Democracy is Dead

Chapter Twenty Eight

Athena found herself disappointed to be back in her New London flat on Monday morning. She'd enjoyed her quiet weekend with Dyo at her parents' house. They'd loved meeting him - her mum had sent her a dozen messages since their return telling her so. Athena missed the space, the sea, the stillness and, even though they'd only been apart for a couple of hours, she missed Dyo.

It didn't take Sephy long to notice that Athena had zoned out again. "Hello? Earth to Athena?"

"Huh? Sorry, what did you say?"

"I was right in the middle of devising a master plan to uncover the real spy and clear your name! I thought that would be something you'd pay a bit more attention to!"

"Sorry, I zoned out. I'm concentrating now. What's the plan?"

Sephy sighed. "Okay, so there isn't one - yet. But we need to come up with something. Then we can rub it in their faces that we were right and they were wrong."

"You mean Orion's face?"

"Well, mostly his. But Bree and Don too. And no one else has exactly leapt to your defence."

Athena tried not to let this bother her; it made sense - she was the newest, so it was easier to mistrust her than someone they'd been friends with for years. So far, she'd only grown close to Sephy, Dyo and Orion, so two out of three friends supporting her wasn't bad. But that only lessened the sting of the accusation, it didn't clear it.

"Have you tried speaking to Orion?" Athena asked softly. They'd been sat together on Athena's bed for the past few hours, but he'd only been mentioned in the form of threats and curses.

"I've deleted every message he has sent unopened," Sephy replied proudly. "I should have seen this coming," she added in a softer tone. "The signs were all there. He never really trusted my judgement. Ever. I should have realised he would always assume that I was wrong after he voted against me on the cinnamon biscuit vote in September. But did he have to side with Bree so publicly? It was humiliating."

"I'm sure he realises that now, Sephy," Athena said, trying not to laugh at the cinnamon biscuit comment. "He's probably apologised thousands of times in those messages you've been deleting."

Hoot squeaked his wheel, as though agreeing with her and Athena looked at the hamster fondly.

"A message won't cut it. I'm waiting for a grand gesture." Sephy was looking at the hamster too. Her face had 'puppy' written all over it.

"And if he tried such a 'grand gesture' how would you know about it? You won't go home!" Sephy had been avoiding her flat at all costs, spending the weekend with her aunt in the north west of the city. She'd come over to Athena's as soon as she'd arrived home last night.

"I'm sorry, do you want me to leave too?" Sephy looked so sad that Athena instantly felt guilty and put an arm around her.

"Don't be silly. Of course I don't. Besides, even if you were driving me insane, I would have to really hate you to send you back to Creepy Cassy."

Creepy Cassy was Sephy's flat mate. As well as moaning about Orion, Athena and Sephy had been following Cassy's public feed, on which she mostly posted about voices in the walls and the fairy who stole her food at night.

Sephy shuddered. "I can't go back there! What if she thinks I'm the fairy and tries to kill me in my sleep in revenge for her missing food?"

Athena laughed. "You should ask Ajax to pull some University strings and get you a transfer. There must be somewhere else available."

"I was going to ask to move at the beginning of the year. But after I met him it didn't seem so necessary..."

Sephy's glasses flashed red as another message came in.