Page 4

Understanding Krampus

NAOMI

S he must have lost her mind, there was no other explanation.

“ This bottle is the soap you should use,” Naomi told the demon as she showed them how to work the shower. “ Make sure you scrub all the dry blood off.”

She left them to do their thing and waited outside of the bathroom. The entire conversation in its mundanity had felt entirely too surreal, plus the fact that she had asked a demon to stay in her house was still a shock for Naomi .

Strangely , there was something about the demon that assured Naomi she was safe with them, despite their terrifying form and the great strength they possessed even with injuries.

They hadn’t talked much, but Naomi truly believed she had the wild luck of finding a truthful monster.

And with the fear settling in the background, her interest had come forward.

She became more curious about krampuses in general, and wanted to know more about this krampus specifically.

The demon was a big question mark that she wanted to uncover.

Everything about them seemed mysterious and intriguing, and she had never been good at resisting her curiosity.

Apparently , not even a clearly deadly-looking monster could stop her interest. On the contrary, all their beastly traits made them even more fascinating.

Naomi had never believed in magic but there was no denying it now. She wasn’t sure she was processing the information properly, to be honest. Naomi wondered if she’d have a breakdown about the whole situation in a few days, when everything would have passed and her brain caught up with the facts.

In addition to their demonic nature, there was the curious fact that the krampus had fought with one of their own—almost to the point of death—and the mystery of them not having a name.

Naomi couldn’t help getting stuck on that last point, specifically.

How could they not have a name? Everyone had one.

She jumped when the bathroom door opened, so focused on her thoughts that she hadn’t even heard the water stop.

She jerked to look at them. The demon stood in the middle of the entryway, looking like an overgrown puppy that had spent too much time in the rain, and Naomi had to hold back her laughter at the sight of them standing there so stiffly, fully soaked.

“ You should dry yourself,” she said.

“ I don’t have my magic yet.”

Their magic could dry them? Interesting … what else could their magic do?

“ No need for magic.”

She grinned and slipped into the bathroom, then rummaged through drawer and threw them a towel.

“ To start, rub this on your fur. It’ll take away some of the water.”

Naomi made it a point to look away while they dried themselves.

Even though she hadn’t seen any genitals, probably all covered by the fur, the krampus was still technically naked by human standards and it felt weird to stare at them.

Sure , they had already been naked before, but when they were wet it seemed more intimate, vulnerable.

She took out the hair dryer and waited for them, then showed them the buttons and explained to them how to use it.

“ I’ll wait downstairs,” she told them, handing them the device.

Restless , she went to the kitchen, distracting herself by making a meal. Her stomach began growling as she began cooking, as if only now noticing that she hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday’s lunch.

“ I guess you were too busy worrying,” she told her stomach.

Naomi didn’t know how long the demon would take to dry themself, and not wanting to dedicate too much time cooking, she made some quick pasta. Right as she was putting it on the plate, the krampus walked into the kitchen.

“ Do you want to eat?” she asked them, but then worried she asked the wrong question. Did krampuses even eat? Did they eat human food?

They simply nodded to her, so she made a plate for them too.

The demon waited to eat—watching the way she picked up her fork, then imitating her.

They had probably never done this before, and it was a bit funny watching them try.

Naomi wasn’t sure how to tell the age of a demon, but for human standards, they probably looked like they were in their late forties—seeming like a weirdly good-looking, middle-aged, monstrous man.

Either way, they were definitely older than her.

“ Are you… feeling better?” she asked, hesitantly.

“ I am.”

Their replies were always curt, but she wasn’t sure whether it was because they didn’t want to talk, because they couldn’t reveal too much, or simply because they weren’t used to small talk or conversations.

As she watched them eat with slow and tentative bites, a new question popped into her head.

“ I was wondering, how can I refer to you? When I found you, I thought you were an animal so I thought of you as an it .”

Her cheeks heated up and she hoped they wouldn’t be able to see her embarrassment.

“ I’m not human, so I can’t be a man,” he explained. “ But I’m the closest thing to it, I guess.”

She sighed in relief, happy to clear part of the confusion in her mind.

“ Are you not scared of me anymore?” he asked out of the blue, a deep frown appearing on his face.

His appearance still made him look frightening, but Naomi’s heart had settled a bit—especially after seeing him post-shower, looking comically small despite his huge size. And apart from the first attack, when he had been too confused to understand the situation, he hadn’t made her feel in danger.

“ I’m less scared,” she eventually replied.

He nodded, thoughtful.

“ You’re not very fond of chatting, are you?” she tried, carefully watching his expression.

He frowned, confused. “ We are talking now, are we not?”

“ We are, but… I don’t know how to explain it. You don’t sound like you do this a lot.”

“ I don’t,” he confirmed. “ I’m not good with small talk.”

She couldn’t hold back her bright smile. “ This isn’t really small talk. I’m trying to get to know you better.”

“ I don’t speak much with people,” he offered.

She watched him carefully, trying to read his expression, but he just looked confused, like a fish out of water.

“ Not even in Hell ?”

“ My kind might be famous among humans, but it’s seen as lesser in Hell ,” he explained, eyes focusing on his food. “ We only exist to follow orders, not to mingle or talk.”

Her heart ached. That seemed like a miserable existence. Actually , it didn’t feel like an existence at all. It sounded like he was only a marionette, with no life or thoughts of his own. The distant look in his eyes only confirmed her thoughts.

“ Is that why you also don’t have a name?”

Again , he nodded quietly.

Seeing such a big creature so sad was destabilizing.

It was a completely different sight from the ferocious image of their encounter earlier today, almost like a switch had been flipped and his krampus persona had vanished—leaving an unfinished being in his stead, entirely too confused about what to do with himself.

She felt the need to take that frown off his face.

“ Would you like to have a name?”

His eyes jerked to her, unsure. “ I’m not allowed to have one.”

“ No one has to know. It can be our secret.”

There was a war behind his eyes, thoughts fighting against each other. Naomi didn’t know much about his culture, so she let the proposal hang in the air without insisting, lest she overstepped a boundary she didn’t know existed.

“ You would give me a name?” he asked, unsure.

“ Yes . It’d be an honor.”

The frown deepened a little more, but instead of rejecting he said, “ I’d like a name.”

Naomi thought carefully, trying to think of what name would give the same vibe as him.

Common names came to mind first, but they sounded too silly for him.

Bobby the krampus, James the krampus, Henry the krampus…

they were too unserious. Then , she tried to think of keeping the initial K , and went through all the names starting with that letter.

“ I have it!” she exclaimed, jumping on her seat. “ Kilean !”

“ Kilean ?”

“ Yes ! It’s with a K , to connect it to krampus,” she explained. “ And when I hear Kilean I imagine a mysterious, attractive man, for some reason. So it feels perfect.”

His eyes widened a little. “ Attractive ?”

Naomi’s mouth fell open. The thought hadn’t occurred to her, but now that she said it, she realized it wasn’t a complete lie.

Yes , he was strange and unfamiliar and not completely human, but there was handsomeness behind the monstrous features.

It felt weird to confess that to herself, but there was no going back now.

She cleared her throat. “ I mean… yeah.”

“ Oh .”

He sounded, and looked, genuinely surprised. He scratched his hooked nose with one of his long nails, eyes darting away.

“ You are pretty,” he conceded, awkwardly. “ For a human.”

In any other instance she might have felt offended by the comment, but instead it felt endearing. She fought the smile pulling at her lips.

“ Thank you.”

Meal finished, he looked around the space, studying every inch with genuinely curious eyes.

Not sure how to proceed, Naomi took the dishes and brought them to the sink.

What were they supposed to do now? She had told him he could stay until he was fully healed, but other than talking, she didn’t know how to entertain him.

He was clearly trying his best to have a conversation with her, but Naomi guessed there was a limit to how much he could speak before it exhausted him entirely.

“ Healing is faster when I rest,” he told her.

She turned around to him standing by the kitchen door.

“ You can sleep in one of the spare rooms,” she offered.

He shook his head. “ The bed would be too small for me. I can sleep on the floor here.”

He pointed at the living room, in the space between the two couches and the fireplace. It was a big enough space to fit him, indeed, but the floor must be uncomfortable. And he was still injured, too.

Before she could protest, he said, “ That would be the most comfortable option for me.”

Sighing , she nodded. “ Okay , I’ll let you rest, then. If you need me, I’ll be in my room.”

Naomi watched as he settled in front of the fire, partially curled up into himself, then left him alone and wandered to her room.

She felt unsettled leaving him alone, as if she was letting a guest fend for himself in an unknown environment. In a way, he was a guest in her house, but also wasn’t, and it felt very disorienting.

To distract herself, she picked up her e-reader and dipped into a fantasy romance book, now curious to look at magic with a different approach. She read for a couple hours but when her eyelids felt heavy, she decided to take a nap, too.

A dream accompanied her slumber, of horns and fur and snow, and hands intertwining and moans and naked bodies. The dream became so horny that it jolted her awake, her legs pressing together before she fully came to.

Naomi groaned, pressing her palms against her eyes. The memories of the dream were already fading, but the feeling of the krampus touching her was still ingrained in her body memory.

Her pussy ached, and Naomi knew that if she didn’t listen to its needs, it would not let her focus on anything else.

Her hand slipped under her pants and into her underwear, touching her already wet cunt. Slowly , she circled her fingers on it, spreading the wetness.

The demon was hot, there was no denying it anymore.

The realization left her slightly confused, when he looked so odd and different from what she was used to, but from his thick and broad build mixing with his surprisingly polite personality, there was something both physically attractive and charming about him.

Naomi slipped two fingers inside and thought about his big hands.

She imagined what they would feel like on her skin, with his fur tickling her body as he touched her.

His claws disappeared in her fantasy and she imagined it was his thick long fingers inside her, getting her to orgasm as he watched her with his intense gaze.

She came around her fingers, biting down onto her other hand, trying not to make too much noise. Naomi wasn’t sure what kind of hearing demons had, but she couldn’t risk him hearing her masturbate. That would be too embarrassing.

When she eventually took her hand out of her panties and the post-nut clarity hit her, her face heated.

What the hell am I doing…