Christmas Eve
Actually Coffee really didn’t mind giving Cocoa kind of a day off on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve brought back memories aplenty, memories Coffee didn’t like. She preferred to cut herself off from the senses and thoughts of her host body, just for these few hours, and and to retreat into the darkest corners of the mind she was sealed within.
Christmas reminded her of Theo.
The imagery of white snow, white as his hair had become eventually (bleached by time), the scents of the treats he’d loved to buy around this time…
After freeing her, he had always shared them with her, often letting her sit in his lap as he broke the gingerbread apart, giving her small bites she could handle and taking bigger ones himself.
Candle light like from the candles still weakly flickering when he finally fell asleep, his thumb only slowly stopping to pet her back. When his head drooped to the side, she had often crawled down from his knee to return with a light blanket shortly after. It had been nice to pull it up to his chest, then have a nap on his shoulder, covered by his soft hair and warmed by his neck. Supporting his head at the same time, so he wouldn’t wake up with a strained neck.
While Coffee curled up within the depths of the mind that wasn’t hers, she wondered how it could be that happy memories stung so badly. That despite how beautiful they were, they were a burden on her soul.
If only she could stop remembering the time with Theo.
If only she could stop missing the affection of who was now her greatest enemy.
