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Lady Hinoto
Author of 8 Stories |
Disclaimer: See the bottom of the chapter.
Spoilers: No
Warning: Language (mild) disturbing imagery
Christmas time in LA was… for the most part… wholly unremarkable.
Life went on, albeit at a slightly slower pace (by LA's standards) as a great part of the population was to busy staying indoors and opening presents, spending time with family. However there were still a large amount of people out and about.
They were somewhat slowed even more by the snow though.
For the first time ever it was actually snowing in LA and had been periodically ever since the twentieth. It wasn't cold enough for great amounts to gather and stay for very long but it was cold enough and coming down enough to cover everything in a light dust of white.
The fact that not only snowing but snowing during Christmas of all times had people in an uproar of delight since it was practically a freaking miracle against all odds to shoot this kind of luck. Snow was after all the perfect embodiment of the holiday season and spirit.
A very boring holiday spirit unfortunately.
Leon made a face as he flipped the channel on his TV, changing the program from It's A Wonderful Life, to Miracle on 34th Street, to How The Grinch Stole Christmas and to A Christmas Carol.
Apparently if you were lacking in the Christmas spirit if the TV stations were under the impression that if crammed enough holiday movies down your throat that would do the trick as Leon was discovering much to his frustration.
After seeing all the movies at least five hundred times over the course of his life the thrill of them and their message was pretty much gone but it seemed that no matter what channel he clicked it to he was out of opinions on that front.
"God bless us! Everyone!" Tiny Tim cried just before Leon swore in irritation and threw the remote at the TV screen, letting it bounce off the smiling character.
He then flopped back with a huff as he folded his arms across his chest and looked around glowering.
Leon wasn't enamored with Christmas so much that he couldn't see its blinding faults and he was currently experiencing one of the most obvious ones.
That was… if you were alone… this could be a rather spectacularly boring holiday.
Despite everyone's harping and thoughts on the issue, Leon's state of singularity during this time of the year hadn't sent him into depressed fits of loneliness, hadn't crippled him with the holiday blues nor had him pinning in a fetal position in the corner about how alone he was in the universe and how he just needed someone to love him to make Christmas the bestest time ever. Everyone else had been more worried about the damn issue then Leon himself and Leon truthfully could have given a flying fig if he was spending Christmas alone. What the hell did he care? He wasn't that freaking insecure.
He wouldn't have minded being with his family but on the same note… other then a passing worry of guilt about what had transpired between them… he wasn't losing any sleep about not being with them. It didn't make the holiday any better or worse in the over all grand scheme of things.
Nor did it sadly liven things up because he was absolutely board out of his skull. If he had been with his family at least he'd have someone to talk to.
He'd long since opened his presents (or the remaining few that he hadn't torn open before Christmas had rolled around because… as a rule in general… if you were an adult and lived alone and could there for get away with it you didn't have to wait till Christmas to open the gifts that were given to you.) and playing with the race car he'd accidentally on purpose had yet to mail to Chris had killed a few hours but aside from that there hadn't been a whole hell of a lot to do. Leon wasn't the type who could waste hours in front of the TV either so that prospect was looking rather grim.
It'd actually gotten so bad he'd considered phoning the prescient to see if there were any cases he could take. He was on call but apparently the snow was keeping the whacko's, the suicidal folks and murdering homicidal maniacs inside. Either that or no one had found out about their foul deeds and hadn't called the cops yet.
He'd eventually decided against it since that would have looked truly pathetic and nothing screamed "I have no life" better then begging for a case on Christmas. While it may have been true he wasn't so keen on actively flaunting this fact.
Leon however was going stir crazy. Cabin fever had long since set in and he was going nuts. He wanted to do something but there wasn't a whole hell of a lot of options.
Reaching out to the side without bothering to look, Leon felt around for a bit until his hand found the tin case he had thrown to the other side of the couch and he grabbed it, hauling it over to put on his lap.
He then looked down and pulled a small chunk of the fruit cake out and started to raise it to his mouth to eat it when he paused and pulled it back, looking at it.
Inspiration struck.
Wait a sec… of course! Count D!
Now there was an idea! What better way to entertain himself then to harass his favorite criminal? It was almost a buyer's guarantee that D would either be up to something, was already up to something and would be more then happy to drop some clues for Leon to figure out. Either way it would be also be a great chance to catch up on some of his older cases with the Count.
And with D not celebrating Christmas it was pretty much a given he'd be at his store, he was probably also the only person around that wouldn't mind Leon's presence on this day nor would Leon feel like he was running anyone else holiday by playing third wheel.
Leon paused for a moment to consider this and he eyed the TV.
"And so…Ebenezer Scrooge became a kind generous, warm hearted soul beloved by all-"
Yeah. Defiantly time to go.
Tossing the tin of cake onto the coffee table Leon quickly stood up, grabbed his coat and car keys and got the hell out of there.
Perhaps the detective had a bit to much influence on him, either that or his holiday joy (however which way he chose to express it even without realizing it) was infectious and after spending so much time with him it had rubbed off a little onto D.
Because when a neighbor had offered up the small table top Christmas tree with lights included with it D hadn't had the heart to kindly refuse it and had accepted it, choosing to set it up on the coffee table in the sitting room.
Oh well. If nothing at least the animals seemed to like and were endlessly fascinated with the small decoration and its lights.
D sighed again and looked off to the side with bland expression.
For such a lovely holiday it gave D such an admissibly dull time. Even though it was Christmas he had opened up the pet shop as usual as if it were any other day, despite the fact he knew that nobody would be coming in. With no customers there was no business and so D had nothing better to do. The holiday season had already given him plenty of time to catch up on chores and anything else that had been backlogged, he'd also already done an inventory of everything imaginable in an attempt to keep busy but even he had to conceded that one would only do that so many times before it became redundant.
It was going to be a rather long day he observed morosely.
That was when he heard the door to the pet shop creaking loudly as it was opened and surprised he sat up instantly.
Or not!
There was the flapping sound of wings as Q-Chan intercepted the customer at the entrance.
" Q!"
What are you doing here!
"Merry Christmas to you to." He heard Leon snort contemptuously and was even more surprised but none the less pleased.
"Buzz off will you!" Leon's irritated demanded sounded out just before he entered the sitting room with Q-Chan flying close before baring its teeth.
"Detective! This is quite unexpected." D greeted pleasantly as Leon walked in and eyed the coffee table that was littered with tea accessories, candy and fruit cake that had obviously been in the process of being consumed.
"Am I interrupting something?" Leon asked mockingly and D… unsurprisingly… just smiled.
"Not at all! Please-" He gestured to the food and drink and sofa. "Help yourself if you so wish."
"Great." Leon muttered walking by but scooped up a chocolate treat before falling down rather ungracefully on the sofa.
D observed him for a moment as he stuck the candy into his mouth and rudely chewed.
"May I ask why you are here?" He inquired curiously.
"Truthfully?" Leon leaned forward and began picking out more candies. "I don't have anything better to do so I figured what the hell."
"Ah… and you decided to grace me with your presence." D smiled amused. "How thoughtful."
Leon snorted. "Yeah right."
D propped his elbow on the armrest of his chair and held the side of his face thoughtfully. "How is your Christmas progressing? Are you working? I would think that you would still be recovering from our little shopping trip." He teased.
"Oh please, yes I'm on call. Give me a choice between dealing with hardened criminals and the mall I'll take the hardened criminals any day of the week." Leon waved off.
"Hmm… ironic choice of words detective, I do believe I just something saw in the news in regards to that." D said calmly with a hint of satisfaction in his mismatched eyes.
Leon paused in his chewing to think that over before he realized what D was referring to.
"Oh! Yeah! You heard about that? Weird huh? How's that for coincidence, the day we we're there the cops were to. They busted someone… Lambert! That's his name. Happened on the other side of the mall that we didn't get to, to bad we didn't get to see it. You know what happened?"
"Very little." D said innocently and leaned forward appearing casual as he poured himself some tea. "Would you care to enlighten me detective?"
Leon rolled the extra candies around in his hands. "Well apparently this guy Lambert had this pet store there in the mall. He also as it turns out is this big time drug trafficker, cops have been on him for a while they just never had enough evidence for warrants or anything. Turns out the store was a whole means to an end. It was a total front and the perfect cover The guy regularly dealt with a lot of exotic animals from all sorts of countries and they'd smuggle in the drugs in these hidden compartments in the floors of the cages of the animals that were brought in. Inspection and customers never had a clue. It was a pretty elaborate set up. They even stuck some in the animals." Not fazed in the least, Leon popped another chocolate into his mouth as D looked at him appalled.
"In the animals!" D repeated outraged.
"Yep. Poor guys, animals control came and took away to test em and see what ones had that crap in them. Ones that did they just cut em open and took it out, put them back together good as new." Leon said with his usual sensitivity as D relaxed a little.
"I take it to mean that all the unfortunate animals there are now in good hands?" D asked carefully.
"Yeah. They ran a news story on it so eople have been coming out of the woodwork to adopt them all, even the sick ones. The left over more exotic ones are being taken in by the zoo."
D beamed. "Ah! How delightful! They have had a happy Christmas themselves then."
Leon grinned. "So did the cops. They about wet themselves when Lambert gift wrapped them the opportunity and just cause to come in and look around his store."
"And what has become of Mr. Lambert?" D asked.
"Hospital. They think the guy's been helping himself to the white powered merchandise. He's got… uh…" Leon floundered trying to recall the correct term. "Eggplant syndrome."
D raised an eyebrow. "Do you mean Ekbom?"
"Whatever. Same damn thing." Leon said impatiently. "Thinks bugs are crawling into him. Had a total meltdown in his own freaking store and the hospital's had to keep him medicated and sedated ever since he was admitted. Nothing seems to be working. They think he may not even snap out of it… ever." Leon grinned merrily, clearly not about to loose any sleep over Lambert's fate.
D's smile grew. "All is well that ends well."
"Exactly!" Leon paused and looked around when he heard the sound of wings flapping.
The sound got closer and louder as something approached that clearly wasn't Q-Chan judging by how damn big and powerful the wings sounded like.
"What the hell is that?" Leon demanded.
D looked upward and smirked. "Ah… that would be my newest pet detective."
He turned slightly in his chair and held his arm out as whatever it was suddenly dropped down from the darkened ceiling to land on the offered perch.
Leon's eyes almost bulged out of his head. "Holy shit!"
It was an owl and a freakishly big one to. Its radiant flawlessly white state seemed to make it appear as if it were glowing in the darkened shop and when it turned its head its eyes were the creepiest damn thing he had ever seen.
He openly gawked at it with his mouth hanging open.
"Who who… whooooooooo."
D smiled proudly as he admired it, his arm looked incredibly fragile under what had to be a lot of weight considering the owl's size. "What do you think? I've just acquired it and I do believe I shall keep it. Isn't it marvelous?"
"It looks weird." Leon said bluntly as he eyed it warily. The owl puffed up slightly as if taking offense at this but calmed when D affectionately stroked its chest. "Yeesh… good thing you're keeping it. I wouldn't buy it." He said, put off by its scary gaze.
D's smile grew, turning slightly cold but approving. "Well… you always we're quite intelligent." He commented as if it were a compliment although Leon didn't get what the hell he exactly meant by that.
Leon edged away. "Make it go away will ya? It's creeping me out." He complained.
D mock pouted. "If you wish." He said and lowered his arm slightly before pushing it upward; giving the owl the momentum it would need to take flight.
With a powerful gust of air caused by the flapping of its wings it disappeared in the darkness of the ceiling but Leon heard it leave the room.
D brought his arm around so he could grasp the tea cup he held.
"Now then." He said primly. "As it is Christmas perhaps you would like to hear a story?"
Leon eyed him. "How bout telling me a tale about Mr. Regal?" He challenged, referring to a customer from last year who had killed himself during the holidays by hanging himself. D had sold the man a white cat (that weirdly enough had been found sealed in the wall of the guys house, alive and unharmed and apparently by Mr. Regal's own doing.)
"Mr. Regal? But that is such a sad tale detective! Full of unfortunate suicidal woe and guilt." D said (although who's guilt he was referring to… his own or Mr. Regal's was a toss up) with clearly faked sorrow before he broke into a dazzling smile.
In other words the perfect Christmas story.
Leon glared at him. "Bring it on." He declared totally unafraid and D happily began to speak as the detective leaned back to listen.
Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow!
Q-Chan sat by the cold window gnawing on a candy cane and watching it snow when the Jinn suddenly soared into the room it was in. It then glided over to the bat bunny and landed next to it.
Q-Chan paused as it wobbled before finally settling its weight and balance on the somewhat small perch and tucked its wings in. Exchanging looks and silent approval, Q-Chan went back to eating and watching as the Jinn contentedly watched the falling snow with it.
It doesn't show signs of stopping,
And I brought some corn for popping,
The lights are turned way down low,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
In LA hospitals psychiatric ward there laid a man who had been strapped to a bed.
He had been given a verity of medication… none of which had worked. Mixed with the heavy dosages of sedatives he was now rendered completely unable to move. Trapped in his own body.
He was still able to feel everything.
Tears slipped down Lambert's unblinking eyes.
He couldn't feel the pain anymore and that somehow was the worst part.
Because he could still feel them. All over inside he could feel them moving. Crawling around and infesting every part of him. Feel them clear as day, the skittering, creeping and ticklish sensations they moved about in his arms and legs. Feel the roaches crawling around in his brain, the worms and twisting and writhing in his heart, the centipedes in his intestines, the spiders making nests in his stomach…
It was as if he had been absolutely hallowed and insects had been poured into him filling every inch. Every nerve and organ now hyper sensitive to the gentlest brush of an insects leg, feel it everywhere.
And he couldn't move.
When we finally say goodnight,
How I'll hate going out in the storm,
But if you really hold me tight,
All the way home I'll be warm,
Tears continued down Lambert's face as a butterfly slowly crawled up his neck and stopped for a moment before flapping its wings and taking off past his face.
It departed without a sound.
Oh god help me…
The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we're still good-bye-ing,
But as long as you love me so,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
Let it snow, let it snow let it snow!
Let it snow!
Let it snow!
Let it snow!
Merry Christmas!
Done
Pet Catalog
Jinn: Despite what you would think, the Jinn in this story is not a Genie despite the fact that Genie is the English term for Jinn. The word Jinn literally means anything which has the connection of concealment, invisibility, seclusion and remoteness.
In pre-Islamic ear Jinn were believed to be spirits that were commonly believed to be responsible for diseases and the mania of some lunatics. (Source: Wikipedia)
I first came across Jinn when reading through "The Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons by Manfred Lurker". The book defined Jinn as nature-spirits who were thought to cause madness. A specific sub-class of jinn were ghouls, female spirits of the wilderness who appeared in animal form. I read this first, hence D's comments when he was explaining to Lambert and why the Jinn in this story is in the form of an owl. I like owls and that particular animal seemed both fitting and worked out to be the best, any other kind of animal doesn't seem like it would have fit into the story as well.
Songs
While not a "song fic" this story does (obviously) have its fair share amount of song lyrics in them. I hadn't originally planned to do that but while writing this in order to get myself into the Christmas mood and I feel it adds a nice bit of atmosphere. (Course that could just be me.)
Here's a list of the songs in order that they appeared.
Jingle Bells
The Little Drummer Boy
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Winter Wonderland
White Christmas (Bing Crosby version)
Carol of Bells (piano version)
The Coventry Carol (piano version)
We Three Kings (piano version)
Silent Night
Let It Snow
I think that's everything.
Inspiration for this story: Despite what one may think, the film Creepshow (specifically the segment They're Creeping Up On You!) had absolutely no influence on this story what so ever. I haven't even seen that film and only recently found out about it while looking up cockroaches. (I've disclaimed it anyway just to be sure.)
The actual thing that jump started and inspired the entire story was The X-Files. The third season episode "War of The Coprophages" which if you terrified of bugs like moi was so wonderfully damaging on a level I didn't think possible. It's where I got the syndrome of what they think is wrong with Lambert and the ultimate idea of his fate of the bugs burrowing into him. If I hadn't seen that episode this story most likely never would have happened.
Disclaimers: Just to reiterate? The things I don't own or have the rights of are obviously the LA mall, Dillard's, Harry Potter, See's Candy, KB Toys, any of the Christmas songs or the Christmas movies that are in this story, Creepshow (film) The X-Files or PetShop Of Horrors itself. All these are the property of their respective owners and I'm not making any money from any of this. It's strictly for fun and nothing more.
End Notes: Whew! It's over and DONE WITH! This was a nightmare to write but I finally got it done. I'm somewhat embarrassed because in my opinion this is probably the worst story I've ever done. (Mostly due to my own neurotic and nit picky reasonings. The over all general idea I'm pleased with, just not a lot of the end results.) I'd have touched it up and done it better but I simply ran out of time and wanted to post it regardless of its short comings.
I should also note that I'll eventually go back and edit the first chapter properly (wow you all were generous in the reviews! I spotted a TON of mistakes.) and fix the little screw ups, such as Chris' age.
I hope you all out there have a Merry Christmas! (Or whatever the hell holiday you happen to celebrate, either way have a good season!)
I'm officially taking a break to enjoy my own Christmas.
