Ryouko Asakura was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Although, I am unsure if one can call a data entity "dead," since data can never truly be killed. But her body had disappeared, so, by human standards, she was quite dead. Ryouko Asakura was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have used coffin-nail, but door-nail will have to suffice.

It was a Christmas Eve at the brightly lit apartment. Snow was falling softly; Jack Frost had left his trademark signature on the windows. Bright Christmas lights shone brightly and cheerfully from the places where they had been hung two weeks earlier. Inside, a tall tree was decked out with colored lights, garlands and ornaments.

There was also a bustle of activity on the inside as a Christmas party was in full swing. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee was playing as the five partygoers played a unique game of Monopoly.

"Kyon! Back to jail with you!" a very eccentric girl shouted in annoyance as she moved the car to jail. The person referred to as Kyon sighed and looked at his watch. A look of worry crossed his face as he saw the time. The other guy playing notice this, as did a very beautiful redhead and a very silent girl with purple hair who was reading a Christmas book by Charles Dickens called A Christmas Carol.

"Kyon," the redhead leaned over and asked softly, "are you okay?"

Kyon wiped his eyes as if he was tired and said, "Yea, I'm fine, Ms. Asahina."

"Hey! Mikuru! Stop affiliating with convicts and roll!"

"Y-yes, Ms. Suzumiya," she replied as she picked up the dice. She still stole a glance at Kyon and frowned in concern.

The other guy sitting on the opposite side of Kyon, Itsuki Koizumi, leaned in and asked, "How is your sister?" in a slight whisper.

A tear formed in Kyon's eye again. Again he wiped it away like he was tired.

"She hasn't gotten any worse than before, but she hasn't gotten any better, either." Kyon replied. He looked at his watch again.

Koizumi nodded and patted Kyon's shoulder, showing his support. Kyon just nodded in thanks.

The eccentric girl, called Haruhi Suzumiya, rolled and moved her piece ahead. She then shouted, "Koizumi, your turn!"

"Yes, Ms. Suzumiya," he smiled as he rolled the dice and moved again. Suddenly, the clock struck seven. The party was over.

"Um, Ms. Suzumiya?" Mikuru asked.

"Yea?" Haruhi replied in a bored voice as she packed up the board game.

"I…I was wondering, if you're not doing anything tomorrow, maybe you'd like to come over to my house for Christmas dinner or something. My family would be glad to have you over."

A scowl crossed Haruhi's face. "No thanks," she replied.

"But, how come?"

"I have better things to do with my Christmas than to spend it with someone else's family! Christmas is just a scam by big corporations to squeeze every bit of money out of the working person! I'm not going to fall for their corporate tricks."

Mikuru backed away at that.

"Hey, speaking of Christmas," Koizumi began, "My class and Yuki's class are raising funds to donate to a local charity or something to provide someone who really needs it with an excellent Christmas dinner. Ms. Suzumiya, would you care to donate anything?"

Haruhi glared at him and said, "Why? What has Christmas ever given back to me? If they want to get a meal, they should get a job, or else live on the street."

Yuki spoke up and said, "Many are unable to acquire positions of work, and many would rather die live on the streets."

"Well then, it isn't my problem. They deserve to be on the street for being so damn lazy!"

Koizumi's smile faltered a bit. Haruhi then got up in a huff and went to put away the Monopoly game.

"I'd like to donate something," Kyon said as he reached into his pocket.

"No," Yuki said as she looked up from her book. Kyon thought he saw a look of concern on her face, but it was gone instantly.

"She's right, Kyon," Koizumi said, "keep your money. Use it to support yourself and your sister. We know how much you need it."

Kyon looked ready to protest, but a concerned look from Mikuru made him stop. He nodded silently.

"Merry Christmas you guys," he said to Mikuru and Koizumi. They replied in kind and were on their way. Kyon and Haruhi also got dressed and left Yuki's apartment. It was snowing lightly.

As Kyon was dusting the snow off his bike, Haruhi ran up to him and blurted, "Hey, Kyon!"

He turned with a small angry look on his face. "What, Haruhi?"

"What should the club do tomorrow?"

Kyon looked at her with a look that said, you're kidding, right?

"Haruhi, I was really looking forward to spending Christmas day with my sister. Can't we have one day off from club activities."

Haruhi hmphed and thought about it for awhile.

"Fine!" she said, "But you better not be late to our club meeting the day after Christmas. In fact, be there thirty minutes before me, or their will be a Penalty."

"Thank you, Haruhi," he smiled as he began to bike off. He turned back and shouted, "Merry Christmas!"

"Whatever," Haruhi said as she walked in the opposite direction toward her house. She lived in an apartment that Yuki had told her once belonged to Ms. Asakura before she had moved into Yuki's complex three or so years ago. Soon she was at her front door.

As she stuck her keys into her lock she noticed something unusual. The door knocker on her door had begun to shift and change. She watched in amazement as it took on the face of a beautiful girl. Haruhi instantly recognized the blue haired girl, but she had the appearance of a ghost.

"A–Asakura?" Haruhi stammered.

The apparition smiled and said sweetly, but hauntingly, "Hello, Ms. Suzumiya."

Haruhi stumbled back and fell flat on her back. When she stood again, she just saw the door knocker.

"Tired," was all she said as she turned the lock and entered the dark house.

She had a quick meal or ramen noodles and prepared for bed. Soon she was in her pajamas and sitting in her bed watching some random Christmas movie.

"Christmas," she scoffed as she tried to turn off the TV two hours later. The remote was ineffective.

"Damn cheap batteries," she muttered to herself as she got out of bed to turn off the TV manually. That didn't work either.

She groaned as she reached behind the small table and pulled the plug.

"Sorry, Ms. Suzumiya. That won't work."

Haruhi jumped back at the voice. It was coming from the TV. She looked at the screen. A pretty blue haired girl was smiling back at her. She was sitting in a chair. She glowed blue and was chained up.

Suddenly Haruhi was sitting opposite her. She looked around. It looked like an eighteenth century house. A fire was roaring in a large fireplace.

"Where…where am I?" Haruhi asked, frightened a bit. She quickly put up a scowl on her face. She turned to face the apparition. "Who are you?"

"Oh come now, Ms. Suzumiya, don't you recognize me? It's me, Ryouko Asakura. You know, the one that transferred to Canada. At least, that's what you were told."

Haruhi laughed dryly. "Yea right. This is just a dream. A stupid dream. That's all it is."

Asakura then frowned. She stood and walked over to where Haruhi was sitting and hit her hard. Haruhi was startled buy that. It had actually hurt, and she could see blood.

"How about now? Still think that this isn't real?"

Haruhi just held her cheek which still hurt. "I guess so. I mean, dreams don't normally look this real. And they don't hurt this much, either."

Asakura smiled and sat back down. The chains clanked together.

Haruhi's interest finally got the better of her and she asked, "What's with the chains?"

"Punishment," Asakura replied. "You see, I wasn't really transferred to Canada. I am, or was, I guess, a Humanoid Interface created by the Data Integration Thought Entity to observe you, Ms. Suzumiya. You are a unique individual, able to create and manipulate special data. In short, you could be described as omnipotent. I was a backup unit for Yuki Nagato. However, I belonged to a different faction of it that Ms. Nagato. My faction believed that it was time to take action to elicit a response from you. So, it was determined that the subject named Kyon should be terminated."

Haruhi was shocked. They were going to kill Kyon? An anger she never knew arose inside her. She rushed Asakura and tried to grab her, but went right through her.

"That was the response we were hoping for," Asakura continued after Haruhi had taken her seat, still wide eyed with shock and fury. "However, Ms. Nagato was able to stop and delete me. I appeared in this place, chained up. We now reside in a dimension where deleted faulty programs like myself are stored until Final Deletion. But we're not here to talk about me."

"Oh? Then why am I here?" Haruhi was by this time getting annoyed.

"I am merely a messenger. Certain, concerned parties, shall we say, have noticed that every time around Christmas you become especially depressed and angry. More than usual. If you continue down this life, you will become chained down."

"Like you?" Haruhi asked sarcastically.

Asakura laughed. "No, not like me. You will become chained down in a different way. And where your powers are concerned, that could be bad for you and for the world."

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "Uh huh. Right. What's this so called message?"

Asakura continued. "Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits."

Haruhi's mood quickly changed. Her eyes widened in glee. "Really? Cool!"

Asakura's eyes glared at her. "This is not meant to be an adventure, Ms. Suzumiya. They will be showing you things that you have either forgotten, or wish to forget. Expect the first tonight at one. The next one will arrive the next night at the same time and the third the night following at twelve."

Asakura then stood and walked to the window. It opened and Haruhi watched with horrified fascination as Asakura floated into the distance.

Curious, Haruhi rushed to the window. She saw what looked like a nineteenth century English town, and dozens of ghostly figures floating around with distressed looks on their faces. It appeared to Haruhi that they were trying to interfere for good in human affairs, but had lost the power forever.

The next thing Haruhi knew she was lying in bed. The TV was still on and still playing Christmas movies.

She looked at her clock. It was 2:30 A.M.

"Wow, what a weird dream," she murmured as she turned off the TV and rolled over in her bed.

Soon she slipped into the silence of a dreamless sleep.

Decided to try "A Christmas Carol" with Haruhi. Hope you like!

morbiusgreen