Xmas Spirit Read Online Free

quantity, and size.
    “I’ve been having trouble with my e-mail lately . . .” WendyT. stammered.
    “No excuses, Wendy!” Petula growled. “I’m registered at every store in town.”
    Both Wendys nodded, chastened, and slid into the backseat of Petula’s car.
    “And while you’re at it, find out what Damen is getting me. If you can’t intervene, then for God’s sake, make sure he gets a gift receipt!” Petula howled, climbing in the driver’s seat, cranking the ignition, and peeling out carelessly for home. “I want cash when I return it, not some lame store credit.”
    Students dived out of the way as the car barreled toward the exit for the tranquil and seasonally festooned streets of Hawthorne beyond. Charlotte smiled as Petula’s taillights glowed like demon eyes in the distance, sighing at the sheer display of brazenness she’d been privileged to behold.
    Charlotte looked up at the sky. It was barely four o’clock, and it was already getting dark, glowing streaks of pink and orange crowding out the baby blue. She wanted more sun. More light. More . . . life.
    “Damn you, daylight saving time!” she huffed.
    The lot emptied, with hugs and holiday wishes all around—for everyone except her. Damen was already long gone, and there was no sign of Scarlet. Charlotte was alone. The first twinge of sadness suddenly overcame her. Why on earth she was still hanging around the lot, she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t so much because she wanted to be last, but because she was in no hurry at all to leave. No hurry to go home. Not all memories were created equal.
    The wind picked up ever so slightly as the sun dipped over the purpling clouds, and Charlotte felt a chill for the first time in a long time. Not like the cold that permeated her bedroom, or Dead Ed, or her office in the Great Beyond. She couldn’t feel that cold, not really. Rather than reach for her collar to pull it closed, she tugged at her sleeves and pulled them up, marveling at the goose pimples budding all the way up her arm.
    I can feel it , Charlotte thought. Whether she meant the cold or the intense sensation of being alive once again, she wasn’t entirely certain.
    Her very next thought, her natural instinct, was to tell Eric what she was feeling, just like she always did. He would be so happy for her. But then reality, like the cold, began to set in. She looked back up at the sky, straining to see him, all of them,any of them, through the stars that were just beginning to peek through the gloomy sky. They seemed so far away. Eric, Pam, Prue, all of them. Out of sight.
    “My friends,” Charlotte whispered.
    Darkness fell and the clouds rolled away, completely disappearing with the day, revealing the heavens above in all their twinkling glory. Suddenly she broke out in a wide grin. She didn’t need to go home just yet. She had a friend nearby she could visit.
    “Scarlet.”

    “Eric?” Pam called out into the darkness.
    “I’m not here,” a gruff voice said, punctuated by a guitar strike.
    “So mature, Eric.”
    Pam found him slumped in his chair, staring blankly ahead.
    “What do you want, Pam? Oh, let me guess. Charlotte sent you.”
    Pam was about to answer when she looked out his window at the Christmas lights they’d strung around the compound. They were dimming.
    “You’re slacking off, dude,” Pam chided, turning back to him. “We’re all counting on you to power up our Christmas.”
    “Tell you the truth, I don’t know what’s going on. It’s not me.”
    “Well, what else could it be?”
    Eric just shook his head disinterestedly.
    “That’s not what you came here to talk about, is it?”
    “No.”
    “Well,” Eric said angrily, sitting up in his chair, “you can just tell Charlotte if she has something to say to me, like an apology, she can come here herself.”
    “I will,” Pam said softly.
    “Good,” Eric groused dismissively.
    “When I find her.”
    His mood turned from nonchalant to