Of Snow and Roses

by T. M. Franklin

  She glanced at the bear. Did he look doubtful? No, that was her imagination playing tricks on her again.

  “It’ll be okay,” she said, yawning again. “We’ll figure it out.”

  Neve wasn’t certain exactly when she fell asleep, but when she woke the next morning, the sun was already up, and she was back in her room, tucked into her bed.

  Neve had a new purpose, a new goal. If she couldn’t convince everyone to escape with her, then she would find a way to get help from the outside world. There had to be a record of what was going on at Blackbriar－medical files, maybe videos from some of those security cameras? If Doctor Alberich was doing experiments, there had to be proof somewhere, and Neve was going to find it.

  When she walked into breakfast, she finally felt as if things were looking up.

  Tala was back, and although she appeared a bit tired, and ignored Neve and everyone else, she seemed none the worse for wear. Torbin sat across the room, and Neve arched her brows at him, darting a look toward Tala and back to him. The corner of his lips quirked up ever-so-slightly and he nodded subtly, then turned back to his breakfast.

  Neve looked away quickly. She didn’t need anyone suspecting she was talking to Torbin . . . not when she wasn’t even supposed to remember him.

  That night, she started a whole new routine. She’d sneak through the halls of Blackbriar, searching for evidence that they could use against Alberich. It was second nature now for Neve to connect to whoever was in the security room, allowing her to slip past the cameras undetected. Any staff members she came across were dealt with in a similar way.

  Something told her to steer clear of Doctor Alberich, though. Neve wasn’t sure what it was, but with the lack of memories, she was quickly learning to trust her instincts. She’d never set out on one of her snooping expeditions unless she knew where the doctor was. Keeping to the shadows, she’d watch and wait until he’d go down to the basement at night or, on a few rare occasions, actually left the Institute grounds.

  The basement, of course, was locked and out of her reach, much to Neve’s frustration. But for almost two weeks, she methodically worked her way around the maze of rooms on the main floor.

  She thought she’d struck gold when she came across a room full of filing cabinets, but they were all empty. She found a stack of medical charts in a desk drawer, but the pages were all blank. When she was too tired and frustrated to continue, she’d make her way through the forest to the meadow, where the bear would be waiting. She’d curl up next to him and talk, vent . . . sometimes cry, then fall asleep, a hand clutched in his fur, and wake up in her own bed.

  She’d never slept better.

  Torbin had yet to come near her since she’d been caught by Alberich, and she couldn’t figure out why. It was frustrating, seeing him across the room and being unable to talk to him. Unable to ask for his help.

  Thirteen days after she woke up with “amnesia”－again－Neve sat on one of the benches bordering the lawn, watching him stand and brood in the shadow of the trees. He caught her eye and shook his head slightly, and the frustration of the past weeks swept through her. Neve got to her feet and stalked over to him, hiding them from view of the others.

  Torbin stood stiffly, arms crossed over his chest.

  “What’s going on?” she demanded.

  He didn’t move.

  “You’re not going to say anything?” She ignored a flush of embarrassment at the obvious answer to that question. “You ignore me for days and what? You’re going to stand there and pretend you don’t see me?”

  Nothing.

  “I need your help. I thought you were going to help me.” A rush of anger colored her words, making them sharp and pointed. “Did you change your mind? Did Doctor Alberich change your mind?”

  His jaw tightened, but his eyes finally met hers.

  To Neve’s absolute horror, she choked on a sudden rush of tears. “I need you. You can’t turn your back on me.” It was pathetic, but she felt so alone. So desperate. Fear and frustration combined until she was almost overcome with despair.

  “Please,” she begged. “Help me.”

  A shudder ran through Torbin’s body, and he seemed to relax slightly, all his muscles loosening until he finally moved. He reached out with one hand and swept the tear from her cheek, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger.

  Neve blinked up at him, confused. “What’s going on?”

  He glanced over at the others, then moved past her, pulling her wrist.

  “Where are we going?”

  He simply waved her forward, miming for her to continue hiding them, and led her through a side door back into the Institute. Neve had never dared to snoop during daylight hours, but she felt safe somehow, having Torbin with her. She realized he hadn’t released her wrist, and the touch sent a surge of warmth through her.

  Torbin evidently knew exactly where they were going. He led her down the hallway past the common room, to the left, then right, before stopping before a large metal door with a big No Admittance sign front and center and a numeric keypad to the right of it.

  “Through there?” she asked. When he simply waited, she pushed on the door.

  Locked. Of course.

  “Can you open it? Like the basement?”

  Torbin shook his head, then held out a hand like go ahead.

  That was Torbin. A man of few words.

  “Me?” She laughed. “How am I supposed to open it?”

  He pointed to her forehead, then to the door.

  “Oh, I don’t think－” She chewed on her lip, studying the door for a moment, and remembering that little bolt of lightning running between her fingers. She glanced at Torbin and he simply tipped his head expectantly.

  “Okay, here goes nothing,” she muttered. She focused, bringing the sparks to her fingers, then tried to focus on the feeling of electricity coming from the keypad. It was different from the lightning－focused and contained, rather than wild and free－but she could feel it now. Actually, now that she was looking for it, she felt electricity all around her. From the fluorescent lights overhead, the outlet near the floor . . . even the security camera at the end of the hall. It trickled all around her, through her, like she was part of a circuit.

  Neve held both hands out, palms facing the keypad. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was supposed to do, but she focused on the power flowing around her. Maybe she could pull it away somehow－

  A surge of electricity burst from the keypad and the door sprang open. She gasped, then paused, eyes darting around everywhere as she waited for an alarm to sound.

  Nothing happened.

  “Well, that was interesting,” she murmured.

  Torbin huffed out a laugh.

  They went through the door, Torbin pulling it closed behind him, only to come to another door about six feet further. This one had no keypad, no electricity that Neve could detect - simply an ordinary wooden office door with a brass knob.

  “What’s in there?” she asked Torbin.

  He motioned for her to go inside, and she opened the door and flicked on the lights.

  It was an ordinary room, wood paneled with brown carpet on the floor. A desk sat before a wall of bookshelves to her right. They were filled with books and a variety of knick-knacks－feathers and shiny stones, candles, and more geodes like they’d found in Tala’s room. A rather disturbing painting in dark reds and blacks hung in the center of the opposite wall, a metal filing cabinet standing next to it. It smelled . . . odd. Like a combination of smoke and sweat with a faint tinge of rotten eggs.

  “Is this－” She whirled suddenly to face Torbin. “Is this Doctor Alberich’s office?”

  He nodded but remained just outside the room.

  “How did I miss this? This is awesome!” She exclaimed, moving to the desk. “There has to be proof in here, you know? Something we can take to prove to people what’s going on here.” Neve froze and shook her head. “Sorry, I haven’t told you about that, have I? I don�
�t think we can get the others to escape with us, so I figure if we can find evidence of what’s happening here, the police will have to listen to us, right?”

  She opened a drawer and started to dig through a pile of papers, then glanced up at Torbin. “Are you going to help?”

  His body tensed, brow furrowed as if concentrating hard, then he let out a harsh breath and shook his head.

  Neve frowned and crossed to him. “What’s wrong?”

  He shook his head and stepped back, pointing at the door frame in a large rectangle. He stepped forward and held up his hands, stopping short.

  “Are you saying－” She tilted her head, thinking. “You can’t come in?”

  He let out a little growl and tensed again, and Neve finally realized he was trying to come in. And couldn’t.

  Torbin bared his teeth, the tendons on his neck standing out with the effort. Sweat broke out on his upper lip and every muscle was tight and bulging.

  “Stop,” she said. “Torbin, stop.”

  He relaxed, breathing heavily.

  “It’s okay,” she said, then she thought of something. “When you weren’t responding to me earlier . . . was it because you couldn’t?”

  He nodded. Yes.

  “Because of Doctor Alberich?”

  No response.

  “You can’t answer that?”

  He shook his head.

  “But how?” As soon as she asked the question, she waved it off. “Never mind. There’s no time to get into that now. You stay there and keep watch, okay?”

  He nodded, and she went back to the desk. She opened another drawer, but the only thing in it was a book written in some foreign language she couldn’t read. The top drawer held pens and pencils—nothing unusual.

  “Was it me?” she asked suddenly. When Torbin looked at her in confusion, she smiled. “You couldn’t respond to me, but when I asked for you to help me, I wanted it so badly. I didn’t mean to manipulate you, but . . . was that what broke the spell, or whatever?”

  Torbin froze for a moment, considering, then nodded with a wide smile.

  Neve felt a little dazed by Torbin’s smile, but she shook it off, crossing to the filing cabinet. “Good to know,” she said.

  After a few minutes, she slammed the last drawer with a frustrated exhalation. “Nothing,” she snapped. “I don’t know how a guy who’s holding secret medical trials can keep absolutely no records and expect to get grants or funding or whatever, but there’s nothing here.”

  Torbin frowned and smacked a hand against the door frame.

  “I know what you mean,” she muttered, starting to pace. “There has to be something, somewhere, doesn’t there? Maybe we need to get in the basement again or－” She stopped, catching sight of the weird painting hanging on the wall. It was really creepy. Dark and foreboding, but she moved closer to get a better look.

  A woman dressed in a filmy white gown lay on a stone platform, her mouth open in a silent scream. A man clothed in black robes stood near her head, a bloody knife held overhead, and Neve realized the woman was a sacrifice. Scores of people surrounded the altar, some laughing, others writhing as if in a corrupt kind of dance. It was unsettling to look at, and the eyes of the man with the knife seemed to follow her as she moved across the room.

  Wait.

  When she looked at the painting from the side, Neve realized there was a gap behind the frame on the left. She pried at it with her fingers and the painting swung open on invisible hinges.

  “A safe behind the painting. So cliché,” she said, sending Torbin a grin. He looked excited. Hopeful.

  Then frantic. He waved at her, pointing back toward the security door.

  Someone was coming.

  Neve cursed under her breath. They were so close, but there was no way she could break into a safe . . . especially not quick enough to avoid getting caught by whoever was coming. And if it was Doctor Alberich, she couldn’t persuade him that they hadn’t ever been there. She quickly put the painting back and hurried out of the room, turning off the light and closing the door. Torbin yanked her forward to the thick metal door and hesitated.

  There was nowhere else to go. They had to risk it.

  He pulled it open just wide enough for them to slip through, then shut it tightly. He started to lead Neve down the hall, away from the approaching voices, but she resisted, holding up a finger.

  Neve took a deep breath, reaching for the electricity and placed her palm against the keypad. It lit up again, restored. Neve wasn’t sure if Doctor Alberich would be able to tell it had been tampered with, but maybe it would be enough.

  She hoped it would be enough.

  They took off running, skidding around a corner as she heard the beeps of someone tapping a code into the keypad, followed by the click of the door opening.

  Victory.

  They raced around the outer hallway of the building, Neve frantically hiding them from anyone and everything. She bumped a little table, sending a stack of pamphlets flying, and one of the nurses jumped in surprise, looking for the source of the apparent gust of wind that had swept in.

  Neve didn’t breathe easily until they were back outside. She lifted their concealment long enough for Angelica to notice them both－with a little mental push－then pulled it back over them.

  Instead of her usual Don’t see us, though, Neve tried something a bit more complicated, sending the same thought to all the staff she could see.

  We’re both resting in our rooms. No need to look for us. Nothing out of the ordinary.

  It seemed to take, and when Angelica let out a huge yawn, Neve signaled Torbin and they met in their usual spot on the edge of the forest, just beyond the tree line.

  “We have to get in that safe,” she said, kicking the tree. “There has to be something important in there, right?”

  Torbin nodded curtly.

  “We were so close!” She kicked the tree again, sending a little piece of bark flying. She eyed Torbin’s large, still form. He seemed stoic and unbothered until she looked a little closer. His large hands were clenched into fists, and she could actually hear the spine-chilling crunch as he ground his teeth. He’d led her to the office, and Neve hadn’t thought to ask why.

  “Do you know what he has in there?” she asked.

  Torbin nodded. Yes.

  “What?”

  He gave her a frustrated look and started gesturing in a way that she could make no sense of.

  “Okay, okay, hold on.” She bit her lower lip in thought. “It’s got to be important, right?”

  Torbin looked relieved at the simple question. Yes.

  “If we got it, will it bring him down?”

  A slight smile of satisfaction and a slow, deep nod. Definitely.

  “Can we get to it, do you think? Is it something we can get out of Blackbriar?”

  He hesitated, a little unsure.

  Neve sighed. “If it’s that important, it isn’t going to be easy, right? If he went to all that trouble to protect it, he’s not going to let us walk out of here with it.”

  Yes.

  Neve paced back and forth a few steps, lost in thought as she chewed on her fingernail. “Well, I guess we’ll have to deal with it as it comes.” She looked up at Torbin, hoping she appeared more confident than she felt.

  “First thing is to actually get in to the safe,” she said. “It’s not like that’s on my list of skills. You?”

  He huffed out a laugh.

  “Maybe it’s like the keypad on the door? I could suck the electricity out?”

  Torbin gave her an encouraging nod.

  “That’s if it even runs on electricity,” she muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. “I didn’t get a good look at the lock, but what if it’s an old-fashioned tumbler one? Like in the movies? I have nothing to deal with something like that.” She took off pacing again. “And you can’t get in there to just rip the door off the hinges. Could you do that, anyway?”

  He shrugged.

 
“Maybe I could wish you in?” she suggested. “Like I did earlier. Could my influence overcome whatever’s keeping you out?”

  Another shrug.

  “You’re no help,” she said, but with a soft voice that let him know she was joking.

  She settled on a large log and motioned for him to sit next to her. He perched on it gingerly, dwarfing the fallen tree.

  “I’m going to ask you some questions,” she said. “Try to get to the bottom of whatever’s happening to you. Okay?”

  He looked skeptical but nodded.

  “What is controlling you?”

  He rolled his eyes and she held up her hands.

  “Okay, I know. Too broad. Stick to easy yes or no questions.” She scrubbed at her face in frustration. “Maybe I can get a pen and paper. Do you think you could write it?”

  Torbin shook his head, then clenched his fists, his body going rigid all over.

  “That would be a no,” she said. “Hard enough to nod, huh?”

  He sighed. Yes.

  “Let’s start at the beginning then.” She ran a hand through her tangled hair, organizing her thoughts. She could feel Torbin watching her and felt a rush of heat on her neck but tried to ignore it. She had a flash of memory－something bright and happy－and gasped.

  “Did you－did you know me? Before Blackbriar?”

  Torbin let out a relieved breath and nodded. Yes.

  She pictured the memory in her mind. It was familiar, the one she’d seen before where she was standing with Rose, hands joined, light and sparkles surrounding them. But now, in the background, she saw Torbin’s unmistakable large frame, leaning against a tree in his customary pose.

  “Do you know Rose?” she asked.

  Yes.

  “So, you don’t have amnesia like me.”

  He shook his head viciously. No.

  “Then why are you here, no . . . wait.” She held up a hand, stopping the open-ended question and re-framing it quickly. “Did you come here at the same time that I did?”