4 hours til Christmas
James sits in the chair at the kitchen table that faces the short narrow hallway leading past Carlos' room, the staircase, and the living room to the front door. On his left is another way into the living room and on his right is the rest of the kitchen and another entrance into Carlos' room. His left foots a steady tapping and he folds both his hands across his lap as he waits.
What's he waiting for? In nothing but his boxer short's you'd think that at this, the eight o' clock hour on Christmas eve, he'd be in the bed. Only problem is that his three best friends are on the other side of town and as terrifying as it is he's not allowed to leave his own house because he's been cursed with a visit from a friend Malese cannot see.
She sits beside him facing the living room in her position at the round table and her soft hands touch his but she knows she cannot reach him. His mind is bottled and it pains her to know she can't get him out.
So why can't he leave? What has him trapped here?
He can see the world that the others cannot. He knows what's happening in the warehouse tonight because the visitor told him who was there and James is lucky because his visitor is no where near as dangerous as the one Logan is facing tonight.
Jack Frost has nothing on Her.
Malese does notice the temperature drop. She can feel her feet turning to ice but the heater stopped working and she's blaming the logical reasons. He however sees the young lad in a blue hoodie and khaki pants sitting in the chair opposite him, back to the door, white hair that falls over crystal blue eyes, and a long wooden staff perched on the edge of the round table.
Jack Frost leans into speak, "I'll try to explain this one more time James. I am not a dark being. I am merely owned by them. The equivalent of a house elf. I came here to warn you. To protect you. I like you James and if you go out there you will not come back."
Lucy can read James as he listens to this voice she cannot hear. A lover knows when their partner is in distress and after all the conversations she's had with him she knows. There's something else here.
"James. Who do you see?" She asks?
He looks over at her with a sodden expression and reaches past her to retrieve a steak knife from the drainer on the edge of the counter. He stands and scoots his chair back and begins to inscribe a six armed snowflake into the wood of the table. When he lifts the blade a blue LED glows from the pained ridges he's carved into it's flesh.
Jack frost centers himself into focus and now all those in his cold air can see him.
"I've set you free." Says James, "Now give me the same."
Malese leans forward in her seat, "What's he talking about?"
"Young Stone, your lover wishes to die tonight." Says Jack Frost as he rises with his walking stick and makes his way down the narrow hall to stand in the shadows, "Your friends are getting tested and I hold memory in my flakes. Those whom energies James share that came before never last in this out pour I am merely trying to protect him. I lost my sister when I was in my living flesh to save her. I died by the light of the moon and I see myself in James. I must honor his wishes as none none of my sister's descendants have ever even considered the idea of breaking my chains until him. Only I beg you..." he says as the door opens and James walks through it's threshold, "Don't let him go. For we both love him dearly and as sure as it snows just outside tonight may well be the night he dies."
She races after her lover only for him to drive off without him yelling out his window, "I love you Lucy but I love them too!"
Lucy? What? She stops only when the ice of the night begins to burn her throat and her calves start to scream at her. In the cold still air she screams, "James! James please!"
Her eyes dart around for a way out. A way to follow him. Only to find the broken face of the spirit before her.
"You're a demon?" she asks.
He shakes his head, his purple nose and alabaster skin seem to glow in the night, "No. I was created by them. I fight for a God who want's me destroyed."
"I need to get to that warehouse." She shivers and her words chop in a tremble.
Jack Frost nods, "I'll see if I can slow him down a bit."
A news paper on a counter top in the second floor kitchen of the warehouse is open on an article of recently released inmates from the prison located in Knox county. The fifth name down the list is Erin Sanders. The audience would know her as Camille Roberts, Logan's on screen romance. A lots changed since filming ended. A lots changed since the music stopped.
Logan sits on the edge of his stool sipping Chamomile and scribbling notes in a little pad as Kendall holds his mug and eyes the boy across the island. Carlos stands by the sink staring out at the lighting storm that seems to be worsening by the minute. Small pieces of hail tic and tack on the tin roof only two more floors up. The sound of shattered glass comes at no sunrise to any of them and when the heating system goes out shortly after the air around them grows cold fast.
3 Hours til Christmas
What do you do when your best friend looses their mind? How do you pull them out of the grains when it's way past too late? There's a feeling of molten lava in your stomach when you see this creature who used to be someone you valued and held dear degrading themselves to 'less than human'.
It's quite simple. You play along...
"Well gentleman? Ready to scrub in on the Neuro extraction?" Logan is asking them to cut open a young girls head and harvest a tumor without anesthesia.
Kendall thinks about this, "Well Dr. Mitchell I'm going to need to know you'll allow me to try my method."
Logan holds out his right hand, "Let's do it."
They shake. A deal has been made.
With no medical practice history surgery merely becomes murder. In this case accessory to psychosis is a very grey area.
The patient in the gurney has an inoperable tumor. She's small. She's scared. She's a tiny human. Her parents made the simple mistake of signing a DNR. She's an organ donor. The family already grieves for right now they're living on a prayer that she might survive an impossible surgery.
Of course all of that is in Dr. Mitchell's head.
This girl, Abby Henthaw, has nothing wrong with her. She was snatched off the streets by a very dark force in Dr. Mitchell's mind after the sun went down earlier that day. Her parents are probably losing their mind, "Where's my baby girl? Why isn't she here? Oh God it's Christmas eve all I want is my baby with me..."
She screams and through gauze between her lips she's pleading for mercy. These boys want to help her but Logan is unpredictable so they play the role.
"Young girl what's your name?" Kendall asks as he removes the gauze carefully.
She whimpers, "A-Abby Henthaw." and tears stream down her face.
"Abby you're going to be okay." He looks up at Logan who seems to be lost in a daze as they rush the hallway and into the elevator, "We're going to do a quick procedure and you're going to be with your parents soon enough."
"He's a lot like you Dr. Pena-Vega. He cares so much. You picked a good one." Says Dr. Mitchell.
Carlos only nods as he stands there listening to the dings as they rise to the top floor. Mist comes in from the top as they get closer to the top floor. The temperature drops. The fight leaves Abby's body. She accepts her fate. Or at the very least the illusion they all have painted.
Passing a mirror Logan catches a glimpse of the woman who haunts him. Her purple face shimmers with red hot stone flakes, her horns are shaved down and painted the same ember red, this is Pasithea; the demon of hallucinations, and she is the chief of surgery at this hospital.