Christmas

It's dark and quiet. The air is still and cold. I can hear the wind whipping outside. Blowing and blowing. Endless. The snow has nearly covered the small basement window. I've been staring at that window for hours. Days? Weeks maybe? Might have been even minutes, just staring at that last slit of light. Of freedom. I don't know how long it's been really though. I lost track of the seconds forever ago. 'Is it Christmas yet?' I wondered, my thoughts dancing in and out of fantasies about feasts, presents, Christmas trees and warmth. The visions look so real, but the chill of the basement brings me back to reality. My back rested against a cement pole. Jingle bells began playing cheerfully in my mind, dragging me away from the hard floor back into happy memories once again. Without my noticing, my hums began echoing through the stagnant air. The chain on my ankle jangled along to the tune, eerie in the near silence. The snow has started to cover the last slit of light from the window. My hums are cut off by the slam of the basement door and the stomp of heavy boots down rickety, wooden stairs. A man appears around the bend of the steps. He comes over and squats in front of me. A jolly smile played on his cracked lips. His white beard is dirty and stained, his eyes dull and sunken in, his boney body hunched over in a painful looking way. He leaned in closer to me. I could smell the cookies and whiskey on his breath and tried not to flinch aways. "Ho. Ho. Ho." He whispered, his grin widening as he begins to pet my head like a child. "Merry Christmas, my little elf." The basement was dark. And jingle bells echoed in my mind.