Rise of the Night Witch

Interlude 5 (Tasha)

A/N: This is the epilogue to the story, enjoy!

New York City was known for a thousand things. Tasha's biggest problem was the thousand-oneth thing no one talked about.

She lay down on a frozen bench near Riverside Park. It felt like lying on a field of icicles. She hadn't switched out of her jacket ever since the Headless Hurricane and she couldn't afford a new one. It had been sufficient for autumn.

Now, it was winter.

Her well-worn coat carried so many holes that the cold seeped like venom through it that slowly infested her body. She shifted to the left and right, struggling to find the right position at which the damaged parts were the ones touching the ice so that the intact ones prevented the wind.

As long as she didn't move, the cold was nothing to worry about. Once she woke up the next morning, she was going to have to worry about finances. How should she manage them?

Pickpocketing was an option, but most places had tightened their security specifically due to people like her. Asking people for quarters was another option, but she worried she didn't look enough like the pitiable victim everyone was willing to donate for. Prostitution was below her dignity, although she did have to wonder how long it took until she'd have to try that one out, too.

In the meantime, she could try to see if any shelter became available. The New York City Department of Homeless Services claimed their system had reached full capacity. After that storm that hit the entire northeast coast, which was so sudden that some thought it had supernatural causes, it was no surprise that she faced a lot of competition.

She used to live a humble life in Yonkers before everything went to hell. The boutique she used to work at got its windows shattered by rocks thrown around by the storm while her tenement became the victim of flooding. With her debts being the way they were, there was no hope for her to buy an affordable home in a place with living costs as extreme as Yonkers.

New York City was only marginally cheaper. With many people suffering similar fates, the city had no chance to absorb the refugees. Living costs skyrocketed and homeless shelters overflowed.

For those unlucky ones who got left behind, the streets and the subways remained.

Tascha couldn't sleep. Her bad leg woke her up and when she moved, the cold from standing up and exposing her jacket to the wind put her in a brief moment of shock. Tasha needed a walk. That made her warm and eased the pain her knee suffered. At least walking through the park was free. Not like they banned it like they banned benches in the subways.

In the brief time Tasha had lived here, she learned to navigate the dark underbelly of the world's biggest center of trade and commerce. She still had a stiff leg and an aching back from the pain sustained during the storm, but it didn't hinder her ability to walk around.

Riverside Park lay adjacent to a graffiti-rich railroad tunnel known as the Freedom Tunnel. It received its name from the homeless population who used to live here to seek freedom from law enforcement and greater society. Rumor has it that the sewers, subways, and tunnels of New York City house thousands of people of such people. These so-called "mole people" were said to have their own societies in the cities underground. While Tasha wasn't the person to believe in silly urban legends, the notion of a secret society in the shadows of this vibrant metropolis fascinated her.

Unfortunately, their story didn't end well for the Freedom People denizens. Their shantytowns got bulldozed, the mole people evicted, and the tunnel is to this day guarded by the Amtrak Police.

It was said that one should stay away from New York's subways after 10 PM. 11 PM was the latest. Police security was tight around the time.

As a person of Black and Latinx heritage, Tasha had learned a few rules on how to deal with her friends on the force. Basic rules like "Use your Miranda Rights", "Don't run away or resist a pat-down", or "Don't discuss your legal status with anyone other than your lawyer".