Christopher Flores

## Christopher

### Quote

"I never got offered a door to this place. I'm not a baker, and I wouldn't have liked it here. Too sweet for me. Too much light, not enough crypts. I like my sugar in skull form, and my illumination to come from lanterns hung in the branches of leafless trees. This place isn't mine. But the place I *did* go, the place that *is* mine, it sort of screwed with my ideas about life and death. It made me see that the lines aren't as clear as the living always make them out to be. The lines *blur*, And you, lady? I don't want you dead, because I never want to see you again."

Christopher Flores is a main character in Every Heart a Doorway, Beneath the Sugar Sky and Come Tumbling Down. He is a student at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children.

## Appearance

Christopher is described as being tall, and of Mexican descent. He has brown skin and black hair, and is known to always wear a jacket, both for the pockets and in case he should be called back. He has a skull shaped pin on his lapel, and is always seen carrying his flute around, which was made from his ulna, though Nancy first assumed from its appearance that it was made from wood.

## Personality

Christopher is a very honest person, admitting that he doesn't know how to respond when Cora blurts out that she thought that he would yell at her because she's fat, and quickly explaining who Sumi was when Cora mentions her name. Christopher tends to be quick to speak and act, rarely ever hesitating regardless of the situation. In fact, he seems to say what’s on his mind without worrying about what others may think of him; he’s not one to hold his tongue. He’s not easily made upset, but he does not seem to like when it is mentioned that he went to a world much darker in comparison to the worlds that other students went to; he doesn't seem to like being "lumped in" with Jack and Jill because of the darkness that their worlds shared, and he cannot stand to have his bone flute taken away from him. He admits that he doesn't understand why the portal worlds' labels -- Wicked, Virtue, Logic, and Nonsense -- are treated as if they are important, believing instead that none of it is going to make sense anyway.

He reaches for his bone flute in moments of distress or discomfort, and having it near him is important to him not only physically, but for the sake of his emotional well being and overall mental health. This is likely in part due to the fact that it is not only made of his ulna, but that it was given to him by his fiancée whom he cares about deeply, so much so that he is willing to defend her from insults and rude remarks made by other students. He genuinely cares about his friends. Christopher clearly has a sense of humor, in some cases being the first to laugh, and in other cases making humorous comments himself. His sense of humor may be considered “dark” at times, as he mentions bones and skeletons, likely influenced by his time in Mariposa.

When it comes to the dead, he takes care to be respectful. His idea of the living and the dead, and death in general, has been blurred by his experiences in Mariposa.

*More information to be added.*

## History

### Before the Books

Christopher was born on Earth to two Mexican parents. He suffered from racism throughout his life for his heritage.

By the time he turned fifteen, he had developed a tumor that was slowly killing him. Before the cancer could claim his life, he was called to Mariposa, where he fell in love with the Skeleton Girl. She saved his life by piping out the cancer with one of his bones, before giving the pipe back to him, replacing his old bone with another. However, before they could marry, he was called back to Earth.

Upon his return, his parents didn't believe his stories, thinking that he ran away and that the Skeleton Girl was a girl he'd fallen in love with who'd died of anorexia. They eventually sent him to Eleanor's Home for Wayward Children.

### Every Heart a Doorway

While Christopher is among the students for most the book, he is first directly mentioned during the meeting the Group Therapy after Sumi's death. He asks Jack for clarification after she says that Sumi's hands were cut off before she died, and she explains that corpses wouldn't have bled as much as Sumi had. He agrees that she wouldn't be the murderer, as she would have left a body.

Lundy tells them to stay with partners until the murder is solved, and when Loriel protests, Christopher suggests getting in groups of three.

When Eleanor arrives, Christopher asks her why her door stayed and the others disappeared, and Lundy explains that her door is a rare stable one. Christopher asks about Narnia, which had multiple doors, and another boy shoots him down, informing him that CS Lewis never went through a portal, and just made stuff up.

When Loriel is found dead, he and Jack support the idea of lying and saying she ran away, since it meant they would not have to return home. He also volunteers to help dispose of the body, as The Skeleton Girl wouldn't forgive him if he didn't. They go to the body, and it is mentioned that "for Christopher, the flesh was temporary, but the bones were eternal and deserved to be treated as such." Christopher tells the others that he may be able to communicate with her Skeleton, and he didn't say so before because he didn't want to be shunned from the other kids, and it wasn't as if Jack and Jill would talk to him. When Nancy says that they talked to him, Christopher informs him that it was because Sumi made them. Jack informs Nancy about how the other students couldn't relate to them, having gone to sunshine worlds. Christopher mentions that he went to a Skeleton World, which was happy, but "by way of Dia de los Muertos."

They carry the body down to the basement, and Jack asks them to put Loriel on the autopsy table before they acid-bath her. Christopher asks if this is for a "creepy perv thing", and Jack informs him that it is not before announcing that Loriel was killed by the shock of having her eyes ripped out. They then dissolve the body in acid, and Christopher confirms that her Skeleton will dance for him once she's ready. Jack jokes that he should marry Nancy and should make more "creepy world-traveling children." Christopher is embarrassed at this.

While the body is melting, Jack wants to go find Jill, her sister. Christopher mentions that when the twins first arrived, he'd thought that Jill was hot and offered to show her around the school, trying to get in her good graces before the boys with magic swords did, as all he had to offer was a flute no one could hear. Jill had told him that he was a cute little boy, but she couldn't lower herself to be seen with him. Jack informs him that Jill didn't associate with people, as her Master was very jealous. Christopher and Jack then go to see if she's in the Dining Hall. They also search the Library and Classrooms, but upon not finding her, they go up to the attic, and Jack makes them hot chocolate; Christopher's had a pinch of cinnamon added.

When Kade and Nancy join them, Christopher mentions that the other guys, excluding Kade, only put up with him because there were so few boys, but they all went to nice worlds, and they would insult the Skeleton Girl, causing him to punch them until they shut up. When Kade mentions that his parents wouldn't let him return until he pretended to be a girl, Christopher mentions that his parents would let him return, but thought that this was a complicated breakdown because of trauma he'd experienced after "running away." He says that his Mom believes the Skeleton Girl was a girl he fell in love with who died of anorexia, and asks him if he remembers her real name so she can tell her parents what happened to her. He thinks it's sad that they care so much, but are so wrong.

They try to talk about what the murdered students- Sumi and Loriel- had in common, and Christopher brings up that they had literally nothing in common. They barely even interacted with each other. Jack hypothesizes that the murderer is trying to make a Skeleton Key Person, but that's when Jill arrives and Jack and Christopher leave to dispose of Loriel's skeleton.

Once they arrive in the basement, Jack asks if they will have to clean the skeleton. Christopher says they won't, wrapping his fingers around his flute, and begins to talk about how they used to free new citizens in the Country of Bones, before interrupting himself. When Jack prompts him, he explains that they would cut through the flesh, so the skeletons could rise without fracturing themselves. Christopher then plays on his flute- it played the idea of sound, one that gave a sense that something was being overlooked. Loriel's skeleton rises, and they take her outside to bury her somewhere she couldn't be found. Christopher and Jack ask the Skeleton of Loriel who killed her, though she only points of the left of Jack. The Skeleton then buries itself, and Christopher mutters that she was so pretty.

The next night, Kade and Christopher sleep over with Nancy, with Christopher sleeping on the floor. He dreams of dancing skeletons, and his Skeleton Girl. When Kade awakes to screaming, he wakes Christopher, and the three of them went outside, finding Lundy's body, with her brain missing. They are approached by Angela and a group of students, who accuse them of killing Lundy and kidnapping Seraphina. She adds that she and the other students went to respectable worlds, insulting the worlds of Nancy and Christopher and misgendering Kade. When Eleanor dismisses them, Angela turns on Kade, telling him that it's sick he pretends to be something he's not. Christopher responds, "I was about to say the same thing to you. I mean, you always did a pretty good job of pretending to be a decent human being. You had me fooled." Angela storms off, and Jack appears, fainting from a stab wound. Christopher and Kade take her to the kitchen, where they and Eleanor tend to her wound until Nancy appears, having realized that Jill was the murderer, something confirmed by Jack, who figures she's in the attic. The students rush up there to stop her.

Jill argues with the students, saying that she is doing this to go home. Christopher tells her that this isn't the way, and Nancy adds that the Dead aren't tools. Jack stabs Jill from behind, killing her and opening a portal to her world. She carries Jill's body through, closing the door and leaving the students behind.

On the last day of school, Kade mentions to Nancy that him and Christopher were working on a new map of worlds connected to the dead.

### Beneath the Sugar Sky

Christopher is still at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children by the time Autumn arrives, practicing his flute in case the Skeleton Girl should call him back to Mariposa. He has also moved into the basement, now that Jack, Jill and Nancy have all departed.

At the beginning of Autumn, Cora runs into him at the doorway, and he assumes from her panic that she is upset for running into someone from a "darker" world. Cora isn't worried about that, though, but she was scared that he was going to yell at her and tease her for her weight. When she tells him that there's a girl in the turtle pond claiming to be Sumi's daughter, Christopher takes her to Eleanor, explaining about Sumi being exiled from Confection and then murdered by Jill. The two of them then tell Eleanor and Kade about the girl, and the latter leaves with them to bring her to the Office.

When they arrive at the pond, Christopher finds Rini attractive, possibly due to the fact that she is now naked. After Rini explains that she is vanishing from existence, Kade gives her a dress and then brings her to Eleanor. Rini explains her story and that she can travel between worlds with her bracelet, which gives Christopher an idea. He takes them to the basement, where he has dug up Sumi's hands and kept them in a jar, explaining that he had a nightmare of her skeleton being incomplete. His plan is for them to find her grave so he can pipe her skeleton to them, give her her hands back, and then go to the Halls of the Dead so that Nancy can help them find her soul. Eleanor gives them permission to go.

Christopher travels with Cora, Kade, Rini and Nadya to the graveyard where Sumi is buried, and he enters, playing his bone flute. He considers raising more skeletons for a revel, but he knows that won't help Rini or Eleanor, so he instead plays for Sumi alone. Once her skeleton rises, he gives her back her hands. When Rini says that she needs to know who she's looking for in order to travel between worlds, Christopher joins Kade and Nadya in describing Nancy to her. Rini then summons them a door to the Halls of the Dead, and they enter.

Christopher is overjoyed to be in the Halls, as it's the closest to Mariposa he's been in a while. Cora then asks him if he actually wants to be a skeleton, and he says that if he is, his world can't make him leave again. The group then enters the Halls, and encounter the Lady of Shadows and Nancy, who bring them to the room of souls. Though he doubts he will be able to control something that's not bones, Christopher plays his bone flute, and Sumi's ghost is summoned to surround her skeleton. However, it is a ghost of Sumi before she went to Confection, and her wildness will have to be found somewhere else. At that point, the Lord of the Dead arrives, saying that they will have to trade one soul for another. Nadya agrees to stay, and after she leaves, Christopher asks the Lord where Sumi's Nonsense went. When he says that it is home, Rini takes them to Confection.

The group falls into the Strawberry Sea, where Christopher nearly drowns. Cora manages to save him, as well as his bone flute, and wakes him up with CPR. Rini takes the group towards her home, where she hopes to find her Mother's Nonsense, and she explains her world. The group is then intercepted by the Queen of Cakes's army, who arrests them and takes them to the castle, confiscating Christopher's flute. They are brought before the Queen, and when Christopher sees that she has his flute, he panics, throwing himself at her to try and get it back. He is dragged off by the Guards, and the group is thrown into a prison.

Christopher slowly starts to uncontrollably shake and grow cold as they are trapped, and Kade explains to Cora that he needs his flute close to him. Cora and Kade then capture two guards and rush off to find his flute, leaving him with Rini. When they return with the Queen captured, and give him back his flute, Kade asks Christopher if he wants them to kill her. Christopher says No, as he does not want to see her in the afterlife.

The travelers head towards Rini's candy corn farm, and Christopher says that he used to wish he could go to any world other than Earth, but now he realizes that Confection is even farther from Mariposa than Earth had been. Upon reaching the farm, Sumi's husband, Ponder, reveals that he doesn't know how to return Sumi's Nonsense, but upon Christopher's suggestion, he directs them towards the Baker.

On the walk over, Christopher has to stop for a second, still recovering from his near-death experience. Rini pushes them onwards, and the group eventually reaches the Baker's Oven. They meet the Baker herself, who is a traveler like them. She agrees to help them, and adds sweets to patch up Sumi's skeleton before setting her to bake. While they talk, the Baker reveals that her name was Layla, and Christopher asks if he'd be able to find her in the Past Earth. Layla asks that he doesn't, so as not to mess up her timeline. She also reveals that the travelers will have to take Sumi back with them, so as to fix the Confection future. Sumi finishes baking, and Rini awakens her, bringing her back to life.

Layla bakes the travelers a door to return home, and makes them promise not to look for her. They return to Eleanor's school, reuniting Sumi with Eleanor.

## Relationships

Christopher is engaged to the Skeleton Girl, the princess of Mariposa and talks about how he dreams of her killing him with their marital knife and turning him into a skeleton like her in Beneath the Sugar Sky.

## Gallery

Christopher, Loriel and JackChristopher, Loriel and JackRini, Nadya, Cora, Christopher and KadeRini, Nadya, Cora, Christopher and KadeSumi, Christopher, Rini, Cora and Kade
## Trivia

* "Christopher" is an English name meaning "bearing Christ."
* Christopher is confirmed to be bisexual and polyamorous.

## References

1. ↑ Beneath the Sugar Sky, page 141: "None of us signed up for any of this," said Christopher. "I just wanted to live to see my sixteenth birthday."
2. ↑ Beneath the Sugar Sky, page 30: "He was tall and lean, with brown skin and black hair, and a small, skull-shaped pin on his left lapel. He always wore a jacket, partially for the pockets, and partially for the readiness to run. Most of them were like that. They always had their shoes, their scissors, whatever talisman they wanted to have to hand when their doorways reappeared and they had to make the choice to stay or go.
3. ↑ Every Heart a Doorway page 93: "What do you mean?" asked one of the few boys, a tall Latino kid who was spinning a long piece of wood carved to resemble an ulna between his fingers." Nancy felt an odd kinship when she looked at him. Perhaps he'd been somewhere like her Underworld, filled with shadows, secrets, and safety. Perhaps he would understand if she went to him and spoke of stillness and respect for the dead."
4. ↑ From Seanan McGuire's tumblr: "Christopher is bisexual and poly, although his primary relationship is with the Skeleton Girl, so I try not to think about that too hard."