๐Ÿญ๐Ÿด. merry christmas, i guess?

โ•ญโ”€โ”€ โ‹… โ‹… โ”€โ”€ โœฉ โ”€โ”€ โ‹… โ‹… โ”€โ”€โ•ฎ
EIGHTEEN!
merry christmas,
i guess?
โ•ฐโ”€โ”€ โ‹… โ‹… โ”€โ”€ โœฉ โ”€โ”€ โ‹… โ‹… โ”€โ”€โ•ฏ

โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ ๏ฝฅ ๏ฝก๏พŸโ˜†: *.โ˜ฝ .* :โ˜†๏พŸ. โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€










ย  ย  ย  ย ย  It had been a whole month since William Byers had returned home to his family in Hawkins.

The chill of the autumn weather had drastically changed into the sharp coldness of the Indiana winters. The amount of warm clothes has doubled since the beginning of December and the added feature of the wet powdery snow made the cold seem even worse.

But no amount of snow or the freezing cold temperature could dampen the spirits of the citizens of Hawkins as it was nearing the jolly holiday of Christmas.

Christmas was a special time in Hawkins and the families of Hawkins, took the holiday very seriously.

Every corner of the small town was adorned with some sort of stringed lights that hung from building to building. A large evergreen tree that shed piles of sharp needles, about ten feet tall, stood in the centre of town square. The tree was completely covered in glittery ornaments placed by the local families and wore a monstrous gold star on the very top.

But that was just the outside, each household had decorated their interior with the most outrageous decorations to show off their love for the cheery holidays. Dozens of Christmas trees, nativity scenes, rainbow coloured string lights and piles of gifts were present in every single, no matter the financial status.

Christmas time was the most celebrated and beloved holiday in Hawkins and even across America for one single reason. This holiday held strong values of family, love, gratitude and generosity.

This was one of the only holidays of the year that could miraculously cause families to put all of their differences aside and come together to celebrate the love and gratitude they hold for each other. The exchanging of gifts and the sharing of a large fulfilling dinner was enough to invite dozens back to celebrating said holiday year after year.

But Christmas would be completely different this year. Especially for the Harrington family.

The Christmas of 1983 would be the first holiday the family would be celebrating without little Wendy. Her one month death anniversary had already passed and the wound of her death was still fresh in Thomas and Stanley's minds.

The atmosphere was no longer filled with the same happiness it once held and Christmas seemed to make life feel even worse. The added stress of the festive holiday and the negatives of her empty presence, made the holiday so unbearable to the point that they were contemplating not even celebrating.

They contemplated doing everything that was opposite of what the holiday called for. This Christmas was just a sad reminder that someone's gifts were missing from under the tree or that there would be one less plate at the dinner table and neither male wanted to go through that pain and sorrow.

The two males finally came to the decision of going through with the stressful and heart wrenching task as they knew it was something that would appease Wendy's spirit. The young girl loved the joyous holiday so much that she went all out each year to celebrate and it brought a fun atmosphere to the house.

In the end, the two males reluctantly agreed to put up a cheap evergreen tree that they got on clearance to decorate and accepted the invitation to the special Harrington family dinner. Neither had any interest in doing either activity but ultimately forced themselves to go through with it to make the spirit of Wendy happy.

That's exactly what Stanley and Thomas Harrington were doing in the moment. They were begrudgingly decorating their sad looking Christmas tree.

They had picked up a cheap evergreen tree that was wilted and shedded it's pine needles too early, at the last possible minute as it was only three days before the official holiday.

Thomas had even pulled out the boxes of ornaments from underneath the cabinet in the stairs for them to actually decorate the tree.

But he was only expecting Stanley to only get one side down as the pain of decorating alone would get too unbearable. Even the strands of the rainbow coloured lights were practically thrown over each branch as neither cares enough to wrap the lights around gently.

The amount of heavy emotions the two males were facing was evident in their sad looking attempt at a Christmas tree.

It also didn't help that every time Thomas Harrington had glanced into the drab living room, he expected his little girl to stand there.

He imagined Wendy, dressed in her cherry red and white fluffy Santa hat and her favourite tacky sweater covered in Scooby Doo characters. She would be decorating the tree with strands of dried out popcorn and a selection of cheesy ornaments the family had collected over the last ten years or so.

He also expected her lilac coloured stocking to be hung up the fire mantle or her badly wrapped presents were currently waiting under the tree.

But it was all just a dream. It was just all in Thomas Harrington's head.

Thomas so desperately wished that he could have his daughter for one more Christmas. He wanted nothing more than to see his two children bicker over how they would decorate their tree or what kind of dessert they wanted after dinner or which Christmas movie was the greatest of all time.

The male always used to complain that their bickering would give him a headache but he so desperately longed to hear the two yelling at each other again as it brought back a sense of familiarity but that was not the case.

Instead, he was met with the sight of Stanley solemnly placing the cheesy ornaments onto the tree by himself.

Currently, Stanley stood by himself, in front of half decorated tree, rummaging through the newest plastic bin of decorations.

The first ornament he came across was a baseball sized glass ball, painted with wild strips of different colours of the rainbow and plastered with a few cat stickers. The sight sent a smile to the boy's face. It was a childish looking design but it was still somehow fitting.

The boy expected to feel a similar happiness but was met with instant sadness when he had turned the ornament around to see the design on the other side. The same designed was pasted on the other side but instead of wonky placed cat stickers, it was adorned by a small name written with a gold marker.

The bottom on the ornament was signed by none other than Wendy Harrington.

One look at the ornament and it suddenly became too heavy for the boy to lift. It's as if every single emotion he had felt in the last month and tried to suppress just suddenly fallen on him like a pound of bricks. Even the sight of something as simple as an ornament was too much for the older boy to bare.

Stanley easily let the glass bulb slip from between his fingers and fall to the ground. The ornament smashed upon impact. The ornament was no longer a gift from his sister but was nothing more than a mere pile of broken glass.

"Stanley, I found another box of decorations if you want to use them." Thomas announced himself when he entered the room with a box in tow. The older male placed the cardboard box on the shag rug with a sigh of relief at the lack of weight.

"Stanley." The boy in question, just look down at the damage that had been inflicted to the ornament.

The once perfect rainbow coloured ornament was now just a pile of broken glass that disrupted the state of the shag rug. His face fell and immediately broke down into a fit of sobs.

The boy couldn't believe that he had just let something so precious of Wendy's, be destroyed so carelessly.

"Stanley!" Thomas quickly rushed over to the sobbing boy, pulling him into his embrace. He began to rub gentle circles on the boy's back.

The older male could care less that his knit sweater was now being dirtied by tears or snot. All that matter was that Thomas needed to comfort his sobbing son.

"I broke it, dad! I broke Wendy's ornament! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Stanley apologized profusely, through harsh sobs.

Every single ounce of sorrow emotion was pouring out of Stanley's heart and was being dumped onto the ground. He tried his best to hide his feelings away from others but sometimes they got too strong to suppress and something as small as glass shattering could destroy his world.

"It's okay, it's okay. There are still many other things in the house of Wendy's." Thomas shushed in a soothing tone, tightening their hug.

When the boy's sobs had subdued to just harsh deep breaths and sniffles, Thomas had pulled away to give the boy some much needed space.

"It's alright, Stan. We'll just clean up the pieces and I'll glue them back together. We can then finish the tree together, alright?" Thomas assured with a soft smile to comfort the boy."

"Ok." Stanley sadly nodded, sucking in a deep breath. "I miss her, dad."

Thomas breathed harshly through his nose to stop his eyes from watering up at the reminder of his daughter. The man didn't want to have another breakdown of tears, especially in front of his son.

The last time Thomas Harrington had collapsed with sobs in front of someone was at the local pharmacy when the lady at the front counter had asked if he wanted to renew his daughter's epilepsy prescription.

He broke down immediately as he knew he would never get to buy that life saving medication again for Wendy as she was gone.

"I know you do, Stan and so do I. I miss her every single day." Thomas reminded in a solemn tone.

"How long is this pain going to last? I can't handle it anymore!" Stan asked.

"It'll take a while. It took a long time for me to get over your mother's death. It hurts, it hurts so much. It's like apart of you died with them." Thomas tried his best to assure the younger boy without getting choked up with tears himself.

"But we're gonna try and make the best out of this Christmas, okay?" He reminded.

But in reality, that was a lie.

A total utter lie that Thomas Harrington said.

This wasn't Christmas. This was just another day of grieving for them. Christmas would never be the same again as they were missing the final piece of their family puzzle, Wendy Harrington.

No amount of fakes smiles or forced activities can make the holiday seem even easier to handle.

For the two, Christmas will just be another reminder that their family is no longer the same as it once was.

โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ ๏ฝฅ ๏ฝก๏พŸโ˜†: *.โ˜ฝ .* :โ˜†๏พŸ. โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€

ย  ย  ย  ย ย  Christmas Day was approaching fast and the Henderson family didn't know if they would have all of their holidays plans done in time for the big day.

The last month or so had been extremely busy for the small family of two as they were in the process of moving a new member into their household, Nina.

After the incident that occurred at Hawkins middle school, Nina had nowhere to go as she didn't have a real home and she didn't want to intrude the Harrington family during their time of grieving.

Dustin Henderson had spotted the scared girl and had offered her residence in his home. His mother, Claudia Henderson, immediately approved of the idea of having the mysterious girl living in their home as she was excited to finally experience the joys of having a daughter.

Nina was immediately treated like a real member of the Henderson family since day one.

She was given her own room with her own bed, meaning no more sleeping on the hard floor. She had received her own wardrobe of feminine clothes that Claudia had spent all day handpicking for the girl. She now received constant homemade meals and could now sit at the table like a normal person, instead of hiding in the shadows.

Dustin enjoyed the girl's presence as well as it felt like he was just living with a friend and not an annoying sister. The two became closer, often spending their time reading comic books, watching cartoons and even gaming at the local arcade together.

Mews, even enjoyed the new addition, especially when she overfed him tuna flavoured treats.

Overall, Nina was enjoying her new life at the Henderson house but enjoyed having a family of her own even more.

This is why the Christmas of 1983 was such a special occasion for the Henderson family. It was the first time that they would be celebrating with Nina and this was also the girl's first year celebrating.

Claudia was definitely shocked to find out Nina had never celebrated Christmas but after some elaborate lies, the holiday was planned to be the greatest yet.

They had picked up a fresh evergreen tree that was seven feet tall to place in their living room before decking it out with gold and glitter galore and even a few nerdy ornaments that Dustin liked. They had strung up an obnoxious amount of lights around the house. A new stocking was bought and put up for Nina.

A few gifts had already found their way underneath the tree and the last week or so, was spent making fresh gingerbread and delivering them to friends.

Claudia and Dustin were determined to make this Christmas the best one yet for Nina.

โ˜… ๐Ž๐ƒ๐ƒ ๐„๐˜๐„ ! stranger things fanfic โ˜…
(ยฉ ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ฒ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฑ)

Comment