SERAPHIC BLISS

29. Merry Christmas

Elizabeth smiles , stepping away from the row of small , gold lights pinned above the doorway. Looking around her house , her house , loving the singularity of it all. The name plate 'Hudson residence' that hung at the entrance of the house was now laying in some garbage bag waiting to be taken to its demise and a new polished plate hangs from the rusted nails 'Elizabeth's residence' since her pre-marital name and the name Hudson meant nothing to her now.

She looks around the living room in content , quietly satisfied. She and Vincent (with excessive convincing) had taken it to themselves to increase the festivities of 'Elizabeth's residence' and have spent the majority of the afternoon ; purchasing ornaments and assembling a tree , hanging strings of miniature bulbs from the cornice , ensuring that the room is washed with liquid lustre when the lights are off. Martha and David were house searching , Kendra remains with Elizabeth and Vincent for the time being.

Vincent walks into the room with a box in his hands , tagged with Elizabeth's name. Its plastic insulated , blue coloured. Elizabeth crosses the room as Vincent enters from the foyer , he places the heavy box on the coffee table and addresses Elizabeth , "It has your name on it, you ordered something more?"

"I don't recall "

She bends down and observes it , pushing the sleeves of her sweater up till the bend of her elbow , her skin finally healing , and only a few faded memento of her time in Moscow remains on her thin skin , prying open the box daises fall out of it along with quick melting ice. The daises are stained in red , so is the ice. Vincent comes around and observes the box as Elizabeth submerges her hand in the ice cold box with scarlet dripping daises , her hand feels something cotton soft , its round-ish an occasionally lined tubes of running consistency is felt against her fingers , and the object slightly vibrates against her palms.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure"

She extracts her hand from the box and for a moment and her breathing stops entirely , the distant tick of clock marks out every slow second spent in traumatizing shock. Her pulse forcing the blood through the cold constriction around her chest , hammering at the internal tissue of her tears.

All she can see is a bundle of red beating veins , its textured , and warm, warmer than the ice water that dribbles down her forearm and sweater. Impulsively she backs away from the box , and it isn't until Vincent interferes and drags her away from the box -she realizes she is screaming.

The human heart is abandoned in the box , as the beating subsides rather slowly in between a pool of innocent daises. A drop of iced blood falls on the card , there is no stamp , not even the recipient name , scrawled in ink italics across the seal is only a printed word 'Merry Christmas , snow white'

~*~*~

Vincent sits between Kendra and Elizabeth as the car comes at a halt , the result of Martha tugging at the gear stick , cursing under her breath at the red light. Kendra rouses and blinks at the unexpected audience , frowns -and then opens her mouth to commence a screaming session so grating that Elizabeth considers getting out of the car and walking the distance to Myla's residence.

She was reached out by Vincent after a few weeks post -events of the almost beating human heart delivered in a pool of daises at Elizabeth's door steps. Vincent's resources were depleting , as Lucas pulled out more than fifty percent of his funding from Vincent's network .

He solely blamed Vincent and his apparent 'Blondie' for the loss of his most cherished asset. According to Vincent , he was drinking day in and out. Elizabeth would hear Vincent argue with his clients almost every night , he would hardly come to bed . Most of Vincent's time was spent behind a screen and travelling. Considering the matter at hand , he went to the only reliable resource that had an excellent turn up in the last few weeks , despite being pronounced dead in Moscow.