Winter Went | #2 Winter Series

Chapter 4

|| Josh ||

The sunlight wakes him up. It streams through the curtain, cutting his face right in half. Groggily, he opens his eyes, blinking to let the light seep through.

When he turns, she is still sleeping. Her body curled up in a foetal position, hands tucked over knees, mousy hair framing her face. Even in her sleep, she mumbles. He has never understood the meaning of those mumbles, although he does try.

"Hey, Maisie," he says softly to her. "Wake up."

Maisie doesn't stir and it's only after a few prods that her doe eyes blink silently open. She gazes at him for a few seconds before closing her eyes again.

Sighing, he slips from his own bed and makes his way to the shower. Better if he takes one now since it could be weeks before they have the chance for another one. Keeping that in mind as he steps in, he reminds himself to tell Maisie to have a wash too.

As the water strips him clean, he thinks. That is what Joshua Middleton does. He observes, he thinks, he plans. The three things that his training taught him. The three that, if done correctly, prove successful every time.

He thinks of the message left for him, the words the woman with the blonde hair and the blue eyes uttered to him when she was bleeding in that tent. He barely heard her, but one thing stayed drilled into his brain.

Prison is what he'd heard her say. And he hadn't listened to anymore, except to nod and flee since the rebels were turning on him.

He steps out of the shower before he can relive the memory again.

Throwing on the same clothes as last night, he exits the bathroom only to find the girl still wrapped up in a cocoon.

"Right, up," he says, haughty, knowing that she won't do what he asks of her unless he persists. "Get up and shower. We'll be leaving soon."

Maisie only blinks.

"Maisie?" he demands. "Did you hear me?"

Silently, the little girl rises from her bed and makes her way to the shower. Minutes pass and he waits. It's only when he's going to knock on the door to check if she's all right, that the door itself opens and the girl reappears again. Only she is still in the same state as she was when she went in.

"You didn't shower?" asks Josh.

Maisie blinks.

Knowing he won't win, he sighs again, telling himself that if she wants to put up a fight, she can.

"Get your things. We're leaving."

He grabs his few possessions—the book of poetry and his jackets—before he ushers her out of the door, and the hotel room remains silent once again.