Christmas Eve Eve

Well, we're almost there. I don't know if I'm ready, but like so many things it's going to happen anyway. Here's hoping that all my lovely readers have a safe, enjoyable holiday filled with plenty of good cheer in whatever form bests suits you. 

Friday Reflection

With Christmas bearing down on us like a freight train, I'm finding myself increasingly baffled by just how much I do not want holidays. Like, how long has it been since I looked forward to a holiday celebration? When did I move from tolerating them to dreading them? The ones I do enjoy -- like Halloween -- are the ones with basically no social obligations.

Since changing jobs, I've been trying to take advantage of being less stressed out: get my sleep schedule under control, eat better, start getting real exercise again... 

What I'm finding is that in order to even attempt that, I'm having to try to roll back what turns out to be a whole bunch of unhealthy coping mechanisms that I've apparently accumulated over fucking years of being low-key miserable. It's hard. It's good, but it's hard. It's like I'd forgotten how to not be miserable -- or, now that I'm not so much so, I don't remember how to stop acting as if I am and need this stuff to get by. 

It starts with putting in the work, I guess. (And it's complicated by the fact that I am not looking forward to moving into 2025, but that's -- say it with me -- another post.)

Anyway, Firstborn's back home, Secondborn is finishing up his last school day of 2024, and I -- once again -- am mere days out from the holiday with no idea what we have planned and what I'm going to need to be ready to do. Which is, to be clear, mostly on me. 

But I think I'd like, at some point, to get back to anticipating holidays. I'd like to be able to look forward to getting together with family and friends. I'd like to be interested enough to be planning for the holidays, instead of basically hiding from them. I'd like to go into them feeling rested and prepared.

I'm starting to remember that that might be possible.

StV: Sudden Onset, part three

The bedroom was untouched, so much so that the smell of smoke was still cloying. Cody opened the door, and Em waited beside him while Ryan went inside. "I'm sorry," she told him. "I can't imagine how hard this is for you."

Cody kept his eyes on Ryan, but said, "It doesn't even seem real sometimes. Like, if he just walked back out of the bathroom I wouldn't even be surprised. And then other times, it's a knife through my heart."

Ryan was moving around the room, touching things here and there before finally stopping beside the bed. The burnt linens were still there; the scorched mattress still in place. He bent down, touched it, and froze. Then he straightened, blinked, and swallowed. 

"Well?" asked Cody, as Ryan came back out of the room. 

"It wasn't--" Ryan swallowed again. "He was more surprised than anything. He wasn't even in pain, or if he was he didn't feel it. I just got this flash: light and heat, surprise starting to turn to worry, and then nothing."

"So he didn't suffer," Cody said slowly.

"No," Ryan told him. "No, I don't believe he did. As far as I can tell, it was over almost before he realized what was happening. He didn't even have time to be scared."

"Get out," said Cody.

Em drew back, startled, and Cody added. "Sorry. Thank you. But we need to be alone with this. Get out."

"Done," she said, and led Ryan back outside.

StV: Sudden Onset, part two

"We've answered a lot of questions already," Mrs. Donaldson said. 

"Those fucking cops," Cody put in with quiet fury. 

His mother quieted him with a look, and he looked away, swallowed, and then turned his attention back to Em. She paused, choosing her words carefully, and said, "Mrs. Donaldson, we're Anomalies. We think Evan might have been one too."

"Well," said Cody, and gave a bitter, strangled laugh. "That's better than thinking that he somehow committed suicide by setting himself on fire in his own bed."

Mrs Donaldson was staring at them, though. "Show me," she said, quietly commanding.

Em met her eyes. "All right." She let her own strange ability drift out of her, forming a mug out of shimmering green force. She poured her soda into it, then took a sip; the burst of sugar and caffeine was a profound relief to her system. 

Cody said, "They're telling the truth, Mom." He glanced at Em. "That's my thing. I can tell when somebody is lying. You're not."

She nodded, trying not to get distracted by his cheekbones. "I just make these shapes."

Ryan sighed. "But I'm a sensitive. I can see and hear things in other places, and sometimes I can pick up impressions by touching objects." 

Mrs. Donaldson drew in a deep breath, held it, and then sighed. "All right. I'm going to tell you something that we haven't told anybody else, and I'm trusting you to keep it to yourselves. You're right; Evan was an Anomaly, just like Cody is. It skipped me, but my mother had a bit of the Sight and my grandmother was supposed to be a witch." She swallowed, then wiped at her eyes. "Evan had the gift of fire. I mean, he could warm things up, but when he called to the fire it came. We all saw it. The whole family knew. We just... didn't say anything, after he..." 

Cody crossed to his mother and knelt beside her. He looked at Em again, and this time there was something like resentment on his face. "So what do you want from us?" he asked. 

Em drew breath to answer, but Ryan put a hand on her shoulder. "Will you let me see his room?" he asked gently. "It's okay if you say No. But we'd like to know what really happened, and I think you would too."

Cody said, "Mom?" 

"Yes," she said,  then choked off whatever she might have said next. 

He stood up. "All right. Come with me."

StV: Sudden Onset, part one

Jade paused outside the door to compose herself, and Snoop took a moment as well. This wasn't a situation she wanted to walk into lightly; the family was grieving, after all. The rest of Team Phoenix was around, but staying out of sight; they were there because school policy said they had to be, but they wouldn't be part of this mission unless something went very, very wrong. 

"All right," she said quietly. "Let's do this." She rang the doorbell and waited. 

The woman who opened the door was wearing shorts and a rumpled t-shirt, and had her sandy blonde hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. "Can I help you?" she asked. 

She'd made her voice polite, even friendly, but there was something fragile underneath. This was a woman who was holding it together by an act of will, maybe because she had no other choice. 

Jade asked: "Mrs. Donaldson?" When the woman nodded, she added more cautiously: "Emily Hubbard. My friends call me Em. We came about Evan."

The woman froze, and for a moment her face was a raw study in grief. Then she stiffened, and looked the pair of them over. After a moment she asked, "Were you friends of his?"

Jade shook her head. "No. We just... look, this is going to sound crazy, but we just came to check on something." She looked around. "Can we come inside? It's not easy to explain."

Mrs. Donaldson only came up to her eyebrows, but the look she gave Jade made the younger girl feel about two feet high. "You aren't reporters, are you?" 

"No," said Spook firmly. "Not even for a school newspaper." He paused, then added, "Ryan Darling."

"Good," she said, looking him over. "All right, come in. You want some water? Or a soda?"

"We wouldn't want to impose," Jade said, as she followed the grieving mother into the house, "but if you don't mind, I could use a soda."

"I offered," said Mrs. Donaldson, in a mild tone that suggested that she wouldn't have done so if it had been an imposition. "Wait here in the living room, and I'll be right back." She turned to Snoop. "What about you?"

"Water would be fine," he said quickly. 

"All right." Mrs. Donaldson crossed to a doorway that apparently led into the kitchen and disappeared. 

Jade took a quick moment to look around. The house was nice, but not ostentatious; thoroughly middle-class, with a fireplace against the far wall and a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. There were posters for the Lord of the Rings movies hung on the wall, along with some of the weapons from the movies; Jade found herself smiling at that. 

"Who are you?" asked a new voice, this one male, young, and curious. 

Jade turned to face a young man -- her own age, or close enough -- who'd evidently come up from the back of the house. He was lean, with a rangy, broad-shouldered build; he had his mother's sandy hair, also in a ponytail, and striking blue eyes. 

"Ah," said Jade, to cover her hesitation. "You must be Cody. I'm Emily Hubbard -- Em. This is my friend Ryan. We, um..." She swallowed. 

"They came about Evan," said Mrs. Donaldson, coming back into the room with a trio of glasses on a small tray. 

"Oh," said Cody, suddenly downcast. He moved to join them as they sat down, though.

Music: Adeste Fideles

 Dan Vasc with a metal cover of this Latin classic: 

Villain: Preacher Strong

Name: Reverend Nicolas Webster Strong
Alias: Preacher Strong
Age: 52
Appearance: A tall, imposing man in his early fifties with neatly-trimmed salt-and-pepper hair, always dressed neatly in a suit and tie.
Job: Preacher, Human Supremacist

Nicholas Strong is a man who has never questioned much of anything. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; Humanity is living in the End Times and the End of Days is nearly upon us; Satan and his demonic servants are everywhere waiting to tempt the faithful from the narrow path of Truth. The Judgement could come any day, like a thief in the night, and the only way to be ready for it is to repent your sins and dedicate your life to Jesus. 

A fire-and-brimstone preacher with powerful convictions, Preacher Strong moved from street preaching to traveling ministry, touting his expertise on defeating evil spirits and actual demons; he claims to have faced down monsters through the power of his faith in God. He preaches against those who have traded their souls away to the Devil in exchange for power, and in favor of those who turn away from such evil and give their lives to God. He is not a faith healer as such, but there have been a few incidents reported and one of followers is supposed to be a former Anomaly.

He has a wife and daughter in Royse City, Texas, but with the demands of his ministry he seldom sees them.