Chapter two

The loud noises ceased around him. Quiet and darkness was all that was left. That's it I'm dead, Nickolas thought.

"Don't be so dramatic, you're not dead." A man spoke behind him.

Startled by the intrusion on his thoughts Nick turned towards the voice. "Who are you?"

"I am, well never mind that, it's not important." The man said.

I must have hit my head. Am I in a coma? Nick went over the most common scenarios in his head.

"You are not in a coma, and you would have been dead if I didn't save you just now. You're welcome." The man lurking in the shadows said.

"Hold on, I didn't say that out loud." Nick started to back away from the shadow man.

"Magic, Nickolas." The man said, while a blue light sparked from his fingers.

"Nope, no, not today. I need to take a long nap and when I wake up everything will be as it once was. Sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations, and I haven't slept in 32 hours." Nick was certain there was a chemical imbalance going on in his brain, and rest would do him some good.

"You're not crazy, you feel it inside you, the magic. You are the blood of my blood boy, you can't hide yourself away from it or make it out to be something it isn't." The shadow man launched the blue light across the room lighting up the candles to illuminate the room.

"It's y-you. Now I know I'm dreaming." Nick stared at the man who had come in yesterday with him to the hospital.

"As you are aware my health isn't the same as it used to be. Come, sit down." The old man gestured towards two Victorian looking chairs.

"Where are we?" Nick asked while he cautiously sat down in the chair next to the old man. "And who the hell are you?"

"I said, who I am is not what is important here. What's important is who you are." The man followed Nick's actions and sat in the chair across from his.

"Listen, some real shit is going down, and I'm going to be needed. I can't sit here playing your private doctor that you keep locked up in what? Is this a cellar?" Nick was starting to lose all caution when he thought about the people that are dying.

"Correct you are, you will be needed more than ever." The old man folded his hands in his lap with a relaxed look on his face.

"Look I don't know what games you are playing at, but you need to let me go." Nick wasn't a weak individual, actually he goes to the gym on his free time, and has a strong physique, but he wasn't going to be responsible for causing harm to an elderly man who should still be in the hospital getting treated.

"I never said you couldn't go." The older man pointed towards the door with his hand.

Nick got up and made his way towards the door. Upon opening it he saw nothing but darkness. "Why is it so dark, it's only lunch time?"

"Winter is dark here." The man nonchalantly responded.

"Where is here?" Nick looked back at him puzzled.

"Now that would be ruining the surprise." The man said with a smile on his face.

"So, you won't tell me where I am or who you really are, but you say you are not holding me against my will?" Nick scoffed at his audacity before sitting back in the chair. "Listen this is how it's going to go; you are going to take me back to the hospital right now, admit yourself back in the cardiac ward, and I won't press charges."

While Nick was fuming over the idea of being held captive a small jingling noise appeared behind him. Nick slowly turned towards the noise, not sure what to expect but hoping it was something like a cat collar. In the corner of his eye he could tell exactly what was before him. Now staring at it full on Nick started to laugh hysterically.

"Okay, I have had enough girlfriends to know what this is. You are filming some hallmark shit, aren't you? Like a secret Santa's love connection or something." Reaching his hand out Nick petted the white stag who was about the same height as him. "Though I think you got the breed wrong."

"Reindeer that would be needed this time of year would be female and since breeding starts in September, I can't expect a pregnant Reindeer to haul me around, now can I?" He shrugged his shoulders at Nick.

"Magical blue finger dust, mythical white stag, and teleportation. Did I get sucked into an alternate reality?" Nick spoke quietly, talking to himself.

"I have something for you." The man picked up the album on the circle table that sat between the two chairs. He handed it out towards Nick, and Nick accepted it half-heartedly. When he opened the album up, he saw photos of his parents and him at a young age, photos he had never seen before. As he continued to flip through the pages, he saw pictures of his mother as a teenager and even younger. Many of her photos had the older couple in them as well.

"Sit down son." He gestured back to the chair for Nick to take a seat. "Your mother Carol was my daughter, which makes you my grandson. Now I have been observing you and a few of your cousins hoping for magic to come back into our generations. You see a long time ago the Claus's passed their magic down through our genetics along with the promise to use it for good, but the magic isn't its strongest until Christmas eve. However, as the world progressed the need for magic was no longer needed, people found their own happiness. Eventually genetics did what it always does and got rid of what was no longer needed. I was the only one born of my parents that had magical abilities, and my own children didn't have it. Therefore, the legend of Santa Clause ceased to exist and became a folk tale for the past seventy years. Your name is Nickolas Clause VI, my name is Nickolas Clause V. You are the only descendent in the Claus family to have magic in their genes."

"So, what, you want me to be Santa or something?" Nick looked at him with a disbelieving look on his face.

"It is not who I want you to be, it is who you are." Nickolas Sr. said with a matter of fact tone.

"Nope, I am a doctor, and a damn well good one at that. I don't have time to dress up in some fuzzy suit and deliver presents to all the children of the world. I don't even like kids." Nick held out the album to give it back to his grandfather. "It smells like livestock in here."

"It is a barn." His grandfather said. "The initial attack on the city should be done in a couple hours. I will return you when it is safe, why don't you take a look around in the meantime."