Thyla - Kate Gordon [50]
‘I don’t know. I really don’t. I want to protect her, but it’s not like we can be inside Cascade Falls when it’s a full moon. It’s too risky. And we can’t take her with us either. Can you imagine taking a Thyla into Wellington Park with us on a full moon? One who doesn’t know or has forgotten how to control her powers? One without a cuff to help her? It would be a catastrophe. I’m just going to have to ask you to suggest she stays in your room tonight. Will you do that? For me?’
‘But what if someone finds her?’ said Rhiannah. ‘One of the humans?’
‘If a human finds her on a full moon, pity that person, not Tessa.’
‘We must have fought against her,’ Rhiannah said, her voice sounding as though she was concentrating hard; straining to remember. ‘That’s the hardest thing. She would have been on the other side so many times, when I only knew her as a Thyla, not as a human, so I never recognised her. I keep telling myself I’m stupid, that I should have known.’
‘You’re not stupid, Rin. You couldn’t have known. You never expected to find yourself sleeping with the enemy.’
‘Very funny,’ Rhiannah growled. ‘And anyway, I thought you said she wasn’t the enemy. I thought you said we should trust her. Why exactly do you think that, anyway? Is there something you’re not telling me?’
‘Don’t worry, Rin. There’s nothing you need to know,’ Perrin said, firmly. ‘Look, I gotta go, sis. Gotta get back to school. I’ll catch you soon, okay?’
‘Okay,’ Rhiannah said, softly. ‘You would tell me, though, wouldn’t you? If there was something I needed to know?’
‘There’s not,’ said Perrin, quickly. ‘I’ll see you soon.’
I heard Perrin’s heavy boots clomping towards the door. Although I wanted to stay; although I was desperate to hear more, I did the only thing I could do.
I ran, with the lightest of feet, down the hallway and away.
The grounds were now filled with girls. School had finished, and everyone was walking towards their lockers or to the dormitories. They were gossiping and laughing. It was as if I’d stepped into a parallel existence – one where everything I had heard and everything I had discovered did not exist.
A world where everything was normal.
But even here I was still a freak. I still stood out.
Even without my scars or being … whatever it was I was, I stood out for running. I stood out for my casual clothes and tufty, unkempt hair. I stood out for the wild, anxious look on my face. Soon, everyone was staring at me.
And then, the whispers started.
‘Look at her. She’s so weird.’
That was Inga. I saw her rolling her pale blue eyes.
Then, there was another whisper. ‘She looks like she’s homeless.’
I saw Jenna shaking her strawberry blonde hair and fixing me with a sneer of disgust.
Then finally I heard Charlotte pretending to whisper, ‘I don’t know why she was ever let into Cascade Falls in the first place. Daddy is too kind for his own good. She’s so wild. She’s insane. The sooner she leaves here, the better. We don’t have room for people like that. She’s a beast.’
My heart seemed to stop as a memory burst abruptly into my head. I was hiding outside an office door, clasping a basket of clean washing. I was eavesdropping! There was a male voice, quiet and sounding as though the owner was quite upper crust. He was saying, ‘We must eradicate these beasts. We must eradicate them if we are ever to fully control this colony.’
And then another voice. ‘But, sir. The men say they are human.’
‘They are not human, Hopkins. They are beasts. Vermin. Freaks of nature. They are an unruly, disruptive influence. Surely as a gentleman yourself you understand that. Surely as a gentleman you will be on our side.’
‘But they were here before us,’ another, familiar, voice interjected. ‘Excuse my impertinence but, if you dislike them so, why do you stay here?’
‘Who is this man, Hopkins?’ the first man growled.
‘His name is Livingston,’ said Hopkins. ‘He is a guard here at the factory.’
‘Some minor prison guard?’ the first man sneered.