The next day, once I was more aware, not so focused on my strange vision, I realized that I had to tell people about what Lauren and I had found. But how? I doubted, somehow, that the Matriarch would like us telling people about it. We would have to do it undetected, if that was even possible. The first place that came to mind was the treehouse. But we couldn't get everyone up there, so I did the next best thing: I shot Laurence a message. I wanted to keep it vague, so all it said was: I need to meet you in the place where mentors and protégées talk. I have an urgent question. I sent it and waited. And waited. And waited. On Wednesday I finally got a response: Tonight before dinner okay? I immediately responded with a yes and then told Lauren. I thought she should be there. She....didn't.
"You want me to do what?! No! Let's leave it alone, we're only stirring up trouble by telling people!" She protested. "Quiet!" I hissed. She was drawing the attention of the people around us, and I knew the cameras were watching too. The last thing we needed was the Matriarch finding out that we were keeping secrets. "Please," I said quietly, low enough for my words to be hidden in the buzz of everyday common room talk. "If there are two people who can prove they've seen it, it might be more believable. Besides, it's not like we're inciting rebellion. We're telling people something they need to know." I said. "And why do they need to know it?! Are they going to be happier, more powerful because we told them about some gravestones?!" She hissed. I sighed.
After I saw the graveyard, I realized something: We were too happy here. Too content. We all knew we were dealing with a madwoman, but we knew that if we played her game we wouldn't set her off. We acted like this meant safety, but it didn't. There's nothing safe about walking a tightrope strung between two skyscrapers, regardless of how steady you might think your standing on the rope is. I'd fallen into the trap, too, focused on honing my skills for the sake of playing her twisted game, not for escaping it. I couldn't make that mistake again, not after what I'd seen. But I knew Lauren wouldn't understand that. She was too nice, too determined to believe that there was fairness to this arrangement. So I simply said "Okay. I'll go by myself." And then changed the subject.
It was hard to sit through classes that day knowing what was coming. I chose the simplest classes I could find, reviews of the basics, even though I knew I should be moving on to more complex skills like the materialization of solid weapons like knives or bows. I was in such a down-with-the-establishment mood that I didn't even feel bad about it until lunch, when Maxwell started showing off his new skills in the courtyard outside the cafeteria. "Hannah! Look sharp! He called, before launching a dagger at my face. I frantically tried to back away from it, but it kept following me. When it was centimeters from my nose, Maxwell twisted his wrist in a complicated-looking motion, and it disappeared. He busted out laughing. "You should've seen your face!" "Not funny, man!" I protested.
"Sorry," he said. "Apple?" He asked as one appeared in his hand. I wrinkled my nose. "I don't think I really want an apple that's just appeared from the beyond." He laughed. "I made it from that tree over there." He said, gesturing to the trees lining the path to the cafeteria. "It's a young apple tree." "Still, I don't think I want it. She'd probably be mad if she saw. You're supposed to buy everything." I reminded him. He just shrugged. "Suit yourself." He said, taking a bite of the apple himself. My eyes flickered instinctively to the camera on the cafeteria wall, looking out over the courtyard. "You know, we don't have to take this." Maxwell said casually. "What do you mean?" I asked slowly, carefully. "We could defeat her, if a bunch of us got together. Cameras or not." He said, lifting his head to stare directly into the camera. I felt all the blood drain from my face. He'd gone mad! "No. We're too scattered, and she'd see everything we tried. I'd drop it if I were you." I said bluntly. I wasn't sure if I was speaking for the camera or myself. The plan did have some holes, but it could work.....No!
I shoved the plan from my mind, along with my niggling feeling that Maxwell wouldn't get away with that for long. After lunch, I went back to the school building. Inspired by Maxwell's little display, I chose a class on dagger materialization. It wasn't easy; you had to form the dagger's shape in pure energy over and over again, get used to the way it flowed, before you could draw from metal atoms to create the real, solid thing. Even then, I gathered that you would have to form it hundreds of times before you could summon it in an instant as Maxwell had done. The instructor-robot said that it was best to get very good at forming one weapon and stick with it, so I chose to form an iron-tipped spear. It would have longer range than most weapons, as we were forbidden to use guns, and I'd already had good luck with my energy-staff, and forming the spear wouldn't be that much different. By the time I stopped for the day, at 3 o'clock, I had already gotten pretty good at forming a mental image of a spear and covering it with repurposed wood and metal from my desk, but I couldn't get the edges to sharpen and the wood to form a coherent whole.
Nevertheless, I threw in the towel, took the quiz, collected the points, and then took off running across campus for the treehouse. It was a long walk, and I didn't want to make Laurence wait. So I was understandably getting a bit annoyed when he finally showed up, twenty minutes after me. "Sorry, got distracted." He said as he climbed the ladder. "What's your question? What's so important that you had to ask it here?" I gulped. No turning back now. "I actually don't have a question. I have something to tell you. But it IS important." He looked interested now. "What is it?" He asked, leaning forward. "Lauren and I- you know Lauren, right, the newbie who showed up late- were hiking in the woods, and we found a path. It went all the way out to the fence, and at the end.....there was a graveyard. The headstones had names and teams on them." I explained sadly.
"What names?" He asked immediately. I took a deep breath and tried to remember. "Tyrone, Blue Team. Emma, Red Team. Matthew, Orange Team. And some others, I don't remember." Laurence looked at his feet. "I knew Matthew. Tyrone and Emma were skilled fighters. They all disappeared a couple years ago. We hoped maybe they'd escaped, but we should've known better. Thank you for telling me, the other leaders and I will get the word out. People need to know this."
I wasn't really sure how he would manage that, but he did. An awful lot of people were bumping into one another at dinner, and I saw pieces of paper poking out of pockets where they hadn't been before, and later carefully hidden in napkins on their way to the incinerator. It was quickly and neatly done, like they'd had experience arranging this before. The common room was awfully quiet that night, full of pale, scared-looking people and people who looked ready to punch a wall in equal measures. Though no one said why, I had a pretty good idea. The Matriarch, for once, was the one in the dark. The thought made me smile.
