Micro Madness December 1st place

What they Don’t Tell You About Santa’s Sack

By Matt Bliss

1.  It’s not made from the same velvety red material as his suit and hat. In fact, it may not even be cloth at all. It would be best to think of it as a living, breathing thing. If, for instance, you were to sneak up on it unattended, while Santa placed gifts under the tree, and then place a hand on its bulging surface, you could feel its warm fur and a heartbeat thumping beneath.

2.  It’s not filled with presents. Instead, it opens to a tear in the fabric of space and time. And, if after feeling the sack inhale and exhale with a soft purring, you then decided to peek inside, you would see both everything and nothing simultaneously before getting sucked into its chasm. There, light ceases to exist and you soon find yourself forever falling through an infinity of darkness between dimensions.

3.  It’s soundproof. No one on the outside can hear the sounds of your screams as you desperately cry for help. Even as you screech in the endless darkness at the top of your lungs until your vocal chords snap, not even a whisper will escape the pulsing red walls of the sack.

4.  Something lives inside it. After you stop screaming, you hear it in the darkness around you. Wet clicks and throaty breathing. You feel its breath on the back of your neck and wrap your arms around yourself, but still it touches you with its clammy wriggling chords. Sometimes, it screams when you swat it away. Sometimes, it moans for no apparent reason.

5.  It can only be opened on Christmas. You have no idea how long you’ve been trapped in there, falling through infinity, but waiting three-hundred and sixty five days seems impossible. The thing with you has been getting restless. Its screaming has been more frequent and you’ve begun to smell the coppery tang of blood on its breath. Next Christmas can’t come soon enough. You hope someone out there is wishing for you, writing a letter to Santa, telling him to finally bring you home for Christmas. Until then, you wait, hoping others know the truth about Santa’s sack. If you do make it out next Christmas, you’ll tell the world, and teach them to treat Santa’s sack with the respect and reverence it deserves. And hopefully, no one else will make the same tragic mistake as you.

End