Dear, St Nick.

I woke groggily, darkness still settled around my room. I paused, the moment of confusion where I was unsure what had woken me up. Until the laughter floated through my window again.

I sleepily climbed to my feet, my bare toes hitting warm flooring despite the fire having burnt out a long time ago.

There was more laughter.

I moved towards my window and out into the street below. The street lights were still on and I could make out four people heading back down the street to the entrance of the workers village.

I thought for a moment they were just workers, maybe sneaking out for the night. But the laughter was too familiar. The four people drew closer and I could make out Louis and Niall in the front, their laughter was what I could hear. It bounced off the houses around them but no one seemed to be reacting.

Without waiting for them to get closer I knew that the two people behind them had to be Liam and Harry.

I watched as they made their way past where I stood, their footprints immediately covered by the snow that was falling.

I was losing interest and about to turn around when Harry’s head turned, his eyes impossibly finding mine in the dark and snowy night. I was too far away, in the dark of my own room to be seen. And yet I could feel the way his eyes met mine easily like I was standing only centimeters from his face.

I watched as he raised a glove-covered hand before I blinked and he was gone. I froze, glancing around before pushing my glass windows outwards to better stick my head. He was gone; all four of them were gone, just like that. I couldn’t even make anyone leave the cabin area or heading back to the Village. They were just gone.

I quickly shut the window and headed back to my bed. There had to be a reasonable explanation why they had moved so quickly. Maybe I was sleep walking without realising it. I had been sleep walking all my life. Why was this any different?

But it was the laughter of the boys still ringing through my head that made me doubt that. I had never dreamt something so real before.

-

Prancer stayed ever so still, his eyes watching my every movement as I gave him his food. I chuckled and reached out, allowing him to come to me first before petting his nose gently. He relaxed into my hand and took tentative steps closer. His warmth close enough to radiate against my skin. I grinned triumphantly and turned around to be met with Harry leaning against the gate.

“Sleep well?” He asked.

I blinked, thinking back to what I saw last night. Before promptly ignoring it, it was a dream. It was only a dream. How else would I explain the boys being there one second and gone the next.

“Fine,” I mumbled, pushing past so I could move onto Vixens stall. She stood there, waiting patiently. Gently nuzzling my side when I walked past. I gratefully patted her and filled her water.

I came back out of the stall to see Harry waiting, his stare becoming unnerving. It was odd how often they were all staring. I was used to people staring at my white hair, how often they asked if it was dyed, or how I had gotten it. But this staring was different. Like he was trying to find something or someone.

“Why are you always staring?” I asked boldly, dropping my empty bucket and crossing my arms.

Harry’s gaze switched to amused as he assessed my stance.

“You never answer my questions Miss Northelyn, why should I answer yours?” Harry was acting more playful than I had ever heard him. Before it had been serious, unattached and all work. Now, now he was smirking, eyebrows raised and a cocky hip jut which made his stance all that more infuriating.

“You know I never thought elves would be so frustrating,” I told him, picking up the empty bucket and heading over to the tap.

“Elves?” Harry asked, following behind me. I wandered what he actually did around here. Did he have work? Or was it just to watch and make sure I was doing it right.

“You know, elves. What everyone around here calls you four boys,” I grumbled, turning the tap on.

“Really?” Harry asked, still amused.

I rolled my eyes, not even once convinced that I was telling Harry something new.

“I thought you didn’t believe in that stuff,” Harry continued when I didn’t say anything more.

“I don’t,” I shrugged. “It’s just a name.”

“Name’s have powerful meanings.” Harry said like some corny supernatural novel about ancient witches. “For instance your name is Noelle Eve Northelyn. That is a whole lot of coincidence right there.”

I lifted up the bucket and moved past Harry. “What do you mean?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

Harry reached out with a hand to stop me, before reaching down to take the bucket full of water from me and over to Comet’s stall.

“Well Noelle is a Christmas name. Eve, as in the Evening star or Christmas Eve. And then there is Northelyn. As in the North Pole or a village in the North. Your name basically screams out Christmas.”

I opened the stall gate and let Harry into Comet’s stall. Comet almost looked ready to run out the gate but I shut it behind Harry and waited for him to fill his water.

“Most people just assume my parents gave me those names on purpose.” I told him, watching him bend over and pour the water.

“And did they?”

“They gave me one of those names.” I said softly. Harry straightened and turned around to stare at me curiously. I blushed once I had realised what I said.

“Only one?” he asked.

I hesitated. My parents were amazing and kind and beautiful and I loved them with all my heart. But my mother had black hair and my father red and neither one looked anything like me because they weren’t my real parents.

“Why so many questions about my name? All of you seem so unsettled by it.”

Harry hesitated, his eyes glancing around the stall. Comet was happily licking up his water and Harry used that as a chance to get out before Comet tried to escape again.

“I knew a Noelle once, a long, long time ago.”

I looked at Harry noting his age mustn’t be that different to mine so I felt like it was a stretch to say that he’s even lived a ‘long long time’.

“She’s gone now.” There was sadness in Harry’s tone. I had the urge to comfort him.

“Did you love her?” I asked, sadly.

“Most likely,” Harry responded. His smile now gone. I reached out, wanting to offer comfort despite the strange answer. Instead my hands fell onto ice-cold skin. I hissed snapping my hand back and staring at Harry in confusion, his skin felt like ice, the type of ice that skin shouldn’t ever feel like.

“How are you so cold?” I asked, my hand felt numb from the touch and yet I wanted to touch again, to see how cold he really was.

I almost reached back out but Harry stepped away, pulling down the sleeves of his button up shirt to hide his skin.

“You should finished everything here, you’ll be starting your next job before lunch.” Harry turned on his heel and walked away while I stood there blinking incredulous. No one could feel that cold and still be alive.

-

I spent the rest of the day working at the ice rink. Terra was there and together we took classes of young children between five and ten and showed them how to balance, roll and slowly spin. Most of them were quite good and I found myself laughing and enjoying my time with the kids. They were increasingly excited despite the cold air and their cute red noses only made my day better.

“Look Miss Noelle, I can do a spin,” I watched the young girl spin in front of me, her feet wobbled slightly and I reached out ready to catch but she balanced herself anyway, beaming up at me proudly.

I smiled down at her, a warm feeling washing through me as I looked at this little girl. She was so happy and so bright.

“Noelle,” Terra tapped my arm, her voice strained enough that I realised she had called my name a couple of times.

“Hmm,” I looked away from the young girl and noticed Liam with her, Liam and a boy with orange skin. I looked at the boy in surprise.

“How?” I blurted out, causing both Liam and Terra to snicker. The boy rolled his eyes.

“I was late to my job yesterday, okay?” He sighed out. I stared at him unsure how this was the reason behind his orange skin. From what I could see it covered his whole body, the bright orange slipped below the coat he was wearing and covered his fingers. His skin was the type of orange you coloured in as fire. I continued to gape.

“Come on,” Terra pulled on my arm. “Laney told you guys about being punished for not doing the right thing.”

“How is that punishment though?” We skated to an exit and stepped off the rink. “How does one even colour someone’s skin. What did they replace his soap or something?”

Terra’s eyes practically twinkled at my confusion. “Magic,” she said simply, dropping her skates off at the desk.

I faltered, remembering my dream about the boys running down the street, laughter in the wind. I turned back to watch Liam, he was skating around with the young girl I had just been looking after. She was giggling with joy as he pretended to waltz. That alone was enough to make me not worry, how could I worry when the world could be that happy.

“Noelle, you’re staring,” Terra tugged on my hand.

I shook my self out of a daze and noticed the fuzzy feeling in my chest began to disappear. It was weird, the more I looked at Liam the more I believed that nothing in the world could go wrong.

Feeling unsettled, I walked to the lunch hall with Terra, eyes barely seeing the world around me. I rubbed my chest, confused as to where the feelings had come from while I watched Liam dance with the young girl. It was only a few seconds but I almost felt elated for no particular reason.

Terra’s arm shot out in front of me and I stumbled, finally acknowledging my surroundings long enough to watch as children surrounded a talking, moving snowman.

I gaped, once again, my jaw almost hitting the floor as this large snowman that was about five foot tall, moved past us. No feet or tracks to be seen. Its twig arms waved wildly around as it chatted with the kids. It’s carrot nose twitched and the top snowball, it’s head, turned to look at Terra and I. The snowman took off his top hat to tip it towards us in an old fashioned way, before continuing on. Screaming and jumping kids following in his wake.

“That’s Frosty the Snowman. He’s lovely, always willing to give you directions. It’s Jack Frost that you have to worry about. That little bugger will send you the wrong way and make icicles hang from the ends of your hair.”

“Jack Frost,” I repeated weakly as Terra headed towards the hall without me. I felt frozen to the spot hoping to God that Jack Frost was actually just a man dressed up as a character.

And yet I somehow doubted that that was what I would find.

Notes

Thanks again for everyone's support! I will catch up on those chapters soon! Just been doing some extra work at work right now. But I will edit and post them soon!