Christmas Spirits (short story)

Christmas Spirits was a 2013 Newbury & Hobbes short story written by George Mann and published in The Casebook of Newbury & Hobbes.

Plot
In the early hours of Christmas Day 1902, Maurice Newbury is confronted by three spectral figures of friends both old and new. He spokes cigars laced with opium to the point were he isn't sure whether the beings are truly real. One of the entities takes on the form of Templeton Black, his former assistant, as young as the day he died. Newbury identifies that the specter isn't malicious and instead wants Newbury to forgive himself of the burden Black's death has on him. Newbury refuses to forgive himself as he believes that he should have done more to save Black, and the spirit disintegrates into leaves and dust.

The next figure presents itself in the form of Charles Bainbridge, Newbury's close friend, and slowly begins to waste away with sunken eyes and pale skin. Newbury realises that the specter is showcasing the dangers of opium abuse, something which had recently began to strain his relationship with Bainbridge, and he attempts to tell the specter that it is wrong for assuming he would allow himself to be taken to that extreme but the specter vanishes in a cloud of thick, blue vapor.

Finally, the third specter takes on the form of Veronica Hobbes. She took on a horrifying visage that terrified Newbury. Newbury concludes that the spirits represented his past with Templeton's death, present with his opium addiction, and frightfully the future with a frightening warning about Veronica.

Characters

 * Maurice Newbury
 * Three specters
 * Templeton Black
 * Charles Bainbridge
 * Veronica Hobbes

Worldbuilding

 * Newbury reads Charles Dickens' The Signalman.
 * Templeton Black, Newbury's former assistant, died weeks after celebrating his twenty-first birthday in an incident involving a lunatic posing as a malign spirit at Fairview House.
 * George Purefoy had died at the hands of Aubrey Knox earlier in 1902.
 * Newbury's adventures with Charles Bainbridge included: hunting a depraved serial killer through the slums, investigating a phantom cab on King's Road and The Lady Armitage disaster of 1901.
 * Newbury suggests he is Ebenezer receiving visits of the past, present and future.

Continuity
to be added