Page 6 of Jinxed
‘Oh look, it’s beetle brain and her rodent friend,’ says Carter, his voice laced with smugness ashe approaches. He’s accompanied by a few guys I don’t recognize, all with level 3 bakus and also in Profectus shirts, and Tobias. At leasthehas the decency to look ashamed at his friend’s blatant taunting, staring off into the trees and refusing to make eye contact. As if I’m looking at him anyway. My eyes drift over to the sight of his beautiful eagle baku, my stomach clenching with jealousy.
‘Ignore Carter,’ whispers Zora, holding her chin up high. Linus quivers inside the hood of her jacket. We slow our pace, hoping they’ll pass us by.
‘Now, seriously though,’ says Carter, holding his hands up in front of him as he steps in front of us, forcing us to stop. Reluctantly, I hold his gaze. ‘I’m kinda disappointed that you’re not going to be at Profectus next year. You were by far myclosest competition in our class. I guess now I get to see what theactualsmart kids are like. Guess you flunked the entrance exam?’
Beside me, Zora bristles, all five-foot-nothing of her stocky frame, and she glares at me expectantly, her expression in her deep brown eyes screaming: ‘YOU CAN’T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH SAYING THAT!’
But my treacherous brain draws a blank at anything witty or creative.Instead I just mumble non-words, drop my chin and my eyes and keep on walking, speeding up this time. My cheeks burn with shame – I wish I could be half as clever in the moment as the teens on my favourite streaming series.
Zora doesn’t immediately follow and I whisper a silent prayer for her tojust drop it, and a few seconds later, she’s hurrying to catch up with me. ‘I preferred him withoutthat baku,’ Zora hisses in my ear, and – as if he’s heard us – we hear a huff and snort from the boar behind.
‘He’ll probably upgrade him again in no time.’ Despite myself, I sneak a glance over my shoulder. It’s true: Carter is like a different person with that boar by his side. He’s standing taller, his stance wider and his blond hair less lank and greasy on top of his head. The Profectus makeover.It’s a thing.
‘Come on, guys,’ he shouts after us. ‘This might be the last time we see you – soon we won’t exactly be travelling in the same circles.’ He’s tossing a ball up and down in his hand – I recognize it as a baku training tool, so owners can play ‘fetch’ with their bakus, just like with a real pet. ‘Unless I need someone to come and clean my house. Isn’t that what beetles do? The gruntwork of the animal world?’
‘What does that make you, a garbage disposal like your pig?’ The words fly out of my mouth before I can stop them. I might hate my little beetle, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give Carter permission to diss him.
A flare of red creeps over Carter’s pasty skin, rising up from his collar to his cheek like an angry tide, and his fist closes over the baku ball. Wedon’t want to see his reaction rise any further (satisfying though it is); I know full well I might have just poked an angry bear... or boar. I pull Zora forward.
‘I’ll have you know pigs are highly intelligent and resourceful creatures!’ Carter’s screechy voice follows us down the trail. ‘Come back! Don’t you want to see what a level 4 baku can do?’
We ignore him, half-running, half-walkinguntil we are out of sight and earshot before we relax.
Once upon a time, I would have loved to see a level 4 baku at work – especially something as complex as a boar model – but now I only want to get away. I hate how small Carter can now make me feel. It’s less than twenty-four hours since I got the rejection from Profectus, and already it’s like my dreams have shrunk down from sky-high to subterranean.
There’s a snapping of twigs and leaves behind us, a sinister snarl.
The boar is back. I reach out and grab Zora’s hand – the boar baku might be intimidating but he can’t hurt us or Linus. If we can get across the bridge and into the city, we can lose them for good. I start to run.
At first, Zora surges forward with me, but then her palm slips from mine. There are angry shouts from behind usand then a piercing screech from the eagle. I stop and spin around, already halfway across the bridge.
Tobias’s eagle soars over the top of Zora’s head, so close his wings brush her hairline, and he snatches something too small for me to see out of the air in his talons. She screams with fear, but she’s running so fast she stumbles over her flip-flops, skidding out of control, and she lands witha thump on the metal surface of the bridge. Something escapes her collar then bounces once, twice, and over the edge and down into the valley.
Out of instinct, I grab the closest thing I can find – a pine cone – and whip it at the eagle to get it away from Zora. My aim, surprisingly, is good. The pine cone rattles against the eagle’s golden wings, sending it off balance.
Then I hear Zora’s panickedscream: ‘Linus!’
Oh no.My throat drops into my stomach and I race to Zora’s side, leaning out over the railing as Carter, Tobias and the rest of his friends run past us on the bridge, disappearing into the forest on the other side. Cowards.
But her brand new baku is absolutely nowhere to be seen.
‘NO!’ CRIES ZORA. SHE’S SHAKING, HER hands clawing at her collar and at the leash around her ear, as if praying to find Linus tucked away in a fold somewhere. ‘Linus? Linus, are you there?’
Butif he was there, he would have answered. Instead, there’s a deafening silence.
She grabs my hands, pulling herself to her feet. ‘Lace, I can’t lose him! I just got him. All my savings...’
‘I know.’ I take a deep breath. I knowexactlyhow hard Zora has worked to save up for her baku and I’m not going to let Carter and his friends take that away from her. I look down towards the valley floorand the railway tracks – then at my feet encased in their sturdy boots and Zora’s in flip-flops. I know what I have to do. I turn back to Zora, pressing my phone into her palm. Even though the screen is broken, it still works. ‘Call the Moncha guard. Tell them what happened.’
She stares down at the phone through tear-filled eyes, her forehead wrinkling in confusion. It looks laughably old-fashionedin her hand already. But then she sniffs, and closes her fingers tight around the handset. ‘Okay.’
‘Good,’ I say, before pulling my sleeves down so they cover my lower arms and tightening up the straps on my backpack.
‘Wait, where are you going?’ she asks.
I climb up on to the metal railing. ‘I’m going to find Linus.’ Without waiting for her response, I swing my leg over and hop down on tothe overgrown slope on the other side. Zora hesitates – I can tell she wants to follow – but she does the mental calculations in her head. She can’t clamber down into the ravine in her footwear. ‘I’ll be fine,’ I tell her, and after another second she relents.
‘Thank you!’ she shouts after me.