Wow, I come, I leave right after, I have to revise!
Swedish tomorrow ! (I did weird in History and Syriac...)

Thank you for all the feedback !

"Hey! Tino's here!"
"Hey Tino! We thought you should come yesterday!"
"I'm sorry, I had a mishap…"

Santa began to feel like at home in Halloween town. It was the fourth time he came. Well, the fourth time he came "officially". He always proceed the same way; he left Christmas Town when all the lights were off, and stayed in Halloween town for a few hours before going back and try to catch a little bit of sleep. But he took a nap at work, most of the time.

What he liked at Halloween time, it was that every day was different, and there was no established schedule. People did what they wanted to, when they wanted to. Last time, Zamfir the vampire asked him to prepare with him a few potions that had to rest a few months for next Halloween, and then they looked for Zamfir's bat, Babat IV The Great, who disappeared. The time before, Lily, a cute girl, and Lars, the guy that head on fire, taught him how to carve pumpkins and make pies with it. It ended in a chase in the city; Vash, Lily's brother, was running after Gilbert and Niels who stole the pies that cooled on the windowsill.

He was really keen to know what he will do today. Francis the ferryman told him that maybe they could scare someone who make a Ouija… He had no idea of what a Ouija was, but it sounded fun.

While he was saluting Victoria, the mermaid in the shaft, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Gilbert, who was smiling at him.

"Hey, Tino! Here you are! Nice, I needed you."
"Why?"
"I have to go and ask something to Roderich. But I hate him, and I hate his house, and I hate his nurse. I thought that maybe, you could come along. So I wondered if maybe, you wanted to come with me? If she sees you, Elizaveta won't try to kill me. Let Hana to the kids, and let's go!"

Santa seemed suspicious, but didn't say anything. Gilbert had sure a weird logic… And why would Elizaveta try to kill him to begin with?

"Sure, I come…"
"Sweet!" the tall white man shout, dragging Santa by the arm toward the wobbly-wonky tower nearby.

Gilbert seemed overly excited, and cheer Santa to make him climb the hill quicker. The tower was really strange. It seemed to be built with thing found here and there, and Santa really wondered how it could stand still. In front of the front door, there was no doorbell, but instead an old tired crow on his perch. Santa was about to knock, but Gilbert stopped him and instead showed him the bird. And then, he pull on the crow's tail and the bird made and awful caw that could have broke Santa's eardrums.

Seriously, why did Gilbert do that? Poor thing! But he hadn't the time to tell off him, that the door opened on Elizaveta. Her smile quickly died off when she saw Gilbert who was happily waving at her.

"Gilbert, get the fuck out of here."
"Hello, Elizaveta! Tino and me came to say hi!"

The nurse's face lighted up when she saw Santa, rather embarrassed, next to the tall man. She squeaked and took him by the shoulders to lead him inside. It was as peculiar as outside. An access ramp was turning around the walls, leading at the top. Elizaveta made him walk there, and Gilbert followed them, trying not to be too close of Elizaveta.

They stopped around the middle of the tower, in front of a beautiful wooden door. It was a library. An enormous library. Santa couldn't help but gasp, thing that made Elizaveta chuckle. In the middle of the room, Roderich was at an old broken piano, playing a beautiful song that Santa never heard before.

When he heard them enter, he difficultly turned his wheelchair around and rolled his eyes when he saw Gilbert.

"Gilbert. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, no need to be this aggressive. Me and Tino came say hello."
"Stop fooling around, Gilbert. What are you doing here."

Santa considering that the conversation will surely be private, he decided to look around the room, in the books. He never had seen as much of them. The old elf Reno would be ecstatic.

This book was about bats! And this one, about how to grow pumpkins. This old one was a book of magic spells. Oh, god… Everything seemed so great. He wasn't really into books, but he wanted to spend the day to read all of them. Maybe he could ask Elizaveta –Roderich seemed scary- if he could borrow one or two…? Slowly, he walked toward the three others who were talking next to the piano. And really, he was scared of what he heard.

"But I told you that other worlds like ours exist!" Gilbert yelled.
"Of course they exist!" Roderich replied harshly. "But that's not a reason to go and try to find them!"
"And why? I want to know; I want to see! I'm tired of this masquerade; I'm tired of being the bad guy! I want people to love me for once! Tell me where I can go to travel in the other worlds!"
"I won't, Gilbert. If you're born here, it means that you have to stay there. You have no right to decide otherwise. That how it works. If you were meant to be elsewhere, you'd be elsewhere. I won't tell you."
"Yeah, sure. What is the real reason why you refuse to spit it?" Gilbert asked bitterly.
"You remember your friend, the one who died a few years ago? He's not dead because he faded away; he died because he didn't make it to the trees."
"Trees? So it's in the woods?"
"My god, Gilbert, do you ever listen sometimes? He died! The only thing we found was one of his shoes, brought by a crow! Do you even realize how dangerous those woods are? Don't look for the way. Don't."
"And what, I'd die? What a great deal. Don't make as if you cared! You hate me, almost as much as Elizaveta do! Everyone hates me or is scared by me, and I don't know which one saddens me the most. I just can't bear this life anymore, you understand? I just want people to love me, at least once. And if I die, I don't care. I would have try."

And then, Gilbert left the room quickly, letting Elizaveta and Roderich speechless. A few moment later, Roderich only shushed a few words, and Elizaveta took his hand to comfort him.

"People here love you dearly, Gilbert."

It wasn't a good moment for Santa to go out of his corner.

The return to Christmas town was quieter than usually. Hana saw that her master was sad and he didn't talk as much as he did the other times. And, in the woods, he hold her close, and tiptoed.

The woods were dangerous.

Someone died in there.

Santa really wondered what kind of monster could terrify a city full of some, but it was sure a huge one. Or a quick one. Sadly, Santa was neither huge nor quick. He just had a good aim, but what would he sent to it? Hana? Not in hell, she was too small, the monster would have ended with her in a matter of seconds and would still be hungry.

But this time, he didn't meet a monster in the woods. He hoped it'll still be the same next time.

He didn't sleep at all this night. He was only thinking about what Roderich said. "If you're born here, it means that you have to stay there. You have no right to decide otherwise." He had no right, so...? What did he risk, playing this sick game of going against what he was?

His sleepless night might have affected his mood more than usually. The following day, he shouted at everyone, for everything, refused to talk and sat next to the window for two hours. The only one who can go around him was Hanatamago. Even Berwald handled him with gloves and didn't dare to meet his look. The whole village was worried, and they all tried to find a way to cheer Santa up.

The next day, when Santa went in the living room to grab something to eat, he saw that the whole room was decorated. Almost all the elves were here, with banners, sweets, cakes and eggnog. A few little elves ran toward him, holding drawings of a smiling Santa playing with children.

"We know you're sad that Christmas ended, Santa, but we have to work to make next Christmas as wonderful as this one!"

Tino only smiled, not able to pronounce a "Thank you".