December 23rd
She sat by the window, watching the snow fall from the skies. She always loved wintertime, but something about this season seemed odd. She felt unsettled in her seat near the fireplace. Suddenly, another appeared in the doorway across from her. “You know, sitting and staring out the window isn’t going to bring him back.” It was a woman’s voice, one that she knew well.
She sighed, “I know. I feel awful for having done that to him though.”
The sounds of footsteps came closer to the seat she sat in, still the woman continued to stare out the window. The other placed her hand upon her shoulder, “Tori, he even said it himself, he wanted to leave. None of us could have stopped him.” Tori pat the woman’s hand, “You know him; he was a free-spirit, he couldn’t be kept locked away forever.”
Tori bit her lower lip, “I know, but I wish there was someway I could have let him stay.” Her voice began to crack as the tears formed in her eyes; she glanced up towards the woman with the fiery red hair, “Savannah, I--.”
“He’ll come back and visit soon, I promise.”
Once more, Tori looked back out the window and nodded, “I just hope…” She bit her bottom lip.
They sat in silence for a moment and Savannah pat the woman’s shoulder once more, “Come on, lets go get something to drink to warm up the spirits.” She smiled.
“We should probably bring Ari too.”
“You know he’s not going to want to leave.”
“I know, but it’s worth a shot.”
~o~
All around was white; the snow had covered everything around her. “Hello?” She called out. No reply. “What is this place?” She mumbled to herself before taking a few steps forward.
“Over there!” A rich voice came from behind her. Suddenly, she was in some foreign land—her eyes quickly darted around to try to see who the voice was and where she was.
This place looked a little familiar to her—something like Castanet Island, but she couldn’t remember fully. It had been a while since she been there. Only reason why she remembered was because her lover had taken her there once. “Hey!” The voice called out once more and she quickly turned around.
She knew that voice. Her eyes watered as she began to run towards the figure. She had come to love that voice. “Adel!” She called out, such happiness in her voice as the warm tears cascaded down her cheeks. “I thought you left us for good!” Her arms were out-stretched towards him as he came running towards her.
“I told you I would come back.”
“I kne--!”
He passed right through her, like some sort of ghost. She slowed down, the smile quickly fading from her face. He ran right through her. She blinked twice for looking over her shoulder. The tears welled up in her eyes. He ran towards another woman. His face beamed of pure happiness as he embraced the other woman and threw her in the air.
“I knew you would come back!” The other woman cried out sweetly, he delivered her back on the ground. She cupped his cheeks in her palms. “Oh, how I love you.” Placing a kiss upon his lips.
She bit her lower lip and just ran again, tears running down her face once more. She ran off running and she had no idea where she was going; she just let her feet take her. But then of course, fate had a funny way of setting things up; she slipped on something and fell, tumbling down a hill. Then at the bottom hill, she just laid there, not moving a muscle as one or two more tears left her eyes, watching the snow gently fall from the sky.
“Hey!” She heard someone called—an unfamiliar voice. “Is someone over there!?” It called again. She dared not to move a single inch. She heard footsteps come running her way. “Hey, miss, are you okay?” Her eyes did not move to even check for a face. A man quickly kneeled down beside her, grabbing her wrist to check for some kind of a pulse. “Don’t worry, things are going to be just fine.”
~o~
December 24th
“Oi! Are you awake up there?” The redhead called up, “Don’t make me come get you!” After a moment, the woman scowled to herself and began trekking up the stairway before coming across a door down at the end of the hallway, “Tori, I know you’re awake in there!”
Still no response.
“Alright, maybe you’re sleeping, but still!” With that said, Savannah opened the door into the lavished room. She scanned the room and found a familiar lump sprawled out on the bed, on her belly no less. “Come on, even Ari’s out and about.” She moved towards the bed, sitting on the edge, “The least you could do is come down stairs.” She placed at gentle hand on her friend’s back. She shook her slightly, pausing for a moment, “You’re not dead, are you?”
A low groan passed through the other woman’s lips. Savannah smiled, “Good. Now get up.” Savannah picked herself from the bed and over to the windows where she drew the drapes from the blinding light.
As a reaction, Tori recoiled herself under her blankets. Savannah would not have any of this and quickly pulled the blankets off. “Come on!”
“Leave me in peace!”
“Come on, we have to get the place ready for the party tonight.”
“I don’t care anymore! Just let me die!”
“You’re being overdramatic, now get up!” Tori did not budge. “Fine.” Savannah smirked, “I’ll make you move.” With that said, Savannah quickly, with a sudden burst of strength, flipped the mattress over and Tori tumbled right to the floor with an ‘oomph!’ Savannah smirked with success and walked over to her friend. “Come on, let’s get you prettified.” She smiled.
The day went by smoothly enough, which was wonderful for Savannah as she and the rest of the house quickly tidied up the place to make it presentable for the party that night, aside from the one moment where Tori had another little fit of self-pity which Savannah quickly remedied by saying that Adel wasn’t the only man in the world and that it would certainly not be the end of it. Tori bit her lower lip and sighed, nodding in agreement. Savannah quickly pulled the woman into a huge hug.
Eventually, it was time for the party to begin and people began flooding into the house. Seeing the familiar faces brightened her night, indeed, but still Tori wished that one familiar face would bring himself back to the house. The house filled itself with happiness and wishes of a happy Christmas and a joyous new year.
But everyone knew, that even the most joyous times must come to an end. Though, people indeed left slowly, plenty of people still there even with it being ten minutes before midnight. “Geez, who would have thought that we could throw this good of a Christmas party?” Savannah threw her arm over the girl’s shoulder. “We did good, Miss.” She smiled.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. “Who would be out this late at night?” Savannah grumbled to herself, casting a glance at Tori as the brunette peeled herself from the redhead’s arm to answer the door.
Tori cautiously opened the door, “May I help you?”
A man stood out her door, quite tall, though not at tall as Adel, with a hat on his head, which he promptly removed, “Ah, yes, good evening.” He began, tossing his curly hair away from his eyes. Tori pushed her brows together slightly—his voice sounded familiar. “I hope I’m not disturbing you this evening.”
Savannah quickly walked over to the door and saw the man. “Of course not!” She smiled, “Don’t stand out in the cold. Come in, come in.” Savannah told him, and Tori quickly snapped back and nodded,
“Yes, please.” They both back from the door to allow the man in.
“As I was saying, I hope I’m not disturbing you. I saw the sign outside that said you had a room available for rent.” He began, “I was hoping to possibly speak to the owner and see if I could possibly… Rent it for the time being.”
“I don’t--.”
“Let us go get her!” Savannah pulled Tori back into the kitchen. “What’s wrong with you?” Savannah spoke in a low whisper.
“What?” Tori replied, confused a bit.
“You were going to tell him no!”
“No, I was--… Maybe I was.” Tori spoke sheepishly, “But it’s Adel’s room.”
“I’m sorry, but Adel ain’t coming back. If you don’t let go of that then… I’m not coming back either.”
“Savannah--.”
“No, I’m not living in the house with you moping about when there’s a hot British guy in the hallway just waiting to come into your life.” Savannah crossed her arms over her chest. “If you don’t let that guy take Adel’s room then I’m leaving too.”
“But Savannah--.”
“I mean it. I’ll go pack my bags, and I know how much you hate being alone on Christmas.”
Tori remained silent for a moment, “Fine. He can take the room.” Savannah quickly pulled the woman into a tight hug. “Just because he’s a British guy.” Tori grumbled under her breath.
Savannah giggled, “Let me spruce up your hair a little.” Which she quickly fluffed up a little, “There, now go out there and reel him in, tiger.” She did a playful growl. Tori just laughed as she walked out with Savannah on her heels.
“Good evening Mr…” Tori began, pausing for a moment.
“Oh, Marci.”
“Mr. Marci,” she nodded, “The room is open and if you want it, you can have it.”
The man grinned, “Thank you very much, where do I--?”
“We’ll deal with the papers in a few days, for now, it’s Christmas and let us enjoy the holidays.” She smiled.
“Right, thank you.” Marci nodded, “It seems I may have interrupted your party Miss…”
“Just call me Tori.” She introduced herself with a small grin.
“Then just call me Lucius.” He held a playful smirk on his lips. Savannah could already tell this would be one eventful New Year.
“Come, join the party!” Savannah called out, helping him passed everyone that was still around, curious of this new stranger. He was further enough into the crowd where she moved back towards Tori.
“So, Lucius Marci, eh?” She playfully nudged her friend.
“I swear, accents will be the death of me.” She laughed.
Suddenly, the clock struck midnight and Lucius glanced back towards Tori and nodded weakly. She politely returned a smile. Tori turned her head towards Savannah,
“Merry Christmas.”
“And a fine New Year too.”
{The idea came from Ms. Genna when I saw her little "Imagination" piece. There's not much Ari in here though. XD
So thank you Bell for letting me become inspired by your piece. :3}
