An Advent Tale XII

“Thank you for your help,” Kati said, “I’ll have to tell my boss.” She stood up and carefully set the teacup away.

“I’ll come with you,” Julian hurried to say. “If Sam is with this guy, then I have to go too.”

“We’ll help you!” Ray cheered, backed up by heavy nodding from Aiden.

Since the purple clashed so horribly with her furniture, Shana refused to try her magic again. They said farewell and thank you to her, and she told them to come back anytime they wanted tea. The group walked out back into the old apartment building with the bent mailbox.

“Where are we going?” Julian asked. “What’s an Invictus?”

While the three cottage friends told him about vampire politics Kati led the way towards the middle of town. Invictus was the ruling political group, they said. Themselves, all three were unaligned, which meant they followed Invictus rules but didn’t give crap about politics. That’s why they lived far off in that cottage, Melody said. Other vampires had dug out tunnels and living space under town, pretty much living in a complex of underground-connected basements and cellars, since no building above ground was grand enough.

Kati led the way to the town square, where the Christmas tree was waiting, towering above all the other trees. Once the happy day came someone would turn on the light switch and it would explode in a sparkle and shine like nothing anyone had ever seen, that would distract Ray for hours.

At this time the square was empty and quiet. It was too cold for the homeless to be anywhere except in the vicinity of fire and too late for anyone else to be outside. Julian looked around and saw nothing.