Mary Christmas 2: Christmas in July - Chs 38-40

Read the original story Mary Christmas and the sequel Mary Christmas 2 on DeviantArt or find it where it was originally published on AgeArts. More to come soon!

Chapter 38

As Candice and the Department 8 team watched the snow fall in stunned silence, their attention was drawn to an SUV that had just pulled up beside them. Candice recognized Carol’s husband at the wheel.

“Chris?” Candice said, walking up the car.

He rolled down the passenger-side window and said, “Glad we found you before you left.”

“Is Carol okay?” Candice asked, stepping up to the car, fearing for the worst.

“I’m fine!” a babyish voice called from one of the back seats.

Candice poked her head into the car and spotted an occupied baby car seat. Carol appeared to be barely a year old now.

“I thought you wanted to stay with your family,” Candice said, feeling a mixture of gratitude and worry.

“I twied to keep away,” Carol lisped. “Tried…” she correct herself and sighed. “My teef awr dissapearwin’. Gettin’ harwd to speak.”

“What about the kids?”

“Wewl,” she said. “If the worlwd’s in dangah, den my familwy is in dangah. I need tuh twy tuh save ‘em if I can… unlwess you fink ahl be a bur-den taggin’ alwong.”

Cadice smiled, happy to see that, despite everything, Carol was still Carol. “No, we could use your help. Come on.”

Chris got out of the car and walked around to detach his wife’s car seat from the vehicle.

“Where ah we goin’?” Carol asked as her husband carefully transferred the whole car seat to the curb with her still secured in it, making sure the carrying handle was safely locked in place.

Once Carol was out in the open, Candice noticed that her baby friend appeared to be wearing a onesie with a noticeable bulge around her hips. To confirm what that was, Chris handed Candice a diaper bag.

“Everything you need should be in there,” he explained.

“Wewl?” Carol prompted Candice. “Wut now?”

“We’re going to Mary,” Candice replied, shouldering the diaper bag. “I know exactly where she should be right now.”

Chris knelt down in front of his little wife and kissed her on the forehead. Candice could see he was fighting back tears. “I love you,” he said.

Carol gripped one of his fingers in her baby fist and replied, “I wove you too. Stay wif da kids. Ahl be home soon.”

He nodded and gave Candice a serious look. “I’m trusting you with her. Help her, please.”

“I will,” Candice said. “I promise.”

“Go,” Carol said. “Beforwe dis gets worwse.”

He nodded, blew a kiss to her, and got behind the wheel again. Then, he drove off. Carol watched him go until the SUV was out of sight.

“Okay, wet’s go,” Carol said. “To Marwy.”

***

Chapter 39

Navigating via her marked-up map, Candice directed Alice which way to go as she drove. The rest of the team were either in the back seat, sitting beside Carol’s car seat, or in the car following them. The snowfall had gotten thick enough that Alice had turned on her headlights and windshield wipers.

“We almost there?” Alice asked.

“Just a few more blocks,” Candice said. “If we are where I think we are.”

“My GPS is still all messed up,” Ken said from the back seat. “Must be some kind of electrical interference. I mean, that’s bad, right? It’s not just the snow.”

“I doubt a snowstorm was all Mary had planned,” Candice said.

“Can we still stop her?” Alice asked.

Candice had wanted to avoid speaking this hard truth, but it needed to be said. “At this point, stopping her might be more dangerous than letting her finish. If we interrupt such a powerful spell when it is incomplete, then there’s no way to predict what might happen. It might just fizzle out into nothing, or…”

“Dee end uh da worlwd,” Carol said.

Candice looked back at Carol, who held a tracking crystal in her little hands in an effort to contribute in some way. Candice replied, “That’s possible. At the very least, it would be the end of the world as we know it. The magic could run wild. Reality could warp beyond all recognition. Time and space could twist and tear. At that point, there would be no fixing it. That would be the end.”

“Then, what do we do?” Alice asked, turning her attention from the road for a moment to look at Candice for guidance.

“Look out!” Ken cried pointing in front of them.

Alice slammed on the brakes just in time as a car ran a red light just in front of them and collided with another car going the opposite way from them.

After they came to a halt, Alice asked, “Is everyone okay?”

They all responded with a “Yeah.”

Alice put the car in park, started the hazard lights blinking, and carefully opened the door. “I’m going to see if anyone’s hurt,” she said, removing her seatbelt and getting out of the car.

“I’ll go with you,” Candice said, opening her door and getting out.

The two cars had come to a stop about 20 feet from them, neither of them having been going particularly fast during the collision. While Alice went to check on the driver of the car that had run the light, Candice checked on the other driver, who had a few minor scrapes from broken glass but appeared only a little dazed.

“Candice,” Alice said after prying open the door to the other car. “Look at this.”

Candice walked over and discovered that there was a young girl in an adorable sundress sitting in the driver’s seat of the car. She appeared even younger than an average elf would be and had a look of utter confusion on her face.

“W-what happened to me?” she said as she looked down at her hands. “Why am I so little? I couldn’t see over the wheel.”

Candice heard giggling from behind her and noticed a few children gathering up snow from the sidewalk and attempting to form it into snowballs.

“Is everyone okay?” Ken asked, walking up to them.

“She’s gotten younger,” Candice said, realizing that Mary must be utilizing age magic again. “I bet those kids over there were older as well not too long ago.”

“Is that going to happen to us, too?” Alice asked.

“I hope not,” Ken said, but his voice sounded oddly squeaky now.

Candice and Alice turned to look at him and found he was rapidly shrinking, losing decades of age in a matter of seconds, his clothing getting smaller to fit his body.

Thinking fast, Candice pulled a crystal from her pocket and placed it in Alice’s hand. “Hold that,” Candice ordered her. Then, she ran over to the other car, where Bill and Justin were just stepping out onto the street. “Take this.” Candice handed them each a crystal from her pocket.

“What’s going on?” Justin asked.

“Age magic,” Candice explained. “Hold onto those crystals. They should protect you.”

Candice walked back to Alice and Ken to find that Ken had begun crying and Alice had crouched down beside him to comfort him. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. “We’ll get you back to normal again soon.”

“B-but,” Ken said, sniffling. “I don’t wanna be a little kid again!”

Alice turned to Candice and said, “He’s being pretty emotional, even for him. I think it’s affecting his mind as well.”

Candice looked around, realizing that about half of the people around them appeared to have regressed to various ages, some barely more than toddlers, others still teenagers. Traffic had come to a complete halt, due to so many of the drivers being too young to reach the pedals. She sighed.

“Looks like we’ll have to walk the rest of the way,” Candice said. “Come on. Let’s get Carol.”

***

Chapter 40

The two adult men in the group took turns carrying Carol’s car seat while the other pulled a wheeled cooler containing the magic milk and eggs they had collected from Mary. Meanwhile, Carol looked after a little yellow chick, the chicken woman who had laid eggs for Mary, now regressed into a hatchling and sitting on Carol’s lap, peeping in confusion. Little Ken insisted on holding Alice’s hand as they walked. All of them followed Candice’s lead as she checked her map against the street signs.

“Mary should be just around the next corner,” Candice said.

They crept up to the corner of a vacant storefront and peeked around the side. Candice was surprised to discover brambles and leafy vines having grown across the sidewalk, covering most of the street as well.

“Where’d that come from?” Justin asked.

“Must be the fake Chuck, right?” Alice asked. “You said he tied you up in vines.”

“Yeah,” Candice said. “Be careful. We’ll have to try to sneak past him, somehow.”

“Hold on,“ Alice said with a smirk. “I’ve got a better idea.” She opened the cooler and retrieved a bottle of milk from it.

“What’s that?” Ken asked.

“The growth milk,” Alice said. “If Mary tries to use a giant against us, then we can fight fire with fire. A quick sip should be all I need.”

“Wait,” Bill said. “Won’t the magic in the milk react to the other magic around us? Something unexpected might happen, right?”

“It probably wouldn’t,” Candice said. “The spell has already been cast on the milk. She’d just be activating it by drinking it. We would only be in danger if we tried to cast a new spell in such a strong magical field.”

“See,” Alice said. “I know what I’m doing.”

“Just hold off on drinking it until we know we need it,” Candice said.

Alice nodded and gave a thumbs up.

Candice waved for them to follow her towards the magic foliage, and the group crept forward, keeping an eye out for any movement.

“Look,” Justin said, pointing to their right.

Candice noticed what appeared to be two children wrapped up in the vines, hanging motionless. They moved towards the pair, and as they got closer, Candice recognized them as elves, in particular the ambassador and the chief from the embassy she had met with not long ago.

“Are they…?” Alice started to ask.

Candice examined them. “They’re still breathing,” she said. “Just unconscious. I don’t know what knocked them out, though.” She gave the chief a gentle slap in the face to try to rouse him, but he showed no sign of waking. “I don’t think we can do anything for them right now. Let’s keep going.”

“What are they doing here?” Bill asked.

“They were probably trying to stop Mary,” Candice said, leading them forward again. “The embassy is only a couple of blocks from here.”

“So,” Justin said. “They probably won’t be sending us any backup after this.”

“I think we’re on our own,” Candice said.

Suddenly, the brambles and vines shook beside them and a giant man made of wood rose from the midst of the leaves and towered above them. He still bore some resemblance to Chuck but the bark that covered him like skin obscured most of his human features. Vines snaked out from beneath him and hooked themselves around their ankles, tripping everyone to the ground.

Then, just as the vines began to constrict around their legs, Alice shouted, “Don’t you touch me!”

Candice looked over to see that Alice already had milk dripping from her lips. As the vines attempted to wrap around her limbs, her limbs outgrew them, stretching longer and thicker. Her clothes became tight as her body expanded, stretching to the limit before ripping and tearing apart at the seams, her underwear hanging on just a little longer until it snapped off as well, leaving her totally naked and still growing. She got onto her enormous feet and stood up to her full height, over twice as tall as normal and still rising. As she took a fighting stance, her growth slowed to a halt, having reached three times her regular height.

“Alright,” Alice boomed almost deafeningly loud. “Try picking on someone your own size.”

“Wow!” cried Ken, gazing up at her giant nude body in wonder.

Alice glanced down at him and said, “Avert your eyes, kid. You’re too young for this show.”

Ken gasped and looked away.

“Go,” Alice told them. “I’ll keep him busy. You get to Mary and deal with her.”

“But…” Candice said.

“Get Ken and Carol somewhere safe. Move it!”

The giant tree man grabbed for her, but she caught him by the wrists and the pair began grappling with each other. Alice had a slight size advantage, but the tree golem was stronger than he looked, putting them in a stalemate.

“I got you, you overgrown splinter,” Alice cried as they tore through some of the brambles.

“Come on,” Candice said, wriggling free of the vines on her legs and helping the others to their feet.

Justin grabbed Carol’s carrier and Bill took Ken by the hand and dragged him away from the fight. Candice led them through a gap in the brambles and out onto the open road again. Ahead of them they could see a fenced-off construction site with an eerie glow shining from behind it, lighting up the nearby snowflakes that drifted down.

“There,” Candice said. “Mary’s in there.”

To be continued…