The Winter Wraith

Chapter 5

As she walked into the secondhand store, Adina discreetly patted her hand on her right hip to double check that the money was still tucked into the top of her leggings. She only had twenty-two dollars left after she had paid for the dingy apartment, which meant that she was going to have to stretch the money a bit far in order to get both clothes and food. The weather was fairly cold, though there was no snow yet, so she wanted to either get a sweatshirt or jacket and some long pants to keep warm in.

Adina browsed the clothings racks until she found appropriate attire that looked to be about her size. She had found a torn up pair of black jeans, a plain long-sleeved shirt, and a dark jacket. She went up to the counter with her new wardrobe and paid eleven dollars for it, leaving her with another eleven dollars to buy food. That should be enough to cover food for at least a week, she thought as she left the thrift store. Her next stop was some kind of grocery store.

Adina came across a small convenience store sandwiched between an apartment building and a library and headed into it. As she opened the door, the bell attached to it rang, and she searched for any surveillance cameras. Hydra would be looking for her, and that ragtag group may also be searching for her in order to experiment on her due to her abilities, and she didn't want to take any chances. She spotted one camera in the upper northwest corner of the room.

She kept her head down and walked to an aisle on the opposite side and looked for some nutritious food. The aisle she had picked had some granola bars, beef jerky, and trail mix. She grabbed a twelve pack of granola bars. The variety pack costs about six dollars, leaving her with five extra dollars. With her granola box in hand, she started to head up to the counter a few feet from the aisle.

Out of the corner of her eye, a bright bag caught her eye. Adina took a small detour and headed over to that aisle to see what it was. It was the candy aisle. The bright bag of sour gummy worms reminded her of something. The fleeting memory disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving her with a sense of confusion and frustration. She just wanted to remember who she was before Hydra.

Adina made a split-second decision to grab the bag of sugary gummy worms and a couple of AirHeads, for extra measure, before she finally went to the counter and paid for the food. Maybe eating the candy will help her remember something, anything, since she had recognized the gummy worms.

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After getting clothes and food, Adina made two more stops. She went into the library next to the convenience store and used a computer. She finally figured out she was somewhere in New York City in one of its five boroughs. The idea of boroughs confused her, but she believed she was in the Bronx borough. She also found out that it was February 15, 2021. Besides getting the needed information, and also checking out an intriguing library book, her other stop was another second hand store to get a backpack to put her few belongings in. This way, she could always be prepared to leave at a moment's notice.

Now that she had taken care of everything she needed to do for today, Adina could explore some more. After aimlessly strolling for a while, she came across a playground and was now occupying one of its swings. She still hadn't gotten used to the idea of doing whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Although she was immensely glad to escape, it was hard for her to adjust to the lack of structure. At Hydra, she had a set schedule every day and never made choices for herself. That rigid schedule was partly put into effect to make sure the Wraith never had a chance for her thoughts to wander. She was able to just mindlessly do the same tasks every day.

Without the fixed timetable, Adina was slowly starting to recall memories. The memories, however, were just vague instances of déjà vu and fleeting thoughts that were ripped from her head before she could grasp onto them. This slow progress of hopefully regaining her memories was really discouraging to Adina. It seemed like it would take months, possibly even years, to figure out who she was.

At this point, all she had was her name, Adina, with no known last name or middle name. Why was she named Adina? Was it a family name? Did she even have a family?

Everyone comes from somewhere. Adina had long ago figured that Hydra had been wiping her mind due to a past before them that they didn't want her remembering, but Adina doubted she still had loving parents out there waiting for her after all these years. However, she liked to picture that she did indeed have a family patiently waiting to welcome her in some picture-perfect house with a freshly trimmed front yard and a white picket fence surrounding it. She imagined arriving on a rainy night and ringing the doorbell. Her dad would open the door, and call to her mom, who was baking fresh chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen.

"Look who's here! It's our long lost princess," her dad would say as pulled her into the house with a warm hug, effectively getting her out of the rain.

Then, she would sit down to a warm meal with her parents as they nostalgically reflected on shared past memories that made them laugh so hard their stomachs hurt. Maybe she even had siblings that would playfully tease each other and have hilarious inside jokes.

Adina shook her head, dissipating the wistful thoughts. She needed to be realistic. If you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed. She probably didn't have a family, and she needed to stop thinking about that and be grateful for her freedom. I don't need a family to be happy, she thought as she dragged her combat boots in the ground in order to slow the swing. She hopped off and started to head back to the apartment.

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At this point, Adina had arrived home. Well, if she counted the small, shabby apartment as home. She pulled out the key from her pocket, unlocked the door, and went in. Once she was in, she quickly shut the door behind her and locked it. Her stomach growled yet again. Adina figured it was probably prudent to her health for her to eat something after going many days without food.

She went up to the kitchen unit of a small counter, cupboard, and sink. She took off her backpack, and dumped its contents out. She opened the box of granola bars and picked a chocolate chip one out. She ripped open its wrapper and took a big bite. A few bites later, she finished the bar and put the rest of the granola bars back into the backpack. She decided to have some candy for dessert as she opened the bag of sour gummy worms. She had a few, and they were really good, but they didn't help bring back any memories. Discouraged, she folded the bag up and put the candy back into the backpack. To complete the meager meal, she turned on the sink and drank a few gulps from the flowing tap water.

No longer starving, Adina figured she would take a shower and change into her new clothes. She did just that, and also put her old clothes in the backpack, along with an extra knife that she didn't have room for in her new attire. Adina found that it was getting harder to keep her eyes open. She looked out the window and saw that it was dark outside.

With that, she called it a night, and went to bed thinking of what else she had searched on the computer at the library. She fell asleep thinking of her exciting plans for tomorrow.

Published: 2/21/22