Not a Christmas fic because I couldn't come up with anything epic this year, but a little gift for the holidays, a stocking stuffer. Constructive criticism encouraged. My English teacher said I need desperate help with my comma use, so grammar nitpicking would be great.
IT BURIES US
There was snow on Endsville that day, cottage clean and the flakes flesh-picked, like winking daisies as they descended. It covered all of the houses and all of the roofs, and hardened into icicles that hung in the shadows of walls. It was magical; innocent—nothing glaring and nothing protruding from the quiet sense of white.
And still she forced through the snowstorm, through each wind-torn sheet of flakes—cold and crystalline, sparkles and delights. To her, the snow brushing past her cheeks felt more like the ashes of some long-dead thing.
Billy's house appeared out of the fog. Her strides quickened; her head was bent a little to streamline herself against the wind. Behind her, a lean, black figure followed, his hood up.
He trailed after her as she climbed the steps leading to Billy's door. She twisted the knob, expecting it to be unlocked. Surprisingly, the door held, shaking a little in its frame as she jiggled the knob and fought to think why.
The keys. Billy has the keys.
She drew back from the door, squinting, and said aloud, "Billy has detention today."
Yes, that was right. She spared a glance at her own house, which was buried up to the second floor for the lack of steps and a basement. Her eyes narrowed; she was not going to shovel all of that snow just to get into a deserted snow globe.
Grim nodded towards Billy's door. "Want me to open it?"
"No, we'll wait for him. Billy's never lasted through an entire detention."
"Too boring?"
"No." She sighed wryly. "That's not it."
Grim shrugged, and made an almost imperceptible motion with one hand. The snow parted. It appeared as if the flakes had simply vanished, but upon closer examination Mandy found that they had only been redirected to fall in an arc around them. A drier, warmer feeling spread through her, and they waited in comfortable silence.
In the far distance, a figure emerged, hazy and black against the pearl-grey background. It was Billy, and Billy was running, his lopsided smile the first part of him to appear. Something was sticking out of the corner of his mouth.
"Man-dy! Grim!" he shouted. "Guess what I've got?"
"Another case of cowpox?" Mandy guessed half-heartedly.
"Nope!" Billy flew up the steps, depositing himself on the mini-porch. She noticed the thing sticking out of his mouth was a candy cane. "Ms. Butterbean said I did such a good job for detention—"
"—must've really wanted to get you out of there—" Grim mumbled.
"—that I could have these!"
He thrust a box of candy canes in their faces.
"Billy…what have you done to the teachers' lounge? I told you to scrub the floor."
"But I did, Ms. Butterbean! I just had to take down the vending machines and the cupboards to get to the parts of floor that went up and to the sides!"
Surely enough, the walls and ceilings were dripping with soapsuds. Ms. Butterbean eyed the refrigerator warily, which lay on its side like a dead animal.
"I see. Well, I think that's enough for today, Billy. Why don't you go home for Christmas break?"
"But Ms. Butterbean, it's only three-fifteen! You said—"
"Forget what I said! I'm changing my mind." Ms. Butterbean bent down, retrieving a box from a cupboard on the floor. It had been ripped open and half its contents had already been used to bribe little children, but a few candy canes lay at the bottom.
There were still staff members in the building. Well, as long as she wasn't the last to leave, she wouldn't be blamed for this. "Take these and leave, Billy!"
Now, he reached into the box and pulled out the last two candy canes, dangling them from his fingers. Grim took one and Mandy took the other, after having it nearly shoved through her lips.
Leaning back against the railing, they unwrapped the candy canes just a little bit and began to suck on the ends. Billy settled against the opposite railing and sucked on his own half-finished cane.
And all around them, Mandy watched the snow. It masked the dirty street for an innocent lane, obscuring the litter and dead grass. It even covered the people, the cars driving by, and if not for the barrier above their heads it would bury them too.
The candy cane in her mouth was nearly frozen, and it was cold and crystalline in her mouth, like a little red-and-white delight in plastic wrap. It was quiet through Endsville; only the sounds of their contented licking filled the air. Mandy pulled the candy cane out of her mouth, tasting the sudden coldness that rushed into it as she took a breath. The tip of the stick was polished to a sharp point.
Without warning, she stepped forward and interrupted the lucid moment by hurling the candy cane like a javelin at Billy. It embedded itself in his nose, and the boy yelped. His own candy cane clattered to the ground. He and Grim paused then, as if something taboo had been done—not horrifying, but unfitting, as out of place as a scream in the silent, snowy air.
"Was dat necessary?" said Grim, wincing as Mandy stepped back. She didn't spare him a look, but his eyes rained down on her, disapproving.
Steadying herself with a breath, Mandy tugged the keys dangling in a chain from Billy's wrist. Wordlessly, the boy dropped his arm and allowed her to slip off the makeshift bracelet.
She located the house keys from the jingling mass of copper-brass and slipped them into the keyhole, her back to Billy and Grim. The door swung open. Mandy stepped over the threshold and into the house, then turned back, sensing their held breaths.
She glanced pointedly at the striped stick jabbed into his nose, then at the one fallen at his feet.
"You know I hate those things."
Billy's own candy cane was nothing but a short stub.
And all of a sudden the boy's eyes flashed, lighting up with slow understanding. He dislodged the Mandy's cane from his nose, leaving a small puncture hole from where the tip was, and stared at it happily.
Grim's eyes softened as Billy unwrapped the cane from the other end and began to suck on it. The skeleton smiled and looked at his still-children after all of the years, heaving a small sigh.
Then his eyes twinkled with mischief, and he announced, "Here, you can have mine, too," and stabbed Billy in the nose with his own candy cane. It was also tapered to a point from the licking, and he laughed raucously when the boy howled in pain. The gleeful sounds echoed all through the neighborhood.
As he recovered from the fit, Grim looked up at Mandy.
The barest hint of a smile was in her eyes, though it dared not show on her lips. She glanced once at Billy, Grim, the falling snow, and then turned back around.
"Lets go in."
end.