A Rock Star Christmas Carol

Louis had his arms folded across his chest with a glare fierce enough to freeze boiling water. It was intimidating and he knew the right amount of intensity to get the desired effect from the people around him and it was working – perhaps a little too well.

“M-Mr. Tomlinson? What brings you all the way out here, lad? We’re about to shoot the video, per Mr. Payne’s request. We hope you are most pleased today, despite the slight schedule change.” The director stuttered, shrinking under the rage that was silently directed at him.

The man noticed the chilly quietness that followed his greeting. Louis stood there like a statue and if nobody knew any better, he could pass for it.

“I’m here to see Allure Amherst, where is she?” Louis ignored the director and just decided to go find her himself.

The director was still stuttering like an idiot as Louis walked away, ignoring the older man’s words. They were meaningless anyhow.

“Louis!” Liam called from the other end of the room, waving to him with a cheery smile.

Louis was positively not amused. Liam should be cowering behind a chair and if Louis saw his will done, the man would need it to fend the music executive away for fear of being mauled.

“PAYNE!” Louis bellowed with thunder as soon as he saw him waving and marching over with the intent to pounce.

Liam flinched and stopped waving, backing up against one of the makeup artists and not so shamefully using them as a shield.

“Before you go off the Paddy, Lou, just listen to reason. It was good and rational, alright? Allure’s son had another attack, he quit breathing. She was at hospital all night, her son is still there in an induced coma, this attack was worse than all the others, his body needs time to heal.” Liam rushed to explain before Louis could go full on rant.

Louis grunted and looked around to find Allure slumped in one of the makeup chairs looking exhausted and asleep. That would simply not do and he felt the need to let her know.

So he turned from Liam without a word and marched up to the makeup chairs where the girls were just getting finished up.

“Hello, Ms. Amherst, Ms. Pendleton, Ms. Blackwood, Ms. Danger and Ms. Havoc.” Louis greeted with insincere cordial.

“Good morning, Mr. Tomlinson.” The four girls responded in kind unison, looking at Allure who had actually managed to catch a few moments of peace.

“Poor dear.” Nevaeh Pendleton murmured, her hand reaching up to wake her fellow band member.

Louis grabbed her wrist and scowled.

“No, I will take care of Ms. Amherst, you four get your butts onset,”
He pointed to the side door that led to the lavish video room. “Now.” Louis finished and smiled when they all jumped up from their chairs and practically flew from the room.

Louis turned toward the sleeping girl and sat down beside her, his hand gently going to the loose piece of honeydew hair that hung in her unrestful looking face.

“Allure? Why do you like to disappoint me? I’ve been kind and I’ve been patient. Both are now comparable to charge cards, because I have reached my limit.” Louis spoke softly, his hand pausing in mid-stroke when someone cleared their throat.

Louis looked up and saw it was Liam wearing a frown.

“You have no compassion.” Liam told him without expression, folding his arms across his chest.

Louis barked out a rough but soft laugh and clapped his hands.

“Oh Li, that gave me a tickle in my bones, mate. You missed your calling. You could have been the court jester for entertainment at Buckingham palace, a circus clown or village imbecil, because God knows a few towns have been calling in lately, claiming to be missing their idiots. I believe I just found one.”

Louis’s face was stoic when he finished and his normally higher spoken voice was a dark rumble.

Liam rubbed the back of his neck nervously with a sigh.

“Louis? Allure has had the upmost deplorable night. Must you be so cruel to make your point? Can you not just explain the situation without making her feel like crap? If I ask for nothing more from you this Christmas, it would be that you show mercy on the young lady,” Liam murmured, continuing when Louis didn’t interject to chew his butt out for disrupting his fun. “It is unlikely that her son will live through to next year. He needs time to heal, but his body can’t recover fast enough.”

Louis looked down at Allure and pulled his hand from her head.

“What’s ailing the boy and how old?” Louis asked passively, standing up so that he and Liam may continue the conversation face to face.

Liam seemed taken aback of his boss’s queries, but answered.

“Seven and he suffers from a rare genetic disorder. The surviving age is five once diagnosed.” Liam cleared his throat to stop the emotion from falling through.

“Impossible. She would have been fourteen when she had the kid and did she not know he would be born genetically crippled?” Louis asked, glancing back to Allure to see her eyes opening.

“Allure, you’re wanted on set, luv. Knock them dead.” Liam tried to hurry her, but Louis was quick to grab her by the wrist and stand her forcibly on her feet.

“Not so fast, luvvy. I want to know why you were hours late for a video shoot? You have done gone maxed out your chonces and I won’t stand for it anymore. If you want to be committed to this band, then you will need to make sacrifices in other departments. I have been more than reasonable on the matter of your son. If you should choose to go back on your contract, I will have no choice but to file legal actions against you for the money leant for the treatments that you had requested. That was filed under a verbal contract that you agreed to uphold,” Louis reminded her, using his arm to direct her towards the door the other girls had gone through. “Don’t forget to smile, that’s about the only redeemable quality you have right now. You have crow eye – have your assistant put some concealer on before the cameras role and tell her to use the whole tube, you’re going to need it.”

Allure hurried toward the door in a haste to escape her less than desirable boss. She hated him with every microfiber of her being, but he was right about the verbal contract. He would give her advances if she did the work required of her within the band.

Liam shook his head and turned to walk away, because arguing with Louis was like arguing with a talking bird. You could scream all you wanted, but the bird would yell back louder.

“Liam?” He called, sitting back down on one of the makeup chairs.

Liam stopped with a sigh and turned to Louis, eyes furrowed in confusion.

“Yes, Lou?” Liam questioned, turning himself around to meet the music executor.

“You need to get it together. If I have to come down here to make sure things are running on schedule, I will assume you are not competent enough to do so yourself and terminate your contract immediately,” Louis warned, leaning back in the chair completely at ease and continuing merely. “For now, I will deduct your pay two-hundred pounds for a couple of months to make up the revenue that was wasted on delay time. I’m sure your cash-cow ex-wives can do without this season’s minx coats and jewelry line for a tick, yeah?” Louis challenged, giving Liam a cold stare.

Liam’s shoulders slumped knowing Louis would cut him back more if he protested and he wasn’t going to argue the fact that he needed the money.

“Yeah, Lou. I’m sure I can make up the difference in other ways; it’s really not that big of a deal.” Liam responded politely and went to oversee the video progress.

Louis watched him go with a snort.

“Somehow, I don’t think your ex-wives will see it like that, but whatever gets you out of bed in the morning, Sally Sunlight,” Louis responded sarcastically, closing his eyes for a few moments to get his thoughts straight. “God, Simon – the incompetence here is getting worse with every passing year. I wish you were around to keep the nitwits in line.”

“Are you sure you want that as a wish, mate? Somehow, I don’t think that would end well for you,” A young voice rang through the silence of the empty room.

Louis’s eyes snapped open and saw the three young kids from earlier – minus the ear muffs.

“He isn’t exactly happy you had him buried in a rent-a-suit and cheap coffin. Though I’m sure he can grace you with a brief appearance.” Raven hair shrugged, taking out another cigarette and lighting it up with his lighter.

Curly hair and silent blonde sat on the other side of him with neutral expressions.

Louis furrowed his eyebrows into a scowl, not missing that the kids seemed to have grown and aged slightly since he last saw them.

“Are you three stalking me? What’s going on?” Louis demanded, standing up from the chair and saw that his eyes were in fact not playing tricks on him. “And for Heaven’s sake, put out that damn cigarette! You shouldn’t even be smoking! Who the heck is providing you with them?!”

Raven haired chuckled and dropped the cancer stick on the ground, stomping it.

“Stalking is such a strong word, mate. I prefer the term following for educational purposes and nobody provides my fags. I had them before I came here and will most likely have them after.” Raven hair quipped back, taking out another cigarette and sticking the tip of it in his mouth, lighting it up.

Louis’s mouth dropped open, watching his nonchalant behavior.

Curly hair smiled.

“Okay, I just asked you to put your damn cig out and you go and light up another one!? Bloody Nora! Are you lads related to children of the corn by chance? Because sweet mother of Jesus Christ, you lot are creepy as fu -”

Raven hair’s hand shot to Louis’s mouth and cut the older gent off from swearing.

Louis felt his voice stolen away abruptly, the hand as cold as ice against his living flesh.

“As much as I would love to hear the sweet bliss of a filthy mouth, you really shouldn’t swear in front of us. You know, being that we’re children and all that bollocks.” Raven hair taunted, removing his mouth.

Curly hair frowned, hitting the raven haired boy gently and shaking his head.

“We must keep with the plan, mate. He’ll understand tonight,” The curly one advised softly, glancing at the silent blonde. “And you need to pop by the hospital, yeah? You have your one o’clock to collect, right?”

Silent blonde nodded and hopped up from the chair and looked at Louis with the same lifeless blue eyes, waving at him with a simple smile.

With a final goodbye he reached behind him, a black object beginning to grow tall as it seemed to materialize before them.

Raven hair began protesting, knowing that was something that could not easily be explained.

“Mate! Not in front of the mortal!” Raven hair hissed, seeing Louis’s mouth dropping open further in fear when he saw the object was a scythe.

Curly hair let out a small sigh.

This could have gone much better.

“Louis, we can explain. You just need to remain ca – “He began, but it was far too late to save face and Curly knew it.

Silent blonde waved his hand and disappeared from the room in a black flash of smoke, making Louis’s high pitched scream radiate around the empty room.

Raven hair was quick to silence him with a wave of his hand and Curly at the same time with his to stop Louis from running.

“Okay, this could have gone way better. We were told specifically to stick to the rules. Follow him around, pop up to guide him in the right direction if he needed and to be in a nonthreatening entity form of some sort that wouldn’t scare him. I believe that’s been all cackled up to Hades and back.” Curly observed calmly, watching raven hair push back against Louis’s shoulder so he was sitting back down in the makeup chair again.

“I believe it was cocked up when blonde revealed his big swoop-swoop blade he carries about with him. We aren’t children for God sakes, why do we have to be in this ridiculous form? I feel like a Midget.” Raven hair complained, making Curly shoot him a look.

“Because mortal children are unthreatening.” Curly responded, taking his finger and closing Louis’s gaping mouth, his silent screams only filling the dead frequency that was unheard by human ears, though it was giving both Curly and raven hair a headache.

“Not all children, mate. Let’s play a game of horror movies that had creepy little children in them,” Raven hair snipped back, looking at Louis’s wide eyes. “Lad? No one can hear you but us. Can you stop the screaming? It’s giving my Demons a gigantic headache and they already get that from my nagging girlfriend.” He finished with a chuckle.

“Zayn? That’s enough,” Curly warned, looking at Louis who was trying his hardest to move at that point to run for his life. “We aren’t demons; we’re spirits who were assigned to help you. Think of us as your guardian angels.”

“Harry? We’re damned souls who if this doesn’t work will be forced to walk the earth from now until judgment day. We can’t afford to mince words and sugarcoat them. If he doesn’t learn, we don’t move on.” Zayn said, huffing when Harry shot him another glare.

“You like blundering everything, don’t you?” Harry asked tonelessly.

“Only if I know it takes away your fun, mister we must follow the rules to pass on,” Zayn laughed, sucking on his lit cig that surprisingly never burnt passed the tip. “There are plenty of ways to complete the task and not be a boring git whilst doing it.”

Louis had quit screaming and watched the two ghost children arguing.

Harry grumbled out a small swear and looked at Louis.

“The corpse is out of the crematory, I suppose.” Harry relented and in a blink of an eye, when Louis looked, he was now staring at a young looking male of twenty-two or so.

Zayn followed his lead, growing to his natural height and cracking his bones out as he did so.

Harry rolled his eyes.

“You’re dead, what was the bloody point of that display?”

Zayn shrugged.

“There’s always a point to something. After all – we learn from our past, right Harry?” He quipped sarcastically, leaving the other ghost to nod.

“I suppose there is and I suppose we do.” He agreed, looking around the room full of props and cases that were set inside.

Zayn nodded and patted Louis on the shoulder.

“Anyhow, in case you were wondering, Niall is your last appointment. That one will be a real eye opener for you, man. Take it from me.” He grinned, making Harry smack him in the head.

“Enough! Alright, Louis? I will see you at midnight, unless you decide to go ahead and be a scrooge again, then we’ll be seeing you sooner. So try to behave, hm?” Harry chastised with a cheery tone, waving his hand up to release Louis from his frozen state.

“Wait!” Zayn yelled, grabbing a tub of fire red lipstick and some dark burgundy eyeshadow that was on the makeup stand from earlier. “Let’s give him a makeover before he runs from the room peeing his trousers, let’s have a little bitta fun, yeah?”

“Zayn, do you really want to risk upsetting the powers that be? We are supposed to be helping him and I don’t believe a makeover is a benefit to our assistance.” Harry cautioned him, making Zayn look at the makeup and then Harry, before setting his sights back on Louis.

“Come on, the red will bring out his fa – “Zayn started, but Harry waved his hand and just like that, Louis could move again and he wasted no time in doing it either.

With the speed of speedy Gonzales, the flash and Superman combined, Louis flew from the room as fast as the two spirits could blink their dead eyes.

“Give him back his voice, Zayn.” Harry sighed, his screams echoing in their heads again like a siren bouncing off a cave wall.

“Gladly, bloody bloke has a good set of lungs on him.” Zayn relented, waving his hand in the air.

“DEMON CHILDREN-MEN! CALL AN EXORCIST! CALL THE POPE! HELL, CALL SANTA CLAUSE BUT GET SOMEBODY THE HELL OUT HERE TO TAKE CARE OF IT! AND GET ME SOME HOLY WATER AND A CROSS WHILE YOU’RE AT IT!” Louis screamed, interrupting the active video shoot in the other room.

“That’s our que to leave, isn’t it?” Zayn asked, not waiting for Harry’s answer before he popped out in a white puff of smoke.

Harry shook his head sadly and followed Zayn’s lead.

*

Louis’s hands were shaking terribly, unsteady fingers struggling to light the cig that was pursed in his tightly thinned lips.

“Here, mate. Let me help.” Liam offered kindly, taking the lighter from his hand and lighting the tip of the cigarette he had requested from one of the volunteers helping with the video.

“They were children, but then they weren’t. They were spooks like Casper, only not so friendly and – well the one was friendly. He was nice for a ghost I suppose. The blonde reaper kid, Niall? He doesn’t say anything but he had this reaper stick coming out his arse…or behind his back? Zayn was a cocky mother fu – I am not crazy! STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!” Louis rambled, yelling at Liam as the poor bloke could only look onto the boss with sympathy.

The pressures of work were finally getting to him.

“I believe you, boss. Take it easy,” Liam calmed, using his one hand to straighten the blanket on his shoulders. “Why not go back to the office? You need to relax; perhaps use today to do what you want? It is your birthday after all.” He suggested with a small smile.

Louis waved him off.

“I don’t want to do anything! I want to work and then go home and relax on my couch with some strong weed, a bottle of alcohol and pretend this day never existed.” Louis told him blatantly, his voice raspy from screaming.

“How about skip work and go home and do that? What about dinner with your mum? Any chance this year or am I to tell her the same thing I had the following years?” Liam asked.

“Tell her to get bogged It’s too late to mend the past and if she wanted a relationship with me, she wouldn’t have sent me away to boarding school.” Louis retorted darkly, throwing the blanket from him and standing up, the other workers parting to get out of his way.

Liam let a small look of hurt cross his face.

“That’s where we met.” Liam reminded him, making Louis grunt out an agreement, taking another drag.

“I am aware. Anyhow, I can’t stop shaking and I need to go make a pit stop at a local church for some holy water and cross. I wasn’t kidding. I need them, because I will be damned if those demon-men are stealing my soul!” Louis bellowed, making his way to the door, but stopped when he realized he had taken a taxi.

“Li?” Louis turned around, his body still somewhat unsteady.

“Yeah, Lou?” Liam returned, walking to his boss and helping him to the exit, all the heads in the room watching the spectacle in either annoyance, disbelief, concern or curiosity.

“I need you to drive.” Louis muttered, stealing a glance at his assistant who merely nodded and helped him out to a broken down looking Toyota Camry.

Louis grunted, making a note to think about getting Liam a more reliable looking car than the deathtrap they were about to step into.

“Nice car, does it come with a contract from Death?” Louis asked sarcastically, opening the passenger side door on the left and getting in without waiting for Liam’s reply.

Liam got into the driver’s side and took his keys out from his pocket.

“If it does, it would be filed in one of your folders, wouldn’t it? After all, you’re the one seeing ghosts.” Liam hit back with friendliness, making Louis scowl.

“I love a comedian as much as the next person, but your act sucks.” Louis told him flatly, crossing his arms across his chest and looking straight ahead. “Get me to a church and then get me home. I’m taking your advice and making it an early day.”

Liam nodded and drove off to find a church that had readily available holy water and crosses. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Unbeknownst to Louis or Liam; Harry, Niall and Zayn sat in their child forms in the back so they could all fit, watching the interaction between the men – well, Harry and Niall were observing. Zayn was too busy laughing hysterically at Louis’s persistence of finding holy water.

“Man, that boy takes things way too literal.” Zayn smirked, looking at the other two.

Needless to say, they didn’t share in Zayn’s amusement.

Notes