BOOK TWO OF THE SCARLETT CHRONICLES |
After being kidnapped as a young child, seventeen year old Scarlett Grey found her way home to her family. For months, she struggled to find a balance between the girl she'd left behind and the girl she had beco...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A FRASER FIR tree stood tall in the corner of the living room, lights twinkling as flames crackled in the fireplace nearby. Garlands were strung up in the wide doorways and wound their way down the spindles of the staircase. Even the kitchen smelled of fresh baked shortbread cookies.
To anyone who walked through the front door, it would have looked as if the Christmas spirits were aplenty in the Grey household. But the truth was that the the angel atop our Christmas tree was ten times as festive as I felt that holiday season.
Dad and Isobel tried their best to lighten my mood. We'd spent an entire night decorating the tree, and I'd even cracked a smile when Dad plugged in the lights for the first time. But I couldn't help but remember that there was a very important person who should've been there, celebrating with us.
Mum and I had been so excited for this. We'd talked about decorating and singing off key Christmas carols until Isobel forced us to stop. Watching Christmas movie marathons with hot cocoa and marshmallows. Shopping for presents at the mall, despite the fact it would be crowded and noisy. We were even going to try to bake cookies together, settling on the idea that we would have to sneak out and buy some from the bakery and pretend they were our own.
But all of those plans were dreams now, crushed when half of my heart stopped beating.
I quite honestly would've preferred to pretend that the holiday just didn't exist. But I couldn't do that, because while I might not have been excited for it, I was surrounded by people who looked forward to this time of year, all year long.
My friends and I had been planning to spend Christmas Eve together, exchanging presents and stuffing our faces with food, for weeks before everything went to Hell. Aurora, Violet, Aimee and Meghan had plans with their families to go away between Christmas and New Years, so this was the last time I would see them before the new year.
Despite everything, there was still a part of me looking forward to us getting together. Being with my friends allowed me to breathe, if only for a short while. They were able to distract me with their crazy conversations and banter, and in truth, I wasn't sure how I'd have made it through the month without their support.
So I owed it to them to put on a relatively happy face and enjoy whatever festivities Christmas Eve would bring.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
