-The Christmas of 9th grade-
The lights in the living room were bright but she stayed in front anyway, waiting but the evening turned to night as soon as seven o’clock turned to ten then eleven, and so forth. “Damn ma, where are you?” she asked herself with Bee coming up to her with soft meows and hard head-butts to her shins before jumping up on the couch and walked over to her lap. Paw-ing and padding making herself comfortable “awe, Bee. Don’t worry girl I’m sure Momma will be about shortly” before her last breath can draw from her lips, her phone begins to ring, she cusses frantically in her mind forgetting she left it in the kitchen or so she had believed “damn it, bee sometimes I wish you could talk” her frustration followed by another meow as she figuratively flips over chairs and tables to find it. It stops for a moment, she takes her chance to pause the television when right on time it begins to ring again this time she hears it muffled with the sounds of subtle vibrations. She sticks her hand through the side of the coach finding her phone wedged between as she pulls it out and takes a look at the screen it wasn’t would she was hoping for, the screen name popped up Frank, she sighed as she answered “Hey Clovefield! How is your Christmas eve going?” he sat in silence with her for a few seconds “Mom not coming home again this Christmas?” he continued, “No, I guess not but I always got Bee.”, “Well if you want company, I can always stop by the Central East Chinese spot.” She shifted her lips getting up and walking over to the window then tilted her head back to look at the clock seeing it’s thirty until twelve “you know Frank, that sounds great.” He tried to hide the excitement in his voice but she could always tell when he was happy about getting a chance to see her and Bee. “Well let me call it in before they close and I’ll be right over,” they both say their good-byes before hanging up.
Making her way back over to the sofa, she feels a cold breeze blow through the living room which makes her instantly shiver before going over to the thermostat “75! why is it so cold in here?” she cranks it up to eighty before running upstairs to grab a sweater but when she entered her room she looks at the closet before looking at the box on his bed that she got earlier. Sitting down next to it and placing it in her lap looking over the notecard again ( From: MoM, To: Max) her eyes begin to swells as she tries to hold back tears, she opens the box and couldn’t stop the hard grin that came on her face from ear to ear. It was an ugly sweater, she picked it upholding it in the light. Her favorite color a fall orange with stripes of pink and red, handwoven deer, and snowflakes on it. She immediately threw it on, it’s sleeved so long it covered her hands, she loved extra-large sweaters and her face begin to turn red. Running to the bathroom, she grabs a tissue and wipes the tears from her face. Taking a moment to stare at herself in the mirror “ Get it together Clovefield!”, she takes a deep breath but even as she exhales her breathe is shaky “you got this, you got this, keep it together” she hoped the words would give her bravery or strength, hell even a bit of comfort but nothing could stop the deep sinking feeling of an ocean hovering over a black hole. She snaps out of her doubt when the temperature suddenly drops again, “What the hell?”.
She rushes back downstairs and sees the thermostat was back down to seventy-five, she raises an eyebrow but before she has time to think a knock comes on the door. In a rush, she raises the temperature again, then answers the door. Frank outside in the blistering cold shaking, her smile meets his letting him in “Where is your car?”, “Ah, I decided to bike instead. My car is….lets just say needs some work please I could use the work out; your only a neighborhood over.” They share a laugh as he walks inside carrying his bike with the food which sets on the table, placing his bike by the hallway door, then goes for the coach “Oh Frank, before I forget can you help me with the thermostat?”, “ugh, yeah what’s wrong with it?”, “well, it’s been twice already that it’s just dropped in temperature for the second time” he leans over the device on the wall, scratching his chin. “interesting,” he says, tapping the device with his index finger when he watches first hand it drops from eighty to seventy-five “whoa, what is this chill?” he continues “See, what I mean. Even then it says seventy-five but it’s gotta be closer to thirty”, “So either someone is putting focus into pranking you on Christmas even or something else is going on here. I prefer if we exhaust all other measures first.” She nods with Frank in agreement, they crank the device back to its proper setting and watch as it slides back down to seventy-five. Frank’s eyebrow raised “the hell?” his brain has no time to process as subtle footsteps drag over the roof, “are those..chains?” they stop as the two peek from two different sized of windows, her back door comes flying open the heavy hoovered footsteps come through the kitchen, the rattling sounds of chains and growls deepen. Clovefield crosses her arms while Frank prepared himself, the creature in hulking size hunched under the doorway to the living room, its horns so large they touched the ceiling, burning crimson eyes, with shark-like teeth and the tongue of a serpent, lion mane around his face traveling down the back of his neck. It stops in front of them, heavy breathing it’s visible in the cold air “Krampus?” Frank says, “No just Mianae Grimm” she shouts, unfazed by the charade.
The illusion vanishes as soon as it appeared leaving a small girl in its place “How did you know?”, she stood there her skull appeared face coming back to normal revealing a brunette girl with purple eyes and a cheerful smile. “ Mianae, what are you doing here?”, “Well, I saw alone for the holidays and…wanted to see if I could spend it with you?”, Clovefield laughs “You know, you’re always welcome over here, it’s not even a question Mianae just no more creepy illusions”, “ fine, but you gotta admit that I’ve gotten better”, “ Not only that but more detailed too” Frank sits there in confusion to the situation before shrugging his shoulders and sinking himself into the couch next to Bee. “Well be at least we are in the same boat of confusion” to which Bee just Meows back.
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