Cyberwitch Academy: Learn or Burn

Chapter 56

I'm feeling numb, holding onto Alice so tight my fingers feel like claws. As the wind blasts my face I look down. We pass over a fancy square with trees, surrounded by old fashioned London hotels.

The vehicle slows and we come in to land, I catch a glimpse of the front of the building, like a bank crossed with a church, Greek style pillars out front. And we come to a stop on the roof. No time to get my head together. Alice is already off.

And I'm running to catch up as mission reports keep coming in on the network. My Rhizome acting like a wireless radio, which I guess it basically is. Call it what you want, it's all still radio.

It's real late. The witching hour. And I'm exhausted. But Alice is in crisis mode, finding out who is still alive. Who has been captured, who is missing.

More airBikes land behind me, dropping Sirens off and flying away.

We all follow Alice down the stairs through a derelict roof terrace, scattered dining tables and broken heaters, and into the building.

It's beautiful inside, adding to the sense of unreality, are we in the Gap? Kinda I guess, I guess we have always been trying to build the Gap. Long before the internet. It was a church once. But then you can see all the left behind bits and pieces of a fancy food market, all the bits too heavy to loot.

I can tell this safe house is new, because everywhere Sirens and their followers are busy trying to set up their infrastructure. Distracted, overwhelmed, I forget to keep up with her, and she disappears into another stairwell.

And I'm calling after her 'Alice!' But my voice is now only one of many.

And when she glances back at me, I see fury in her eyes.

But right now, I just need her, need her more than anyone on earth.

I just want to get out of here, pull her out of this horrific world she's trapped in, take her back to New York where people don't burn witches and none of this crazy medieval shit is happening. But she's just out of reach.

Other Sirens are trying to take me aside, trying to tend to my wounds, they're worried about me, and I guess I must look rough as hell, I'm kind of limping, not really paying attention to the pain, am I bleeding?

But I struggle away, and we get down finally into the main bit of the church and then down underground, to what maybe was once a crypt but then got turned into a cocktail bar, and then another urban ruin in a fallen London, and this is now Alice's emergency base of operations. She's surrounded by the Siren elite.

I elbow my way through the crowd of witches and force her to turn around and look me in the eye.

"Alice, I need to talk to you." She doesn't even look.

"Right now!" I try to shout, but my voice breaks as I say it. Humiliating.

She finally meets my gaze.

"I'm right here." She says.

"In private." Almost sound like I'm begging.

"Whatever you want to say to me you can say in front of my sisters."

And I choke on it. Can't even remember what it was I wanted to say. So, she talks instead of me.

"I'm sorry the operation failed, but what else could we do? I lost my coven tonight because of you. Everything you touch turns to shit. I can't believe I actually started to like you."

"No!" And my world is falling apart.

"Alice, please you can't..."

"Can't what? Get out of my life kid. You are a poisoned chalice. Somebody call Mel get her to bring her pet glitch witch home."

"No! I can't go back. I can't."

"Why the hell not?"

And there is tension everybody is watching us. Some of them I realise, are loyal to me now, and some of them to her and some are still undecided. How the hell did I get mixed up in clan politics? And it is my fault, it is my fault, or is it? I never asked for any of this. But it comes out of me before I can stop it.

"Because I love you. I've fallen in love with you Alice Nutter. I can't stop thinking about you. I don't know how to..." My voice trails off. The room falls silent.

Her face is contorted into horror and hilarity, an awful version of mirth, hatred and amusement.

"You what? You love me? Is that your super power, killing people with love? You're a dumb little rich girl who is over her head, and you think you can control me, sign me up to be your new mommy, kill everyone around me with your injured innocence and your plain stupidity."

I'm swaying on my feet. I can hear the words but I can't understand them. Like when you know you've hurt yourself real bad but you're still too shocked to feel the pain.

She looks at the Sirens around me.

"Why the hell is everyone taking you so seriously? Because you're the messiah or some shit. But you are what you always were, what I said when I met you. You're just a time bomb, a puppet for the queens to play politics with. And it's my family paying the price. Get out Ursula."

"I never forced you to help me. You chose that. I know your angry Alice. But you do love me. I felt it."

She roars at me, like an injured animal. I flinch. She moves to walk away. I follow.

"But we could get out, we could leave London tonight, Alice, we could find a way to get out of England. We don't have to wait here for the hunters to take it all away. We've got something different. I know you feel it too."

"You know nothing about what I feel. I'm a Siren Ursula. Everyone I ever met fell in love with me, and it never meant shit. Leave now because I have work to do, work that you created, get out of here because I'm about to lose my patience."

Finally, I stop. All the strength in me is gone. I look around at the sea of faces. And I realise that the mood of the crowd has turned on me, and I might actually be in danger.

I turn and run. And before I even get out of the room, I hear Alice scream and kick something, before the buzz and chatter of the mission resumes, and I run into the arms of Ama.

"No, no, no. You're not going anywhere tonight sugar. You come with me and I'll find you a bed. You may not be with Alice, but you're still a Siren. We won't give up on you so fast."

And she holds me up as we limp down the front steps of the church, and she drags me into the back of a taxi. I stare out the back window as the church shrinks into the distance, and disappears as we turn a corner.