Christmas Spirit (short story)

Christmas Spirit was the seventh story in the Bernice Summerfield anthology Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries. It was written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright.

Plot
Mr Naismith has had the Braxiatel Collection decorated for Christmas and Braxiatel is holding a memorial service for Steven Mead, a student killed when a hover bridge gave out at a dig on Anibus. Tony Deek sits next to Steven's fiancée, Vivian, and notices that she is smiling slightly during the service. What seems to be a hologram of Steven mouths Tony's name before his skin is stripped away, leaving a screaming skull. It charges as Tony and he screams.

Two days later, Tony is believed to have had some sort of episode and Benny speaks with him at Braxiatel's request. He explains that Dr Yakkle believes that he is a natural empath and runs away screaming after seeing Steven in the mirror when she asks if he brought anything back from Anibus. He runs to Vivian, who is wearing a Memory Stone that Steven gave her on Anibus, but Steven appears and prevents him from talking to her or from leaving the Mansionhouse.

Whilst Benny is scrolling through the Anibusian inventory on her data-pad, Adrian bumps into her and tells her that Tony is sat at the top of the clock tower and seems to be intending on committing suicide. She climbs the tower and sees Steven, who gets Tony to admit that he knocked off a stabiliser on the hover bridge so that he could get to the dig first. Benny notices that Tony is wearing a Memory Stone, which the Anibusians used to help them through the grieving process. As Tony is a human as well as an empath, it is working differently.

Vivian, wearing the other half of the Memory Stone, steps up to the ledge with a handsome ghost of Steven, intent on joining him in the afterlife. Before she can do so, Benny rips the Memory Stone from her and she sees Jason. He tells her that he is not dead and that she has lost everybody that she ever cared for, leading her to throw the Memory Stone through him to the frozen lake below, where it explodes, before she passes out. By Christmas Day, Vivian has returned to her family on Earth.

On Christmas Day, Benny drinks a glass of bourbon with Braxiatel, pleased that Vivian has returned to Earth but afraid that Tony will never forgive himself for Steven's death. She avoids answering when Braxiatel asks her what she saw when she held the Memory Stone and goes to give Wolsey his present, not noticing a spring of mistletoe swinging gently above her.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Adrian Wall
 * Mister Crofton
 * Tony Deek
 * Vivian

Continuity
to be added