Christmas Aglow | one-shot ✔️

Christmas Aglow

'Frost' entry

Unedited (Will edit later)

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Snow confetti showered the cottage, gracefully falling upon the roof of the abode. It was decorated with fairy lights which flashed red, blue, and green at consecutive times, and an authentic Christmas wreath hung on the wooden door. Every curtain in the cottage was drawn but the faintest glow of something could be glimpsed from the kitchen.

Stood to the left of the home was a dazzling Christmas tree wrapped in gold and silver tinsel and frosted with snowflakes, glitter-covered baubles hanging onto the ends of its arms. It was a peaceful sight, mesmerising, magical even, and-

"Why are you sitting here in the dark?"

Aalyia jumped, the snow globe in her hand clattering to the floor.

"Don't scare me like that."

"Sorry," her mother apologised, "but you should let the light in; it's a beautiful day."

Without waiting for a response, her mother opened the drapes, allowing the glare of the sun to infiltrate the darkness of her room and set alight her furniture. Her room was spotless, all her clothes hidden in her wardrobe, thick books lined up on her shelf as if standing before royalty, and her shoes- black ankle boots- were tucked under her single bed, not a trace of mud on the soles from the field.

Though the sun had made an appearance, the sky was gathering clouds and the air, as expected, was arctic. Aalyia could see ribbons of smoke in the distance, rising from the chimney of another home. An inch of snow covered the ground where the family car- a compact minivan- sat, a layer of ice masking the windows and windscreen.

"What time is it?" Aalyia asked, picking up the ornament from the floor. She'd had it since the day she was born, a gift to symbolise her "special birth," her mother had said, since Aalyia had arrived on Christmas Eve, only three minutes to midnight.

"Eleven," she replied. "Your father said the roast will be ready in an hour."

She simply nodded, distracted by the globe.

"What's wrong?" she was asked.

"Nothing."

"You're frowning," her mother said. "It's not that boy is it?"

Aalyia looked up, startled. "Who?" They both knew exactly whom she was talking about- a blonde-haired prince who turned out to be a green-eyed frog, but it wasn't him that was bothering her. After all, she was too young to feel upset about a relationship which had only lasted three weeks, one which she had ended. "No mum, it's not."

"Then why are you looking so miserable on Christmas Day?" she exclaimed, "'Tis the season to be jolly!"

She sighed, and held up her globe, as if holding a fragile but magical orb. "This."

Her mother took it from her, examining the glass, finding barely a scratch and then tipped it upside down to look underneath it, her green eyes glossing over the engraved words 'Angels are upon us.'

"I don't see any damage."

"It is broken though," Aalyia mumbled, playing with the frayed ends of her mustard-yellow blanket.

"Where?"

"The music," she said. "It won't play because I turned it the wrong way. It got stuck and then something snapped and now..."