Too Late To Save Time

Christmas

"Fallon! Where are you?!" Alex yelled, his voice filled with desperation.

"It's no use! We were possessed and she's gone, ran away! She's not coming back!" Devon screamed at him.

"We need to find her and bring her back. Again." Lucas growled. "Stupid woman made her run away like usual."

"You know she has reason to. She was taken to the some weirdo place, put through all this training, only to be nearly killed and always betrayed a bunch of times. She ran away so she didn't have to deal with any of this." Dawn defended.

"I see her!" Miranda yelled. I was walking towards the school, no, being forced to walk towards the school. Someone had possessed me. Or something. I don't know which but I wasn't strong enough to fight it back.

"Fallon!" Casey cried, running towards me. It nearly killed me to raise the knife and dig it into his chest. I wasn't strong enough to fight it. The demon mad me kill Casey. And Miranda. And Lucas. And Devon. And Eli. And Dawn. And Honey. And Hannah. And Danny.

Alex stared in horror, stumbling away. I dropped the knife, my hands shaking as I finally gathered the strength to dispel the demon from me. I fell to the ground.

"What- what.." Alex started. I started crying.

"Stupid freaking demon!" I screamed at myself.

"Stop making excuses! You weren't possessed your eyes looked normal! Stop lying! You're evil." Alex yelled at me. I cried, and fell to the floor. Alex kicked me, and picked up the knife.

"NO!" I shrieked, sitting up suddenly. Snow surrounded me, but it was pitch black outside, well, almost pitch black. There was a tiny sliver of the moon shining on the reflective snow.

My scream echoed throughout the forest, making birds fly off and animals scuttle away.

"No..." I stared at my hands, trying to figure out if there was blood. I tried to see, but I couldn't even use my night eyes from all my shaking and fear.

"Fallon go back to sleep." Amanda ordered in a mumble. I crawled away from our campsite and let my feet lead me back to the edge of the trees, back to the border between No-Man's-Land and the Academy's backyard.

Alex?

My head was empty for once, even though I threw the muffler into the snow and let down my barrier.

"Alex?" I whispered. No reply. A tear leaked down my face.

Fallon...? Fallon?!

I picked up the muffler necklace and put it on, and put up my barrier. My heart raced, and I took several deep breaths.

Not knowing what to do next, I retreated into the shadows of the forest, feeling safe among the trees, and curled up beneath a bush, trying to save my body heat.

I waited for dawn to break, and when it did, I waited for the sun to rise. When the sun rose, I waited for people to fill out from the school, playing in the snow before classes started. But they never came.

Cautious, I crept to the a window and was surprised to find Dawn, Honey, Casey, Alex, Devon, Eli, Lucas, and Hannah all holed up in one room, half awake and stumbling around.

"Merry Christmas, Casey." Miranda mumbled, rubbing her eye. Casey smiled goofily and crawled to the corner of the room, where a small pine tree stood.

"Merry Christmas!" Danny yelled, skipping into the room. Their voices drifted out from the open window. Zachary, Levi, and Jezebel followed Danny into the room.

"Don't shoot! We bear gifts from the tribe of normal people!" Zachary joked. I smiled, crouching lower so no one would see me in the window.

"We're- no we're not normal." Honey said, shaking her head. Lucas and Alex were helping drag the gifts out into the open. Devon was sprawled out on a bed, scratching his head and flopping over every two minutes.

"Yo, Devon! Get your butt over here so we can start opening presents!" Dawn commanded, nudging the back of his head with her foot. I bit my lip to stop from laughing.

Everyone sat around, searching through the colorfully wrapped boxes for ones that belong to them.

"Hey, Lucas, think fast!" Jezebel tossed a large box Lucas's way while his head was turned laughing at Miranda with dorky coke bottle glasses on. He turned and stopped the box in midair, freezing the time around it. He grinned at everyone before letting it drop into his outstretched hands.

"Thanks!" Jezebel rolled her eyes at him as he tore open the box. He turned it upside down but nothing fell out. Everyone laughed.

"Hey, buy the kid an expensive toy and they only play with the box! I decided not to waste my money!" Dawn laughed. Lucas scowled at her.

"Ha, ha."

"You miss them?" Someone whispered in my ear. I turned aronud sharply, moving away from the window. Hannah was standing in front of me. She had left to go to the bathroom just a few minutes earlier.

"Yeah. But if I keep running away and coming back, I'll seemed like a brat who wants to be the center of attention. I just don't want anyone else to get hurt." I said, careful to check her eye color before speaking.

"They miss you. Danny and I knew it was pointless to miss you because you'd be back the second they're in danger." Hannah said, crossing her arms. "But you're hurting them by not being around."

"Hey, this one's for Fallon. What should we do with it?" Casey's voice asked. There was a pause.

"Burn it!" Came the uproar of a reply, followed by laughter.

"I can tell." I retorted. Hannah grinned and shook her head.

"No, but seriously." Casey said.

"I'll bring her presents to her." Alex offered.

"You were gone a whole day before you found her last time." Dawn said.

"Besides, she'll be back soon. Can't stay away forever." Miranda added.

I looked down, avoiding eye contact with Hannah.

"Told you." She smirked. I rolled my eyes.

"Well I'm not coming back on Christmas. That will just seem selfish. Like, I ran away because I couldn't stand my friends who were possessed by some evil demons, but I came back for Christmas! No." Hannah giggled.

"Well, you're right about that one. See you in three days." She said, waving and disappearing.

"Oh right, she's Time." I murmured, peering back into the window.

Everyone was laughing and opening presents, setting aside a few eveyr now and then.

Then Hannah entered the room and smiled at me, and I ran away before anybody could see me at the window.