I found some Christmas-themed prompts on another website. Here is the first of a few I will be doing. I had already planned them but couldn't get around to finishing them until now.
The Prompt: You brought an Elf on the Shelf
into your home, but instead of him visiting Santa every night, you
believe that he is mysteriously stealing money from your wallet and
taking nightly trips to (fill in the blank) [your kitchen]. One night you stay awake
and secretly follow him to find out the truth. Write this scene.
It all started when I saw some broken glass near the tree skirt where an ornament had broke. Thinking I hit it while vacuuming earlier, I swept it up and didn't think anymore about it. I saw cookie crumbs near his cot the next day. Three cookies were missing from the fresh batch of peanut butter blossoms I had made. The elf on a shelf- I named him Brownie- never looked any different from how I had positioned him on the bed I had borrowed from my childhood dollhouse. Brownie usually slept in his little cot I set up under the
tree. Each day I would position him in various spots around the house
and tuck him into bed at night. I thought he'd enjoy looking at the
ornaments as he drifted off.
Little things started disappearing. A whole box of toothpicks, the pen from my organizer, bits of ribbon. I thought I had misplaced them. I was always losing things. It started getting serious when, a few days later, I went to pay for my peppermint mocha at Starbucks when I saw I was three dollars short. I dismissed any doubt in my mind that I was robbed, thinking I had miscounted how much money I had in my wallet, and paid with my card. When it happened a second time, I moved where I kept my wallet from my purse to a dresser drawer. I wasn't sure how much that would help, but it eased my nerves.
A couple days before Christmas, a pair of of my Christmas earrings went missing right off my dresser. I looked under the dresser, in my jewelry box. They had vanished. I started getting nervous now that a robber was breaking into my house, but it didn't make sense that the burglar was stealing fairly inexpensive things. I mentally went through my head who the culprit might be. I was no Sherlock Holmes, but I couldn't bother the police with something as miniscule as this. They would never take me seriously. I felt the items seemed somewhat personal, so the person must know me. I had no hired help, no one who had a copy of my key. My doors and windows were always locked. Was it my next door neighbor Gladys? She always did act a bit odd. My best friend Margie as a Christmas prank? It couldn't have been my sister. She was in vacation at Tierra del Fuego. It must be mice, I joked and decided to get some sleep.
Drowsiness tugged at my eyelids, but different suspects kept flashing through my head. I groaned as I tossed from side to side until my mouth went dry. Grumbling that I had to leave my comfy sheets, I slipped on my robe and creaked downstairs to get some water and maybe a cookie. On the third to last step, I thought I heard rustling near the tree. When I went to look, everything was still. Brownie's feet though were sticking out from the blanket on the cot, and I distinctly noted the bed was moved. For a minute, I thought my toy was alive. He was the only person that made sense. I decided I would sit up and watch him.
"What am I saying? My toy elf comes alive at night, like Toy Story?" I shook my head. "But what harm would it do to watch?"
I grabbed my drink and munched a couple Spritz cookies at the top of my steps, waiting until Brownie thought it was safe to come out again. The silence dragged on until ten past one. I pinched myself to stay awake and thought back to when I was a kid and did this to try to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus. Jingling bells interrupted my thoughts and I almost tripped as I moved downstairs.
Brownie was gone, the blanket thrown aside on the tree skirt. I strained my eyes to see where he might be. My skin crawling with goosebumps. I prayed he didn't see me as I came out of the staircase. Faint humming to "The First Noel" drew my attention to my kitchen, and Brownie skipped out carrying tubed icing. The bells on his shoes jingled, and his hat shifted across his eyebrows. He stopped in front of the tree and dragged out something from behind my small mound of presents.
It was a gingerbread house, just a few inches taller than Brownie. Toothpicks framed the windows and buttons, Hershey's kisses, and hardened globs of frosting made designs on the walls. Dangling over the door were my earrings, fashioned into a makeshift wreath. A card sticking from the sides said it was addressed to me from Santa. Touched by this gift, I crept noiselessly back into bed and thought of what I could buy my hardworking elf in return.
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