Katie

Their apartment was a reflection of their chaotic lives. Clothes were spread all over the pavement from Isaac's latest photo shoot and papers were flying everywhere from where Andre had decided to leave his school homework. Jane had left some of her ... equipment at home as well, which probably made hers look like a slaughter house.

Katie offered a warm coffee and biscuits to Guenevier while they took note of everything that she was saying about her missing child.

The child wasn't actually her child, but her younger sister's.

-She died of childbirth - she explained. -And the father was some Latino boy with no morals. He left my Anita as soon as he knew she was pregnant. -

The child's name was Mathias Rafael Jones and he was six months old. He had brown skin and bright green eyes like his mother. Guenevier never left the little thing alone, but one day she had to go to the doctor for one of her medicines and she hired her neighbour's daughter to check on him.

-When I came back, the girl was gone and so was my baby. - she cried. -I saw a man with a black coat running outside and I tried to follow him, but it was too late. He was faster and stronger than me and I lost him deep into the night. When I came back the girl had no memory of the fact, and called me crazy for thinking I even had a baby to begin with. -

Katie offered her a tissue.

-The police said they had no record of the child existing at all - she continued. -But that is only because he hasn't been registered as my child yet! He was taken! You have to believe me! -

Isaac put the pen down and held her hand. -We do Madame, and we will do everything possible to track him. -

-Where is the last place you saw him? - she asked.

Guenevier pointed them at the crossing beweet the American Museum of Natural history and the 82nd street on the Upper West Side.

-That's pretty close to Central Park - noted Andre. -Not quite a forest, but worth checking out. -

Katie walked Guenevier to the door and told her she would contact her as soon as she knew anything.

The woman caressed her face, fixing a wild red curl that had escaped her ponytail.

-You are a good kid, darling - she said. -You and your ... ah... unconventional team are the best hope for my child, please make sure he will come back to me. -

If only that woman had known how old Katie truly was, she would not refer to her as a kid, but she let that pass. She wasn't mocking her, she was being kind.

As soon as she left, her two friends grabbed a couple of bags and were all ready to go.

-It's almost 11 pm, we can pick up Jane on the way - she said looking at the clock. She decided to get a clean shirt for her friend just in case she didn't have a change of clothes.

New York was the city that never sleeps, and so her inhabitants were out and about even after the sun was long gone. Times Square was full of bright lights and shiny metals, vendors screaming of their best merchandise, mimes stopping them in the street to capture their attention. Katie's unchallenged attention was on a street performer who played with fire.

Jade almost bumped into her, looking up at the lights as she always did. She was wearing a long trench coat, probably to hide the fact that she had little more underneath.

-Oh hey, got anywhere interesting to go to? - she asked. - I might have to get changed. -

Jane opened her coat just enough to show off her toned naked legs, gaining some whistles from the neighbouring tourists.

Katie tossed the stripper the clothes she brought along. -No time for that, we are searching for a child. -

Any trace of mocking disappeared from Jane's face as the words sunk into her mind.

They travelled through the crowded streets smoothly, like the angels of death they were trained to be, but for a completely different purpose. Had she still been Katie, the girl would have stopped to take pictures and to chat with the tourists.

But she wasn't Katie, not for the time being.

Central Park at night was not the kind of place you wanted to visit with your happy family. It was the place where dealers and assassins met, darkness covering their faces, hiding their identities.

She stepped onto the grass, the familiar feeling of nature surrounding her improving her senses. The darkness enveloped them, but their eyes could see just as well as in the light.

-Now what? - asked Isaac.

The path lighted up with the familiar threads. The girl saw her line united with the ones of her friends, as if any choice she could make, would involve all of them together.

Two paths were in front of her, burning brighter than the rest: one towards the centre of the park, another back to the streets.

She stepped towards the darkness, leaving the sound of the clacksons and parties behind. The light guided her through the trees, leading her outside the signed paths of the park.

-Ehm, Katie... Where the Nature are we going? - asked Andre.

She didn't reply, too scared that her power would disappear if she spoke of it.

A man in a black coat was holding the baby as if it was a football. He was standing there, stoically, waiting for some kind of signal. Had she known that the lights were bringing her to a meeting point, she would have hidden, trying to get a glimpse of her enemies shapes.

Now, it was too late. The man in black turned towards her friends, aware of their presence. A chill run down her spine as she realised that she had seen his face before.

-We meet again, exile - he greeted her coldly.

The man of the 245 deaths who almost killed her before she met Andre, the man whose face she still sometimes saw in her nightmares.

-Didn't realise they let stinking murderers in into America. - she said.

The man smiled and left the baby down carefully.

-The mist people are not happy with you exiles - he said. -They had given very specific orders this time. -

The man was threatening them, and the girl almost laughed. It was four to one, he had no hope of getting out of there alive. Jane let her coat fall to the ground, revealing her lacy underwear only covered by a T-shirt. She was ready to fight.

The man stepped towards them, his body suddenly glowing. The girl felt the pull of magic and she took the gun hidden in her pocket.

She shoot once, twice three times, but the man did not seem to be hit by the bullets. They disintegrated just before touching him. The girl threw her gun away and charged at him with nothing but her bare hands. As soon as she was close enough, she dropped to the ground, revealing the hidden knife in her boots and sliced a clean cut to his calves.

The man screamed in pain and threw her far against the trees with a single movement of his arm.

Isaac called magic of his own and threw at him anything he could find, from bushes, to benches to old basketball hoops. In the meanwhile, Jane and Andre attacked him at his sides like a well oiled machine. Jane kicked furiously, using everything from teeth to claws to hurt him. Andre used a long sword, a reminder of the fact that he used to live in a completely different time.

Their battlefield looked like history had thrown up in Central Park, and they were what came out of the dirt.

The girl attacked again, knife in hand, when the earth started to tremble.

"How dare you defy us so openly, children" a voice said in her head. A look at her friends made her realize that they must have been hearing it too. "You have no power against us, we are the rulers of Fate."

A thick fog started to come out of the trees, hiding any escape route from their path.

The girl saw the thread lighting up once again, a little streak of light going from her towards the crying baby.