The people inside took no notice to the door, but the five outside did. They chattered about, restlessly figuring out what to do. Many new ideas were thrown about, but the simplest yet again prevailed.

Just walk through.

Ahead of them, sitting in a large cell surrounded by smaller ones, was a young girl. She was labeled with the name, Winter, and her clothes certainly looked like she’d been named that. Despite the grim environment, a lot of the people in the cells that had been passed through were wearing bright colors. Maybe the people running it hadn’t been concerned with escapees - or they just wanted to allow the people they captured that little bit of freedom, to quell an escape in the first place.

Turning around, the girl dressed in light blue spotted the group.

“Hey! You actually made it here, can you please help me out?”

Himiko turned to Amity confused, and so did Kaiya.

“Isn’t this Winter? We’re here to…”

“Yeah, it is.” She stopped Kaiya’s words, and directed her next ones at the prisoner. “Aren’t you Winter? You’re not the one we came here to help, we-”

“Yes, I am! I’m also Copper!”

The group was stunned, but Amity did manage to cohere her thoughts enough to ask another question.

“We’ve been told about your murders - is that true?”

“My… murders? As in…?”

She pinched her nose. “The ones you committed.”

“Oh! I never killed anyone, please believe me. They lied about that to lock me up.”

“… fine. I’ll… believe you. That’s not that unbelievable.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Winter grabbed all of the loose sand around her cell, forming the familiar shape they had greeted her with those weeks ago, just solidly enough to give Amity a fist-bump, who after returning it, walked up to the cell bars. Inspecting them, they seemed to be a near-traditional lifting gate, although the handle had been snapped off seemingly ages ago. Luckily, a thin slip of ice could wedge underneath the main section of bars, and with all of her might, Amity stretched the ice up.

The outer sections lifted up with the center, and the ice managed to withstand the weight of the solid metal, managing to get it almost all of the way up for Winter to walk under, before the growth ceased.

“Shoot- sorry, just crouch under it.” Amity panted. “I… I can’t… that’s heavy…”

“It’s fine.”

Winter made her way under it, getting solidly out from under it before she stretched her arms and legs, finally free.

“Thank you… so much. Really.”

She took a few steps forward, leaning into Amity, and her arms extended in a hug. Amity leaned against her too, reciprocating the clearly grateful girl’s embrace.

“Hey, would you mind doing us a tiny favor?”

“Hmm?” She pulled back.

“We need you to… pretend to be dead. Just lay low for a day or two. There was some stuff, and we had a bounty on your head, so we’re gonna say you’re dead and claim it. Is that alright?”

She thought, but decided. “Sure. I’ll stay out of the way for the next little while. Least I can do.”

A light blue staff appeared in her hand, growing from seemingly sheer nothing, and so did a pair of wings behind her back made of water. Winter gave a little run, taking off into the air outside of the door. Just then, the wind flew into Amity’s face, and her hair swooped around her head. The four people beside her, grown closer by the bonds of death and solitude, stared into the air with which Winter had left.

It feels symbolic, doesn’t it? The ‘cold’ winter leaving.

“We should find Cornet.”

They all murmured a vague agreement, beginning to walk out of the facility. People trapped in cells began to yell, making enough noise to get a glance from Amity, or the others, but ultimately not to be freed.

Never to be freed, most likely.

By this point, the doors closed, and it was made sure that the people formerly guarding them were still incapacitated, but turned upright so the two that still breathed didn’t have to breathe sand.

***

“So, what… what’s next?”

Himiko stepped in sync with Amity. Katie, Raleigh, and Kaiya walked behind them, in earshot.

“We need… to find Cornet. So we can claim the bounty.” Amity intentionally omitted the fact she was lying, because there could be anyone listening at this point. “Then, the next thing we need is… to take a break. We’ve had a lot, but we need to pause. None of us have had… time to process anything.”

There was a pause.

“We collectively need to have like, a group therapy session.”Raleigh was the first to agree. “Yeah, we can’t do anything if we’re all fucked up.”

“Fucked up indeed,” replied Katie.