Scarlet's First Christmas

     If there was one very important thing Scarlet had gotten to know about Herb, it was that he was a Christmas nutcase. The man lived and breathed Christmas! Herb had likely been planning the holiday festivities for months, for as soon as the first of December rolled around he immediately set to decorating and gathering ingredients for the upcoming Christmas meal. Scarlet's mansion had gone from being simply pleasing to the eyes to a bright, headache-inducing orchestra of colors and flashing lights. This certainly was not what she had signed up for when she invited Herb to move into her home. Perhaps it was because she did not celebrate with him last Christmas. Scarlet kept to herself when this time of the year came up (along with her birthday); she had spent the month away to isolate herself from the world. It wasn't that she didn't like Herb then to not mind his company, but rather her mood wasn't as bright and cheerful as his. She didn't want to be bombarded with the sore reminder of what came with Christmas.

     And yet, here she was allowing this nutter of a genius bring it all into her home in its unholy glory. Not that he had done this without her permission, of course! This was after all her home. Just because Herb lived with her now (and were engaged in some sort of relationship) did not mean he could do whatever he liked with it. She couldn't turn him down when he had asked her politely and professionally – but she didn't expect him to go all-out. Yet this was Herb, mad scientist who always went over-the-top with his creations. It took her nearly to the week of Christmas to get used to his overabundant holiday spirit; though she would have rather been slowly introduced to this than dragged in.

     It was during this time that Scarlet got to hear of Herb's growing up with Christmas. His childhood was like everything she had seen in those television specials and commercials, with the happy family spending time together and giving gifts. Herb was an only child, so he had the pleasure of having all of the attentions on him – as well as many piles of presents. He had explained though that he liked the giving more than the receiving, waiting for those smiles on his mother's and father's faces when they would see the wonderful gifts he had made for them. Then there would be the bountiful Christmas feasts, the caroling, and (in the places he had lived where the conditions were just right) frolicking in a winter wonderland. How sickeningly sweet, Scarlet thought as he rattled on. It was everything she never had in her lifetime. A bubbling, burning sensation couldn't help but slither through her stomach up to her throat, seizing her with those terrible memories of loneliness on those cold winter nights. She had missed Herb's story from his university years when he had frozen the stairs in his dormitory so that he and his friends could slide down them on his specially crafted sleds. She wasn't sure if he had mistaken her dazed look for fatigue, but she had appreciated him getting up to fetch her blanket and wrap it around her – the act at least had stopped him from telling her more about his wonderful life. He had even gone the extra mile to make her a cup of tea, which upon drinking had loosened the hold of those vicious thorny vines gnarled inside her.

     As that dreadful day came closer Scarlet noticed that Herb had holed himself up in his lab more frequently. Something like this shouldn't have been odd, except that Herb made access into the room so secured that Scarlet was not allowed even a peep inside. After bothering him so much about the reasoning behind his tight-lipped secrecy he revealed that his presents to her were being kept in his lab. Presents – for Scarlet? It was an idea she never thought would become reality. That penniless, pitiful street child of the past had always wished for such a thing to happen to her. As she got older that wish became a bitter, crumpled dream left in the dirtiest and darkest of back alleys. That little girl inside couldn't help but jump excitedly at the news. But what exactly had Scarlet done to deserve such a reward? Scarlet Overkill was far from being on the Nice List. She pondered for several nights about it; it was certainly a question she couldn't ask Herb.