Shadowstitch by Cari Thomas

Author:Cari Thomas [Cari Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-07T12:00:00+00:00

WASHING MACHINE

Mother Holle, Mother Holle,

Oh the stories we can tell!

Mother Holle, Mother Holle,

lives at the bottom of a well!

Mother Holle, Mother Holle,

knows your terrors and your fears!

Mother Holle, Mother Holle,

makes a river of your tears!

And when she shakes her bed out,

oh, how the feathers fly!

It snows above, it snows below

and the ravens cry, cry, cry—

Old English clapping rhyme, repeats

When Anna woke the next day, there was a string of increasingly hysterical messages on her phone from Rowan:

Go to the WIPS website!

It’s changed!!

It says they’re due to INVESTIGATE our school!!!

OUR SCHOOL!!!!

Anna took out her phone and went directly to the website. The WIPS logo met her, but now you could click through to a landing page. Her eyes moved rapidly over the new information, her mind chasing to catch up with it all, what it all meant—

They’d uploaded a mass of ‘reports’ – detailing their research, findings, evidence of malefice and statistics on the growing threat it posed to the UK. There was a section where you could submit your own suspicions of witchcraft or malefice through an easy form with a promise they would be in touch within twenty-four hours. A section called Join Us, inviting people to sign up to join their team of Watchers … whatever they were. And an area listing their current and new investigations – four so far: the Tower of London, the White City offices, the Whitechapel construction site and—

St Olave’s School for Girls, Dulwich.

Allegations of a witchcraft cult and ritualistic practices. Originally thought to be targeting one pupil but levels of malefice are increasing with a recent attack against an entire classroom. Our contacts on the ground have been monitoring the situation, but considering the substantial risks to children, we are now opening a full investigation.

Downstairs, Anna showed Effie and Attis. Effie grabbed Anna’s phone, reading it again, her eyes expanding, taking it all in. Attis stilled, hands on the kitchen counter, fingers raised as if ready to pounce. Anna was lost in her own thoughts of school – a classroom full of girls writing, faces twisted, eyes lost. Malefice in the air.

Effie walked away. ‘Do you think it’s true? That they’ll open an investigation? They might just be making claims.’

‘It says: contacts on the ground,’ Anna pointed out, trying to hold back the waves of terror. ‘They’re talking about Eames. The inspection was just a ruse. They’ve already been investigating us … watching us all along.’

Anna was sure of it. She’d known something wasn’t right about Eames but she hadn’t wanted to see it. Surely the school hadn’t known, or perhaps some of them had … either way, it was all out in the open now. Eames had been recording them for months. A thought knocked the remaining air from her. ‘Do you think the WIPS know about our curse?’

Attis’s head shot up.

‘No …’ said Effie. ‘How could they? They’re just focused on the cult rumours.’

Anna nodded but she felt like she was in one of her dreams, like if she took a step back the world might no longer be there and she’d fall and fall and fall.

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