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Was it a knock that had woken her?

The thump, thump, thump of someone knocking on the door roused her from her sleep. She sat up, rubbing the bleariness out of her eyes. Pushing the heavy duvet back, she slung her legs over the side of the bed and slid to the floor.

Thump, thump, thump.

That hadn't come from the door, that had come from above her. She looked to the ceiling, wondering what could be making that racket on the roof. Her parents were probably still asleep. After all, it was 2am.

Thump, thump, thunk!

That sounded like it was in the living room. 

She picked up her softball bat, holding it like coach had taught her to, and slowly, carefully, made her way to the living room, peeking around corners to make sure it was safe.

She'd heard that people would sneak into houses on Christmas Eve to steal things, and if kids heard and woke up, they'd think it was Santa and ignore it.

She wasn't going to allow her family to be tricked like that, though.

She peered into the living room. Just as she expected, there was someone there. He was tall, reaching almost to the ceiling, round, in a red suit, and she caught glimpses of his full, white beard.

He reached into the red sack he carried and pulled out tiny wrapped toys that he placed in the stockings that hung by the fireplace. He pulled out four gifts, one for each other people in her family, and placed them under the tree. Then, he turned to face her.

She almost dropped her bat as he shrank to be the size of a normal adult, waved to her, then turned to smoke and disappeared into the chimney.

Christmas bells jingled, then the thump, thump, thump came back.

She ran to the nearest window as she watched the man fly away on his reindeer-carried sleigh.

Her body rag-dolled as she passed out onto the floor.

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