In virtual reality, I need a tether to reality. Something to keep me from going hours without a break for water or food.

Today, I am sitting in a park by the water. The cool breezes of December will force me inside.

My virtual reality environment is pretty bare. A good bright indistinct whiteness.

So when I hear the buzzing, I think maybe it is a large flying beetle. You know.. 'hmmmmm'.

By the time I see it, well, it happened pretty fast.

'Hhhhhmmmmmbbuugggggggg!' and I am smacked on my forehead with a large squishy heart.

The heart drops into my hand.

So I tell you, it is not something to have happened before.

A semi-transparent heart shape.

The dozen of hearts arrived with less warning and no reaction from my forehead. Just a succession of 'bing' sounds.

The hearts string together. As more flood in, I feel like a ghost from the Christmas Carol. Strings of hearts wafting along and beside me.

With a chime of an arriving avatar, a smart female figure hovers in front of me.

"Hello! I am the ghost of WattPad Holiday Season Future! I am here with a message."

A hand softly raises up to hair near her ear. Fingers twist, lightly pulling as if there were a hair strand, "Today there is just me. I am the first and only. On the season I will become a new one, and then after I will become the past."

Pointing a resolved index finger towards me, "You are being rebuked for too many short invective comments on the stories you read."

I react, "You mean 'hearts'? The same symbol used for the 'like' or 'vote' button?"

Her head tilts up briefly, then back down. "Surveys show an ambiguous relation to the symbol. We associate it with a dissatisfied reaction. During the Holiday Season that reaction classified as a 'humbug'.

I thank her and excuse myself. Removing the VR equipment. Cutting winds from off the water chases my steps back home.

When I put the VR set on again, my chains of hearts have grown to billowing cape. Like a villain atop a tall edifice, the hearts sweep far down and aside.

Then, hardly in the time for a sigh; some hearts shine pinkly, absorbing nearby hearts out of the chains, and leave a collection much shorter chains.

After that day, I wondered about how easily someone can become the 'King of Humbug'. Even if just by mistake.

Prompt / Title by AuthorJMColes