The Winter Wraith

Chapter 7

After a decent walk, since her destination was not in the Bronx, Adina had made it to the doors of her new found sanctuary--the library. She opened one of the doors and stepped inside. Even though she had only discovered this library a couple of days ago, it had already become a place of comfort for her. She felt relaxed when she was here, and she stopped worrying, for just a moment, about her precarious situation. The library was the one place where she wasn't constantly on edge.

Adina swiftly walked over to her favorite section of the library, which was the young adult section. This was the section where she had found The Hunger Games, and she planned on reading the rest of the dystopian series.

Although she had never been in a life or death contest broadcasted on live television, she could relate to most of the contestants' situation of being forced to do something they didn't want to do. Adina knew she did not choose to be with Hydra. Who in their sane mind would choose to be affiliated with a terrorist organization? Though she could not remember any solid memories before the age of 12, Adina knew she could not have chosen this life.

Adina scanned the books until she got to the section of authors whose names begin with a 'S.' She grabbed both the sequel and the final book in the Hunger Games series. She knew she would finish these two books pretty quickly, so she browsed around the rest of the library.

Eventually, she wandered to a shelf that contained different DVDs and some CDs. Adina trailed her finger over a random row of DVDs and aimlessly pulled out one.

"Oh, cool! Are you going to watch The Empire Strikes Back? That's one of my favorites," said a brunette boy.

Adina pushed the case back into the shelf and turned her attention to the young stranger. She had been slightly caught off guard, so she quickly assessed the boy. He was wearing a blue sweatshirt with words showing that he most likely went to Midtown School of Science and Technology. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, and was still waiting for Adina's response.

"I was just browsing, but it does look interesting," she replied. In fact, the movie did look vaguely familiar.

"Oh, well, I'd definitely recommend it. Have you watched the previous movies?" asked the teen boy.

"Yep," Adina shortly replied, trying to subtly tell him she was not interested in conversing.

"So, you know the characters and all that. Who's your favorite? Mine's probably Luke Skywalker," he said, obviously not getting the small social cue.

"Ahsoka Tano," Adina quickly said with confidence.

She swiftly developed a headache that grew in pain with every thought. Who was Ahsoka Tano? How does she know a Star Wars character? Is she getting her memories back? All these thoughts and more were coursing through Adina's pounding head as the awkward teen boy continued to talk about Star Wars. It was clear he loved it.

Adina tuned her thoughts back to the present as he asked her for her name.

"AJ," she replied as the lie easily rolled off her tongue.

"I'm Peter, Peter Parker. It was nice to meet you, AJ. I've got to go help my aunt with groceries. See you around, maybe," Peter said as he turned away from Adina and began to walk towards the exit. What a weird kid, she thought as she watched him walk with a slight skip in his step. She shook her head and went back to looking at the forgotten DVDs.

Adina browsed the library for a few more minutes until she headed to one of the librarians' tall desks to check out her books. She went to the same desk she had gone to last time. The same elderly man in a light green sweater with a white collared shirt poking out from underneath was still there.