He Sees You When You're Sleeping

1st December- Let The Countdown Begin!

Max Aldridge smiled down fondly at his daughter, who was bursting with excitement but trying to look grown up. After all, as she constantly reminded him, she was 7 and ¾.
     "Right, door one. I wonder who should open it? Maybe Mummy should. What do you think, Marla?'"
      Marla knew he was joking, but her bottom lip wobbled anyway. Max knew it was time to wrap up the game, so he held up a dramatic finger, like he had been struck by an idea. "Or... say, Marla. Do you think you could?"
     "Thank you daddy! You're the best!" She squealed, unable to contain her excitement.  She flung her arms around her father's neck, drawing a smile from him. The Advent Calendar was special in the Aldridge household, and Marla looked forward to it every year. She inserted her fingernail and poked it round the door, grinning uncontrollably. It was almost a disappointment to the buildup when it revealed (as they had all known it would) a plasticky little reindeer toy. Marla took it, though. Her view was that the actual gift didn't really matter.
      Max and his wife were just dropping Marla off to school when he got a call from his boss, Julianne. As he knew she would, he waited for her to start.
     "DS Aldridge?"
     "Morning, Julianne."
     "Max, we need you here now."
     "Er- OK, what -" He heard the beep and realised she had hung up. Julianne was a tough boss, but the team knew that her brusqueness was her way of dealing with 35 years of being in the Force. She had a zero-tolerance shit policy, and Max had earned her trust only after 8 years of work. He hailed a cab and made it to NSY in no time.
      Julianne met him at the entrance, arms folded and lips in a grim, straight line.
     "Max, you were ages. We have a homicide."
     "Is this one special?"
     "We believe this one will strike again, so yes."
      Max nodded, serious now, and went to his desk piled high with knick knacks and pictures of him, his wife and Marla. The one taking pride of place was a picture his friend DI Tom Scrimgeour had taken of Marla one Christmas. She was grinning at Tom's camera gappily - that was the year she had lost her first tooth - and Max smiled whenever he saw it. It saddened him that there were killers in the world when there was so much beauty to focus on instead.
      Max opened the case file, the one for the person calling themselves - he checked - the 'Advent Killer'. He winced. It was a mixture of cringe towards the name and sickened horror towards the kill: trauma to the head and multiple vertebrae, possibly caused by a blunt axe. Cause of death, slit throat, inflicted after the attack with the blunt instrument. Max grimaced again. He hated these cases, the insane ones. Torturers and messy killers, he had to detach himself from the cases. Otherwise, they just upset him. And the only lead to go on was a note in the first door of the victim's Advent Calendar. He read the photocopy carefully. 'You have been CHOSEN! Don't worry- I'll make it quick.'

       Max smiled at Marla, the novelty of the Advent Calendar not appearing to have worn off even after 5 days. The only thing clouding it was that they were no closer to catching the Advent Killer, despite as Julianne had feared, another murder every day in a similar style.
     "Marla, Mummy's gone to work early this morning so we can't wait for her to open the Calendar." Max explained. Marla pouted but opened the little door anyway.
     "Ohhh, daddy, there isn't a toy!" Marla frowned at him with puppy eyes. Max twitched, fears creeping up on him. He poked his finger in, and found a little note. Max didn't even need to read it.
     "Marla, how about..." he caught sight of a movement in the mirror in front of him. Without turning, he picked Marla up and shushed her. "Marla lovey, please don't say anything, but when I turn round, I need you to run for the door. Is that ok?"
Marla nodded, wondering why Daddy looked so scared. It made her scared, and she didn't like that. He breathed "Three, two, one," and spun around to face the person, all in black, who blocked Marla's exit. Max remembered his police training and tackled the intruder, who held up a hand with a knife in it.
       "Daddy, over here!" Marla cried. Max spun around just in time to feel a knife dig into his back. He sank to his knees, before falling to the ground in a puddle of his blood. Marla and the killer shared a glance and a nod. Then the killer made his way into the night.
      Marla knelt beside her father's corpse, playing with his hair. 
     "Oh Daddy, you weren't thinking about ratting us out now, were you?"