DISCLAIMER: If you recognize it, I don't own it.
By the time the city sidewalks had been cleared and salted, school had already been called off for that day. It didn't really matter, most people said. It was the last day before Christmas break anyhow.
Pale grey clouds covered the whole sky, gently pouring snow down on the buildings below. Colorful lights and wreaths hung from the street lamps. People wrapped their arms around themselves tighter and shuddered as they hurried down the sidewalks, a cup of coffee or hot chocolate in hand. In the park, most children hurled snowballs at each other from behind hastily constructed forts. Three children ignored them.
Jane rollerbladed along, laughing as she swerved to avoid snow piles. Goth Boy wasn't far behind, pulling Sasha and five lunch boxes along in a bright red sleigh. The young girl was playfully throwing snowballs at the back of his headas he walked. "Jingle bells, jingle bells, something something somethiiinnnng…"
"Would you please stop that?" Goth Boy finally said.
"They're not icky like spitballs!"
"Fine. Then stop being so heavy."
"Come on, you guys!" Jane said, skating back towards them. "Sanjay and Joao just texted asking where we are."
"They can start their thing without us, can't they?"
"I dunno, but they said something about needing a neutral party."She leaned in closer to him. "Besides, you wouldn't want to miss the beginning of a story, would you?"
Holly and ivy bedecked the facade of the museum, and in the lobby, a massive tree covered in lights and ornaments reached almost to the ceiling. How cloyingly festive, thought the off-duty security guard.
"A little to the left, Guicho!" Mary Beth shouted up at him.
He wobbled on the ladder, trying not to drop the shiny gold bauble. "Here?"
"Just a little further up!"
"Have you noticed how far my arms reach? Why must this thing be so tall, anyway? I'm not this tall! I wouldn't be surprised if it came to life and went looking for someone to eat!"
"Administrative decision."
"Queso and I will show them an administrative decision…" He trailed off as his eyes drifted towards the front doors. Three familiar young faces had stepped into the lobby, taking off their hats and stomping the snow from their boots. With lunchboxes in hand, they hurried to a corner bench where their two friends sat shouting about something he couldn't hear. "…Huh."
The ornament slipped from his hand and fell to the floor, where Mary Beth barely caught it in time. "What's the matter with you?" she said, scowling.
"Take over for me a bit, would you, my dear?" he said. "I need to investigate something." He ambled towards the bench, where the voices of Sanjay and Joao were growing louder.
The blonde boy was reading from a small stack of papers in his hand. "Since Star Trek has already given us cell phones and self-opening doors, it's a natural progression that it would be able to predict this. For example - "
"You're not seriously about to use Nemesis as evidence, are you?"
"And besides, we know there are other worlds! Like the Land of the Remembered and the Land of the Forgotten!"
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean there are parallel worlds."
"…Maybe you're just stupid."
"You're stupid!"
Goth Boy grinned. "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
"Well, well. Look who's back." Xibalba stood disguised in front of them, hands on his hips and a smirk on his face. "And what do we have on the menu today?"
Sasha held up her lunchbox. "Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. And gingerbread cookies!"
"And I brought egg nog! No, not that kind," Goth Boy added as his friends gasped.
"What are you kids doing here, I mean? Don't you have limbs to develop frostbite on?"
"We were looking for a good place to study," Sanjay said.
"And hoping to run into us again."
"…Maybe…"
He chuckled. "So what are you studying?"
"Sanjay and I are practicing for debate class," Joao said. "So I'm say parallel universes exist and he's saying he doesn't."
"Are you, now?" the death god said with a smile. "You're right, he's wrong. End of discussion, go work on something useful."
The children's jaws dropped. "Wait, what?"
"Balby…!"
"What?" he said as his wife stormed up to him. "It's true, isn't it?"
"But we don't talk about it Not after that business…"
"So is there a universe where we're all space pirate ninjas?" Goth Boy asked eagerly.
"It depends. Did you ever have the chance to be one and turn it down?"
"No. What's that got to do with it?"
"Well, it's a long and delightful tale - ow, por qué el oído?"
"You are not telling them that dreadful story," La Muerte muttered, gripping his ear tighter.
"Why not?"
"Kidnapping, insanity and attempted murder. Feliz Navidad!"
"The last story had, like, all of that," Goth Boy said. "What makes this one so bad?"
"If we explain, you'll want to hear it."
"Then why don't you just tell it?" The children all looked at her with the best puppy-dog eyes she could muster, as did her husband.
"…It might be rather hard for you to understand."
"We'll try," said Jane.
"Then gather your things." She and Xibalba walked away from them, towards an unobtrusive door simply labeled STAFF. "We ought to do this someplace we won't be noticed."
"A closet?"
She smiled as she opened the door. "Oh, surely you know us better than that."
Three plush red sofas covered in fine, soft fabric sat around a stone fireplace holding a bright, warm blaze. A number of chairs were scattered around the large rectangular room, each with a small table holding a lamp next to it. The walls were covered in bookshelves, or they themselves might have been the walls. They were packed with books of all shapes and colors and sizes, and they stretched high into the air and far into the distance until they were lost in shadow.
The children gaped at the sight, craning their necks to see better. "Woah. What is this place?"
"It is a place meant for all the gods," La Muerte said as she and her husband changed back into their true forms, "but most are not very taken with reading. Nor are they taken with the literature of mortals. You might call it our personal library."
"Does that mean we're in your castle?" Sasha asked.
"Even the castle is not large enough to hold such a collection as this. It exists in its own space, apart from both our realms."
"So the next time you hear someone moan about what happened to all those books in Alexandria, just tell 'em they're safe and sound," Xibalba added.
His wife rolled her eyes. "Have a seat," she told the children.
"Why did you bring us here instead of the other room?" Sanjay asked as they plopped onto the sofas, bouncing on them slightly.
"I thought you might like to see one of the places from these tales with your own eyes," she answered. "Right now, you're sitting in the very place where Joaquin once sat."
Their eyes bugged out. "Really?"
She nodded. "General Posada, too."
Goth Boy's face twisted in a grimace. "Maria's dad? What was he doing here?"
"This was a matter that concerned him," said Xibalba.
"So what happened, Xibalba?"
He sat, lacing his fingers together and staring at the fire. "It was one night a few months after the business in Aztlan. The middle of the summer. I remember it well." He smiled grimly. "I don't think I'll ever forget…"