Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 128(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 128(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
He’d just gotten the roast moved to the side of the oven and was sliding in the pan of muffins when a loud crash filled the house. But this time, a shrill chirping noise and continued thrashing followed it. Sky barely got the muffins safely into the oven and slammed the door shut. He whirled around, already pulling on the dark magic that coursed through his body. What evil demon could have crawled into his house? No one was allowed to threaten his boyfriend!
As he cleared the counter and moved to the dining room, he found that his artificial tree was lying on the floor, and the creepy tree was stomping on it and pulling on the branches with its roots. Plastic needles flew everywhere, and ropes of lights were tangled in the remains.
“Eeeeeeeeeeee!” Sky screeched. “Stop it! Stop it! Leave the tree alone!” he shouted, but the creepy tree continued to attack it, ignoring him completely.
Sky lunged into the kitchen and snatched up the first weapon he saw—a long wooden spoon. He charged into the dining room, swinging his spoon at the creepy tree. “Stop! Get back! Leave it alone!”
Footsteps thundered up the stairs, and Nolan burst out onto the first floor. He charged into the kitchen and slid to a stop in the doorway.
“What the—”
“Help! It’s killing my tree!” Sky cried.
A noise escaped Nolan, but a rough cough suddenly covered it up. “It’s an artificial tree, baby. It—”
“Nolan!”
“Okay! Okay! I’m sorry.” Nolan waded into the fray, making a shooing motion at the creepy tree. “Enough! Leave it alone. It’s dead. Go on. Into the living room.”
The little tree poofed up like a pissed-off cat, bristling and shivering at them as it chittered, but at last it retreated to the living room. It didn’t return to its pan. It squatted not far away, as if it were watching them. Or possibly the destroyed tree.
“What the hell! My tree!” Sky moaned. He dropped the spoon and hurried to his mangled Christmas tree. Some branches had been stripped of their needles, while others were broken off. The top of the tree had been snapped off completely. Even some lights had been stripped off the strand. There was nothing he could salvage. “Why did it attack the tree?”
“How do you know it wasn’t protecting you?” Nolan interjected.
“What?” Sky squawked. “Protecting me? From an artificial tree?” He shook two handfuls of broken branches at his crazy boyfriend.
“Look at it from the tree’s point of view. Your tree was twice as big and seemed to appear magically while it was out of the house. Maybe it was worried it would attack us.”
“You’re insane,” Sky muttered, dragging his eyes to his poor tree.
“Well, think of the alternative. You brought another tree into its territory. It was defending its home.”
“Why are you defending the creepy tree? You’re supposed to be on my side!”
Nolan sighed and kneeled beside Sky, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s slumped shoulders. “I’m not defending it. Just trying to understand it. You let a wild animal…tree…that has a mind and instincts of its own into the house. It’s like letting in a feral cat and then a week later adding a second cat. You think that’s going to go smoothly?”
Sky groaned. “I hate when you’re so reasonable and smart.”
“At least you hadn’t put your ornaments on it.”
Sky squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered at the image that flashed through his mind. Some of his ornaments were over a hundred years old, having been handed down from Grammy. All of them were glass and very fragile.
“Why don’t you go into the living room with the tree and apologize to each other? I’ll finish dinner and clean up this mess.”
“Are you sure?” Sky mumbled.
Nolan pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “Yes. I’ve got this. You go relax and pick out our show for tonight.”
Sky grunted and allowed Nolan to help him to his feet. He shuffled off to the living room, with the creepy tree moving with him.
He flopped on the sofa and glared at the tree that stuck its roots into the pan. However, it did not plug its lights in. It actually felt like the tree was glaring at him. Maybe it did feel like another tree had invaded its territory and it was only defending itself. Possibly even protecting them.
If that was true, Sky had likely hurt its feelings by shouting and swinging the spoon at it.
“I’m sorry I brought another tree into your territory without telling you first,” Sky grumbled.
The silence stretched, broken by the sounds of Nolan carrying the remains of his fake tree out the back door. A moment later, the tree chirped softly. Was that an apology, too?
A soft scrape whispered through the room, followed by the lights on the tree blinking on.
Chapter 5
December 15
Christmas shopping was done, and Sky swore he ached all the way to the bottom of his soul. In past years, he’d completed most of his shopping online and simply waited for things to be delivered. This year, after the insanity created by the fae, he’d decided he would focus on shopping as much as possible in the local small shops and businesses in the hope of helping his community get on its feet again.