Bernard marched between aisles of toys, elves, and tools. He stopped momentarily to examine a half finished toy that resembled a vomiting spider, run a hand through his dark curls, and sigh frustrated. He moved on, grumbling about how Christmas wouldn't wait for the toys to be done, till he came to a certain elf named Curtis. Said elf was huddled over a contraption of some sort.
"Curtis," Began Bernard in a dangerously patient voice.
"What are you doing?" Curtis looked up in surprise at the sudden voice from behind him. When he recognized the Head Elf, a huge grin crossed his face.
"BERNARD! Oh, do I have news for you!"
Bernard groaned. This from Curtis never meant anything good.
"What is it, Curtis?" He asked warily.
"I have created the invention that will save our Christmas problems!" Exclaimed the younger elf with a smile. "Come with me!" He exclaimed, almost immediately beginning to walk away.
"CURTIS!" Called Bernard, but it was too late for any objections. He decided it would probably be best to go with the excited elf, Bernard began walking quickly after Curtis, wondering what the heck the younger elf had done THIS time.
They came to an empty room soon enough, and Bernard closed the door behind him.
"Okay Curtis, what have you got?" He asked cautiously.
"The solution!" Exclaimed Curtis, whisking the object out under Bernard's nose. There was a silent moment as Bernard took the object from Curtis and examined it.
"A snow globe?" Asked Bernard incredulously. "That's your solution to our Christmas problems?"
"Oh not just any snow globe!" Said Curtis in an almost hurt way. "This is a very special kind of snow globe!"
Bernard sighed in frustration, flinging his arms exasperatedly into the air.
"Ok, Curtis, what does this AMAZING snow globe do?" He asked impatiently.
"This snow globe," Began Curtis, pausing for dramatic effect. "This snow globe allows us to look into the lives of different human kids to see what they want!"
Bernard looked at Curtis incredulously.
"How is that going to solve out problems?" He asked, as impatient as ever.
"Because it will let us see and hear the kids talking with their peers about their Christmas lists!" Said Curtis excitedly. Bernard rolled his eyes.
"Ok, not only will that most likely NOT work," He began, wincing as he remembered a certain invention of Curtis's from a year or two back. "But it is also EXTREMELY unethical! Not to mention rude." Curtis glared at his superior.
"But if it works, it will take care of all our Christmas issues!" He persisted. "Look, all you have to do is press this button, and the globe will immediately show us a human kid at random. All we'll have to do then is-" Bernard cut him off, attempting to grab the globe out of the younger elf's hands.
"I don't care, Curtis! Give me the globe before you make something explode! I don't have time for this." But Curtis wouldn't let go, continuing talking loudly about how 'it was defiantly going to work,' and that they should just 'give it a test, try it out.' Bernard and Curtis struggled with the globe for a while, both of their voices rising with their frustration, till Bernard accidentally pushed the button.
The globe began to whir as it came to life. Both of the elves stopped their little war, looking down at the invention with shocked looks on their faces. Bernard yanked it away, and put it quickly on a nearby table. The two of them stared as the contraption filled with white, cloudy smoke.
"It works!" Cried Curtis excitedly as a shape began to form within the globe. Bernard just watched with wide eyes. After a moment, a figure was visible in the small glass ball. The two elves moved closer, staring intently at the image.
There, spinning around inside the globe happily, with music blaring in the background, was a girl of about 16 years of age. She was kind of on the pudgy side, with wavy golden brown hair, a sweaty face and a wide smile. Yep, you guessed it, the elves found themselves staring at the small, dancing figure of Laura. A silent moment passed as they watched the girl dance around a dark room with only one light shining down on her. After a moment, Curtis once again felt the need to gloat.
"See? What did I tell you! It works!" There was no response from Bernard, who was still watching flexible girl dance. But at the next comment by Curtis, he suddenly snapped back to reality.
"Let's see who else this thing will show." Bernard looked up at Curtis as the giddy young elf pushed the button again. The globe was suddenly empty of all images, as though it had been switched off. He pressed the button again, and the same girl was shown.
"Drat!" Curtis exclaimed. "The darn thing is stuck.. I'll have to make some minor adjustments, but you'll see boss! This thing will be our Christmas miracle!"
At this, Bernard lifted the orb into his hands.
"No you won't." He replied in his same, impatient voice. "For all we know, you're 'minor adjustments' might create a nuclear weapon or something!" Curtis pouted.
"But Bernard-" He began, only to be cut off.
"No buts! And I am confiscating this, for all I know you could try to 'fix' it behind my back!" At a glare from Curtis, the older elf pocketed the globe. Curtis glared at Bernard, turned on his heel, and exited the room. Once the door was closed, however, the dark haired Head Elf pulled the crystal sphere out of his pocket, watching this human girl collapse, music having ended. A small frown crossed Bernard's features momentarily, but shrugging, he pressed the button, watching the humans image fade. Slipping it back into his pocket, he too exited the room, continuing his rounds once more.
Meanwhile, quite a ways away, Laura was lying on the floor, laughing as her puppy began licking her face.
"Ok, ok! I give!" She exclaimed, rising to her feet. Walking into her kitchen, she opened the fridge, still panting from her vigorous dance, and downed half a glass of milk. Smiling down at her puppy, who had of course followed her, she began to sing a soft, haunting tune.
"Sooner or later, you're certain to meet.
In the bedroom, the parlor, or even the street.
There is no place on earth you are likely to miss..
Her kisssss" A hiss escaped her as the puppy wagged her tail. With a small laugh, she lifted the small dog into her arms, spinning like mad around the kitchen.
"And the moon grows dimmer,
At the tides low ebb..
And your breath comes faster,
And you're aching to move, but you're caught in the web!
Of the spider woman, in her velvet cape!
You can scream! But you cannot escape!" She sang wildly, collapsing on a nearby chair, setting her hostage free. The small dog scampered away, leaving its owner breathing heavily on the chair. Moving to the couch in the living room, she flopped an arm over the side, and gracefully fell onto the piece of furniture.
"I'm bored." She declared to the dog which was now watching her with great interest. So, with a small sigh, Laura stuck a movie in the DVD player, sitting back down to vegitate in front of The Grinch for what seemed like the umpteenth time that week. 'Although,' she thought with a smile. 'I never do tire of it.' So, cuddling a pillow to her chest, she settled down to watch one of her favourite movies.. Again.
Bernard sat in his home, sipping a tall glass of hot cocoa. On his coffee table sat the globe that he had taken away from Curtis that afternoon. It looked larger than before, sitting there on the polished wood. He shrugged, reached towards the button, only to pull his hand back as though it had been burned. She frowned at the orb. You see, when he had seen the young girl dancing before, he had been quite enthralled.. Enjoying her style of dance quite a bit. Now he was fighter an inner battle, both wanting to give the human her privacy, but also wanting to watch her some more. He reached forward again, pulling away a moment later. He stood and began pacing around the room, before returning to his seat. Finally, with a small frown and a shrug, the elf reached over and pushed the button. He leaned forward as the girls image clouded into the orb. He watched the girl chopping some potatoes. She had a pair of headphones on, and she kept singing into the knife as though it was a microphone. Bernard smiled a bit as he watched her dance around the kitchen merrily, putting the potatoes on the stove, throwing in some kind of vegetable with it, as well as white powder, cornstarch he guessed. His smile grew as she played an air guitar in a crazy way. He nearly chuckled a bit as she slipped on a piece of potato peel, squealed, then announced to the empty room that she was ok. For what must have been half an hour he watched her making supper, chicken stew by the looks of it. He could almost smell it from there. He heard a call from another room. "Laura? Is supper almost done?" Inquired the voice. "Yes mom, I'm just making sure it's done." Replied the girl, stirring the stew, her head still bopping along to the music in her ears. Bernard smiled maybe a fraction of an inch wider. "Laura." He repeated, testing the name on his tongue as richly as if it was chocolate. Suddenly, his eyes widened at the warmness of his voice. He quickly turned the crystal off, running his fingers through his dark curls. He was actually spending time thinking about this girl, this HUMAN girl. This human girl who was at least a century and a half younger than him.
"This is insane!" He exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air, and rising to get more cocoa, even though his glass was still half full.
Meanwhile, Laura was in the process of making dinner for her somewhat ill family, when she suddenly got the feeling that she was being watched. She looked around, trying to find the source of the feeling, and promptly spilled hot stew on her shirt.
"OW!" She exclaimed, tearing the shirt off. A red bra was underneath, and there was already a dark spot from where some of the stew had leaked through. A red spot was forming on the brunettes stomach.
"Crap.." She muttered, trying to wash the stew off of her new shirt.
"Everything ok, honey?" Her mother called.
"Yeah, I just spilled some stew on myself." Laura replied, touching her tender burn mark. A moment later her mother entered the room, ready to fix her daughter.
"Oh, honey!" She cried, seeing the large red spot on Laura's stomach.
"I'm ok, mom, it's just a little mark." Laura said exasperatedly, pulling her shirt back on. Continuing to mix the stew, Laura kept looking over her shoulder, trying to find what was giving her the feeling of being watched. Shaking it off as paranoia, the girl began dishing up supper, calling "IT'S DONE!" over her shoulder. That night as she got changed for bed, Laura looked at herself in the mirror over her dresser. She touched the still red mark on her belly, she groaned.
"Bugger it." She exclaimed, pulling on her pjs and crawling into bed.