Dear Satan

'Dear Satan,

I konw you have it hrad, and being gredy is a sin, but regarldess I'll shamelesly wish for somthing.

A few yaers ago, I got an iPad. It's so old that it doesn't work veyr well but I need one for shcool. Since that's the case, I wsa wondering if I could get a one from yu? My parents wil just buy another chaep one if I ask them...

Thank you very mush, Gustav'

10-year-old Gustav was very excited for Santa's arrival. He really wanted that iPad. Of course, he wasn't telling the whole truth when he said it was for school (He also wanted to play the popular game, C*ndy Cr*sh), but since he had dyslexia, he couldn't work without it.

Having finished his wishing list, he carefully slipped it into a stocking which he then hung on a wall.

"What did you write?"

Gustav turned around and looked in the direction of the voice, but no one was there. Seemingly familiar with the situation, he turned the direction of his sight downwards towards the ground.

Doing this, a small boy popped into view. It was his younger brother.

"That's a secret, how about you, Falcon?"

Falcon replied, his voice filled to the brim with an undisguisable mischief, "I'll tell you if you tell me..." He quickly followed up with, "Please? Just a little hint?"

"No! What if we make Santa angry!?"

The harsh rebuttal made Falcon lower his head with shame. He innocently said,

"I'm sorry… I don't want to make Santa angry."

This made Gustav soften his hard expression comforting Falcon to the best of his abilities.

"It's okay, just don't do it again, or no presents..."

"OKAY!" The last part made Falcon cry in shock, realizing his improper action, he continued swiftly "Okay… I got it."

As he spoke, his words became quieter, until the point where they were almost inaudible.

Gustav glanced at Falcon one more time, before turning around and heading towards his room. He walked out the living room, through the kitchen, by the bathroom, and into his room.

Well although he was a bit hard on Falcon, it was mainly to try to hide his excitement. No matter how hard he tried to put on an uninterested look, he just couldn't stop looking forward to tomorrow; Christmas Day.

He laid in his bed for an hour trying to calm down to a point where he could sleep, and eventually, his eyelids became heavier. They became heavier and heavier, until they were as heavy as Mt. Everest.

Gustav closed his eyes and finally fell asleep, completely unaware of the subtle mistake he had made...

'Zzzzzz'

***

The next morning, Gustav woke early. He was wide eyed and bushy tailed. He was so excited, that he was the first one awake in the house. He woke up before his mother and father, before Falcon, and even before his youngest brother, Victor.

Gustav felt a strong urge to get his present now. Of course, he didn't. After all, only good boys get presents. So he patiently waited.

*Crunch*

Gustav was sitting by the dining table, eating a bowl of cereal. What he was eating today was the sweet and tasty cereal, different from the usual bland and dry kind.

Gustav had this privilege since it was a holiday; Christmas. He checked the clock hanging from the wall.

"5:30? Ughhh, why can't time just move faster..."

*Woof!*

Suddenly, a bark.

*Wook! Woof!*

Directly followed by another two. Gustav knew who was making this sound. He leaped off of his chair and moved in the direction of the sound.

*Woof!*

The sound came once more. Directly in front of Gustav, stood a large Golden Retriever. Upon seeing this, Gustav ran forward and embraced the dog. He ruffled it's hair and said,

"Lucas!"

This was the name of the dog. Lucas was a large, friendly, 13-year-old dog and the final member of Gustav's family.

Gustav was so excited for Christmas that he didn't care if Lucas understood him or not, and began rambling to him about how great the Christmas was going to be.

Time passed quickly when talking to Lucas, and it didn't take long before the entire family was awake.

The family had breakfast together, but Gustav merely sat amongst them chatting. He had already eaten earlier.

Suddenly, their mother started a conversation. She did nothing much, merely asked a simple question.

"So are you three excited to open your presents?"

"YEAH!!!" The three brothers, Gustav, Falcon, and Victor, answered all at once. The three boys had all had difficulties sleeping due to the excitement, so of course, they would answer in a manner such as this.

Gustav was the first to formulate a proper response. He answered,

"Of course I'm excited! I couldn't sleep very well 'cause I was busy thinking about today!"

Next was the 6-year-old Victor. He said,

"Are you crazy?! Of course, I'm excited! I can't wait to get those new B*yblades! "

Hearing this, Falcon giggled and softly punched Victor's shoulder. Victor, being the child that he was, glared at Falcon and growled at him like a vicious dog.

The sight of the crazy 6-year-old made the rest of the family explode with laughter. Falcon, in particular, couldn't help but make fun of Victor as he tried speaking between his sporadic bursts of laughter.

"HAH- You, You're insane! HAHAHA- Crazy Victor! HAHAHAHAHA!"

"Now, now. Stop laughing." Their mother said between her small giggles, "But, seriously, that was quite funny."

After these words from their mother, the iron-clad leader of the family, the boys stopped their laughter and everyone settled down once more. Soon, breakfast was finished and the family of five (Lucas was excluded for some unexplained reason) sat by the stockings.

"Same rules as always. Victor, you're the youngest, go and get your presents first."

Hearing this confirmation of the facts, Victor dashed towards his stockings. It was easy to see that there was something in it.

Victor flipped the stocking upside down and spilled its contents on the floor. Out of the stockings came a present, wrapped in Christmas gift wrapping, and a letter.

Victor threw the letter to his mother and began unwrapping his Christmas present. His mother opened the envelope and read the message inside out loud. It read,

'Hohoho. Merry Christmas Victor. You have wished for the new B*yblades and the new B*yblades I have gifted to you. I hope this gift will bring you happiness and will keep you as a good boy.

-Santa'

"WOOAAH!!!"

A cry of pleasant surprise arose from Victor. Curious at what had made him so excited, Gustav glanced in his direction, only to be stunned himself.

On the ground surrounding Victor laid the torn up gift wrapping. In his hands, he held the brand new B*yblade set. He wore an excited, nearly fanatical expression on his face and if you looked closely, you would notice that his arms were trembling.

Falcon seemed impressed and began speaking to Victor,

"Woah, what is that?"

Victor answered excitedly,

"It's the newest B*yblade released to the public!! It has a driver that can switch between the 3 basic forms, attack, defense, and stamina, as well as a special left spin - spin steal mode. Supposedly it can defeat any other B*yblade with ease! This is the best present ever!!!"

Falcon was impressed. Not by the B*yblade, but rather by Victor's intensive knowledge about it.

A bit of time passed, as Victor was still crazy about the B*yblade, but before long he calmed down a bit and sat with his mother. His mother, who was now sitting with Victor on her lap, said casually,

"Alright, Next it's Falcon's turn. Go and take a look at your present."

Falcon walked calmly to the stocking. Although he looked calm, he was actually shaking inside. What if he didn't get what he wanted? What if he didn't like what he got as much as he had thought? What if…

He played multiple scenarios through his mind but finally, he got to his stocking. He carefully put his hand into it and extracted a present, wrapped in similar wrapping to Victor's present, and an envelope.

Falcon placed his gift on the floor and gave the envelope to his mother, who once again read it out loud.

'Hohoho. Merry Christmas Falcon. You have wished for a football and a football I have gifted to you. I hope this gift will bring you happiness and will keep you as a good boy.

-Santa'

It was a letter from Santa once more. This letter was written in a very similar style to the first. Hearing this, Falcon was slightly disappointed. He thought to himself, 'I should have wished for something better'.

But despite being disappointed, the only expression shown on his face was pure excitement. He walked over to the spherical present and unwrapped it. Tearing away at the gift wrapping slowly revealed a football.

This football managed to draw a gasp from Falcon, as he realized what it was.

"This, This is the football that David Beckham practiced with!! I, I can't believe it, such a ball could be sold to a hardcore fan for tons of money. This is amazing!!!!"

But despite being shocked, he managed to calm down at a surprisingly fast rate. He sat down on the couch and looked eagerly towards Gustav.

Gustav looked around, only to realize that everyone was staring at him, clearly waiting for him to go towards his stocking.

Gustav let out a sigh, stood up, and began slowly walking towards the stocking. Finally arriving, he brought out the contents. First, the letter, then the gift. He gave the envelope to his mother and waited for her to begin reading it. It read,

'MUHAHAHAHAHAHa. Merry Christmas Gustav!! I see you understand who is truly in power in this world. Not Santa, but I, Satan!!! You have sensibly wished for an eye-pad and seeing as we have been linked by fate, I shall gift one to you. Don't disappoint me…

-Infinite pain, Satan'

The moment she finished, the atmosphere became awkward. The family looked at each other, but no one seemed certain of what should be done. Gustav's father suggested,

"Uhh, I dunno, Gustav, maybe try opening your present?"

"Sure..?" Gustav answered, his voice filled with uncertainty. "I guess, what's the worst that could happen?"

He picked up the gift and began unwrapping it, revealing a necklace. The pendant was a small pad made of an unidentifiable black metal. Confused at what it was, Gustav wore the necklace and waited. Nothing.

Confused, he turned around and looked at his parents. Then, the pendant changed. The center of the pendant bulged outwards, becoming convex. Through the center of the bulge, a horizontal line appeared.

The two parts of the bulge separated, revealing a bloodshot eyeball.

*Cough! Cough!*

Gustav felt a sharp pain in his mind. A burning sensation. The pain made him cough twice in succession.

"AHHHHHH!"

A scream echoed through the building. Gustav hurriedly looked towards the source. It was his mother. Afraid of what could possibly make his mother scream, Gustav followed her line of sight.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

What he saw scared him. He was looking directly at his hand. It was covered in blood.

Then, he felt the pain in his head speaking to him. It was teaching him. The Eye-Pad (Necklace) was transferring information directly into his brain. It taught him what the Eye-Pad was, and how it could be used.

Throughout this process, Gustav felt an unspeakable amount of pain. His eyes became bloodshot. You could clearly see all of the small blood vessels under his skin moving, trying to break out.

*Cough!*

Gustav coughed once more. He coughed out pure red blood. This blood landed once more on Gustav's arm. He could feel himself becoming insane.

'Kill! Torture! Pain! Torment! Slaughter! Massacre!' More and more, the Eye-Pad was talking to Gustav. Then Gustav closed his eyes and fell over.

*Plonk*

He had fainted.

***

"Ughhh, where am I?"

When Gustav awoke, he was scared. He wasn't home. Trying to understand what had happened, he tried recalling what had happened before he fainted.

"Right, I put on that necklace and… AH!"

Finally, he remembered. He remembered the letter from Satan and the evil necklace, and the pain and…

Gustav calmed himself. He wasn't sure how he managed to become calm, but he started thinking. He looked around and found out that he was in some sort of alleyway.

"I need to get back to my fami- aghh!"

At this moment, Gustav felt a sharp pain in his mind. He could hear someone speaking to him, saying 'Kill! Torture! Pain! Torment! Slaughter! Massacre!'. Gustav tried to fight it but was completely defenseless against its might.

His face went from calm to troubled, to pained and finally, to demonic.

"HIHIHI. Kill~" Gustav spoke in a demonic voice

Gustav had been taken over by the Eye-Pad. Suddenly, Gustav's eyes narrowed. He turned abruptly and stared behind him, his pupils had become a deep shade of purple and his face was contorted in pain.

"Ughh, hello. Are you alright? It isn't safe to be here..." A young man spoke nervously. Seeing this young man, Gustav smiled menacingly and pounced towards the man.

The man was clearly not prepared to be attacked and was easily knocked to the floor. Gustav stared through the man's soul and said,

"MUHAHAHAH! Thank you very much~ I just needed a sacrifice~. I hope you enjoy your one-way ticket to hell."

"Wh, What?! What are you doing? Stop! STOP!!

A few moments later, Gustav was seen by a civilian as he exited the alley. That civilian never found out about Gustav's actions, and continued living his life, unaware of how close he had been to danger at that moment.

***

Back at Gustav's home, his family was panicking. They had just lost their son to some demonic item. His mother and father had already called the police, but their call was mistaken as a prank call and was therefore not taken seriously.

"We have to find Gustav and bring him back!"

Surprisingly, the person most motivated to get Gustav was Falcon. Although Falcon rarely showed it on the outside, he truly cared for his brother.

'I see… Well, what if I could help you save him?' Falcon was inwardly shocked as he heard a voice talking to him. He looked left and right but was unable to spot the source of the voice.

The voice rang once more through his head, 'No use looking for me. I am talking to you with telepathy. Just speak in your mind and I will hear it.'

Falcon took a deep breath and thought, 'Okay, can you hear me? You said we could save Gustav, but how exactly? Heck, who are you even?'

The voice seemed as though it didn't care about the barrage of questions and began systematically answering.

'I said we could save your brother, but it will have to wait for now. I am Santa Claus, and I'll explain why this has happened. You all sent wishing lists to me, didn't you? Well, Gustav did the same, but he accidentally addressed it to Satan rather than Santa. Rookie mistake. Anyways, Satan usually doesn't get any letters at this time of year and was so happy when he got one, he fulfilled the wish and so this happened.'

Santa took a short pause, and then continued, 'Your brother wished for an iPad, but Satan mistook this for an Eye-Pad. An Eye-Pad is a demonic artifact which can give immense power over evil to whoever uses it. The evil power took over his mind and he's now gone berserk. If we don't stop Gustav, the entire world may be destroyed. So, will you fight him; your own brother?'

Falcon sat down, contemplating the words of Santa. He thought for a little bit. 'Santa huh? Is he trustworthy? He should be, after all, he is THE Santa Claus. But who even says he's Santa? He does, but so what? Can I trust what he says? But I really do want to save Gustav… I'll have to gamble.'

"Fine, Santa, I'll listen to you. What's your plan to stop him?"

Falcon could hear Santa let out a sigh of relief. Clearly, he wasn't as calm as he was trying to appear. Santa spoke hurriedly, as though he was afraid of Falcon taking back what had been said.

"Great! Alright here's my plan. Although Gustav has an artifact from Satan, both you and your younger brother have my gifts. I shall enhance them with my power and you can use this to subdue Gustav. You must do so quickly before he becomes too powerful and causes too many deaths."

After Santa had finished his sentence, Both Victor's premium B*yblade set and Falcon's football began glowing with a bright light.

This light shone weakly at first, but it quickly became so powerful that it felt like looking at the Sun. Then, at the peak of its brightness, it suddenly dimmed, looking just like normal.

Faced with this sight, Falcon couldn't help but reveal a gasp of admiration.

"Huh? What's happening?"

It was only after hearing this, that Falcon realized that Victor was also in the room. He ran over to Victor, grabbed his shoulders firmly, and explained the situation.

Normally, even someone as young as Victor wouldn't have been convinced with what he heard, but having just seen something as spectacular as what he had just witnessed, he had no choice but to accept it as fact.

The two boys walked over to their gifts and picked them up. Upon first contact, they could feel a connection being formed between the gifts and their souls. Then, a warmth started circulating through their brains.

The heat was imprinting information into their brains. This is somewhat similar to what happened to Gustav but much more gentle. They felt no pain, as they started learning about the new functions of their gifts.

The moment they had finished digesting the information in their brains, they heard a voice speaking to them. It was Santa.

'I've done what I could to help you, the rest is up to you. You must use your newfound powers to track down and defeat Gustav.'

"Understood!! We will definitely make Gustav normal again!! We will save him!"

But although the boys spoke, no one answered. They didn't know why, but they knew that Santa had stopped the telepathy.

"Well, where do we look?"

Although the boys had said that they will save Gustav, they couldn't. At least, not right now.

The two had gotten very powerful weapons from Santa, powerful enough to defeat Gustav, but they didn't know where he was. They needed to find him.

***

"MUHAHAHAHA!"

While Falcon and Victor were receiving a mission from Santa, Gustav was busy becoming more powerful.

The way the Eye-Pad functioned was that it could absorb all evil and desires in a person. This would end up leaving a person with only positive emotions. This would make them believe they could do anything, it could even result in death.

After all, if they thought they could do anything, they might randomly jump out of a window, believing they could fly. At the same time, the evil is gathered in the Eye-Pad and the Eye-Pad's user, Gustav, will become more powerful.

"Ughh!"

Suddenly, Gustav felt a pain in his heart. There was a small, nearly inaudible voice emerging from his very soul, saying, 'Stop! Stop the killing.'

This voice fought against the Eye-Pad's control, nearly breaking it. The Eye-Pad controlled Gustav was shocked at the force left behind from his inner self.

'I see, if I want full control of him, I must destroy the source of his power. Which is… His family! I guess it's time to pull out the grass by its roots.'

Gustav released a malevolent aura. This was the culmination of several hundreds of peoples' sins and desires. He was strong.

Then, Gustav disappeared, reappearing several meters away. This was not teleportation. He merely ran. He ran at a speed faster than the naked eye could see. With this kind of power, he was confident he could defeat anyone.

Gustav ran at this pace in the direction of his home. He ran so fast that the winds coming off his body were easily capable of knocking over grown men.

He ran.

He ran.

He stopped. In front of him stood a house. He was very familiar with it. It was the house that he had grown up in. It was the place he had first met his brothers. It was the place he had first met Lucas.

He was unaware of the small drop of water, gathering at the corner of his eye. The crystal-like drop stayed for but a moment, laying in place, before gently falling down.

"!!!"

An exclamation of surprise came from behind him. He turned his head and allowed Falcon and Victor to enter his sight.

"There you are~"

Contrary to his true feelings, Gustav smiled sadistically and narrowed his eyes. He waited for an answer, but the hard look on Falcon and Victor's face made it clear that it would never come.

Gustav leaped towards his two younger brothers, his expression vicious. Using the Eye-Pad he launched a blast of sloth towards Falcon.

*Psssiiiiiiiiii*

As the blast approached Falcon, Falcon's body was covered by a transparent sphere. It had the faint colouring scheme of a football. While Falcon was defending, Victor wasn't just waiting about.

From Victor's hand flew a B*yblade. It became larger and larger until becoming about a meter in diameter.

This B*yblade abruptly began moving, spinning around Gustav rapidly. At first, it stayed a distance from Gustav, but then it got closer until it was about to touch him.

Gustav tried jumping up to avoid impact, but the B*yblade was forcing Gustav into the earth. In a fit of desperation, Gustav released his aura, knocking the B*yblade back.

When his aura made an impact with the B*yblade, the B*yblade stopped moving and held its ground. The result was Gustav being blown away by his own aura.

Gustav flew backward, directly into Falcon, who grabbed the Eye-Pad from around Gustav's neck and without hesitation, pulled it off. When the Eye-Pad left Gustav's vicinity, Gustav became limp and fell over.

Gustav looked up at the sky, thinking to himself, 'I'm glad They could stop me...' before finally collapsing.

Falcon held the Eye-Pad in his hand and decisively crushed it with his football. When it was crushed, all of the evil contained within it was released and sent to its previous owners, reversing them back to normal.

Then, the Santa enhanced gifts, shone brightly. This lasted for but a moment, before it stopped. Falcon and Victor checked the connection with the gifts, only to realize that it no longer existed.

A voice rang throughout their heads. It went like this, 'Hohoho, I thank you for saving us. Unfortunately, I must reclaim the power I have bestowed on my gifts. When Gustav wakes up, please tell him that this iPad is his. After all, it's Santa's duty to deliver what good children want'

The End