Lockwood had put me in charge of making paper chains, while he and George went out to get a tree. It was fun at first, but was getting rather tedious. I was about to stop, and take a break for some hot chocolate when Holly arrived. She was wearing a crisp white blouse, and a pleated black skirt.
"Good morning, Lucy!" She chirped. "How are you doing? Your face looks better."
"Hi, I'm doing good." I smiled despite myself, "How are you?"
"Oh I'm great, are you making paper chains?" I nodded, she sat down next to me on the floor and began helping me. "I ran into the boys on my way over, they got a good tree."
"Good." I said, "Last year they got this miniature one that was dying. Pass me the glue." She grabbed the bottle and handed it to me. "Thanks."
"Sure, Lockwood's doing better too, and George's arm is almost completely back to normal."
"Yeah," I said, "Lockwood's fine, although we practically had to manhandle him to bed last night. George is how he always is."
"He called me last night and told me about why all this crazy stuff was happening."
"Oh good, I was wondering if he would."
"Did you find out who the ghost girl loved?" She asked, and began cutting up another piece of gold paper.
"No, she just said 'I love' over and over again."
"I wonder who she really did love." I shrugged,
"Who knows? Personally, I wouldn't love either of them."
"But you don't know either of them." Holly said, and glued a piece of paper to the other side of the chain.
"I think that if you murder people for revenge, and kidnap for petty curiosity, then you're not somebody I'd love." Holly looked skeptical, but left it at that. Soon after, George, and Lockwood came back, dragging a good sized tree behind them. We set it up haphazardly, so it was leaning heavily to the left.
"Okay, George stop pulling, it's good enough." Lockwood commanded, George stopped pulling and the tree stopped falling over.
"Who wants hot chocolate!" Holly said, and came in with a tray. We all did, it was warm, and hot, and soothing. I gulped it down eagerly.
"Thanks Hol," George said. I agreed. Lockwood slammed his mug down suddenly, and stood up. He beamed at us, dark eyes practically glowing.
"Who's ready to decorate!" He cried, and we all cheered enthusiastically.
The next few hours were a blur of ornaments, paper chains, lights, and ribbons. Once we were done we stood back and surveyed our handiwork with more than a bit of pride. It looked like santa had barfed all over the sitting room. The tree was covered in white lights and mismatched ornaments. There. We had all brought our presents over and set them under the tree. The whole house smelled like cinnamon, and chocolate.
I sat down in my chair with a smile,
"Well you look happy, for once." I glared at the coffee table. George had brought the skull over so that it could enjoy the holidays with us. I just thought it was just enjoying making fun of us. "Christmas is so nostalgic for me," it continued, "I remember my first Christmas vividly, it was two years ago." I stopped smiling when he started telling the story of the first time he had celebrated Christmas. (Since anyone could talk to him that is.)
"Can you help me with this, Luce?" I turned around and peered over the back of my chair. Lockwood was standing in the doorway, he was carrying an enormous pile of blankets. It blocked his face, as I watched, he came in, and promptly ran into a side table. I took pity on him, and took half his load.
"What's all this for?" I asked him.
"We're going to sleep down here," He said joyfully, "I used to do that when I was a kid."
"Did you?" I asked. I what he was about to do, answer the question, then change the subject.
"Yes, where's everyone else?" I tried to hide my disappointment,
"George went to get some more tea, and Holly had to finish wrapping something."
"We're out of tea already, I swear I just got some the other day." I shrugged, and dropped the blankets on the floor.
"We go through a lot."
"We do." there was an awkward silence. I searched the recesses of my mind desperately for something to say,
"Uh, how's your head?"
"It's fine. How about you?" I looked at him in a questioning way. He tapped his cheek with one long finger.
"Oh, it's fine." I said. The bruise was nearly gone, all there was left was an ugly red mark on my face. "Everything is all fine."
That night we all snuggled into our blankets downstairs. Even Holly had agreed to stay the night with us. It was warm downstairs, and although the floor was harder than my mattress upstairs, wedged between Lockwood, and George, I had never felt more comfortable.
Short chapter today, but the next chapter is the last one! I can also officially say this is fifty pages long, yay!