He Sees You When You're Sleeping

20th December- Light It Up

A string of fairy lights hung on the Christmas tree, flickering dimly like the fading life of an old woman. In fact, only 5 lights remained that actually worked.
     "Can't we get some new ones?" moaned Jessica. "We've had these ones for ages." She stared disapprovingly at the lights. "Please?" She begged.
     "No, we don't have the money to get a new set, and besides, these work just fine." Her mother replied. She gave the lights a tap to show how operational they were. They flickered off on the second tap. Jessica's mother winced as het daughter rolled her eyes.
     "Mum, are you blind? Look at the tree." She gestures towards the tree, whose branches were yellowing and leaving a mess of shed pine needles on the floor. One of the baubles slid off a branch and landed on the floor with a smash, as if to prove Jessica's point. "This tree looks terrible!"
     "Look, Jessica." Her mother sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "All these decorations we have are from your grandparents. They're very special to us.
     "More like creepy" Jessica frowned. Instead of having normal baubles, her grandparents had to have had these ancient doll ornaments which were cracked and falling apart, along with crosses to symbolise their faith. They didn't even have a star on the tree.
"It's like they're staring at me." said Jessica. Her mother tutted in disapproval.
     "Don't be silly. They're just antiques." She forced a smile. To be honest, she wasn't too fond of them herself. A silence that passed called for a change of subject. "Anyways, get up to bed, it's late now. We might be able to get one special bauble each for the whole family if you behave."
     "You said you didn't have the money." Jessica raised an eyebrow.
     "Well, I may have managed to get promoted at work." Her mother said slyly. A grin spread across Jessica's face. "If you behave, we can go out tomorrow and buy them. And, if you're extra good, we can get a new string of baubles and get rid of these ones."
     "Deal."
     "Alright then. I'm going downstairs to work. You can read for a bit, but lights out in half an hour." With this, her mum gave a tired smile and left the room.

     "Jessica," called her mother in a sing-song manner, "Wake up. It's time to go shopping." She knocked on the door. No response. "OK..... no baubles then...." she prodded. Still no response. Her mother gave in with a sigh. "Fine, I'm coming in." She pushed open the door.
     Jessica lay on the floor. The old Christmas lights seemed to be inserted in her skin. A few of the lights were glowing brightly. Jessica's eyes white and her skin a pale grey. Wrinkles covered her body and her skin was so thin it looked as if it had been forcefully stretched over her body. Like her very life force had been sucked out. She was barely recognisable.
     "Jessica?" cried her mother after identifying the body. She hesitantly reached over and touched what had once been her daughter. The body was stone cold. She immediately pulled her hand away. She turned her attention to the lights. What was this? Some kind of sick joke? She sat beside her daughter, grieving silently.
      A sharp pain brought her back to reality. Her mother cried out in pain. One end of the Christmas lights had inserted itself into her calf. She grabbed it and tugged, but couldn't break free. Another string latched onto her neck. She didn't remember having more than one string. Her mother's eyes began to droop and her strength began to fade. She slumped onto the floor.
      The String began to feed. As more of her life force was drained, another of the lights on the wire began to flicker on. The String was healing.