I'm a horrible person, I admit it and I take full responsability for it. SO FREAKING SORRY FOR THE DELAY!

I must say that at least I do have a good excuse; I'm in the pre-selection of handball of my city, which is kind of a big deal and I have train a lot. Apart from that, I'm in a choir too, plus piano classes, plus clarinet classes coming soon aswell as French classes, and school, obviously. So I'm not just laying back in my bed instead of updating.

Enjoy and review.

Stephanie spent about one hour staring at herself -well, her hair- in the mirror before she sighed and stood up.

"It tooks better" I said.

She gave me a killing look; she hates lies, even white lies. 'A lie is still a lie even when it's white' she would always say.

"Weird, ok. But better than yesterday" I said.

"I dont want to go downstairs"

"Come on, my mother wants to see you and your stomach keeps making sounds. Neither of us has eaten in a long time" I said in a low voice. Everybody in my family knew by now, I'd told Jazzie to tell them so their eyes wouldn't pop out in surprise when they saw her. That'd only make Steph feel even worse.

"Can't we just eat here?" she said in whisper.

I caressed her hand.

"We can go home if you want" I said.

She rolled her eyes "We're not leaving, Dougie"

"I was just saying..."

I stood up too and ran my fingers through my hair.

"Let's go then" I said "We'll have lunch and then come back upstairs if you want"

She nodded and I kissed her cheek.

"You'll always be beautiful. I promise we'll fix it when we go back home" I said. She half-smiled "Oh, and... Please try not to be so dramatic about my mum, she already has enough on her own"

She grabbed beanie and try to put all her hair inside it.

I felt like murdering George. He'd gone too far.

Mum was horrified when she was my babe's hair and apologized a hundred times about the accident, though nobody had any idea George had done it. I could tell Stephanie would rather skip this conversation, eat and go back to our room. Well, she'd have to get use to it... Meanwhile, neither my uncle or my grandma said anything, thank God. Jazzie seemed to be a bit more mercyfull, I guess she understood what this meant to a girl, being so girly as she is. Though she wasn't being exactly lovely either, she just ignored us in a 'gentle' way -it could be worse. I did catch her talking to talking to Stephanie once, asking her about France; Jazzie loves travelling and I always take her with me when mum allows me. Stephanie starting telling her she liked England a lot more and started telling her about some places I didn't quite hear, but Jazzie just stood up and left. I hoped Steph didn't think it was personal.

George was there, staring up at me, when I opened the bathroom's door. He'd been waiting. His sister and cousin were by his side, as they always were.

"Now what?" I said, annoyed.

"We're bored" George said, his face expressionless.

"Mummy doesn't want to take us out" Leah said, frustrated.

"So we want to play a game"

I stared at him with annoyance "What kind of game?"

"Treasure Hunt" George answered and smiled meaningfully.

"Hold on right there, kiddo" I said "We're not playing Treasure Hunt with my ring. No way in freaking hell"

"Don't play if you dont want. Good luck finding it without our clues!"

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. This was an endless torture, I can't wait for this kids to grow up...

"Alright, alright" I said, avoiding their eyes "Give me the first clue"

"We'll tell you tonight, when the rest are sleeping. Be by the Christmas tree when the clock says 1, we'll be waiting. And be quiet!"

And like that they left. Steph was waiting for me downstairs, watching TV in the living-room. I could tell aunt Ivy would stare at her hair from time to time, and look away ashamed if I caught her staring. Thank God Stephanie didn't notice.

"What took you so long?" she asked and opened her arms for me.

"Nothing" I lied. I hate lying, for God's sake, but what else could I do? Christmas was near, only three days away, soon I'd be free from this hell. I wouldn't have to lie anymore and I'd be back home with my sweet lover and, maybe, my future wife.

I put my arms around her and kissed her once, quickly, so it wouldn't be uncomfortable for Ivy.

Once again, we went to bed early and it was really hard not to fall asleep while hearing her even breathing and being so warm next to her. The last time grandma came to our bedroom was 12.47 or something like that. By then I knew she'd go to sleep and, apparently, the kids knew this too, they'd planned this.

I put my jacket and jeans on again, and went downstairs, walking on my tiptoes. I felt stupid. I wonder what the clues would be. I mean, they're just kids, it can't be hard...

The three of them were there, waiting for me. God, I just wanted to go to sleep...

"Let's do this fast, shall we?" I said.

"I'm sleepy" Leah said, pulling from George's shirt.

"There are five clues around the house. Find it and you'll find your ring"

He opened his tiny, pale hand towards me and I just stared at what was on it; it was some kind of white grain, like sugar or salt.

"That's not a clue, that's... Well, what's that?" I asked.

"Sugar!" he said, like it was obvious. Yes, sure, like I could see anything.

"Is that supposed to be a clue?"

"Just find it" Leah said.

"Leah!" George said annoyed.

I smiled; oh, so that was the trick? I had to find the sugar to find the following clue?

I walked towards the kitchen, the kids following me closely. I opened one of mum's cupboars and there it was the tin where mum keeps the sugar. Next to it, there was a book. I grabbed it. Books, where are the books here? Mum doesn't have a library, neither Jazzie, mum or me are interested in reading.

'Aunt Ivy' I thought. She always takes her books with her, always. She usually carries them all in just one bag.

I ran upstairs on my tiptoes and opened the uncle and aunt's bedroom door very slowly. The kids were still following me. Jeez, I could get in trouble for this. I held my breath and stared at my uncle and aunt while I walked towards the wardrove. I opened it and it made a weird sound. I turned around to see them again, but they were still sleeping. Dear God, uncle Daniel snores so much, how can aunt Ivy stand it!

I opened one of the bags there; it had uncle Daniel's clothes. There was no time to close it, it made way too much sound, I'd do it later. I opened another one, a red one, and there they were, the books, but nothing else. I took one book and put in upside down; if there was something inside it, it'd had to fall. But nothing happened. I repearted that with several books, until a piece of wrapping paper fell from a big book.

I tried to leave without waking them up and, for some reason, I got lucky and nothing happened. Hey, maybe this would be over for good soon.

Under the Christmas tree there was a big pile of gifts. Loads of them had the same wrapping paper I was holding. I bit my lips; would I have to unwrap them? Someone would get reaaaaally pissed off with me... But what other choice did I have! Maybe I could fix it all before someone woke up. The sooner this was over, the sooner I'd be able to wrap the gifts again.

So I stared with the little one, not really paying attention to what it was but only expecting something to be out of place, expecting to find the following, obvious clue. I should have guessed the bigger one held the clue but I didn't until all of the gifts were unwrapped. I'm brilliant, really. The funniest thing is that the clue wasn't actually inside the wrapping paper, but clued to the side of it. I didn't notice this until the damage had been made. But there it was anyway, the little red flower, my mum's favourites. I smiled; yes, that'd be easy. I ran outside, leaving the door opened for the kids, and almost stopped when the frozen air hit my face. It was snowing. I took a deep breath, which I shouldn't have done, my throat and lungs semed to froze inmediately. The kids didn't seem too eager about going outside either, but they followed me anyway as I ran towards mum's plants. I knelt down next to the flowers, mud sticking to my jeans quickly, it was cold aswell. I cut a lot of flowers by mistake until I found a little piece of paper with two words; one was 'hairy' and the other one was 'slobber'. I knew it almost inmediately; the freaking dog!

I ran around the house and made sure the kids were following me; yeah, I hated them, but I had to be responsable for them. I stopped when we reached the garage, my body was starting to tremble.

There it was, the little dog. It had a rope around its neck.

"Oh, my God" I said "You did not tie the ring to that rope, please say you didnt"

"We did" Daisy smiled happyly, this was nothing but a game to her, she didn't understand how important and serious this was.

The little puppy stared at me from the other side of the garage, the kids standing behind me in the entrance.

"Ok, good dog, stay there" I said as I walked towards it, very slowly, so I wouldn't scare it away. I reached fowards with my hands to touch the dog but it ran away. I jumped over it but stumbled in the way "Catch it!" I yelled to the kids, but the weren't fast enough and the dog ran away.

I stood up in a blink and ran behind it. My God, my chest was freezing, but I didn't dare stopping; that dog would never come back if I didnt catch it now and my ring would be gone forever! Who knows who will find it!

I followed it to the car, shouting its name, the kids behind me, shouting too, though I didn't understand what they were saying. My body was colder than ever, my face felt dry and it even kind of hurt. Soon I heard other voices, but I didn't dare stopping or turning away, I'd catch that dog even if it was the last thing I did. I recognized Stephanie's voice aswell as my uncle's and Jazzie's.

"Dougie, stop!" Jazzie shouted to the top of her lungs.

The dog suddenly stopped in the middle of a park but I kept running towards it, I was sure it'd run away as soon as I came closer.

I was just meters away from it when the ground behind me disappeared. Ice. The lake of the park.

The frozen ice broke and I fell into the frozen water, having little time to hold on to the rest of the frozen ice around me. My heart was beating way to fast. I tried to reach the surface with my head and when I did, God, I felt like dying, I couldn't think, I couldn't breath. The last thing I saw as my uncle running towards me.