Uncanny by Sarah Fine

Author:Sarah Fine [Fine, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542046466
Publisher: Skyscape
Published: 2017-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Data review.

Internal narrative: on.

6:45 p.m., August 15, 2069

“—threaten her?” Dr. Dietrich has his back to Hannah, who appears to be watching from the doorway of the library, peering inside. Dr. Dietrich is standing in front of someone while Maeve leans against the back of a wing chair, her fingers curled tightly into its plush top cushion. Dr. Dietrich leans closer to the person he is confronting, and Hannah leans to the side. This reveals that the person is Cora, whose back is pressed to the bookcase behind her. “Did you threaten her?” Dr. Dietrich’s voice is loud and codable as angry.

Cora mumbles something that is not translatable. Using her visual focus, Hannah increases the volume control on her auditory chip.

Dr. Dietrich grabs Cora by the shoulders. “You’re lying.”

“She did!” Cora pushes against Dr. Dietrich.

“It doesn’t justify threatening your sister!”

“She’s not my sister,” Cora screams, and it is at that moment that she makes eye contact with Hannah. The muscles of her flushed face contract farther, pulling her lips up and apart.

Hannah makes a fearful noise, and her hands appear in her cam view, as if she wants to protect herself. Cora lunges forward, but Dr. Dietrich wraps his arms around her and forcibly holds her back. Cora kicks and flails her arms, and her movements are sudden and strong enough to knock Dr. Dietrich off balance.

Maeve cries out in apparent distress as the 2 of them fall to the floor.

“I didn’t do anything,” Hannah says loudly. “You have to believe me! I was sleeping!” Her breath is audible as she focuses on her father wrestling with her adoptive sister. “She was probably having a nightmare, and she thinks it’s real.”

“You’re a liar,” Cora shouts. She is trying to pry Dr. Dietrich’s arms off her body. She is on her side, with him behind her. It appears he is expending a great deal of effort to contain her.

“Gary, don’t hurt her,” Maeve says. There are tears on her cheeks. “Let her go.”

“And let her hurt Hannah?”

“She won’t hurt her. She’ll calm down if you let her go.” Maeve’s voice is steady despite her discernible distress. She comes out from behind the wing chair. “She gets more upset when she’s restrained. You’re making it worse.”

“I’m scared,” Hannah says.

Maeve turns to her, and her expression shifts quickly to one of frustration. “Then go to your room! You don’t have to be here!”

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Dr. Dietrich shouts. “Your daughter is the one who’s being violent!”

“My daughter?”

“I knew you were just doing it for show,” Cora shrieks. She elbows her adoptive father, and he grunts. She kicks backward, her heels connecting with his shins. “I knew you never wanted me!”

Dr. Dietrich yells, “Don’t try to turn this around. I don’t care who you are—you don’t get to threaten my daughter!”

Abruptly, Cora begins to sob. The sound comes from deep in her chest, and her body convulses. She stops aggressing against Dr. Dietrich and goes limp, her limbs flopping as her core muscles contract, her facial muscles drawn back laterally into an expression codable as pain.

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