A World Without You(25)

But these government people . . .

What the hell was Dr. Franklin thinking? He just handed them video evidence of our powers.

Maybe the videos have been edited. Or maybe the Doctor was going to use Ryan or one of the other telepaths to alter the officials’ memories after the investigation.

Or maybe the Doctor is working with them.

I shake my head to dispel the nasty thought rising within me. The Doc had given me as much warning as he could, and he had made sure to establish the lie that Sofía’s dead, not trapped in the past.

Berkshire is about learning to control our powers so we can be safe in the outside world. Powers like ours could be easily exploited, used by the highest bidder as weapons or tools. But that isn’t the point of Berkshire. The academy is about education, not training. It’s independent. Not a part of any government or group.

At least, that’s what I thought.

“There’s no point,” Harold says. It’s so rare for Harold to say something to the living that all of us just pause, waiting for him to continue.

“What do you mean?” the Doctor asks.

“There’s no point in them investigating Sofía’s disappearance,” Harold says. “They’ll find nothing. Nothing at all.”

“They might,” Dr. Franklin says. “They’re not here to do anything but help.”

“They can’t find her. No point.”

“Well, obviously there’s no point,” Ryan says, rolling his eyes.

“The witches took Sofía,” Harold continues, ignoring him. “They took her and hid her, and there’s no escape. No escape. The witches have her.”





CHAPTER 14




SHIT.

Why didn’t I think of this before?

What have I done? I’m so sorry, Sofía.

Witches. The answer was staring me in the face this whole time. And I love history. I love it, and I didn’t even notice.

That plaque. The one on the chimney: Originally built in Salem in the 1660s, like the Isaac Goodale House of Ipswich, and moved to Pear Island in 1692.

Salem. 1692.

The Salem Witch Trials.

Berkshire is on Pear Island, just outside of Ipswich. But while they’re called the Salem Witch Trials, they took place all through this area of Massachusetts.

I didn’t just send Sofía to the past. I sent her to the Salem Witch Trials. In modern-day clothes and with the power to turn invisible. Sure, none of that will make her look like a witch.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

I stuck Sofía in the worst possible past she could be stuck in.

My fingers itch to pull up the timestream, but I can’t, not with the government officials here now. That black hole in the weave of time . . . the way Sofía’s string disappeared into it . . .

Maybe it’s already too late. Time is fluid; while I’ve been trying to find a way to go back to her, she’s been living through the Salem Witch Trials. But maybe that’s what the black hole is. Maybe it’s proof that she’s not living it.

Maybe I’ve already killed her.

? ? ?

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one’s around to see it, can a time traveler still go back and prevent the tree from falling in the first place?

That’s the question that has haunted me since I first discovered my powers. Because, see, that’s the way time works. If something happens, it becomes an immutable fact. History is irreversible. It took me a long time to realize this. I can’t change what has already happened.

I tried to do the obvious hero stuff when I first discovered my power. Stop terrorist attacks, warn people of natural disasters. I had all these elaborate plans. I just wanted to help. But time didn’t want help.

Time won’t let me change it. I am, at best, an observer.

I cannot rewrite history.

But not all history is written. That’s my only comfort now. Sofía is trapped in a different time period, but that doesn’t mean I can’t save her. The unknown is my only comfort. As long as there’s no proof that Sofía is gone forever, that means I still have a chance.

However . . . if I find her grave, if I see her name written in the prison records, if she’s one of the witches whose death was recorded . . .

Then I will have failed. History is immutable. Once she enters history, I can’t change it.

There would be no hope.





CHAPTER 15




It quickly becomes clear that all the tutors either believe Sofía’s dead or are playing along for the inspecting government officials. Classes were a laughable affair today, all free time and busywork, and when I ask Ms. Temple for permission to use my free time in the library, alone, she says yes immediately.

I have my notebook in front of me, hoping that I’ll come up with some brilliant plan to save Sofía, but I’m paralyzed by what Harold said, so I just keep jotting down notes about Salem, always afraid that I’ll come across Sofía’s name in the list of accused witches.

Witches.

I never thought witches were real, but what if there were people like us back then? The Doctor says that no one knows for sure how many of us there have been throughout history. We keep our powers hidden for a reason. But maybe the witch trials happened in part because at least some of the “witches” were just powered people like me . . . like Sofía.