The Survivor (Book #2)

Chapter 49

When the movie was over and our plates were empty, we got up and began unwrapping the ornaments. While the 10-foot-tall tree already had basic-colored ornaments on it, apparently, they hung the special ones on Christmas Eve as a family. 

Charlotte was first in the assembly line. She was seated on the couch and would unwrap the ornament and announce what it was, and then she would pass it to Damon and Brooks who would hold them and try to decide where they would go. Once they decided, they would hand it off to Dominic and Caleb to hang in the right place. I didn't know how to help, so I stood next to Dom and tried to fix the ornaments if they were placed on a weak branch or dangerous spot. 

There were so many funny ornaments they had for special events the Anders had experienced. There was an iPhone to celebrate the day they all upgraded to iPhones, although Dominic told me he still mourned his old Razor and wasn't ready. There was a chocolate bar ornament for the year that Caleb ate all the candy from each stocking before anyone woke up. He was sick all of Christmas Day and they had to cancel a road trip Charlotte had planned! 

My favorite ornament was the little wooden house ornament that was intricately painted. It was colored beautifully and looked like somewhere I had been once in a dream. The boys told me Charlotte got that ornament to celebrate moving into their new house, which was where we were now. I felt sad about that because she probably had so many memories with her husband in the old house, but she seemed only happy to have moved on.

"Have you seen thishouse?" was the exact phrase Brooks used. He had a point. For the next hour orso, we continued to sing along to Christmas music and hang ornaments as afamily. 

There was somethingmagical about those three words: "as a family". They bounced around in my brain buoyantly, like a secret that only I knew. I wiggled happily to myself and ranaround trying to help everyone before accidentally running into the coffeetable and scraping my knee. It was gushing blood until Brooks pressed a clean napkin against it and applied pressure with a small smirk. 

"It was an accident!" I told him furiously. "It could've happened to anyone!" The boys were all making fun of me with their smiles. Caleb even laughed before turning it into a cough. 

"What did I say about sugar?" Dominic asked with a sigh as he grabbed a Band-Aid from the kitchen.

"I didn't have any more cookies!" I lied, looking at Charlotte with panic. She slid the empty plate under the coffee table with her toe and gave me a thumbs up.

When we were finished decorating the tree, I ran outside to grab the camera Asher had given me and headed up to my room to sleep. We planned to watch home videos and look at old pictures, but we were all too tired so we decided to do that tomorrow. 

I got up to my room and jumped in bed, ready to pass out. To my surprise, I sat in the silent darkness of my room for over a half-hour without falling asleep. My heart seemed to begin pounding before I understood why. It had been a long time since memories had bothered me. As I sat there in the dark and considered my past, I realized why the memories started coming back to me. 

It was nearly Christmas, the most dangerous day of the year.