The Queen Of Winter Book One

Hometown

New York had always been a harsh unforgiving city. The nights were long and dark. The days were lonely and tiresome. The summers blazed and melted the asphalt and the winters froze you to your very core. This winter was a particularly cruel winter. It had snowed for what had seemed like an eternity and the temperature was lucky to have risen above freezing. A shiver ran down Annabelle's spine as she stood outside a gloomy looking granite building but it wasn't from the biting wind that she shivered.

Annabelle looked down at a tattered business card she had been carrying around with her for a few weeks now. There was an address on one side and the other had a weird looking octopus logo. It was a red skull with 6 tentacles. It had been tossed to her by a rather sketchy looking man in a black suit.

The man had watched Annabelle do something remarkable. Something that she had tried to keep hidden for so many years but never seemed to manage.

"Another night in the cold or something hot to eat and a safe place to sleep? C'mon Anna what's the worst that could possibly happen?" Annabelle though to herself. Trying to Psych herself up to enter the building. Anna thought back to the events that had lead her up to this questionable moment in time.

At 17 Anna had spent the last 2 years of her life fending for her self, living off the streets. Just trying to survive. Anything was better than a life in the system. As long as Anna could remember she had been passed from foster home to foster home. Each one worse than the last. When she was 15 she had had enough. Anna ran away and never looked back.

She had developed a few skills that helped her get by. Anna could pick pocket with ease and her slight of hand techniques would rival Penn and Teller. She could make her self unseen, slipping in and out of places taking whatever she needed for her to survive.

Anna was taking shelter in one of the many run down and abandoned buildings in Hell's Kitchen. Since the Chitauri attacks there were so many buildings that'd been left abandoned to be reclaimed by nature. Anna split her time between here and The Shelter in Queens run by May Parker for those worst affected by the attack on New York nearly two years ago. On the night Anna first met the man in the black suit the Shelter in Queens was full. So many poor souls trying to find heat and comfort from the howling blizzard outside. Anna made her way to her corner of the run down building in Hell's Kitchen. She wrapped her self up as warmly as possible and prepared for a cold, long night.

It was in the dead of night that Anna woke with a start. She heard shouting and sounds of the place being ransacked. Somewhere in the building there was a man barking orders. "Find the girl....she is not to be provoked or harmed....."

Instinct took over and a ball of golden light materielised in Anna's hands. She manipulated the swirling light trying to use it to see the threat. She squinted hard through the darkness but saw nothing.

"That's an impressive trick" Anna spun round to find the source of the voice.

Standing a few feet away from her was a man in a suit surrounded by armed guards dressed in black.

"Is it just a pretty night light or can it do more?" The man questioned Anna nodding towards the light in her hands.

"Depends who's asking. Friend or foe?" Anna questioned back.

The man thought for a second before answering.

"Let's say for just now I say foe" The man in the suit motioned for a guard at his side to move forward.

The guard cocked his weapon and took aim. Before his finger squeezed the trigger Anna blasted him with a ball of golden light. The guard was thrown against the back wall by the force. He lay slumped on the floor. Unconscious but still breathing.

Anna prepared herself for another attack swirling another glowing ball of light in her hands. The man in the suit lifted his hands in surrender and chuckled.

"Okay, okay little one take it easy. I come in peace. Just had to be sure it really was you. We've been keeping an eye on you and your special...shall we say talents" the man in the suit said in an eerily calm voice. "Annabelle I'm here to offer you a way out of this nightmare. A chance to become so much more." The man said with a glint in his eyes.

"Hh..how...how do you know my name? Who are you? What do you want with me?" Anna tried to hide the fear in her tone.

"We've been watching you for a while dear. You caught our eye with your healing trick on the archer during the attack. We at Hydra can always use someone gifted such as yourself to help our cause"

"Hydra? What's Hydra?" Anna was confused.

"Your way out." The man said flatly. "I'll let you think about it". He tossed a card in her direction. Anna watched as it fluttered to the ground.

"Don't take too long to make up your mind. When you make the right choice come to this address and ask for Pierce"

The suited man and the guards left swifty and silently leaving Anna alone in the dark with her thoughts.