A Cheesy Christmas Story
Medic sat on the old leather sofa, not sure what to do with himself. It was one in the morning, so technically it was Christmas Day, but nothing felt particularly Christmas-y. The rain was pissing down outside, none of the lights were on and everyone else was asleep. Normally it was Medic who would sleep through the storms and awful weather, but something was bothering Medic and he couldn’t put a finger on it.
A flash of lightning scarred the sky and was immediately followed by a crack of thunder. For a moment, everything was as bright as day, only to be instantly plunged back into darkness. Actually, everything was even darker now. The power had gone out.
Medic tutted as he reached for his phone to see what time it was, only to find that it was only five minutes since the last time he’d checked. Also he had no wifi. Because the power was out. Duh. He could have turned on his mobile data but it was honestly pretty shit and would often cut out. Sure, Medic had other things he could do, like reading or drawing or listening to music, but all of those either required some source of light or wearing headphones. And Medic hated wearing headphones. Reminded him too much of his old trading days, where ‘buds’ were basically gold.
So Medic just laid there like a plonker, thinking to himself. Thinking about Christmas.
There wasn’t really much to do though. He’d gotten all the Christmas-related things out of the way. Heck, he’d done his Christmas shopping back in November. All that was left was just cooking lunch and watching everyone open gifts. In fact, Medic was feeling very bah humbug about everything! What was the point of Christmas anyway? It was more of a commercial holiday than anything religious, and Jesus was supposedly born in Spring anyway!
Suddenly, something flickered. Medic ignored it. The flickering happened again. Medic ignored it some more. Something clinked and clanked on the floor, the sound of baubles hitting the deck. Finally, Medic paid attention Because there was some sort of… thing in the living room.
“Oops…” the ghostly being muttered. It waved its arms and a lot more decorations appeared on the tree, way more than the couple that the creature knocked off.
“What do you want?” Medic grunted. “Are you here to tell me off for not being Christmas-y?”
The creature hesitated. Medic tried to see what it was, but the creature seemed to be flickering in and out of existence and it was fucking dark in there. When was the damn power going to come back?
“Uh, no?” the ghostly being finally answered. “You can be as Christmas-y or as non-Christmas-y as you want.”
“Normally in these sort of tales,” Medic tutted, “a ghostly being comes along to try and change the main character’s ways and make them be nice.”
The creature seemed confused. “But you already are nice?”
“I’m not. I’ve done horrible things. A long time ago…”
“That doesn’t stop you from doing nice things in the future. And you’ve probably done a lot of good since then?” The ghost entity stopped flickering and felt its way around, before perching on the end of the sofa where Medic was sitting. It looked like some sort of humanoid creature wearing a black, tattered sheet, like a child pretending to be a ghost but with an obviously not-human head and… was that a tail?
“What are you?” Medic finally asked.
“Me?”
“Yes, you. What are you doing in my living room?”
“Oh…” The creature shrugged. “Sorry, I was dimension-hopping and accidentally stumbled into the wrong one. But seriously, just enjoy the day. Even if you don’t want to celebrate Christmas.”
“I don’t want to. I don’t deserve it.”
“I get that, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be nice to other people. Feel free to not celebrate, just don’t get in the way of others and be a nice person. You can go back to being miserable tomorrow.”
Medic fell silent. But a question suddenly filled his mind. “Uh, if you’re not from here, how do you know about Christmas?”
“I just assumed it was some sort of winter holiday?” the creature shook itself as it stood up.
“And how comes you speak perfect English?”
The creature snickered underneath its black robes. “Oh that’s just for plot convenience. Anyway, I gotta go. Got things to do. You might be able to sleep in today, but death gods don’t get time off!”
Before Medic could say or do anything else, the entity disappeared in a cloud of silver sparkles. Just as it did so, the power came back on. Medic continued to stare at where the creature had been sitting. He then glanced at the clock on his phone, then at the tree. Everything seemed normal. Except for the baubles on the floor.
“You know what? I think I’ll have a nice Christmas day after all…” Medic muttered to himself as he rolled over and fell asleep.
Merry Christmas, everyone and a happy day to you all, regardless of what you’re celebrating. We hope you have a wonderful day.