Broken Mirror Read Free Page A

that he would ever tell anyone about them. Sometimes beliefs are so horrific that they’re easy to keep secret.
    After the vidfeed ended, Victor rushed out of the classroom, collected his feedreader from his locker, and blasted through the exit doors, only to find himself surrounded by Alik and his friends in back of the school.
    Alik called out, “Hey, freaky face. Why didn’t you cry during the vidfeed?”
    A thunderstorm gathered in Victor’s mind. They always picked on him. They made fun of him for the way he talked, or they teased him for staying silent and for the way his facial expressions almost but did not quite mirror theirs. The problem lay deep in his brain. He couldn’t win.
    “Look at his hands. He’s gonna rip your face off, Alik.”
    It was true. Victor’s fingers were rigid and curled like talons.
    “Maybe he’s a Broken Mirror,” Alik said.
    “I am not!” Victor yelled.
    Alik got closer. Sweat gathered under the boy’s eyes, and heat radiated from his skin in shimmering waves. “Who’s next on your list, sicko Samuel?”
    Victor cringed and kept quiet. After Carmichael, he couldn’t be called a worse name.
    Someone shoved Victor from behind, causing him to lurch forward. Alik punched Victor’s face. Rage took hold of Victor. His fist struck the underside of Alik’s jaw and sent him reeling into the crowd.
    Alik lifted himself, nostrils flaring, and launched into Victor’s belly. The two boys stumbled through the cheering kids. Alik slammed Victor into the wall of the building. Victor tried to evade the fists that Alik rammed into his gut, but the blows kept coming.
    Victor twisted free, panicking. He slipped on something slick and grabbed Alik’s shirt to keep from falling. Victor fell anyway, and Alik staggered past Victor headfirst and slammed into the side of a dumpster.
    Elena Morales, his friend for as long as he could remember, helped Victor to his feet. She’d always been strong: meaty limbs, broad face, and a loud voice when she wanted. Even her carmel-brown hair had a luster and seemed to glow from within. She whispered in his ear, “That was some first-class martial arts.”
    “I wish,” Victor said. He gripped his aching stomach and searched for an escape.
    A girl screamed. Victor turned and saw Alik lying limp at the foot of the dumpster, eyes closed, blood trickling from his head.
    A male administrator appeared and asked, “What’s going on?” He spotted Alik and yelled at the crowd, “Back away, all of you! Get back!” He spoke into his fist-sized MeshBit to summon an ambulance.
    “This is supposed to be a day for peace and healing. What happened?” The administrator scanned the crowd of students.
    Heads swiveled back and forth between Victor and Alik’s body.
    Victor’s left eye was swollen shut. He took an unsteady step in the direction of the bus stop.
    The administrator pointed at him and said, “Don’t move.”
    A siren wailed and grew louder. Victor slumped to his knees. Elena squeezed his arm and said, “Don’t worry.” He focused on the feel of her next to him, relieved and gratified that her love of underdogs made her root for him.
    An ambulance rolled onto the paved path just beyond the squat school buildings. Pink-uniformed paramedics burst out, spotted the waving administrator, and darted forward. Though the siren had been silenced, Victor’s ears were ringing in a kind of rising and falling brrrrnnnnngggg that coincided with the throbbing in his gut.
    The ambulance’s green and yellow lights flashed on the children’s shocked faces as they watched the paramedics load Alik onto a stretcher and carry it into the vehicle. Strong arms pushed and lifted Victor, and he found himself in the ambulance. The vehicle lurched forward.
    When they arrived at the hospital, a female nurse led Victor inside the hospital and down a corridor, where a pair of brightly lit near-white Helios lightstrips ran along the ceiling like burning-hot steel rails. She