"There really is no Santa Claus, sweetie. If you stop saying that, maybe those kids won't pick on you."

Her cheeks droop, just a little. The glow in her eyes diffuses from tears quickly blinked back. Her shoulders, her back, deflate as she exhales.

I look away. How many more little murders will I have to commit? Not just the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny. Bigger ones. Kisses can't make everything all better. Being nice to people won't always mean they're nice to you.

There will be many little murders in my future, but no more right now. "Tell you what. You know the secret, so that means you can be my helper next time. What's your elf name going to be?"

===

[Edited, thanks for the comment!]

I can't get the word count below 120. It may be a matter of "kill your babies" - I may simply be too in love with the idea behind this piece to objectively subject it to the editor's allegorical scapel.

Or, this may simply be a case of a story being as long as is needed to tell it, and not a word more.

I've tried to tighten it a few times. I didn't do a whole rewrite, but I did tune up some of the sentences. I think every sentence had at least one tweak tried on it (and more than half of them I decided the tweak didn't work so I untweaked it.)

This story isn't just haphazard words tossed on the screen. I'm trying to go for some heft, some worth. My constant criticism of short fiction is the 'hook ending,' also known as the 'twist in the tail.'

I have nothing against a good solid snap-trap of a denouement -- on the contrary some of my favourite works rely on them. However, the acid test is the re-read value. If knowing how it ends emasculates the story the second time around, then I don't like it.

I'll make one exception -- if the reveal is so strong that it sears the story into the reader's memory, thus removing the need (or even desire) to read it again, then it works.

For example, in the video media, Closet Land and Grave of the Fireflies both hit me so soundly that I have no wish to ever watch them again, but I strongly recommend them whenever the situation arises. Go watch them!

Here, I know the ending is weak. I want the rest of the narrative to have the right voice, the dialogue to evoke the setting and background. Even when you know the ending, I want the story to be worth reading a second time.

Is it?