Jane laid on the bed; hips aching, a small bit of blood pooling around her crotch, and the celling being rather further away than she had thought it should be. She wanted to be bothered by what had just happened, tried with all her heart to muster some kind of emotion. But, the more she tried, the more she felt detached and distant. It was unnatural, like something was keeping her from feeling anything right now. Which was not exactly bad, who in the world wanted to feel bad? Even though the man next to her, smug grin and all, was something to inspire exceptionally bad feelings in any other situation.

 

She wanted to ask why she had done this, but she knew why she had done this. A combination of pressure from several sources, culminating in a feeling she had to do it and a hasty jump into it before she could change her mind. Which, she did about the time she was laying on her back, but by then he certainly wasn't stopping. This whole thing was so bad she felt something had broken inside her when it started, and from there came the blissful detachment.

 

Uncovered, and cooling rapidly from the activity, Jane shivered. An unnaturally cold bite was in the air, one that belonged to the heart of winter, not middle of spring as it was, and such strange weather had been around for three years now. Jane thought it was an important point - if summer didn't come, the plants would die and the bees would not come and if there were no plants and then there would be less oxygen and more Carbon in the air, which would be bad for people as a whole. Though, importance seemed a vague concept in the current moment. The guy she was with didn't seem to care about her being cold, didn't seem to care about her now he was done. Which was predictable, really.

 

Vaguely, she thought about doing what she did when she was younger again. The day her mother left, her father had been so bad, and she had been so sad. The two together had made her want to go to sleep and never wake up. But she did, despite bleeding copiously all over everything. She must have done something wrong, because people didn't bleed like that and get up in the morning with the only thought being the mess they had made of the place. So, with how “well” it went the first time, she decided to not do it again.

 

The things the mind thinks of when laid in the cold and nearly in the grasp of unconsciousness are far beyond the control of the person whose mind it is - not that Jane had much control over her mind to begin with. She just had to go along with the ride and hope it was not too bad. This time she thought of her second father - more like a brother given they were nearly the same age, but the guy liked the title of father better, so Jane gave him that - and his friend. She thought of Eliot and Silverfang’s tomfoolery, and his strange ability. Silverfang could do some pseudo werewolf thing, not quite fully wolf but different to human. it was quite surprising the first time she had seen it, nobody before and nobody since ever exhibited that kind of ability, nor could it be explained by him. But, despite all that, Jane quickly got used to it. As she had gotten used to him. 

 

She thought of times when Eliot cooked a plethora of different foods. She thought of times when she watched a movie, using Silverfang or Eliot as a cushion to lay her head on. Those were the happy days away from this drab and dreary household. It was better than thinking about where she was. She also remembered - too much lesser delight, not that she had the energy to complain about it right now, being so far into the grip of unconsciousness - days with her mother. They were nice but she had left Jane all alone with her father and for that Jane eternally disliked her mother. Or at least wished to, but she knew if her mother turned up tomorrow, she would throw her arms around her and leave with her. Her eyes fluttered as these memories swam in her head, and then she passed out completely, leaving the waking world for the world of dreams. She’d like to say the world of less sanity, but given how things had gone in the waking world these past few years, that would have been a lie...

 

She’d wake the following day, shivering as the bastard hadn’t even bothered to cover her up. Quickly, she’d throw on her clothes so she had something between her and the obnoxiously cold cold. 

 

Throughout the course of dressing, Jane wondered how the school day was going to turn out. All the clothing she had was tatty and ragged, since it was several years old by now. Jane tried not to think about it, since it was pointless to complain or moan about it. He wasn’t exactly in a headspace that allowed for delightful conversation, after all. Jane then looped the tie around her muggy white shirt and wondered who thought it was a good idea to start the day by tying a noose around their neck. Symbolic, maybe?

 

Lacking a better option, Jane headed down stairs, and immediately saw her father, Mark. There was a part of her that had some sympathy for the sloven thing that had replaced her father when her mother left. He wasn’t exactly good in any way before then, but there was occasional engagement, and attempt to keep himself in the family. Now...half the time he didn’t even know who he was.

 

Giving the potential corpse on the couch a stare, she’d conclude he was asleep, and glance to the clock. Nearly eight, so plenty of time to get to school. She’d set off to move past him, though he was not as asleep as she thought and stirred when she passed him.

"What are you doing in that getup?" Mark asked, his tone slurred. These days, even if a miracle were to happen and he didn’t start drinking the moment he woke up, he was perpetually drunk and hungover, which added to her sympathy. 

"I am going to school, dad" She told him, politely and formal, but with a distinct monotone. There was nothing unnatural about this lack of emotion, this was specific and on purpose. If she kept herself uncaring, she’d not break down either way and just make things worse. 

 

"What'tha 'ell you going there for on a Sunday?" He belched, shifting to a sitting position and trying not to fall over the other way.

"It's Monday, dad" she replied, in the same tone, picking up her school bag. When she turned back, however, Mark glaring at her from the couch, as if trying to remember how to stand up. The aggressive, but incomprehensible slur that came from him after that was why she only had a part of her feeling sympathy. The other part wanted him to drink the wrong bottle one day. A terrible thought, not one she would ever voice, but everyone had terrible thoughts they would never voice.

 

She’d look at him for a few more moments, his bleary, glazed eyes staring at her, and then a loud snore came from him, evidently having passed out while sitting. Thankful for that break from the Universe, she’d pick up her bag and head out of the door. She’d get some food at school, not wanting to run the risk of waking him up again.

 

It took Jane a good half-hour to get to the school, mainly because of the cold - she always shuffled when it was cold - but also because she was pondering why she didn't see anyone else, walking towards the school. When she arrived, however, the question was answered by the large clock. It read '7:32am' or there about. Analogue hands were hard to read precisely. But it was clear the clocks at her house were set forward an hour. She’d lost track of the days and didn’t track Daylight Saving Time as well as she should have, so this was mostly on her. Couldn’t expect the liver-destroying blob to do anything.

 

Seeing no reason in standing around in the cold, Jane headed inside, and was greeted with the noise of a Buffer, polishing the floors before the children came in, stomping their boots all over and making a mess. The Caretaker at the helm of the Buffer had one of those faces, as if Jane knew him, and not in a 'seen him around school' kind of way. But, Jane could not put a name to the face. However, the face turned to her and made a noise of surprise.

 

"Ahh, didn't expect to see anyone else here so soon. You really that eager?" he asked, switching off the Buffer to have a conversation.

"No, Daylight Savings. Dad isn’t exactly in the frame of mind to do….well, anything, so I got hit with that" She replied, causing the man to lean on the buffer. His clothes looked rather expensive - if well worn - for a Caretaker, but she didn't bring it up. Such assumptions were kind of rude.

"Sounds like you and your dad don't get along" He commented, a fatherly tone, as if he had raised more than one child in his time. Jane laughed at his comment, and took a breath.

"Well, put it this way. You don't randomly hand out super powers that let me pull people's arms off, do you?" She asked. The man stroked his chin a few times in a classical thinking pose.

"Hmm, I did. But then I got in trouble for it, and so I am currently suspended from randomly handing out super powers that let people pull off other peoples arms" He told Jane, which made her smile in amusement. "Hehay. A smile, we are getting somewhere" The Caretaker continued, a grin that only a man truly content with his life could make. 

“So, yer dad the kind of guy you’d wish would fall down the stairs into a pool of acid, with acid-breathing piranhas in it?” he offered, to which Jane laughed, it was a very amusing idea.

“Where are you going to find acid-breathing piranhas?” She asked.

“Hmm, possibly Generia. They have some great tea, and some weird wildlife. Full of assholes  though” He commented.

“Right….So, what’s your name? I feel bad calling you ‘The Caretaker’ all the time.” Jane admitted.

“Ohh. Right. I’m Kaben Saal, nice to meet ya” He said, holding out a hand, rather well-manicured, considering he was pushing a Buffer all day.

“Lovely to meet you, Mr Saal. My name is Jane, Jane Everwood” She told Kaben, shaking his hand.

“Damn, they are some cold hands. If you want, I can show ya a place I like, when the school is being all cold and shit” He told Jane, who contemplated it for a few moments. It couldn’t exactly be any worse than being in here, so she nodded, and followed Kaben to this ‘place’.

 

She was led down a few hallways, and took a couple of turns to a part of the school she had never been to before. It was old, there wasn’t any classrooms around, and there was a basic feel of neglect. However, viewable through the window was a beautiful, luscious garden. It was amazing that the garden could flourish in such cold, there were even a few tropical trees, where the country never got hot enough to grow. Jane stared at the garden in wonder, and Kaben picked up on this.

"Lovely place, no?" He asked, grinning as they approached the door.

"Yea, it is. How do you even get it like that?" she asked, expecting some sort of greenhouse idea.

"Ahh, I just ask it nicely" he replied, to which Jane scoffed. 

"Yea, like that ever worked" she said sceptically.

"Well, maybe they just didn't ask the right questions" He told her, before opening the door to the garden. It was very warm, warm enough to make Jane forget about the biting cold of a few seconds ago.

"Ok, I’m impressed. Tell me your secrets. Underfloor heating or something?" She exclaimed, sitting down on a chair, fashioned in the shape of a log stump. It had a high back, enough for Jane to lean back comfortably.

"Na, nothing of my doing. It’s just the trees keeping the place warm, is all" He said before waving. "I gotta get back to work. Don't be late for class" He cooed on the way out.

"Tsk, how could I be late? I got nearly an hour" she muttered, before leaning back. It was very relaxing, and didn't take long for Jane to fall asleep.

 

Nearly an hour later, Jane was woken by a loud bell echoing through the school. It always rang ten minutes before the start of every class, to give students enough time to get where they were going, but it was still a shock.

"That’s how" she muttered to herself, still not quite believing that she had pulled it off. Most nights took her hours to drift off, and other nights it never happened at all. So, to be taken so quickly, in such a short time, was a miracle. As the sound of the bell died away, Jane could hear...whispers around her. Mostly incoherent muttering, but there was one thing she heard, repeated throughout the entire garden, by whatever it was that was talking. 'She's here'. 

 

Suddenly the garden felt a lot less relaxing and comfortable, taking on a more ominous aura to it, which made Jane very uneasy. The whole thing was resonating inside her, a feeling equal to the unnatural suppression from last night. It made her fingertips tingle and her hair stand on end, as if there was something inside her that wanted to get out. Several flowers had bloomed around her since she sat down an hour ago, and everything in the garden seemed subtly tilted towards her. The whole thing seriously unnerved her.

 

Hastily wiping away the drool from her sleep, Jane made a quick departure from the garden, with the whispers following her down the hall, and until she got to the main part of the school. There, with the whispers fading and her body returning to normal, it was much easier to ignore what had just happened. To pass it off as still being half asleep and groggy from being woken like that.

 

Turning her head to the present,  she saw people milling about, getting to their classes and groaning about the day ahead. One girl - rather down cast, with her eyes on the floor and all effort made to be smaller than she was - did spark a slight smile in Jane, and so she walked over to the down-cast girl.

"Hey Emily! Good to see you" She said, snaffling the girl in a hug before she could react. She let out a sharp 'eep' before Emily relaxed, and returned the hug.

"O..ohh, h-hi Jane" Emily stammered, always being a shy, retiring sort of girl.

"So, I wasn’t in Friday, anything happen?" She asked, to which Emily nodded.

“Catherine did. And her friends" she mumbled, to which Jane sighed.

“Tsk, that woman. One of these days you gotta give her a pow, right in the kisser" She exclaimed. Emily gave her a look - that look that wondered if the person was all there, or even there at all - but followed her down the hall way, talking about the girls of today, and how they look as if they put on make-up with a shovel, about guys who have more fingernails than brain-cells, and about general life. Eventually they got to the tutor room, Jane found her place and Emily sat next to her,, and there they all had an annoying twenty minutes before school actually began to see who was in and who wasn't. Both Jane and Emily had the same opinion of it, and that opinion would have been used to allow the garden Jane was briefly in to grow more than it already had. 

 

 However, ten minutes into this, when the tutor was reeling off up-coming events that no one was going to go to, something clattered into the room. Of course, everyone leant over to see what it was, and were all blinded by the ensuing flash that emitted from it. There were many cries of surprise, some of pain, and then sight began to clear again, but, there were two men, big and ugly looking in the room as well.

"Glad I got your attention. Now, we are looking for someone. Someone special. Shouldn't be too hard to find her, but I do need your attention here" The man in the front said, ignoring the tutor’s blustering about them not being allowed here and drew a gun from his jacket, which he used to shoot the tutor, spilling her brains all over the wall. 

 

The there was silence in the room, nobody seemed to know how to react. Shock, fear, and confusion pinned them to their seats. The men grinned and headed to Jane's seat, such confidence that that was clearly what they were here for in the first place. 

"Well hidden" he muttered, before pointing the gun at Jane and pulling the trigger. In that moment, Jane felt her body shudder. From head to toe, something ran through her, like static electricity, only a thousand times more than she had ever felt in her life. 

The gun, for it’s part, clicked without firing anything, the mechanisms jamming up. Such a coincidence was to be contemplated later, as the click seemed to bring Jane out of her haze. She flipped her desk in the man's direction, filled with a strength she had never thought possible. The man was laid out by the desk, and so Jane turned to Emily, so they could run together. Emily was the one person in this school Jane wanted to protect, and she would do anything for that opportunity. However, behind her, there was the sound of two gunshots, and then Emily was covered in blood. Jane's first thought was that Emily had been shot, and this made her extremely angry, but her vision started to gray, and her legs felt so weak. Realization dawned on her, just as she fell forward, into Emily's lap, to die.