They Tried to Steal Christmas!

It had all seemed so easy. Watch the house until the family had gone to the school Nativity Play, then move in and strip it. All the gifts, everything that could be sold. They'd joked about it. The big old house in Hampstead was a perfect target in this fog.
Only it hadn't been. The door had yielded easily, and the three burglars had moved through the house to a living-room lit by the glittering lights of a beautiful tree. The family had been rich, but the house and its contents were practically the only remains of that wealth left. The thieves did not care. It was just another job to them. They didn't care about four young children and an orphan of eleven who was staying with the family. The thieves did not care that they were going to ruin the Christmas of a few caring people.
"Easy as..." one began. He did not finish, for suddenly all the lights went out.
"Hey! Get a Torch!"
"You don't need a torch."
The three men turned as they heard the voice of a little girl. They expected to see a child in her pyjamas. Instead they saw two glowing red lights.
Eyes. Glowing red eyes.
A torch was turned on. It struck the person in the doorway and passed through the swirling black smoke of her body. The three men screamed in terror.
"Oh my... what is it?"
"It's a ghost!"
"That's it!" the dark figure laughed. "Run! Run as fast as you want, you can't escape me!"
One man went for a gun. The Outsider moved, and the man yelled. Looking down he saw a crossbow bolt sticking from his arm.
"We know you're in there! This is the police!"
The robbers fled, terrified, into the night, and the Outsider faded from view. The thieves spent the rest of the night confessing to the police.
"The Outsider," one constable mused. "I wonder why she's here?"
"Who knows?" the other replied.
Neither could have known the significance of the name displayed on the slip of paper by the bell. It was 'Fairbairn'.
And no-one noticed the extra presents under the tree until Christmas Day. They were just what the family wanted, but there was no giver's name on the gift tags.
And on the mantelpiece the picture of a pretty red-headed little girl looked down at the family who though she was dead.
I found the Outsider crying that night.