-PART FIVE-

Kathy spun round to look at Stone as Laurence fainted away and the noise of the party whirled round her head. What was happening! In just a few minutes, it had escalated so quickly. How was 'Father Christmas' killing the staff? What was he doing - who was this 'Santa'? Stone was the only one who could help her now. Advancing towards the horror-struck boy, she grabbed him by the shoulders and looked into his terrified eyes.

"Stone, what does Laurence mean?" He simply stared at her, horrified, and with urgency, she shook him. "Tell me!"

Stone trembled as he spoke. "Kim, you should know...you were there when it happened...when-"

He stopped and sobbed and she reminded herself that she was speaking with an eleven year old boy who was looking into the face of death. Trying to cal herself down in the heated circumstances and to ignore the muttering of the Professor and the banging on the door. After a pause, she looked at Stone with more warmth, trying to seem motherly so he would open up. "Sto - Peter. Peter, I can't remember. Please, tell me. Tell me so I know what's out there."

Stone's eyes moved to the door with terror, then back to her. "He - he came. We were waiting for the teachers to come to the party and he...came. He told us he was father Christmas. But he wasn't...he was Rollo.."

"Rollo?" 

"Rollo Shaw, the seventh year who tries to be everyone's friend...he said he had a surprise for us...a present. It was only small and people laughed at him, but he wasn't unhappy. He smiled - but not nicely. Then he gave it to the head boy - Steven - and told him to open it. Steven...Steven was scared. The way Rollo was smiling, it was scary...really scary. Steven said no and threw the box, but Rollo caught it and put it back in Steven's hands. Then he-"

Stone paused in his story, but had been speaking as if he ousted wanted to keep talking. To distract him from the silence that had now come when the party had suddenly gone silent and the banging on the door had stopped. 

"What did he do?" Kathy breathed, caught up in the moment and urging the boy to go on.

"He...he pointed his wand at Steven and said if he didn't open it he'd kill him. Steven was looking shocked and then one of the other seventh-years laughed. And then..and then Rollo did something with his wand and a green flash went out and the boy fell. Everyone gasped and we knew he was dead, and one of the girls opened her mouth to shout for the teachers then Rollo pointed his wand at her and she said nothing. Steven began to unwrap the present and it was a box...a dark, black box. Rollo told him to open it an he did...then Steven went mad."

"What happened to him?" Kathy pushed, knowing that there was only fifteen minutes left till one o'clock - that she was running out of time. 

"He...he turned into father christmas." The terrified Stone looked up at her with watery eyes. "He grew a beard and wore this outfit and...and looked the same as Rollo. Then the teachers came in and saw the boy and one of the girls started shouting...they - they killed her." Stone sobbed. "Then they went up the chimney - like animals...scratching and clawing. The teachers took the seventh and sixth years outside and then we were told to stay happy - to forget. They made us forget..."

Kathy realised what they had meant now. Stone had been so happy, and Laurence wary, but the memory spells that the teachers had cast had worn off. Was it the cause of the silence in the party hall? Or was it...

The chimney. There was a chimney in the great hall where all the students in. Katherine turned and suddenly realised that the sounds of the party before had not been loud because the students were enjoying themselves. She had locked them in and they had died. She had murdered them. She was the cause of the deaths...

"Oh my god..." Kathy sank to the ground in horror. "Oh my god..."

Stone was looking at her in bewilderment, still terrified. "Kim...Kim please...you're the only one."

Kathy knew she was the only one left to help the boy. Laurence was knocked out and the teachers were dead. But she didn't care. There were ten more minutes to go and then she'd be gone. Gone from the nightmare.

But then another voice came, floating down the stairs. "He's right, my dear."