Author's Note: Welcome to another chapter of my story. Like the last story, this one is holiday-themed, with the holiday being Christmas! For some time, I've wanted to put my character of Mephiles the Dark in a Christmas Carol-like story because Mephiles is basically as grumpy as Ebeneezer Scrooge, although he's not as greedy as the bitter miser, so I'm glad I was able to get the opportunity with this chapter. Basically, this story is a combination of A Christmas Carol with How the Grinch Stole Christmas with a demon taking the role of Scrooge and the Grinch. This chapter isn't as long as the others, but I hope you'll like it anyway. Sorry there aren't any kaiju in this (although one was supposed to appear, but was scrapped).
The Godzilla franchise belongs to Toho, Frozen and its characters belongs to Disney, the Christmas Ghosts (their names, not designs) from A Christmas Carol and the scenario belong to Charles Dickens, the story similarities from How the Grinch Stole Christmas belong to Dr. Seuss, and Jason/Gigantis, Gzilla, Mephiles (my version of the character), and Mercilla belong to me.
How Mephiles Stole Christmas
December 23, 1788
Arendelle, Norway
It was almost like what happened only five months ago. The kingdom of Arendelle and the surrounding land was once again covered in snow, but this time it wasn't because of Elsa; it was natural snow. The year 1788 was almost over, and more importantly Christmas was only two days away. The presence of Christmas was all around the kingdom with wreath-lined streets, children building snowmen anywhere they could (Olaf tried making friends with them, which proved to be rather difficult), and snowball fights were being waged by adult and child alike. There was a magical feeling flowing through the air that Christmas was bringing joy and happiness to the people of Arendelle, and everyone in the kingdom was affected by it. Well, everyone except for one. Before Jason and his friends arrived in Arendelle, everyone there loved Christmas. Now there was one who hated it. Aside from the presents, of course.
High up on the North Mountain close to Elsa's old ice castle was Mephiles the Dark. He floated near the edge, looking down on the kingdom with a pair of binoculars. He wore a little scarf around his neck to provide him with some warmth, but he was still a little cold. Through the binoculars he watched the people of Arendelle frolic and play in the snow-covered streets, happy as can be. The sight of children and their parents taking part in snowball fights, and adults skating around on ice banks without a care in the world had both pleasing and negative effects on the demon.
Way back when he was a normal human child, Christmas was his favorite time of the year. Back then he couldn't wait for Christmas to come, but now he dreaded the day the holiday finally arrived. Even though it was for one day, it would cause him massive emotional pain. As he watched the children and their parents have fun, Mephiles silently wished that instead of focusing on his presents so much when he was little, he would have focused more on spending time with his family. Although he could go back to when he was younger with his time travel powers, he wouldn't be able to interact with his family. All he'd be able to do was watch them and relieve old memories unless he wanted to risk ruining his past by being spotted and causing a commotion. For every snowball fight Mephiles watched, he saw himself and his sister waging their own snowball fights. For every caroler group singing Christmas songs to other people, he saw his mother dragging him and his sister with her so they could sing door-to-door in their neighborhood. Although he hated singing, he wouldn't mind singing with his family. Everything regarding Christmas that he saw brought back memories and anger mixed with jealousy. He didn't always feel like this, though. Many years ago when he went to Hell with his sister where they were transformed into demons, both of them forgot about Christmas over time. When Mephiles was forced back to the surface three years ago and met Jason, he was thrusted back into Christmas for each of those past three years. With the sights stirring up too many memories, Mephiles grunted in aggitation and threw the binoculars to the snowy ground, unable to handle the empty feeling that was growing inside him.
"Why does everyone else get to have fun on this holiday while the only things I feel are misery and despair?!" he shouted, but made sure he wasn't loud enough to cause an avalanche. "Everyone down there has a family to spend Christmas with, but do I? No. I'm here all by myself because I can't even be down there because of this stupid holiday!" Mephiles aimed his right palm at the binoculars and destroyed them in a single laser beam. "Man, why did I even look down there?" As he dusted off his hands with a small feeling of satisfaction, he said something that gave him an idea. "I wonder how they'd like it if their stupid holiday was taken away from them and they were left with nothing." Although no one could see, he began smiling a devious smile underneath his mouth-less muzzle. It might have been the emotional pain overpowering his common senses, but what he said made him begin scheming. "I'll do what that Grinch guy did in that one cartoon movie. I'll steal Christmas! I'm sure the sight of others suffering will cheer me up. And while they're crying and sniffling about their precious Christmas being gone, I'll be laughing and laughing." Mephiles began laughing quite loudly at the very thought of it.
Unfortunately, Mephiles' laughing woke up something that was now living in Elsa's ice castle. The sound of loud stomping coming from inside the structure got his attention, puzzling him. He didn't know anything was living there. With Elsa back in Arendelle, he thought it was abandoned since he couldn't imagine anyone else even wanting to live in a castle of ice. Except Kristoff. When Mephiles saw Marshmallow emerge from the castle's doors at the top of the massive staircase, he simply rolled his eyes in annoyance.
Marshmallow glared at the tiny intruder on his mountain who woke him. Moments before, Marshmallow was sound asleep until some loud laughter forcefully pulled ended his dream, causing him to wake up. The giant snow monster recognized the floating demon, but he didn't know why. It didn't matter. All that did matter was making this floating thing leave. "Get off my mountain!" he said with a chilling roar.
"Piss off," Mephiles replied. That turned out to be a mistake. Mephiles watched as Marshmallow took in a deep breath and laughed a little, thinking the snow monster was just going to roar at him. In reality, Marshmallow was building up snow in his throat, and when he gathered up as much as he could, he spat a medium-sized snowball out of his mouth like someone spitting a lougie. The snowball struck Mephiles so hard that it actually knocked the demon off the edge. Once he managed to slow his descent using his hovering ability, Mephiles floated back up to the edge and gave Marshmallow the middle finger. Not realizing what the demon was doing and thinking Mephiles was about to retaliate, Marshmallow began firing more snowball lougies from his mouth as fast as he could. Not wanting to be struck by one of those again, Mephiles floated down and used the edge's side as cover. "When I stealing everything, I'm dumping it right in front of that castle and blaming the abominable jackass for it," Mephiles said to himself before portalling back to Arendelle castle.
Day soon turned into night, and everyone in Arendelle began getting ready for a long winters nap. Well, at least until the next morning. Mephiles wasn't any different and he floated into his bed. It was mere seconds after he closed his eyes that the sound of Christmas music began seeping into his room. Mephiles groaned in utter annoyance. Using his pillow, he covered his head and ears to block out the noise. Earlier, Jason invited Mephiles if he would like to join the others in watching some Christmas movies later that evening, but Mephiles refused. The others were watching said Christmas movies right now.
Not wanting to hear their movie, Mephiles removed the pillow from his head and began pounding on the wall opposite from Jason's room. "Turn it down!" he shouted. Seconds later, the volume of the movie lowered. With no more sounds bothering him, Mephiles returned to bed and started drifting off to sleep. Unfortunately, his slumber wouldn't last for much longer.
After what seemed like only mere minutes after Mephiles finally fell asleep, all of the things he had hanging on the wall of his room started rattling. The noise jolted him out of sleep. As he sat up in his bed and watched this, he realized that the rattling wasn't in some random manner, but it was following the pattern of a piece of music he was very familiar with: the Twilight Zone theme. "What in the world..." As he tried to figure out what was going on, he saw a spectral form materialize out of thin air. "Oh my god..." Mephiles said, recognizing who the ghost was.
Floating in his room was the ghost of Rod Serling. Now most anyone would be terrified at the sight of a ghost, but not Mephiles. As a child back in his human days, Mephiles loved watching the Twilight Zone and was a huge fan of the show. Pulling back the flesh covering his hidden mouth, Mephiles revealed his small grin to his ghostly idol. "Hey, you're Rod Serling! Say one of the intros to the Twilight Zone for me."
The ghost shook his head. "No, not right now, Marcus."
Mephiles looked at Rod with a slightly annoyed face. "I don't go by that name anymore and I don't want to be called it. Just call me Mephiles."
"Okay. Mephiles, I've come down from heaven so I can talk to you about something very important."
"Uh huh..." Mephiles said with excitement in his voice. "And that would be, what?"
"To convince you to not commit the act of stealing Christmas from everyone here."
Mephiles sighed in disappointment. "Aww, I thought you were gonna take me to the Twilight Zone or something fun like that."
Rod gave Mephiles a confused look. "Mephiles... there's no such thing as the Twilight Zone. You're a spirit, right? I thought you would have known that by now since you're essentially dead..."
"Awwwww, gee thanks for bursting my bubble," Mephiles said with utter sarcasm.
"Mephiles, your plan to steal Christmas from this kingdom is much more important to discuss than me taking you to some fictional universe," Rod said in a rather stern voice.
"Fine, tell me why I shouldn't steal Christmas," Mephiles said, crossing his arms across his chest in slight annoyance.
"Christmas is a magical time of year for everyone, and you shouldn't take that magic away from any man, woman, or child just so you can make yourself feel better. I know it's unfortunate about what happened to your family all those years ago, but..."
Mephiles interrupted him, looking a bit upset. "But you don't know what it's like to have your mother taken away from you like mine was! Christmas was a special time of year for my family, and ever since I was forced back here three years ago, I've had to deal with the fact that I can never have another Christmas like the ones I used to know! Everyone here is so damn happy with their families and it pisses me off. My own sister rarely comes out of Hell to visit me and I can't even communicate with my mother because she's in heaven!"
"And you really think that stealing Christmas will solve your family problem?" Rod asked.
The question struck Mephiles like an anvil shot out of a cannon. Before any of this happened, he really hadn't thought about if his plan would be the solution to everything. He quietly pondered what Rod asked him, truly thinking about his answer. But he had none. After a few moments, he replied. "I dunno..."
"Then there may be a small glimmer of hope that your mind can be changed by the time you wake up the next morning," Rod said. Before Mephiles could reply, Rod began speaking again, this time in a loud and booming voice which made the walls and the items attached to it shake. "By the stroke of one, you will be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past. Following that, you will meet the Ghost of Christmas Present and then the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. They will take you to a fifth dimension that is as vast as space and timeless as infinity, beyond that which is known to man. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition," Rod said with a smile.
Mephiles laughed at that final remark, a huge smile stretched out on his face. He stopped when he noticed Rod was beginning to leave. "Hey, wait. Can you do something for me before you go?"
Rod turned around and nodded. "Sure."
"Say the epilogue to the episode The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street. I love that episode."
With a nod, the ghostly entity began reciting the episode's epilogue word-by-word for the demon. "The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy; and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone."
Mephiles clapped and laughed like a little child, brimming with excitement. He never felt like this in a long time. "Thank you very much."
Rod smiled and gave the demon a nod before his ghostly form began fading away into thin air. "Just remember what you truly want solved regarding your problems," he said as he disappeared from view.
Feeling a bit at peace, Mephiles laid back down in his bed and tried returning to sleep. Even though he wasn't scared at all by Rod's warning of three ghosts coming to visit him, he did feel a little wary. It was like he could sense that something was going to happen to him because of them, but he tried not to think about it too much. It wasn't long before he returned to sleep, and sleep he did until the stroke of one.
Once the clock struck the fated time, a small flame appeared out of thin air in Mephiles' room. Surprisingly, the flame didn't set the room aflame. Instead, it grew to the height of a small child of about ten years of age and began shifting its form to resemble a girl of that age. The little girl this entity took the form of looked like she was straight out of the early 1960s in terms of her short light blue dress and hairstyle, which was in the style of two pigtail with tips that moved about like flames being blown in the wind. Carefully, it crept over to Mephiles, and once it was there, the entity reached out and gently shook his shoulder.
The sensation of something hot touching Mephiles made him wake up, but he simply grumbled incoherently about wanting to be left alone before pulling the bed covers over his body as a makeshift barrier between him and what he assumed was the first ghost Rod Serling said would come.
"Come on, now. Don't be like that," the entity said.
After hearing those words spoken in a voice that sounded very familiar to him, Mephiles yanked the covers off. The sight of this entity standing before before him looking like it did made him angry. "How dare you take my little sister's form from the day she died!"
"Please don't be cross with me, good sir. I did not mean to look like your beloved sister on her passing day," the entity said, holding its arms out in an appologetic manner. "I shall change the clothing immediately." With that, the entity's clothes went up in flames and when they died down, the dress that was worn was now polka-dotted in black and red. "How is this?"
Mephiles grunted, still a little flustered about this ghost using Mercilla's form. "I guess it's better. Now who the hell are you and what are you going to do to me?"
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past," it said while doing a little curtsey. "I have come to help show you why you shouldn't steal Christmas from everyone else by showing how happy you were in the past."
With a scoff and a roll of his eyes, Mephiles spoke to the ghost. "What good do you think showing me my past will do? I'm pretty sure showing me something I can never have again won't do anything for what you're trying to convince me not to do."
"I guess you shall see, then," the specter said, gently resting its hand on Mephiles' shoulder. Before the demon could react, both of them disappeared in a burst of flames, leaving nothing behind but a faint puff of smoke.
Seconds after the Ghost of Christmas Past teleported itself and Mephiles out of the demon's room, they appeared in a completely different place. To Mephiles, the ghost's teleportation was similar to one of his portals, although he never felt disoriented after he emerged from one. He shook off the disorientation and began looking around. They were apparently in some house that had furniture from both the 1950s and 1960s. "Where are we?" Mephiles asked.
"You don't recognize it? I thought you would. Or has it really been too long?" the Ghost of Christmas Past said.
Mephiles looked around more carefully, looking at some pictures that hung on the wall. That was when he realized where he was. "This is my house. From...from when I was a human kid." He turned around to face the ghost. "Why did you bring me here? If they see me, it will screw up time itself!"
"Do not worry, Marcus."
"It's Mephiles!" the demon said in a hissed whisper.
"Pardon me, I mean Mephiles. You have nothing to fear about being spotted. No one can see or hear you. I take it that you weren't able to visit the past because of that," said the specter.
"Yeah..." Mephiles began looking around as he spoke again. "Do you mind if I look around a little before you show me this pointless lesson I'm supposed to learn?"
"Sure, but I highly doubt that my lesson is pointless," the Ghost of Christmas Past said, watching Mephiles float away from his side.
Mephiles didn't reply, but instead began floating around the house. Every room he visited brought back memories from his previous life. From the kitchen to the bathrooms and to the laundry room to his own bedroom. When he got to his room, he saw all of his toys scattered across the bedroom floor. As he looked at all the toy soldiers and tin cars, he saw a Robby the Robot toy. He tried picking it up, but found that he couldn't. It was probably because of the same reason why no one could see or hear him.
"Found something you remember?" asked the Ghost of Christmas Past, who appeared out of thin air behind Mephiles.
For a few moments, Mephiles didn't reply. "This was one of my favorite toys. I had this robot fight all the toy soldiers, pretending that it was invading the Earth." He turned back to the ghost. "I've seen what I wanted to. Just show me what you think will convince me to reconsider my plan."
"Very well," the ghost said. It began leading Mephiles downstairs where the sound of children giggling could be heard. Upon reaching the living room, the ghost and Mephiles saw that there were two children opening presents underneath a large Christmas tree that was decorated beautifully. A brown-haired woman with a 1960s hair style in her early forties watched them as she sat in a chair near a fire-place mantle. The oldest child was a boy who looked like he was twelve years old. He wore brown overalls with a white and blue striped shirt. The other child was Mercilla at age ten. She had her hair in pigtails and was wearing pink pajamas.
"We're currently in the year 1963, the last Christmas your family would spend together," the Ghost of Christmas Past explained while Mephiles watched his past self unwrap Christmas presents with his little sister. "See how happy you were."
"That's because everything wasn't turning into crap all around me," Mephiles said.
"What did Santa bring you, Marcus?" asked the brown-haired woman.
Marcus, the twelve-year-old boy, proudly showed his mother three Hot Wheels toys. "I got all the cool cars I wanted. Thanks, Santa!"
Mephiles shuddered a little bit. He used to be so sweet and innocent back then, which now sickened him a little. "Ugh, thanks for making me remember how repulsive I was back then."
The ghost laughed. "You find happiness repulsive?"
"I'm a demon, of course I find it repulsive if there isn't destruction involved." Mephiles grunted and folded his arms across his chest. His slightly scowling face softened a little as he started feeling a little sympathy for his past self. "I had no idea what was coming months later..."
The Ghost of Christmas Past placed its right hand on Mephiles' shoulder comfortingly. "Do not think about the tragedy yet to come, but think of the happiness you and your sister had on Christmas."
Mephiles silently watched as his past self opened presents with his little sister, both of them wearing happy smiles as they showed their mother what Santa Claus brought them.
"This is what you would be robbing everyone of," the specter said. "Instead of trying to make everyone miserable, you should try being happy like you are here with your friends."
"I can't be happy like I was!" Mephiles shouted. "I can never be that happy again because I'm messed up! I was messed up the day my mother died and I can't go back to being that happy. Not again. My family was shattered that day, and I've never recovered from it! My new friends may be sort of like family to me, but they can't take the place of the family I had!"
The Ghost of Christmas Past sighed. "Then I guess it's time for you to return to the present so that the next ghost can hopefully show you the error of your ways." With the snap of its fingers, the flames in the fireplace began shooting out, making their way over to Mephiles like snakes.
"What the hell?" Mephiles began looking all around him as the flames began coming closer and closer from all sides until they all leaped on him, covering his body. As the flames coiled around him, Mephiles saw certain events of his life play out in the fire. His mother's death, he and Mercilla dying, and their transformation into demons to avoid torture for eternity. All of those images began swarming all over him like the flames they resided in until a white light enveloped him.
When Mephiles opened his eyes, he saw that he was back in his bed, looking up at the ceiling. His hands were gripping the bed sheets tightly, which he relinquished immediately after realizing that. "That was one weird-ass dream," Mephiles muttered, pushing himself up to a sitting position. "I never should have eaten those six tacos at dinner..." Suddenly, his bedroom door flung open like a powerful gust of wind just crashed into it and an intense white light originating from the hallway shone over every available space. "Gah!" Mephiles shouted, raising the bed covers over his face to keep the light out of his eyes.
"Sorry about that, old boy!" come a booming, joyful voice from somewhere in the intense light. The light quickly disappeared seconds after the supposedly disembodied voice spoke to Mephiles. Once the light was gone, Mephiles pulled the covers away and saw what appeared to be Gzilla wearing a green robe that he somehow managed to fit in, along with a green wreath atop his head. The sight made Mephiles laugh. "What's with the stupid get-up, G, and more importantly, why the hell are you in my room at this time?"
In actuality, the figure standing before Mephiles wasn't Gzilla. As it let out a series of booming laughs, it floated off the ground and began making its way over to Mephiles' bed. "I am not the one you call G, Marcus..."
Hearing someone call him that again made Mephiles scowl angrily. "It's Mephiles! How many times must I tell you ghosts?! You would have thought that Rod Serling or even the first ghost would have passed on that memo to the rest of you."
"I am sorry to have called you the wrong name, Mephiles," the ghostly figure said. "Anyway, I am the Ghost of Christmas Present, and I am here to show you..."
"Why I shouldn't steal Christmas, blah, blah, blah. Look, just show me what you need to so this night can end," Mephiles said. He wasn't in the mood for more introductions.
"Yes, we should hurry on. Wouldn't want to waste the time of a demon who's oh so important," the Ghost of Christmas Present said with a booming, hearty laugh.
"Ha ha. Very funny, wise-guy. Let's just get this show on the road," Mephiles replied, getting out of bed. As he floated over to the specter, he had to cover his ears due to its loud laughing. "And can you stop that laughing? It'll destroy my eardrums."
The ghost stopped laughing. "Sorry I'm not the type of ghost that's suitable to your preferences, demon. Like everyone else, I like laughter and being happy. Anyway, it's time to show you just how excited and joyful everyone here is, and what you'll be destroying if you proceed with your plan." With that, the ghost led Mephiles out of the room and into the hall.
In an instant, Mephiles realized that he and the Ghost of Christmas Present were now standing in Jason's room rather than in the hallway outside of his bedroom. Jason, Gzilla, Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and even Sven were sitting around on the floor watching Jason's TV. Instead of the Christmas movie Mephiles heard when he went to sleep earlier that night, they were watching The Big Bang Theory, more specifically the episode where Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Stuart playing a holiday-themed game of Dungeons and Dragons. They laughed at the jokes they found amusing, and even Mephiles laughed at some, but like when he was with the first ghost, no one there heard him.
"See how happy they are?" The Ghost of Christmas Present said. Then he noticed Gzilla and saw the resemblance between the both of them. "So this is who I took the form of."
"Well of course they're happy. They're watching a funny TV show," Mephiles replied.
Mephiles and the ghost continued watching with the group as the part where Sheldon leaves Santa to die comes on. "Doesn't that remind you of someone?" Gzilla said to no one in particular.
"Oh, don't make fun of Mephiles. Even though he probably would leave Santa for dead," Jason replied.
"Why does Mephiles hate Christmas so much?" Elsa asked. She was wearing a snowflake T-shirt with light gray sweat pants that Jason got her for her twenty-second birthday, which was only just a couple of days earlier.
"I don't know. It might be just because he's a demon, so he naturally hates it. Or it might be connected to what happened in his past life," Jason said.
"What happened to him?" Olaf asked.
"He doesn't like other people talking about it. The only people he's ever talked about it to are me and G, and that wasn't until a long, long time after we became friends. He says he doesn't like it when people feel sorry for him," Jason said.
"If he has a problem, then he should talk to us about it. We're here for him, even if he can be quite a pain at times," Anna said.
Mephiles watched with a puzzled look. "Odd, I thought they'd be making fun of me or saying stupid jokes about how it's dumb that I hate Christmas. I never thought they'd care or even wonder about what makes me hate Christmas."
"It's because they're your friends and they see you as a friend," the Ghost of Christmas Present said as he placed his right arm around Mephiles' shoulder in a friendly gesture. "You should talk to them about what you went through."
Mephiles quickly pushed the ghost's arm off his shoulder and moved away from it. "No. It's like Jason said, I don't like it when people feel sorry for me. I don't need it. What good will it do me?"
"They could help you through it. They seem like they would help you if you'd just discuss it with them. But no, you'd rather stab them in the back and rob them of their happiness." The jolly specter floated over to him. "You shouldn't be living in the past for the rest of eternity. Your old family may be gone, but history has a way of repeating itself." Using his arm, the Ghost of Christmas Present made a sweep of it under Mephiles' friends. "All of these people here care about you just like a family would, so you should accept them as a family."
Mephiles had had enough of this. "Whatever, alright!" Mephiles crossed his arms across his chest and turned his back on the ghost. "Just continue with your pointless little pleas." Even though he wouldn't like to admit it, the words of the ghosts were starting to make him reconsider his plan, but not by that much.
"Very well. Let's go see what the other people around here are doing and what you'll be spoiling." The Ghost of Christmas Present grabbed Mephiles' right hand and rocketed up into the air, pulling Mephiles behind him.
"Wooooahhhh!" Mephiles shouted as he and the ghost sped through the ceiling and floors of the castle, passing through them as if they weren't even there, until they emerged from the roof of the castle and into the open sky. As Mephiles looked around at the streets of Arendelle from high above, he strangely got a feeling of wonder from the experience. Upon realizing that, he shuddered and started thinking about destruction to get rid of the feeling. For what felt like half an hour, the Ghost of Christmas Present showed Mephiles a variety of people who were excited for Christmas, namely children. There were children writing letters to Santa, which Mephiles and the ghost read as they were being written, along with people setting up last-minute decorations. Unfortunately for the Ghost of Christmas Present, Mephiles didn't seem to care about ruining their holiday cheer, mainly because he didn't know them and didn't care about what happened to them. When the ghost and Mephiles returned to the demon's room, Mephiles yawned a little. "So, what now?"
"My time has come, so now it is time for you to meet the final ghost. May he have the power to change your mind." With that, the Ghost of Christmas Present disappeared in a huge burst of white light, causing Mephiles to block it out with his right hand.
Once the light died away, Mephiles lowered his hand. "Gee, I wonder who's coming next?" the demon said with sarcasm. Suddenly, Mephiles felt a strangely familiar feeling come over him as an evil-like presence came into his room. Looking around, Mephiles saw a black shadow slide into the room from under the door's crack thanks to the Moon's light. Suddenly, the window slammed shut, leaving Mephiles in total darkness. "If you want to scare me, you'll have to do much better than that."
"Mephiles? Is that you?" came a disembodied voice. Just as suddenly as the window closed, it opened up again, letting moonlight flow back into the room. The shadow began taking the shape of a humanoid figure which began taking a 3D shape. It wore a black hooded cloak that covered its face and made it nearly impossible to see it, and carried a large scythe.
"Grimmy?" Mephiles asked with a laugh, surprised to see his old friend here. "What the hell brings you here? Are you really getting that desperate for money?"
The Grim Reaper shook his hooded head and let out a groan of annoyance. "No, I'm forced to do community service. It was either do this Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come crap or be Sally Struther's food servant for a month. I swear, you accidentally kill the wrong person and everyone gets pissed off at you."
"I thought you said you weren't gonna drink on the job?"
"Hey, I thought I'd be off work that night, but what happens after I have a couple dozen beers? I get a call to collect some old lady in Massachusetts. I wasn't expecting there to be three other old bags with her, though," the Grim Reaper said.
"You killed all of them, didn't you?" Mephiles asked.
"Well, I had to make sure I got the right one, and I couldn't tell them apart." After that, he and Mephiles shared a laugh. "Hey, remember that one time when we went to get Elvis? Wonder what made him think that hiding in the bathroom would save him from me."
"Yeah, good times," Mephiles said with a couple chuckles. He and the Grim Reaper were good friends, and he was glad that this would give him a chance to catch up with his pal. "At least you know my current name."
"Those other two ghosts are so stupid. Rod Serling even told them that you wanted to be called Mephiles," the Grim Reaper said. "I guess those Ghosts of Christmas think they're such big shots they don't have to listen to us common folk, huh."
Mephiles grumbled under his breath after finding that out. "So," he said once he stopped grumbling, "anything new with you?"
"Not much. Look, we can't really chat anymore cause I have to do this and show why you shouldn't do what you're planning to do. If I don't, I'll be in really big trouble, so let's go so we can both get this over with." The Grim Reaper raised his scythe up and stamped the bottom of it on the ground, causing a portal to open up in the floor that sucked them both in.
The portal dropped the Grim Reaper and Mephiles into the future where Mephiles went through with his plan. Both of them saw that everyone in Arendelle was outside, looking miserable since everything Christmas was gone. There were no trees, no wreaths, and no presents.
The Grim Reaper turned to Mephiles. "Okay, so since you pulled a Grinch on Arendelle, everyone is super sad, along with other feelings and emotions that I really don't care about."
Mephiles saw that even his friends were looking sad about what he succeeded in doing, although he didn't know if they knew he was the one who did it. "So, my plan actually works?" he asked the Grim Reaper.
"For all of five minutes."
"Wait, what? What could possibly cheer everyone up in five minutes when the whole kingdom is devoid of anything Christmas?" Mephiles asked, very skeptical about what his friend said.
"Just watch and see," the Grim Reaper replied.
Mephiles silently watched as everyone started talking to each other about how their Christmas was ruined, but suddenly, Anna led Elsa by the hand into the center of the crowd with Jason's iPad in the other hand. Once Anna fooled around with the iPad for a couple of minutes, the song "Sleigh Ride" came on, and both girls began singing it.
Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
Ring-ting-tingling too,
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you,
Outside the snow is falling
And friends are calling, "Yoo hoo",
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.
As the royal sisters kept singing, more and more of the people began singing with them until everyone in Arendelle was singing in a huge circle, holding hands, and rocking their bodies back and forth in rhythm with the music. Mephiles watched the sight in utter disbelief. "Oh, come on!" he shouted. "Seriously, what the hell? I stole everything that reminded them of their precious little holiday and yet they still find happiness?! It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags."
The Grim Reaper turned to Mephiles. "You've never watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas before, have you? Christmas doesn't come from a store, it comes from the magic of everyone being together and giving the gift of happiness to each other. Or some crap like that. I'm just reading from a card, and that's what it says, so don't take my word for it."
Mephiles pondered it for a few moments. Maybe Christmas did come from the heart. "Eh, I'm not so sure. They all started singing when Anna started singing that Christmas song, so all I need to do is steal anything that could play Christmas songs. Then, there will be nothing to save them from sadness."
"There's the Mephiles I know," the Grim Reaper said. Then he realized that by saying that, he just encouraged his friend to continue with his plan, which may get him even more community service. "I mean...um...you shouldn't do that because you will still fail, or something. Look, have you learned some sort of lesson from this, because I've got to go do something important now..."
"Yeah, yeah, I've learned a lesson," Mephiles replied, eager to get back to his regular life just as much as his friend was.
"Good, so just remember to not steal Christmas." With that, the Grim Reaper opened a portal underneath Mephiles which sucked the demon back to his bedroom.
When Mephiles woke up, he noticed sun light shining through the window. Once he got out of bed, he floated over to where his iPhone was and checked the time and date. A smirk came over him when he saw that today was Christmas Eve. With an evil and mischievous laugh, Mephiles pulled the skin covering his hidden mouth back over it as he floated to get some food. He had a busy night ahead of him, and he didn't want to work on an empty stomach.
The rest of the day was filled with excitement as everyone in the kingdom awaited Santa's arrival. Although one inhabitant didn't know that because he was too busy scheming. Mephiles spent half of the day in his universe looking around for a Santa Claus costume that would fit him once he took Jolly St. Nick's form. Since he wasn't good at sewing to begin with, along with the fact that he couldn't ask someone to make the Santa costume for him due to raising suspicion, he had to buy one. That task turned out to be more difficult than he thought. While it was December in Arendelle's universe, in his universe it was the month of April, which meant that Halloween costumes were very scarce. Luckily, he managed to find one in an XXL size at a year-round costume store in California. Once he got it, portaled it back to his room, and hid it under his bed, Mephiles returned to his universe; more specifically Miami Beach. He rested in the sand for the rest of the day until sunset before he returned to Arendelle when it was midnight.
The purple portal that opened out of thin air in Mephiles' room created additional light aside from the moon's rays. Since it was midnight, Mephiles figured everyone in the kingdom was asleep, making it the perfect time to start his plan. After changing his form into that of Santa Claus (minus a visible mouth, but it didn't matter due to his beard and connecting mustache covering the spot it would be), Mephiles put on the red and white jacket, hat, and red Santa pants he got at the costume store.
Once everything was on, Mephiles chuckled to himself ominously. "Even though I don't have a mirror to look at, I'm sure I'm a spot-on match for that jolly fatso." With a quiet-like laugh, Mephiles set out to steal Christmas from Arendelle. The place he started out with was, logically, the castle. Even though he had a large sack, it was mainly just for show. Instead of putting things he stole inside of it, Mephiles simply opened up one of portals and tossed everything into it. The tree, presents, stockings, and wreaths scattered around the castle were tossed into the portal without care. When it came to he and his friends' electronic devices, he opened a different portal, one leading to an area where he kept all of his personal belongings, and placed them in there. When Arendelle castle was stripped of holiday decorations, Mephiles set out into the kingdom.
Nothing was spared from his clutches. Every house in the kingdom was robbed of presents, trees, and ornaments. Not even the streets were safe from Mephiles' snatching. All through the night, no one was the wiser and no one caught him. Until he reached the house of one Cindy LouCampbell. Everything started out the same like with the other houses, but Mephiles didn't notice that Cindy, who fell asleep while waiting for Santa, was sleeping close to the fireplace. She looked like she was only five years old, hold blonde hair, and was wearing pajamas. The sound of Mephiles' portal opening woke her from her slumber.
"Santa?" she asked, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She watched as Mephiles dropped a couple presents in the portal.
Mephiles paused in shock. He wasn't expecting a confrontation. Slowly, he turned around to face the girl. "Um, hello there, little girl," Mephiles said in a voice that would sound fitting coming from Santa.
"Santa, why are you taking away our presents?" Cindy said, obviously confused.
"Well..." Mephiles' brain started thinking of various things he could tell the child when he finally settled on one. One that was used by someone else that worked. "I have to take all your presents and tree and ornaments back to the North Pole so they can be fixed. Some of the presents were accidentally damaged by my elves and this tree has some dead limbs. You want your Christmas to be perfect, right?"
Cindy nodded her head.
"Alright. Now, off to bed. You need your sleep because tomorrow will be a big day," 'Santa' replied, waving to her.
"Good night, Santa," Cindy said. As she began walking back to her bedroom, she walked face-first into the wall. "Oww," she said. After rubbing the pain out of her face, she continued on her way until she reached the stairs. She tripped on the first step and fell. "Owww," she said again, pushing herself back up and began climbing the stairs.
"You sure you don't need help?" 'Santa' asked.
"No, no, I got it," Cindy said as she continued upward. Moments later, she came sliding down the stairs on her back until she crashed into the wall.
"Oh my god, are you alright?" 'Santa' asked, watching this with hidden amusement.
"I'm...I'm fine," Cindy said as she began crawling up the stairs on her hands and knees. Apparently, she made it back to her room because Mephiles didn't see her after a couple of minutes passed.
With that awkward and slightly amusing scene over with, Mephiles proceeded to remove the house of everything Christmas-related. After Cindy's house was done, Mephiles continued his plundering. It wasn't until the arrival of dawn that Mephiles was finally finished. With Arendelle completely devoid of everything Christmas, Mephiles portaled himself to the ice castle of Marshmallow. Upon arrival, he nearly bumped into the humongous pile of Christmas objects he portaled there. "Well, nothing left to do besides head home so no one suspects a thing." Mephiles changed back to his regular humanoid-hedgehog form and portaled the Santa Claus costume into Hell, but before he could portal back to his room, a shimmering bright light coming from behind him caught his attention. When he turned around, he saw a very familiar form emerge from the light. Standing before him was the ghostly form of Mephiles' mother. She looked just like she did in the past before her untimely passing, but was wearing angel-like clothing.
Mephiles' eyes widened a little as he looked the ghost over before finally speaking up. "Mommy?" he asked in a quiet voice, a little part of the child he once was all those years ago starting to come back to the surface of his personality.
"Hi, hunny," his mother replied.
The demon floated over to her and gave her a hug, but found it was quite difficult since his arms would go through her body. Fortunately, he could feel her hug him back. In this single moment, Mephiles had never felt so happy in his demonic life.
"You really have changed since the last time I saw you, Marcus," Mephiles' mother said, looking at her at son. "What happened to your mouth?" she asked, looking quite shocked.
Mephiles looked up at her and pulled the piece of skin covering his hidden mouth so he could look somewhat normal for her. "I got it ripped off..." he said. "But it doesn't matter. What are you doing here? I'm surprised you even remembered me seeing how long you were up there."
His mother smiled and chuckled. "How can I forget my son? Even though he looks and acts much different from when I last saw him. I'm sorry that I haven't come to visit you in the three years that you've been out of Hell. Everyone in Heaven isn't told of what happens down there, so I had no idea what was going on with you and your sister. How is Mercilla, by the way?"
"She's good, I think. She occasionally comes out to visit, but it isn't very often." Mephiles then picked up on what his mother said before. "Wait, if you don't know what's been happening with me, how did you know that I was out of Hell for the past three years?"
"I saw everything you went through and saw with the Ghosts of Christmas. Every year, angels in Heaven watch the three ghosts help out troubled people on Christmas, and this year they chose you due to your nonsense plan," his mother explained.
"It wasn't nonsense..." Mephiles said, looking off to the side as he rubbed his right arm.
"Oh really? And what would it have accomplished?"
"It would make everyone feel sad and miserable like I've had to every Christmas I came here," Mephiles replied.
"Marcus..." Mephiles' mother knelt in the snow so that she was eye-to-eye with her son. "Christmas doesn't mainly come from this," she said, motioning to the pile of Christmas objects in the snow. "It comes from the magic of being together to share memories with one-another. Even though everyone would be sad for a short time, happiness would return. You can never truly steal Christmas."
Mephiles thought over what his mother said, and for the first time in forever, actually listened to his heart. It agreed with his mother. "I...guess so..."
"Now, let's go take all of these presents and things back to everyone," his mother said.
"But that will take forever. I don't even know who owns what," Mephiles explained.
Mephiles' mother smiled. "Then why don't you ask for help?"
"You actually want to help me?" Mephiles asked.
His mother nodded. "Of course I want to help my son. It'll take more than one person to help clean up this mess." She floated over to him and gently took his hand. "Close your eyes and let the joy flow through you. I'll need some extra power."
"What if my power corrupts you?" Mephiles asked, feeling a bit worried about that possibility.
"I'll be alright, I promise." That was all it to get Mephiles to comply with her request. "Now picture everyone getting their presents and things back, and I'm sure it'll come true."
As the two started thinking about that, ghostly energy began forming around the pile of Christmas objects that began levitating them into the air. The pile flew down from the mountain and into Arendelle. Presents and other objects began to separate from the pile's mass as they began floating back to the home or street corner they belonged to. In little to no time, everything was back where it belonged, and no one knew that it was even stolen at all.
Mephiles and his mother opened their eyes and looked at each other. When his mother gave him a warm smile, Mephiles looked at her briefly, then at the ground with a half-smile. "I guess you'll be going back up there now..."
His mother shook her head. "Not until the day's over."
For the first time in a long time, Mephiles smiled at something that wasn't involving pain or misery. "Really? You mean it?"
"Uh huh. Now get your sister up here so we can have a proper Christmas," his mother said.
"I will, but there are some people I want you to meet first," Mephiles said. "I guess I have to introduce you to them some time."
"I can't wait to meet all of your new friends, Marcus."
Mephiles opened a portal back to the kingdom. "Yeah, I go by Mephiles now so don't call me that when you're around them. I don't want them knowing my real name."
"Aw, why did you change your name to that?" his mother asked.
"Because it's a cooler sounding name, and I don't think I can ever go back to being Marcus again. I've changed too much."
"Well, I think a little part of Marcus came back today," his mother said with a smile as she entered the portal.
"Whatever," Mephiles said with a laugh as he followed her.
When Mephiles and his mother exited the portal, they were in Arendelle's castle, everyone was already up and at the tree. Torn wrapping paper and shouts of excitement meant that the presents from Santa were beginning to get torn open by Jason and his friends. Everyone turned to his portal once it appeared and were taken by surprise when a ghost followed Mephiles out.
"Woah! Ghost!" Gzilla shouted, looking at it cautiously.
Elsa and Jason got in front of the others just in case this ghost wasn't friendly, which was hard to tell because Mephiles knew some pretty evil and bad spirits. "Who is that?" Elsa asked.
"Stop acting like that. This is my mother," Mephiles said, rolling his eyes at his friends reactions. "She isn't going to hurt you so stop acting like pussies."
"Mephiles, be nice to your friends!" his mother said in a scolding tone.
Mephiles sighed. "I'm sorry," he said in a tone that really sounded like he didn't want to say it. "Anyways, I wanted to introduce you to her and tell all of you that me, her, and my sister won't be joining you so we can have a Christmas at our old house."
"I'm Queen Elsa," Elsa said, doing a little curtsey.
"I'm Jason, one of your son's best friends."
"I'm Gzilla, but you can call me G, and I'm your son's other best friend."
"Hi, I'm Princess Anna," Anna said with a wave as she elbowed Kristoff's shoulder gently, causing him to wave and introduce himself. "And I'm Kristoff."
Olaf walked up to Mephiles' mother. "Hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs." The little snowman tried to hug the ghost woman, but quickly discovered that was impossible.
"Aww," Mephiles' mother said with a warm smile. "I'm sorry you can't hug, but I'm a ghost." She looked up at the others. "It's very nice to meet all of you. I hope Mephiles hasn't caused all of you too much trouble because I know he can get out of hand at times."
"At times?" Elsa said in disbelief.
Before she could continue with what she was going to say in response, Mephiles coughed loudly, interrupting her. "Anyways, I think we're gonna go now."
"Why don't you stay here and celebrate Christmas with us?" Anna asked.
"Because I'd like to have one Christmas with just my family," Mephiles replied.
"Where's your father?" Elsa asked.
Mephiles cringed at that question and began growling lowly. "I don't want to talk about it."
Noticing that she might have just brought up something that she shouldn't have, Elsa nodded. "Alright."
"Before you go, you should take these with you," Jason said, gathering up seven unopened presents in his hands. "They're all for you, Mephiles," he said, handing the presents over. "We each got you something, but somehow we found an extra one that was labeled as 'From: 3 GoC'."
Even though the others didn't know who the mystery gift was from, Mephiles sure did. "Thanks. I'll be back later," Mephiles said before he went into the portal.
Mephiles' mother waved to her son's friends. "Goodbye. I'm glad we met," she said as she began floating after her son. "Don't be too hard on him whenever he does something wrong. He's a good boy."
"MOM!" Mephiles shouted before dragging his mother into the portal with him, closing it behind. When they exited the portal, Mephiles and his ghostly mother were inside their old house in the present day.
The house had definitely seen better days and looked as if no one lived in it after them. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls, dust was covering everywhere and thick cobwebs were strung about randomly. In some of the rooms there were graffiti writing on the walls and most of the windows were broken. The house used to have lots of furniture in it, but now most of it was gone due to looters. This wasn't what Mephiles was expecting to come back home to.
Mephiles silently took it all in. While he just stared, his mother slowly floated up from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You sure you don't want to celebrate with your friends? I'm sorry that everything here isn't like you wanted it to be."
"I'd like to have Christmas here with my family for one last time," Mephiles said. "I'll get Mercilla here," he said as he began floating up to his room. He was so wrapped up in how things have drastically changed at his old home he didn't hear what his mother reply. Once he reached his room, he saw the it was mainly cleaned out of all furniture. He hoped that the object that he was searching for was still here, so he checked the last place he knew he placed it.
Upon opening the closet, he saw dusty and moth-eaten clothes still hanging on their hangers, as well as a group of toys piled up on the closet floor. And there it was! His toy robot. Happy that at least one thing from his childhood could be salvaged, Mephiles grabbed the robot, opened a portal to his personal belongings space, and placed the robot in there with care. Once that was taken care of, Mephiles began to telepathically call out to his sister, Mercilla. It took a couple tries, but finally a puddle of black liquid emerged from the floorboards and began shape-shifting its form into that of a teenage girl.
Mercilla was a skinny eighteen-year old girl with jet black hair that extended the lower part of her back. Her hair had blood-red highlights on both sides of her hair that went down the length of her hair. Her lips were red and she wore a black and purple evening gown. Her hair was a mess, meaning that she probably was doing something risqué with some other demon like usual. "Ugh, what is it, Mephiles? I was with my boyfriend."
"Who is it this time? Backbreaker, Sledge, Maurice?" Mephiles asked. His sister wasn't a nice girl and could be rather sleazy when it came to boyfriends, but she was still family. Back when he lived in Hell with her, he was always beating up other demons who tried to take advantage of her body, but now that he was gone that's what probably was happening.
"Shut up, I'm not a slut!" Mercilla shouted at him. "And fyi, his name is Skullfire."
"Oh that guy's a douche," Mephiles said. "Why do you get involved with such assholes?"
"He's not like the other demons, Mephiles! He treats me with respect!"
"That's what you say about all the demons you date and yet they still treat you like shit at some point, and then I have to sneak into Hell just to kick their ass because they hurt you in some way."
"I don't need you to come to my rescue, I can handle myself! Now shut up and tell me why we're in an old, rotting house!"
"This is our house, you dumbass!" Mephiles said angrily.
"Mephiles! Mercilla! Quit arguing and come down here this instant!" Mephiles' mother shouted from downstairs.
Mercilla's eyes widened as she recognized the voice. "Is that... Mom? What's she doing here?"
"We're having a family Christmas and I thought it'd be nice if you could be with us, what with you being my sister and all," Mephiles replied, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Why didn't you just say so?!" Mercilla said with a happy laugh. She hadn't seen her mom in forever. She floated past Mephiles as fast as she could, shouting "mommy".
When Mephiles finally caught up to her, he saw that Mercilla was hugging their mother as best she could. After introductions and explanations were given, presents were opened (and shared with one-another due to some convincing from their mom). When Mephiles opened the gift the Ghosts of Christmas left him, there was nothing inside.
Mercilla looked at the empty gift in confusion. "What was the point of wrapping up an empty box when there wasn't even a present in it to begin with? If I were you, I'd be pissed at being duped like that. Those ghosts didn't get you anything."
Mephiles looked at the empty box, knowing that their gift wasn't something they could fit inside a box. "They got me something I've wanted for a long time," he said, looking at his family, who were finally reunited again after so many decades.
The End
A/N: And so ends another chapter. This one was really long to edit, mainly because I had to change so much of the wording. Also, things were changed, like originally the Ghost of Christmas Present was supposed to take Jason's form, but I thought that Jason's form didn't really fit with that ghost. There were scenes that were cut out, so I'll explain what they were and why they were cut out. 1). When the Ghost of Christmas Past visited Mephiles, it was originally going to take Mephiles to next year's Christmas when he and his sister were forced to take part in "Satanmes" (a holiday where souls are given to Satan as presents for him to either torture or turn into demons), but it was cut out because that really didn't fit in with the Ghost's role of trying to show the good things about Christmas. 2). The Grim Reaper (who I based on the Family Guy version in this story if you were wondering) was originally supposed to show Mephiles that he would be wandering across various universes looking for friends if he didn't change his ways, which I cut because I thought it was stupid. 3). The ending was going to be different than the one I went with. The Ultra Q monster Garamon was going to make a cameo appearance with his family when they come out of the ocean and try to walk through Arendelle. Gigantis was going to fight them until he decides to spare them since it's Christmas (and they weren't intending to cause trouble) and helps them go around the kingdom to get where they need to go. I cut that because I felt that since this chapter features Mephiles as the star, Gigantis shouldn't really "spoil Mephiles' thunder" and steal the chapter's finale. Now, it's time to reply to people!
godzillafan1: I deliverately homaged that part from Scary Movie 3 because I found it to be funny. Zalgo is going to come back in the last sequel to this story as a villain. After this story, I was thinking about doing a sequel to this story or a crossover between Transformers G1 and Wreck-It Ralph (something I've had written out ever since WIR was out in theaters). There's already a Godzilla/Little Mermaid crossover story. It's one of the stories that inspired me to write fan fiction.
Kaijukiller: There was going to be music in this story like I did with my Sonic crossovers, and it would have been a part of the story. Mephiles would have played music for Gigantis to listen to whenever he fought another giant monster as a way of pumping him and getting his adrenaline flowing, but I cut that out due to there being no logical way for him to actually get the music to be loud enough for Gigantis to hear over the sounds of the battle.