As World War I approaches its first Christmas, the soldiers in the trenches are already tired of it. Both sides assumed a quick and easy victory, but nothing about this war has been easy. Wulfric, a German soldier, lost all hope the day he lost his lover, Edmund. To him, the joys of Christmas only bring him more grief as he thinks of everything Edmund can no longer experience. Then, in the process of negotiating a truce for the holiday, Wulfric meets Jack, an Englishman, whose striking resemblance to Edmund makes Wulfric initially mistake him for a ghost. How could this day break his heart even more?

Jack immediately notes how sickly Wulfric appears compared to his comrades. His concern leads to curiosity, and while there is peace in No Man's Land he takes it upon himself to cheer up this enemy soldier. Along the way he realizes his attraction to Wulfric goes beyond altruism, but when he learns about Edmund his notions of romance crumble. Except Wulfric's feelings toward Jack grow from trepidation to gratitude to something he hasn't felt since Edmund died, something he didn't think he would feel again. Can they both put the ghosts of the past behind them? Or will their future remain an elusive specter forgotten on the battlefield once the truce ends?



Feral Sephrian is a jack-of-all-writing-trades who scribbles anything and everything from poems to shorts stories to novels to screen and stage plays. She recently graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a double-degree in Ancient Studies and English Literature and a minor in Theatre Design and Production. She hopes to take this education and tell the stories of the past, present, and future in a variety of media.