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“I’ll go make sure the sled is ready,” Jane said, “I might have put a few dings in it flying back here.”

Mrs. Claus chuckled. “No worries, my dear. The elves will have it all ready for Christmas Eve. We won’t be taking the sled anyway. That is if we find the list.”

“If we aren’t going in the sleigh, how will we get there?”

Mrs. Claus glanced around, making sure no one else was listening. Then, she bent down and whispered. “I’m going to let you in on a bit of a secret only a few know about. You must promise me, dear, you will never share this with anyone.”

Jane gave her an uncertain look—Mrs. Claus was known to pull her own jokes on occasion—then nodded. “I promise.”

“Follow me.”

Walking through the house, they headed toward the pantry. Mrs. Claus opened the door and then walked in. Jane peered around the corner and saw nothing except a wall of canned goods. Mrs. Claus has disappeared. Jane panicked. Had the Heart of Darkness taken Mrs. Claus.

“Are you coming, dear?” Jane heard the distinct yet muffled sound of Mrs. Claus. “Just pull on the side of the shelves.”

Jane reached for the shelves and pulled. The wall slid open, and a staircase appeared. Mrs. Claus stood smiling at the top. “Come on, we have to get you suited up?”

*****

Levi stood staring in disbelief at the ancient elf. “And how am I supposed to do that all by myself?”

“Who said anything about you working alone?” Jebidiah said. “My friendssss will be with you, to help and make ssssure you do as you’re told.” He came closer to Levi, and many of the ghost apparitions gathered behind him.

“I’m not entirely convinced you’re on our sssside. You’ll have to prove it first. But just in case you decide to try anything, my friendssss here will be with you every moment. Now, get going. I want this done quickly. Nothing like sssspreading ssssome misery around Christmas time.”

Levi knew he had to convince Jebidiah he was on his side, but stealing all the Christmas decorations seemed impossible. Yet even he knew this wasn’t a joke. Kids all over the world would be sad if he did this. But he also knew sometimes one had to do what you didn’t want for the greater good.

“I’ll show you. There won’t be a Christmas light, tree, or ornament left anywhere when I’m done.”

“Good,” Jebidiah said, smiling. “Good.”

*****

“You have a what?” Jane said, staring in disbelief.

“Yes, my dear, we do. I needed a way to make sure Santa stayed on track. Believe it or not, I used to hide in the sleigh. Very uncomfortable. Axe here. “—she pointed to the head elf busy pre-flighting the stealth helicopter— “knew something about these things from watching some of our naughty list kids grow up to be engineers. He convinced them to work with us.”

“Wait, we have flight engineers here, too?” Jane said, all of this too incredible to digest.

“I told you; we don’t give up on anyone. They may have been on the naughty list, but were good people. And they hold tight to the Christmas spirit. What better place to spread that than working here.”

Ace handed Jane a flight suit and helmet. As she put them on, she couldn’t help but laugh at Mrs. Claus putting the oversized suit on over her red dress.

Mrs. Claus caught her eye. “I know, not very fashionable, but necessary. You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Jane said. “I should warn you I get airsick.”

“Well, then, keep your visor up. That would be unpleasant.” Mrs. Claus chuckled.

“Thanks,” Jane said.

“And take these,” handing Jane some pills. “They’ll help.”

*****

Standing inside the Heart of Darkness cave, Levi was amazed at what they had done. He wasn’t proud of it—stealing all the Christmas decorations was right up there on the list of worst things to do—but he was still astounded by what one could do with a little determination and magic.

“I sssee you’ve made quite a haul of this junk,” Jebidiah said. “How about we have a little bonfire to celebrate?”

Levi had to think quickly. “Maybe we should hold onto this stuff for a while. We can use it to show the world what you’re capable of and how Christmas will never be the same.”

“Hmm, I never thought of that. You might prove more useful than I thought. What do you think we should do next.”

The idea came to him in a flash. It would be a risk, but one worth taking.

“I was thinking, the only ones who know you took Santa’s list are in Christmas town. They won’t know anything different until Christmas morning. We could ruin their normally joyful anticipation of the day. How about we take the list, put all the names on the naughty side, and show the world?”

Jebidiah remained sitting, quietly thinking, rubbing his chin with his gnarly, crooked fingers. Then, he rose from his seat, knocking the desk over.

“Now that issss an idea worth considering…and I consider it brilliantly evil.” He turned around, waved his hand, and the wall behind him vanished.

Levi couldn’t believe his eyes. There was a gigantic version of Santa’s sleigh. It was dull gray in color and not at all what one would expect Santa to fly, but it was nevertheless shaped just like the Christmas sleigh.

“You built this?” Levi asked.

“Thisss issss what I designed for SSSanta. He chose to use something else. So I took it. And now, you and I will use this sleigh to get Santa’s list and put every girl and boy in the world on the naughty list.”

Tomorrow: The Chase is On!