May Storm's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

May locked the back room and returned to the front window. She kept her body hidden behind the frame and watched the street. A figure stood across from her shop, still as a post. They had not moved in two hours. May counted the minutes by the slow drag of shadow across the dirt. Whoever they were, they were waiting for someone to come next. And May had to decide if that someone would be her, or the woman with the broken locket. She studied the spot where the watcher stood. The base of an iron lamp post had been worn smooth by the heels of their boots. Wax had dripped from the lantern above and pooled in a circle at their feet. Behind them rose a crumbling house, vines climbing its broken windows, its door hanging loose on a single hinge. No one had lived there in years. It was the perfect place to wait. May understood then that the watcher was not hiding. They wanted her to see them. May tied her hair back and pulled a plain shawl over her shoulders. She slipped out the side door and circled wide through the alley. She came up behind the watcher slow, one hand closed around a small blade in her pocket. The watcher faced her shop, eyes fixed on a tall carved wooden post planted near her door. The post had drawn their gaze for two hours. May stepped close and pressed the blade to the small of the watcher's back. "Walk," she said. "Into the empty house. Now." The watcher obeyed. Inside the crumbling abode, May closed the broken door behind them and turned the figure around. It was a girl, no older than fifteen, mouth trembling. She held out a folded square of paper with shaking hands. May took it. The note had three words. "She is alive." May lowered the blade. The girl bolted past her and ran. May stood alone in the dust and read the words again. The watcher was gone. But now she knew the woman was still breathing, and someone wanted her to come find her.