Rise of Winter

by Charlotte A Harper

  “You’re sweating,” he said.

  “Yes,” was all she could gasp out.

  “Let’s get you dry.” He ran his tongue all over her body making sure to lap up any stray beads of sweat that he found in his search. He finished by kissing her nipples which had turned rose red, giving them each a little suck. Then she felt him return attention to her down there.

  “Are you ready?” he said and she knew exactly what he was asking.

  “Yes” she breathed again. She felt him push into her, one inch at a time. She could feel him throbbing inside of her as he pushed in and out. She cried out before she could stop herself. Sorry Quinn, she thought.

  Many minutes later there was quiet once more and this time it stayed. The last memory Jane had of that night was her and Damion lying on the floor, wrapped in each other’s arms. Holding each other close beside the fire.

  ***

  They left in the morning. Before they went, they both said goodbye to Quinn on her front porch in the alleyway.

  “You might just have saved our lives,” said Jane, looking at Quinn and noticing how her skin looked particularly blue this morning.

  “I think it’s safe to say that you did,” said Damion.

  “I said we’re even last night, so you don’t owe me anything. But I am going to take this” Quinn leaned forward and kissed Jane full on the lips. The kiss was full of passion and Jane found herself too in shock to do anything but stand there and take it until Quinn pulled back.

  “I’ve wanted to do that ever since I met you. Even more so after I heard the two of you last night.” Jane blushed before she could stop herself. Quinn shot a quick glance in Damion’s direction. “I hope you don’t mind.”

  Damion looked back with a fair amount of confusion on his face. “Not at all” he said, clearly in a daze from what he just witnessed. “If you really don’t mind, perhaps then if you ever come back this way, we can do a little more of that. Maybe with the three of us?” She presented a sly smile at the two of them. Jane still reeling from the kiss, chocked out a “maybe.”

  “Sounds like a date. See you.” She closed the door, leaving Jane and Damion looking at one another in utter bemusement.

  “What was that?” said Damion, no anger in his voice, just curiosity and maybe even a hint of eagerness as well.

  “I don’t know” she said. “It wasn’t bad though.”

  “I was just thinking the same thing.” Damion gave an embarrassed cough as he turned away from her. “We should get going. Hopefully, they’ve left this area and are busy searching another.”

  They made their way quickly through the streets which were covered in a thin layer of fog this morning, something Jane was grateful for. Any reduced visibility on their part, was to their advantage. The crossed a bridge, its stone walkway casting a shadow on the river that ran below. They ran up the street, pushing past several vendors who were out early to make their case for their cheap goods and sub-par food. They turned a corner and Jane recognized the street and subsequent ramp at its end that led to the platform where their ship was docked. She felt relief at seeing the Winter’s Edge, a relief which quickly turned to panic when she realized it was surrounded by armed men. Bernard Winter had gotten here first.

  “Hey Damion?” said Jane as they both looked at their captured ship with a certain amount of hopelessness.

  “Yes?” said Damion. It was an empty word that hung in the air.

  “I really hate your father,” she said. He turned to look at her.

  “Welcome to the club.”

  Jane bit her lip and tried to think of what their next move could be. Nothing came to her and for the first time, she wondered if they were all out of choices. Then there came a whisper close to her ear.

  “Don’t worry,” it said and when she heard it, she felt a smile come to her face. She knew who that whisper belonged to. She turned to see Savannah Tallbright looking back at her.

  “Hey there,” she said with a grin.

  “How’d you get away?” said Jane, trying to keep her voice low so she didn’t start shouting.

  “When they took me away from the museum, they only put two guards on me. Way too few. I got away and went back to the ship and warned the crew so none of them were on board when it was seized.”

  “Thank god,” said Damion and Jane could hear the relief in his voice. Say what you would about Damion Winter, but he cared about his crew. “Where are they now?”

  “We’re holed up in a small apartment several miles from here.”

  “Alright,” said Damion, stroking his chin, no doubt trying to think what to do next. That’s when Jane saw it. It came to her like a vision being imparted and all at once she knew what needed to be done.

  “I have a plan,” she said.

  Chapter 8

  The orphanage. If Jane’s life was a road or a path, it always seemed to lead back to here. It was a sizable grey building with few windows and a dismal playground out front. If anything, it looked like an empty, haunted school. Jane knew it wasn’t a school. And she knew that it wasn’t empty. The only thing that could be said for sure, was that it was indeed haunted. Haunted by the memories of the girls and boys who had grown up there under the watchful eyes of the Sisters. Haunted by the feelings of loss that everyone who had never had a family felt. A loss that was only magnified by the fact that there was nothing and no one to take its place. The Sisters were not a kind group. They were not a caring group. Jane often found it difficult to describe exactly what they were, but one word always came to mind: Cruelty.

  No one knew where the Sisters had come from or even how long the orphanage had been here. Public records showed that it dated back centuries at the very least. Were they human? Something else entirely? Jane didn’t know and had no desire to find out either. There was just one thing she wanted from them now.

  Jane watched as Sister Ervas disciplined a small boy. She was hitting him on the arms, legs and bodies with a wooden hairbrush, just like they had used to do to Jane. The boy was crying and trying to crawl away on the floor, but Sister Ervas kept up her assault.

  “I’m going to enjoy this,” said Jane. She stepped out of the corner she had been hiding in and pressed the off button on her cloaking device. She felt her body become solid and visible again. She took several steps forward and pressed the steel barrel of her gun into Sister Ervas’ back which caused her to stop cold, the arm that she had been using to beat the poor child with, now hanging limp at her side.

  “Move and you’re dead. Say anything unless I’ve asked you a clear and direct question and you’re dead. Try to signal for help in any way and you’re dead. Nod if you understand,” she said, relishing every word that she was saying.

  Sister Ervas nodded.

  “Good.” She turned her attention to the boy who was looking up at both of them with a mixture of shock and awe. “It’s okay,” she said using a more gentle voice. “Nobody is going to hurt you. I have friends downstairs who are going to help you, okay?”

  “Will they take me away from here?” he said and all at once Jane felt her heart break.

  “Yes. They will. You’ll never have to come back here again.” She hoped it was the truth. At the very least, she meant it to be. The child ran off, hopefully towards Damion and the rest of their crew which should have made their way into the orphanage through the front entrance by now.

  “I remember you,” said Jane, turning her attention to Sister Ervas. “You locked me in the Closet once. I was in there for about a month.”

  “And you deserved it, you nasty little bi—” Jane interrupted Sister Ervas’ attempt at speech by cracking her over the head with the barrel of her gun. Sister Ervas fell to the floor. Jane reached down and grabbed her by the hem of her dark cloak.

  “What did I say about talking?”

  “Only if you ask me a direction question,” said Sister Ervas, her voice a strangle of emotions, from fear to anger.

  “Yes, that’s right. You’re luck
y I didn’t shoot you just now. Now Where’s Sister Margot?” said Jane.

  “She’s in repose in her chambers.”

  “Great. Why don’t you go ahead and take me to her?”

  Sister Ervas complied, leading Jane from the room they were in, down the hall. As she walked through the place, her feet touching the aging wood of the floors, she felt a flood of memories pour through her mind. A few good and many bad, but all of them had one thing in common. It was her life. Who she was had been shaped by these halls and by these women. It hadn’t begun with her parents. She had no memories of them and so all she could do was miss the idea of them. But here at the orphanage, it was real. The smell of it. The feel of it. For better or worse, this was her beginning.

  They approached a wooden door like all the others they had passed but this one in particular stood out in her memory. This was Sister Margot’s room.

  “Knock” whispered Jane in Sister Ervas’ ear. She knocked.

  “Who is it?” came a voice from within.

  “Go ahead and tell her. But if you add anything other than your name to the sentence your about to speak, then you won’t live to see Sister Margot open that door.” Jane felt a chill as she said the words. Was this her? Was she capable of ending this woman’s life if she didn’t do as she was told? Being in the orphanage once more had already given her the answer. Yes, this was her. If this place had given her anything, it was the will to survive. To do what was necessary. Her time on the Winter’s Edge had only honed and sharpened those instincts.

  “It’s Sister Ervas.”

  “What do you want?” came the voice that no doubt belonged to Sister Margot.

  “There’s something I need to tell you,” said Sister Ervas. There were a few moments of silence which made Jane hold her breath in anticipation. Almost reflexively, she felt her finger tighten around the trigger of her gun. There was a small creaking sound as the door was slowly pushed open, revealing the dark cloaked figure of Sister Margot, her two eyes like pits emerging from beneath her hood.

  “What is it?” she said and that’s when Jane stepped out from behind Sister Ervas, her gun raised.

  “You,” said Sister Margot, her voice a snarl.

  “Yes. Me,” Jane said.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Just came to give you a kiss goodbye. I never got the chance yesterday.”

  “You wretched little girl.”

  “I’m not so little anymore. Plus, I think the gun I’m pointing at you makes me look a little taller. Now, here’s what’s going to happen.”

  “Do tell,” said Sister Margot. Jane could see the seething anger beneath the usual cold façade that she wore like a veil over her face.

  “You’re going to call Bernard Winter. You’re going to tell him that you captured me and Damion and that Damion has asked to see his father. Be sure you mention that last part.”

  “Or what?”

  “Excuse me?” said Jane.

  “Or you’ll do what?” Sister Margot said, putting emphasis on each word.

  “Or I’ll shoot Sister Ervas. And then you. And then I’ll burn this whole miserable place to the ground. How’s that for, ‘or what’?”

  Sister Margot drew in a hissing breath. “I’ll call him” she said.

  ***

  Thirty minutes later, Jane was standing with Damion down at front entrance to the orphanage which was marked by a cobwebbed chandelier swinging overhead and a pair of wooden double doors with a rusted hinge. Both her and Damion’s hands were sealed in energy bonds, their heads hung low. In front of them was Sister Margot, her hands clasped together in front of her, an awful smile that looked like it had been peeled from the remains of a skeleton, fixed on her face. In the background, the noise of an old clock could be heard ticking, each of its movements like a pebble being dropped into still water, its noise disturbing the silent calm.

  The double doors started to shake and Jane knew it was time. Bernard Winter walked in, followed by several armed men flanking him on both sides. Jane watched his face closely, noticing the smile that spread across it when he spotted Jane and Damion, bound and helpless behind Sister Margot.

  “Well well,” he said and Jane could tell that he couldn’t be enjoying himself any more than he already was. “Sister Margot” Bernard said with a nod in her direction.

  “Mr. Winter,” she said in return.

  “How’d you find them?”

  “They tried to break into the orphanage. There was something here that they wanted apparently.”

  “Well it doesn’t matter now,” said Bernard Winter strolling around Sister Margot and putting himself in front of his son. “Hello Damion” he said. Jane bit her lip and looked over. Damion was staring at his feet, refusing to meet his father’s gaze.

  “Quite the chase you gave me.”

  “I did everything I could,” said Damion.

  “And now Sister Margot tells me that you asked for me personally after you were captured. I would have just sent a few of my men to pick you up, but I was intrigued. Is there something you want to say to me?”

  There was long pause between Bernard Winter’s question and the answer that Damion gave him, but when it came, Jane couldn’t help but smile. Damion looked up at his father.

  “Gotcha,” he said. All at once three people and one animal appeared in the corners of the room. Walter, Bry and Professor Jung had just deactivated their cloaking devices. Professor Jung had also cloaked Achilles along with himself. All three of them hefted the guns they held in their hands and pointed them at the armed men that Mr. Winter had brought with him while Achilles barred his teeth. All of Bernard Winter’s men still had their guns holstered, their faces a mask of shock and helplessness.

  “Get down on the floor” said Bry taking a step forward, her small frame having trouble holding the rather large gun she had cradled in her arms like a newborn babe. The men complied and laid down on the floor, their hands over their head.

  “What the fuck?” said Bernard Winter, his voice barely more than a whisper.

  “Not bad, eh Mr. Winter?” said Jane, pulling her hands part and dissolving the energy bonds that had been holding them. Damion did the same. They had just been for show. A way to complete the trick.

  “What the hell is going on?” he said, the carefully constructed smugness of his face now having slipped to be replaced by a mask of livid rage.

  “Well, Sister Margot wasn’t lying about us coming back to the orphanage because there was something we wanted. We wanted her. She was the only way we knew to get in contact with you. We made her call you and told you that Damion wanted to see you. Then we evacuated the children along with the Sisters just in case things got out of hand. Our own Savannah Tallbright escorted them away from here. These of course, are also our friends. Mr. Winter, meet Walter, Professor Jung, Bry and Achilles.” Achilles gave a snarl and licked his mouth like he was anticipating a meal. Bernard Winter quickly looked away. “We had them cloaked the entire time, ready to reveal themselves at the right moment.”

  “Sorry father. But you gave us no choice,” said Damion. Bernard looked around the room like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “I get it now,” he said turning to look at Jane. “My son has his issues but he’s not the problem here. You are.”

  “That’s very flattering Mr. Winter.”

  “I should have killed you.”

  “Little late for that now,” she said.

  “Do you think this little parlor trick that you pulled here means that you’ve won? I have more men waiting outside. I have even more that I can call at a moment’s notice. And I have your ship. What’s happened here so far means nothing.”

  “The key words in that sentence were, ‘so far’,” said Damion, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small electronic device. A communicator. He spoke into it. “We’re ready for you.” A few minutes passed and then there was the sound of thrusters splitting the air and the noise that could on
ly come from some kind of aircraft, in this case a ship. Jane smiled.

  “No, it can’t be” said Bernard Winter.

  “That’s right. It’s the Winter’s Edge,” said Damion.

  “But how?”

  “Charlie Houston.”

  “Who?”

  “He’s our mechanic. Savannah managed to evacuate our crew before your men got to our ship. There was one person who stayed behind though and that’s Charlie Houston. He knows that ship better than I do and he knows its hiding places. He hid on the ship while your men took control of it. We got in contact with Charlie and had him hijack it while you were on your way here.”

  There was the sound of gunfire which was no doubt Charlie putting the ship’s defense system to use against whatever men Bernard Winter had stationed outside. After a few minutes, the gunfire came to an abrupt halt.

  “Let’s go take a look, shall we?” said Damion, who grabbed his father by the arm and hauled him roughly through the double doors that marked the entrance to the orphanage. Jane followed.

  Bodies were strewn around what constituted the front yard of the orphanage. The purveyor of the carnage was sitting in the middle of the destruction that it had wrought. It was the Winter’s Edge. Jane felt herself give a sigh of relief and realized just how much she had been holding her breath the whole time. When she had devised this plan, there was a part of her that believed it couldn’t possibly work and yet it had.

  The ramp of the ship began to unfurl and within minutes Charlie Houston walked out, the overalls that he typically wore looking a bit tattered, his simple features turned towards an expression of concern.

  “Everyone all right?” he said.