That Smile (a Chansaw story) EDITING

Chapter 17: Christmas

Heather Chandler's POV

Every night since the day we had come home Veronica had woke up in tears from a nightmare. I felt so bad, if I could I would take those nightmares away from her and I would go through them instead, but I know I can't do that. I also noticed that she hasn't taken those stupid pills once, but I wasn't going to bother her about that.

It was 6 a.m. on Christmas morning, and this time when Veronica woke up she seemed happy. Every person has their breaking point and she had reached hers the day that Jason Dean thought he was going to kill us. But it's almost like she was ok now, magically something had changed in her brain. She looked at me and then moved closer. "Do you wanna go downstairs?" I asked. She nodded so we got up and slowly walked down the stairs, making sure that we didn't wake anyone. She sat down on the couch and I walked over and plugged in the lights on the tree. I grabbed a blanket and then walked over to her and sat down. I put the blanket on us and we cuddled under it.

We were sitting in the dark, with the exception of the lights on the tree. "It's so beautiful." Was all she said, this is the most she had said in the last week. I nodded. That's when we saw Maggie walk down the stairs, she sat down next to me and snuggled up to me. I put one arm around her and the other around Veronica.

Around 7 my parents came into our living room and we started opening presents. We let Maggie open hers first and then Veronica let me go. But when I handed her a box wrapped in shiny blue paper she looked surprised. "Well open it silly, it's for you." She ripped the paper off and then she looked up at me and gave me a huge smile.

She giggled. "You didn't..."

"I did." I answered. She was holding a new Atari 2600. She was such a nerd. But it was fine cause she was my nerd. She got up and gave me a hug.

"Thank you." She whispered so only I could hear.

Right before she got up again I put my arms around her waist and pulled her onto my lap. She looked surprised at first but then she laid her head on my shoulder and wrapped her arm around me. We sat like this until I stood up with her still in my arms, she gave a small scream and then I set her on the floor.

"Go get your Atari." Was all I said.

She ran over and grabbed it. Then we started to walk up the stairs, but she stopped. "Hey Maggie, do you wanna play with us?"

She jumped up and practically ran over to us.

I plugged the Atari into my TV and handed the controller to Veronica. I sat down next to her on the floor while she quickly chose Galaga and started playing. I leaned on her shoulder and watched her play, I never wanted this night to end.