Cyberwitch Academy: Learn or Burn

Chapter 17

Grandma closes the door behind me before I even get to the front gate. I'm alone. It's never been so hard to put one foot in front of the other. The twins have already left for their Montessori primary in an armoured taxi.

Why is everybody acting like it's a normal day? Like I'm not walking to my doom. And I'm forcing myself onward, on the same old route to the bus stop. Trying to control my anxiety.

So I repeat to myself, like a mantra. I'm innocent. Gotta go to trial. Gotta get cleared. Protect the twins. No use running. Nowhere to run. And besides, there's worse out there than the hunters.

At least the hunters have rules, laws. And if somehow I do have implants, there's people out there who would like to steal them. I can't be held responsible for using implants I didn't know I had.

And I'm longing for mom. Aching for her. Strongest person I ever knew. Took over a room just by walking into it. Melted resistance in front of her. Swept everyone up along with her in her legendary life story. Would breeze through this trial like charming away a library fine.

Someone is staring at me.

I've been too up in my own head. Danger.

I'm on the bus. It's a woman I think, although I can only guess from the shape of her. She's covered almost completely in overalls and a black face mask. Openly staring. One eye blue and the other eye brown. My fingers grip each other so tightly my nails almost break skin. My left leg is shaking violently. The whisper of the glitch. My vision skips. Blank terror.

NOT BECAUSE YOU'RE DIRTY.

I see the pictures that Marketta, the Witch Finder, showed me back at school. Girls my age, after the scavengers got to them. The woman walks towards me. I realise that I'm muttering out loud.

NOT BECAUSE YOU'RE CLEAN.

People get up. Everyone gets up. Files down the stairs of the double decker. They just leave. She sits in front of me. Pulls the mask away from her face. It's a solid face, strong jaw, and strong cheeks. A woman in her forties, marks of violence on her. Mended nose. But there is concern in her gaze.

"I know you're scared."

MY MOTHER SAYS.

"But you can't go to school today, Ursula."

YOU'RE THE FAIRY QUEEN.

"They'll exhaust you. They'll break you on camera and make you glitch out. Then they'll find you guilty. Once they get you on their ship, we can't get you out."

"Please go away." My voice is so small I wonder if she can hear it.

"Come with me. I can protect you."

Something clicks deep inside. And before I even realise what is happening, I'm sprinting past her, jumping down the steps three at a time, pushing through the crowd and hammering at the bus doors. The driver shouts and shouts, but he pulls over and opens the door anyway.

As I run I slow into a jog, looking over my shoulder. It's only a few streets to the school gate and I can't see the woman following. I need to slow down, if I'm going to make it all the way to school without stopping.

Whatever the hunters do to me, it can't be as bad as getting kidnapped by a witch cult. And if I failed to arrive at school today, god knows the twins would suffer for it. And underneath all that, something tells me that if mom was arrested and tried - then the only way to find her is to do the same thing...

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I'm coughing up a lung as I arrive at the school gate. Never did do much sports in Manhattan. The protestors are still here. It's a much bigger crowd than it was. But they're actually inside the gates now. And the street outside is lined with regular police. They have riot vans. But they don't seem to be too alert. Standing around chatting.