My eyes suddenly snapped open. The androids! The Witch! Special Forces! What time was it?
I rubbed my eyes and looked at the clock – three in the morning? I didn't think I was that tired. There goes my sleep schedule, I guess.
Looking out the window, I couldn't see much activity outside. No lights, no noise, even though the power seemed to be back on. Did the androids already launch their second attack, or did Special Forces stop them?
I stepped out onto the campus grounds. The silence felt eerie, but in a different way… like holding your breath, waiting for something to happen…
Waiting for prey to fall into your trap…
"There she is," I heard Arle say. "Freeze!"
I stopped short just as flashlights shone on me from all sides. Then Arle stepped out, carrying a huge wooden stake over her shoulder and glowing ropes over the other. A couple dozen students and faculty surrounded me, cutting off any means of escape.
"Arle, what? Come on. It's me," I incredulously said.
"You should know all the other red-haired women in the school cooperated with us." She met my gaze, cold and calculating. "Then lo and behold, the androids launch their attack right as we begin talks, THREE HOURS ahead of schedule!"
What…?!! I couldn't get any words out.
"The androids can lie. What else did they lie about, we wondered?" Arle started pacing. "They're clearly not above killing entire crowds of people. Hell, if not for my lightning rods, none of us would be alive right now!"
Then she stopped, throwing a glance back at me. "Well, no one but you."
"I can't believe what you're implying here," I retorted. "We know each other, Arle. We're pals! We shared a dorm space for three years!"
"Witches are masters of deception," Arle stated. "You can't lie to save your life. Rather, that's what you've led us to believe."
"This is stupid! Where's Qiric? He knows where I was, he can vouch," I demanded.
Arle paused, then let out a bitter chuckle. "I was the stupid one, letting myself be fooled for so long." Her grin twisted into a scowl. "You just want me to say it, is that it?! You want us to wallow in the despair of all this death you've wrought, right?"
Qiric is dead!? What the hell is happening!
"I get it now. Witches draw power from intense emotions," Arle went on. "And yours must be despair. You probably set all this up 'cause you're low on power. This whole mess would've topped you up nicely."
"Arle, are you listening to yourself?" I tossed up my arms. "I'm not a Witch! I was never the Witch!"
"To the bitter end, huh? I surmise this means you haven't had the chance to recharge."
"Why won't you LISTEN to me?!"
"Professor Duss." Arle pointed at me, and he stepped forward, arms crossed.
"Those androids attacked every group of people they ran into," he stated, "Except for my class. And I was wondering, why was that?"
"Yeah, that was weird," someone else said. "And the spotlight, remember? It stopped on us and everything! They came in on purpose!"
"And the journal? Of course, you weren't sure if I had taken up his practice! But I made SURE to keep that side of me a secret from everyone," Arle continued.
"The only redhead in our class," another lady agreed. "Too many things add up. It has to be her. She's probably the reason the Special Forces never showed up!"
"Yeah, we had to fight off the androids ourselves! You hear that? You can't hide behind your minions anymore!"
Wait… they fought the androids and lived? How!? That makes even less sense than if I was the one controlling them!
Seeing my bewilderment, Arle's grin widened. "At a loss for words, fool? You got cocky, plain and simple. And now, as a special treat, I'll show you what happens when you cross a real Witch hunter!"
That absolute conviction… something Marqis wrote flashed in my mind: Don't give them an edge, no matter what. A Witch's greatest weakness is an united front. This couldn't be it, could it? They were seriously gunning to kill me!
Should I try to fight? No one will listen, but fighting might make things worse.As if things aren't bad enough already. Like, what if they shoot me and I die that way? At the very least, it would prove I wasn't a Witch, but I'd still be dead, so what's the point?
"Seize her. We'll put an end to this right away," Arle decided.
As several classmates tied me up with Arle's glowing rope, my remaining words of protest caught in my throat, then faded away.
"Justice for the fallen!"
"With a Witch hunter on our side, nothing can stop us!"
"I bet she replaced Kendel a long time ago."
"Witches can steal memories, so it's entirely possible."
Driving the stake into the ground… tying me to it with extreme prejudice… the college folks I thought I knew were all gathering firewood and oil, preparing for my death in high spirits… what the hell kind of nightmare was this? Wake up, wake up…
"Bear witness," Arle said, lighting her firestick. "Your era is long dead."
Numb, I simply stared as the flames raced up to me, licking at my legs, engulfing my body–
Then the fire and the heat dimmed, fading to nothing but distant embers.