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It'd been a bit. 

  Collin and Charles Winters had gone their separate ways for a bit. Charles went to work like usual. It was the holiday season once again. The trail had gone cold in the search for their dad. So they parted to reorientate themselves. 

   Charles now sat in a room, reading a book, while seated on a couch. But the door creaked open, A sudden and irritant groan. Charles paused, for a moment he thought it was his boss. But surely he'd further announce his arrival? Then something else dawned on him. How'd he get in? The thought passed through Charles's mind for a brief moment. But he knew how. The two of them had done it countless times before. This was no different. There was a thud of hands hitting the back of the couch. 

  "Hiya Charlie." A voice said from just behind his shoulder. A slight brush of cold air blew through. Creeping in like a specter, there, then gone. His arrival usually meant something of disastrous origin was a foot. Charles said nothing for a moment. 

    "Collin?" He spoke up, quietly, lifting his head up. Hair spiked up like icicles in the wintertime atop Charles's head. He stood and faced him. 

   "The one and only." Collin proclaimed, sweeping his scarf over his shoulder. Then patting the back of the couch before pulling away. A feeling of dread had sunk in Charles's stomach, like he swallowed a stone. Yet he was somewhat glad to see his brother, despite whatever may be awaiting.

 "What's the issue, Collin?" Charles asked softly. Collin shrugged.

  "What? Can't I pop by to say hi to my little brother?" Collin commented, reaching a hand to ruffle Charles's hair, but pausing, hand hovering in mid motion as if turned to stone. Collin pulled away and shook it off, reminding himself that Charles's hair was in fact, constantly frozen. Likely a result of those strange, icy powers Charles had. Charles raised an eyebrow as Collin pulled away, crossing his arms and leaning against a wall.

   "Really?" Charles mumbled as Collin slipped his hands in his pocket. 

  "Oh, come on." Collin replied, throwing out his hands from where they rested. Charles walked over to his older brother.   

  "Be serious, why are you here?" Charles asked, looking at him with eyes like frozen orbs of ice. Collin sighed, leaning his head back against the wall, then he began to chuckle a little.

   "Man… you're difficult " Collin straightened up, Charles looked at him, eyes flicking with confusion for a moment. Collin scoffed and pulled some car keys from his pocket, starting with them out of view. 

"Merry Christmas, Charlie." He said with a lightheartedness in his voice.  

  "You won't believe what I did in my freetime." Collin stated, dangling the car keys in front of Charles's face. 

"Please tell me you didn't steal that." Charles warned him. 

  "Relax, I didn't, come on, let me tell you." Collin replied, playfully punching his arm. 

Charles gave him an odd look, but nodded. "Ok." He complied. Collin plopped onto Charles's couch. "Just invite yourself in, why don't you..." Charles muttered, sighing and sitting next to him.   

    "When dad's trail went cold..." He began, his eyes going distant like wherever their dad had gone. Somewhere far... far away. Still, Charles patiently listened.

  "I decided to head home, to see if I could find any clue to where he was." Collin's lighthearted smile had gradually faded from his face. Drifting away like brittle leaves cast away in a frigid wind.  

  "Are you still there, Collin?" Charles commented, waving a hand in front of his face. 

  "Yeah- sorry." Collin quickly snapped himself out of it, sitting up straight. "So I wandered into the garage, and besides the average junk I saw something large and covered by a sheet. I went and investigated, sweeping various things away, and hoping it'd give me a clue. But instead..." Collin paused a second, seeming to get some of that cheer back. Charles was interested, sitting forward. 

   "What?" Charles asked, a slight smile on his face, excited. 

  "It must've been an old project dad was working on before everything happened. A beauty of a car in my opinion, vintage. And I couldn't think of anything else to do, so I finished it. I guess it's like being closer to dad in an aspect." Collin continued. This further peaked Charles's interest, lifting his head. His ice blue eyes flickered with interest, like seeing the moon glow softly from beneath ice.

   "That is actually really cool." Charles said after a pause.

   "It's almost as if we're closer to finding out what happened...." Collin added. Charles nodded thoughtfully. 

    "Oh, and speaking of that, I found a case. I was passing through and thought you would want to join. It's not far." Collin told Charles. Charles deep down, was excited, but he hid it under a curtain of ice. 

  "Sure." He started causally, then scoffed. "What is it, Krampus?" Charles commented. Collin just smiled at him and did a finger gun. 

  "Yes. Or at least something similar."

"Wait, you're serious?" Charles blurted, staring at Collin with a shock etched upon his face. 

  "Yep." Collin replied simply, closing his hand around the keys. Charles simply stared at Collin with disbelief shining in his icy eyes. Collin turned, twirling the keys, making an excuse to avoid Charles's eyes. They were cold, like looking into an endless blizzard. Almost like if you stare too long you'll be frozen to the bones. 

   "Come on, let's go," Collin called, waving.

    "Alright, give me a second." Charles replied, going over to a desk and pulling out a pencil and paper, leaning over the desk. 

  "Right, you have  to say you're leaving, how responsible." Collin lightly teased.   

  Charles gave a slight chuckle. "Yeah… responsible." He faintly laughed.   "That's me for you." Charles replied, finishing the note. 

     Charles paused for a moment. "Wait, shouldn't we  research more into this first?" Charles asked.  "We can do it when we get there, it'll be easier. Grab your stuff." Collin  answered, nudging Charles to go on. 

   "Alright, if you say so." Charles replied, putting his hands up. Then, Charles went and threw some things together, hiding excitement underneath that sheet of ice. Collin offered to help, Charles muttered in response a moment but let him. They finished easily. 

   "Now, let's get moving." Collin commented,  jingling the keys, he seemed really excited about it.  Charles laughed and rolled his eyes. 

   "Yeah, let's go." Charles agreed, shouldering his bag. Collin strolled right out. 

    The winter winds pierced through their clothes, Collin almost shivered. But Charles seemed unaffected. The sun had gone back into hiding. Stars blinked wildly beyond their reach. Frigid wind howled like distant wolves, crying for the moon. Their breath curled in the winter dark. Only illuminated by street lights faintly glowing. Collin gave Charles a slight smirk.

    "Say hello to our dad's secret treasure-" Collin announced,  as he slunk over to a shape that previously had blended in with the wintertime blackness. Charles heard a car door open and shut, then an engine starting with a mighty roar. Headlights flashed. The appearance of the car was now more visible. 

   A quiet "woah..." escaped from the younger brother's lips. But only to be drowned out by the rumble of the engine. It was black, that's why it had blended in so well within the night.  Yet it was defined by two icy blue stripes, stretching across the hood of the car. 

 "It looks like a box on wheels." Charles commented. Collin gave him a brief sort of death glare.

     "Shut up. This means you don't get to drive any time soon. Now, get in the car." Collin snapped. Charles raised his hands in surrender for a brief moment. "I was just kidding about the box comment." Charles spoke up once he got in the car.

  Collin restarted the car, grumbling. 

  "Well, don't talk to her like that again." He muttered. 

   "Her?" Charles asked with a scoff. "Yes, it's not like I'm gonna refer to her as 'the vintage car' every time, hm?" Collin snapped.

    "Hold on, you're serious?" Charles started, actually sort of fascinated.

    "Yeah, yeah, let's get moving now." Collin replied in a grumble, turning on the radio. An instrumental version of 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘖𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘴 started playing. Charles glanced at Collin , remembering how he'd reacted last time they'd been greeted by Christmas music. Last time, he'd cursed and switched it off as fast as he could. 

 Collin glanced back at him and shrugged. 

   "You're not seriously gonna--" Charles began. Collin gave another casual shrug and proceeded to pull out of his parking spot. Charles took a few moments to process this but got an amused smile as they drove off into the dark winter night.

✧✧✧✧✧✧✧

     Charles woke up face down into a book. He blinked a few times, his ice blue eyes focusing and refocusing. Charles rubbed his eyes, trying to recount the events of the night before. 

  "Mornin' Charlie." He heard the voice of his older brother call. Charles glanced over to see Collin shutting the door of the motel room with a foot, occupied with carrying a cup of coffee in each hand. Then, Charles began to remember. Collin lugged him along on a brief roadtrip chasing after a monster. They checked into a motel and started hitting the lore. Charles had been reading something their dad had written down and passed out in the process. Charles wanted to blame it on Collin slipping something funny in the coffee he gave him that night. But, Charles couldn't deny the fact he had been exhausted. In fact, he'd been up late even before Collin had grabbed him, studying. Hadn't gotten much sleep in a while now. 

   So, Charles just rubbed his temples, lifting his blonde, spikey haired head and asked: "How long have I been out?" 

   To which Collin replied , "Couldn't tell you exactly, but I can tell you, it's about 10AM." Collin told him. Charles paused, he couldn't help but notice that Collin was wearing his suit. 

   "And, I took the liberty of talking to the local police while you were out." Collin added.

    "And you didn't bother to wake me?!" Charles remarked. Collin shrugged. 

   "You were out cold, man. The hell have you been up to for the past while?" Collin responded. Charles groaned as a reply, holding his hand out for one of the cups of coffee Collin had. Collin handed it to him.    

   "Yeesh," Collin commented, sitting by him. 

  "Thanks..." Charles mumbled.

    "Now... what did you find out?" Charles asked, taking a sip of the coffee that had immediately begun to cool off at Charles's cold touch.

   "Well, it definitely fits the Krampus lore. But more seasonal killings popped up in the news. I dunno Charlie, something seems weird about this." Collin replied, sitting down at the table with Charles.     

    "Weird's kind of our forté, remember?" Charles commented, opening his hand and making little snowflakes twirl around his hand. Then, he closed his hand and made them vanish. He was leaning against his arm, elbow resting on one of the books. 

   "Yeah, yeah, I know." Collin gave a chuckle. 

   "Life ain't anything if it ain't crazy." Collin cracked a smile. Charles stood up.   

   "Cheers to that. Now, let's find this thing." Collin commented , giving a smile. 

 The Winters followed the case, talking to people who knew anything. Tracing the lore and covering all the bases. The effort took a bit, and Charles realized something. He realized how much he'd missed doing this with Collin. Just the two of them, brothers, against the forces of evil. It was sort of liberating in a way. Now the two of them drove down a lonely road. It was quiet, seemed to rarely be used. Snow was falling softly like powdered sugar from a shaker. The moonlight cast an eerie glow upon the snow. The sun had gone down by now, as the landscape went from a beautiful winter wonderland, to a snowy, foreboding canopy of dark. The visibility was low, as if one was trapped in an endless veil of snow. 

𖣘 𖣘 𖣘 𖣘 𖣘 𖣘

Charles spoke up. 

  "Are you sure this is the right place?" He asked.  

  Collin gave a nod. "Yeah, it ran off in the direction of the old abandoned farm our witness mentioned." Collin replied.  

   "Witness?" Charles repeated with a scoff. "Yeah, witness, guess you're rubbing off on me, Charlie." Collin commented.

   "Yeah, I guess so. I have another question though. Why's it got to be an abandoned farm?" Charles added, with a slight laugh.

    "I don't know Charlie, I do not know. Adds to the ambience I guess." Collin cracked a joke. But their conversation was interrupted by a rustle in the frost tipped bushes, followed by a vaguely human yet almost animal-like screech.

In a second, Collin's instincts hit.

   "Charles, look out-!" He called, knocking himself and Charles out of the way of a shadow darting at them. 

   "What the-" Charles blurted. Collin caught himself. Charles recoiled to avoid sliding across the snow. 

  "Looks like the monster found us!" Collin called, drawing his pistol.

      The dark shape had darted from the bushes, like a gliding shadow at Charles. Now using jagged, curved claws to catch itself by digging into the snow. Good thing Collin had knocked them out of the way. It recoiled, a grotesque tongue lolling from its mouth. It was lined with fangs like tiny daggers. It snarled again, a mix of a human yell and an animal-like growl. A crown of four horns rose from its hideous head, and it was covered with thick, black fur. Collin raised his gun and fired a warning shot. The creature flinched a bit at the loud sound but did not stand down. 

   "That- looks about right for a Krampus wannabe-" Charles commented. "Yeah, but I realized it's really a shapeshifter- '' Collin told him, but he was cut off as the creature launched itself at him, claws on poise to strike.      

   Charles slid to intercept it. Razor sharp claws clanged against his dagger, its length had extended, tip sharpened by dark ice, that Charles had willed there. It whined and recoiled, the silver from the dagger causing the creature to feel a burning sensation where it touched the silver. It whined and recoiled.

    "It would've been for you to tell me this earlier, Collin!" Charles snapped, for a follow up attack. 

  "Well, I was a bit busy tracking this thing!" Collin fired back, aiming and shooting a silver bullet at it. It leaped out of the way and once again lunged at Collin.

    A screech from the creature cut through the night. Razor sharp claws bared, it pinned Collin. 

   "Dangit, Collin-" Charles muttered, as his older brother grappled with the creature. Charles went to help, when Collin kicked the creature off, and jumped to his feet, firing another bullet. This one didn't quite miss. 

The bullet grazed the creature, the silver cutting through the fur and searing the flesh. It crashed from midair into snow. "Merry freakin' Christmas, Charlie." Collin commented sarcastically. 

  "Yeah, nothing says Merry Christmas like fighting freakin' Krampus." Charles muttered.  

  The creature slid across the snow, barely catching its balance as it transformed into a human, clothed in furs. They were clutching the wound, with a deep scowl. Murderous intent glinted in their dark eyes like a flame flicking in the dark night of winter. The boys held their ground. 

(Story cutoff)