This one is dedicated to all the brave souls who survived the Holiday sales this morning. My heart goes out to you and I hope that recover from your traumatic experience soon.

In this story, we won't mention any specific store names... Kurama's torture will occur in a Japanese store named Wali-Marito (whistling innocently...)

This one was inspired by my yearly tradtion of dressing out in full leather (biker jacket and backwards newsboy cap included) stilettos and dark make-up at 2 AM to get to the store and fight my way to what I wanted, stand there with a million jackasses for 3 hours, then tear loose at 5 fighting, biting, clawing and kicking to get something I have no interest in whatsoever, then standing back to back with people who have bad breath and noisy kids to get away from those first items, then driving a worn out buggy with one wheel that won't turn like I'm in the demolition derby, running over little old ladies ( who are usually the most dangerous foes) eventually getting to a checkout (automotive or crafts dept., no one ever thinks about those) only to find that the people are jammed so tight that it takes an additional hour to get to an exit! I'm a 9 year veteran now. The head manager at Wal-Mart knows me, he's started warning people to stay out of my way LOL

PS- To anyone who reads my other stories, I haven't quit, I just stay busy with work and visiting out of town relatives now, this is the first chance I've had to write. I promise I'm going to finish them as soon as I catch a break!

Anyway, I own NOTHING! Enjoy!

Dinner had been wonderful. The redheaded teen had eaten until he couldn't hold any more, and then, he had worked off a little bit, so that he could hold a lot more. His friends would have never believed that he was the same talented fighter if they had seen him panting just to get a box of Christmas lights out of the basement for his stepfather. After his second helping, he'd had to lay down and take a nap before he was able to move again. Now he had finally made his way to his desk, a whole three feet from his bed...

He sat pouring over his papers. He had his budget plan here, his sales papers there, his wishlists neatly stacked on one side of the other papers. He was writing down his final choices. His mother's family from out of town would be joining them this Christmas, along with his new uncle's family. It seemed that they were going to have quite a crowd this year. He was used to having his mother's sister joining them, but his stepfather had a brother, and this brother had four children, and then there was Kokoda, his new stepbrother... The only way to buy for everyone was to shop smart. The holiday sales...

His new cousins had made quite the lists. They seemed to love this Dora character. Kurama thought that was just grand. From what he had heard it was an educational program, and he was all for educational toys. There were quite a few Dora toys in one particular sales paper he had seen. He had also spotted many of the other wishlist items in this paper. He had made up his mind that this store, Wali-Marito, would be the best place to do his Christmas shopping. There was to be a sale from 5 AM to 11 AM tomorrow morning. He figured that he should arrive about 10 minutes early, to avoid the crowds.

If he had only known...

4:00 am...

Kurama turned off the gentle beeping of his alarm clock and started to rub the sleep from his eyes. This was going to be such a wonderful day! He loved buying gifts for his mother, and now he had so many more people to share this special season with! He smiled to himself as he lay there, then, his long eyelashes began to flutter, revealing the two bright emerald eyes that held so much hope for the day that lay ahead...

We will now take a 5 minute recess for the fox-fangirls to mop up the drool...

The fox closed his eyes just once more, gathering his thoughts as the drowsiness of morning faded. What? What was that? He must have been groggier than he thought. Didn't he just turn that clock off? As he pulled himself into a sitting position he looked at his clock. No. That wasn't it.

"Huh? Horns?"

He clearly heard the sound of car horns blaring, and they were coming from everywhere! He pulled back his curtain to see a stream of traffic, going as far as the eye could see in either direction!

"What on Earth are they doing out so early? It's 4 o'clock!"

The thought came to him. What if they were going to those same sales?

'No, I'm sure it isn't as bad as it looks. There's no way that many individuals could be heading to the same store. There was probably a traffic accident somewhere that has caused a delay. It only looks like there are a lot of people, and then factor in that some of those people are commuters, merely held up on their way to work. That must be the cause...'

Always so logical and levelheaded. Little did he know, that was to be his downfall...

I'm going to keep writing on this one tonight and I hope to have it done by the end of the weekend. Till then, all my fellow Vets, leave a review if you can identify with this horror! LOL