The headmistress pulls Cara out of her alcove roughly, but not hard enough to leave bruises. She can't damage the child, now that she's being sold in less than a month.
"Let go of me!" Cara stumbles back, but she can't escape the headmistresses iron grip on her wrist. She stumbles, and sees the paper fall from her pocket and back into the alcove, hidden in a shadow. The girl watches it fall as she's dragged away, away from her last connection to her friend.
"Why did she jump?" The headmistress shoves the child against the wall of an office. "Why did she? Tell me, now."
Cara feels dizzy, and faintly nauseas, but both of these things are shoved to the edge of her consciousness, which is dominated by fear. She needs to get out of this she needs to go get the letter back. The headmistress leaves her huddled in the corner, as she retrieves the electrical cables from the cabinet.
"Please. No. No!" Cara lifts her arms to protect herself, but the headmistress simply sticks the electrodes to her wrists. The girl knows about this, far too well. No bruising or cuts, but more painful than being beaten.
"Tell me. She told you something, didn't she?" Her hand hovers over the switch, threatening.
"I don't know! Please, she never said anything!" The hand slams down, and Cara entire body is lifted slightly from the force of the shock. It feels like she's been hit by a bus from the inside out.
As the electricity leaves their bodies, the two girls hold each other, trying to bring air into their lungs. The headmistress aims a kick at the smaller girl, but the other moves her wrist into the foots path, deflecting it away from her friends head. She registers the thin piece of bone sticking from her arm, but she's past feeling any pain that basic.
"That'll teach you to associate with citizens." She aims another kick, and the girl blacks out, her blood still dripping onto the floor.
That day in the rain. She wasn't supposed to be there. Neither of them were. But they'd missed the bus…
"Was she given outside information? Tell me!" The headmistress has her hand on the switch again, ready to pull it. Cara lies on the floor, every inch of her trembling with pain and fear. The switch goes down again, and all the remaining air in her lungs is squeezed out in a cry of shock.
Rain, a chilly wind. The bus disappearing as the two girls raced after it. The coffe shop…warm and inviting. A boy sitting alone, surprised to see two girls soaked to the skin take the seats across from him. He hasn't seen them before, and is shocked when the taller one takes the ear bud from him and puts it in her own ear. A look of shock, and then fascination flits across her face.
"What is it?" She asks, the strange sounds shocking her ears, the words hidden in the noise screaming some dark and angry poem. She's never heard anything like it.
"Caraphernelia."
"no. no." The girl lies limp on the floor, not even shaking.
"Tell me!" The girls eyes fill with fear as she sees the hand on the switch. But she can't get the words out, can't speak quickly enough. The hand slams down again, and she's gone into oblivion.
The girl smiles, and closes her eyes, the strange sounds enveloping her. The boy doesn't know what to make of this, even with his abnormal situation these girls are by far the strangest people he's met.
"Are you from…around here?" He asks. They can't be, he knows that. Their clothes are plain block, and far too thin for the Irish January. But once again, they surprise him.
"We live a half-hour west of here. At the institute. I'm Mila, and this is Bethany. We missed our bus going home." Bethany is still absorbed in the sounds, her mouth moving with the lyrics. The boy recognizes the name, Institute. These girls are being raised to be Unwound. Just like him. Thithed.
The girl is tiny, with straight brown hair down to her waist. She seems even tinier unconscious, her hair across her face. The pail of ice water does nothing but make her smaller, until she seems in danger of disappearing.
"Bring her to the infirmary." The headmistress barks. She aims a kick at the girls head, but then thinks better of it, remembering the impending unwind date. "Get her out of my sight."