Elle is Singing
Things hadn't been well for Elle lately. Her company had been suffering setbacks and she was more determined than ever to get back on track. There also seemed to be a bit of tension in the family and Elle couldn't understand why. She was trying her hardest to keep up but got so absorbed in her work that she was even working late into the night from her office! It was on a night such as this when Elle was overworking herself so much, that she fell asleep on her desk. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised...
There, stood in front of her desk was a short, ghostly figure with their eyes closed and what looked like a choker around their neck, but clearly was made of metal.
"You woke up." said the figure.
"Excuse me, I don't recall anyone being sent in?" Elle cautiously replied, pressing a button to speak to her secretary. "Holly, I have a visitor in my office?"
"You wouldn't be able to get through." sighed the figure. "Only when you wake up would you realize you were dreaming. That I was real, yes, but in a realm of dreams."
"Who are you?" Elle asked suspiciously.
"Once, I was C. Bartholomew. Last time I checked, however, I was the ghost of Christmas Past." Elle has heard of the three ghosts of Christmas, but never expected to actually meet one! She thought they were nothing more than a fairy tale. This was a lot to take in for her tired brain so wasn't too concerned at the moment.
"That's quite a mouthful, can I call you Bart instead?" Elle asked wearily.
"You just did." much like Elle in her tired state, Bart didn't seem to care much for their new nickname. "I came to talk about your past because you have lost your way."
"The only thing I've lost is time I could be spending on my work."
"Your work has always been of great concern to you."
"Yes!" Bart sighed pitifully, their clients were always a their most stubborn whenever it was their turn to speak with them.
"If you came with me, this way, we'd be finished sooner." Bart explained as they headed towards the office door. The ball and chain attached to their neck clanked eerily as they floated across the room. Elle followed curiously.
On the other side of the door was not what Elle expected. Instead of continuing into the next room, she found herself outside, presumably in a quiet street! It was a fairly foggy night lit only by Bart's head. The snow fall was making it hard to hear anything, the weather made it seem almost as bad as the night of Rudolph's famous flight!
"What are we doing here?" Elle asked, shivering. She wished she had put her Santa jacket on before leaving the office, but she had been too tired to care.
"What were you doing here?" Bart answered back.
"I don't know, it's a snowy night like most other nights in the winter! Though I must admit, it feels pretty bad tonight."
"It wasn't too bad for that elderly elf to walk home, apparently." Bart faced in the direction of where Elle could just make out an elderly lady talking a walk. Despite the weather she was quite capable of making her journey. "Gone now, rest her soul, but she made a recovery from tonight's events." Bart continued. It was with that note, that Elle knew exactly what night it was.
A red light started to shine from elsewhere in the fog. It was getting closer, as was the familiar sound of singing and a certain reindeer's complaining. The elderly lady stopped, intent on listening to figure out what sound she could hear through the wail of the wind. She started to see the red glow through the fog and the only thing she could clearly hear was a cry yelling "STOP!" and then everything seemed to happen at once. Hooves scraped against the snow, the red light got closer, the elderly elf fainted forward in shock and then Rudolph ran her over! The elf riding on Rudolph felt the bump as they came to a complete stop.
The elf ushered Rudolph back over the body, he cringed with every step. They both looked down to see what they had hit. Rudolph was horrified. The elf, recognizably Elle from the past, was too drunk to care and started singing instead.
"Grandma got run over by a reindeer!"
"Shut up! We need to get out of here!" Rudolph snapped, frightened out of his wits. He decided to race on, while Elle continued to sing. Present day Elle, meanwhile, hardly bared to look out of guilt.
"The Christmas Cracker that gave you so much bother." Bart stated.
"No kidding. I never got found out, they put it down to a break out of wild reindeer due to lack of substantial evidence. People still suspected us at the workshop had something to do with it though."
"You neglected common sense in your drunken state for irresponsible behavior. It ruined Christmas Crackers to come for everyone else."
"Yes, thank you!" Elle grumbled. "So why'd you bring me here, Bart? What's this got to do with my work now?"
"I couldn't show you." Bart replied. "I showed you your mistake, a mistake you learned from."
"Are you implying I've made a mistake?"
"If you had then I would have shown you."
"So I'm in danger of making a mistake..." Elle deducted. "Bart why didn't you just tell me what in the office?" Elle turned to look at Bart but noticed their head looked like it was deflating, the light around them fading away at it did.
"You would not have listened so I showed you an example of your error to come. I have helped you all I can; our session has ended." and with that, Bart's light flickered away, they seemingly disappeared entirely with it. Elle with left in darkness.
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