Imperial Coffee

Crescent: Part Seventeen

A/N: I'M SORRY, I CHEATED ON IC WITH PROM DRESS SHOPPING AND ROGUE ONE YESTERDAY. PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR BEING A DAY LATE. 

Cinder gripped her hands together. She opened her mouth but closed it again, realizing she didn't have anything to say.

"I mean, I don't have solid proof." Winter leaned back in her chair. She looked away from Cinder towards the window, and Cinder followed her gaze. There was not much to see but rain and storm clouds. It was easy to forget the weather when they were in such a pristine, warm room, but the storm seemed fitting in a way.

"I only have suspicions and...something I've seen."

"Something you've seen?"

Winter shivered and turned back to Cinder. Their eyes met.

"I don't imagine your memory of that day is clear, even if it's come back?"

"No, I still...don't remember a lot."

"Think, what was the masked man wearing?"

Cinder shut her eyes tight, trying to pull the image up in her mind.

"All black."

"Are you sure?"

Cinder took the screw back out of her pocket and squeezed it in her fist. "I'm sure, but I don't remember it that well."

"It's okay, I was just wondering if you would have noticed it too. The symbol over his heart..."

Cinder concentrated. Pain. Darkness. A gun. Garan, pushing her behind him. Winter next to her. A man in all black, in front of him. And over his heart...

"A crescent!" Cinder lept up from the couch. The screw bit into her hand from gripping it too tightly, and she dropped it. It hit the ground with a small ting.

"S-sorry, I didn't..." She sat back down, shivering. Over the man's heart had been a small, white crescent, like a moon. Why had she only now remembered?

"It's okay, I know what it's like," Winter said. "I was there too, I know...what you remember."

Cinder held a hand to her forehead. Her breathing was now steady, but she felt uncomfortably hot and stuffy.

"The symbol doesn't mean a lot on its own," Winter said. "It could've been anything. Until I snuck into Levana's office while she was gone, and found this." She pulled something from her pocket. It was long and thin and small, and only when Cinder leaned forward did she realize what it was.

"A pen?"

Winter held it out for Cinder to take. Cinder picked it up. It didn't seem much different from any other pen, except that it was perhaps fancier. If Cinder had seen it anywhere, she wouldn't have thought anything odd about it.

"Uncap it."

Cinder pulled the cap off.

"Look inside it."

Cinder looked into the cap. At the end of it...

"Another crescent."

Winter nodded. "She has plenty of pens like these, so I don't think she would notice this one missing. Otherwise, there's nothing remarkable about it. But it's too close to the man's symbol, don't you think?"

Cinder capped the pen and handed it back to Winter. Her arm shook as she brought her hand back to her body, and she curled it up at her side. A shivered went down her back, and she looked at the door, at the window, as if someone was going to jump out and attack. But no one did.