Festive Frights

by CW Publishing House

  Astor gulped. “Why do you need me? Surely, once Frictous hears of your awakening, he will return to Koptas at once.”

  “It’s not that straightforward,” Diactus spoke up. “Magenta has indeed be awakened, but Frictous knows their love bond was exhausted in the process. This was the greatest risk—that they would meet again only to find the connection was lost. If that is the case, Magenta can’t sustain this new life. They must fall in love again.”

  Astor’s heart once again felt heavy. Frictous was an incredible man, willing to endure so much despite the risks. His work on Earth had been a mere distraction, but he had done something so incredible for Earth’s people while enduring the wait.

  “I have a wonderful idea.” Magenta beamed when she spoke. “I want to bring Christmas to Koptas. I want Frictous to come home to his tradition, something we can continue together while uplifting the spirits of our people who have been forced into a void since he left. Will you help me?”

  Astor couldn’t contain his excitement at what he heard, and even he wailed in agreement. “I am at your service, Magenta.”

  They spent many weeks planning and making the preparations. A factory needed establishing, and elements of Frictous’ Christmas, which had become tradition on Earth, needed replicating. They produced synthetic trees, and Christmas decorations adorned all the local towns. Everyone was already in better spirits since the duo had spread the word, but the weight of knowing it could all be for nothing hung heavy on Astor. He wanted to make Christmas on Koptas perfect, but he knew he wanted to do something above and beyond just that for Magenta and Frictous. He wanted to help them find their bond once more.

  Time passed quickly, and everything was set. Magenta left Koptas with Diactus and headed to Earth while Astor made his final preparations.

  ***

  “Magenta.” Frictous let a sigh follow his spoken word. He looked down as his mast, covered in notches from the lost time in which he had longed for this moment. He looked back at his beauty and couldn’t believe how perfect she looked, then he sighed again.

  “I don’t feel it anymore. Do you?”

  “No.” Magenta mirrored his sadness. They knew the consequences of this situation, they knew the risks, but they’d never prepared themselves for how it would feel.

  “Do you think we can bring it back?” he asked.

  “Our love was stronger than any. If we can’t, I don’t believe anyone can.” She paused for a moment, then looked back up at him. “I have a surprise for you, Frictous. Will you come with me back to Koptas?”

  Frictous grumbled. “And if we don’t find love again, I will lose you to most likely remain trapped in the one place I cannot stand to be. Stay here with me for some time. Let me show you my life here.”

  “You know that’s not possible,” she said. “Take a chance on coming back with me. I promise you will be pleasantly surprised.” Magenta had a familiar twinkle in her eye when she spoke.

  Frictous noted it immediately and felt a surge of energy from within. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, drawing on the memory of his love. He knew he had no choice but to follow her back to Koptas. It had been his dream to reunite with her, and he had to see if they could fall in love once again.

  “Who brought you here?”

  “Diactus, son of Hermaeous. He is a kind man, and has been most helpful.”

  “I am glad someone came for you. My life has been empty since that awful day.” Frictous held Magenta close; he looked down at her delicate features and stroked a finger along her cheek. Her softness amazed him, as did the chance to see life in her face once more. His heart ached for that feeling to return. He had never anticipated how hard this would be. “How do we find it?” he asked with a mark of desperation.

  “We don’t. We let it find us.”

  ***

  They arrived back in the ravine to be met by both Astor and Diactus.

  “Diactus, my brother. Thank you for everything. Your foresight and intuition is like no other I have seen. Your father should be proud.”

  “Why thank you, Frictous. I feel a connection to Koptas, and I didn’t want to see it wither any longer. Your plan to bring life back to Koptas if Koptas proved itself able to restore Magenta was extraordinary. I know the journey is far from over, but I wish you luck, my brother.”

  Astor stood frozen to the spot. He was in awe of the man standing before him. Frictous was tall and heavy-set, towering over Magenta and seeming far larger in person than in any of the images Astor had seen.

  “Well, don’t just stand there with your mouth open, boy. Announce yourself.”

  “Sir, I’m…I am Astor, seventh son to the late Hasta, born of Dramac blood, and raised as a warrior of the peace. I am humbled to meet you!”

  “Ah, Hasta. Good man. I’m sorry to hear of his passing. Much has changed since I left.” Frictous looked down at the blue, ashen earth, saddened but unchanging in his belief that this planet should be left to rot for all its sins.

  “Much has changed, sir, not all of it nearly as terrible as the loss and devastation we have faced. If you would trust me for just a moment, I would like to take you somewhere. Both of you.”

  Frictous nodded and placed Magenta’s hand in his arm. Astor led them to the viewing hall, the place in which he had spent many years observing Frictous on Earth. The hall was deserted, and using the main command center, Astor pulled up images of Koptas, the people, the towns. Frictous gasped.

  “My goodness. What did you do?”

  “See for yourself. We want you to come home. Everyone wants you to come home and thrive again, with Magenta by your side.”

  “You have everything. Decorated trees, lights, ornaments. Even oranges with cloves. How on earth did you do all this?

  “We did it together.” Astor looked at Magenta, who looked at Frictous.

  “You did this?”

  “I wanted the right start to our new life, to bring about a tradition of family, togetherness, and love,” Magenta said. “Everything we’ve been striving for.” An image of a small factory entered their view, attached to a quaint house in the north district of Koptas. “This will be our home together,” she continued. “You and I will maintain this tradition on Koptas, and spread love and goodwill to all its people. In so doing, perhaps our own love will blossom.”

  Frictous already felt a burst of feelings for this incredible woman as he took in the sight before him. He knew it would be his honor to grow with Magenta and spend the time they had together before the uncertain future was determined.

  “I have something else to show you.” Astor changed the mapping location back to Earth. An image of Diactus greeting the elves and looking around Frictous’ home projected for them on the screen. “Diactus will stay on earth to continue your tradition. You don’t have to worry about the people there. He will take care of them.”

  “How wonderful. And, I suppose, I shall stay.”

  “I hope you don’t mind, Magenta,” Astor said, “but in your absence I added another tradition to our new holiday.”

  Magenta looked perplexed but intrigued. “Do tell, Astor.”

  “You see this small sprig of plant? I have named it mistletoe. Whenever you find yourself beneath it with another person, you must kiss.” Magenta giggled and blushed while Frictous smirked at the gesture.

  “You’re hoping this will help bring back the magic, eh?” Frictous asked, knowing stranger things had happened.

  When Magenta and Frictous arrived at their new home, they were astounded by the amount of mistletoe hanging from every doorway and light fixture. The first kiss was amusing, the second a little more confusing. The third, fourth, and fifth lingered, and every kiss after awakened dormant feelings far too powerful to contain.

  Astor watched in satisfaction from the control room before leaving and locking the doors one last time. He would ensure Frictous was afforded some much-needed privacy, confident that Christmas had indeed returned to Koptas for good.

 
; About Laura Callender

  As the founder of CWC (Collaborative Writing Challenge), and the newly launched publishing company, CW Publishing House, Laura has mainly focused on developing her concept to bring writers together to produce full-length fiction novels. She gets very little time to write at the moment but couldn’t resist contributing to these fun anthologies. Laura has published one children’s book and has two more on the way. You can connect with Laura using the following links:

  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lauracallender

  Twitter: @CollaborativeWC

  Website: www.collaborativewritingchallenge.com

  Website: www.cwpublishinghouse.com

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/Collaborativewritingchallenge

  Dammed for Christmas

  By Robert Mackey

  The torrent of brown water overwhelmed the trees, mowing them down like blades of grass. Jason watched as the water, the tree trunks, root balls, and all matter of vegetation washed over him. The water level quickly receded as if someone had just turned off a giant faucet. Before him lay crisscrossed trees, strewn about as if someone had emptied a box of enormous toothpicks in a powerful wind. Sprinkled among the tree trunks were the bodies of monkeys, wild bores, and an ocelot. A number of bodies also belonged to the local indigenous forest dwellers, their red-painted faces dotting the scene like some horrific fruit.

  An Indian woman walked past him, a baby on her back, its head lolled back, unmoving. The woman looked at him, a tree branch sticking out of her stomach, its leaves still on the branch. She shook her head in disbelief or disgust. He wasn’t sure.

  “Sir…Sir.”

  Jason jerked awake, sitting bolt upright, his head rapidly turning left and right as he scanned his surroundings.

  “Sir, I think you were dreaming,” said the stewardess.

  Beads of sweat dotted Jason’s forehead.

  “Could I get you a hot towel?” she asked.

  “Please,” said Jason, sitting back in his seat. “And a scotch, if you’d be so kind.”

  The stewardess smiled, nodded, and she walked off.

  “Hey, boss,” said Mark as he slipped past Jason and took the first class window seat next to his employer and lifelong friend. He raised a champagne flute, sloshing a bit of the bubbly on to the seat back in front of him. “Not getting your share of the free champagne,” admonished Mark.

  “I’ve got a scotch coming,” said Jason as he wiped the forearm of his salmon-colored shirt across his forehead.

  “Another nightmare?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, it’s all over now. No more dams to build. You’re retired. And you are going to love the new place. It took me three years…a little longer than I thought. But you’ll make it home for Christmas, back to the fam. No more traveling, living away from home in a frickin’ trailer. No more worries about whether or not you’re doing the right thing damming rivers. Just peace and quiet and hopefully no more nightmares.”

  Mark raised his flute and Jason picked up his freshly arrived scotch. The two clinked their glasses together. Mark flipped his tray table down and set his glass on it. He twisted the stem between his thumb and index finger, spinning it in little quarter turns.

  “So, you wanna talk about it?”

  “Naw. Same shit. Destruction, devastation, dead animals and people.”

  Mark sat in silence for a moment, uncertain what to say or how to act. Finally he said somberly, “Well, it’ll be good to get home.”

  The town car came to a stop at the entrance to the enormous circular drive circling the two-acre front yard of Jason’s new home. Mark dove out of the limo and ran around to open Jason’s door.

  “Well, Jace, what do you think?”

  Jason stood and shook his head back and forth several times before responding. “Wow, Mark, you’ve really outdone yourself. The pictures you sent me don’t do it justice at all.”

  “That was by design. I never got too much of the place in one photo. I knew you’d be too busy to really care, so I only showed you bits and pieces. To kind of keep it a surprise.”

  The house was practically a castle. High walls topped with turrets. Little dormers poking out of the roof here and there. In front of the house was a huge fir of perfect symmetry. It was decorated with ornaments and lights and candy canes whose scale matched that of the great tree. Enormous gazebos sat off to either side of the tree. Behind the house, the mountains rose nearly straight up, a beautiful waterfall cascading down the rocky face.

  “There was no waterfall there when I bought this place,” stated Jason. “How did you manage that?”

  “I kind of took a play from one of your old playbooks. I combined three of the upper creeks into one and they dump into a huge pond before dumping over the waterfall. You can control the flow as needed for the time of year and the run off, or if you just want a big waterfall for a special occasion. Then the water from the falls is diverted back into each of the creeks’ natural beds. One even flows through the house.”

  The conversation was brought to a halt as Jason watched his children emerge from behind the huge fir tree. They ran toward him, his wife walking behind, her hands held behind her back.

  Mark said, “I’ll let you say hello. And Jace, welcome home.”

  Jason smiled back at his friend. “Mark, thank you. You’ve created a masterpiece.”

  Mark held his hands up, palms to the sky as he backed away. “That’s what I do.”

  Jason headed down the hill towards his children. Off to his right, a young Indian brave walked past, staring at him with disdain. Jason shook his head and closed his eyes. Upon opening them, the young man was gone. Jason thought to himself, Great. Now I’m seeing things when I’m awake. God, I must be exhausted.

  Jason’s oldest, Kimmy, was the first to reach him. She all but knocked him over as she buried her face in his stomach and wrapped her arms around the small of his back. Joshua rammed into Jason’s left leg at a dead run, and without having to fake it much, Jason went down. He looked up, laughing at his beautiful wife who held Angie by the hand, their three-year-old cutie he barely knew.

  The two older kids berated Jason with a barrage of questions to which he answered, “Slow down. Slow down. Let me up.”

  Scrabbling to his feet while holding his son by the midsection under one arm and Kimmy by the hand, he leaned in and gave his wife Jen a kiss. He released Joshua and Kimmy and picked up Angie.

  “And hello to you, little Angel.” Angie just stared at her father as she chewed on an index finger.

  Joshua grabbed his fathers’ arm and began pulling him down the hill. “Dad! C’mon. You gotta see the tree. Wait ‘til you see all the presents! I got you a—”

  Jen interrupted Joshua, saying, “Josh, don’t ruin the surprise!”

  “Well, I got you something really cool. What’d you get me? I hope you got me a spider monkey from the Amazon.”

  Kimmy started in with, “Dad, we got a creek that runs right through the house. There’s fish in it and everything.”

  “Really? Fish? In the house?” asked Jason, a little surprised. He looked to Jen. “Does it smell?”

  “Like a creek. I fought it, but once Mark mentioned the idea, I didn’t stand a chance,” she replied as she stood pointing at the two eldest children.

  Jason ignored the passing Indians during the walk down the gently sloping yard as Kimmy and Joshua, dancing backwards, lambasted him with updates and childish questions. They stood before the giant Christmas tree as the limo pulled up. Mark stepped out with a present in each hand. Joshua let go of his father and ran to the car. He opened a back door and dove in. From the inside of the car he called, “Kim…Kim. It’s full of presents.” Kimmy ran to the car. Joshua shoved the presents out onto the ground.

  Jen looked at Jason. “I hope there’s nothing breakable in there.”

  Jason threw up his arms and shook his head as if to say, What do want me to do?

  Joshua jumped out of the car over th
e pile of presents and shook each gift prior to tossing them under the tree. Kimmy tried to act a bit more civilized and read the name tags on each of the gifts she picked up. She placed hers in a neat pile together under the tree. The others were left for Joshua’s inspection.

  Jason looked up at the gazeebo and the giant fir, then out around the expansive yard at the other trees. “Wow, Mark. Get a little carried away with the Christmas lights?”

  Mark smiled, saying, “I kept it under a mile, by maybe a tenth or so.”

  “Seriously?”

  “There’s a lot of stuff out here. I didn’t know where to stop. You gotta see it at night.”

  “Did you buy the local power company?”

  “No. That’s the beauty of the falls. Turbines create all the power you need. Need more power, put another turbine online. Need less, just take one off. It’s all automated. I told you I took a play out of your playbook.”

  Jen saw the light in Jason’s eyes light up at the thought of the system Mark had created. “Go ahead. You know you want to go see it. You better hurry. It’ll be dark soon.”

  Walking with Mark around the side of the house, Jason saw two more Indians walking off to his left. He said nothing. The two arrived at the point where the stream left the house and spilled out of a wall, emptying into a small pool before winding off through the yard. Jason stopped and looked down into the crystal clear pool. Lying on the bottom was what appeared to be the bones of a small hand. Jason was sure he hallucinated, but just in case he might actually be seeing a child’s hand, he said, “Boy, that water’s clear. You can see everything on the bottom as if it weren’t even underwater.”