Christmas Memories

The boy walked down the silent city street, snow crunching under his feet. White flakes speckled his black trench coat. His blond hair hung over his eyes; tears rolling down his cold, red cheeks. Suddenly in a fit of pure anguish he spun and punched the brick wall next to him. He stumbled forward and allowed his forehead to rest on the half frozen wall. Sinking to his knees he began to sob. They were gone; he never would be able to tell them how much he missed them.

            They said it was an accident. Ventus’s parents were driving home from a Christmas Eve party with his grandfather, Xehanort. They hit a patch of black ice, and suddenly a tree was splitting their car. They died instantly; the crash itself had generated nine G’s, enough to kill a person. Ven’s father had had too much to drink that night. He was pushing sixty that night, they said.

            Ven couldn’t take it. It had been a year now, and here he was crying like a bumbling idiot. He had taken off after he saw Grandpa looking at a picture of his parents. He really should have grabbed a warmer jacket. Ven sniffed and began to shiver. He slowly stood, because his stiff joints would not cooperate. He had leaned against that wall for an hour at least, and he suddenly regretted it.

            He trudged along hands shoved in his pockets. He began toying with the key chain in his pocket. His mother had given it to him; she called it ‘Oath Keeper’, and told him that she would never leave him. She lied… that promise was suddenly shattered into oblivion… Ven heard footsteps coming towards him. He fingered the metallic key chain in his pocket. A voice went off in his head, Terra’s, “Don’t EVER use this to hurt anybody. It is for self defense only, and even then...”

            “Hey there… partner,” a smooth voice whispered in Ven’s ear. Ven whirled around Oath Keeper in hand.

            “Vanitas, leave me alone or I will kill you!” Ven screamed. He hated Vanitas because he was the older of the twins, because Dad always was with him… Ven never was loved by his father, or at least never felt it. Mom was always the one who talked to him and spent time with him. Ven relaxed when he saw that Vanitas was… crying too.

            Vanitas grabbed Ven’s face in his hands and put his forehead against his brother’s. Ven was stunned. Never had Vanitas shown so much emotion. Vanitas fell into Ven’s arms and sobbed. They stood there for a few minutes, crying together. Finally letting all of the bottled up emotion out. Ven dusted off Vanitas’ red and black hoodie. They walked to a twenty-four hour coffee shop and sat in a booth in the nearly vacant café.

            At first none of them said anything. They either just looked at each other or looked at their hands. After a few minutes of sipping hot mocha’s they looked at each other and laughed, only as brothers could. They both had froth mustaches, and they looked ridiculous. They cracked jokes about Santa Claus and Grandpa Xehanort. After an hour of simple joy, they waked home, calm, composed and neither of them felt alone.

            They arrived to a silent living room where Grandpa snored on the old leather couch. Aqua was passed out in the reading room with another one of her silly vampire novels, titled “Chasing Daybreak”. Terra was locked away in his room, a low droning guitar softly played from his stereo speakers. Uncle Eraquis was sitting on the edge of his bed, gazing at the same picture, as Grandpa had a few hours before.

            Vanitas opted to go and lie on his bed and think for a while. So Ven, being presumably one of the two or three conscious beings in the house, sat gingerly on the bed next to his dear uncle. He glanced at the clock; it read 2:30 AM Christmas morning. Ven sighed and fell backwards, exhausted. Uncle Eraquis patted Ven’s blond head and smiled.

            Ven smiled back, closed his eyes, and dreamt for the first time in a year.

            The mismatched family that consisted of twins, an angst ridden college student, and his childhood friend, who insisted on keeping her hair blue for the holidays, a wise uncle and an old man, sat around the Christmas tree, waiting for the clock to strike 8 AM. It was the anniversary of the boys’ birth after all. They clock struck that desired time and they all dived for the wrapped gifts that sat under the tree.

            Ven fingered the key chain in his pocket. He had excused himself from the living room after numerous thank yous and hugs, and went into his room. He sat down on his bed, and gazed upon Oath Keeper. The tiny metallic key chain caught the early morning sunlight and glistened.

            Ven realized his mother kept her promise after all. She was still in his heart. His father loved him dearly he knew, so he let the chain of memories that had held back his happiness break, and he laughed.

            Ven then knew that he wasn’t alone; his family was in his heart.