Joseph age 6. It’s not exactly waking up he does when he hears the sound a person needs to be asleep to wake up and how is any kid supposed to sleep the night before Christmas Joseph’s been wondering for hours now. No, the sound from the living room only gives him the excuse to throw his covers off and bolt of the bed in his Batman pajamas. He can’t get his bedroom door open fast enough and the moment he does he’s racing down the hallway so fast that the last half of his trip is sliding on his Spider-Man socks
(mom said the batman ones were in the dryer and he’d just have to deal with the embarrassment for a day).
He slides hard into the living room stopping himself steps from the crackling fire with a laugh. He’s halfway through an overly dramatic hand wipe across his brow when there’s a loud pop in the burning log followed by an explosion of flames that blows Joseph six feet back into the Christmas tree. He barely has time to register the crunching beneath him as broken ornaments when he sees the flaming demon-ninja, dressed in yellow standing in the fireplace. “S…Santa?” Joseph says barely finding a voice to speak with. He knows its not Santa. Every kid knows when Scorpion has come for them. “GET OVER HERE!” shrieks the fiery wraith as he launches a chained spear from his hand into Joseph’s stomach. Joseph is yanked screaming from the tree into Scorpion’s hands, into the flames. Only Joseph’s Chihuahua, Slaps, comes to investigate, poking her head in to the flaming living room, yapping away at the Christmas horror. Scorpion pulls his mask off, revealing the burning skull of his head , explodes Slaps with a ball of fire before grabbing a fistful of cookies from a nearby table and dragging Joseph crying into Hell.