We soon reached our street, which was much quieter than the main square we'd just left. Scott told the twins to go home and wait for him there, then walked me to my door.

"That was a weird morning," he said.

To say the least, I thought.

"I know," I agreed, glad he'd said what I'd been thinking. "But hey, at least we got your shopping done," I teased.

"Yes," he laughed. "Thanks for coming, by the way."

"Oh, don't mention it," I said. "It was my pleasure."

"My parents are off work this afternoon, so we're taking the chance to spend some time together," he told me.

"Oh, that's great," I told him earnestly. "Any fun plans?"

"None yet, but my father always has great ideas, so it'll be fun, I'm sure."

"Good. Oh, hey, if they're not starting too early tomorrow, my parents wanted to ask them over for dinner. Why not tonight?"

"That's a great idea! I'll ask them and get back to you, okay?"

"Sure," I smiled.

I meant to bid him goodbye and turn into the house, when he touched my arm.

"Riley... are you sure you're okay?"

I hesitated. I had no doubt he was thinking of me hearing things he couldn't.

"You... seemed to be hearing something we couldn't. What was it?"

"You'll just make fun of me..." I said uncomfortably.

"I won't, I promise," he said solemnly.

"... I heard bells. Like... sleigh bells."

I watched his expression change as he took in what I told him. I could see he was trying to remember if he really hadn't heard anything back then.

"Are you sure? I really didn't hear a thing."

"I don't know... maybe I just thought of sleigh bells for some reason and the image reminded me of the sound they make..." I shrugged, mainly trying to convince myself.

"Maybe," Scott conceded, in a tone that made it impossible for me to tell whether he was convinced or not.

I heard the church bell toll noon in the distance, and this time, Scott definitely heard it too.

"I'd better get back to my sisters before they blow the house up," He smiled at me. "I'll call you later, okay?"

I smiled back, nodding, and watched him walk towards his house. When he was at the door, he looked back over his shoulder at me. I don't know how long we stood there, staring at each other, a small smile on both our faces. It felt like ages and seconds at the same time. Eventually, he looked away and disappeared into the house. Heaving a sigh, I did the same.

After lunch, a couple of hours later, I went up to my room, hoping to get in a little reading or writing, but most of all a little peace from Lucas who'd been going on all over lunchtime about the amazing presents he was sure Santa was going to bring him. I hurried up the stairs with Lucas's rambling in the background.

I finally closed the door, shutting out the noise, and let out a sigh of relief. As I edged towards my bed, my eyes fell on the red leather book I'd been writing in. I paused, suddenly remembering the footprints in the snow. I had a feeling I knew why they were familiar to me, now. I raced across the room, yanked the book up and opened it, dropping onto the bed. After carefully searching through the pages, I found what I was looking for.

Sure enough, I mentioned strange footprints in the snow... It was a scene where the protagonist first encountered one of the monsters, which I had named a Treefoot, a creepy human-tree hybrid. I had even described them as looking like tentacles... I had absolutely no idea what to make of it, though. But what were the chances that something like this would happen? I didn't even want to try and do the maths on that one, but they had to be extremely small.

Okay... calm down, Riley... I told myself firmly. It could just be a crazy coincidence... I mean... you probably only thought it looked like tentacles because of what you wrote. You're blowing this out of proportion. It's probably nothing.

I considered calling Scott and telling him about it but thought against it. He was with his family, I didn't want to interrupt that. Plus, he'd probably think I was insane. If he didn't already for the bells incident. The thought threw me into further disarray. What had that been about, anyway? How had I heard something no one else had? Had even really heard it or was I really going crazy?

I took a few deep breaths and put the book away. Yes. I had made the connection because of my story, that was it. I went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face, which made me feel better. But I thought it best to stick to reading that afternoon. After all, why tempt fate?

I woke up late again the next morning. It had been a rough night. I kept dreaming of Treeroots and deafening sleigh bells. And the copious dinner Grandma Velma had made us and the Millers probably hadn't helped. Not to mention the butterflies in my stomach from sitting next to Scott, and a burning sensation in the back of my neck from his mother who'd spent almost every minute of the evening glancing our way. I wasn't even sure why.

All in all, I had been relieved when I could finally go to bed. Even if I ultimately didn't get all that much sleep.

Over breakfast, Dad told me that he'd seen Scott's father bring in a Christmas tree, so he'd gone out to help and Mr Miller had invited me and Lucas to help decorate the tree. I had been both happy and nervous when I heard he'd agreed. I very much enjoyed Scott's company, more so in fact than I remembered as a child. However, the look on his mother's face was still etched in my mind. But I knew they wouldn't believe me if I mentioned it, so I kept the incident to myself and said how nice it was of them to invite us.

So that afternoon, we crossed the road to the Miller household. It was clearly ready for Christmas, or almost. There was a large wreath on the door covered in red and gold, and Christmas related stickers coloured the windows, long lines of tinsel were entwined around the bannisters, and large stockings hung near the chimney. The only thing that wasn't decorated was the tree, standing in the corner, a large box of decorations beside it.

"Ready to tackle the tree?" Came Scott's voice behind me.

I turned around and smiled. He was carrying another smaller box as he came in.

"Hey, Scott. Yeah, you could use the extra hands," I teased.

Scott chuckled as his sisters came in. Both Scott and I froze, waiting for the explosion. But the girls and Lucas seemed happy enough to see each other, so we allowed ourselves to breathe again. Or at least, Scott did. Because just then, Mrs Miller came into the room, and stopped when she saw us. I bit my lip. I could definitely sense her tension, but for some reason, I noticed Scott seemed on edge, all of a sudden. But she didn't speak and went into another room.

I glanced at the twins and Lucas. They were looking through the decorations and paying no attention to us. I took the opportunity to pull Scott aside.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, is something wrong?"

I hesitated. I didn't want to upset him.

"... I just... wondered if I'd done something to upset your mother."

His father had been perfectly friendly, but his mother had barely spoken to me over dinner, and I hadn't seen hide nor hair of her today.

"What? No, of course not!" He replied. "Why would you ask?"

"... I don't know, I feel... like she's angry with me about something since last night. I just wanted to know if I could fix it."

Scott glanced away uneasily. I waited patiently for him to answer.

"Oh... well... we... had a bit of an argument about you the other night." He told me, not quite meeting my eyes.

"... You did? I'm sorry... I never mean-"

"No, no, it's not your fault," he said. "Mum's just being paranoid."

Just then, Lucas let out a gasp.

"Look! There! A man dressed like a Christmas tree!"

"Don't be daft, they don't exist!" Lucy said.

"I saw it!"

Scott and I looked at each other, then went to the window. All I could see was snow, the houses of the neighbourhood...

"There's nothing out there," Mary said.

"Yeah, he probably watched too many alien films again..."

They turned back to the box of ornaments. Scott and I were about to do the same. Suddenly, however, I froze and caught his arm.

"Scott!" I hissed, and pointed outside.

He eyed me in confusion,then followed my gaze.

"What are yo-"

He was likely about to ask "what are you looking at", but it didn't take him long to see what I was pointing to. It was easy to miss them in the snow, but if you looked, they jumped out at you, clear as day. There were large footprints outside the house. And they looked exactly like the ones we'd seen in the village.