bags. All except Sam's backpack which he was wearing.

Sam jumped through the hole in the window. He rolled through the snow and stood up, remembering to mess up the snow he rolled in so his body shape wouldn't be revealed for detectives. He ran from the shop and into the middle of the backstreet.

"Hurry up man!" Nathan yelled, but as soon as he finished yelling, blue lights appeared on either side of the street, sounds of sirens to accompany them. Nathan and Sam looked back at the other, and without saying a word between, Nathan closed the door of his car and ignited the engine.

Sam's first reaction was shock and disbelief. "Nathan!" Sam yelled. The car quickly turned and accelerated down a small alleyway. Ditching him.

"Nathan! you little-!" the sirens were getting louder. Thinking quickly, Sam ran to the nearest building and climbed up the metal fence up the fire escape and onto the roof.

The officers stepped out the cars and began inspecting the broken window. The chief stepped out too, talking to the other officers. "Search the area, the break-in looks recent, they couldn't have gotten far."

He looked up and down, inspecting the scene. And then, he glanced up, in the direction of Sam on the roof, and saw him.

"Up there!" the chief alerted the officers.

Sam gasped and hightailed across the roof that very second.

"Someone get up there! Follow him!" the chief ordered climbing into the passenger seat of a squad car.

Sam realised he couldn't jump to the next rooftop, so he leaped down to the fire escape attached on the other side of the building.

He then leapt to the next building, but slipped and was forced to grab onto a string of christmas lights which sent him into a swing. With his free hand he grabbed hold of the ledge of another building, and dangled for a while.

"He's up there!" an officer's voice came from below. Sam pulled himself up and continued sprinting across the rooftops until he came to a set of trees which led to a set of woods. He climbed down a tree to the forest floor. Headlights appeared through the bushes and tree trunks.

'Great, just great' Sam mentally grunted whilst keeping up his pace. 'Maybe I should just let myself starve to death, it's less effort than this'.

The woods were large and no different from a maze at all. 'Where the hell do I go now?' he thought whilst panting.

He darted his head around for a good place to hide, and desperately too since he heard the footsteps of the police coming in his direction. They were most likely following his footsteps in the snow.

Having no better option, the boy climbed up the nearest tree. 'No. My footprints stop here, it's too obvious.'

He glanced to his right, and thanks to his dilated pupils, saw a building not too far away and within a few swings reach. Instantly he jumped across the treetops and branches until he reached a tree which leant over the fence to this building. He dropped down over the fence and luckily found an unlocked hatch into some sort of cellar.

He climbed down and shut the hatch behind him. 'Better lay low here for a while' he suggested to himself whilst holding his breath, listening out for the cops.

He heard distant shouting and footsteps, even some car noises, but none of them came any closer.

After he was sure the police were no longer searching the forest, he peered to lookout for any lights. There were none, he was safe. Sam sat himself down against a wall and breathed heavily for a long, long time.

His stomach growled a few times though. Mentally groaning, he thought 'If I had some damn energy, I would've gotten away much fricken' quicker'.

He calmed down slightly, and began to look around out of curiosity of his new whereabouts. The room was dark, and deathly quiet.

Sam pulled out his torch, searching for some sort of exit to the room. He came across some stairs stumbling through the darkness and proceeded to walk up to an unlocked door. After one small look through the keyhole to check for any presence, he slowly slid through the crack of the door into a long corridor. The light seeming through the windows was enough so he didn't require a torch anymore.

The corridor was decked and trimmed with reefs and tinsel along with other displays celebrating the time of year, but Sam didn't pay any attention to that. He was more concerned with his location. It wasn't until he saw the shape of lockers and doors to other rooms that contained tables, chairs and whiteboards, that he realised he was in some sort of secondary school, which, for some strange reason, seemed familiar to him.

He doubted there would be anyone in the school this time of night or year. He just hoped there weren't any cameras around the school or alarms. He then remembered he could easily go to a fuse box by reception and disable them there. That, wasn't the only thing he remembered about this place though. He recognised the classrooms, the office doors, the way the room was structured. Everything here immediately flushed a wave of memories over him as he finally realised which particular school he was in.

'This-. This is my school. Was my school. My old secondary school' he observed. 'Never thought I'd end up back here'.

Being that he was a former student, he remembered the way perfectly, even through the darkness. Sam didn't know what was worse, almost being caught by the cops narrowly, or being stranded in a dark school in the middle of the night, a place in which he considered to be the very reason he was stealing in the first place.

'If it weren't for that double crossing Nathan I wouldn't be too.' he scorned continuing to walk past the science rooms and into the room just outside the Hall where the assemblies happened.

The assembly hall itself was trimmed and hung with baubles that during the daytime would've boasted their colour and spread some sort of cheer in a most depressing of places. The most distinctive feature in the hall though was the grand tree itself, stretching upwards as if it's goal was to meet the ceiling. It was hard to tell whether it was fake or the real thing, but the decorations, like on any tree were the highlight.

Every ornament was hanging delicately along with baubles and strings of tinsel. Just by appearance, the ornaments were easily expressing how much love they showed for the christmas holiday that they were designated for, like every ornament on any tree did.

The joyful drawings of people on the baubles doing the regular things at Christmas was enough to express that they thought of this time of year as one for happiness and the prickly branches seemed so soft to them. And accompanied by a bed of tinsel, the tree itself just represented the love and warmth christmas gave for no price.

Many people would argue however, that a merry Christmas did come with a price, and Sam was one of them. He had no money apart from the bank notes he stole from the shop that were in his bag, and because of his lack of finances, he knew he would just spend another year at the top of those run down flats with food scraps and no one at all to share it with him.

He did sometimes wonder on Christmas what his family were doing, and did secretly contemplate what it would be like to talk to them again. What would they say to him? Would they want to see him? Nah, it wouldn't happen anyway. But that doesn't matter; Those precious gold coins would buy him a decent meal this year that's for sure.

The school itself was fairly old. Used since the Victorian era and many parts of it had to be rebuilt. One thing that remained untouched, and was as old as the school, was the grandfather clock, which, like what the tree was doing, trying to reach the ceiling but never succeeded.

The clock ticked away in the room next to the big hall, its pendulum lyre swinging side to side behind the glass cabinet and the clock itself below the moon dial ticked away. And just below the clock, were four grey stone statues of four little girls.

They were no bigger than someone's hand, and were all wearing very detailed dresses. The skirt parts of the dresses almost resembled tutu's, but angled slightly lower, so they ended just above the girl's knees. Each was wearing typical little buckle shoes, and the shoulder parts of the dresses were puffed up, like a fairytale princess dress, and even though they were all grey, if their hair was going to have any colour, it would've been blonde.

Each was a different height too. Some just slightly taller or smaller than the other. All four had different hairstyles, and were each striking an individual pose under the clock.

The boy continued to make his way to reception, remembering different memories he had in this place. He flashbacked.

'How did you do on your grades Sam?'

'I got one or two C's, mostly D's and E's though.'

'Well I got a few A's and B's Sam, ain't that great?'

'Well done on your electronics and ICT results Sam, not so good on the others though.'

He entered reception and walked towards the desk.

'So Sam, do you really think what they say about this place is true?'

'That this school is haunted?, nah, it's just rumours.'

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

The thief laughed slightly. He remembered the other kids saying this that place was haunted, mainly because every morning they would find a couple of items misplaced or a mess somewhere, or doors would be slightly open, and chairs were sometimes moved.

He just assumed it was foxes or cats sneaking in. Strangely however, nothing was ever caught on CCTV, even the caretaker when questioned admitted to know nothing.

The boy switched on the computer to access the footage, but what he found next was strange. Very strange. The whole CCTV system was already offline. This was, weird.

Was this why nothing was ever caught on CCTV?

'No it can't, of course not, ghosts, ridiculous.'

He was stopped mid thought, by a laugh, the giggle of a little girl. He looked to his right, his mouth slightly agape.

'No, no that's, I'm just imagining.' he paused. 'But there's no harm in checking.'

He got up and walked out of reception, taking his torch out of his bag. 'This ain't gonna be like that christmas carol story is it? Well I ain't done nothing wrong, well I mean, ah forget it.' he scowled in his head.

'Getting real tired of this' the boy thought again just as he heard another small noise behind him. It had to of been a mouse or something. Surely?

He sat down by the lockers in the room by the hall. The only noise was the grandfather clock ticking. He glanced at it and then back at his stomach which growled again.

'Oh shut up'.

It was a few seconds before the realisation came over him however. Turning his head, he stared back at the large grandfather clock, and the statues of the little girls, were not there.

He felt himself beginning to shake, and not because the temperature was low.

He considered maybe they had just fallen, but quickly dismissed it, since if they were statues, they would be attached to the structure.

They were statues, weren't they? A small scuttle noise uttered around the corner.

"Who's there?" Sam called out but regretted doing it instantly.

He had just given his position away.