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“Sorry, the grotto is closing for lunch, we are not accepting any additions to the queue,” Susan tells the third family in a row after putting the sign out. There are currently twelve children left in line to see Santa before our lunch break.

Susan and I are dressed as elves and are once again helping in Santa’s grotto in Platterns department store. I say once again, but this is my first year as Jennifer, rather than my old identity of David. I underwent a spontaneous change of sex a few months ago.

I am one of a small proportion of individuals affected by a genetic mutation caused by contaminated bottled water. Not only have I changed sex, I have also gained some neat abilities. I can project myself out of my body in any form I choose, and remotely view anything up to two miles away.

Today is Saturday the 18th of December. There is exactly one week until Christmas and we have been busy all morning with organising the children waiting to see Santa. The grotto here is very popular: at its peak, the queue must have been 50 people long. Each child gets a couple of minutes with Santa and a small present. This year all the gifts are small soft toys, about six inches tall. There are three different types, a lion, an elephant, and a polar bear. They are in boxes sealed with a bow. We know which are which based on the colour of the box, yellow, green and red respectively.

One of the jobs of the elves is to keep Santa topped up with a supply of presents to give out. The presents are on forklift pallets out back. We have to stick the bows on and bring them through to the grotto. The bows come separate, as it’s easier to stack the boxes when they don’t have them on.

“OK, that’s the last one,” I tell Santa as the final child leaves. The ‘at lunch’ signs have been put out and Susan has been stopping people trying to join the queue. Santa is being played by Nick Carpenter, a retired employee who used to work in the menswear department. He makes an excellent Santa and even has his own genuine white beard, which is a lot better than the fakes you often see people wearing.

“Are you girls in this afternoon, or will I have different assistants?” he asks as we head through to the staff room.

“We are working till half four when Fiona and Samantha take over,” I reply.

“OK, I will see you after lunch,” Nick states as he dons his thick winter trench coat and hat and heads out the back door. He lives two blocks away in an apartment, so goes home for lunch. Susan and I retrieve our sandwiches from the staff fridge and get coffees from the machine. We make ourselves comfortable in the staff break room, which has several couches, ex-display models that couldn’t be sold. After eating, we both lie back and doze for a little while before we need to return to work. It is tiring constantly being on one’s feet.

Normally we would only do half a day, but the store is short staffed due to illness, so we are working a double shift. We will be relieved mid afternoon and our replacements will work through to when the grotto closes at half seven this evening. The store remains open through to nine pm, but not the grotto.

Santa only visits the store four days a week. He comes in Thursday and Friday afternoons, and all day Saturday and Sunday for five weeks in the run up to Christmas. Tomorrow is the last day that children can come and visit.

We are just finishing our coffee when we hear a loud bang. The windows rattle and car alarms go off. I immediately scan the area with my remote vision to see what’s going on. There has been an explosion in an apartment block nearby. One wall of the four-story building has been blown out, causing brick and concrete to be scattered over the road. Fire is quickly spreading through the upstairs apartments. Looking at the epicentre of the blast, I see the remains of a gas boiler.

Quickly scanning the area, I locate the gas supply valves in the basement and isolate them by projecting myself into the building. I am in viewing range of the fire station and I notice that the fire engines will be here in a few minutes. However, I can see that they may be too late. Two people are trapped on the top floor.

They are cornered by the fire and can’t reach the main staircase. The fire escape on the outside of the building has been blown away by the explosion. The structure is rapidly filling with toxic black smoke. I swiftly project myself into the apartment as my alter ego, Alice the Avenger.

Despite my best efforts to remain low key, Alice is starting to become known round town. She is rapidly becoming an urban legend, a real-life counterpart to Batman, who seeks out and beats up criminals before handing them to the police. The police refuse to comment on her existence, and I think the Center has been leaning on some of the journalists, keeping my superhero-like activities out of the public spotlight.

The Center is still trying to track me down. They haven’t succeeded yet. I am in regular contact with them via email, and they are still trying to persuade me to join them. I told them that I would reconsider once they can tell me my real name. As of yet they only know me as Alice.

My projection of Alice doesn’t look anything like my normal self. I have modelled her after the old Wonder Woman TV series, so I look like a younger version of Lynda Carter. Instead of blue shorts with white stars, I wear full-length blue leggings. As a replacement for the star on the headband, I have a large ‘A’. Admittedly, my choice of appearance does attract attention, but I generally only appear when necessary, usually to scare my opponents. If I am going to be demonstrating my powers, I think it appropriate to dress accordingly.

In reality, I have red hair and freckles, not the thick black hair that I portray as Alice.

In the apartment are Freddy Forrester and his younger brother Felix. Freddy is in my class at school and was an adversary to my former male self. Since my change, I have at least been on speaking terms with him, but I don’t regard him as a friend. Freddy’s fourteen and I think his brother is ten.

“I’m Alice, and I’m going to help you get out of here,” I say to the startled and scared boys as I appear in front of them.

“The door is jammed, I think the floor is sagging twisting the frame,” Freddy replies.

I project an axe into my hand and proceed to smash a hole in the door big enough for them to crawl through. Once in the hall I project a large fire blanket over the three of us and we swiftly move through the building towards the exit. Using the blanket for protection, we are able to walk through the flames blocking our path.

I am met on the sidewalk by several fire fighters. They have cleared the bottom two floors of occupants and were then going to make their way up. I scan the building, but there are no other people at home. I let the fire crew know that there is nobody else to evacuate.

There are now several ambulances on scene with paramedics treating people injured in the blast. The majority of the building was unoccupied, most of the tenants being out shopping or at work.

It is then I notice who is being lifted onto a stretcher and loaded in an ambulance. Nick Carpenter has been hit by flying debris. His face is bruised and bleeding, his neck has been braced, and his arm is in a splint.

I run over to where he’s being treated. A police officer tries to stop me as I approach, but I ghost myself and walk straight through him.

“Nick! Are you OK? Speak to me!” I anxiously ask him. He groans and mumbles something before passing out.

I end my projection and return to my body in the staff room. I immediately jump to my feet and run out onto the shop floor. Susan chases after me. I spot Mr Plattern and Uncle Richard talking in a corner and rush over to them.

“We have a problem,” I announce, “Nick’s been injured on his way back to work. I have just seen him being put into an ambulance. He was caught in the gas explosion on Baker Street.”

“Crap, I better go phone his wife. The grotto is due to open in five minutes, we will have to shut it down. That’s not going to go down well with the customers.”

“I think there may be a spare Santa costume in the cupboard, and Jim can cover my area,” Uncle Richards states.

“OK, do what you can, try to keep the kids happy, the parents spend more money that way,” Mr Plattern replies before dashing off.

The three of us head into the grotto, out of sight of the rest of the staff and customers.

“Jenny, I have a big favour to ask,” my uncle says.

“There isn’t a spare costume is there?” I reply sighing.

“Um, no there isn’t. Can you project as Santa? At least for this afternoon,” he asks.

“Alright, but you will have to fill my place on crowd control out front,” I answer before finding a hiding place from which I can project. I end up sitting behind a fake wall at the back of the grotto. It’s a wooden wall with a window looking out at a fake north pole.

I visualise the traditional Santa and appear on the throne ready to receive the children. Susan goes to work keeping me supplied with presents and showing the children and parents in and out. Her father keeps the queue moving out front.

I spend the next five hours trying not to strangle any of the clients. I am fed up with the crying, whinging, temper tantrums, and immature behaviour, and that’s just from the adults. I am not sure which is worse, the snotty nosed brats, or their snotty parents. I am sure half the kids couldn’t care less about seeing me. They are only doing it because their parents drag them here and insist upon it.

You may be wondering why I am even volunteering for working here If I dislike kids so much. I came to work here last year as David as I knew that they only had girl elf costumes. It was an excuse to wear a dress and pretend to be a girl while seeming to help others. As an assistant, you don’t spend all your time in the grotto. You have to keep going back to the store to put the bows on the presents and bring them out front.

The costume consists of a predominantly red patchwork dress that comes down to mid thigh, under which we wear stockings and knee length boots. There is an overcoat outlined in fur, similar to the one Santa wears. On our heads, we have snow-white wigs, pointy ears, and small floppy hats with a bobble on top. Very girly and very cute, there is no way a boy would ever consider wearing such an outfit, unless he’s a CD or T*.

I enjoyed it last year, mainly from the thrill of pretending to be a girl. Now that I am a girl for real, it’s not as much fun, especially as I now have to pretend to be male again. In addition, this weekend just happens to be my time of the month. I am still getting used to my new hormones and it’s making me extra cranky. I do genuinely enjoy seeing the small kids who are in awe of Santa and actually want to give him their list. It’s a pity that these are the minority. It is a good job I am not responsible for ordering the presents to go in the parcels, otherwise half the kids would be going home with boxes of coal.

When I finally get home, I’m exhausted. Projecting as a large fat man takes more energy than projecting as a thin person. I have already made it clear that they need to find another Santa tomorrow. I am not doing that again.

I spend Sunday relaxing and recovering.

My latest exploits as Alice are the talk of the school on Monday morning. Freddy has been telling everybody who will listen about the beautiful girl who saved his life on Saturday, although luckily he is leaving out some of the details. I used to call him Thicky, but he does have enough sense not to talk about my rather unusual abilities, probably thinking that nobody would believe him. He is in love with a capital ‘L’. Susan and Tracy are most amused. Personally, I find the whole idea rather revolting.

Thankfully, this is a short week. We only have four days school and have Friday off. As I come out of the last lesson on Thursday, I switch on my cell phone and check for messages. I have a text saying that my uncle will be collecting Susan and I. He is waiting outside when we leave the building. Getting into his van, we head into town. I wonder where we are going until I see the familiar office building of Mr Turner come into view.

Robert Turner works for the District Attorney’s office. Inside we find him and Police Chief Tom Millward. It appears they have a favour to ask of me, or more precisely, Alice. I start to get worried when Tom, Robert and my uncle all get down on their knees to grovel.

“Please will you play Santa for the kids’ Christmas party,” Robert begs.

“The replacement Santa Mr Plattern found has been arrested on child molestation charges,” Tom states.

“We are desperate for somebody to present gifts at tomorrow’s charity event,” Robert adds.

“If you don’t do it then one of us will have to done the costume and we are nowhere near as good as you. We all look too young and fake. Please think of the children,” Uncle Richard says, “All the kids invited have been through tough times lately and need cheering up.”

Each year our local Rotary Club organises a Christmas party for disadvantaged young children. Local businesses provide gifts to kids who are in difficult circumstances. These usually include families that are on the breadline, and those who have been affected by illness or tragedy. Felix Forrester has been given a last minute invite due to being made homeless and losing all his possessions.

I sigh and reply, “OK, as you have asked nicely I will just once, but it will only be a quick visit. Santa is very busy this close to Christmas so can’t hang round for long, just enough time to hand out some presents and that’s it.”

We sit and discuss arrangements for the next hour. All three men are Rotarians and form the organising committee for this year’s party.

The venue is a local community hall belonging jointly to the local Scout and Girl Guide brigades. It’s a large log cabin to the north of town surrounded by woodland. The main room is a large open plan area that stretches upward into the high-pitched roof. The interior is almost churchlike with thick wooden arches supporting the ceiling. The end of the room is dominated by a large stone fireplace. Either side of this are large glass windows looking out into the woodland. Off the main room is an entrance hall, which gives access to the bathrooms and kitchen area. The kitchen opens into the main hall via a serving hatch.

A small staircase leads up to an office and storeroom that sit in the roof space above the kitchen, foyer and bathrooms. I will be hiding upstairs in the storeroom on a sun lounger.

Both Susan and I will be dressed again in our elf costumes and using the character names of ‘Patch’ and ‘Sugarplum’, that we have been using while assisting Santa.

We arrive at the venue shortly after one pm in a Plattern’s van driven by my uncle. In the back, we have the sack of presents that we picked up earlier from the shop storeroom. We take it into the kitchen where Robert Turner and his wife, Janet, are laying out the party food. The guests are due to arrive at around two, with Santa making a brief appearance at three. The party will continue to half four.

Janet and Susan stand in the entrance hall greeting the children and their escorts as they arrive. They send the kids into the hall to play games, while their escorts are sent to see Robert who takes notes and confirms the child’s details. We have a system arranged whereby he has a clipboard of information, and will turn to the relevant page when Santa talks to each kid. Using my remote vision I can read the data and therefore make Santa appear omniscient without me having to memorise loads of facts.

In total, we are expecting eighteen special guests plus escorts. Every child is escorted either by a parent, an elder sibling, or in some cases a baby sitter. Tom Millward has brought a number of the guests in a minibus where they don’t have their own transport.

Using my remote vision, I can see the guests approaching down the road before they arrive. I am alarmed by the occupants of one of the approaching vehicles, and I quickly dash upstairs to my hiding place before they come in the front door. Escorting a pair of twins who have recently been orphaned are two teenagers from the Center.

Brian is a telekinetic who I met earlier this year. With him is a girl who I have previously witnessed shooting lightning. Looking outside I can see several additional vehicles parked down the street. A teenage boy with green hair is taking up position in a tree opposite the main entrance.

I consider doing a runner. However, I don’t want Santa to be a non-show. I don’t know if they are here for me. It’s possible one of the other teenagers could be an emergent. I decide to stick to plan.

I project myself as Santa and descend the stairs. Tom hands me the present sack from the kitchen and I make my entrance into the main hall shouting “Ho, Ho, Ho.”

I am soon surrounded by young excited children. Having regained order I make them sit on the floor in front of the chair that has been positioned for my benefit. Once seated, I speak to each child and hand out presents.

Some of the kids are overcoming depression, and are being quiet and reflective. I do my best to cheer them up and encourage their involvement. One of the children is particularly reluctant to participate. Katie, a seven-year-old girl, is sitting off to one side with her arms crossed trying to ignore everybody. I try to get her to come and join the others but this only seems to annoy her.

“You are nothing but a big fat phony!” Katie yells at me. The other kids look on in anticipation, a few of the younger ones scared by the temper tantrum.

Katie turns and picks up a big bowl of jello off the buffet table and throws it at me. I am so surprised by her actions that I fail to duck, and I’m hit full in the face. The plastic bowl clatters to the floor and I’m left with lumps of the strawberry flavoured dessert covering my face and beard. There is a stunned silence as I slowly wipe the jello from my eyes.

“Katherine Gertrude Braithwaite!” the girl’s mother shouts, “How dare you. Apologise this instant!”

“Go rot in hell!” the young girl shouts back.

The mother and daughter stand staring at each other. I think the mother is shocked by the child’s outburst and open defiance.

“Young lady,” I say slowly and deliberately, “you have just earned top spot on my naughty list. You won’t be receiving any gifts from me this year.”

“I don’t care! All I want is my sister back!” Katie shouts angrily, tears running down her face, her fists clenched at her sides.

I turn to Robert. He scribbles a note on his pad. ‘Sister: Bethany Braithwaite died in a car crash six months ago, aged 16.’

“Not even Santa can bring back lost loved ones Katie,” I say softly, “I wish I could, but it’s not possible.”

“She isn’t dead. There was no body. Adults are liars. They lie all the time. They say everything will be all right and it isn’t. Bethany said she would come back and she didn’t,” Katie sobs while still venting her frustration at me. “You aren’t Santa; you’re just some bloke dressed up in a red suit, another lie!”

Some of the smaller children are now very upset and are crying. I will probably regret this later, especially with Brian and friend here, but I can’t let this scene go on spoiling the atmosphere for the rest of the partygoers.

“Fine, in that case I will leave. You don’t have to believe in me, and I know its tradition for me to leave coal in naughty kids’ stockings, but in your case, I won’t bother making the effort. The rest of you will find your presents as usual. Goodbye,” I say walking over to the stone fireplace. Turning to face the watching children, I tap my nose three times and turn into a ball of light. I hover in front of the fire for a couple of seconds before disappearing up the chimney.

Brian turns and leaves the room, followed by his companion. Once in the corridor he bursts into tears himself. Wondering what happened I appear beside him. This time I project the form that he last saw before I left him on the truck, my usual self, but with green eyes, black hair, and no freckles.

“What’s the matter Brian?” I ask concerned.

He doesn’t answer, instead his friend asks, “Alice I presume? I’m Kris. Do I take it that you were playing Santa?”

“Yes, the man who was going to play the part was injured in a gas explosion last week. I was called in as a replacement,” I explain, “When I saw you come in I assumed that you were here to trap me, however I get the feeling you must be here for a different reason.”

“I’m Bethany,” Brian says softly, crying into his friends shoulder.

“One of our precogs had a premonition. They saw a young girl being chased from this lodge by a group of teenagers, Brian and I were in pursuit after them. She falls off a cliff, and is caught by Santa in his sleigh,” the young woman explains, “The premonitions are usually accurate, but we couldn’t see how until just now.”

We are interrupted as Susan bursts through the door shouting “Jennifer!” She stops dead when she sees me talking with our guests.

“Alice! Thank god you’re here,” Susan quickly recovers, “Katie has just bolted out the fire escape and is running off through the woods, and we need all the help we can get.”

I don’t hesitate. Using my remote vision, I locate the running child and point in her direction. “That way,” I shout as I vanish. They quickly head in the direction I pointed. There are already several teens in pursuit of the child, with a couple of adults trying to keep up. The others are looking after the other children in the hall.

I project myself in front of Katie and try to grab her, but she dodges me and carries on through the woods. Cursing, I try again, this time making myself invisible so that she can’t see me to dodge. We are only a few yards away from the cliff and I won’t get another opportunity. She runs straight into me and I grab hold of her. Unfortunately, her momentum knocks my projected form over and we both tumble and roll down the slight incline leading to the cliff. Keeping a tight hold of the child in one hand, I grab a branch as we pass and bring us both to a stop just before we reach the edge of the sheer drop.

Katie grabs the branch and clings to it, wrapping herself around the wood. Seeing that she is safe for the moment, I project myself to the top of the slope to stop anybody else running off it. I shout for them to stop, and the pursuers come to a halt. Brian pushes his way to the front of the gathering crowd.

“She’s safe for the moment,” I say. Although my back is to her, I am watching Katie closely with my remote vision. “She’s near the edge, but clinging tightly to a tree. We just need to bring her carefully up. I can project a rope and repel down to her.”

I hear the sound of snapping wood and spin round to see the branch holding Katie break. Brian stretches out his hand towards the child and instead of falling, she appears to be hovering in mid air, the wood she has in her hands no longer attached to the ground.

“I can’t hold her long, Alice, the branch is too heavy. Fulfil the prophecy,” he instructs.

Realising that the premonition is coming true, despite our best efforts, I do as instructed. I project myself back as Santa, but this time project a small sleigh pulled by a single reindeer. This is the smallest projection I can think of that meets the earlier description. The larger the projection, the more energy it takes. This will be the largest projection I have ever tried. While my projections have defied physics before, I’m usually in ghost form. This will be the first time I have done so when carrying a weight. I quickly move underneath the child, as she drops into the seat beside me.

The seat is solid enough to support her and carry her into the air. I was worried that she was going to fall straight through my projection, but so far, it appears to be working. I realise that I won’t be able to keep this up for long so swiftly steer the sleigh towards safe ground. The only clear landing spot is back at the lodge. I crash-land the sleigh as the rest of the adults and children come running out to meet me.

The party from the cliff is in hot pursuit and arrive just in time to see Santa and his sleigh vanish from sight. Katie is left in mid air as the seat under her disappears and she falls to the ground. Exhausted, I can’t maintain the projection any longer and let the blackness of unconsciousness overcome me.

I suddenly feel a warm tingly feeling and I find myself floating, looking down at my body. A girl I don’t recognise is holding my hand. Kris is stood nearby with Susan, looking on worried.

“How is she doing Liz,” Kris asks.

“Fine mom,” the girl holding my hand replies, “she has slipped into a hypoglycaemic coma. It seems that using her talent has drained all the sugar from her body.”

“This has happened before,” Susan says, “it occurs when she overexerts herself.”

I focus on returning to my body and slowly wake up. I can feel the energy flowing into me from where my hand is being held. The teenage girl seems to somehow be recharging and healing me. I guess that she is another emerged, and that this is her talent.

“Thanks, I needed that,” I say.

“Sorry Alice, but you collapsed again, I didn’t know what to do,” Susan states, tears falling down her face, “I was about to call for an ambulance when these people offered to help.” Turning to the other people in the room she asks, “I take it you are from the Center?”

“Yes, how much do you know?” Kris asks Susan.

“Only what Brian told me,” I say, looking across to Susan. “She is a close friend and one of the few people who know my secret identity.”

Susan is nervous, realising keeping my identity secret now is becoming increasingly hard. They only have to ask the partygoers who we are, most of them know our names. Once the Center has that, then I am at their mercy.

At least both Susan and I are wearing wigs and over the top makeup, so our normal appearance is somewhat hidden. Everybody has been calling Susan ‘Patch’ since before the guests arrived, so hopefully they won’t have her name.

“What happens now?” I ask.

“Usual procedure is for you to accompany us to the Center and for one of my team to erase the memories of everybody here,” Kris states. “But I can’t do it. I can’t bring myself to wipe what is obviously the most joyful memory these kids have. You have brought these children the best present they could ever have, belief in Santa Claus and in the Christmas spirit. However, I don’t see any other option.”

“There is always another option,” I say, “I think I can convince everybody to keep quiet about what has happened here. Santa can ask the kids not to say anything. Once I explain that nobody will believe them and they might be picked on, I am sure they will remain silent. As for the teens and adults, well they will meet my alter ego, Alice the Avenger. I have directly saved the lives of several people in there. My existence is starting to become common knowledge.”

I project myself back into the room as Santa, “at least let me try, you can still have the memories erased if it goes wrong.”

Reluctantly Kris agrees to my suggestion. She instructs Liz to remain with my now sleeping body. Susan also stays with me. Kris and my projection of Santa head out of the storeroom and back to the main hall. On the way out, Kris orders a man dressed in a business suit to join Liz. I recognise him from my last encounter with the Center. He was previously dressed in military uniform. It is obvious that they have brought some soldiers with them, but this time they are dressed in civvies.

I will have to work out a way of escaping from this lot without endangering any of my friends. I think Susan must have realised what is going on, and warned Robert and Uncle Richard not to say anything, as they are not acknowledging my presence.

As we enter the main room, I notice Tom is in the corner talking to Brian. They obviously recognize who he is, and they know I assist the police through him. Using my remote senses, I can hear Tom explaining how he arranged for me to assist by playing Santa and that I brought Patch along as an assistant. He’s telling Brian that he’s the only person here who knows about me and that nobody knows Susan’s identity.

As soon as Santa walks into the room, he is surrounded by the young children. After sitting them all down, I carefully explain that they shouldn’t talk about what they have seen in case they are bullied by nonbelievers.

Katie is sat to one side, dejected. After I have finished talking to the other children, I go over to her.

“I’m sorry,” she sobs, “I know everybody is trying to protect me, but nobody will tell me anything and I’m fed up of being lied too. I may be a kid, but I’m not stupid.”

“I can tell you the truth, what is really going on here, but are you sure you want to know?” I ask, “You would have to keep it secret and that is one of the hardest tasks.”

“Please,” she begs. I glance over to Kris and Brian, who are now standing to one side watching.

“This is totally against policy. However, Alice has proved that the policy isn’t always appropriate in all cases. If you want to have contact with your sister then I will permit it, if successful then we may be able to consider changing procedure. It’s your call Brian, do you trust your sister, and can she cope?” Kris whispers to him.

“Yes, and yes,” he whispers back, looking at me. I nod at him and wink.

“Are you familiar with the x-men comics and films?” I whisper into Katie’s ear. She nods. “Those characters aren’t real, but there are people out there that have weird and wonderful abilities. I am one of those people, and so is your sister. Their existence is kept secret so not to scare or panic everybody. My talent is I can appear as whomever I want. You’re right, I’m not really Santa Claus. Bethany can make things float in the air. She stopped you from falling when the tree broke.”

“She’s here? She’s alive?” Katie whispers back excitedly.

“Yes, and yes, but when we get our powers, we undergo a drastic physical transformation, completely changing appearance. Bethany had to disappear because nobody would recognise her or believe who she is. Your sister is now working for the government helping others like her,” I say to Katie quietly so nobody else can hear.

I notice that Katie’s mother has been distracted by Kris, who has taken her out of the room. I hear Brian whisper, “Follow me.”

I stand up and take Katie’s hand, leading her out of the main hall and upstairs to the office where her mother, Brian, Kris and another teenage girl are waiting. Katie’s mother is asleep in a chair.

“Sorry sis, but I don’t think mom can cope with the new me,” Brian says. In his hand is a small origami elephant, which floats up in the air and lands in Katie’s hands. As the intricately folded paper floats through the air Brian starts to recite a poem, “It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined, who went to see the Elephant, though all of them were blind, that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.”

“And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long, each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong, though each was partly in the right and all were in the wrong!” Katie replies as she flings herself at Brian and envelops him in a hug. I guess that this poem must be special to the two of them.

Kris and I leave the room, leaving the reunited siblings to talk. I have one more duty to perform. Standing in the hallway outside the main hall, I change my appearance into Alice the Avenger. I ask Kris to bring two of the people from the main hall while I wait out of sight in the foyer. She goes to fetch Fred and Tom. Freddy is here escorting his younger brother to the party.

“Alice! It’s good to see you again, I never got to thank you for rescuing me,” Freddy states as he enters the room.

“That’s okay, Freddy,” I reply, “I need a favour, from both you and Tom here. You have both seen me in action, so know that I can make things appear and disappear, and that I can walk through walls. I can also change appearance, this isn’t how I normally look. I was playing Santa in there earlier.”

“I did wonder,” declares Freddy, “I saw Nick Carpenter being taken away in the ambulance and knew he was originally due to play Santa. I saw your concern over his injuries, and when weird things started to happen earlier, I sort of put two and two together.”

“I need you to explain to the other teens and parents how the scenes earlier were possible. Several of the others have seen me in action in various guises. If my existence becomes public knowledge then I will have difficulty in operating and will have to go into hiding. I don’t want to put my friends and family at risk,” I explain.

“No problem, I think we can manage that,” Tom answers.

“I understand. Don’t worry, you can count on me, I will make sure the events here remain secret,” Freddy adds. I kiss him on the cheek and disappear in a puff of smoke. Freddy and Tom turn and walk back into the main hall to pass the word around.

Kris heads back towards the room from where I have been projecting. Entering the room she finds Liz missing and the soldier bound and gagged on the floor. Liz runs back into the room as Kris unties the guard.

“What happened?” Kris asks.

“You came back and told me Ray was injured having fallen out of his tree. I went to help him. The thing is he had only just fallen when I got there, so we realised that you couldn’t have sent me. I healed him as fast as I could and came back here,” Liz replies. I have been spying with my remote senses and listened in on some of the radio chatter between the Center operatives. I was able to learn the name of the green haired guy in the tree.

I project myself back into the room as Bugs Bunny, uttering the immortal “Eeeh, whatz up doc?” while munching on a carrot. The sight of a six-foot tall anthropogenic lagomorph standing in the room surprises Kris and she discharges a lightning bolt in my direction. I respond in true Looney Tunes fashion by turning my head and ears soot black. The charred remains of the carrot dissolve into dust.

Liz is trying very hard not to burst out laughing. I turn my projection into my Alice the Avenger persona.

“Sorry about the deception, but I needed to remove my body to safety,” I say calmly, “I can’t believe you actually fell for the oldest trick in the book.”

While Kris momentarily left me alone to fetch Freddy and Tom, I had projected myself as her to order Liz out of the way. The soldier was carrying a tazer, and it only took a second to steal his weapon and use it upon him. I dealt with Ray by invisibly pushing him out the tree. This had two benefits, it meant nobody was watching the window and it also kept Liz occupied fixing Ray’s broken leg.

I then left Susan to tie up the tazered soldier and escape with my unconscious body out of the window. Uncle Richard was waiting for us outside, having sneaked out of the side door from the kitchen. While I kept Kris and Freddy busy talking, they lowered me to the ground. The two of them were loading me into the back of the van when I returned to my body and woke up. I quickly changed the plan. I had spotted an access to the under floor crawl space hidden behind a large bin. Susan and I crawled through the hole while my Uncle drove off in the van as a decoy. By the time Kris had made it upstairs, I was successfully hidden.

“With my body safely hidden, I can now unleash whatever projections I deem appropriate to project myself, my friends, and my family, from harm. I realise you now have more clues to my identity, and it’s only a matter of time before you identify me, but it won’t be today,” I state. “You are going to collect your friends and leave immediately. Brian may stay behind if he wishes to have more time with his sister, but he will do so alone. Remember I can see and hear everything that is going on, and if I see any of you trying to question anybody here about me or my friend’s identity, I will use violence.”

Mid-sentence I disappear and reappear instantaneously next to Kris holding a large knife, the point a hair’s width from her neck.

“OK, you win this round, Alice,” Kris coldly states. “You have achieved what the rest of us can never have, acceptance by your friends and family and the ability to carry on with your life like nothing has happened. I can understand and respect your desire to protect that. However, if you use your talents irresponsibly, I will hunt you down.”

Kris turns and leaves the room. The other two follow her out. All the Center personnel gather and return to their vehicles when signalled by Kris. They wait in their cars while Brian says farewell to his sister, before they all drive off.

I remotely follow the Center vehicles until they are out of range. We follow them in Robert’s car, positioning ourselves halfway between the lodge and their vehicles as they leave town. Given my two-mile range, I am able to keep my eye on both the lodge and the motorcade until they are four miles apart.

Exhausted, we head home for a well-earned rest, to enjoy a traditional family Christmas, hopefully in peace.

Merry Christmas

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http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Blindmen_and_the_Elephant