Sky Corruption (Past Tense)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It's now Thursday morning, today is the day before the search of Ezra's brother. Winter fluttered her eyes open as her vision came into contact with the ceiling above her. Her red and black quilt had been draped across the lower half of her body as she slowly propped herself up on one elbow. Her dreadlocks cascaded down her backside as she used the heel of her palm to rub her eyes. She glanced over at the lonely mattress on the other side of the room. China was nowhere to be seen.

What was I even expecting? Winter thought to herself. China literally spends her mornings either exercising, out on the surface, or training with Faith in the spare room.

Her clothes from yesterday had been strewn around her mattress messily, an old candy wrapper stuck out of the pile of clothes. Winter wrinkled her nose as she threw the quilt off of her body. "Jeez China, it wouldn't kill you to put your clothes in a basket." She mumbled to herself as she shambled toward China's side of the room and plucked the clothes off the floor, tossing them onto the mattress. Another one of China's bad habits marked down on Winter's irritation list: she was a complete slob.

Winter stretched her arms in front of her, her shoulders and elbows popped from the mini-workout session that she's practicing. She eyed the Christmas lights that had been connected all over the four parts of the wall. Even if China was a slob, she gave life to this room. Winter thought.

A growl had emerged from her stomach, Winter winced and sheepishly ran her hand over her belly, "Speaking of which, I should give life to my stomach." Winter muttered to herself with another yawn.

Winter sauntered toward the door, shielding her eyes with the back of her hand from the harsh white light in the ceiling, the smell of bleach filled her nostrils. She proceeded to shuffle her feet along the stell floor, her toes shuddered at the feel of the cold.

There's heavy retching sounds that emerged from one of the rooms down the hallway. Winter pursed her chapped lips and continued her way down the hall.

It must be Nikki, she's probably sick or enduring morning sickness. Winter had thought to herself. Once she had made it towards the bathroom door at the end of the hall, she gave it a knock which had sent the door backward, revealing a boy with a mop of blonde hair and rough calloused hands gripping the edges of the toilet seat.

Ezra. Winter quickly rushed toward him, instinctively ran her hands over his back and gave it a gentle rub. "There, there...get it all out." She tried her best at comforting but it doesn't seem to do much for him.

A few more gags and chokes escaped Ezra's mouth, he groggily reached over to flush the toilet, forcing himself to sit while his back was against the wall, his hand covering his eyes.

"Jesus." Winter mumbled, staring at him intensely. "Do you have a cold?"

Ezra shook his head, "I...I don't know, one minute I'm waking up with a damned head rush and now I'm puking out literal organs-" The pitch in his voice was low and scratchy, as if he's been screaming his lungs out the entire night.

"I can take you to Nikki, she once studied to be a nurse so she has a bit of experience." Winter suggested, the more she stared at him, the more she noticed that something was...off.

There were dark streaks that crept along his neck, his collarbone, his hands, and even his feet. It was natural to see dark blue veins every once in a while, but instead, they were a dark shade of purple, almost black.

Ezra shook his head, "I would know by now if I had a fever, and I wouldn't let you be this close to me if I did." He subtly refused, hinting that he knew that she had been staring for a little too long.

"Y-yeah." Winter quickly answered, pretending that she didn't notice his obscure veins. "I'm not a morning person." She quickly shrugged as she rose from the tiled floor. She extended her hand out but Ezra simply rose up onto his feet on his own, as if he hadn't been vomiting a minute ago.

"Thanks." Ezra numbly said. Winter looked up at him and knitted her eyebrows together.

"For what exactly?" Winter asked quizzically, folding her arms across her chest.

"For not treating me like a prisoner here." Ezra answered back honestly, "Though I understand why your leader is like this."

"Leader?" Winter repeated, her tone coated in snarkiness. 

Michael raised his eyebrows, unsure of what he said wrong, "The woman, Faith." He answered directly. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

Of course he'd think that she's the leader. Winter chortled to herself. It doesn't add up, whenever Faith has an issue with someone in the group, she singles them out...alone. Yet, she tells him directly, in front of us that she's going to help him find his sister...does Jay know?

Winter shot him a long and hard stare. Her arched eyebrows knitted together as her lips tightened into a straight line, prolonging her deadpanned stare. "I'll warn you once. Stay on Faith's good side."

"I could've told you that myself." Ezra shrugged, "That woman is pretty tough though, I respect it."

"But be wary of it. Faith may not be a huge active member of the group, but she sees everything. If you give her a good enough reason, she'd likely throw you out." Winter warned while holding her index finger up, a habit that both her and China possessed.

Ezra nodded. "But why are you telling me this?" He asked. Winter turned on her heel, as if she didn't hear his question, she started out the door but came to a pause, she glanced at him over her shoulder.

"I'm starting to see why my sister brought you here. That's why." She added, and with that, she's headed down in the hallway, her back facing Ezra.

He doesn't call after her, instead, he closed the door to the bathroom, pretending that what has just happened minutes ago, didn't happen at all.