The Shadow of Winter

Chapter 10

        A young girl with (length) (color) hair rested her head against the cold window frame, watching as children of all ages played outside in the snowplowed street. Snowballs were tossed around and snowmen were in the process of being built. A few smaller children were pulled on sleds over the rough, icy street, weaving off to the side when slow-moving vehicles passed through. Their joyful cries carried up to the opened window, entering the quiet and sullen hotel room where the lonesome girl sat.

        Special Agent Shadow and (Name) (Last name) had left their fancy hotel outside Central City in the early light of the morning to travel the freeway for hours upon hours. They had been on the run from those who wished to cause the human girl harm and who had somehow known the location of the apartment she had been staying in with her guardian. The call received from Detective Vector had told of their discovery and their near-miss of being caught in the flames of the burned down apartment. So the two had packed their few belongings and took the Interstate Highway System, passed through the state border into Pennsylvania, and were currently resting from their road trip that was to be resumed the next morning.

        The cries from outside grew louder as a naughty boy kicked over the snowman the other children had been building. He laughed and stuck out his tongue, only to turn away screaming when the bigger, older boys rushed at him and grappled for his flailing limbs. They held the boy down and rubbed freezing snow into the neck of his winter coat.

        (Name) wanted to be out there. She wanted to run around and tease the younger kids, to initiate a snowball fight that would leave everyone shivering in delight, to be dragged by the feet with her rump sliding across the ice and snow, and to come back indoors to a steaming cup of hot cocoa. It was what she had done in previous winters out on the school grounds and in the neighborhood streets. It made her feel young and free, as she should—not penned in like a felon on house arrest.

        But of course, Shadow did not approve.

        The hedgehog had been sulking around the hotel since the moment they had gotten there. On more than one occasion, (Name) had seen him take out the small photo from inside his glove and stare at it longingly. During those times the girl had noticed the male seemed to have a dazed, almost peaceful expression. But when she had been caught looking, the hedgehog's face had hardened again. That photo was obviously of someone important, someone with the ability to make Shadow appear more vulnerable. He never spoke of it, though, so (Name) had no idea who it possibly could be.

        An hour later, the sun had dropped halfway to the horizon. There was not much time left before all sign of daylight disappeared, which meant there was not much time left to spend outside. After wasting the afternoon watching the kids down below play in the street, (Name) had enough. She was bored of her online schoolwork and needed fresh air that was not just coming from the crack of a window. She needed to move after sitting still for so long.

        Leaving the petite round table by the window that she had been sitting at, the girl quietly made her way to the closet by the hotel room door where her coat, boots, hat, and gloves were stored. As she carefully put those on, her eyes were on the red-striped hedgehog who was hunched over on the couch again, looking at his photo. He was so engrossed with it that he was not aware of the girl about to leave the room. When his ears finally twitched at the sound of a coat being zipped up, their eyes met.

        "Where are you going?" demanded Shadow as he clenched the photo with a fearsome scowl. "I didn't say you could leave the room. Take off your shoes and coat and sit down."

        (Name) looked back at him, attempting a weak scowl of her own in order to gain some confidence over that intimidating aura the agent gave off. "I want to go outside," she said. "I finished my schoolwork and I have nothing else to do. Can't I go outside for just a little bit? There are other kids around, it's not like I'll be in any danger." She flinched when the hedgehog swiftly stood and put away his photo. He was more than a little irritated at her refusal to do as he said.