After a couple more nights in hospital, Hunter was given the all clear by the nurse and escorted back to her cell late that evening. The others were all sound asleep. The guard gave her a tray of cold food which she devoured greedily and lay on her thin mattress, staring at the long spider-crack in the ceiling, listening to nothing in particular but her thoughts. She was fresh and sleep seemed so far off that Hunter was afraid of being alone with her thoughts for another night. She sat up in her bed, deciding to take a shower. Even if she was caught by the guards and given a warning, it would be worth it.
But there was someone waiting outside her cell.
Little Sammy stood behind the glass with one hand up in a wave, his rug dragging along the ground. Hunter smiled, crossed to the door and let him in.
“You’re better!” Sammy whispered. Once the door was closed, he wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly. “I’m so glad you’re better.”
“Hey,” said Hunter as she wrapped her hands around his head and peered down at him. “If the guards find you, you’ll be in deep trouble Sammy. What’s the matter?”
The look in Sammy’s one good eye was so beautiful and pure that Hunter wanted to pick him up and hold him tight and never let him go.
“I was having bad dreams and I wanted to see if you were here,” he replied. “Hunter?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I stay with you for a bit?”
Hunter would have rather pulled off her arm than say no to a face like Sammy’s. His bright eyes widened with his smile and he ran over to her bed and wriggled under the thin blanket. Feeling a little nervous, Hunter slid in beside the small boy – who practically had to lie on top of her, the bed was so small – and stared at the ceiling again. Only this time, she was a little warmer.
Sammy’s head rested between her shoulder and her ear. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily. Hunter listened and found it oddly soothing.
“Hunter?” Sammy whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Hunter resisted the urge to answer with ‘Shit Happens’, instead opting for her own personal answer to that question. It was something she often thought about while lying in her cell. She used to believe in Karma – that this was her punishment for the man she killed by accident in the alleyway, or for being so reckless with her powers and not listening to Joshua’s advice. But after meeting so many innocent and good people in this place who had done nothing wrong in their lives, she knew that there must be another explanation. And perhaps it wasn’t to punish them, but to help them grow.
“Everyone has to go through bad times, Sammy,” she said. “It’s what makes us stronger. It opens our eyes, gives us the courage to fight and the heart to forgive. If we didn’t go through bad stuff, we wouldn’t be grateful for the good things we have. Like each other.” She squeezed him a little and he squeezed her back.
“Hunter?”
“Yes Sammy?”
“Did your mommy ever sing to you when you lived in the real world?”
A lump wriggled into Hunter’s throat. No one had ever asked her such a simple question and reduced her to tears. “No Sammy,” she said. “I never had a mommy. She died giving birth to me.”
“My mommy sung to me once. I remember because she sung about angels. I really miss my mommy.”
“You’re very lucky to be able to remember her. Does that help you sleep better?”
“Sometimes,” he said. “But sometimes I forget. Hunter?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you sing it to me? The angel song?”
Hunter squirmed on the bed. “I don’t know the angel song.”
“That doesn’t matter,” he replied simply. “You can make it up.”
“Oh.” Hunter swallowed, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. No way I could ever be a mother, I’m a terrible singer. “How about I sing something else?”
“Okay.”
Hunter scrambled through her brain for something – anything – to sing to a boy without a mother. She wasn’t sure she believed in a happy ending to their story, but she definitely believed – as Will did – that there was a higher power watching over them. Maybe it really was an angel.
And then she remembered.
It wasn’t a lullaby; it was a poem she’d studied in school. Hunter had never been musically gifted, but she always imagined a tune to go with the lyrics. Now seemed the perfect time to test them.
She took a deep breath and began.
“There is someone who cares for you,
Who watches you sleep so sound,
Who holds you in their warm embrace,
Who helps the lost be found.
An Angel watches over you,
With comfort and with love.
An Angel carries you away,
To heaven up above.”
Hunter sniffed away the tears in her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat. The sound of her song echoed in the dark cell room, the words still thumping inside her heart. And for a moment, it felt like a prayer being lifted to the heavens, to whoever was watching over them. A prayer for their survival in the escape tomorrow.
Carefully, she twisted her head and looked down. Sammy was asleep.
YOU ARE READING
Embers & Ice
Science Fiction*AVAILABLE ON AMAZON* The second in the ROUGE series ... Everyone is wrong about hell. Vulnerable and weak after her battle with her guardian Joshua, Hunter is snatched up by the Agents who work for a ruthless and cold institution called ICE. There...
