There was no way back. By the time we caught a glimpse of Santa it was too late. The chorus of ho ho ho stopped for a moment as Santa adjusted his belt. The excited young duo were already on their way, waving goodbye to their father and exiting on the other side.

‘Ladies, aren’t we a bit too old to sit on Santa’s lap? I’ll let you, this once, provided you’ve been good all year.’ As he patted his lap, I lunged at Taylor.

It was the hands. They gave him away. Black hairs straggled through the ends of the fur-lined suit and his neck bulged to escape its tight confines. Oliver’s eyes bore through me.

‘I see we’ve got some really naughty girls here.’

I heard the voice through a fog. The background music had changed to Jingle Bells.

I stared through the eye slits of the tawdry costume and froze.

‘Rebecca? Are you okay?’

‘Come on. Join me on Santa’s lap,’ Taylor squealed.

I scrambled for the exit, buffering from side to side in the confined space. Behind me I could hear Taylor settle jovially on the proffered knee.

Jodi came after me, ignoring her partner’s pleas not to be a spoilsport.

Outside I saw the fur-clad lady bundle the children into a large four by four. There was a red nose attached to the front bumper and a large red setter was panting in the back seat.

46

Rebecca

I woke around 2am. There was a strange smell in the flat. Christmas had come early.

My stocking hung over the fireplace, laden with small packages. The smell was of spruce and I braced against the discarded needles as they pierced my feet. Moonlight shone through the skylight and I wondered what had happened to the newspaper which I’d stuck across the frame. It must have fallen down. Perhaps that was how Santa had got in, through the skylight. Maybe I forgot to close it.

I couldn’t find the pole. I couldn’t see properly but knew I needed to get to the parcels and start opening my gifts. They wouldn’t come out of the stocking easily and I started to sweat as I tugged the bright paper loose.

The smell was making me nauseous and I could hear a rapping sound coming from somewhere. The small red tightly bound box gleamed teasingly in front of me as I carefully undid the ribbon. I dropped the box as two round bloodied eyeballs rolled to the floor.

I leapt out of bed, alert and wide awake from the nightmare, and checked for eyeballs under the bed. I turned on all the lights and, dripping in sweat, went through to the bathroom to splash cold water over my face and neck.