Done For You (Black Veil Brides/Legion of the Black)

8. New Year's Day

After the raid, The Voice Of F.E.A.R.'s words about my father swirled persistently around my head. I contemplated ways to find out what he'd meant for weeks, but all of my ideas were destined to go unfulfilled. It was too dangerous to venture into the City on my own, and I couldn't put the rest of the Legion – my family – in danger. Instead, I pondered possible meanings of The Voice's words.

Things had been tense lately between Andy and Juliet. Discussions between them often turned into screaming matches and loving acts turned to cold attitudes. Though everyone had noticed, no one ever mentioned it. A small part of me that I despised couldn't help but be a little bit pleased with the development.

I'd been informed by Ashley that it was Christmas tomorrow. I'd never had a proper Christmas in the City. Besides the fact that there was a compulsory church service that went for hours in the morning, Dad always had to go to work afterwards. He'd once told me that Christmas had involved gift giving in his parent's time. Where they'd come from, it used to snow. The apocalypse had put a stop to that, though. The country had been stripped of all life and greenery. All that was left now was the barren wasteland we lived in. I wasn't even sure if the continents mentioned in history class had survived. This Christmas would be my first real one, with a proper family. I was more than excited.

Christmas Eve was a flurry of activity and excited chatter. The whole Legion was involved and, as such, it was loud in the kitchen as we cooked the perishables collected on the raid. Earlier in the day, we'd decorated the base. I'd helped Ashley, Amber, Eve and CC paint the skull that represented the Wild Ones on one of the walls in the main hall. We'd ended up with our clothes more white than black after flicking paint at each other for hours. I hadn't quite been able to get all the paint from my head. I'd noticed Amber watching Ashley while he'd been painting, especially when he'd taken his shirt off. Strangely, I couldn't find it in myself to be jealous.

After we'd finished, and Ashley had put his shirt back on, we found that someone had collected plants from the desert. Andy called the Legion together and we split into groups to decorate the whole of the base with them. This included the bedrooms, tunnels, kitchen and main hall. Ashley explained to me that night as we walked to the kitchens to help with the cooking that the ones hanging from the ceiling were meant to represent mistletoe, a plant that grew before the apocalypse. Apparently, the tradition was that whoever stood underneath them had to kiss the other. I wasn't surprised when I found one in our room.

As I helped cook the meat and peel vegetables stolen from the City, all thoughts of F.E.A.R. and the truth about my father were driven from my head. I fell asleep that night, for the first time, dreaming of nothing but spending Christmas with my family.

Ashley woke me up the next morning with a kiss. My eyes flew open and I blinked a couple of times. When Ashley's face came into focus, I smiled, sleepily, at him. He returned it. 'Merry Christmas.' He murmured, kissing me on the cheek. I sat up, still smiling, and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. 'Merry Christmas to you too.' I replied, with a yawn. We quickly set about our day so we could join the rest of the Legion to celebrate. I took a quick shower before heading to the wardrobe to pick out something more festive to wear. I'd once been told that green and red were Christmas colours, but no one in the Legion wore anything other than black, including me. Instead, I decided on one of the dresses Sammi had leant me when I first joined the Legion. It was black with thin sleeves and lace in various spots. I quickly slid it on and laced up my combat boots. I braided my dark brown locks back and sat on the bed. Ashley joined me a few moments later, wearing a pair of black jeans, a black t-shirt and a pair of cowboy boots. We headed down to the main hall, hands linked. We were one of the last to arrive.