Chapter Text
Jane Casey knew something was wrong with the girl before she’d even met her. She’d gotten a few pats on the back and joking condolences when her class list was posted for the year. One of the older teachers, a man who had helped her get her sea legs (only mostly metaphorically, given that Agoge Prep was a floating school capable of evacuating its entire student body in the case of civic unrest) gave her a polite pat on the shoulder.
“Just be careful, Jane, you don’t want something to go wrong.”
“But WHY?” She demanded, “Everyone treats me like I’m dead or acts like she’s some bomb that’ll go off if I blink at it! What’s so strange about her?!
“I’ll explain this once, don’t ask me again, and don’t mention this to admin. There’s something up with that kid. Her teachers never last the term. She had Patterson last year, and two months in he just stopped showing up.”
“Mike,” she laughed, “I knew Patterson over at Central Grammar, and if she got rid of him, she did the school a service. Sounds less like a problem and more like she’s got some guardian angel.”
“Guardian demon, more like.”
“A what?”
“That’s what I’ve heard, she has a guardian demon, alright?”
“Mike, that’s insane. You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“Just drop it,” he answered, “I’m done talking about that kid.”
It was nonsense, of course, she’d looked up the records, and it wasn’t even true. They switched homerooms three times a year, but in four years, there’d only been five teachers to leave. Two disappearances, one transfer, one early retirement. Weird, sure, but this was a school for Corporate kids, half her class had bodyguards, some weird stuff was sure to happen here. It was a coincidence. And as for Patterson, well, he didn’t have a passion for education, and she guessed the rest were the same. You needed that to teach, they probably burned themselves out or hopped schools when too many parents complained. Going missing may not be the normal way to quit, but when you’ve been around people with this type of influence, it might not be worth letting people check references.
Still, rumors like that don’t develop out of nowhere, there had to be some reason they focused on this girl. She’d been prepared for the worst, she’d dealt with trouble students before, after all. They were just kids, even if they could be little hellions when they wanted. Instead, she found Eleanor (Nora, she insisted) to be a model student. Calm, cheery, polite, a joy to have in class. Not only was she not some brat, she never said a mean word to anyone. If anything, that was the weird thing about her. Nothing seemed to bother her. Even the class bullies gave up trying to provoke a reaction. Their taunts and shoves tended to be met with polite smiles, and the next day they wouldn’t so much as look at her. Probably wasn’t fun bullying someone that nice. She had never really understood bullies, but that made sense, nothing seemed to bother little Nora. It had been a relief.
Now, though, it was a problem. NOTHING bothered Nora. Not even things that really should.
Not even a hostage situation.
The day had started out normal enough, a field trip to the Museum of Metahumanity, hearing theories and looking at artifacts. As always, Nora had needed to be watched a bit more closely to stop her from wandering off, but that was normal for bright kids. They picked things up quickly, and wanted to learn more. It got worse, of course, given that Nora didn’t seem to care about the idea of sticking together for safety. Then there was a gunshot, and some patrons popped on AR disguises, ushering everyone else into side rooms. She and her class had been shoved into an administration area, crowded into a corner behind a row of old computer terminals, and told to stay still.
A minute and a half in, Nora had stood up.
“We have to stay,” Miss Casey hissed.
“I’m tired of sitting,” the girl answered, “Nothing’s happening.”
“We just need to wait, okay?” She probably wasn’t ready for what was really going on, “They’ll let us know. Just think of it as a game, okay?”
“I’m tired of this game,” she replied, “I’m gonna go play on the computers.”
“Nora, please!” She scrambled for words, “I... I have to keep an eye on you!”
“You can still see me, Miss Casey, I’m only a few feet away.”
“It’s dangerous!”
“You’re being silly. Besides, if they want us in the room so bad, I’m not leaving anyway, so what’s wrong?”
She was getting worried, but she couldn’t press it, not without raising her voice and drawing attention. There were security displays in here anyway, and they showed where the attackers were. She could call her back if someone was coming.
Now, though, someone was coming. And she couldn’t call her back.
“Please, Nora, please, you have to, just get back here, alright?”
Nora didn’t respond, too absorbed in her game to even hear it seemed. She didn’t respond when she begged, when she tried to bribe. It was like she couldn’t hear her.
She heard the man who came in, though. But her responses just seemed to make it worse.
“Get back with the others, now!” He commanded.
“But I’m playing,” Nora responded.
“I’m not, so move.”
“You can have it when I’m done,” she didn’t even look up from the game.
“You think this is some joke, kid?!” He growled, “Get in the corner!”
“I’m almost done!” She answered, finally pausing the game and turning around, “You’re not very patient. Patience is important, it makes people like you, and if you can’t wait your turn you have to go in the time-out corner during snacktime!”
He seemed as thrown off by her lack of response as anyone else, but unlike most, responded by pointing a pistol right at the girl’s head. And she laughed. Everyone had odd responses to stress, but this wasn’t that. This wasn’t fear manifesting oddly, she laughed like she was at a circus and a clown was getting dangerously close to a bucket of whitewash.
“You think this is a joke, kid?!” The man demanded.
“Nope!”
He pushed the gun closer, pushing her head back with the barrel, “You know what this is?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah? What is it.”
Then she heard a voice, like static on the century-old TV sets.
“A very bad idea.”
She couldn’t be sure what she saw after that. Someone, some THING fell from the ceiling, and landed on the man. There were whirrs and flashes of blades, and blood splashed around like an open blender. She closed her eyes and covered the kid next to her. When the sounds were done, the man looked like a supermarket’s meat section.
And there was a girl in his place. Same height as Nora. For a moment she wondered if one of the kids had stood up, but she didn’t recognize her, and even from behind she could see a bit of cyberware on the legs. Both of them were covered in blood like the climax of that old film Carrie. Nora, as ever, was unphased.
“Hi Ella!”
“Hi Nora,” the new... She supposed girl, but it was hard to see under the blood answered, “Whatcha playin’?”
“Elven Empire. I got a new highscore. Wanna see?”
“Oooooh...” The new one leaned in, looking over the blood-spattered monitor.
“You want a turn?”
“I got another game to play,” the evident “Ella” answered.
“Can you come over tonight?”
“Okay, but not until your dad goes to bed, he doesn’t like me very much.”
“He’s silly.”
“Yes.”
“Can I play your game?”
The new one may not have had normal limbs, but the tension in her stance was still obvious, “I don’t think so. I’m playing hide and seek.”
“That’s boring,” Nora concluded, turning back to the computer. The stranger relaxedand turned to face the group. More accurately, the head turned, and a cyber-arm twisted back to let her raise her finger to her lips. Then, she bent down and picked up the dead man’s commlink and flipped it open as she left..
“Hi everyone, my name is Ella, and you’re gonna play with me...”
She didn’t pay attention to the rest. The monitors didn’t pick the... Well, the whatever she was up. If it weren’t for the blood and the body, she might have thought it was a stress induced hallucination.
She didn’t know what happened, but when KE came, the officer didn’t seem surprised to see the body, and just radio’d in that they found another. They ushered her and her class out afterwards, but on the way, she saw some parts taped off and it didn’t look like just a robbery. There was a whole section in the lobby covered by curtains now, but it was past exhibits riddled with blood and scattered bullet holes.
The rest of the year was uneventful. Some of the kids needed councilling, but the school decided the idea of the “Knife Girl” had been some fantasy the kids made up, and Jane couldn’t bring herself to correct them. Nora was as normal as ever, unaffected, smiling, polite, and happy. The kids started to talk to her more, but stopped when she wouldn’t tell them about her friend. Life went on, normal as a school system could be, teachers showing up and leaving, and, occasionally, going missing.
Two years later, a new teacher came into her room after school.
“Are you Miss Casey?” The young man asked.
“Yeah,” she answered, “Can I help you with something?”
“I’m Pat Hollis, I transferred this year. There’s a student in my class I was hoping you could help me with, it says you used to have her?”
“Of course,” she smiled, “What’s the name?”
“Eleanor Jones,” he answered. She froze. He waited for a moment, but continued when she didn’t respond, “I was wondering. Is there something wrong with her?”
She didn’t respond, and he pressed forward, “It’s just that the other teachers act like I got handed some sort of death sentence or something, and nobody will tell me why.” He waited, “But I figured that you’d had her, and...” He continued, trailing off as she continued not to answer, “Might... Know... Why?” He finished
She took a few moments to consider just how much of the answer she wanted to give, “Just treat her well, and you’ll be fine,” she concluded.
“I’m not worried about myself,” he answered, “What about her?”
“I wouldn’t worry about her.”
“So there’s nothing I should be aware of?”
“I wouldn't worry about Nora if I were you, and she never gave me reason to,” Miss Casey repeated.
“The other teachers say she has a guardian demon, can you believe that?” And then, after another few seconds, a lower, “DO you believe that?”
She paused, then returned to gathering her things, “The point of a guardian would be to protect her, and I suppose I’ve never been the sort of teacher a student would want to be protected from. I’m sorry I can’t be of any more help. Just treat her like any other student, and if things go well, she’s a joy to have in class.”
“And if they don’t?”
She stopped next to him, looking him over for a moment, “If they don’t, then I suppose that will be your problem to deal with. It’s been nice to meet you, Mr. Hollis. Have a nice day,” she concluded as she brushed past him.
“Can I come to you if there’s a problem?” He called down the hall.
“I don’t expect so, no. But good luck, Mr. Hollis!” She called back, and muttered under her breath, “Try not to need it.”