A Christmas Medley [Worm]

[Balthanon]

Yawning, Emma flopped back onto her bed, her phone dropping onto the red and purple quilt covering it, screen glowing brightly for only a moment before it flickered off. She was so bored. Her friends were all stuck doing Christmassy stuff and she was almost regretting snubbing her Mom and Anne when they asked if she wanted to make cookies with them.

Almost, but she had no real interest in baking cookies that she couldn't eat if she wanted to maintain her figure anyway. It's not like she was going to bring them into school and hand them out to all her friends to make them fat either. She scoffed slightly, remembering Madison trying that when she was first trying to join her circle and the merciless teasing she endured before stammering out some excuse about "testing" everyone's resolve and trashing them.

Probably a lie, but Emma had been willing to let it go when she proved herself later that week by doing something funny to Taylor. She didn't even remember what it was now, but it didn't really matter.

Closing her eyes, Emma let her thoughts drift and eventually ended up in that hazy place somewhere between a restful sleep and being awake; only to start awake as she heard the sound of something scraping against the window from outside.

Propping herself up on her elbows, she peered at the soft moonlight streaming through the panes of glass and finally convinced herself that she had been hearing things. They had no trees on their property and if it was Sophia or something, she would have just come in. A quick check of her phone showed her it was nearly 1 o'clock in the morning and way too early to get up. Wiggling up the bed, she took a moment to flick off the strappy shoes she had been wearing, tossed her phone onto the nightstand, and then just pulled the quilt on top of the bed around herself before closing her eyes again.

Moments later, at least from the feel of it, she found herself dumped unceremoniously from her bed and shivering on the floor. Her arms wrapped about herself before she even opened her eyes and she found her teeth chattering.

"Get up, right now, young lady. You and I have some things to talk about."

Emma's eyes flew open and she saw a sight that caused her to scramble back into the corner, the chattering of her teeth no longer entirely due to the cold.

Standing in the center of her room and glowing a soft, pale white light was a scowling woman that she hadn't seen in over two years-- one that she had, quite legitimately she thought, never expected to see again because she was dead. Which… admittedly might explain why she was slightly transparent and her features were slightly blurred, though still easily recognizable as Annette Hebert.

The chains that were weaving around her former friend's mother in an eerie fashion and wrapped around her body reached out and Emma shied away, but they just hovered about her as the woman stared at her with a… slightly upset expression.

Venturing a small, barely there whisper, Emma asked, "Au-auntie Annette..?"

Correction, her expression was very upset. "I don't think you have any right to call me that, anymore, do you, Emma?" Despite the clear anger, her voice was unsettlingly calm, settling into that lecturing tone that Emma had heard more times than she could count when she was younger.

Shaking her head, Emma sucked in her lips, stopping herself from saying anything else as she tried to wrap her head around what was happening. The eerie scratching noise she had heard earlier was a low level hiss in the background and Emma's eyes flickered over to the window, where she saw the chains moving along the open casement and stretching outside of the room.

"I have little time, so we must finish this quickly-- as you have guessed, I am…" She paused, then stared into the distance with a haunted expression. "I was, Annette Hebert."

Emma drew in a sharp breath, then stammered out…. "G-ghosts don't exist, you, you're just some… some cape thing."

A slight smile played across the apparition's lips and she said, "So you doubt, do you? You know so well the way of the world and all things contained within its majestic or moldering corners. Powers may exist, but not spirits, not wraiths, not the remnants of what we once were in life…."

"You, you told me and Taylor that the simplest explanation is usually the right one, yourself."

"Ahh, and ghosts not being ghosts is the… simplest explanation?" Her lips quirked and Emma had the feeling she was being mocked, which substituted some of the cold terror she was feeling for anger, or at least indignation. Taylor's Mom had always been… sharp, in a way that her own wasn't. Taylor used to have some of that herself before she turned into a lump that did nothing but cry.

Before she could say anything else though, Annette's eyes focused again and the smile left her lips and the anger returned. "To be fair, I don't really care if you believe me though, because I'm not sure you will change even if you do. So here is the warning I am obligated to give to you, Emma Barnes."

"In life, I fought for those I felt deserved a better chance, but the means that I did so turned cruel and capricious in the end. I believed that I was doing right, that I was justified in my cruelty and it served a greater purpose… but, I was wrong. Oh, so very, very wrong.

"Even in life, I knew this-- knew that I had made the wrong choices, I escaped my youthful follies and repented, and so my burdens are only as light as what you see before you."

Emma's eyes turned to the chains floating through the air and noted the weight of others that had settled upon the bed, causing it to creak beneath the burden.

"I give to you now the warning that you tread the same path as I, and having given that warning, if you do not turn back, your burdens shall be all the greater should you continue down your current path."

Emma looked up at the spirit and shivered. She kindled that small ball of anger though, resentment for the implications and said, "So how am I supposed to 'turn back', I haven't--"

"If you finish that sentence, you're not going to have a chance to get your three visits from the spirits. We both know exactly why you're getting this visit, Emma. You can play pretend for your friends, your parents, the school, but I've seen exactly what you've done to my daughter. I can only hope there's a sliver of the little girl I used to know in there, because otherwise, I'm not sure why you're even getting this opportunity."

Emma opened her mouth and then Annette was abruptly a couple inches from her, her eyes fiery and her words no longer measured and even. "Three visits, Emma. Three chances to turn back. Don't waste them."

And as abruptly as it had all started, it was over. Between one breath and another, the ghost was gone, the chains were gone, and the window closed. If she wasn't on the floor huddled in the corner, her heart pounding through her ears, and the room still icy, she would have thought it all a dream… but she was pretty sure she going to be lucky to be able to sleep tomorrow night, let alone tonight.

---

Probably should have posted this a bit earlier and then worked up to getting the final chapter out on Christmas, rather than starting there, but... well, this is what happens when you're a lazy bum.