Toying with Christmas

3 | THE PSYCHIC

It was December 16th and I had been at the shop for two weeks. When I had arrived, I could have never imagined how outdated the shop would be. Gracie and I had redecorated the Christmas tree to make it look more pleasing to the eye while Daniel continued to wear his range of ridiculous Christmas outfits. Apparently, he was using the opportunity to advertise our stock; since when did Grandma sell elf costumes? I had created a website for the shop so that we could get customers that weren't just driving through the town. The only problem was that all the adjustments that I had planned cost money. Money that the shop didn't have.

"Daniel, do you know how many sales that we've had in the past few weeks?"

"That w-website that you made has meant that w-we've had a massive surge of orders! I-i've been taking some orders from the locals lately so I-i've been working late so that they are all are delivered i-in time for Christmas!"

"Why haven't you documented these sales?"

"W-was I-i meant to? Your Grandma never told me that I-i needed too... I-it's something that I-i do every year for the-"

"I'm ready to go Daddy!" Gracie interrupted her father-. She wore her baggy football kit but looked more drowsy than normal and her skin was very pale.

"Are you sure my little buttercup? You look a bit pale..." Daniel knelt down and felt her forehead.

"Daddy! I will be-" She coughed before weakly saying, "fine..."

Daniel sighed. He couldn't seriously be considering allowing her to go to football... "My little buttercup, you do feel quite warm... You're already very sweaty!"

"Daddy..." She whined and coughed again. "It's only a little cold..."

Daniel's hard expression dwindled as his daughter begged. "Fine, let's go! W-we don't want to be late! I-it's your last practise before the game on Christmas Eve." Gracie's expression brightened as the pair began walking towards the door.

"We'll finish this conversation later." I whispered to Daniel, sending him a worried look as Gracie began coughing again.

"Of course, can you chuck me Gracie's inhaler?" He gestured to the counter and I leaned over, grabbing the teal object. I threw it to Daniel and he caught it, crouching down so that he was at the same level as his daughter. "My little buttercup, you better not lose this again." He placed the inhaler in her hand. "W-what do you say to Auntie Madison?"

"Goodbye." Daniel gave his daughter a high five and they walked out of the door hand in hand, I noticed that David looked down at his daughter and a look of worry flashed though his eyes, but this was only for a split second.

I took the bags of packed parcels from behind the counter, this was one of the last batches that needed to go out. Daniel normally took them to the post office on his way back from dropping Gracie off at school but she was now on Christmas break and was practising for the big game on Christmas Eve.

I walked to the door, flipping over the sign so that the bold letters stated "CLOSED". As I began to amble down the high-street, I noticed that everything was different from what I remembered. I continued my journey to where I believed the post office was but when I reached my destination, I looked at the store in front of me with suspicion. It was definitely not a post office; now I had to find a way to get to the real one.

I stepped inside the shop, taking note of the pungent smell that wafted through the air. "Hello?" I shouted, marvelling at the peculiar items that were on sale. All sorts of dreamcatchers, crosses and books lined the walls in beautiful colours. A table shrouded in a purple piece of fabric stood in the corner with a glass ball stood on top of it. No Christmas themed decorations were in sight.