Dear readers and reading deer,

as Christmas approaches with fast steps, this short story is evolving in 24 days, where each day a partly random sentence will be added. I want readers to post their ideas in the comments to make the story more diverse, developing from different minds and perspectives of storytelling, creating a unique 24 sentence story!

Maybe it will be romantic, maybe dinosaurs will fight cats over world domination; you may decide the direction of the story!

Because I don’t know the story yet, I am really eager to see the end result of this collective experiment.

Happy writing!

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Another Christmas Story

by us.

1) *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* – *Beep* *Beep* Beep* – *Beep* *Beep* —– “H-Hello? Are you here? I am so happy to finally reach you”, Jon said with an uneasy tone in his voice. (Gregor)

2) “Keep calm Jon, tell me everything.” – “I am busted! They have confiscated my genetically modified cats.” (Johannes)

3) Within a second, Donald was sitting fully upright on his bed with his beautiful, naturally blonde hair ressembling the mess that just has begun to enfold in his mind while he tried to answer with as much composure as he could fake at the moment: “Who confiscated them? They are currently our best hope to take out the resurrected zombie army of Genghis Khan, which Vladimir is going to revive on December 24 at the latest.” (Harold)

4) Jon took a deep breath before he could give an answer—”Some volunteers of Green Peace organization have taken us to court, because it is inhumane to genetically modify cats so that they grow 15 times more hair. They said it is cruelty to animals. But what can we do if zombies are only allergic to cat hair, it’s their only weakness!!.” –Jon´s voice turned into hysterical- “We must stop Vladimir, but they don’t believe us! I have to tell you mate, we are in real trouble. What can we do about it? Do you have any ideas?” – Asked John desperately. (Peter)

5) Before answering Jon’s quesitons what to do, Donald came up with another question. He said: “John, before thinking about an idea how to get our cats back, I have to know where they brought them.”

John answered: “Man Donald, you know those greenpeace guys! They have ships out on the open sea. Of course they brought them to one of those ships!”

After getting this information, Donald was thinking about different opportunities how to locate that ship, enter it and free the cats. Not owning an own ship, not having a helicopter and not being the best swimmer, he chose the last opportunity which came up in his mind. He said: “John, we have to ask Santa and his reindeers with their flying sled!” (Georg)

6) “Of course, that is a great plan, Mr. Claus will be up for this” said Jon feeling relieved. “Er…. but Christmas is coming, he might not have time for this.”

“Jon, but if Genghis Khan zombie army is resurrected, there won’t be a Christmas!” Jon and Donald discussed over the phone for hours trying to develop a perfect plan to get the cats back and stop Vladimir. They knew that forcing mutations on innocent animals was wrong, and that Mr. Santa Claus would give them a big scold for that, but was it really wrong when the point of it all is to save humanity? and would they still get present this year, they did not wanted to be on Santa’s naughty list.

Right when they thought they had sorted everything out, there was a chill running down their spines. Although they were in distant cities, they both felt how the temperature dropped. The next thing Donald saw was a snowflake slowly touching his nose.

“Jon! it is Jack Frost!” (Adriana)

7) But it was not just the winter making a turn back. It was something else coming with the cold, something dark, something terrible. A flash!.. and suddenly they both stand together in the middle of nowhere, in the bitter cold night! “What the hell was that?” – Jon screamed. “We shouldn’t have been joking around about Santa and his naughty list!” Donald said. “Don’t you know the legend Jon? Don’t you know what happens when you ask for Santa but haven’t deserved his presence?”. “A.. Are those horns w.. what is it Donald, what is this?” Jon was shocked as the contour of a big creature appeared in the cold dark winter night… “Krampus!” Donald whispered… death silence. A deep frightening breath sounded through the night. They both were frozen from fear. “You will not see Santa Clause this year!” the creature gasps. “You called for something else!” (Daniel)

8) Jon and Donald tried to scream, but their voices died in the loud thunder when Krampus stepped in front of them with his horse-like hooves. The beast, dreadful to look at, towered three meters in height above them. Not horrifying enough, the mythical creature grunted in a deep vibrating voice at them: “Jon! Donald!” Krampus continued, “Normally, I would eat sinners like you – accompanied by a good hot wine. But! I heard you have some nasty problems with Green Peace.” The darkness in his voice vanished, and Krampus said friendlier, “You see, I tried to convince the organization that #Krampus-Lives-Matter but they never supported me, as long as I don’t stop eating humans. I mean, can you believe this?? So, I want to help you to pay it back to Green Peace.” Jon and Donald, surprised by the twist, smiled at each other with joy. “But”, Krampus said in a sinister tone, “there is one condition!”. (Mark)

9) The horrible beast walked around them and its sparkling eyes erased its feeling of traquility. Donald and Jon are a little scared, they believe that the condition will not be an easy matter. Krampus stared at them and says in a sinister tone: “I will bring your cats back if you convince St. Claus to intercede for me in the Krampus-Lives-Matter organization. I know that every year the two parties meet and that will be my opportunity. ” The little hope in Jon and Donald vanished, first how to find St. Claus and second ask him to help Krampus. Each step looked more difficult. Jon looks at Donald desperately: “Do you think it’s true, can Krampus convince Green Peace?” Donald’s eyes only follow the path of the beast. (Daly)

10) After a long awkward silence Donald finally replied: “I really don’t know. We have to find Santa in either way. If he has no time or will to help us, maybe we could still convince him to make the deal with Krampus. I am really afraid about how Krampus will handle Green Piece tough, might be that it will be called Red Pieces after that.”

Jon nodded while looking at the last glimpse of Krampus vanishing beastly shape.

More and more snow began to fall and the nights cold finally stroke as Jon opened his mouth. (Phil)

11) Jon took a deep breath. “There’s gotta be another way.. ” – Jon said to himself. “Well… For starters, I seriously doubt that he will keep the end of his bargain. He could double cross us in any minute. If Mr. Claus is too hard to find or too busy, we can try to get to the reindeers, after all, it’s them we need to get to the greenpeace Ship.” – Donald argued.

As Jon was weighing on the limited options, a phone Rang. (Alexa)

12) – Hi Jon, this is Leilani, from Hawaii, I know it is late there but something terrible is happening in our shore and I am sure you are aware of the situation. The secret department of our government is talking about GMC in a Green Peace ship and I knew I had to contact you.

Jon, we had to do something! Christmas celebration is all around the island, people are into the festivity.

In few days these GMC cannot be hidden anymore please think about the consequences. I understand that your lab work was not intended to harm humanity but the opposite. Maybe there is a reversion process for this experiment of yours and you can amend the error before Christmas and before Santa Claus erases you from “the list”. (Silvia)

13) Jon heard her words and her insisting threat. What if he were off the list? What repercussions would that have for him?! For his family? Jon had always been on the list. This year could not be different! Jon thought quickly. Yes, there was a reversal process that could be carried out. It would be difficult, but it was possible. Jon was still silent on his end of the line. Then a slow but unwavering, “Yes, it is possible, I can help, I can help!”, came from Jon’s voice over the line. A sigh of relief was heard from Laileni. “How Jon, how??” she shouted. Jon took a deep breath. (Ashley)

14) ´Who the Hell could help us out? Who could give a hand on this?´ Jon was frowning heavily and breathing like a Tolkien´s dragon as he was trying hard to settle down and at the same time mobilize his thoughts. ´This is work only for those who neither crouch nor run away. Those who has no fear of any job no matter how dirty this might turn out. I need to find someone who does not mind getting hands really filthy. Someone whose essence is actually the filth.´ Jon jumped out and frenetically clapped on his forehead. ´Olentzero!´ Only a charcoal burner, like the Basque Christmas symbol, can fix this. With all his valuable contacts across gift bringer community he enjoys?´ Jon whistled. ´Easy! Off to Basque Country!´(Jan)

15) Arriving at the international airport in Basque Country, Jn and Donald had been greeted by huge mass of people. However, instead of looking in their direction, the crowd face towards stage in the middle of the duty free area. “Thank you! Thank you all!”, a deep voice echoed metallic from the loud speakers across the hall. “It is my honour to stand here in front of you to assist my dear friend Olentzero in cutting the ribbon of this new vending machine. Ho ho ho!” Jon and Donald could not believe their eyes. It was Santa Claus standing there! They waited until the ceremony was over to finally confront Mr. Santa with their request of Krampus and the abducted cats to save humanity from the dooming Zombie army. After they told their story, Santa stood for a moment in silent, but then finally answered them.

16) “This year a lot of children behaved incredibly well and there is not much time left before Christmas. I will take both of you with me to the North Pole. You will help me to prepare the last presents and distribute them to the children all over the world. If you work with me until Christmas and we manage to travel to all countries in time, I will support you to save the world. In the meantime you don’t need to be afraid of zombies or the Krampus, as I have an army full of elves. Now hurry and get on my sled.” – Santa said with a voice that doesn’t tolerate excuses. (Klara)

17) During the flight to the North Pole, Jon observed that Donald was shaking like crazy. “What is wrong with you”, Jon asked, “it is not even cold. Yet.” Donald, not only trembling but pale as the snow that slowly started to fall replied: “There is one thing, that I have never told anyone. And now; now it seems that my own inner demons are the doom of the world! Jon, I am afraid of children. When I see those little monsters my Pedophobia turns me into mindless guy, screaming like there is no tomorrow”. (Albert)

18) Jon, obnoxious of everything that is going on, wished him back to the time, where he could cuddle with his genetically modified cats in front of his fireplace. Mmmm, fireplace. Fireplace. Fire. Place. Chimney. “CHIMNEY!” Jon blasted out in excitement over his brilliant idea. “Santa, tell me.” he asked with a smirk on his face. “You deliver all the presents to all the kids (and adults) around the world. How do you do that, when a house doesn’t have a chimney?” Santa’s curiosity about the curious question was overwhelmed by his pride to be Santa and he started to tell his delivering secret. (Patricia)

19) “You will see!” Santa was getting his IPhone X-Mas out of the pocket of his big red coat. “Siri, start *X-M-A-S*!” While the phone was starting the App, Santa started to explain, “eXtreme Multi Arrival System, short X-M-A-S is an app that one of my more intelligent helpers created. Don’t get me wrong, but the rest of the helpers are rather snowy in their heads. With this app, I only have to think of any location in the world, and *zack* I am there. This is especially nice during my summer vacation. Have you ever been in Kurdakistanivistan? It is wonderful for relaxing at the beach, get some drinks with nice girls —” As Santa started to tell about his Tinder matches during holiday season, the events suddenly overturned. (Stefan)

20) Donald, recovered from his previous chills, snatched the smartphone from the palm of Santa’s hand, grabbed Jon by his left ear and shouted “X-M-A-S GO!”. A zish, a wrum, a slurp, a blop! Donald and Jon had been gone from the sled, leaving a puzzled but highly red-faced Santa behind. In the meantime, our two heroes squeezed through a portal filled with flashing lights, indistinguishable noises and the smell of freshly backed gingerbread. The second long journey felt like hours for Donald and Jon. At the end, there was no gleaming warm light they flew towards to. No. It was darkness and with a zish, wrum, slurp and blop they found themselves in the middle of it. “What the heck, Dude?”, Jon screamed at Donald. “Where the hell did you bring us?” Donald shushed Jon in the dark and ordered him to listen. Here, in the very dark a voice was to be heard. Faintly, but still there it said, “MIAOW!” (Manuel)

21) Donald screamed, “Oh my god! The cats are well, Jon. And they are all alive!” Jon and Donald stroke the hijacked cats and are very very happy. “We have to take them away from here immediately”, said Jon. In this very moment, a cat jumped on Donald’s back and out of surprise he dropped the teleport smartphone. It was completely silent in the room as both, Jon and Donald, did not even dare to breath when suddenly they heard a hooves stomp close to them. (Tina)

22) “Jon? Donald? What are you doing here?”, an oddly familiar voice barked at them in a deep tone. “Krampus???”, Donald and Jon asked simultaneously. “The question is, what are you doing here? And what is this shirt you are wearing?”, Jon went on. Indeed, the shirt that Krampus was wearing was odd, considering that the bright green colour did not really match his dark red eyes. Even more curious was the fact, that the T-Shirt clearly stated *Krampus Lives Matter, by Greenpace*. “What is going on?”, Donald finally asked. (Andi)

23) “Jon, Donald. You better sit down”, Krampus said in a sorrowful tone. They both did as commanded and the hairy beast started to tell the story, “You see, you took the phone of Santa Claus and wished yourselves to the genetically modified cats. They only thing you did not wish for, was the right time. So, welcome to Christmas 2020!” Shocked by this welcome, Donald and Jon jumped on they feet, but before they could raise a single question, Krampus continued. “As you had taken Santa’s teleport phone, he had to use his army of elves to deliver all the presents. Right when they passed over Mongolia, Vladimir just resurrected the Zombie army of Genghis Khan and a huge battle was about to start. Many elves and Zombies fell that night.” After a short break Jon asked, “What happened then?” “Well”, Krampus said finally. (David)

24) “As I love to watch a good fight, I went to Mongolia too. But it turned out, that Zombies are not only allergic to genetically modified cats. No, my dear friends. Zombies are also allergic to me! So when I arrived there, they could not hold themselves but sneezed back into the graves together with Genghis Khan himself. I was sad to see no fighting, but somehow Santa Claus was so grateful to have some of his elves saved, that he talked to Greenpeace and they started a #KrampusLivesMatter campaign for me. Nice, right?!”, Krampus concluded the past events. Jon and Donald, happy that Christmas and the world was saved, still had millions of questions. Donald asked first, “So, why are the cats still here?” Jon immediately afterwards, “And also, where exactly are we then, when it is 2020?” Krampus laughed and pointed to a door at the end of the corridor. Jon and Donald, opened it and stepped out into a big room that was decorated in Christmas style. They knew, the had been at the North Pole as they saw Santa teleporting here and there taking each time one genetically modified cat. “He distributes them to all the kids who wish for a cat this year!”, Krampus said behind them and start to laugh out of joy.

And so, in the end, everybody could celebrate a merry Christmas. Hatchu!

The End!

Thank you for reading and writing!