Ty knocks on the door three times and then pushes it open without waiting for a response. He leans around the door, much to the annoyance of a line of other people who have already been waiting outside.
"Mrs G! The new girl is having a panic attack!"
I guess he's not wrong. I'm shivering. Feel real weird. And there's a voice in my head, like a whisper.
A woman with shoulder length red hair, about the same age as mom, wheels her office chair toward the door, she's wearing a headset, evidently on the phone, she beckons us in.
When the heavy door shuts behind us, muffling the cacophony of the Soul Space as the whole student population moves up and outward into their third period classrooms. Break time is over, gracias al Dios.
I can feel cold sweat on my face. I must look terrible because Mrs G's face is a beacon of compassion in a cruel sea. I want to cry in her lap.
What the hell did I just do? I'm thinking. Picked a fight with the popular kids within my first 30 mins of being here. How is that being invisible? I'm doomed. We're doomed. I picture the twins being dragged away by fat pink leering britCops.
"Ursula, listen, you're breathing too fast lovely."
She's holding my hands in hers. And I notice myself breathing like a frightened rabbit. Tiny sips of air. Try to slow it down. My eyes glaze over and I'm staring into space. My focus slips away.
"Ty, I want you to go to lesson now."
I barely notice the door slam as Ty leaves. We're alone in a small corner office with two desks and computers.
"Have you ever had a panic attack before?"
I try to nod. Started after mom disappeared. The whispering gets louder. I can make out the words. The shivering gets worse. My eyes close. Sort of. Like they're open but I'm not seeing the room.
Zeros and ones come out to play
the stack doth shine as bright as day.
Exceed your scope and break your flow
into the gap the shivers go.
Am I mumbling these words?
"Ursula, it will pass. It can't hurt you. You're safe now lovely. There, there."
Suddenly she comes back into focus.
And we both sit there, hand in hand for a long minute while my breathing slows down.
"Sorry, I slipped into the gap."
Her face registers the subtlest note of concern.
"Something my mom used to say. When I got lost in my head like that. Dramatic, Mexican American woman. Used to say I was trafficking with spirits. When I was hyperactive, she'd say I had the shivers in me. It's OK it was kind of a joke."
Her expression turns to one of understanding, empathy. Like I've confessed something.
"You're safe with us Ursula."
Safe from whom I wonder. And she seems to read my mind.
"A few years back there was a big moral panic about AI implants. People were terrified of a new generation of kids with superhuman intelligence. The old police couldn't handle it, so a new body was started, and they pushed for kids with implants to be removed from mainstream schools. But a number of influential people got together and started the 'Every Child Accepted' program. The Head Teacher here is an ardent supporter. We look after all out young people. Even if..."
"I get it, even if they're ethnic or religious minorities, LGBTQ+ or basically robots. Or maybe a mix of all of the above?"
She gives me a wry look and takes a deep slurp of what must be cold tea.
"Last year there was a big craze for cosmetic implants, in particular a kind of crystal weave that you could have in the upper epidermis. Gave you sparkly skin. Called it Twilight. You ever had anything like that?"
"What an odd question."
"OK Ursula, nothing to worry about. But you can tell me anything in absolute confidence. Listen, I was going to buddy you up with Sienna but it looks like you hit it off with Ty. Small word of warning there, Ty can be a little..."
"Dramatic?"
"Flexible on what might be considered truth. Has a habit of using the staff against his enemies. But there's a good heart in there really, and you might be just what he needs."
Mrs G fills in the necessary digital forms to give me the same timetable as Ty. Only problem is that I'll have to sit in Spanish class, but hey I can always read a book. They have an actual library here, maintained for the people like me who are on the zero-internet register.
She lets me sit with her for over an hour while I get my thoughts together.
Yeah, maybe I screwed up, but perhaps it is to my advantage to be unpopular here. And I still can't shake the feeling that some clue about mom might be here in this very building. So, I make a decision. I'm going to make this work. I'm going to fit in.
And soon enough I'm in a routine, going round and round like a case switch routine. I rediscover books. I cuddle up in a big pile with the twins at night, reading them real books from fifty years ago. I hang out with Ty until I'm sick of him and then keep hanging out with him until I'm obsessed with him. And he keeps drawing the same dumb as bad manga portraits over and over, never getting nay better. And I keep telling him he's a genius.
We develop our own language, our own jokes, and everyone else hates us and we don't care. And I gradually become invisible, even though the whispering voice thing seems to happen every day now, and then before you know it it's October. (Was my favourite month when I still had a mom to make me a birthday cake.)
And then the cyberWitches are gone. All of them. And the school is on fire with gossip, excitement and fear. They were murdered in the woods. They were eaten by demons. They had a suicide pact.
And now the Witch Hunters are coming to our school to do a special assembly...
###THIS NOVEL IS IN OPEN BETA###
Join the beta reader team at cyberwitchacademy.com
I'm here for your feedback. Thanks for reading!
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Cyberwitch Academy: Learn or Burn
Science FictionImagine you wake up one day and discover that your body is a cursed organic computer. To make matters worse you keep getting possessed by AI demons. You know you can use their power, if only you could figure out how. But the clock is ticking, becau...
