Interlude: Come Crashing Down

“The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley”

More people were coming into the center. Madison noticed that they were… different.

“Orb Weaver,” Rosita said. “I heard that since he brought in Alabaster, people aren’t as… reluctant to call it in, and the downtown juvie center is getting overcrowded. So… we get the wannabes.”

“Wannabes?” Madison asked.

“Sure. Anyone who did serious crimes stays downtown. Downtown is not where you wanna go.” Rosita shook her head. “Up here, they don’t have the security to handle the real bad types so they bring the ones who you know, hung back, or just smashed a bunch of windows, stuff like that. Wannabes.”

“Oh.” Not like me. Better than me.

Madison had thought about saying she was sorry, writing a letter, but…

****

“Sorry.” Dr. Mattis had shaken his head. “Is a word that gets used a lot. I’m sorry I bumped you. I’m sorry I destroyed your life.” He chuckled. “You didn’t say it during the trial, which is a step up from a lot. You wouldn’t believe how many people go from they are innocent to “I’m sorry” when the jury comes back with a guilty plea.”

Then he looked at her. “But the problem with sorry is that in our culture, ‘sorry’ is also a demand. ‘It’s okay’ or ‘it’s not a big deal’ is what a lot of people expect you to say back to them.” Then he paused. “As you, Emma, and Sophia did. I expect you said sorry more than once when you were caught, and the teachers probably told Taylor to let it lie, because you were sorry.”  Madison couldn’t meet his gaze. He was right, after all.

“So she might not believe you, but even if she did… is it fair to say something that might see her feeling forced to grant… forgiveness, even if it’s just a “forget it?” Seems harsh on Taylor.”

“No, I—but how do I—“

“You leave it up to Taylor. At the very least you wait until you’re certain in your own mind that you are offering your apology because it is deserved and not because you want to feel better about yourself. It may be that Taylor simply wishes to never speak to or see you again—and agreeing to that is all the ‘sorry’ you will be permitted.”

“She was stronger.” Madison looked down.

“What?”

“Everything we did. I would have refused to come to school, no matter what. She was stronger and…” I did it because it was easy. Hard would have been telling Emma no. Dr. Mattis waited, but Madison said nothing.

“Strong people don’t measure the world by who they hurt.” Mattis glanced at the clock, watching the second hand sweep down until the session was over. “Strong people measure the world by who they help. Maybe, Madison, you can become strong.”

And then the bell rang and it was time to leave the office, get on the lines and walk to the cafeteria.

*****

Mark Schultz had been arrested for breaking a window, and smashing some gravestones—Jew stones. Then all of a sudden the air had gotten darker and some thing had risen up. He’d run but the cops were at the front, because the good cops, the ones who understood that the Bay was for the white race, were being kept down, especially after Alabaster, a hero of the Empire had been taken by Orb Weaver.

Orb Weaver was probably a Jew.

But Mark had a secret weapon, a ceramic knife that he’d gotten from a sympathetic worker, one who understood what needed to be done, and there were others in the cause who had agreed to start a fight, so that he could show the Jew that there was no place safe for her. She’d worked with a black girl against a white girl. And it didn’t matter if they put him in adult prison, because his brother told him that the E88 ran the prisons and he’d be treated like a hero.

*****

Madison was eating when the fight started. The food was, scarily enough, better than Winslow’s. But then several kids threw down and the horn sounded, and Madison put her hands on the table.

“Shit,” Rosita said. “Get ready to run.”

“But we’re not supposed to—“

Then half a dozen other fights broke out and food was going everywhere and kids were screaming. The intercom was blaring, ordering all guards to the cafeteria and all other inmates into lockdown.

“Fuck,” Rosita said. “This way!”

“What?”

“All the kids from downtown—they planned  this and I wanna get a wall behind—“

And then there was a kid in front of them, older than Madison, greasy hair, and E88 tattoos.

“Hey Jew bitch, like your lesbian friend?”

“Dude, back off,” Rosita said, putting herself in front of Madison. “You’re gonna get in real trouble so just back off and everything will be—“

And then she screamed, and staggered back, falling into Madison. Madison grabbed her and screamed as blood poured out over her hands, Rosita’s intestines spilling out.

“Fucking bitch.” The guy said, his hand and arm covered in her blood.

“Oh God!” Madison screamed. “Help! Anyone! Help!” but her voice was lost in the chaos. She saw some guards, and even Dr. Mattis enter the room trying to restore order. “Help Rosita! Please!”

But it wouldn’t work.

Because Madison was ugly. Her inner ugliness, that had poured out to hurt everyone around her while she hid behind hair ribbons and false smiles. Rosita had tried to help her, had been nice, but that had been a mistake, because Madison had pulled her into all the ugliness of her life. Her parents, Taylor, her friends… She didn’t help she hurt, even people who tried to help and she—

Great Forms moved in the darkness.

And she felt a PRESSURE even as her ugliness started to come out, skin splitting to reveal oily things underneath, her hands becoming terrifying talons, even as her teeth grew and her body changed. Rosita’s blood flowed off her frictionless skin.

“What the fuck are you!” the man who had killed the girl who had been nice to ugly, ugly Madison stabbed at her with his knife.

She caught it, the tip not even depressing her skin, and with one clenched hand, turned it to dust. Now others were screaming, and the intercom was blaring something about a “trigger alert” but it didn’t matter. He fell back, leaving a yellow puddle behind him, before he threw a chair at her, and wood and metal alike parted like tissue paper when it hit her claws.

And then she was over him, looking down.

And infinitely sharp talons reached out to caress his face.