Missing individuals were reported. One thing was certain, every person who had gone missing disappeared in a specific part of a city. Investigations went through. Authorities tracked the supposed kidnappings to a small, antique nutcracker shop. There were many nutcrackers of different types. There was a blue unicorn, a chubby werewolf, even a few well-known individuals! The detectives seemed amazed by the diversity among all these nutcrackers, especially since some of the nutcrackers resembled the descriptions of the missing people.

"This lead may be a red herring, Tyler..." the officer remarked, looking at the panderg in dismay. "It is probably just coincidence, and people came by here to get their likeness projected onto nutcrackers."

"Oh... okay," Tyler replied glumly. "I'll just be a moment longer. I want to buy one of these."

The officer nodded. "I will be outside then." The officer left, leaving Tyler to talk to the shop keeper.

"Sorry to have them investigate here." Tyler sighed. "I'm just worried about someone is all."

"Oh, I do not mind the intrusion. So long as it removes any doubts!" The shopkeeper stated. "Though, I do say the officer got one thing right."

"What's that?" Tyler asked, cocking his head to the side as he placed a nutcracker on the counter.

"I do enjoy making nutcrackers with people's likenesses." The man smiled. "You wouldn't happen to want one of yourself, would you? I give everyone who offers their likeness a nutcracker of their own!"

Tyler thought for a moment, looking around at the menagerie of nutcrackers around the shop. "I... suppose so."

~~~~~

The officer was frustrated. It had been a good several minutes. "Guy better finish up or I'll leave without him." The officer huffed. He started walking to his car but thought better of it, turning back around and opening the shop door. "Hey, Tyler! We gotta get going! My shift's almost-"

The officer's eyes widened. Before him was the shopkeeper, looking over a blue-jacketed nutcracker about four feet tall. The officer could see in the mirror that the nutcracker had a face similar to... Tyler's. "Oh, wow!" The officer whistled. "You must work really fast."

The shopkeeper froze, staring back at the man. "Oh! You startled me! I was just working on a nutcracker and only needed to paint the head!" The shopkeeper smiled. "I suppose you'd want one, too?"

The officer shook his head. "No, I don't quite fancy nutcrackers." The officer looked down at the nutcracker's face... he saw one of its eyes stare up at him. He gulped. "I'm just here for Tyler and then I'll head out."

"Tyler... left already." The shopkeeper said, his smile fading. "Through the... back door?"

The officer looked down at the nutcracker, its eye had stopped moving and seemed to be more of an oval shape now compared to its rounded shape from a few moments ago. It certainly did look like Tyler... and it seemed a bit smaller than before, too....

"I'll go find him, then." The officer gave a nod and left the shop.

The shopkeeper let out a deep breath. "Almost had us there, huh, Tyler the Nutcracker?" The shopkeeper began to massage the wooden shoulders, letting the nutcracker continue to shrink.

~~~~~

Two days later, a search warrant was placed to search the shop. None of the victims were found, but the officer who brought up the search noted that the nutcrackers WERE the people. The claim was hard to believe until people saw the footage on the officer's camera. The victims were turned into nutcrackers, from what he could tell.

The shopkeeper was arrested and the nutcrackers were confiscated. Someone deemed them all cursed and the souls trapped inside the nutcrackers needed to be freed. There was much debate on what to do with them, as the shopkeeper would not say how to undo whatever they did to the victims.

IT was decided some nutcrackers would be given away around Christmas time as gifts, any remaining would be burned.

When the day was decided to burn the remaining nutcrackers, they had all vanished.

The shopkeeper with the cursed nutcrackers was no more it seemed.

Though, a new nutcracker shop opened up a few cities over.

~~~~~

A birthday gift for  Creature_Unknown! He had yet to be turned into a nutcracker by me! :D

~~~~~

Tyler (C)  Creature_Unknown

Story/shopkeeper (C)  Juntarhenogu Me