Elle is Sour
Elle stood in Nic's bedroom, watching him on his phone, laid facing the wall. She had just been visited by the ghost of Christmas Present and been advised to make a decision based on Nic's behavior. She was hoping that she had made the right one.
There was a knock on the door. Elle wondered who it was. Could it be the third ghost?
"Nic?" a voice calmly and quietly called. Elle saw Nic turn his head towards the door. "Not sure if you're awake but I'm off the bed now." The voice belonged to Eldon. "Good night, son." For some reason, Nic twitched at this and turned away from the door. Elle could then hear Eldon's footsteps walking away from the door.
There was silence... then another knock on the door. A slow knock. Elle jumped, Nic didn't move. In fact, Nic didn't even flinch. The knock came again. Elle was afraid, it certainly wasn't Eldon. Could it be a burglar? Elle decided she was going to investigate and marched towards the door. Just as she was about to open it, the door swung wide open faster than Elle could blink. She stumbled through the doorway and had to regain her balance.
Now she was on the landing, with the door left open. But nobody was to be seen.
"Who's there?" Elle demanded. There was no response. When Elle looked through the door to Nic's room, she could no longer see the room. Instead it was dark and mysterious, not a defining trait in sight. There was no telling where she would be going. But given the strange, mystical things she had experience that night, it seemed temping, maybe necessary to explore.
Elle stepped through the door, into the abyss. She walked on... and on... and further. Elle walked on until she decided to turn back. When she did, there was nothing to go back to. The doorway had disappeared, there was no going back. Elle was on the brink of panicking, but then took a gamble.
"Ghost of Christmas yet to come? Are you out there?" Elle waited, there seemed to be no response. Elle blinked, her eyes reopened to the sight of nine small eyes in a formation starting down at her. Elle shrieked!
As Elle looked again in fear, she could make out the ghostly figure. It was tall, it's arms long and pointed at the ends, a long hood covered the face from which only it's glowing eyes were visible and a pair of shoulder pads stretched out further than Elle's stomach!
"Are you the Ghost of Christmas yet to come?" Elle asked nervously. But the ghost did not reply, or at least not yet. It felt like they were going to say something but words never came. The ghost went to pick Elle up, but she decided to stand up on her own accord. She was afraid of how the ghost's touch might feel, or if perhaps something bad happened if they did.
The ghost paced away from Elle, who hesitantly followed. Elle was thinking of calling this ghost Mirai, but daren't say anything about it until she better knew the ghost. They continued pacing until they came to a door, it wasn't the same door that Elle originally came through. Mirai opened it and gestured for Elle to go first.
Elle didn't want to, she was feeling quite uncomfortable. But to be so bold as to defy one of the Christmas ghosts might have her ending up worse off, so she went through the door first. Mirai followed.
On the other side, Elle found herself in the workshops- but it wasn't quite like it was earlier. Everything looked brighter, louder and more energetic than ever before! Was the workshop thriving with merry spirit? Elle smiled proudly.
"If this is because of that decision then good! It looks like I made the right call!" Elle looked at Mirai to see if they agreed, but they didn't respond. It was awkward. Mirai continued to move along, leaving Elle to chase after them.
Mirai led Elle to a part of the workshop that Santa was observing. At least, it looked like Santa. The uniform was the same but Santa was older now. They depended on a cane to get around and hunched slightly. Elle remembered that this was supposed to be the future.
"Is that me?" Elle asked Mirai, as she pointed to Santa. Of course, Mirai did not respond. Were they ever going to speak? Instead, the gruff sounding Santa did.
"Call yourself an Elf? You're not even merry!"
"M-m-my apologies, m'am!" stammered the elf timidly.
"Ah stow it!" snapped Santa. "You want forgiveness, show it! Come on, give us a smile!"
Elle watched in disgust as her older self viciously showed her employee how to smile. She held the expression as the elf forced a smile in return, though they were clearly still intimidated. Elle felt just as uncomfortable, quite twitchy too.
"This isn't right, I'm not like that. Who is it really?" Elle looked at Mirai, hoping they would tell them something to give her hope. Instead Mirai just pointed at Elle. "So I'm destined to be that cranky old bag that my staff are afraid of?" Mirai nodded. "Oh God," Elle worried. "What must Eldon think of me? He must be getting some kind of special treatment, or a promotion?"
Mirai decided it was time to move along. Elle was curious, assuming they would now go and see Eldon. Their tour led them to the office, which looked very depressing in contrast to the rest of the workplace. The walls were desaturated, the office plant was dying and there were no pictures hung anywhere. On the wall however, there was a cork-board with letters, newspaper clippings and an old picture of little Nic. Elle scanned everything on the board closely. She more the looked, the more her eyes widened with horror. The more she wanted to cry, to tear up everything but the picture of her little Nic. She was completely absorbed in the horrific sigh before her.
"You will alienate your family." Elle was caught off guard by Mirai's voice, she yelped and turned to face them while she shuddered violently. Mirai's voice sounded like children, thousands of them. "Your husband will leave as you prioritize your career over your family in need. He will take custody of your son, only for him to runaway a year later. No one will ever see him again."
Elle dropped to her knees and broke down to tears as everything around her faded away. She left left again in darkness, and Mirai could no longer be seen. Moments later, she could hear voices.
"Only one thing will ever be certain about the future." Mirai began.
"The future is subjective to our decisions." continued Presley.
"We came to help you and you created the reality you just experienced." explained Bart.
"You are changing the future now."
"Will it be for the better?"
"Good luck." finished all three ghosts, just as Elle felt herself coming back to reality. She was waking up.
Elle sat in her office desk, reflecting on what she had been through. She'd been asleep for three hours. After processing all of the thoughts in her head, she slammed her fist on the desk. Today would be Saturday and she knew what she was going to do this Saturday.
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