Winter Has Come | ✔ #1 Winter Series

Chapter 52

A second after she's gone, there's no time to react because something that sounds like a strangled scream reaches my ears.

I look in panic at the others, wondering what's going on. Everyone is looking at the floor in horror, and then I look too, wanting to join in with the fun.

There, on the floor surrounding my mother's feet, is a thin crust of ice, spreading and spreading. It's my mother screaming in shock at the ice that seems very much alive underneath her.

I don't see what the hassle is. This Camp is practically devoted to ice and winter, so why is my mother screaming at something we should be used to?

Then I put the pieces of the puzzle together. It's my mother who made the ice.

She has the power.

Mum has just gained the power.

So that's how it happens. You're a normal human one second and then the next you're some ice-sprouting monster. It was in a split second. Like a click of my fingers.

The guard outside comes in due to all the commotion. He takes one look at the slippery stuff underneath my mother's feet, ducks his head back out of the tent flap and yells 'Sarah!' as loudly as he dares.

A minute later, Sarah is back in the tent but, unlike all of the confused and demanding faces around the room, she's smiling, as though there's something to be happy about.

"Well," she says. "This is good, isn't it? One more camper."

My mother glances at me and Angie. There's worry and panic stamped all over her face. "What about those two?" Now she sees Maisie and clutches her so tightly that Maisie murmurs in pain. "They don't have it! They don't—"

Sarah raises her hand and Mum falls to a silence at once. Her voice just trails off into nothingness and we're all standing there, holding our breath, hanging onto this woman's every last word.

"These two girls indeed don't have the power so, as I said before, they aren't allowed within the Camp barriers. They may camp just outside if you wish, but as long as they're outside, that's okay."

My father steps forward. His face is twisted in rage. "But you can't do that! You can't separate families—"

"I can do what I like!" snarls Sarah at him. He cuts off to an abrupt silence, so unlike the way my mother mumbled her last words. "What I say goes! You understand?"

My father looks at the floor. I hold my breath. Never in my life have I seen him beaten down like that, forced to obey, forced to be silent. He has always been a man to lead, a man to follow.

"What about Maisie?" Mum bleats, and it sounds so small, so lost. "She's only small and she's autistic. Separating us would--"

"She can stay," says Sarah firmly. "But the other girls leave."

We lapse into a silence. I find myself not really caring. As long as Maisie's fine, I'm fine.

"Now," continues Sarah. "The girls may go now. As for the rest of you, I'll have one of the men give you a tour around the Camp."

A guard rounds up Angie and I. She looks upset and my feelings reflect her expressions too. We're going to live outside the Camp? Just because we don't have some stupid powers?

"Bye," Josh tries to shout as we're ushered away but a guard clips him hard on the back of the head and he scowls, but he's still looking at me, probably checking to see if I'm okay.

I can't turn round anymore because the guard instructs that I do not look at him. So, the last thing I see before I'm taken away are those brown eyes, melting with sadness.