Eska's Christmas Party (The Devereaux Story)/Chapter 5

Her friends, especially Spiro, were shocked by her answer. Spiro was the first to reply, "Going to find your...what?"

"Um, my parents," Eska finished, "Did you not hear me?"

"But Eska," Spiro refreshed, "We are here to find Cerise's parents, not yours."

"Yea," Bash agreed, "Shouldn't we be doing that first?"

"But, this could be my chance!" Eska explained, "I've looked all over this forest, hoping I would find a trace of my parents, and I haven't looked here yet! They may be here!"

"But we made a deal to find Cerise's family!" Spiro replied, "You even said we should help her!"

"Yea, and I brought her to Julia!" Eska retorted, "But I made a promise to myself to find my parents this Christmas! So, I'm going to! Hate me if you want, but this is where we part ways. Unless...anyone wants to join me?"

The others looked around sheepishly. Bash even whistled to act nonchalant. Finally, Britze spoke up, "I'm sorry, Eska, but I want to help Cerise."

"Me too, Mon ami," Felipe agreed, "She is a petite female of many French words!"

"Yea, we gotta help her!" Bash added.

"Guys!" Eska exclaimed, "How are we even friends?!"

"We are willing to help anyone out!" Spiro answered, "You...you're just thinking about yourself right now!"

"I JUST WANT MY FAMILY BACK!" Eska finally blew, leaving the others speechless. Eska grimaced, hiked up her backpack and headed in the other direction. Spiro flared his nostrils and headed the opposite of her. The others followed, except Benny, who looked back in sympathy.

"Look, Eska," Benny walked up to her, "We just want to find this girl's family, just like you want to find yours. I...I'm going to help Cerise, but good luck finding your parents. P-please don't hate me."

After Benny gave Eska a sad smile and left, Eska still felt a little better about herself, but pretty mad that her friends wouldn't support her like that.

She wandered through the wasteland, calling her parents' names out, hoping she would hear an answer. After a while of calling her parents names, she leaned up against the tree and felt icky inside. What she couldn't feel was a dark matter cloned from her and headed towards the direction Spiro headed.

Meanwhile, The Scouts and the Smurfs were still looking for Cerise's tree. Spiro felt angry that Eska was only thinking about her in this situation, and Bash noticed his behavior.

"Spiro, you know Eska has her reasons to ditch us, right?" Bash told him, "I mean, you lost your parents too."

"Yea, but this is different," Spiro explained, "Mine are dead. Hers are just missing."

"Exactly," Bash replied, "That's why she wanted to find them!"

"Then, why is she returning to us right now?" Britze pointed at the Smurfette in the distance. Spiro's hopes lifted a little, "Eska?"

However, when she got closer, she seemed to be darker than usual. Benny was the first to notice, "You okay, Eska?"

"Don't okay me!" The Dark Eska snapped, "You all abandoned me! What kind of friends are you?!"

"The friends who stick by someone in need!" Spiro retorted, "If you were going to be selfish then you should've stayed where you are!"

Dark Eska growled and seemed to grow bigger than them. Spiro and the others widened his eyes.

"Sacre bleu...she grew!" Felipe exclaimed.

"Plus, she snapped at Benny!" Bash patted Benny's back, "If I know her, she wouldn't even form a sentence in front of him!"

"Guys," Spiro realized, "This is not the real Eska."

Previous

Next