Winter Went | #2 Winter Series

Chapter 37

This is the last chapter.... of act one

|| Amelia ||

In a faraway land, my hands are shaking, I'm panting, and I'm lying in a crumpled heap in a small, muddy dead-end.

Not in a faraway land. Instead, I'm here.

Here.

Staring at a computer screen. About to see another death, another one's light leaving their eyes.

It can't be Maisie. Not sweet, innocent Maisie.

No.

I forbid it.

"Meelie!" she cries out when she sees me. But she doesn't reach out.

Josh. The liar. I hate him.

"Watch," someone says behind me but then I realise it's coming from the screen. And then there are more audible sounds. One penetrates my ears.

Crying. Sobbing that I recognise. It's the same one I heard when I confessed to the police. The sound of my mother.

Mum.

I see it now. She's standing to the side. A guard blocks her from view, but I can hear her crying, can recognise it from a mile away. That wail, the tiny hiccup that follows.

In a faraway land, someone is talking. I listen out.

"As Zach told you before, I've been looking for a cure." It's Sarah's voice, harsh-sounding. "Joshua took hair samples from Maisie and yourself since you've been exhibiting strange behaviour. Neither of you has the Power yet. And that made me wonder."

I can't turn. I can only stare into my sister's eyes, that particular shade of brown.

"Perhaps you have the cure."

Stare, stare. This can't be happening.

"It might be one of the two of you, but I've yet to conduct more tests." She pauses. "So that's why I need your cooperation. I already have your sister, Amelia, and I'm not scared to use her as bait to get you."

Josh moves. His teeth are gritted.

"So now I need you to accept that you'll hand yourself over to me. You will let me find the cure, and you won't protest against me. Because if you do, there will be consequences, like what will happen to little Maisie here. Have I made myself clear, sweetie?"

I can see a vein pulsing out of Josh's neck.

All at once, the word is on my lips. Anything to stop this from happening, to get Josh to remove that horrifying object from my baby sister's head.

"Yes," I say.

And that's when my world explodes.

There is a yell, and Josh is shouting.

"You can't control me!" he's roaring, face livid. "Not anymore! I'm brave. I'm—"

And there is the brown streak of my mother's hair, Josh twisting round, his arm pointing to his shoulder, and a terrific BANG!

The screen rights itself.

My mother stands beside the chair, cradling my sister in her arms, cooing softly. I can barely make out the words.

"You're safe, darling," she murmurs. Only her hands her slick with blood. That's when I realise that she's stroking someone else's head too. "Hush. You're okay, you're okay."

Because on the floor lies Josh. And there is red seeping out of him.

And then I'm tugged away from the screen, hands on my back, others forcing my head into the car, another shoving me so I go flying into the backseat.

The doors slam. Tyres squeal. I'm thrown against the window of Sarah's car and we're reversing down the muddy path.

There is one thing in my head. A thought.

Josh saved me, I realise.

He sacrificed himself to save me.

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