Noche Sin Paz (2022) Apr 2026

Upstairs, young Trudy Lightstone clutched her walkie-talkie, whispering prayers to the man in the red suit. She was the only one who still believed. Her belief was a beacon, a tether that kept the old man from simply hopping on his sleigh and leaving this pit of vipers to their fate.

In the shadows of the wine cellar, a man in a soot-stained red suit groaned, leaning against a rack of overpriced Chardonnay. This wasn't the Christmas Santa Claus—the real Santa Claus—had envisioned. He was tired. He was disillusioned. He was nursing a gut wound and wondering when children stopped wishing for wooden trains and started wishing for cold hard cash.

As Scrooge’s lead enforcer burst into the room, he found not a terrified child, but a floor covered in micro-machines and a tripwire rigged to a heavy bowling ball. It was Home Alone played for keeps, and as the mercenary tumbled backward, Santa was there to meet him. Noche sin paz (2022)

The wind howled across the sprawling Lightstone estate, but inside, the air was thick with a different kind of chill: the cold, calculated greed of a family that hated each other almost as much as the mercenaries currently holding them hostage.

The final confrontation happened in the snow-dusted courtyard. Scrooge stood over the bloodied Santa, a gun leveled at his head. "You're a myth," the villain sneered. "A story told to keep kids in line. You don't belong in a world of Glocks and greed." In the shadows of the wine cellar, a

Santa moved through the mansion like a crimson ghost. He wasn't the jolly fat man from the soda commercials tonight. He was a warrior. When a mercenary cornered him in the kitchen, Santa didn't reach for magic dust—he shoved the man’s head into a deep fryer and finished him off with a meat tenderizer.

With a roar, Santa swung a heavy sock filled with pool balls, shattering Scrooge’s defense. The fight was a blur of tinsel and violence, ending with Scrooge being hauled up the chimney by a magic tinsel noose, the soot and heat claiming him just as the reindeer touched down on the roof. He was disillusioned

As the sun began to peek over the horizon, the authorities swarmed the estate. Santa sat on the roof, his suit more crimson than ever. He looked at his list. Most of the names in that house were staying on the Naughty List forever, but Trudy... Trudy got a miracle.