"Thank you. So... Happy Christmas, then. And say hello to everyone," Faith replied, then let the phone slip into the pocket of her coat, as she wrapped the woollen fabric closer around her body. It was cold out here, above the sea, the overcast sky promising snow or rain.

It wasn't entirely unexpected, she mused. The old wood of the pier creaked under the soles of her shoes as the frothy, wind-whipped sea appearing in the narrow gaps between the dark planks crashed against the structure's tall and sturdy pillars. She started drifting away from her friends the moment she found a new job and left the city months ago, but she thought they would visit for her birthday and stay over for Christmas...

Apparently, they couldn't, none of them. As if the little seaside town where she lived now was on another planet. They invited her to spend the Holidays in the city, of course, but she refused. She couldn't imagine leaving the Victorian house she lived in for more than a few hours. Faith knew it was crazy, but she... had fallen in love with it, with the spirit dwelling within its ancient walls. Oh well, if her friends did not want to come, she would spend Christmas alone... No, not alone. She never felt alone in the old house. 

She walked down the abandoned pier lost in thought, observing the giant Ferris wheel of the closed pseudo-Victorian amusement park attracting thousands of tourists each summer. Now it stood still, lifeless. Only its white gondolas swang and shivered eerily in the increasing wind whistling through the wheel's iron skeleton. 

Seagulls screeched above her head suddenly, disturbing her train of thought. They struggled against the wind with their snow-white wings, barely avoiding being trashed into the angry waters. The first drops of rain landed on her face just as she reached the tip of the ancient pier. As always, she spread her arms and leaned out above the railing as far as she could, looking transfixed at the heaving sea and the stormy horizon, feeling as if she was flying. The tip of the old pier was the best place in the world.

Faith closed her eyes and offered her face to the freezing rain drops, shivering. As the rain grew heavier, she pulled her hood on and ran back towards the beach, a smile spreading on her lips. Soon, she would be at home.

"Caleb, please! Just one ride..." Penelope whined, pulling at the young man's sleeve, her eyes following the brightly illuminated Ferris wheel turning slowly around.

He sighed, holding on to his top hat, which threatened to fly away on the increasing wind. Penelope may be the most popular young lady of the town, but she was also very annoying. He had never given her any reason to think that he was interested in her more than in any other girl, and yet she never left his side when they met their friends. Caleb took a golden watch from the pocket of his frock coat, noticing the first rain drops landing on its glass face reflecting the lights of the giant wheel.

"I'm sorry, Penelope. Not tonight. It's too late, I must finish writing that article by tomorrow morning. George will be happy to accompany you," he said, smiling at his friend who was desperately in love with the beautiful Penelope.

Pouting, the girl let go of his sleeve finally and laced her arm through George's, who beamed at Caleb.

"All right. But promise me that you'll come for Christmas dinner, my mother is expecting you," Penelope insisted.

"I'll... try," Caleb called, already retreating down the pier, the wide coat billowing in the wind around his legs.

He forgot all about Penelope even before he reached the few market stalls huddled on the beach at the foot of the pier. From the glimpses he had been seeing lately, he was quite sure that it was the other girl's birthday today... 

Faith ran up the front steps of her home just as the rain turned into a downpour.

"Hello," she greeted the empty house as usual. 

She took her damp coat off and let her bag, full of essays and homeworks to correct during the Holidays drop to the floor. She had two weeks to do that. She would think about them later, Faith mused as she headed towards the sitting room. The house was warm enough, but she wanted to lay a fire anyway. Faith loved the comfort of its flames. Then she would cook and...

She stopped, astonished, in the doorway-- the fire was already burning on the hearth. It wasn't the first time that something strange happened within the walls of this house, but she had never found a fire burning, or an... old-fashioned looking box of chocolates and a single red rose lying on her coffee table.

"Thank you," she whispered to the air surrounding her, heart soaring.

Whoever was doing these things belonged to her and this house, and even though she could not see him, somehow... he had grown on her during the months she had lived here. 

That he was a man, a visitor from some other time and place, was the only thing Faith was sure about. She kept finding evidence, his things appearing around. A top hat. A bowtie. A pair of gloves. Silver studs. And as Christmas approached, his presence started to feel stronger.

Caleb did not see the girl, but he sensed her presence the moment she entered the drawing room-- the flames on the hearth flickered, following her movements. He smiled as he saw his rose vanish; she found it. 

Just like he kept finding her things around the house while he kept losing his... It was so... awe-inspiring, he mused, closing his hand around a tiny heart-shaped earring-- hers-- which he carried in the pocket of his shirt as a talisman as he continued to write at his desk by the window. It wasn't an article for the paper he was working on, as he had told Penelope, he had finished that this morning. Right now, he was working on a book. Ever since this invisible girl entered his life months ago, he was obsessed by the idea of parallel words.

Faith, having decided not to waste time cooking, made herself a sandwich and took a shower before she returned to the sitting room, two glasses and a bottle of wine in her hands. She shivered, imagining someone's-- his-- cool breath landing on the back of her neck as she sat on the sofa by the fireplace. Grabbing a blanket and settling in one corner, she watched with bated breath as the cushion in the opposite corner shrank under an invisible weight...

"Hmm, hi," she said, pouring out the wine in both the glasses, then reaching for her book.

Faith believed that she could hear a low scrape of a pen against a sheet of paper, but nothing else. So, she tried to concentrate on her book, watching as the wine from the second glass vanished as fast as her own.

It was late at night when she woke up briefly in her bed and fell asleep again immediately, smiling at the handsome young man who brought her there.

Faith was startled awake hours later. She sat up, looking around, but all was quiet. And yet... The weak light of the wintry day was flooding her bedroom, and the pillow next to hers looked as if someone had slept on it. No, that's impossible. She could not remember how she got to bed at night, but... surely... No. It had only been a dream, she tried to persuade herself, recalling vaguely a handsome face smiling at her in the semi-darkness of the night. 

Shaking her head, Faith forced herself out of the bed. It was the twenty-fourth, and she still had to decorate the Christmas tree.

Caleb still could not believe it as he left the house in the morning to carry his article to the editor of Brighton Daily Post. He still could not believe that he not only finally saw the girl the previous evening but carried her to bed-- his bed-- and stayed next to her the whole night, too. Now, he could not wait for the moment to get back to the house and see that strange, beautiful girl belonging to a different world again. 

"Pardon me," he said as he rushed past a group of people strolling outside the office despite the freezing rain, but he did not look at them until Penelope's shrill voice pulled him out of his reverie.

"Caleb, wait!" she called, making him turn around and bow politely in greeting to her, her parents, and her two brothers.

"Good morning," he said, kissing the womens' hands. "It's a surprise to see you here."

"Mother wanted to invite you personally for the Christmas dinner tomorrow... I was hoping to meet you here, we are on the way to church, will you join us?" Penelope said quickly.

"Hmm... I'm sorry Penelope, I can't come with you now. And I'm sorry Mrs. Clark, I'm... leaving the town for a few days so I won't be able to join you tomorrow. Have a happy Christmas," he said, then touched his hat in greeting and turned on his heel, striding away from them.

Caleb entered the house just as Faith was descending the staircase. Her long, chocolate brown hair was muddled by sleep, it made her look crumpled but beautiful, like a new-born flower. He stopped and stared into her green eyes, the cold air streaming inside around him making her shiver and wrap her arms around her slim, sleepwear-clad figure, as the drops of rain falling off the rim of his hat gathered into a small puddle at his feet.

For a fleeting moment, they saw each other clearly. 

The instant he faded away, she sank down, sitting on the stairs, feeling stunned. The front door was closed, and if there wasn't the small puddle of rain water on the black and white floor tiles, she would think she had only imagined it.

"I wish I knew your name..." she muttered. "I'm Faith."

He heard her voice coming from his side, and even though he could not see her any longer, he knew that she was sitting on the step next to him.

"I'm Caleb. Nice to meet you, Faith."

Caleb was sure that she did not hear him as he watched the puddle vanish some time later when she wiped it off the floor.

He shook his head, took his coat and hat off, and then headed to the drawing room, where he rekindled the fire and sat down to write at his desk.

Faith made herself a cup of coffee, then got changed. While the lunch-- for two-- was simmering on the hob, she brought the Christmas tree inside from the garden. She dragged it into the sitting room and set it by the fireplace, smiling as she noticed the fire already burning on the hearth. Cutting the string protecting the branches of her Balsam fir from breaking, she let them spring back into place, releasing the tree's wonderful scent and the drops of rain hiding among its short needles.

Caleb started as a few drops landed on the sheets of paper covering his desk. He chuckled as he noticed the tree appearing in his drawing room, followed by a large box of Christmas decorations suddenly sitting on top of his papers.

Faith startled as she heard his low chuckle. There was no doubt about it-- they were both here, together, and yet... they were not.

She walked back into the kitchen to check on her lunch and came back with two mugs of mulled wine. Something was telling her that her... friend was working at the large writing desk by the window. She placed the mugs there, caressing its ancient wood.

Picking up a glass ball from her box of decorations, Faith turned towards the tree. She nearly dropped it when she noticed a small, old-fashioned angel hanging on one of the branches.

Caleb bought the angel last night, along with the chocolates and the rose. Seeing the Christmas tree, he remembered it, took it out of the drawer of his desk, and scribbled his name on one of its wings.

She noticed it as she let her fingertips caress the delicate angel. "Nice to meet you, Caleb," Faith whispered.

Caleb could not hear her. Sipping at his wine, he watched  more decorations appear on the tree, even as the box still sitting on his desk emptied itself slowly, wishing he could see her.

But it wasn't until midnight that he saw her again.

Caleb thought that she was sleeping as her side of the bed looked crumpled when he went to check, but the sleep eluded him tonight. He stayed up late, working on his book. 

At the stroke of midnight, he placed his presents for her under the tree-- a book, as he noticed that she liked reading and a set of earrings for the one she had lost. At that moment, she appeared in the doorway, and it seemed that their two worlds merged into one.

"I... I can see you, Caleb," she whispered, the gift-wrapped box she carried shaking ever so slightly in her hands.

"I can see you too, Faith," he said, approaching her slowly, afraid that she would fade away if he moved too fast. 

She observed him as he walked towards her-- his dark curls and broad shoulders, his warm brown irises and full lips...

"Merry Christmas," she muttered, passing him her present.

He smiled and kissed her hand, then led her towards the sofa.

She sat down, and while he poured out some wine, from his bottle this time, she looked around. Finally, she could see his papers spread over the old writing desk, where she only kept a pile of unread books.

"Are you a writer?" she asked as she accepted the glass he passed her.

"Only a journalist. But I'm working on a book... about us," he admitted, following her look to his desk.

"About us?" Faith asked, smiling at him over the rim of her glass. "Can you explain 'us' to me then, please?"

He shook his head, smiling back at her. "Not sufficiently, not yet. But I'm sure we... live in some... parallel worlds."

"So... when are you from, Caleb?" 

"You should not ask when, but where. I live in this house, in Brighton, in the year twenty twenty-one..." 

"Me, too..." she whispered, staring at the man dressed in Victorian clothes sitting at her side. She reached out to him, then paused, her hand suspended in mid-air inches from his face, blushing as she realised how she must look to him... But she really wanted to touch him, to feel him to make sure that she wasn't dreaming.

As if he felt the same way, he took her hand and brought it to his cheek, then held it in his as they continued talking into the small hours of the Christmas Day.

When they could not keep their eyes open any longer, they walked up the stairs, towards their bedroom, hand in hand. Each lay down on their side of the bed.

"Will you be here when I wake up?" Faith asked, wrapping her arms around him. "I don't want you to go..." she muttered, letting him kiss the rest of her sentence off her lips.

"I don't know... Let's... Believe in the magic of Christmas," he whispered back, pulling her closer. 

Faith stayed in bed, afraid to move, scared to open her eyes, long after she had woken up. What if he was gone?

"I'm here," Caleb said when he was sure that she was awake, and she could hear the smile lurking in his voice

She opened her eyes finally, smiling as she found him looking at her.

"Hi," she muttered. "So... what are we going to do today?"

He chuckled. "Let's just... be together."

"That sounds perfect to me. Would you like some breakfast?" Faith managed to ask before his lips found hers, and she felt herself melting into him.

It really seemed that their two worlds merged, they noticed as they walked into the kitchen later. Her modern appliances were still there, but so was his Victorian furniture.

"Shall we go out?" Faith proposed after breakfast, noticing for the first time that it had snowed at night as she walked towards the window facing the back garden, while Caleb scribbled some notes on a piece of paper while he sipped at his tea. "I want to show you my pier."

Caleb reached her by the window in no time. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, making her lean into him. 

"I'd love to show you how it looks in my world, but I don't think we'll see either of the two now. I believe that we will find a new reality waiting for us beyond the door, a place we created for ourselves."

"Well, that just sounds like a dream to me... " Faith said, looking into his eyes, scared to find a hint of regret there. But she needn't worry. 

"Let's go then," Caleb said, his eyes lighting up with boyish excitement, curiosity, and the same love she could feel blossoming within her own heart.

Giggling, she let him drag her towards the front door, help her in her coat, and precede her cautiously into their new reality.

They stood still on the doorstep, holding hands, for a short moment, allowing the cool, fresh air smelling of sea, snow, happiness, and love to fill their lungs for the first time.

Wherever they were, they were in the place they wanted to be-- in a world they somehow created for themselves, by falling in love and wishing to stay together.

*I do not own the pictures.