She stood alone, watching carefully as the young child waddled across the floor, aimlessly searching for her parents. They were not here. Gone to a meeting about cyborg rights and Winter had been left to take care of them.
How foolish, Winter thought, that they would leave me alone with a child.
She was getting better, Jacin told her everyday. She was getting stronger. Winter also realized this was most definitely a test as to how stable she was. Selene, who Winter was know trying to force herself to rename as Cinder, was not one to leave her children alone with those who she did not trust. This gave Winter the extra confidence she needed to grab the child's attention.
"Would you like to play a game?" Winter asked, not expecting a reply due to the fact that the child was still merely an infant. The child simply nodded, chubby head bobbing up and down, while Winter went to pick her up. "I'll take that as a yes."
Winter strode down the long halls, child under her arm who was babbling over nonsensical things that were happening around her.
A faint whisper caught at Winter's ear drums, a pulsing beat that continuously throbbed in the back of her head, itching for her to scratch.
"Shh…" She told herself, pretending to speak to the child who was beginning to whimper. Winter wondered if she too could hear the whispers that haunted the halls.
The child let out an inaudible sound, pawing up at the air with her tiny fingers.
"Shh…" Winter pressed, now speaking directly to the voices. Then she focused her attention to the quietly weeping child. "Don't talk to the monsters in your house." Her thoughts began to clutter with thoughts of what she'd seen in this palace, what had happened to her in this palace.
Her breathing became fast, rushed nonsense. She instantly tried to calm herself down, for the child's sake more than her own.
"They are not friendly."
