The Coffin turns out to be a
box in a ditch. It smells like wet animals and stale mold. The ditch looks
hollowed out by hand. Dirt and straw line the inside. Beneath that is metal of
some kind, half rusted just like the walls, which are taller than I am. I can
stand straight, but I’d rather lie down. The top is open with bars across it.
They don’t look rusted. Bear slings some kind of nearly transparent material
over the bars. From under the cloth, I can see shadows that move but no
details.
I am a prisoner. But I’m too
tired to care.
Bear comes back to pull away
the cloth and hand down a hunk of something that smells good. It’s charred and
tough, but I eat what I can. Bear also leaves a small jug of stone with sweet,
cold water. I drink it all, and my eyes keep drifting closed. When Bear leaves,
I lie down and wiggle a little to get as comfortable as I can in the dirt and
straw.
I know Wolf put me here
because he doesn’t trust me. I don’t know why that bothers me like it does.
Eyes closing, I try not to
think. It’s not comfortable here, but it’s not uncomfortable either. The straw
itches, but I am warm. In fact, I could be nonfunctional anywhere right now.
My mind starts to drift.
That’s when I hear a woman say my name.
Lib.
Has Skye come to help me?
But the voice sounds wrong. The voice isn’t really here. I know that, but I
don’t know how I know.
Lib, this is important. Do
you understand?
Suddenly, I am not in this
hole anymore. I’m back in that cool, blue room. I know this place…don’t I? I
know it from more than just having been here during the connect.
Differences are bad. They
are destructive. Humanity embraced them, praised them. As a result, humanity
failed. If not for me, the human race would not even be a memory.
Her voice is soothing…and so
familiar in a way that nothing else could ever be. She cares for me. She is my
everything.
This is why Glitches must be
cast out.
I flinch because that word
applies to me now. A worming dissatisfaction crawls under my skin. But I am an
important Glitch. I am necessary. Aren’t I?
You understand why you must
go.
I don’t understand! I want
to shout the words. I want to bunch a fist and yell and hit something. With a
shout, I sit up.
It’s dark…I am still in the
hole. That Coffin. I am alone—and even the memory of her voice is fading. But was
it a memory or something else? A wish?
I am no closer to knowing
the answer than I am to knowing who I am, but now my shoulders slump with the
burden of sadness. It claws at me like something trying to tear me apart from
the inside. The woman—the one speaking in my head—is important to me. Is she
Mother? Or someone else?
All I know it that she cast
me out.
Lying down again, I shiver.
I am truly alone.
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