Edited for language.
* * *
CP: Today is two days away from the anniversary of my niece's death. No one knows how she died except her mother, who passed away recently, and me. I do not know who to tell but I need to tell someone. No one would believe me anyway, they'd lock me up like they locked up my sister. I wouldn't blame them. I hardly believe what happened myself.
Ocean Elf: So let's see if I can get this straight. Your niece is dead, since 2013 at least, your mother is also dead, and your sister is locked up. She probably did the murders and you're afraid of getting locked up for knowing something about it... Maybe it was some sort of ugly inlaw thing. You didn't say your niece's mother was your sister, so it must've been a sister in law, and maybe your sister went nuts.
Well, those are just theories. Let's see how accurate they are or how badly they bomb.
CP: Bethany was going to be 10 years old the day after Christmas, the year she died.
Ocean Elf: Ugh. This isn't starting out well.
CP: She still believed in Santa. I thought she was too old for that crap but her parents thought it was cute. They did everything they could to keep her from realizing it was just a lie.
Ocean Elf: I disagree with this.
CP: Bethany loved Christmas and Santa and elves and all that.
Ocean Elf: I do to. But there is a lot more about Christmas that I love, but like to be clear on what's real and what isn't.
CP: She used to tell me about an elf that would hide in her house. I just thought her parents must have been hiding a toy elf or something but I asked them about it and they said they didn't have any elf dolls. I thought they were joking.
Ocean Elf: If this kid was a few years younger, I'd assume this was just an imaginary friend. By 10, imaginary friends are usually replaced by a favourite doll/action figure or even a pet. But these people have been trying to keep Bethany from growing up, so, apparently that was working.
CP: Bethany's stories about the elf started getting stranger.
Ocean Elf: So, she's something of an oxymoron. A childish 10-year-old, with a dark imagination. Yeah, strange. Usually the two don't go together, unless we're talking about a different sort of childish. A not-so-innocent kind.
CP: She told me that one night she woke up to the elf siting on the doll house next to her bed, watching her with its empty glass eyes.
Ocean Elf: So she put it there some time during the night... Big deal.
CP: After that night she said the elf turned bad.
Ocean Elf: Maybe it was one of the nasty crew who survived the battle in this story.
CP: She said it would move around her room
Ocean Elf: Imaginary friends usually do, though. Until they get replaced by something that can actually be held, touched, and seen, like a toy.
CP: making strange noises at night,
Ocean Elf: This girl must've been a little disturbed. It's one thing to have an imagination. It's another to take it this far.
CP: and she told me if she tried to get out of bed the elf would run towards her and bite and claw her feet and ankles.
Ocean Elf: Totally demented elf, disturbed girl, what's wrong with these weirdoes?
CP: The elf, she said, had too many teeth which were long and thin but not pointed.
Ocean Elf: Maybe it tried to become a vampire but the job was botched. I've actually heard of extreme vampire fans doing this. Trying to get their teeth made into fangs.
CP: She said its nails were long and sharp like claws.
Ocean Elf: So, more of a kind of troll than an elf. Or just seriously deformed. Who ever heard of an elf with fangs and claws?
CP: Of course I didn't believe her, but then she showed me the scars and new bite marks. The bite marks were normal human sized but very deep and definitely with more teeth marks. That's when I started to worry. I didn't believe in the elf at that point, I thought maybe she was doing it to herself, I thought she might have been seriously mentally ill. I wish I was right.
Ocean Elf: I'm not sure you weren't right. Sounds like mental issues to me.
CP: I told my sister my concerns about her daughter. She was worried too, so she found a psychiatrist for her. I thought that would help Bethany, but as Christmas came nearer she seemed to get worse.
Ocean Elf: That's because there is no quick fix for severe mental disease.
CP: I was staying over at my sisters house for Christmas Eve and Bethany asked me to sleep in her room to protect her from the elf. I said yes. I thought that it was a good idea so I could figure out what was going on with her; maybe she was biting her own ankles in her sleep.
Ocean Elf: Not sure how a 10-year-old could be flexible enough for that, but whatever.
CP: That night Bethany woke me up and asked if I would get her some water. She didn't want to get up because she was afraid the elf would attack her. I didn't want to leave the poor girl in there alone so I told her she had to come with me. She didn't want to come but I wouldn't let her stay. I should have listened. Oh god maybe she would still be alive if I listened it's my fault she's dead.
Ocean Elf: Actually if you had left her alone, she probably would've injured herself. *Shudder*
CP: When we got by the door I saw it the elf was tall with strange teeth and blank white eyes. I thought I was imagining it so I turned on the light. It didn't go away. I know I should have tried to leave but instead I tried to take a picture of it. As soon as I did it started to run at us so fast I could barley see it. Everything happened so fast.
Ocean Elf: So, this mutant something which Bethany calls an elf, actually had the nerve to show up with someone else there? That's a heck of a lot of nerve. But then that would fit. Elves aren't known for chickening out of things.
CP: Bethany, who had been standing so still, pushed me out of the room so hard that I fell to the floor. The door slammed shut. All I could hear was a voice screeching so loudly, I could hardly hear Bethany's screams. It sounded like the voice was saying Merry Christmas, but it wasn't pronounced right. It sounded like "merry CHRITMAS ". Anyway I was trying to get back in the room, but the door was locked. I tried to kick it down but I wasn't strong enough.
Ocean Elf: This makes no sense. Why would this monster scream "Marry Christmas" during an attack? Oh, but then that's the point. This is a psycho.
CP: I ran into the kitchen to find something to break the door as I called the police. They thought it was a joke. I don't understand how they didn't hear the screaming. How did her parents not wake up? I found a brick and decided that was good enough to make a hole in the door or something. Suddenly I heard a ripping sound, and the screams and screeches stopped. I cautiously opened the door which somehow unlocked
Ocean Elf: Because this monster has just killed her and now it's like "You can all come in now!" *Rolling eyes*
CP: and the walls and the bed and all her toys and furniture were
Ocean Elf: Lemme guess. Covered in blood.
CP: bright red, soaked in Bethany's blood.
Ocean Elf: *Reaches up and gets gold star off shelf* Right again.
CP: On the floor the elf was hovering over Bethany's corpse. It was split in half vertically and the elf was wearing her intestines around its neck and eating them.
Ocean Elf: *Appalled grimace* Eww! This has actually managed to gross me out. *Glower* Okay, this monster is going to freaking get it in the neck! *Roar* Guess my vampire idea wasn't all that far off.
CP: I screamed louder than I ever screamed before.
Ocean Elf: Seriously how would you even know. I mean, when you scream out of extreme terror, you're not going to gage how loud you are, you just scream.
CP: Bethany's mother finally came out of her room and saw what had happened. She didn't even make a sound. She just stared at the horrifying scene. We closed the door and put things in front so it wouldn't open. We went into the living room to wait for the police.
Ocean Elf: And that's when the vampire-looking Laughing Jack wanna-be takes a hike, letting your sis take the fall for what it did. *Scowl*
CP: When the police finally arrived, they questioned us and her husband, who hadn't heard a thing. I couldn't say anything. It was like a dream, so unreal, I just sat there staring into space. The only one who told the police what happened was my sister. The police removed the barricade from the front of Bethany's room, but when they opened the door nothing was there. The blood was gone, the elf, Bethany, everything. The room looked completely normal, besides snow blowing in from the window. Everything was gone, like magic. The police started a search party, they thought she ran away. After everyone left I stood in her room alone and cried. I heard the sound of bells and then I heard the elf whispering "merry chritmas" I ran out of there.
Ocean Elf: So, this monster teleported the evidence away, and then hung around to watch the panic. *Scowl* It's really going to get it.
CP: It's been a year now since Bethany's death.
Ocean Elf: Now it's been longer...
CP: After Bethany died my sisters mental health began to deteriorate. She boarded up the doors and windows of Bethany's old room. She never slept anymore. We found here trying to cut open her stomach several times
Ocean Elf: Ewww! *Shudder, cringe*
CP: and we had to have her live in a mental hospital, where she ended up killing herself by making a noose out of her bed sheets.
Ocean Elf: So, I'm a bit confused. Your sister and Bethany's mom are the same person after all? But you had said one was dead and the other locked up. Maybe you weren't being clear enough at the start in first saying she was locked up and then she killed herself.
CP: Now I am the only one who knows what happened . Everyone else still thinks she's missing. I don't go near that house anymore, and I can't bring myself to talk to Bethany's father, but no matter what I do to forget what happened I can't. Sometimes I still hear the elf's voice at night and I'm afraid it's going to kill me next. It's almost Christmas.
Ocean Elf: You've survived a few Christmases since.
But when that so-called elf is caught, it won't be so lucky. *Fuming*
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