Missing In Action

[Namira]

Piper had really, really wanted to go to the same school as Masahiko, her best friend. She hadn't understood why her parents stood by moving to Salem even after she'd said over and over again that she didn't want to be separated from him.

She started to grasp it better when she got a little older, coming to realise that if her family had never left Lynn, then they would have ended up struggling pretty bad with money. Things ended up getting tight now and then even with her dad's better job, so she could imagine that it'd be real tough.

There had been a brief pang of frustration at some point earlier today when Piper had considered that if they never moved, then she wouldn't be in this situation. It passed. How could she get mad about that? Were her parents fortune-tellers who could look ahead and know that she'd wind up dead if she went to John Endecott? Come on. It was just—yeah. Just she was thinking about what could have been, she supposed. Piper still missed Masahiko a lot. They still saw each other regularly, nearly every day if she thought about it, but it wasn't the same. Honestly she probably spent more time at his grandfather's dojo than he did; Hiko had got less enthusiastic about kendo as they got older, even skipping training every so often. Would that have been different, if she didn't move away? She definitely wouldn't feel like so much of an extra in his friendship group. She liked his other friends decently enough, but she knew that she was kind of a tagalong a lot of the time.

Here, in this place, threat of death around every corner, in every snowbank, Piper didn't wish Hiko was here, she just knew that things would be way simpler if he were. Find Hiko, protect Hiko, done. No thinking, no second-guessing, no delays. It'd taken her what, the better part of the morning to settle on a plan? Wouldn't have needed to confirm that with Hiko around. Even with her goal in mind, that didn't solve everything, cause now it was about working out who was worth it. Piper didn't have many friends, so who was priority? Somebody who couldn't defend themselves, like Marian? Someone who would go far, especially with a bodyguard to watch their back? Somebody who with a bodyguard, could maybe accomplish something special, like Trinity?

A particularly icy gust of wind stopped Piper in her tracks for a moment, and she frowned, burying her hands further into her pockets. Movement was helping with the temperatures, probably the only thing keeping her from turning into a popsicle.

Piper had spent too long thinking before, and it was getting dark along this road. Dark, and more importantly cold. She hadn't calculated this well, forgetting that the snow was going to slow her down and drain her energy. Reaching the town on the opposite side of the road had seemed very achievable, now it seemed like a trick. Hard to decide what to do. Turn around now and Piper knew that it would be hours before she made it back to the station and the listening post, and she had no guarantees that Calvin and Fey would still be around. She definitely wouldn't have the energy to make sure wherever she slept was secure and insulated. On the other hand, if she kept pushing on, it could turn out that the town was right around that next corner... or it could be another few hours away and a complete unknown. Push out too far into this chill night, and somebody would find her frozen corpse tomorrow morning.

One more turn. One more turn in the road, and if she didn't see the town right ahead of her, she was turning back. Would make this walk a waste of time and energy, but if she was indecisive, then she was dead, and time nor energy wouldn't matter anymore.

She resumed walking. Half a dozen steps later, she halted again. A dark shape lay beneath a stand of trees, a short way off the path.

Piper swallowed, and began to walk towards it.