On the Twelfth Day of Christmas

12 Days of Christmas - Day 12
Unlimited words
Theme: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Elements:
Twelve Drummers Drumming
A Large Moon
Tim Burton
The Song 'This is Holloween'

Day 12

 

Ba-dum ba-dum … ba-dum dum dum.

The sound of a dozen military drummers echo out mechanically as a tall man in a tuxedo is escorted out with the failing light of evening. The well-dressed man is surrounded by six soldiers and lead by an officer with an overtly decorated hat, feathery plumage and all. The man is pushed against a pole standing out of the ground, and his hands tied behind his back, binding him to the pole.

After double checking his bindings, the officer pulls a black cloth from his pocket and gets ready to tie it over the prisoner’s eyes.

The prisoner shakes his head. “No thanks. Would hate to miss such a fine sunset.”

The officer smirks, admiring the man’s courage. He pulls out a pack of cigarettes and pops one out. “Would you like a smoke at least?”

The prisoner stands up straight and says loudly, “Nah. Those things’ll kill ya.”

The officer laughs loudly before muttering, “So I hear…” He turns and leads the soldiers back to their line thirty feet away. As he spins around in an about face to stare at the prisoner the drums finally go silent.

From a nearby building a fat bureaucrat comes waddling out. He’s garishly dressed with more fancy ribbons and medals hanging from his chest than anyone could possibly earn honestly in a life time. He stands up as straight as his padded girth will allow as he produces a scroll from under his arm and begins reading aloud, “Francis Del’Marco… You are accused of the following. Inciting discourse against the monarchy… Plotting to overthrow the monarchy… High Treason… Tax Evasion… Theft of government property… Destruction of government property… Defacing government property with profane and perverse propaganda… And the kidnapping, dressing up in a maids uniform, and illegal confinement in a stockade of the local Governor.” He rolls up the scroll and replaces it under his arm as he adds with a sneer, “You have been found guilty on all counts. The sentence is DEATH… Do you have anything to say before the sentence is carried out?”

Francis begins laughing. “You KNOW I dooo! You fat pompous buffoon! This autocracy WILL fall. And it will fall sooner than either you or that engorged cow of a king expects! The movement has already started and has reached critical mass. If you don’t join it, stay out of its way, or YOU will be crushed! The peoples’ will isn’t something you can kill. The souls of the oppressed are everlasting! We will NOT be silenced!”

The fat man has been getting redder in the face by the moment and finally blares out, “CAPTAIN! You have your orders! Carry them out!”

The drums strike up again in a loud drum roll. The officer shakes his head and withdraws the sword from the scabbard on his hip. He raises it high in the air. “Make Ready! Aim!”

The drums suddenly stop, creating an eerie silence. Francis stands up straight and grins at the soldiers pointing their rifles at him.

“Fire!” The officer brings down his sword and the six soldiers fire in near unison.

Francis gets knocked back into the pole as pieces of fabric go flying from the bullet impacts. He goes limp nearly instantaneously and is only held up by the bindings around his wrist, which give out from a couple impacts and let him flop face first into the dirt.

The captain lowers his head as he replaces his sword in its scabbard and says quietly, “Requiescat in pace…”

 The moon rises slowly as the last light of the day disappears over the horizon. Not only does the moon seem to be rising, but it seems to be getting closer as it grows to a size so large that it dominates the night sky. The fact that it’s changing to an orange-ish red hue doesn’t help calm anyone’s senses.

A deep throated chuckle comes out that grows into a menacing cackle. Francis slowly pushes himself up and glares at the government official with a grin that borders on sadistic glee. As he’s standing up the officer takes a step back in pure disbelief.

Francis climbs to his feet and asks in a booming voice, “Well fatty, what do you have to say for yourself NOW?! You think yourself Tim Burton? Some sort of puppet master who uses the people for his own entertainment? Well Marcus?!”

The pompous official looks around with wild eyes. “H-how is this possible?! Y-you’re dead! I saw it!”

Francis folds his arms across his chest and grins back. “I told you… You CAN’T kill the will of the people.”

The soldiers spin in formation like a closing gate and face Marcus. They bring their rifles down in unison and aim at him. The drummers don’t react, except by setting down their instruments and slowly heading towards the armory. The only ones who seem stunned about the turn of events are Marcus, the government official, and the Captain, the supposed commanding officer.

Francis walks over to the Captain. “Your sidearm please.”

The captain looks around, and stops and stares at the government official.

Marcus yells at the captain, “Oh… you-you, Don’t you DARE!”

The captain sneers and quickly withdraws the pistol and hands it to Francis, who smiles and nods in appreciation. Francis walks in front of the soldiers and says before taking a bow. “Thank you gentlemen, for putting your trust in me. I promise it was not misplaced.” He turns around and faces Marcus. “And, I am not willing to ask anyone else to do anything that I, myself, am not willing to do…”

Marcus and Francis stare at each other in silence for a few moments. The silence is shattered by Francis’ surprisingly accurate pistol fire. He turns around to the crowd and comments, “Well, now they can add ‘Murder of a government official’ to the decree. Come gentlemen, our compatriots have already started, if you haven’t smelled the smoke by now.”

Francis heads for the main gate, where the drummers are already fully equipped with rifles and waiting in formation. As he leads the small procession out of the gate he says with a grin “Let’s go join our friends in throwing a going away party for our dear king…” He gets a wide grin on his face as he begins singing… “Say it once, say it twice… take a chance and roll the dice…RIDE with the moon in the dead of NIGHT!”

The captain stares at the government official’s body as the other’s start leaving. He smiles as he straightens his hat. “Vive la revolution, eh?” He quickly fetches supplies from the armory before following his subordinates.