Seamus

The wind was blowing harder as the earth became A frozen tundra. He watched from the window as the snow fell harder than it ever had. The dusk of night was settling over the tiny town as the arctic water left the lake and pounced into the small village.

Sabrina

Seamus O’ Brian was the older brother of her teller. In all the research she’d done on the teller, Siobhan O’Brian the fact that her older brother was CIA was never revealed. The information had been buried deep. No one outside of the agency or the town knew she had an older sibling or any sibling for that matter. According to the records the teller was an only child with a large extended family of male cousins who watched out for her.

She now knew Seamus was fifteen years older than Siobhan and already out of the house when their family moved outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico. His identity was carefully recreated with the cooperation of his family and the CIA. Now she knew that Seamus posed as one of her cousins when he was in town. That was not the only information that had been buried deep.

Their father was a retired operative also. He’d gotten suspicious when he’d investigated his daughters new friend at the bank. He’d went beyond the information the Secret Service crafted and found that her identify did not exist beyond a few well placed job references. Suspicious he’d called Seamus who’d roared into town to protect his sister thinking his identity had been compromised.

Seamus came roaring into town at the precise moment she was confronting the bank president with his misdeeds. At the precise moment, Seamus used his CIA training to enter the bank and confront her and the bank president thinking she was involved in whatever was going on.

Sitting behind his desk the bank president pulled out a gun and fired, hitting her in the shoulder. As she fell Seamus put a bullet through the bank president’s head. He’d saved her life that night as her team rushed in not knowing if she was friend or foe he’d stopped the bleeding and made a tourniquet that doctors told her saved her life. He’d even given her blood after finding out the small hospital in Las Vegas did not have her type. He’d even sat at her bedside for days afterwards until she came to weeks later.

She’d never forget coming awake to a man over six feet five with shoulder length hair struggling to find comfort in a too tiny chair. His café ole skin was smooth and when he opened his eyes they were a rich brown.

“Are you?” he’d said moving quickly to the bed as she struggled to pull the tube out of her throat.

Sabrina

Rubbing her aching shoulder, Sabrina refill her glass and threw another log on the fire. The shooting was becoming a distant memory except for the ache that would not go away. Sitting at the counter she rolled her neck as the stress of the memory still made her sad.

She’d been with the Secret Service six years back then and this was her first assignment as the agent in charge. A group of amateur counterfeiters were flooding the area with bogus $5.00 dollar bills. The locals had finally asked for help after the local bank was overrun with fake money. After two months of assessing the situation she’d realized the bank was ground zero in the counterfeit operation, one of the tellers was replacing fake bills for real money, so she went undercover as a teller.

She’d befriended the twenty year old female teller who she suspects as being part of the counterfeit operation. She’d soon realized the teller was being used rather than being actually part of counterfeit operation. Her final investigation revealed the president of the bank was ground zero in the operation.

The night they planned to take the counterfeiters down everything went wrong. The blame for the failed operation rested on the shoulders of the innocent teller’s brother Seamus O'Brian.

Sabrina

She hadn’t grown up in Centralia but she’d spent all her summers there with her grandparents. The most fun she had as a child was in Centralia with both sets of her grandparents

Her father was a career Navy man who moved every four years until she turned thirteen when he became a SEAL trainer at Quantico. Her mother had died when in a car accident when she was 6 weeks old. Refusing to turn her over to either her mother’s or his own parents her father reared her alone.

The year she graduated from college he’d remarried a lieutenant on the base and settled in marital bliss.

Sipping on her float Sabrina relaxed in her chair. The lights flickered again as the wind howled louder.

Sabrina

Seamus watched as Sabrina’s hair tumbled in the wind as she opened the door to The Polar Café. Seamus unlatched the front door of his general store ready to assist her if needed. Rubbing his chin Seamus sighed as the former Secret Service agent took out a hammer and nailed the wood over her windows tighter.

Sabrina cursed as she nailed. She could feel Seamus O’Brian’s eyes on her back. The bastard was watching her as he always did. The former CIA operative was crafty. Hitting the nail one last time Sabrina left the wind propel her to the front door. Letting it slam shut after her she sat at the table closes to the door.

The wind howled louder as she sat and drank her cherry coke float and watched the fireplace flicker. She’s relocated to Centralia after being shot by counterfeiters in Atlanta. The sting had gone bad after a rouge CIA operative recognized her; she ended up with a bullet in her shoulder.

After six months of R&R she decided to tenure her resignation and start over. She’s spent more than a year bouncing around the country until her grandmother invited her to Centralia to run The Polar Bear. The invitation had been a good sent.
She’d been teaching at U of A when grandma Sara had tracked her down. She’d only said two words come home when they first spoke. After she’d ended her day she’d called her back worried she was ill. Instead she found her grandmother as she always had full of energy but needing a break from the café she and Sabrina’s grandfather had started years ago.

With the semester ending in a couple of weeks and unwilling to sign on for another semester, Sabrina notified the university of her decision and packed her bags for Centralia. The moment her little brown convertible cross the state line she knew she was home.

Storm of the Century

The storm of the century blew in with high winds and surging waves, pummeling the small town of Centralia.
The National Guard had ordered evacuations two days ago. Most of the residents had decided to stay except for a scattered few newcomers who’d lived in the town less than 3 years. They were not use to the weather and thought it best to leave rather than brave out the storm. Those who stayed were huddled in their homes praying the storm would leave as swiftly as it came in. State officials warned residents in harm's way to secure home heating fuel tanks in case sea water flooded into communities.
The howling winds sang out as the surging arctic waves came ashore threatening to erode the very ground the town sat on. If the town flood and evacuations became necessary everyone would use the underground subway system.
The weather had been fickled since the start of winter. The town had prayed that shore-fast ice would form before the storm started. It was not to be as the chill in air became came with sub-zero temperature that plunged the town into an ice age. 80 mph winds battered the town slowly with sure fire precision.
The boarded up windows on the buildings began to sway under the weight of the winds. The icy rain hit the sidewalks with stinging drops that shattered on impact.
The sirens at the west end of town began to go off as the full force of the storm came ashore. It was time.
Seamus stood watch out his bedroom window watching as the sky opened and sheets of ice came down. Looking out the window Sabrina watched, praying the shore-fast ice would form soon to protect the town. The windows were boarded up at the Polar Cafe, were holding as the icy rain turned to powder white snow. The Christmas tree in the corner twinkled as the lights all over town flickered.
The storm of the century had made landfall.

Always Abigail's Centralia