Beating,Pounding,Racing. It leaps out of your chest,Pulling you out of the blackness.It urges you on,It pulls you along. Dwelling on possibilities,On what-ifs and maybes.Throwing aside your pragmatism,Wrenching your feet off the ground.

Let us here take a moment to sympathize with Scrooge. He used to be a horrid old man, changed after his adventures with the Christmas Past and Christmas Present. He decides to start a new life and change his ways, but wants to know what the Christmas Future wants to show him. So, he sees a dead man. He sees a loveless, unwanted and ungrieved man. Nobody cares about him. Heck, people rejoice his death and steal from him! He knows he was avaricious. Mean. Selfish. And he promises himself to change his ways.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come I must say, the phantom really does remind me of a Dementor, for in the very air through which this Spirit moved seemed to scatter misery and gloom. Perhaps that is why chocolate is the best prevention against these creatures. But, I digress.

Once again, Scrooge woke up mid-slumber, groggy and disoriented. He felt that he woke up at just the right time, although while asleep, it was impossible for him to know that it was nearly one ‘o clock.
With all that he’d been through, Scrooge was definitely prepared for anything and everything, be it an alien invasion or the reversal of the magnetic poles of the Earth.

Scrooge woke up at midnight to complete blackness. He was disoriented at first; but a quick glance at the clock told him the time. Initially he thought his clock was malfunctioning. But when he checked his phone, it agreed with the clock. It wasn’t an eclipse, and Apophis hadn’t swallowed the sun either; it really was midnight.

This character, mind you, is the main dude. Scrooge. The name’s Ebenezer Scrooge. If I had to come up with one word which meant selfish, cunning, sinning, miser, stone-hearted, solitary, self-contained, secret, detached, condescending and critical, it would be “Scrooge.” And indeed, the man’s name today is associated with all these undesirable qualities and is used with regards to a person like him. “You’re such a Scrooge!”

This wasn’t how things were supposed to turn out.A teacher raped a student. Parents committed murder in the parking lot. Librarian openly burned down school block .Farhan and Tarun had no idea they’d be responsible for so much. They never intended for things to spiral so out of control.

Among the infinite souls in the world One comes across a familiar stranger, Carrying along a heart of gold Akin to a nut that holds a bolt together.The transcendental transcendentalist Inducing anger yet melting the same, Like salt necessary yet unseen Only to give and never to claim.

Alistair’s jaw dropped as a group of elephants casually strolled past the coffee shop window; real life elephants. They were part of some circus. The cups vibrated on the plinth where they sat. All Cedes could think about was the time her art lecturer had used the phrase “pregnant with meaning”. Somehow she could never forget it. This situation certainly was heavy enough. The other onlookers in the shop gasped.

I was closing for the night when Cole and Flint asked me to meet them for beers. I decided to stay back for a while; there were a few coffee cups still to be washed anyway. Clint was exhausted; I took over and sent him home. The night was quite warm. I locked the front door and put on some music, walked upstairs and fished out a stray wrinkled cigarette from my jacket, opened the window and lit a match. Music rang through the empty bookstore and wafted up the stairs. I put on a clean apron, rolled up my sleeves and started washing. Rinse, soak, dry, dishwasher. Like clockwork. Uncomplicated.