The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 62 - Strange Child (Patreon)

                                                                     Alexander North

Out of caution, I double check to make absolutely sure that there aren’t any entrances reachable from where I am to the room they’re in. Then, after not finding any, I pull my fist back and punch the wall, creating a hole in it and startling both the child and Snow, who I find sitting in the middle of a storage room.

Okay, it is indeed Snow. But why does she have a heat signature now?

The child is a young girl wearing regular street clothes. Probably somewhere around twelve or thirteen years old. And she looks quite terrified at me, for good reason too, considering my appearance.

Snow doesn’t seem to care though as she rushes for me and rubs her head against my hand.

I frown down at Snow for a few seconds before patting her on the head and quietly saying, “I’m glad you’re okay.” I then look up at the girl, who seems to have calmed down a little and now just looks confused instead of terrified. She has black hair with a couple streaks of white in it, which I’m guessing is some new fashion trend or something. Her eyes are a warm brown, and she surprisingly doesn’t appear to be cold. Not at first glance anyways. No shivering, no heavy breathing, no anything that’d indicate her freezing.

Which is bizarre considering that her street clothes are not meant for the cold.

And why is a child her age in this company building anyways? I’ve been through a lot of the building already, and there are a lot of locked doors that don’t use magnetic locks. So she shouldn’t have been able to get through.

Maybe she’s the daughter of someone who works here?

She also doesn’t seem to be that afraid of me anymore. And each and every moment she seems to be calming down more and more.

“You’re not afraid of me?” I ask out of curiosity.

The child stays silent for a second while staring at me before glancing at Snow and muttering incredibly quietly, “The doggy likes you, so you can’t be bad.”

I blink in surprise at that.

Now that I think about it, why isn’t she afraid of Snow either? Snow is very obviously a frozen one as well.

A shard suddenly digs through the wall right next to her, but as if in response to that, the girl’s heat signature goes cold and the shard stops midflight. It then turns around and shoots downwards, going into the floor.

My mouth opens for a second, but I close it again without saying anything. I then look into the girls currently squinted eyes to see the color of her eyes shifting back and forth between a warm brown to a pale, faintly glowing blue. Meanwhile the girl herself is holding her head on the floor, seemingly in pain. But after a few seconds and some deep breaths, she raises her head to look at me with a frightened expression on her face. One not frightened by me, but whatever seems to be happening to her.

Snow suddenly rushes over to the girl and nudges her head with her nose, making a faint smile cross the girl’s face in the process.

Just what… is happening to this girl?

I slowly approach her before kneeling down with her curious and slightly wary gaze following my movements. The wariness isn’t out of fear though. I can tell that much somehow.

She doesn’t say anything in my approach, and once I reach her level, I ask, “Are you okay?”

The girl’s eyes widen in surprise at my question before tears begin to flow down her face, making me almost fall backwards at the suddenness of it.

Did I do something wrong?

I’m really not good with kids.

I look at Snow next to her, but she just nonstop rubs her head into the girl’s shoulder as she cries. But then the girl suddenly gets up and rushes to me before hugging me.

“Uh.” I can’t help but say out loud before stopping myself. The girl doesn’t stay like this for long though and gets back up a second later while wiping her tears. She then seems to notice my insignia and a look of terror appears on her face as she bows her head to me and shouts, “I’m sorry, sir! I didn’t know you were a soldier!”

I blink in shock at the sudden turnaround before standing up.

“It’s fine. A kid shouldn’t have to follow military protocol.” I tell her, but her face scrunches up at that for some reason, only to relax again a second later.

Actually, on second thought, she might be the daughter of someone from the military. It would certainly explain that reaction if she was raised in a military family. Or a noble one at that, but I don’t think that’s the case considering her clothes.

“Would you mind telling me why you started crying?” I ask as gently as I can, and she purses her lips while avoiding looking at me. Despite that she still answers after a few seconds.

“Because whenever the others would see that they would call me a monster. Even… even Rose.” The girl begins, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes again. “They told me to wait here for them but never returned.”

Oh. So they saw whatever was happening to her and decided to abandon her.

That’s cruel, but I can understand how fear can overwhelm people. Especially civilians.

Although, does she-

“I know they left me because I’m not like them anymore, but…” she continues, making my eyes widen slightly at her observation skills, “I didn’t want to leave.”

That’s… not really sure what to say to that.

I can’t exactly leave her on her own, but at the same time there is no way I’m taking her with me everywhere. So maybe I can just find the others and leave her with them as I go out hunting some more?

“Don’t worry,” I tell her while patting her head, pausing ever so slightly when I see the sclera in her eyes flicker from white to black and then back to white for a second, “I’m not like them either.”

Was that the right thing to say? I have no idea.

But it seems to calm her down nonetheless, so it’s good enough.

I jerk my head to the side before reaching over and scooping the girl up right when a loud bang echoes through the floor. I then take her through the room, kicking past the door that was locked while sending a glance over my shoulder to find… nothing? Wait, no, not nothing. Some sort of shimmering figure standing in another hole in the wall not of my own making.

Shit. What the hell is that thing?!

It lets out a loud shrieking roar, making whatever camouflage it had suddenly flicker, revealing an enormous wraith that has me regretting my thoughts before it fully cloaks again.

Whatever it is, it’s not good. And I need to get the girl away before I fight it.

As I’m running, I notice Snow looking back and forth between me and the girl. My eyes widen and I decide to put my trust in Snow.

Here’s hoping she’s intelligent enough to understand.

I lightly toss the girl towards Snow, eliciting a squeal in the process before Snow catches her by her hoodie’s hood in her jaws and begins sprinting down the hall. So I begin running in the opposite direction to them, and the creature follows after me.

That worked out better than expected.

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