The clock in the hallway struck 2.
Loud sounds of fighting came from the other room.
"Give my chicken leg back!!"
"Noooo its mine!"
Zel crept around the corner and peered into the next room. Stacks upon stacks of food were piled around the room. Hams, turkey's, cakes, pies, rolls, mashed potatoes, just about any food that man craves. The smell of the feast wafted up to Zelgadiss nose and even he felt a twinge of hunger.
In the middle of the room was a big oak table. It leaned in a bit in the middle from the weight of the food. Lina and Goury were seating at it stuffing their faces.... Food was flung around like their was no tomorrow (well the way they ate that was entirely possible). They were dressed in red Christmas outfits trimmed in white fur. They sort of resembled Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus. Wait, what was Lina and Goury doing here?
Realization struck Zelgadiss painfully.
"Let me guess your the ghost of Christmas present??
"Mfff waff a minifff," he got in reply. They continued to inhale their feast.
"uh... ok". Zel sweatdropped.
The redheaded ghost swallowed her drink with a loud swishing sound.
"Just wait a sec we have to finish our dinner", she replied with a grin. She tried to hold back a giggle. "Hey look over there!", the redheaded ghost pointed to a spot behind her blond companion.
"What?". He turned around. The redhead "literally" inhaled the entire feast via giant suction vacuum. Her blond companion turned around.
"Hey where'd the food go?!" he asked. He narrowed his eyes at the redhead.
"This isn't the time to think about food! We have a job to do!". The redhead jumped off her chair with a small thud. The table and chairs abruptly vanished into thin air.
The blond brought himself to his full height.
"Hello, Zelgadiss Greywords. We're are here for your salvation, to show you the light, to stop you from going down the dark path...um... and lots of other stuff. We are the ghosts of Christmas present." The blond man bowed.
"Hey you stole my line.. no scratch that you actually REMEMBERED the line."
"Remembered what line??" The redhead glared.
Zel rubbed his temples. Nothing was ever easy. Well I guess salvation really wasn't suppose to be.
"I thought their was only one ghost of Christmas present"?
"Yeah well, you got two." The redhead grabbed Zel's hand. "Come on Mr. Zelgadiss Greywords, time waits for no man."
A red and green portal appeared from thin air. The blond and redhead dragged Zel through it.
Zel was deposited unceremoniously on a balcony at the Sailoon palace.
Amelia walked through the door. The party had already started. Lina and Goury were sitting on the couch eating Christmas candy while various members of the royal family and close friends milled about the room.
"Hi Amelia!"!
"Hi Lina...", Amelia replied half heartedly. She hung her coat and hat on the door.
"Amelia what's wrong? Where's Zel?"
"Oh... he didn't want to come,".. Amelia shrugged her shoulders.
"Amelia what did he say to you?", Lina asked concerned.
"Nothing, Lina.... he was just busy."
"Too busy to come to a Christmas party????"
"No, Lina its ok," Amelia told her friend and sat down in a chair next to the window. She gazed off into the distance. The snowed glistened off the rooftops of Sailoon. The entire kingdom was garnished in Christmas cheer. Amelia didn't see any of these things, her were thoughts elsewhere.
Lina decided to drop the subject, if only for Amelia sake.
Zel gazed at Amelia. He stood in front of the glass. Her eyes saw right through him like he wasn't there. Well I guess in a sense he wasn't. Zel held out a hand and experimentally touched the cold glass. His hand made no imprint on the surface.
"Why is Amelia defending me???"
"Why wouldn't she?" the redheaded ghost of Christmas present asked.
Prince Phil walked into the room.
"WELL WHO WANTS TO PLAY A GAME!! AH HAH HA HAAAAA!!!!!!"
Everyone in the room involuntary cringed. Lina bit painfully through a peice of hard candy. After everyone's eardrums recovered, they picked teams. Lina was paired with Goury.
"Wait what game are we playing??", Lina asked and prayed for something that didn't require too much mental capacity.
"Its Pictionary!", Phil replied.
Lina hung her head. She was doomed. Well it was just a game anyway.
"And the winner gets that chocolate, triple layer fudge cake", Phil added.
Lina perked up. She grabbed Goury's shoulders.
"Listen up Goury there are no losers on the Lina Inverse team!!"
"Aye aye sir...". Goury saluted. "Errr... I mean mam.", he corrected himself.
"You know that blond man's pretty handsome". The blond ghost of Christmas present ran a hand through his hair.
Zel and the other ghost facefaulted.
Prince Phil walked over to amelia. He leaned in close.
"Amelia.....", he said softly trying to get her attention.
Amelia didn't look up and continued to stare blankly out the window.
"Amelia, do you want to play?", he asked again with a voice that was soft and filled with concern.
"....Hmm? " Amelia looked up and blinked. "Oh no thanks." Amelia stood up. "Excuse me for a moment", she said barley audible. She made her way quietly to the wash room.
Zel walked through the glass door. An eerie tingling sensation flashed through his frame as he passed through the door. He turned to follow Amelia.
Amelia looked in the wash room mirror. Tears ran down her face and splashed into the wash water.
"Why is she crying??" Zel asked from behind her. The blond ghost glanced at Zel with shock.
"You don't know? I guess that's what happens when you go through life with your eyes half closed."
Amelia attempted to wipe the tears from her eyes.
"I shouldn't have bothered him. I knew he was busy and all.... Why does he have to be like that?? I know what happened to him was horrible but..." Amelia trailed off and tried to compose herself.
"Everyone she loves seems to leave her," the blond ghost informed Zel sadly. "She's afraid of pushing you away."
"She's talking about me"?
"I shouldn't have asked him to come, I shouldn't have bothered him," Amelia chided herself.
"It meant a lot to her that you come. She had been looking forward to it," the other ghost added.
"Why would it matter to her if I was there or not?"
The redheaded ghost looked at him oddly. "Open up your eyes. She loves you Zelgadiss."
Zel could have sworn he felt his heart stop.
".... what"? He was completely taken off guard. "How could she love a freak like me??", he asked completely baffled.
"You insult her by saying that. Are you saying that she's so shallow that she can't look past your physical appearance to your true self inside? Which she alone can see still in there, deep, deep inside."
Amelia wiped the tears from her eyes. She couldn't let the others know anything about this. Everyone was having such a good time. She didn't want to ruin everyone's fun. Amelila left the room and went to rejoin the party.
Both of the ghosts each grabbed one of Zel's arms.
"Come on, its time to leave," the redheaded told Zel quietly.
"Can't I stay for just a little while longer?" The ghost glanced at the clock.
"For a little while longer," they replied in unison. A white streak was starting to make it's way through their hair. They were getting older and older by the minute.
It was Lina and Goury's turn in Pictionary. It was Lina's turn to draw. She reached down deep into a hat and picked out a piece of paper. She grinned. If jellyfish brains didn't know anything else he had to know this.
"Ready Goury!!"
"Yep".
Lina started to draw a pointed rectangle. She started to put a handle on the sword when Goury piped up.
"Lina!!" Goury blushed. "You know you shouldn't really be drawing that."
"... uh?" Lina looked back at her picture and blushed furiously. Suffice to say after Lina picked up the drawing easel and beat Goury over the head with it, the game was over.
Zel tried to hold back his laughter and failed. He burst out laughing. He laughed so hard his sides hurt.
The ghosts smiled... it was working.
"Come Zelgadiss, the night is waning." Zel followed behind the spirits clutching his swore side.
Zel was transported to that "oh so familiar" cabin. All mirth he had felt before quickly dissipated.
The ghosts beckoned Zel silently into the house.
Once in he saw his mother. She was aged from the last time he saw her. Lines extended from the corner of her eyes from years of worrying. A gray streak ran through her long lavender hair. She still was beautiful, truth be told.
The cottage looked no different from the last time he saw it. The minuscule tree still sat in the corner. She sat alone next to the fire. Instead of knitting though she just gazed at the embers.
"She never remarried"?, Zel asked quietly.
"No, all she has left is her memories. Her worthless son is too good just to stop by and tell his mother he's alive", the redhead said; scorn in her voice.
"Hey! It would brake her heart to see me like this". Zel indicated his chimera body with disgust.
"So when were you going to see her?", the blond ghost chimed in.
"When I get my cure of curse".
"When will that be? Months? Years?? After she has died all alone in this cold cottage, no one there to hold her hand and tell her its all right.", the redhead mocked.
"No! It isn't like that!"
"Or right after he's been killed on his fool single minded quest for a cure. After he lies dead in a gutter, because he let his guard down for an instant," the blond mocked.
"Shutup!!!"
"No I think I'll be a heartless bastard, too good to give my own mother 10 damn minutes," the redhead chorused after her counter part.
"Shutup! Shutup! Shutup!"
The ground started to disappear. Zel looked over at the ghost to find them old and wrinkled.
"Make the best of the present Zelgadiss Greywords, its a gift," the ghost said in unison as they faded out in a patch of fog.
His surrounds completely disappeared. He found himself in the middle of the city square. Snow and ice covered the ground. Zelgadiss involuntarily shivered. He vowed to himself that he were to make it out of this, he would immediately go see his mother.
Dark clouds rolled in from the north and blocked out the moon. A fog rolled in from no where. Zel heard no sound but the beating of his own heart.
Something was coming.....