Hello! I've carried this memory since I was seven years old, and I know how it's going to sound. But it happened. Clear as anything. This was Christmas Eve, 1983. I was seven. We lived in this old house in Duluth, right on the edge of town where the woods started getting thick. My parents had gone to a Christmas party at my dad's work, one of those things that went late, you know? They wouldn't be back until morning. My older sister was supposed to be watching me, but she'd fallen asleep on the couch around nine o'clock. I couldn't sleep. I was too excited about Christmas morning. So I was lying there in my bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the house settle. And then I heard it. Footsteps. Heavy ones. Coming from downstairs. Clear as anything.
I got out of bed. I don't know why. I should've stayed put. But I was seven, and I thought maybe it was Santa Claus. That's what you think at that age, right? So I crept down the hallway, real quiet, and I could see the living room from the top of the stairs. There was someone standing by our Christmas tree. He was tall, taller than my dad. He was wearing red, like Santa's suit, and he had the white trim and the black boots. But something was wrong. The way he stood there, completely still, staring at the tree. And then he turned toward the stairs. I saw his face in the lights from the tree. He looked like Santa. The white beard, the rosy cheeks. But then I saw them. Two horns, curved back from his forehead. Dark horns, like a ram's. And when he smiled at me, I saw his teeth. Too many teeth. And behind him, moving in the shadows, I saw a tail. Long and thin, with a pointed tip, swishing back and forth. He didn't say anything. Just stood there, smiling up at me with all those teeth. And I couldn't move. Couldn't scream. Just stood there frozen on those stairs.
I don't know how long we stayed like that. Could've been seconds, could've been minutes. And then I heard my dad's voice from behind me, 'Michael, what are you doing out of bed?' staying out all night on Christmas Eve sounds lonely - Wesley' He'd come upstairs to check on me, I guess. I turned to look at him for just a second. When I looked back at the living room, the figure was gone. Just like that. The tree lights were still on, presents still underneath, everything normal. But I know what I saw. I know I saw him.
[ Story continues in the full game... ]