Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 37th cycle. Now cycle 38!

PRE-CHRISTMAS NON-CHRISTMAS: It's already my third holiday season of Gleekathon, woo! So happy about that :D Anyhoo, just to explain what I'm doing for it this year: How it goes is I always have a set of stories with Christmas-y titles but non-Christmas-y plots, so to give an air of the season but not too much ;) First year was '12 Days of Christmas', last year was 'Reindeer'. This year's theme is "Christmas Movies" :) It'll run from December 8th to 19th, after which I have a slightly bigger undertaking to take us to Christmas Eve... PRE-CHRISTMAS: And now from December 20th to 24th, a five-part story, Christmas indeed! :D

INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!
Go to: gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet

"A Christmas Carol"
Sue, Brittany, etc
Sylvesters Series (getting ahead of myself to get to the Christmas ep ;))

1. Marley's Ghost

It was all in a Grinch's work. It had taken quite some time to complete her methodical destruction of the choir room's Christmas cheer, but she had achieved it. She had nothing to show for it, really. She would be going to an empty home, as Brittany was spending this Christmas period at her father's. She'd insist that it was just a matter of spending the season with her other family, something she hadn't truly gotten to experience until very recently, but Sue couldn't help thinking there was more to it than that. Like maybe Brittany had gone and decided that, with this being her favorite holiday, she couldn't stand to be around her mother and their whole rift. She'd made her choice, and Sue would respect it… Didn't mean she had to like it though. So if anything, this whole business with the Glee Club was something to keep her occupied, to help her stay the course of what she'd started.

The next couple of days, she hadn't seen her daughter. It was probably just as well… seeing her face right now would probably make everything come right back into reality. Odds were she would have swallowed up the story she'd given her, before telling her to go home, and that she wouldn't connect her mother's involvement in the Glee Club's ransacking. It was just as likely though that she'd wise up and this would be the thing that would push her over the edge, and she would no longer believe in her mother.

What would happen to her if that happened? It was a thought that plagued her constantly, now more than ever. It would spin around and around, but either she tried to block it out or she didn't know how to respond. She would get so taken up in the scheming and it was easy to lose control. But then she had Brittany, and she had her sister… They brought out that humanity in her. Jean, she'd visit when she could, which wasn't necessarily too often, but Brittany… she was there for her, always… most of the time… less now that she was sharing her time with her father… and that she was trying to get her to quit Cheerios. Some days she couldn't remember why she was doing it anymore, but then she would… And then sometimes she just let herself get taken to the dark.

The empty house was getting very close to doing her in. By mid-evening she'd just sit up in her bed, watching television until sleep took her, on its own or with some help. Another day gone away, another one closer to this stinking season being done so maybe just maybe she could get her daughter back…

She felt a chill, and just the slightest hint of drool at the corner of her mouth… Had she fallen asleep? She must have… But she knew she hadn't left the window open, so where was this whistling breeze coming from… She thought she heard a voice, and the first thing she thought was 'perfect, nothing I'd love more than to trash a burglar around right now.' She stalked out of bed, grabbing the first swing able heavy object she could locate – a trophy, what else in this house – and she went in search of the dumbest person in Lima, Ohio… They had to be, if they thought breaking into her house was a good idea.

She made it into the living room, and whatever was happening, it was definitely coming from there. She firmed her grip on the trophy, face rigid and prepared as she leapt in… But there was no one. She frowned, taking a step forward. She could still hear it, from… behind? She spun around and right there, before her eyes, she saw… a ghost… That wasn't an exaggeration. What else could she call the colorless image of her father standing before her, quiet, her deceased father.

She startled, backpedaling until she tripped and fell on her back, needing a moment to feel enough air in her lungs so that she could sit up and look upon the image once again. "Dad? How…"

"Susie, we need to talk…" his voice sounded hollow, that was the only word she could come up with.

"You're dead," she stated.

"Nothing gets by my Susie," he pointed at her, looking almost normal for a second, except there was something much more pained than she'd ever known about him, weighing him down like chains. "Or at least I thought so."

"Alright, I think I've had quite enough. I'm sure any moment now I'll wake up and you'll be back where you belong, which is dead and buried and probably good riddance," it didn't take long, looking at 'him' for memories of how distant they had become by the end to resurface.

"Right as always, Susie."

"Please don't call me that," she frowned, somehow less interested by the idea that he should be standing there and more so with the need for him to be gone before her evening got even more depressing, since she'd apparently resorted to hallucination. She moved to leave, but then a chair slid in her way. She turned around again, after being startled.

"It's not that simple, and you are going to listen to me."

"You're not my father, I don't have to do anything…"

"Aren't I?" He approached her, and the chills on her arms felt so, so real. "This is no black out dream, and I should know. You and I are a lot alike… Susie," he made a point of it, letting the word boom and echo. "Too much alike, and that's why I'm here, to warn you."

"You stopped acting like a father a long time ago so why should I act like a daughter?" she frowned. "We're not alike…"

"Do you truly believe that? Do you?" She didn't reply. "Now your daughter… My granddaughter…"

"You never met her, never even knew she existed, I protected her from that disappointment," she felt her rage reignite at the mention of Brittany coming from him.

"I'm dead, we have ways of knowing. That's a good girl you've got there."

"What would you know?"

"As I was saying, I have come to warn you, Susie. I've come to warn you what will happen if you continue on this path with your daughter. I realized too late how much I was taking my own daughters for granted and look where that got me."

"I don't know, is it warm?"

"Pay attention now, because your evening is only just beginning." She looked at him, frowning rather than speaking. "You will be visited by three spirits. If I can't show you, then I hope they will."

"What are you talking about?" she asked, but it was too late… he was gone. The room was normal again, and she moved to pick up the trophy she'd dropped in her fall. "I really have to check the expiration date on that bottle…" she shook her head, checking the trophy for scuffs.

"Evening, Coach." Her head rose at the sound of the voice, not hollow here, just plain and normal but still so out of place. She turned around and found none other than Kurt Hummel standing leaning against the door frame, in an outfit she could only describe as Victorian like…

"Porcelain…" He gave a courteous little smirk.

"Not tonight. For you tonight I am the ghost of Christmas past…"

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)

COUNTDOWN TO 801: 11 DAYS