Sleighed by the Orc

"They say to be careful what you wish for. But what if wishing gets you an orc who saves Christmas?"Mom is sick, Dad's depressed, and our Christmas tree farm is on the verge of bankruptcy. On top of everything, my estranged siblings have come back home to help out. That's nice and all, but at this point it feels like we're bailing out a sinking Titanic with a single bucket.

This Christmas is going to be more "bah humbug" than jolly.

One small glimmer of hope remains: Grak the orc. His name may remind me of the sound a dead pine tree makes when its trunk finally snaps, but at the end of every long, cold day, Grak is there for me. Well, virtually speaking. In my favorite online fantasy game, Grak's orc character and my sorcerer character often spend all night in chat mode.

My family doesn't get why I need to escape into fantasy worlds every night, but they don't need to understand. Grak gets me. Although we've never met in person, that monster is my best friend. How cruelly ironic that I, a sorcerer who grants wishes in the game, can't grant my own one true real-life wish?

Turns out, someone is out there granting wishes after all. After a long night of chatting online, I fall asleep in my gaming chair. A sudden knock on my door reveals the most terrifying sight of my life. He's six foot seven, green, calls himself Grak and is clearly obsessed with me. More than any human boyfriend has ever been.

If this is a joke, it's the sickest prank that's ever been done to me. But if Grak is real, what the heck am I supposed to do with him now? Even if I give in to the warm feelings I have when he looks at me, what happens when Grak goes back to where he came from? I'm already losing my family and my farm, and I can't possibly stand more heartache at Christmas.