Happily Ever Christmas

~Fourteen~

Nick took his sweet old time answering, damn him. He sipped his coffee and polished off his apple fritter. "I am going to tell you, but please promise not to scream or throw anything at me. You'll scare the cat."

I barred my teeth at him then. "Tell me!"

He picked up a piece of crispy bacon to crunch on absently. He seemed boldly unconcerned by my mounting wrath. "Why don't you go to the window and look out?"

I stiffened. It was that bad, was it?

Then I shoved up from the table and crossed to the window. I couldn't not look, now that my curiosity was piqued.

I stood between the white and gold draperies and stared out at a winter wonderland.

It took me a moment to even register what I was seeing at first.

A part of me had still been expecting to look out and find that it was my childhood New England neighborhood outside and nothing more. And inside I was just having a severe mental break brought on by all the holiday stress and the trauma from the divorce.

But what I found was breathtakingly different than my old suburban streets that I called home.

Snow blanketed a world that was like something out of a fantasy movie; mountains towering up into a heavily clouded sky, with great rifts in their dark underbellies to expose the piercing blue sky beyond. Shards of sunlight stabbed down, causing all of the snowflakes to glitter in a nearly blinding fashion.

Dark swaths broke up the horizon; a forest of evergreen separated a rustic village from the steep, dappled gray mountainside.

"Wha-wha-where-are we in...Sweden? Stockholm-no, Norway?!" I was breathless and babbling as I backed away from the window. My mind was racing as my body reeled. It was a sickening sensation.

How had he even gotten me here? The possibilities were mind boggling and terrifying.

Nothing worse than a rich, powerful man with a jet at his disposal.

If it wasn't so incredibly creepy and out of line, it would have been romantic. Maybe if I didn't have two little kids to worry about, I might have even been a bit more ready to be taken with the whole affair.

It was a beautifully romantic setting outside, after all.

"No. We're a bit further north." Nick said bracingly, and when I turned around it was to see that he was still lounging at the table. "We're above the arctic circle, in one of the last few remote places in the world."

"What? But there aren't any towns..."

"This is a place, Emberly, that is as old as the planet itself. It's a place that is protected by a magical sphere. Kind of like the dome of a snow globe."

"Uh-huh. Okay. That's great. I want my kids and I wanna leave now." I said while rubbing at my temples again.

"Hey, just take it easy, alright? I know it's a lot to take in." He stood up, I could hear the chair scraping across the stone, and he came over to me.

I flinched when he cupped my elbows, but I didn't pull away, either.

When he saw I didn't reject his touch, he gently began to buff his hands up and down my arms. "I can prove it's real. I'm not just some lunatic. If you keep an open mind then I promise it'll start to make sense soon. And when I'm done explaining everything, when I've revealed all, then you and your family are free to leave at any point. You are not prisoners here. Just...unexpected guests. I'm sorry it's not exactly ideal, I just thought this was honestly the best way to go about things."

I was shaking my head still, but when I lifted it, I was instantly calmed by the kind look in his eyes.

Even when I was losing my mind, he made me feel safe somehow. Like everything was going to be okay.

"It's okay." He murmured to me softly. "You're okay."

For a moment, as we stood there staring at each other, I thought he was going to kiss me.

I saw how his eyes dropped to my mouth, how he leaned in slightly, and how his lips parted.

But right then the door burst open and the biggest distraction possible came charging in; my two children.

*~*~*~*

I gasped and stepped back from Steve, feeling guilty for indulging myself by being near him.

"Oh my God, you guys are okay!" Tears instantly filled my eyes and I dropped to my knees to hold my arms open to them. "Olivia, Bradley! Let me look at you, you both okay?"

Even Frodo was with them, yapping along excitedly at their heels.

The Newfoundlands seemed intimidated by the small dog and quickly backed away to give us some space.

"Yeah, we're fine. Mommy, Mommy, you have to come see the elves! They're real and Santa's village is real, too, and Winter Wonderland is real, too!"

They were both talking over each other so it was hard to distinguish what either of them was saying.

"Hang on, guys, wait just a minute, slow down." I urged them, still kneeling in front of them. "One at a time. You sure you guys are unhurt? What's the last thing you remember?" I cupped each of their little freckled faces in my hands in turn to peer into their eyes, checking their pupils. They seemed fine and were dressed in the clothes I had laid out for them for Christmas; Olivia in an adorable little red taffeta red and Bradley in a little pair of gray trousers and a blue and white checked sweater, and they even had matching shiny black shoes.

Olivia's straight brown hair had been braided whimsically around the crown of her head. Who had done this?

I startled trembling inside. This was sick.

"It's okay, Mommy." My six-year-old daughter tried to reassure me. "Really. We're fine, Mama. And Steve is Santa Claus except his name is Nick Light." Olivia went on, getting more and more excited. I hadn't seen her hazel eyes glitter like that, not in much too long a time.

It broke my heart, because she was still so young and innocent and she had no idea the danger we were really in.

"Honey...what's the last thing you remember?" I asked her softly, smoothing out the shoulders of her red dress.

"The Elves showing up in our bedroom last night." Olivia volunteered easily, and I blinked.

"And then riding in Steve's - I mean, Santa's - sleigh! Up, up, into the sky!" Bradley squealed. He, too, was possessed with a wild excitement and I noticed that he seemed more focused than he usually was.

Olivia saw my face, however, and she sighed, then glanced past me to Nick. "She doesn't believe us." She told him quietly. "We should just show her."

I shot a look over my shoulder at Nick.

He was smiling down at us fondly, taking another sip of his coffee. "I agree. Adults always have to see before they believe. You guys just lead the way, okay?"

I straightened up, bracing myself for whatever new madness was coming next. "Do I get some clothes, at least?"

To this, Nick smirked and I could see my kids grinning at each other out of the corner of my eye.

They didn't understand. They thought this was just fun; a game we were all playing to audition Nick to be Daddy.

I was still focused on finding a way to escape this crazy prison safely with my two small children.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thanks for reading!

HRH