Xmas Spirit Read Online Free PDF

Eve?”
    “I just came over to say hi.”
    “To me?” Scarlet paused. “Now that’s funny.”
    “I’m serious. I came over to see . . .”
    Scarlet scrunched up her face the way she always did whenever she was trying to decide if she was being played. Charlotte seemed guileless enough to her, without any deep, dark agenda she could see.
    “Oh, okay. It’s him you’re after, isn’t it?” Scarlet said, satisfied that she’d cracked the code, as she looked Charlotte up and down. “Here’s a little piece of advice. You can do better.”
    Charlotte tried to stifle her laugh. This was the Scarlet she knew and loved, even if Scarlet didn’t know her. Not yet, anyway.
    Scarlet turned to leave.
    “I’m Charlotte.”
    Scarlet turned back to her once again and extended her hand. A hopeful sign, Charlotte thought. She reached out and grabbed Scarlet’s hand. She suddenly pulled Charlotte toward her and leaned in, near enough for a kiss, or a curse.
    “I don’t care what you call yourself,” she whispered, squeezing her bony hand firmly. “Don’t ever let me see you here again.”
    Charlotte was stunned.
    “Oi to the world!” Scarlet said, walking away, her middle finger stuck high up in the air as she disappeared into the darkness.

    “Listen up, everybody,” Pam shouted, trying to call the gathering to order.
    The meeting room was packed with Dead Ed kids, confused and grumbling. Nobody was feeling like themselves.
    “Where’s Charlotte?” Mike called out, like an angry old man.
    “I looked everywhere,” Eric said. “She’s not around.”
    “Not around here, anyway,” Pam interjected.
    “Stop it, Pam,” Eric shot back. “Don’t put nonsense in their heads.”
    “What is he talking about, Pam?” Prue pressed. “Where do you think she is?”
    “We’re not going to find her,” Pam began. “Not here .”
    “Stop with the riddles,” Prue hissed.
    “I can make a few calls,” Kim suggested.
    “Shut it, Kim,” Prue said, obviously not in the mood.
    “Where is she, Pam?”
    “At Hawthorne.”
    All the chitchat stopped, and the room fell totally, eerily silent.
    “Why would she do such a crazy thing?” CoCo asked. “I thought she was way past that.”
    “The last thing she said to me was she wished she’d never died. I think she got her wish.”
    “Christmastime traveling?” Mike wondered. “I know we can, but . . .”
    “But isn’t the whole point of being here not wanting to be there ?” Gary continued, completing Mike’s thought.
    “I’m with the guys on this,” Prue said. “You’re being ridiculous.”
    “Am I?” Pam responded. “You know her as well as I do. If things were really going wrong for her, that is the one place she would try to get back to.”
    “Look, this is not our problem,” Prue said, still very skeptical of the entire premise.
    “I think it is,” Pam observed. “Look around.”
    The Christmas lights continued their dimming downward spiral, but it wasn’t just that. Everyone seemed sluggish, tired, haggard, short-tempered—definitely unusual for beings in their advanced spiritual state—and noticeably falling into their old habits. Habits they died for. Habits they spent all of Dead Ed breaking.
    “We’re burning out,” Prue concluded.
    “Charlotte was the last seat in Dead Ed, remember? We couldn’t have crossed over without her. If she never died, if she’s back there, then we can’t be here.”
    “She changed history? That’s epic,” Deadhead Jerry wondered aloud, his stoner navel-gazing self reemerging.
    “Maybe not all of history, but our history,” Pam confirmed reluctantly. “And hers.”
    “No way!” Rotting Rita cried, now swatting stray bugs and worms as they crawled out of the pores on her face. “I’m not going back to Dead Ed, starting all over again.”
    “Me either,” Green Gary agreed.
    “We have to get her back,” Prue urged. “Fast.”
    “Don’t look at me,” Eric said, rebuffing their anxious