You fall to your knees as the blistering cold wind courses against you mercilessly, both your body and state of mind completely oblivious to the snow underneath you turning damp and staining your only garments. The only noise to come out of you is first a whimper which is soon replaced by a quiet sob that then turns into a tearful breakdown, the horrific images of the deceased child coming back at you.

You suddenly feel an unwelcome presence, making you pull your hands away from your face. Through your tears, you are able to recognise a tall humanoid figure looming over you. A shadow cloaked in nothing but black, it's two glowing eyes staring back at you without a single utter from the being whom you recognise as... him.

"S-Spirit! Please! Tell me that was only a illusion! Give me a sign... Anything to assure me that the boy is still alive!" You beg, tears threatening to leave you once again.

His voiceless silence serves as your only answer. It's almost as if he could sense your struggling denial of the previous vision you had come to witness, but even you knew it was true. The family especially the father's faces of mournful despair were enough evidence of the boy's fate.

That was when he gradually raised his left arm. Even with the dense fog and the hulking snowfall, you can easily identify the hand protruding out of his sleeve, attenuate and devoid of any flesh or living tissue forming into a pointing pose. You follow the singular outward finger to a gravestone blanketed in snow, obscuring the stone's engraved letters.

A strong gust of the ongoing blizzard suddenly erased some of the snow, revealing only a small portion of the engravings.

"Here lies..." It read.

"Spirit... I have a question for you... Tell me... Who was the one under the blanket?" You hesitantly ask. Remembering another experience. One where you found a bed housing an immobile body covered in a single sheet and where he was about to uncover the lifeless body but stopped, upon your request.

The wind blew once more. The force brushing away more snow from the gravestone and you stare in horror at the unveiled message.

The sentence 'Here lies' was now followed by... your own name and your birth date.

And your death date... December 25th.

"N-NO! Spirit! Please spare me from this deathly fate! Please give me another chance! I can change for the greater good! I'll do it for everyone! Even little Timmy!" You feverishly clutch his robes in emotional anguish, your face contorting in despair and terror as his only response is a quiet glare from his two glowing eyes, through them you can see exactly what his true face dons.

Shame, disappointment... and resentment.

He hated you.

He hated your uncharitable, sadistic ways... The way you resent anything related to Christmas. The way you only thought of yourself...

And the way you showed little to no compassion... Especially for the poor and ill.

"If he is to die then he'd better do it, and decrease the surplus population!"

Those very words echo in the deeper pits of your mind, getting louder and louder, karma taunting you with no remorse. But you knew that you deserved it and so did he.

You are suddenly brought back to your senses when you feel the ground below you get lighter and begin to crumble. Luckily, you scamper away as a portion of the ground crumbles to reveal a deep hole in your vision. Knowing the hole's exact purpose, you attempt to crawl away but are horrified to find every muscle in your body frozen in place as you feel some strange force pull you towards your own grave. Just before you fall in, you find the feeling in your muscles again and immediately grab hold of a branch protruding from the earth.

You dread looking down, your focus on trying to get back on safe ground when he suddenly blurs into appearance, blocking your only way of escape.

"S-Spirit! Help me! This is not the fate that I desire! I will never be selfish again!"

His eyes glow brighter, revealing his hollow eyeholes and nostrils. Even with his face being nothing but dark marrow, you can see his feeling of disbelief. His face visually saying nothing but, "I refuse to listen to your fallacious lies..."

Another harsh gust blows. This time, against your face, forcing you to close your eyes for merely a second. You open to find the appearance of the branch you are clutching on for dear life changed immensely... to his finger.

Before you can utter out another word, he suddenly dissipates into nothing, taking the finger you are holding onto with him as gravity unleashes it's cruel force upon you.

Your body slowly turns to see the coffin at the very bottom open, revealing it to the empty and laminated in red. You continue to scream in sheer terror as your wooden grave gets closer with every second until finally...

You feel the hard impact of the rotting wood against your whole body as you hear the sound of creaking wood behind you and everything turns black.





And then... You wake up...