Disclaimey: I own nothing. Nothing at all. I've never even used a computer. I've never been on the internet. Mwa ha ha I'm joking.

Chapter to is here, the story is back by unpopular demand! Here we go. Where did we leave off? I don't remember. Well, I'll improvise. Here we go.

*/*/*

Devi walked into her house, back from wherever she'd been. She sighed, glancing around at her small living room. A small, scrawny, rather pathetic plastic Christmas tree sat on the end table. It was pretty much the only festive thing she'd done, and it had been Tenna's idea. They were going to decorate it tonight. She groaned at the thought of bringing up Christmas memories again, knowing she would recall some unpleasant ones from her childhood.

Like the first Christmas without her mother. That had been the hardest Christmas of her life. Nobody really did much but sit around, their eyes hollow, when they could have been recalling her mother and all the good memories they'd shared. But Devi's family weren't exactly that kind of people. They liked to avoid their feelings, act like they were numb to everything. Devi was no exception these days. She sat down quietly in her chair.

She missed all the times she'd had when she was younger. The times with family. The times when it was possible to avoid being completely and totally alone. Christmas was never a very 'jolly' affair for her. She and Tenna exchanged gifts (Devi regretted that time she'd given Tenna a rubber skeleton doll very bitterly now) and drank some eggnog, decorated a small pathetic tree, and talked for a while about past Christmases, and that was that. Every year. The whole thing was probably going to start in about three hours, when Tenna showed up with her happy face on again just like every year. Devi groaned at the thought and stood up again, pulling on her duster and heading out the door to maybe get a fizz-wizz.

*/*/*

Squee sat beside his window, clutching his small blue notebook in his hands. The cover was a bright sky blue, a peaceful and yet happy color that reminded him of the sunny sky, something that always made him feel slightly cheerful. He held the pen delicately in his small fingers and looked up at the starry sky, thinking. Then he dropped the pen to the page and wrote a few sentences in the little story he was making. It had been a while since he'd added onto it, and tonight he was so forlorn that it was the only thing to lift his spirits.

Christmas was growing near again. He disliked it for a number of reasons. Number one, that scary man with the claws showed up. He never came to Squee's house for some odd reason, though this didn't bother him in the slightest. He also hated the feeling of spending a time that was supposed to be spent with family and friends all alone.

He did love to look at the snow, though. And he loved the way the night sky looked when it was cold out, so crisp and icy. He loved the silence of December nights also. The sheer beauty of the season left little Todd in awe at times, almost helping him forget that he was alone, and nobody cared about him. Well, maybe the scary neighbor man did, but Shmee said he wanted to chop Squee up, so maybe he didn't care.

And then there was Shmee, who was still trying to tell him that his parents didn't love him. He was beginning to believe it at this point, beginning to suspect that maybe his parents weren't such good people after all. Maybe in fact they really were very bad people. Maybe they belonged to that legion of clowns that were on that cereal commercial on weekend mornings. They were really scary, with their red rubber noses and their curly blue wigs. A shudder went through his small body at the thought of those terrible clowns. They were evil, those clowns. Shmee was right about them. But what about his parents? Was Shmee right about his parents too?

Squee hoped not. He hoped that there was still a chance that they loved him, or could someday. It was getting increasingly lonely with no one to talk to but Shmee and the neighbor man, who scared him out of his wits besides. He liked to think that someday he would find somewhere he could feel like he was loved. He doubted it somewhere in his tiny mind, but he secretly hoped for it with all the force a small boy could muster. Maybe someday he'd get out of this place.

*/*/*

The next chapter is coming soon, since I have nothing to do today.