#henc

At work. Creating my graphic score for director Tjepke Zijlstra for his film/installation Crash. At a sweaty 7 degrees…

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

But one light was still burning, ever so bright The last werewolf awake in this December night He sat at his desk, he couldn’t lie down There were too many vampires in this damn town

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, He sprang from the chair to see what was the matter. Away to the window he flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

Outside it was cold and lonely as well No Rogue or burglar, as far as Alec could tell Instead of relief, he was more so alert As a thumbing and bumping from the roof could be heard

Then absolute stillness was filling the air Suspicious, he waited and listened with care Until he ran out of patience and rushed through the door Because a creaking and cracking arose from this floor

It sounded like steps, there was someone inside And Alec would find them, there was no way to hide The alpha thought of his children, his friends and his wife And was ready to protect them all with his life

Out in the hallway the only thing he could see Were the colourful lights from his own Christmas tree Then a shadow hushed by and it didn’t take long Until someone was humming a Christmas song

He stopped in confusion, unsure what to expect This was not the way a rogue would react Turns out, no vampire was after his throat But rather a stranger in Santa’s red coat

The man had brought presents, he filled up the socks With dolls, chocolate, candy and Lego blocks All the while Alec was waiting in place for the stranger to turn and reveal his face

He had found the cookies meant for Santa to eat And had helped himself to enjoying the treat He was carelessly drinking milk from the shelf “Those cookies are awful, did you make them yourself?”

“You’ve got to be kidding, of course I did not” The alpha exclaimed, clearing his throat He knew that voice, he recognized the sound But it had been a while since he’d seen Henry around

“Good job on the kids, though, I’ve heard there are three” Fake Santa continued, grinning with glee Both knew he’d been gone for six years, at least In turn their warm and hopeful smiles ceased

Then Alec stepped closer, lifting his chin “It’s been so long, Henry, where have you been? I didn’t know and you wouldn’t call Do you care about your family at all?”

Alec got angry, formed a fist with his hand He was more than ready to punch his friend “Ally, it’s Christmas, don’t be so mad” “Jesus Christ, Henry, I thought you were dead”

Henry could only react with a shrug Before he pulled his friend into a hug “I hate you” Alec huffed, still giving in “That’s not true” Henry replied with a grin

Alec could barely remember how or why they had taken a taxi to the suburbs of New York after the pack’s annual Christmas party. And neither did Henry for he was getting busy building snowman onto stranger’s front lawns. ‘They’ll love it when they’ll see it in the morning’ and Alec had given up trying to stop him and was praying that no one would see him and call the police. There was a fairly long blackout blocking their memory, it seemed. Apparently, it was very easy to accidentally overdose eggnog. Especially when handing the responsibility to portion it over to Henry. Meanwhile, Alec was rather busy figuring out how to get a taxi to pick them up this far out of town. While he was fumbling through his inside pockets for his phone, he was glad that it was still there. However, at the same time he became aware of the absence of something else. Frantically he began searching through his other pockets too, even searching each of them twice, but there was no mistaken: He had lost his wallet. He cursed quietly and looked up until he could find Henry still invading stranger’s front lawns. He stepped a little closer, so he wouldn’t have to yell across the street in a friendly neighbourhood at this hour of the night. “Do you have any money left?” Henry looked at Alec as if he had just requested a pink unicorn. “Never had any to begin with” He admitted cheerfully and Alec was only mildly surprised at that revelation. “Great” He huffed. “We better get walking then” Henry was suddenly all alert again, even taking a break from building snowmen. “No way. We’ve driven, like, at least 30 miles to get here” Obviously, Alec wasn’t too fond of that idea either, but, really, what else were they supposed to do? “Come on, you’ve walked through half of Europe” “Yeah, because I wanted to. But right now I don’t wanna. Can’t we change? We’d run faster that way” Alec seemed to actually ponder about that idea for a moment, but then firmly shook his head. “Can’t risk it” Henry shrugged. “They usually thing we’re just stray dogs. Trust me, I’ve done it before” “We’re not dogs” Alec was visibly disgusted by the mere thought alone. “We need money” He concluded instead. “Oh” Henry leapt back onto his feet, suddenly far too excited for Alec not to get suspicious. “I know how to make some, come on!” Reluctantly, Alec followed. He was already mentally preparing himself to tell Henry that they were not going to prostitute themselves and that it wasn’t legal in this country when they stopped in front of one of the many front doors of the picture perfect suburban area. “It’s called drunk carolling. We’ll get twice as much money, because it’s 4am and people really want us to stop singing already” “That’s not a thing” But Henry had already pressed the doorbell. “Yeah, it is” “They’ll call the police” Alec was already about to drag Henry away from the door as fast as possible. The lights in the house were already turning on. “And I bet the police is going to bring us home” Before Alec even knew, Henry had pulled out a Santa hat from the Christmas party earlier on and pulled it over the Alpha’s head. Next thing he knew, the door was being pulled open and Henry had started singing. “DECK THE HALLS WITH BOUGHS OF HOLLY. FA LALALALA LALALALA” In the door stood a rather unhappy looking man in his pyjamas. He looked like he was ready to punch Henry straight in the face and even though Alec knew that this man would not stand a chance against two werewolves and as much as he resented running from a fight, he also knew that there was absolutely no reason to pick a fight with an ordinary human after violently waking them up in the middle of the night. He was also still drunk. So he did the only thing he knew to do, grabbed Henry by the wrist and took off running. Henry was still singing and the houses around them began lighting up like Christmas trees. So they kept running around the next corner of the street, where Alec finally let go. They were both still panting when Henry said “Well, that didn’t work out. You were not supposed to run. We need to keep singing until they pay us to go away” Alec was still shaking his head, reaching out to hold Henry back, but it was already too late. “Better luck with the next one”