Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to Vertigo, a faction of DC Comics, and to Neil Gaiman. The story belongs to Carlos.

Christmas with Despair and the Family

By Carlos

Christmas is Despair's favorite human holiday. In her foggy world of mirrors, she look for that emptiness inside that grows in some people during that time. The pale and naked figure walks past the mirrors. If they could reflect her back, you would see a short, heavy woman and the sight of her would freeze your blood. On Christmas Eve she travels the world, like a freak show version of old Saint Nick. But in contrast to the North Pole resident, she visits every country, regardless if they celebrate Christmas or not. For she loves the contrasts that the Christmas tapestry paints on the world; so much on one side, so little in another.

She travels to the Land of the Free, bypassing the warm family dinners, and heading to the cold, solitary apartments. She enters a small one inhabited by a man. The man crouches in bed, tears rolling from his eyes. By his side stands Desire, in all her dangerous beauty.

" Hello sister" she says, as she smokes a cigarette.

" Did you call me?" Despair answers.

" Yes. This one's now yours. He is in love with a married woman. Has been for years. And for years has seen her happy with her family, wanting nothing to do with him. He has no family of his own, no one to love him."

" I can see that now he slowly descends into a hopeless existence. My hook is already piercing the flesh of his heart."

" Yes, a pitiful, hopeless existence." Desire pauses to enjoy the nicotine in her lips. "Farewell sister, I have other matters to attend to this night."

" Goodbye." 

And Desire is gone. Despair cuts her right cheek with her hook, and black liquid oozes from the wound.

Next, Despair goes south of the continent. In a crowded city, the forgotten live on the streets every night. They are the forgotten children, who with nowhere else to go, sleep under bridges, in sewers, or in improvised landfills. Every night they wearily close their eyes, with fear of the military, the cruel, and the sick-minded. Most people do not know (or want to know) they exist, and to some they are just a persistent eyesore. In a dark street corner, a child trembles with nightmares. He wears ragged, old clothing, and smells of dirt and urine. Rats run by his side, occasionally gnawing at his flesh. Despair kneels down to caress the coarse hairs of the rats, as she brings her hook down on the boy. Despair hears other children, and she looks up to see three of them running around in circles on the street. One of them catches her eye. It is a small girl, with short, red hair, broken shoes on her feet, and a dirty dress two sizes too big on her. Her eyes are of two different colors, one green and one blue.

"Delirium? What are you doing here?"

The little girl hops to where Despair stands.

" Um. Hi, Despair. I was with the girl and the boy. We played and ran and ran and played. And bad people shouted stuff. Bad stuff. But there was good people also. And the girl and the boy were scared of the bad man that comes at night to hurt them. But I played with them and there's less scared anymore."

" I see."

"And we went to eat at the garbage place. We ate some brown thing with spots. They said it was food, but I don't think so."

" And what will you do now?"

"Um. I think I'll go back. Back to my place. It's nice to have a place to go, you know?"

And with a puff of colors, Delirium is gone.

On the other side of the world, a bird is caught in a fence meant for wild dogs. It struggles to get out, wings flapping noisily. Its head wobbles back and forth, as it screams loudly to get out. But she is too tangled up. Her Destiny is either slow death or an easy meal for a predator. Then it stops, as if acknowledging how hopeless its situation is. And Despair watches on.

Next, Despair travels to the land where this holiday was born. In a modest house, a woman cries silently. Her husband is a soldier. Lately, the violence has spread like fire. He was called to work tonight, like the previous seven nights. She hears bullets and explosions. And inside her heart, she felt it. A rain of bullets, her husband's scream that shook her soul, and his last dying breath. She knows he's dead. They shared that special connection, where true soul mates think exactly the same thing at the same time. She shared a bond with him, and now she feels it's gone. Broken by sick, mindless Destruction. Clenching the bed sheets, she looks into the bedroom mirror, tears clouding her eyes. And Despair looks back.

South she travels to the Dark Continent. In a small village, hungry and tired, a handful of families rest inside a hut. The drought has been very bad lately, coupled with the war and the killings. There is not enough food to go around. They are traveling to the shelters, where perhaps they might find something to eat. Despair walks among them, and snags the flesh of some of them her metallic hook.

In one corner, a mother holds on to her young daughter. They have seen better times, when her husband was in better health, and the missionaries taught her daughter what she as a child could never learn. Now, with the war, the missionaries had to flee, and the food is scarce and long in between. Their last hope is getting to the shelter to seek refugee. But she and her husband have given all their food and water to their daughter, so she feels weak and tired. Despair sees her, but her hook cannot pierce her. She still has hope. Just as Despair is about to move on, a white figure emerges from the darkness. Dressed in a white robe, with white hair, skin as pale as snow, and eyes as dark as the night sky, the figure stands by the young girl sleeping.

"Brother, it is I, Despair."

The dream lord nods his head. "Hello, sister."

" What will you with that mortal?"

" Her name is Ayo Sotinwa. She has strong dreams and aspirations within her, and as so she is one of mine."

" And what good are dreams when you are starving, brother? Give her time and she will end up in my realm, or in our little sister's."

" You are wrong, Despair. Dreams give you a reason. And they give you hope. I thought you've learned that by now."

From out of nowhere and everywhere, a voice calls out.

"Hello Dream. Hello Despair. How odd to meet you both here." A young woman dressed in black appears. She smiles and says: "Merry Christmas."

"Sister, you know we don't celebrate such things."

"Yes, if we were to remember the birth of every god."

"I know, you two. I just like the sound of those words, don't you?"

Dream shrugs, while Despair frowns.

"And who brings you here?"

" Her." Death points at the mother holding her young daughter.

The woman stands up, and looks at her still body lying on the floor, still holding her daughter in her arms.  Her sleeping husband lies next to them.

"I'm dead?" she asks 

"Yes, my dear." Says the lady in black. 

"But what about my daughter? I have to be there to help her."

"She'll be okay. Come on, let's go." 

Sadly, the woman walks away with Death.

" Later, you two."

And they both are gone. 

"I, too, must leave. Goodbye sister."

And Dream is gone.

Despair is left alone, and heads off somewhere else, her shiny hook leading the way.

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In his endless maze, Destiny reads of this and more. The pages of the book turn, and he reads of Ayo Sotinwa, how she became a renowned scientist. The pages turn some more, in a distant future, where schoolchildren learn of the great scientific names: Einstein, Galileo, Edison, Knight and Sotinwa.

Destiny keeps walking on the endless, capricious passages of his garden, as the pages pass from day to day.