I gasp and my body jerks as someone jumps on top of me waking me up. "Aria wake up!" a voice says yelling in my ear. I feel tiny hands shake my body side to side.

I start sporadically reaching in all directions trying to grab the person on me "Ugh no leave me in peace" I grumbled into my pillow. God, what time is it anyway? When I finally find another pair of arms I go to shake the hands off me until I realize it is Charlie. I roll over assuming he must have had another nightmare.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes "Charlie what are you doing? What's wrong?" I groan trying to see him through the darkness.

Charlie grabs my arms trying to pull me up out of bed. "Quick Aria! Something is on the r-" He gets cut off by a loud bang above us.

My eyes jerk up to look up at the ceiling startled. "Charlie go wake up Dad, someone is on the roof!" I whipped the sheets off my body and quickly put on my blue slippers still looking up at the ceiling.

I feel Charlie try to hold me in place "It's Santa Aria!" Charlie yells. I ignore him and grab his hand and dragging him with me down the narrow hallway to Dad's room with him protesting. Pushing his door open Charlie pulls his hand out of mine and runs to Dad's side. I stop at his doorway.

Grabbing onto his arms as he did to me "Dad! Dad!" He exclaimed, shaking him. Groaning he struggled to open his eyes "What, Charlie?"

Stepping in from the doorway to stop Charlie from shaking him "Dad someone is on the roof. There was loud banging!" My eyes are wide and voice shaky.

He glares up at me sleepily "What Aria? Come on. Let's go back to bed." As soon as he finished there was another loud noise. Dad's eyes shot back and forth from the ceiling to Charlie and me, now sitting up from the bed.

Finally standing up from the bed "Somebody's on the roof!" Dad pointed out the obvious. "Maybe it's Santa," Charlie buts in stepping between Dad and me.

Dad looks down at him "Not now, Charlie. I want you to sit here, and I want you to stay right there. Aria come with me" He says pointing at me scrambling to leave the room.

I almost find myself annoyed at this "Oh, so I get to die too?" I roll my eyes.

"Charlie, do you know how to call 911? And please not now Aria" Dad sighs now in the doorway. "Sure 911" he shrugs. Dad quickly gives him a nod of approval.

All three of us run out into the hallway and down the wooden stairs to the front door. I throw on my purple sweatshirt as Dad whips the door open throwing his jacket on at the same time. I shut the door behind Dad and I keeping Charlie inside. Suddenly becoming aware that I was wearing shorts and my slippers started soaking up the snow. God, it was freezing!

I frantically look around the bushes for a culprit "Hey, you!" Dad yells. My head shoots up to see a man on our roof dressed as Santa. "What the hell!" I exclaim, throwing my arms up.

The man suddenly loses balance and starts sliding off the snowy roof. I scream in horror as I watch a man possibly fall to his death. Closing my eyes I turn my head away as I hear the sound of him landing in the snow, too scared to look.

Silence fills the air "Whoo-hoo! Hey, buddy. All right, you should just stay still. Perfect." I slowly peek my eyes open. I see dad standing over the still man.

The front door opened revealing Charlie. "You got him!" Eyes wide and bright running down the stairs. "Charlie, stay where you are. Charlie, would you listen to me? Stay up there!" Dad yells trying to stop him. I run forward snapping out of shock and grab Charlie's shoulders preventing him from getting too close to the man.

He fights against my hold, I'm still left speechless "It is Santa! You killed him" He pouted. I frown at this "We don't know that yet Charlie" I point out.

Dad whips around to look at us "Did not. And he's not Santa." He exclaims before looking back down at the man. "Well not anymore at least." I cringe at the thought.

Bending down dad begins to search his suit. "He's got some l.D. on him, I bet. Fella, if you can hear me, I'm just lookin' for your identification. Once I figure out who ya are, I'll- I'll give you a lift back to the mall." Pulling out a card from the inside pocket I walked up next to him and saw that it read 'Santa Claus'.

I blink my eyes rapidly trying to change the words "Uh, why does he have an ID that says Santa Claus Dad?" Shock and worry clear in my voice.

Dad starts to read off the small text on the card as I step back "If something should happen to me, put on my suit. The reindeer will know what to do. Yeah, right." He rolls his eyes.

I look up at the roof now tuning out what Dad is saying. My eyes widen as I look at the sleigh and reindeer standing there. As if this was perfectly normal. "Oh my god. Dad, I think that was actually Santa." I spoke suddenly feeling faint.

I bring my hand up to my forehead to check for a fever. Maybe this is all a fever dream "Don't be ridiculous Aria, of course, i-" He slowly trails off now looking up. "Whoa.." Charlie looks up in amazement with us.

Looking back down at the supposed Santa I notice only his clothes are there. "He disappeared,'' Charlie said, moving from his spot. Dad and I ran forward inspecting the now unworn suit. "He's naked somewhere!" Dad said, throwing his hands up. Really not the thing to be focusing on right now Dad I think.

Charlie walks back over to us "You gonna put on the suit like the card said? Are you?" Charlie pestered. "Stop it, Charlie. We're not goin' anywhere." Dad yells. "You never do what I wanna do!" He yelled back. "Would you please be quiet for a minute so I can figure this out?" Dad said stressed out bending down to his height. I sigh, grabbing Charlie's shoulders slightly pulling him away from Dad.

I look up to watch Dad now pacing back and forth mumbling to himself but my eyes catch the ladder now leaning on the roof. "Charlie stay close to me, let's go look at the reindeer." Now pulling him with me to the gold ladder stepping up it.

A smile breaks onto Charlie's face now fast approaching the ladder, me already fast ahead of him "Look here, Dad. "The Rose Suchak Ladder Company. Just like the poem." Charlie said now halfway up the ladder. I just reach the top of the roof staring at the huge animals attached to the sleigh just like the books and movies I learned about as a child.

Dad, now confused, turns around to see Charlie and me on the roof. "Charlie and Aria, come on down from there. Get down from there!" He yelled coming up the ladder.

I slowly approach the reindeer at the front and allowed it to smell my hand carefully. I read off the nametag "Comet?" I asked. He made a sound of agreement bringing a smile to my face and I reach out to gently pet him.

Dad huffs from behind me "Guys! Stay away from those things. They're reindeer. You don't know where they've been." I turned around now seeing Dad carrying the suit up the roof coming to stand next to me. "They all look like they've got key lime disease. Easy, Rudolph." Dad corrects himself as the reindeer makes a sound of disapproval. "Excuse me, Comet." He said disgustedly.

I turn my attention to the sleigh now approaching it. I simply can't believe what I'm seeing, perhaps this was real, everything from the Easter bunny to the tooth fairy. I could hear Charlie and Dad bickering about whatever as I climb into the sleigh with Charlie.

Dad marches towards us angrily "Now, hop out of there, please." He said climbing in the sleigh with us. "I don't wanna" Charlie and I protested crossing our arms. "Listen, Charlie and Aria. I'm not kidding. Let's go!" All of a sudden we all got jerked back and dad falls into the back into the sleigh.

I yell in surprise grabbing onto the reins with Charlie as the reindeer took off the roof. "Hold on!" I yelled at everyone as we now are gliding through the air. My legs now felt numb to the cold and my eyes watered as the wind hit my face. "Dad! Climb up here!" Charlie yelled.

Dad pushed Charlie and me over as he crawled over to sit in the middle of us. We dove down onto the street and rode up next to a truck. "There we go! So, uh, if we go straight on this road, and we hit l-95?" Dad said, leaning over me asking the clearly star struck truck driver. He gave no reply and just stared as we took off into the sky again. I feel the sleigh start slowing. Finally being able to catch my breath as we land on the roof of a white house.

I lean over the side of the sleigh trying not to throw up. My hair is now permanently blown back. "Well, we made good time. Now, what do we do?" Dad asks tapping his feet.

I can only groan in response coming back up turning around to look at Charlie's beaming face.