Chapter 62: Bah Humbug! Part One
I walked back into Capablanca's house, sopping wet and covered with snow. Lunch had been prepared-turkey sandwiches lay on the table on plates in the kitchen. I sat down, picked one up from a nearby plate, and munched on it enthusiastically.
Sooner or later the kitchen filled up with people. Jamie walked in too, since Capablanca had invited him over. After ten minutes, the plates of sandwiches were empty, and crumbs lay everywhere. Capablanca smiled at the chattering people, and picked up the plate, scooping up the crumbs.
There was a loud knock at the door. I and Jamie sat up curiously, and followed Capablanca out to the door. He opened it slightly to see who it was, and the chilly wind blew it straight open.
A man stood there. He was short and wrinkly, and his nose was long and crooked. He had unforgiving black eyes, and he had a permanent frown plastered on his miserable face. He was wrapped up in warm black woollen clothes, and he wore a top hat which looked really expensive. In his hands he held a thin, brown wand and a small black book. He had greying hair and a small grey beard.
"I'm here to collect my tax," he snapped. "If I recall correctly, you owe me a total of 769gp." Capablanca smiled nervously, and gave him a small leather pouch full of coins. The man counted the coins. He snorted.
"You're not fooling me, you young hooligan," he snapped. "You still owe me the 23gp you didn't cough up last week! I want my money, or I'm kicking you and your filthy friends out of that house!" He seemed to bristle with fury. Capablanca stuttered an apology at the ranting old man, and felt in his pocket for more coins. He handed the man the coins. The man counted the coins.
"8gp short," he muttered grimly. "I'll let you go this time, but if you don't have DOUBLE that money next time I see you, I'll have you and your friends out on the streets, freezing to death. Please sign here," he then said, handing Capablanca the book and a writing quill. Capablanca signed his name.
"Very well, sir," Capablanca said. "Merry Christmas, sir."
"Bah, humbug. You can keep your 'Merry Christmas' and I know where you can stuff it," the miserable old man snapped. At that, he slammed the door, leaving Capablanca staring at it in shock. I stepped up, patting him on the shoulder.
"Who was that man?" I asked. Jamie stepped forward.
"I'll field that question," he said. "That man is known as Ebenezer Scrooge. He owns a lot of land in these areas, and he charges people huge amounts of money to live there. He is a horrible, grumpy old man who lives in a mansion. Nobody likes him. He's quite a magician, too," he added.
"Why is he so horrible?" I asked, concerned. Jamie shook his head sadly.
"Nobody really knows," Jamie said. I nodded sadly.
I felt sorry for Scrooge. He was obviously very lonely and miserable if he could act so harshly towards his fellow men, Christmas and himself. I wanted to help him.
Just at that moment, there was a knock at the door. Capablanca opened it warily, and found a little snow imp staring up at him. The blue creature brought back fond memories of last year. The snow imp jumped up joyfully, and stuffed several blue envelopes into Capablanca's hand. The door was closed by another chilly wind.
We opened the envelopes eagerly. Pieces of paper decorated with snowflakes and Christmas trees fell out. I read one. It read:
We heartily invite you to our Christmas feast in the land of snow. Great food and celebration awaits you! Signed, Santa Claus, the ice queen, and prince Jack Frost. In Draynor village, Varrock and Falador, enchanted cupboards will give you entrance. You'll find them in the squares of the respective settlements.
The invitations were for only me, Capablanca, Jamie (for some reason, probably because he was a white knight) and Osrie1, because we probably helped out last year.
"Why were you invited, and not everybody else?" I asked Jamie.
"I helped her a few years ago involving rampaging snowmen," he explained. I nodded sadly, disappointed that my other friends couldn't come.
On the other hand, I was delighted to be a VIP invite to a Christmas feast hosted by the ice queen herself! She must have remembered us from last year.
We left after ten minutes, apologising to the others, promising to bring something nice back. We walked down the snow-covered streets, playfully chucking snowballs at each other.
We finally arrived at the town square, and we were surprised. Right next to the giant Christmas tree was an open cupboard. Snow was pouring out of it, along with white light. A snow imp stood next to it, checking invitations and letting people jump in. There was a rather long queue, and Sir Amik Varze and Cedric were waiting at the end, both clutching invitations. We joined them. Sir Amik Varze spun around joyfully to face us.
After what felt like hours on end, we arrived at the cupboard. Cedric was first in line. The imp took his invitation, and stopped him as he proceeded to enter the cupboard.
"Sorry sir, but this invitation isn't valid. There's no seal of authenticity on the back, plus several decorations are missing, and the snowflakes are the wrong colour," the imp explained, sounding bored. "It's obvious forgery. As Cedric tried to explain himself, the imp sighed. With a blast of freezing cold air, Cedric was blasted back into a pile of snow.
Sir Amik Varze, Osrie1, Jamie and Capablanca were allowed entry. The imp grabbed my invitation, checked it, and gestured for me to jump in. I obliged. I bent my knees, and threw myself in head-first.
I gasped as a gust of cold wind picked me up. I looked behind me, and the cupboard entrance had disappeared in a lot of white light. I was forced to close my eyes is I was blinded by light and snowflakes. The freezing cold winds howled in my ears as I was carted away by it.
The next second, I was face-first in snow. The first thing I heard was screaming. I looked up.
I was in a fenced enclosure, obviously the place where the party was. Behind me, past the fence, was a snowy field, and beyond that there was a forest of snow-covered evergreen trees. Ahead of me were two huge, empty oak tables, with a lot of chairs surrounding. Snow covered the floor, and it was still snowing lightly. Beyond the fence past that, there was a dark, snow-covered mountainous region
People ran around frantically, screaming their heads off. Snow imps surrounded the area, calmly trying to stop the frantic crowd.
A sleigh stood in one corner of the enclosure, and in the other corner a huge decorated Christmas tree stood. On one end of the enclosure, a blue tent stood, and on the other end, a fountain spouted crystal-clear water. I stopped a snow imp as he passed. He gave me a cold stare. A man wearing reindeer antlers ran past me, screaming 'CHRISTMAS IS RUINED!' at the top of his voice.
"Can I help you?" he asked me coolly.
"What's going on?" I questioned. I spotted Osrie1, Jamie, Capablanca, and Sir Amik Varze discussing in a corner.
"Well, the feast was about to start, when a blast of smoke startled everybody. When the smoke cleared, all the food had disappeared, and so had Santa, one of the main organisers of the feast," the imp explained calmly, although he did sound a bit shaken. I gasped. How awful! The food was gone, and even worse, Santa had been kidnapped!
"Do you have any idea who did it?" I asked curiously. He shook his head sadly.
"We're suspecting Ebenezer Scrooge, who lives on the highest hill over there, but we can't barge in there and catch him without any evidence," the imp said, pointing towards the mountainous regions. I squinted towards there, and I saw a dark-looking mansion on the highest hill.
I thought for a moment. Wasn't Scrooge the grumpy old man who demanded tax at Capablanca's house? I never knew he lived in the land of snow. I would have suspected he would do something like steal all the food, and kidnap Santa. If I remembered correctly, all he had to offer at Capablanca's 'merry Christmas', was a 'bah, humbug'. He was obviously rich if he could afford a mansion in these areas. No wonder he's rich, considering the amount of money he charged Capablanca for living in one of many houses he owned in the area.
"We'll help you find evidence," I suggested. The imp gave me a rather cold, but grateful smile.
"Allow me and my friends to silence this crowd first," he said. He grabbed a lump of snow from the ground, and it shifted itself into an icy cone-like loud speaker. Using his small blue wings, he flew onto the table.
"SILENCE!" he bellowed, and the loud speaker amplified his voice so it echoed around the area. Everyone stopped instantly. "Please remain calm. We're working hard to try and get everything back to normal." There was a ripple of muttering, and people stopped screaming, and began chatting nervously. The imp jumped off the table, and hopped towards us.
"I'll help you search," he said. So we began searching through the snow for any evidence.
We searched and searched and searched some more. I was feeling bored, but I remembered the kidnapped Santa, who was the kindest person I'd ever had the fortune to meet, and I kept searching. My hands were numb with cold, but I was relentless in my search.
After at least twenty minutes of relentless searching, I found something. I looked at it curiously, picking it up with almost-frozen fingers. It was a small, black book. It looked very familiar….I opened it, and it was full of paper with signatures on them. At one page, Capablanca's signature was there. It clicked. This was Scrooge's tax money book! I ran towards the rest of the group, who were still searching for evidence.
"I found something!" I yelled. They all looked up. I showed them the book, and Capablanca's signature. The snow imp jumped up.
"That's the evidence we need!" he shouted excitedly. "Let's make our way to his house!" I was about to complain about the huge walk from here, through the mountains, to his mansion, but suddenly we disappeared in a puff of freezing cold steam.
I was dragged through what felt like a snowy abyss. Snow swirled around me so thick I couldn't see. Then, I landed with a thump on tarmac.
I looked up, and the sky above me was a dark grey. The grass and tarmac was covered with snow, and it was still snowing lightly. I spluttered, and shook the snow off me. I looked up, and saw an ominous, grey, dirty mansion. The windows were smeared with filth, and the roof tiles were coming off. Everyone else appeared around me in puffs of cold steam. We sat up, and walked up to the door almost-confidently.
The imp ran up to me, jumped on my shoulder, and whispered something in my ear. I sniggered. It was a plan of action. The imp knew all of Scrooge's fears, and planned to use them against him. I was to be dressed up as a ghost, and sent into his room to scare him. The imp would do some trickery to make it more convincing. He went to everybody, and whispered the plan in their ears. They all had an equal reaction-sniggering and chuckling.
I stepped up to the large dirty oak door, and knocked four times.
The door swung open ominously. I stepped in nervously. Tension hung in the air like a reluctant bat.
We were in a filthy front hall. The floor, walls…everything was coated in a thick layer of dust and dirt. Whenever we walked, dust rose from the ground. A bookshelf stood next to us, as well as two doors. There was a large staircase on the opposite side of the room. Spiders crawled around. That reminded me-I left Eek in the house, and right now he was sleeping soundly on my pillow. I'm glad he didn't come, or I would have squished him by accident while teleporting and landing.
Right ahead of us, in a rather small, rusty cage, Santa Claus was crushed inside. Grime smudged his face, and his usually jolly expression was replaced with a rather glum look. The imp, as part of the plan, rushed past the cage giving it a sad sideways look, and into a different room.
"Help me," Santa choked. I was about to reply, but a sour voice boomed through the house.
"Don't talk to him!" the voice barked. I backed off nervously. In a puff of smoke, Scrooge stood in front of us, his wrinkly old face showing disgust. "What are you doing in my house?" he demanded. I stepped forward.
"You were suspected as the person who stole the food at the feast, and kidnapped Santa Claus, and the evidence is right in front of me, and this was found at the scene of the crime," I shouted, brandishing the black book. Scrooge sniggered.
"What are you going to do about it, loser? I've done this, and Christmas will be ruined," he taunted, pulling his wand out of his black woollen clothes. I growled, and went to grab my barbarian stone hammer. But, I remembered the plan, and put it back. Scrooge laughed.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap. Oh, yeah, thanks for finding my book," he announced, snatching the book out of my grip, marching up the stairs, going inside the room at the top, and slamming the door.
The imp re-appeared, holding a bundle of blankets, chains, and thread, with a pair of scissors on top. He held a needle in his mouth. He dropped everything at my feet.
"We'll turn this into a costume," he announced. He grabbed the needle, some thread, and the scissors, as well as a blanket, and began working.
After several minutes of work, some sinister-looking robes lay in front of me. The snow imp looked triumphant. I stared at them, relishing this moment. I picked them up, and put them on. All this time, Santa stared at us thoughtfully from his cage. I turned around to face him. He jumped up, startled, banging his head on the bars in the process.
"Don't you like my knitting skills, that the ice queen taught all the imps?" the snow imp boasted.
"Don't worry, we'll get you out of there soon," I soothed, addressing Santa. He nodded, too terrified to speak. I stared into a nearby dusty mirror, and almost jumped. I looked terrifying. My hood hung over my face in a way that shrouded my face with shadows. I looked genuinely scary. The imp grinned. He picked up his loud speaker. "Remember, let me do the talking. You just stand there and do hand gestures," he hissed. I left my bag at the bottom of the stairs, only bringing the snow globe and my Easter hammer (as part of the plan). He tiptoed up the stairs, me following him. He opened the door slightly, and tiptoed inside. I peeped inside.
Merry Christmas!
I hope you liked the way I made the evnt. the whole thing was too long, so I split it into two chapters. expect the second half to be up to be up in the next few days (obviously, it won't be up on Christmas day itself).
Until next time, toodles!
P.S. I don't own Charles Dickens, RuneScape, A Christmas carol, or any of the characters.