Christmas is over, the tree is on the curb, and you think the house is finally yours again. That’s when she comes. This is the Italian legend of La Befana, the soot-streaked crone who slips down chimneys on January 6th, leaves gifts for good children, coal for the bad, and quietly rearranges your home in the middle of the night. She isn’t a punisher like Krampus, but something worse: a creature of endless grief and obsessive routine, cursed to sweep through millions of houses searching for a child she’ll never find, leaving behind candy, ash, and the feeling that someone else’s ancient sorrow has moved in with you.