The girl’s mouth continues to move, but I don’t hear any of the words she says. My mind repeats the words she says over and over.
Charlotte has been found dead.
How is she dead? She was just alive and chattering minutes earlier.
Maybe the girl is just kidding. That has to be it. It’s just a joke. The people of the Unknown do seem to have a lot of fun and do a lot of joking around. This is one of those pranks. Charlotte will walk in the Eating Room any second now, giggling away.
People are running out of the Eating Hall, terror printed across their face. It’s a good thing she’s not really dead, otherwise all these people would have a real reason to be terrified.
My hearing slowly returns and my ears fill with anxious shouts. Charlotte must be a great actor to still have them convinced. I want to go see Charlotte’s acting myself, but I can’t push my wheelchair by myself, I don’t know how. I wouldn’t risk walking and falling just over some joke.
A different girl enters the desolate Eating Hall. Her eyes frantically scan the room until they land on me. She sprints towards me, “You’re Charlotte’s Rivie, right?”
I nod, unsure of why she’s asking. Does she want me to participate in the joke as well?
She grabs the handles of my wheelchair and hurriedly pushes me out of the room. Dazed and shouting people pack the halls. The girl pushes through them, using mostly my wheelchair as an excuse. We break through the crowd and my hand flies to my mouth.
The crowd has formed a ring around Charlotte’s collapsed body. She’s made the whole act very convincing. Her arm is pinned beneath her back, as if she tried to stop herself before she hit the ground. Her head is lolled backwards, her eyes still open. I don’t know how she can keep them open for so long without having to blink.
Miranda crouches over her, tears slipping between her eyelashes. Does it bother Charlotte that her joke is causing Miranda to cry? Maybe she’s using it as revenge since Miranda wouldn’t listen to what Charlotte had to say about her spying.
I recognize Harry, the nurse who first was with me when I got to the Unknown. He has his fingers presses against Charlotte’s thin wrist.
Harry takes a deep breath and announces, “There’s no pulse.”
Harry must be in on the joke as well.
Startled cries slip out of people’s mouth. Charlotte is an amazing actor, she still hasn’t blinked yet. How did she manage to make her skin such a pale color? Did she put some type of make-up on herself?
The girl who pushed me here hesitantly says, “Miranda? I, uh, have the Rivie that Charlotte was with…”
Miranda turns to me, wiping away her tears. “Why weren’t you with Charlotte?”
“She had to go to the Toilets. I offered to go with her, but she said she wanted to go alone.”
Murmuring grows behind us, but every word is indistinguishable. I focus on Miranda, her face full of desperation and anger. When will Charlotte show that she was just joking?
I take a closer look at Charlotte. I can’t even see a slight rise and fall of her chest. She is completely still.
Doubt starts to trickle into my mind, but I quickly push it away. Charlotte’s not dead. She can’t be. This is all one big joke.
Miranda asks, “Was she acting strange at all before she left?”
I think of the firm way she told that she could go alone and the strange flicker of emotion across her face
“I don’t know. Nothing that really stood out.”
Miranda narrows her eyes at my answer but doesn’t say anything more to me. She turns to address Harry, “Can you determine the cause of death?”
Harry says, “We’ll run some blood tests and see if we find anything. There are no signs of foul play.”
Miranda’s voice rises, “Of course there’s no sign of foul play. This is Charlotte we are talking about. Why would anyone want to kill her? She’s never hurt anybody…”
Miranda’s voice trails off at the end, most likely because she’s remember that Charlotte has hurt somebody. Many people. Even though it isn’t her choice, she’s still a spy. She’s betrayed people. From what it sounds like, she’s even caused the death of a person.
Two more Nurses arrive, though I recognize neither, carrying a stretcher. They unfold it and carefully lift Charlotte’s body on to the cot. The limpness of her limbs, the way her fingers loosely graze the floor sends more doubt pouring into my thoughts.
Why hasn’t she said anything yet? Why hasn’t she told everyone that it was all a prank? I glance at the people’s faces around me. They are painted with fear, worry, grief, and anger. Almost everyone has tears in their eyes, if not on their cheeks. Even if this was only supposed to be a joke, it’s turned out horribly.
As the Nurses set Charlotte on the stretcher, her head falls to the side. Her mouth has slipped partway open. Her eyes stare blankly passed me. Muffled gasps and cries sound around me, but I do nothing but stare.
She can’t be. Charlotte cannot be dead.
As they roll her away through the parted crowd, I know.
Charlotte’s dead.
The tears fill my eyes and rush over my cheeks, dripping into my lap. My breath shortens.
Could I have stopped it? Did I fail her, just like I did Tooth?
Why didn’t I notice that something was wrong? She acted strange when she said she was going to the Toilets.
Cold realization spreads over my skin. I’m glad I’m sitting down as my muscles weaken.
Charlotte had the machine in her wrist that would inject lethal poison if she every betrayed them. They had the microphone in her wrist the whole time, listening to what we were saying. They heard her tell us about her spying. They knew she betrayed them.
The entire day I was worried about my own life, about whether I would escape alive. I never once considered that Charlotte’s life would be at an increased risk due to her explanation. If I had thought about someone besides myself, could we have prevented Charlotte’s death?
Besides Piper, I’m the only one who knows this, who knows the truth. Piper might not know of Charlotte’s death yet. Should I tell Miranda? Someone else might be falsely accused of murdering her if I don’t. But will Miranda listen to me talk about Charlotte’s spying? Miranda was furious when she heard out about it.
But, they will find out at least some part of it eventually. If they run any serious tests, they’ll discover the machine in Charlotte’s wrist. To explain Charlotte’s death, we’ll have to announce her betrayal to the people of the Unknown.
If the people of the Unknown never find out the cause to Charlotte’s death, they’ll forever be terrified of the same thing happening to them.
It’s better to announce Charlotte’s betrayal and wipe away some of the terror on the crowds’ faces. But, I want to discuss it privately with Miranda first.
Miranda paces back and forth in the hall, tears trapped inside her narrowed eyes. She receives worried glances from the surrounding crowd, but no one speaks to her.
I wipe away my tears with shaky hands. Tearstains dabble my skirt, and I’m sure my eyes are rimmed in red.
I clear my throat, my voice shaking, “Miranda? Could I talk to you?”
Miranda’s eyes swing to find me in the crowd. She stares at me for a couple seconds before nodding shortly. She strides over to me and quickly pushes my wheelchair through the crowd.
We arrive at her office at a swift speed, entering through the door quickly. She stops me in front of her desk before immediately sitting down in her desk.
She asks, “What is it you have to tell me?”
“I think I know the cause of Charlotte’s death.”
She raises an eyebrow, waiting for me to explain.
“She told Piper and me that she was forced to be a spy. The Heads put a small machine into her wrist. They told her that if she were to lie or not answer the questions correctly, the machine would inject her with a poison that would kill her.”
“Of course,” Miranda slams her hand down on the table, “Of course, there was more to the story and I was so offie stupid/ I didn’t…I knew I should have let her speak…but no…she probably thought I hated her…how could I have been so offie stupid?”
A loud knock echoes from the door. Miranda wipes away an angry tear that escaped and slams her finger to a button on her desk. The door slides open, revealing a boy that I vaguely recognize. Josh. He’s the incredibly smart Tech that Charlotte was talking about.
Miranda attempts a smile and says, “Hi Josh, what do you need?”
Josh gravely says, “It’s about Charlotte.”
“Yes?”
“I looked through the messages on her Notice, to see if there were any clues behind her sudden death. There were several messages from an unregistered Notice that had been recently deleted. I was able to retrieve them from the database.”
Miranda shares a glance with me, asking, “What did they say?”
“The person contacted Charlotte, repeatedly asking for more information on some topic, which they did not clarify on. Charlotte didn’t respond until they said, ‘Tell us their Complex number or we will kill you.’”
Miranda takes a slow shaky breath before asking, “And Charlotte responded by saying…?”
“Charlotte simply typed back, ‘Then kill me.’”