I woke up with tears rolling down my face. I had a dream about Dillila coming back. But it wasn't true. She could never come back. I wiped the tears away and climbed out of bed. I grabbed my teddy and made for the stairs. I paused, turned around and went to Thomas' room. He'd be mad if I spent the night downstairs the night before Christmas eve. I slowly opened his door and heard him breathing heavily. His clock said it was 1 o'clock. I sighed and went to his side of the bed. "Thomas. Thomas." I wispered. He stirred "Hey princess what's the matter?" He grumbled sleepily turning his bedside lamp on. "I had a bad dream." he smiled sadly at me, shuffled backwards, lifted the covers and patted the bed next to him. I climbed in next to him and turned the lamp off. He threw the covers back over us and cuddled me close. "Talk to me." he said. I explained about the dream and what happened. How Dillila was at college waiting for me and I ran towards her and she was stabbed in front of me and her body vanished into white mist. By the
time I had finished I was in tears again. Thomas held me close and was wispered soothing words in my ear and gently rocking back and forth. "Shh it's okay,  let it all out. Shh." he wispered softly. I began to calm down my breathing a little shaky. He kissed my head. "There you go. Shh fall asleep now. I'm right here." he said softly. I let my eyes fall closed and drifted off Thomas' arm wrapped protectively around me.
Thomas' pov * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I watched her as she fell asleep again. I hate seeing her like this. She lost Dillila in April but has been having nightmares since September. But she was doing well and they seemed to have stopped in November. I wonder why they have started back up again. But it might have just been a one off being the holiday season. This would have been the first time she had been without Dillila for 10 years. It was going to be hard for her. I would make sure I was by her side every step of the way. I held her close to me. Her breathing began to speed up again so I stroked her shoulder, wispering 'shh' softly in her ear and she began to calm down once more. I let my eyes fall closed knowing that my little
sister was be safe by my side. We need as much sleep as possible for we were at Joan and Talan's tomorrow. I finally fell asleep but lightly so I would be able to wake up at the slightest change in Char.
Char's pov * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I woke up safely wrapped up in Thomas' arm whilst he was scrolling through his phone. He looked down at me and I smiled at him. He softly smiled back and kissed the top of my head.  I stretched and rolled out of his bed. "I'm going to go and get dressed for the day." I said leaving the room. "Okay Princess.  I'll get ready and make breakfast." I nodded and went to my bedroom. I stripped off and hopped into my shower letting all the bad feelings from last night drip off me. I couldn't be sad today I would not allow myself to be sad. 'It's Christmas eve! We are going to Joan and Talan's and I will have a good time'. I told myself whilst washing my hair. I finished in the shower, got dry and styled my hair half up half down and curled. Then I put on  a long jumper dress with leggings. I looked at myself with satisfaction. I didn't look half bad. I smiled and walked down the stairs to see Thomas cleaning the kitchen down and two plates of sausage bacon and egg on the table with toast in the middle. He looked up as I walked down the stairs. "Wow don't you look stunning?" He said. I rolled my eyes. "Hardly". We had a small argument over weather I looked good or not whilst we ate breakfast. We finally decided that I looked nice once we had finished. I washed up and Thomas dried and put away. Once we were done I ran upstairs to do my teeth. On the way down grabbed the presents ready for them. Thomas was waiting by the door with the presents that he got for them. "Ready to go? Got your presents?"  I nodded. "Then let's go. "
I hoped out of the car once we pulled up to Joan and Talan's. The front door opened and I ran to them. Joan lifted me up and I gave them a huge hug. I leaned over and gave Talan a hug too. "Merry Christmas peeps."
"Merry Christmas Charlie" they said in unison.  Joan put me down and I ran to the car to go and help Thomas whilst Joan a Talan went in to go and put the kettle on. We brought the presents inside and put them
under their tree. Their house looked just as festive as ours. They had their fire going too and it just looked awesome. Thomas put their presents under the tree and plonked himself down on the sofa. I rolled my eyes and chuckled going to the kitchen to see if Joan and Talan needed any help. "Nah we got it go and sit down" Joan said. "okay" I ran to the living room and sat on Thomas. "oof! Oi! I was comfy" he moaned "so am I" I sassily replied. Joan and Talan came in laughing. Joan put a tray of 4 mugs down and told us witch one was ours. I hopped off Thomas and sat on the floor. "why do you sit on the floor?" Talan asked me "floors are comfy" I shrugged. Everyone laughed. We all talked about everything we could think of. We were all in the Christmas spirit and ludicrously happy. After a few hours we had dinner at the table. It was a simple meal as we were having a very large Christmas dinner tomorrow. After we had eaten and washed up we all went and sat in the living room. Talan put the TV on. "ooh Home Alone. I love these movies" they said. I plonked myself on the floor in front of Joan's legs and leaned against them. Half way into the film a pair of arms lifted me off
the floor and into their lap. I quickly glanced up and it was Joan. I snuggled in to him and settled down again. He gently stroked my shoulder with his thumb soothing me. I began to feel sleepy and on my eyes were closed. I wasn't asleep, I could still hear the movie. "She asleep? " Thomas asked. "Nope" I mumbled back. I heard a light chuckle go around the room. I let myself drift off into a dream world.
Suddenly someone was gently shaking my shoulder. "Charlie wake up." I stretched out and opened my eyes. I looked up and Joan was looking down at me with a big smile on their face. I sat up and saw that Talan and Thomas were asleep too. "You wanna pull a prank on them?" Joan asked. "Well duh of course" I slowly go off of Joan's lap so that I wouldn't wake them up. We went into the kitchen and Joan quietly told me their plan. It was to get tiny squirty bottles, fill them with water and spray the two untill they woke up. We got  sorted and positioned ourselves. I hid behind Thomas' sofa and Joan behind Talan's. Joan began to squirty the bottle but i had a better idea. I unscrewed the lid and just dumped the whole bottle on the Thomas' face. Talan and Thomas both woke up with a jump. I ducked so Thomas wouldn't see me. Talan and Thomas both chase after Joan thinking it was them. Thomas still couldn't see me yet. Suddenly his face popped up out of nowhere. I tried to make a run for it but he was too quick and he lifted me up, sat back out the sofa and pinned me to his chest with his legs on top of mine. I couldn't move anywhere. I wiggled am squirmed to try and get out of his grip but it wasn't happening. "You ain't going anywhere. You can  stay right here and keep me warm" Thomas said to me. I wiggled a bit more to get comfortable and I led quietly watching the movie and listening to his heart beat.

It was 8:30pm when we left. We said our goodbyes to the two and that we would see them on boxing day. I was exhausted when we got in some and Thomas grabbed quick snack before heading to bed. I snuggled down and drifted off peacefully