Deck The Halls With Brand New Stories: Ho Ho Holiday Anthology

Holidays at Harvard

This story was contributed by druidrose

With only a week before the holidays, the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts was already covered in snow, making any travel other than on foot far more impossible than it should have been. That was evidently detrimental to those who still needed to complete their shopping, but since Eve wasn't going home for her holiday break from Harvard, she didn't see much point in trying to fight the crowds, spend the money, or invoke much holiday cheer in general.

She just wished she could have convinced her boyfriend, Professor Jonathan Moore, to adopt the same sentiment. Growing up Catholic, he insisted that they needed to have a Christmas tree, and a chocolate advent calendar, and attend Christmas Eve mass... and she had agreed to all but the latter. Her atheist soul appreciated the sentiment, but he'd be on his own for going to church.

In her twenty years, Evangeline Revere was not one for the holiday spirit. Though her mother had been a happy homemaker, her father always seemed to be away on business whenever they needed to be together to celebrate. This only having changed once Rosamund Revere had passed away and he had no choice but to remain at home and be responsible for his daughter.

A part of Eve wondered if her father's distance was due to her mother's past—especially the part where she was possessed by the spirit of a dead scholar hellbent on selling his soul to the devil and damned to battle the demon for the rest of existence. Eve and Jonathan had their own share of demonic possessions—Jonathan had been possessed by the same demon, after all— but if anything, it brought them closer together, not wishing to be further apart.

Though there were times she wondered if Jonathan even remembered being possessed by Mephistopheles in the first place. Occasionally, in the last year since they had left Faust University and established themselves back in Massachusetts, she would catch him gazing out a window, unbothered and oblivious to anything else around him until she had to physically touch him to regain his attention. Maybe he was missing his tenured position at the magical school or his home in Ireland, or maybe he was just missing the part of his life the demon took from him.

He was having one of those moments as they got ready to go out for the evening. It had started to snow—again—and Jonathan was insistent that they leave their small one-bedroom apartment to enjoy the city in December before the decorations and cheer dissipated. He even bought them tickets to the Boston Pops for a festive concert later that night, which meant they had no choice but to leave.

Eve had just finished buttoning up her wool black and white peacoat while Jonathan remained standing by the living room's large three-paneled window, looking as though he was watching the snow fall, but Eve knew better.

She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He was only a head taller than her, so in her heels she was still able to rest her chin on his shoulder.

"Contemplating the new year's lesson plans, Professor?" she mused as she followed his stare out the window.

Jonathan startled—she could feel him tense beneath her touch before he relaxed as if realizing it was only his girlfriend looking for his attention. His arms wrapped around her arms as he leaned his head against hers. "I'm sorry," he said softly, his accent once again making her stomach flutter and her skin tingle just like it had the first time she heard it.

"If you don't want to go out, we don't have to," she offered hopefully. "We can DoorDash ramen from Santouka and watch those dumb holiday movies you like."

"They are not dumb," he reminded her. "They are classics."

"Die Hard is a better Christmas movie than Love, Actually."