Bitten Times Four

After a few moments of silence and darkness, a snowy, frigid looking scene popped up on the TV sets of everyone tuned in. Two children trudged through the knee-deep snow in clothes that looked straight out of the 1940’s. The boy and girl, who looked similar enough to be siblings, shivered violently against the cold wind as it blew flakes of quickly falling snow against their thin clothes. Soon, they had their arms wrapped around themselves, trying to conserve any heat that they could.

“I’m s-s-s-so c-c-cold,” the girl hissed out through chattering teeth as she bowed her head against a brisk wind, squinting her eyes to keep the cold out.

“S-s-s-same he-he-here,” the little boy replied in a voice that quivered as he shook. The wind whistled and whipped at the two freezing children as the camera panned up, until the two little children were tiny moving dots on a vast blanket of white. They were all alone and it seemed they wouldn’t be meeting anyone anytime soon. They continued forward until a shadowy figure emerged from the thick snow drifts. The children stopped and looked as frightened as they could as they shivered, until the little girl broke into a wide smile.

“Look,” the girl said in a soft voice, raising a shaking finger to point and the advancing, unknown figure. The figure stopped in front of them and they were soon covered with matching, thick, white-silvery blankets and miraculously the snow storm around them calmed and the sun came out.

“Have no fear, children,” a voice said gallantly, “I always carry extra Ice-Free, Snow-Repellent Blankets with me.” At the same time, the identity of the figure was exposed and the children gasped collectively.

“Skandar Keynes?” They asked at the same time with an air of awe and wonder on their adorable little faces. Skandar Keynes merely smiled a charming smile with a twinkle in his light brown eyes.

“That’s me,” he said proudly in his proper English accent. He turned and looked at the camera, giving it a charming wink before turning back to the children.

“This blanket is amazing!” The girl said, wearing a wide grin. “I can feel my appendages again!”

“It’s like it hasn’t even been snowing!” The boy exclaimed as he looked between Skandar and the girl.

“I always keep my Ice-Free, Snow-Repellent Blanket close in case of Ice Queens,” Skandar said with a nod before turning to the camera and pointing to it with a broad grin, “and you should to!”

The cameras showed the children looking down at the fluffy, silvery blankets in awe, clutching them close to their previously cold bodies and extremities. The sun was shining down brightly on them, as if the blankets held magical powers to dissipate the worst of cold, freezing weather. The cameras then focused back on the brown-haired, brown-eyed, and adorably freckled Skandar Keynes.

“I give them to all my family members for every holiday, birthday, and whenever I feel like it. These blankets saved my fingers and toes in Narnia and they could keep you warm, even when you don’t really need to be,” he said with another charming, boyish smile. “I’m Skandar Keynes and I only use Ice-Free, Snow-Repellent Blankets. Shouldn’t you?” He asked with a small shrug before the three of them happily walked away.

There were a few more seconds of silence before Amberlyn’s voice said clearly, “Next time on the show.”

They showed a shot of Amberlyn wearing a completely gaudy, tacky, red and green Christmas sweater. She spun in a small circle, holding her arms out to her sides proudly. “Now…if a person isn’t wearing a sweater like this, they’re going to be kicked out. We can’t have anyone ruining the Christmas spirit,” she said quite seriously as she stared up at the camera. The camera then showed Amberlyn, giving a rather ferocious glare to the pool boy Tom. “Tom!” She exclaimed, shoving her martini glass at a frightened looking Jasper. “Why aren’t you wearing a tacky sweater?”

“I’m wearing tacky board shorts. Isn’t that enough?” He asked, motioning to his swim trunks, which were styled in such a way to make them look like a cartoon pair of Santa’s trousers, complete with a black belt with a gold buckle, and white fur on the hem. The viewers, however, would not get a reply, but merely a glare from Amberlyn before the scene switched to two young women, decked out in gaudy Christmas sweaters leaping into the pool. The scene then changed again to Amberlyn handing Jasper a small, nicely wrapped box.

“Here you go, honey. I hope you like it,” she said, sweetly, staring up at him with earnest, big, blue eyes. Jasper gave a small chuckle and slowly pulled the bow off of the box, neatly unwrapping the box. He flipped over the lid and looked down at the item within the box with apprehension.

“Tune in next week to see what happens,” Jasper’s voice came over all the TV’s tuned in before the show went off for the evening.