Hurt and Abused

Hurt and Abused Christmas Part 1

Arsen

"Do you guys think the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future are real?" Crooks asked as we sat around the table. Christmas was a week away and for some reason Celine was the only one that wasn't excited. In fact, any time someone brought up the C word she just kind of tensed and walked off. When I tried to coax it out of her she wouldn't say anything.

"Crooks what have you been smoking?" Eight said, grabbing a bag of chips and demolishing them in a few seconds.

"Shut up ass face, I'm serious. Every year in the movies, they have Christmas past, present, and future. Do you guys think they're real? Lil C what do you think?" Celine picked at her salad, shrugging and throwing it in the trash before leaving the lunchroom.

"Think it was something I said?" Crooks asked. Pierce gave me a look and I went after her.

At the apartment, Celine was in her room listening to loud music.

"Hey you." I said. She looked at me and smirked before going back to doing whatever she was doing.

"Why don't you like to talk about Christmas?" Her face fell and my frown deepened.

"I just don't." She said sitting on the bed taking off her shoes.

"Why?" I said again, not letting her get away with this. After a while there was no response and I had to come sit in front of her.

"Celine," When she looked at me, there were tears in her eyes and I had to hug her, kiss the tears away. "It's okay, we don't have to talk about it."  

We laid in her bed until we both drifted  off to sleep.

*ghost of Christmas past*

"Arsen." I pulled Celine closer to me, thinking it was her calling me, letting out a groan of recognition.

"Arsen." Her tone was more demanding, so I cracked an eye open, only to be shocked by what I saw. I was no longer in my bed. I was floating in a mist of blue fog with someone, something that looked like Celine, but was so not my hot girlfriend.

"What the hell are you?" I said holding my arms up, prepared to fight. The thing laughed and shook her head.

"I'm the ghost,of Christmas past. I know it sounds crazy, believe it, don't believe it. Whatever, you wanted to know why Celine hates Christmas, I'm here to answer that question." I processed her words. Ghost of Christmas past? Complete and utter bullshit, I knew I should have stopped hanging around Crooks when he ran around telling people that ninjas were stealing the honey buns from the vending machines.

"Uh huh, and I'm supposed to believe that your the ghost of my Christmas past? What does that have to do with Celine?" The ghost rolled her eyes.

"I didn't say I was your ghost. I'm Celine's, now do you want to see or not?" I frowned, but thought about Celine. I wanted to give her the best Christmas ever, the only way I was going to do that was if I figured out what happened years ago. 

"Fine. " She nodded and crossed her arms and closed her eyes mumbling something.  The mist turned green and began swirling into a tornado before sending us down the center and landing in a house.  Of course, ghost Celine landed safely while I, on the other hand felt like I just had my ass handed to me.

"Thanks for the warning. " I said rubbing my ass. She smirked,  closest thing to a smile I'd seen since I met her. 

"This is Celine's first Christmas after her mom left.  She and her dad just got back from her aunts house and her dad isn't very happy and extremely drunk." The door opened and the spirit and I turned to watch, there was her dad, he wasn't balding yet, but other than that he still looked like the ass hole that showed up at our school that day. Behind him, he was dragging a small Celine by the hair, she must have been five or six, definitely too young to have an eye patch like that.

"Who told you, you could ask for more pie?" He slurred. My eyes widened as I watched him slap her. She slumped down to the ground holding her cheek.  He came at her again and again, yelling and calling her names and things like that. I couldn't help the anger that poured into my veins. She was just six! How could someone do that to a child?

"Celine never got to experience a happy Christmas, she would go over her aunt's house and they would eat, but she would always come home to this, she never experienced real happiness here." We stayed a little while longer, watching as he practically beat her to a pulp and then left her there. The scariest part was that she didn't even cry, she just sat there and took it. Not even shedding a tear. I felt like I was going to be sick.

"Let's get you back." The spirit said grabbing my shoulder and transporting me back to my room.

I sat on my bed and watched as the spirit faded away, not giving me a chance to ask questions or anything. I woke up and saw that Celine was gone. I walked into the front room and she was on the couch watching tv. I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug.

"What's this for?" She asked, looking at me strangely.

"I love you." I said before giving her a long kiss and holding just a little bit longer.