“See there it is again.”
Eyre pointed at Sarah’s vitals that were showing in sync with the training videos.
“When she is shooting, her heart rate is steady, no increase when the bullet fires. Her adrenaline levels are not heightened at all. There, heart rate back up when she puts the gun down.”
“Is that why the test didn’t want the sniper rifle test?”
“It is probably why it said it wasn’t necessary. The sniper test is more about her breathing then if she can hit a target. She’s been shooting before she has to have been. You don’t get that kind of calm on first time shooters. You never do.”
“I noticed the same thing on the fighting tests, first two fights she was normal, heart rate increased, adrenaline increased. Then about halfway through the four attackers everything just leveled off. Her breathing was measured, her heart rate steady. No twitchiness. Just calm steady rhythm. The fight with eleven attackers was the same. Honestly, I have never seen someone so calm in a fight especially when taking that many hits.”
“She was taking martial arts before she came here.”
“Karate, one style of kung-fu. The computer identified at least twenty different styles of Hand-to-Hand. Look at the video. She’s way better then she has any right to be.”
“We’ve seen it before some people’s superpower is just that, they are naturally skilled with weapons or hand to hand. It’s not abnormal.”
“The only one who presented her anywhere near a challenge was Amanda Carter. Who is one of those people, faster, stronger, natural combatant. And even then, Carter got in a few good hits, but Sarah adapted to her abilities and started using her strength against her. She’s peak physical condition for a fourteen-year-old girl. Nothing super about that, she works out daily. But to have that much combat ability at her age. Something is definitely strange.”
“What bothers me is that some of these styles are unknown. Four of them. What about the Atlantean?”
Carly put the necklace down on the desk.
“I did your language test.”
“And?”
“She passed.”
“That’s a relief. It means she’s just using magic without realizing it.”
“Look, I think we’re dealing with two different Sarah’s here. One has trouble regulating her emotions. Is your average teenage girl. The other can only be described calmly efficient. I had my government do some digging on her. Yesterday I watched about sixty hours of video of her playing sports. There is no hesitation, no freak outs, no outbursts, no tears. Just the same as she was in the green house video, and when firing the guns and when I stressed her in the combat test.”
“Are you saying she has multiple personality disorder?”
“I don’t know. I’m just saying if you watch enough video of her you can tell. The green house one is the biggest tell though. You can just watch her one second, she is a scared twelve-year-old girl. The next she is fully in control of her emotions, she’s calm, she seems to know exactly what to do with her abilities. Like she’s been using them all her life. And that man, she was fully aware of what she was doing with those plants, she was torturing and killing him. So, if that is multiple personality disorder that I guess that is what it is. I really don’t know you’re the one who has messed with her mind.”
“I haven’t really, I can’t see her thoughts. We might have to get a trusted mind reader to breach protocols to figure out what is going on with her.”
She paused when there was a knock on her door. She hit a key and her screen was showing student attendance records.
“Come in.”
Misha opened the door and walked in. Carly nodded to him.
“I’ll keep an eye on the attendance Headmistress”
She turned to leave. Misha shook his head.
“Carly you should stay I’ve just found something disturbing, and it involves one of your girls.”
Carly turned back and he moved the video from his tablet to the big screen in the office. On the video was Sarah riding one of the subway cars. Across from her was a blob of digital static that was roughly the shape and size of a student. It seemed to be talking to Sarah who was getting upset the video completely broke down then came back. The blob moved across the car and sat beside Sarah who pushed away from it and then when the car stopped, she rushed out. The blob seemed to notice she forget her bag and picked it up. Once in its possession the bag became the same digital static and then it vanished through the side of the car. The video switched to the subway station. It moved up the stairs.
“What is that?”
“We don’t know. I have the computer searching for other instances of it appearing.”
“How did you find out about this?”
“I ran into Sarah last night on the footpaths she looked upset, scared, said someone was following her, I didn’t see anyone so I thought she just might be stressed but she mentioned a boy on the train. So pulled the video and found it. I thought that was the end of it, but she had said she left her bag on the train and then I got a call from her, her bag was in her room. She was complaining he was showing up all over the place when she was alone. Now I see how, he can phase through walls.”
“Jesus. No wonder she’s been so off balance.”
“Did she say anything to you?”
Carly shook her head at Eyre.
“I had no idea.”
“Major Guren, I will allocate whatever security and computer resources you need; I want every single instance where this… entity has shown up on campus.”
“Sarah said he was wearing a school uniform. Could it be a student?”
Eyre shook her head.
“We have no one who can phase currently enrolled. It’s a rare power.”
“I will get you a report on sightings as soon as possible.”
Eyre nodded.
“Thank you, Major. I’ll wait for your report.”
Carly and Misha walked out of the office together. Carly looked up at him.
“You didn’t think I should be notified someone had entered my dorm without authorization last night?”
“I didn’t want to say anything until, I was sure.”
“Were you protecting Sarah from me? Are you getting soft?”
“No, just didn’t want to risk getting you on high alert if it was just her being forgetful.”
“You need to get better at lying.”
Carly shook her head.
“I have class, good luck with your ghost hunt.”
Misha nodded and Carly walked towards the Grade 9 classrooms.
*****
Sarah woke up and checked her messages. She frowned when it displayed that there were zero new messages. She stretched and walked to her own room. Maria was sitting in her desk chair staring at the door. She looked like she was a corpse until she started moving. Sarah had seen it before but still caused her a to jump slightly. Maria smiled.
“Good morning, Sarah. No one entered the room last night.”
“I’m sorry for being such a pain. I appreciate this, Maria.”
“I do not mind. I do not sleep.”
Maria stood up and closed her book. She left the room. Sarah was alone she hugged herself looking around. A day ago, this had seemed like her safe haven but now it had been violated. She pulled off the hoodie and felt something in the front pocket. She pulled out the letter Misha had handed her. She had totally forgotten about it. She pulled it out and opened it sitting on the chair recently occupied by Maria. Her eyes scanned the Cyrillic text.
Dear Sarah,
I have recently been provided with a report about you from Major Guren. I understand you are aware of our hope to convince you to move to Russia for your post-academy education and to hopefully take up residence here. I would like to address the respect we have for your abilities and hope that you can use them to make the world a better place. We will offer full citizenship for you and whatever family you desire, provide you with a spacious residence and a living allowance equivalent of 100000 Scottish Pounds a year. This is just to take up residence here. You may seek employment and other income at your desire. Should you wish it we will be more than happy in assisting you with employment in whatever field you chose to enter.
I understand you are a hockey player of some skill. I am pleased to let you know that provided you show enough skill in a try out which can be arranged for you, we would be happy to have you represent us in international competition.
To show you how committed Russia is to your future I would like to invite you to come on your fall break to join us for a tour of Moscow, an example of the residence you can expect to receive on becoming a citizen and I have also arranged for you to spend some time with our Olympic women’s hockey team. All of your expenses would be taken care of, and you would stay with my family for the duration. If you would like to accept this invitation, please communicate your acceptance to Major Guren.
Yours, with respect,
Milyutin Makarovich, President of the Russian Federation.
Sarah stared at the letter for a long time then her second alarm went off it snapped her out of it. She folded I up and put it back in the envelope then put it in her desk drawer. She chewed on her thumb nail then grabbed her water bottle and took her meds with shaking hands. She wasn’t sure if it was excitement or nervousness. Supers really were like superstars here. If she accepted, she would feel obliged to consider them when she finished school but meeting an Olympic women’s hockey team was such an opportunity for a puck head. She got ready for breakfast she was leaving the shared bathroom and nearly bumped into Amee who she stepped out of the way for but walked past without a word. Amee watched her go. Sarah picked up her noise cancelling headphones and put them on and started a play list.
She picked up her breakfast in the cafeteria head phones on. She sat down in the furthest corner of the room. She ate her breakfast slowly, playing with her food. She barely noticed the shifting crowd of girls coming and going. It was a typical morning for her until her medication kicked in time tended to lose meaning if she wasn’t doing something and if she was doing something specific but unwanted it seemed to stretch onto eternity making the task ahead seem endless and impossible. She didn’t notice with Maria, Kerri and Amee joined her. Nor when Amee tried to talk to her. Her mind was far away thinking of a stone slab covered in blue runes she couldn’t quite understand. She kept seeing a flash of an ornate silver sword at its center. Her wrist vibrated telling her it was time to head to her first class. Her roommates had already left she cleaned up her table and walked to the subway which was crowded with girls from both dorms getting ready for their first class. She got onto the train and sat
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down. She was still zoned out when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Her initial reaction was anger. She had headphones on for a reason but when she looked up, she saw Cadet Carter. She pulled her headphones down.
“Sorry for bothering you. I just wanted to apologize for how rough things got.”
Sarah shrugged.
“We all got a bit rough.”
“I was worried it was bad, I mean I saw you getting wheeled in for emergency surgery.”
Sarah shook her head.
“That had nothing to do with you, they found bullet fragments and an injury that wasn’t healed properly. Apparently, they had to get them out?”
Amanda sat down beside her.
“Bullet fragments? Oh right…the Major said you were shot.?”
Sarah nodded.
“Apparently it was close, had a lot of blood loss. Headmistress, Ms. Aurelius and Ms. Sheppard got me through it.”
“Wow, I mean the Major said some stuff went down, I didn’t realize it was that serious.”
Sarah nodded.
“Sarah, if you ever need help with anything you know like boys stalking you. You can count on us. You might not be part of our team, but you earned our respect. I’ll let you get back to your music.”
“Thank you.”
Sarah pulled her headphones up again and wore them all the way to class which this morning happened to be English. She had to take two language courses. Her native language’s literature and another languages literature, or beginners if she didn’t know it already. She had decided on Russian literature. Then there was Math, Science, History and Social studies. The basic school courses took up her mornings and her afternoons were taken up by alternating classes in Magic and Power use finishing off with PT class. She closed her eyes and listened to the music. When she felt the train come to a stop she got up and walked off the train. She could not hear her roommates calling out to her to wait up. The rest of the week followed that pattern. She was suffering for a bout of what is often called Hyperfocus. When she wasn’t in class or at the gym, she was at the library trying to find anything out about the tree or slab. She was kicked out of the library on both Saturday and Sunday at closing because she had lost track of time and hadn’t eaten lunch or either day. She rarely took off her noise cancelling headphones and without parents around to pull her back and her anger at Amee she found herself in trouble on the Monday morning when she hadn’t finished three homework assignments.
She found herself in the Headmistress’s office for the last fifteen minutes of her Russian Literature class. Eyre was reading over emails from her instructors.
“Sarah, you have five homework assignments given to you, and you have completed none of them. I also had complaint from library staff that you were there fifteen minutes past closing last night even though they told you three times it was closing. How can I help?”
Sarah shrugged fiddling with her headphones.
“Sarah, I am here to help you succeed but to succeed you need to actually be present in your classes.”
Sarah shrugged again still messing with her noise cancelling headphones. She didn’t look up to meet Eyre’s eyes. Eyre kept talking but Sarah totally lost track of the conversation. Her mind kept going back to the slab if she could just find a picture or some indication of its location. She snapped out of it when she felt a tap on the shoulder. Eyre was standing behind her.
“Sarah, you will turn in all your missing assignments and anything new by Friday or there will be disciplinary action. Do you understand?”
Sarah nodded.
“Alright, go get some lunch, and Sarah quit skipping meals, it’s not good for you.”
“Yes Headmistress.”
Sarah sighed and put her headphones back on and went for lunch. Eyre shook her head as Sarah walked out of her office. She dialed Dr. Carston’s office.
“Eyre, what can I do for you?”
“Sarah MacCloud, I don’t know what you changed about her meds last week, but you need to sort it out, she’s missed five assignments and hasn’t been eating.”
“Hmm, did she mention anything at length?”
“She said exactly two words to me when she bothered paying attention to me at all. Those were Yes, Headmistress.”
“Eyre, ADHD is not a made-up learning disability, she is sometimes incapable of paying attention. I suspect she’s suffering from a bout of hyperfocus. It’s pretty typical in people ADHD especially younger ones. I thought you had her in a room with three other girls and that she was getting along with them. And one had befriended her. Has something changed?”
“I do not have time to find out the relationship dynamics of all the students on campus Doctor. Sort it out, this cannot go on.”
“Of course, I have a session with her this afternoon.”
“Well, if she doesn’t show up, check the Magic Library I do know she’s been spending every waking moment she could there.”
*****
Sarah paced in front of Dr. Carston’s office. She had her noise cancelling headphones around her neck. She just wanted this over with and get back to the library. Everything felt like a nuisance lately eating, showering, class, homework having to talk to her roommates. Dr. Carston opened his door and motioned in her inside. Sarah went in and sat down.
“How is the new dosage working?”
“Great.”
“Good, good. I’ll enter the new prescription in the system for you.”
“Thank you, Dr. Carston.”
Sarah grabbed for the handle of her bag.
“Where are you going?”
Sarah frowned slightly.
“I thought today was just to make sure the new dosage was good.”
“No, please have a seat, I’m afraid I got a call from the Headmistress today, something about you being distant not handing in any homework assignments?”
Sarah sat down her ears started to burn.
“Oh, you heard about that already.”
Dr. Carston smiled.
“Yes, I’m not sure how your old schools worked but not turning in one assignment is cause of concern, five assignments in a row in different classes that sets off a whole bunch of red flags. Do you want to tell me about what’s going on?”
“I’m just researching something the assignments were getting in the way.”
“Well, you’re here to take classes, shouldn’t that be your focus?”
“I guess.”
“What have you been researching?”
“It’s embarrassing. I’m also not supposed to talk about some of it.”
“This is a safe space Sarah, there are no judgments here. I’m just here to listen to your thoughts and feelings and where I can help you navigate your ADHD. So, what were you researching?”
“When I was under anesthesia, I saw a giant tree covering a stone rise that had some sort of stone cover on it. It was covered in blue runes and there were these lines of blue and green energy running through it, like my hands when I use my powers. I was so close to figuring out what they said, and it was so real I’m just trying to finish. I understood the runes I knew what they said but they were jumbled, and I couldn’t figure out what they meant. I could feel it. Like I feel so much just at the edge of my mind. It is driving me nuts and I just want to find a reference to the tree and the stone cap. I haven’t been able too. It has to be out there; I must have read something about it.”
“Maybe it was just a dream? You said it felt the same as when you were using your powers?”
“No, I mean it looked the same. It just felt familiar like and important. Like someone’s life depended on it. Like something super important to me was behind it. An explanation for everything. Like why sometimes I feel like I know things I have no way of knowing, or why I can understand fifteen languages I’ve never spoken or read. Why sometimes I can do things when I don’t think hard about them. Like how the hell do I know how to target shoot? I mean I scored perfect, and I’ve never touched a gun before. Or like how did I beat the shit out of ten older students that train daily? They literally didn’t stand a chance once I stopped trying to think about it when I just let my body do what it wanted too.”
“Do you often feel like you’re not in control of your body?”
“No, I’m always in control I just let my body lead instead of mind. It’s a weird sensation. Like muscle memory. I can stop at any time. I do it all the time in sports.”
“How do you feel when you stop overthinking and let your body do what feels right?”
“Like I’m not fighting myself anymore?”
“Have you ever had an instance when you blacked out doing it?”
“A couple of times I guess but I don’t really remember…someone altered my memories.”
“You feel like someone did?”
“No, the headmistress tried to make me forget what happened but couldn’t, so she changed the memory.”
“What did she not want you to remember?”
“She only did it because my father begged her. It wasn’t her. It’s like when someone shoots someone else, do you blame the gun?”
“That is a very mature way of looking at it, so what did was your father worried about you remembering?”
“I killed a man that was trying to abduct me.”
Dr. Carston nodded. Sarah could tell he was shocked but trying to hide it. He wrote down some notes casually.
“Do you remember it?”
“I have had dreams, but they were the fake memories. The real one is frightening; I saw a video.”
“What did the video show?”
“I tortured him by breaking all of his bones then after I made him beg for his life twice, I made the plants stab him over and over again.”
He nodded.
“And how do you feel about that?”
“It made me throw up. I still feel sick to my stomach. It was so vicious and cruel. It’s like I wanted to punish him like I knew he had already killed three girls.”
“You don’t remember any of this? What do you see when you dream about it?”
“I don’t know it’s the same, but he grabs me, and I curl up in a ball on the ground when the plants start attacking him and stop when I see my brothers in the room and the plants are going towards them.”
“Which memory would you prefer to have?”
“Neither, I wish it never happened, but the one where I was in control of my power felt better even if it proves I’m a monster.”
“Why do you say you are a monster?”
“It was like I was stepping on an ant; You should have seen the look on my face. It was terrifying. And watching it part of me liked it.”
“Why did you like it?”
“I was in control, the plants did exactly what I wanted.”
“Do you feel out of control?”
“Of course, I do, I’m a teenage girl. Like the last time you asked.”
“Do you think this current hyperfocus of yours is you trying to take some control?”
Sarah shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
“Do you feel like you’re in control when you’re playing sports?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe we should get you back into organized sports then.”
“Sure, tell them to get Soccer or Hockey going in September.”
“I was thinking Field Hockey.”
“No, you play hockey on ice.”
“There is field hockey too, its similar. The houses make teams up and play each other. Boys and girls teams who will play each other too. I think you might enjoy it.”
“Alright I guess I can try it.”
“And Soccer is a fall sport here. But at this point in time, you don’t qualify to play, you’re academic standing is bad.”
“What?”
“We can fix that quickly; Can you finish the assignments tonight?”
“I guess.”
“I need your commitment will you finish all of the assignments tonight and the ones due tomorrow if I go to the Headmistress and tell her there was a medication mix up and that you should do better in the future?”
“I will finish them tonight.”
“Okay I will let the headmistress know so you can sign up for Soccer. You’ll be playing with a school in Munich. We don’t have a team. But you won’t have time for this research project.”
Sarah nodded.
“I understand.”
“I think what we need to do is teach your brain to kick it out of the hyperfocus you’ve been experiencing here and there. Or if you are stuck, how to redirect that energy to something you need done rather then something you like doing.”
“Why don’t we re-write the laws of physics while we’re at it?”
Sarah leaned on the desk with her elbows and rubbed her face.
“Do you go to bed on time?”
“Most nights.”
“How do you do that?”
“I set a silent alarm on my holo-tablet, so it tells me the time. Same thing I do in the mornings, so I don’t miss my work out or breakfast. Like I used to do with my phone.”
“So that vibration on your wrist tells you it’s time to do something. So why don’t you start doing that when you have an assignment. Set it as soon as you get an assignment and have it notify you its time to start on the assignment. I can tell by your marks from your previous school you have the ability to judge the time a given task will take, so estimate it right when you get the assignment and set another alarm at the end time to help you change tracks.”
“That sounds like it will get annoying.”
“Sarah you’re at a private school now, your parents are not here to knock you out of your hyperfocus and if you’re friends aren’t up to the task you need to take steps to learn to do it yourself. When you are an adult, you will be on your own sometimes and if you don’t have a way to remind you that you have something to do you might forget, just imagine if you have a child some day and they are at school, and you have to pick them up at 3 pm. If you have no one to remind you it’s time to pick you up, that child could be stuck there for wondering with their mother is. The behaviors you train your brain to respond to now can help you for the rest of your life. So, if it takes scheduled alarms to remind you that you have tasks to complete then that’s what it takes. Do you understand?”
“I guess.”
“By the way, your hair looks good. I see you took my advice and went for a change.”
Sarah nodded.
“What else happened this week?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I think we should.”
“It’s done and over with, she did it, I can’t change that.”
“For her it is done. For you, you still have the trauma of living through that.”
“My mother tried to kill herself. So what? She was dead to me anyway.”
“Was she?”
His desk started to rumble as blue veins creeped into her hands.
“Sarah. Stop.”
Sarah blinked and picked up her bag and walked out without a word. Her face was bright red, and she had tears dripping down her cheeks.