The door is open. A Chessboard tile hall leads to darkness. Roses and pitcholi, like Gram. The cat circles her ankles. ‘Hello..’ she touches the fur, the creature belts into the body of the house. Letters spill on the hall table. Hell, 9 fall Drive, not 6. She goes to leave, but the door is locked.

Thank you 🙏

Not footsteps but clacking hooves. ‘Rudolph’ Ella cried rubbing his ears. On his back, Ella and her mother flew over the soggy roof tops. Mother Claus welcomed her niece. ‘Sorry my love, I couldn’t stop Uncle Jack. I sent Ru, together you’ve melted Jack’s evil ways. Mince pie?’ #5ActFestiveStory

Ice rose up Ella’s body, splintering, cracking. The end. An iron clad land stretched forever to frozen sea. The fire. Loud. Vocal. It extended a glowing hand. Ella clasped it with icy fingers. Sizzle. Steam. The clouds lifted. Ella’s palm left scorched with a firey tattoo. #5ActFestiveStory

Her mother ran onto the platform. ‘All this over a game of monopoly. He’s a bad looser. We must get you to Covent Garden.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Because Ella you’re the Sugar Plum Fairy. You need to defeat Jack Frost.’
‘You’ve mixed up ballets.’
‘Either way, this panto needs fixing.’
#5ActFestiveStory

‘Get my coat,’ her mother said.
‘What? Don’t be ridiculous you can’t go out in this.’ Fresh eddies of snow swirled outside.
‘We must.’
‘We?’
‘Yes, it’s not safe. We need to see Mabel immediately. There’s no time to waste. Get me the brown holdall under my bed. And dress warmly.’
#5ActFestiveStory

Slicing between the layers of card, just as her father had taught her, Jodie removed the tiny microchip and held it up to the light. Seven years they’d waited, and now the day after his funeral it arrived. ‘So it begins Papa,’ she said to the snowy stillness. #5ActFestiveStory