Plague Saint [REMOVING FOR PUBLICATION JUNE 1]

Chapter Twenty-One: Caught

Winter fell asleep waiting for a sandwich in a diner, and then again after she'd finished the thing. At ten p.m. the waitress gently shook her awake and informed her they were closing. Winter numbly made her way to the nearest trolley stop and rode home, falling asleep a couple more times on the journey.

Her parents had been at the back of her mind throughout the day, but she hadn't actually had a moment to think about what she was going to say to them. She blankly climbed the icy steps up to her apartment and wondered if they were even home. Or awake.

Unfortunately, the answer to both of those was yes.

"Where have you been all day?" Dad demanded as soon as she opened the door. "We didn't see you once! No call! No mention of work—speaking of, I called the hospital, and the lady who answered the phone hadn't heard of you! Care to explain?"

Winter adjusted her bag. "A lot of people work there. I don't know all of them and they definitely don't all know me. I left early this morning because I had a shift and—"

"What's in that bag?"

"It's my work bag! You've seen it!" Winter's defensive tone didn't do much to help her case.

"What do you even put in there, anyway?" Dad pointed to the table. "Come on, show us what's inside, if you have nothing to hide."

"I've had it for weeks," Winter tried again.

Mom stepped in. "Winter, if you have nothing to hide, just open the bag. Please. We're worried about you." She shot Dad a concerned look that he didn't see.

Okay. This would be a hard sell, but if it worked, she could kill two birds with one stone: show that she had nothing suspicious in her bag, and prove she was working at the hospital. She grabbed the zipper. "Okay, okay, it's not that big of a deal. Most of the stuff in here isn't mine, it's the Plague Saint's." She opened it and pulled out the mask. "He had an emergency today and asked me to hold onto a few things for him. Apparently, someone broke into his lab, and he's been worried about security."

"So, he asked some new hire to take his stuff?"

Winter shrugged. "I thought it was weird too, but he's a weird guy. I guess since it didn't make much sense to ask me, he figured no one would think to check my bag. And none of it's actually important anyway, just a couple of extra masks and uniforms and an old notebook." She held out the mask to her father, an unspoken offering to take a closer look.

He shook his head. "We didn't hear from you once today. What the hell were you thinking?"

Winter set the mask back in the bag. "I'm—I'm so sorry. You're right. I didn't sleep well last night and I was out of it all day."

"This is unacceptable," Dad said.

Mom stepped forward and rested a hand on Winter's shoulder. Winter winced.

"We were worried sick," Mom said. "We were afraid you caught a plague or something, Winter. We kept waiting for them to call us."

Winter forced herself to meet her mother's gaze. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again. I swear I'll call next time." She dared to look at her father. "I do have another shift tomorrow, and if you guys aren't up before I leave, I'll leave a note, or—"

"That would be fine! You just can't disappear for an entire day. Especially after lying to us for two weeks about your job and getting arrested!"

Winter nodded. What else could she say, anyway? "I'm going to go to bed," she said softly.

"Good idea," Dad replied.

"It's been a rough few days, I'm sure you could use some rest," Mom agreed.