Vincent-McWilliams: A Christmas Carol

Chapter Eight: The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come

"We are no longer in the present," Pippa said looking at her watch, "This is the future. This is what is yet to come."

"Are you still in there, Pinkie Pie?" Maddie asked looking at the Hooded figure, "The girl in the pink hair? Liked life and so forth. No. You are something else entirely."

"You don't speak?" Pippa asked it, noticing a lack of reply, "So you are the one that will show us what awaits if we do not change our ways. Yes?"

The ghost gave no reply.

"So we should change, should we? Why? Tell me," Maddie demanded an answer, "we live our life as well as we can. We have our faults, but who does not, truly? Are all others we've been shown this night without blame? Are we the only ones with the power to change our life? To change the lives of others? Well? Am I?"

The ghost still didn't say a word. 

"Oh, very well. Lead on," Pippa said having enough of waiting, "Show us what bleak future our wickedness has wrought. And, yes, nobody can see or hear us, I know."

The spirit pointed to a crowd outside of the sister's place of work. But the place had closed down. Piro was standing in front of the crowd, dressed in her best, to announce the great news that had come that day. The girls were slightly confused as to what they had done to deserve all this praise. All the people in the crowd owed them money. And they didn't believe that they had forgiven all the debts they were in because the ghost was showing them what would happen if they didn't change.

But Chewy wandered off, smelling something unusual. He went over to a cart where some of the orphan kids were smiling at. Chewy jumped up on a few crates to see what they were smiling at. Inside was a coffin with Maddie's name on it. All these people were celebrating Maddie's death while the real Maddie didn't know that was the case. While Maddie's coffin was being taken to the graveyard, Piro thanked a now-dead Maddie for doing this for everyone in the crowd. Chewy tried to inform the girls about what they were really celebrating but they wouldn't listen.

Maddie and Pippa were just so happy that there was something exciting to wait for in the future. And not that far away either as Piro hadn't seemed to age much since they last saw her. Happy about this good future so far, Pippa was ready to see more. The ghost pointed forward as lightning flashed, taking them to the graveyard. There, they saw Selena and Ellie standing over the smallest grave there. A wooden cross with a crutch leaning against it, a few lavender flowers, and a candle stood on its own. The girls realised who the grave belonged to. Adam. He never got the medicine he needed to get well thanks to the little the girls paid Selena. 

"I must go now, my little man. I promised your father I'd help with Christmas dinner, but..." Selena trailed off, "I'll come and see you again tomorrow. Same time, all right?

Selena couldn't keep it together anymore in front of her daughter and started to cry. She didn't want her son to be taken by his illness but there was nothing that could be done now. Ellie went over to Selena, telling her it was time to go. After bidding Adam a final goodbye, the two left to go home. Maddie and Pippa walked up to the grave, realising that they never helped the poor boy in the future. 

"We could have done more," Pippa said, full of regret, "We could have done something!"

"Poor Adam," Maddie said, sad

"Friend, you have shown us a Christmas yet to come that mixes great joy with greater sorrow. Tell me, is this what will be, or what may be? If I were to change, would all this still come to pass?"

Her questions wouldn't be answered as they heard Piro whistling while she and another dragged the wagon from earlier. At an open grave, a Preist, a man, and Chewy waited for the casket to arrive. Without a second thought, Piro and the other man threw the casket in, not caring about respecting the dead. Piro walked up to the other man near the grave, telling him not to wait for anyone to turn up as no one was sorry to see Maddie go.

Well, except for Chewy. Pippa was very much absent because she had died only a year earlier. She had caught an illness that, unlike their younger siblings or Adam before they died, had no cure. Maddie couldn't live much longer afterward and has now joined her dear sister. Everyone around the grave faded away and the off that covered Maddie's name faded away. Maddie now realised why everyone was so happy.

Pippa saw her grave right next to Maddie's, now seeing why she didn't turn up for the funeral. The graves then turned to ice, and the corpses of each other came out, covered in chains, damned to walk stay down on Earth for eternity. All this because the two would never change their ways. It scared the girls more than anything they have seen thus far. 

"Spare us. Let us return!" Maddie begged the spirit, "we will not become these women whose death is the cause of such celebration."

"Why show us this if we are past all hope?" Pippa asked, "Are we? Truly? If... If we are beyond salvation, then so be it. But, please, the boy need not die. Not when we have it in our power
to help him."

"I beg of you, spare us for this reason, if nothing more. I swear to honor Christmas in our hearts and keep it there the whole year through."

"We will learn from the past, live only in the present, and strive for a better future. For all!" the chains grabbed the girls, dragging them to their graves, "Tell me we may yet strike the writing from the boy's cross. Tell me we may yet break these chains! Please. Please, tell me!"

As Pippa grabbed the spirit's cloak, the spirit disappeared. Trying to save his master, Chewy grabbed onto the cloak to try and stop her from going into the grave. But it ripped, causing them to fall into their graves, all the way down to hell.