A World Without You by Beth Revis

walks past the semicircle of chairs and toward the door. “Amelia?” he calls back over his shoulder, and his colleague hurries to follow him.
    â€œThis is bullshit,” Ryan says as soon as the door closes behind Mr. Minh.
    â€œRyan,” Dr. Franklin says in a cautioning voice.
    â€œThey’re from the government,” Gwen says. “That can’t be good.”
    â€œEveryone knows Sofía’s”—Ryan stops suddenly, looking right at me—“death, it was no one’s fault.” But there’s doubt in his voice.
    The Doctor stands. “Like the officials said, just be honest.” He moves to his desk, behind the camera.
    I stare at the lens. That USB drive that the Doctor gave to Mr. Minh . . . he had said something about audio and video. The feed from all the cameras and tape recorders the Doctor uses must be on that USB.
    My stomach drops.
They’ll see our powers.
None of us has ever made an effort to hide our powers at the Berk—the
point
of the academy was to train us how to use our powers, to understand and master them. At least one of us has used powers in practically every session with the Doctor. Even the regular education teachers are powered themselves, or are relatedto people with powers, and they were all vetted by the academy as safe. None of them blinked an eye when Gwen lost her temper and spontaneously combusted, or when Ryan turned his homework in by floating it across the room, or when I slipped in and out of history during history lessons. We only had to hide from the waitstaff, and if that didn’t work, I think Dr. Franklin or some of the other unit leaders had some failsafe methods to protect us, ways to make the staff forget anything they saw.
    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.
    â€œThere’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.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” the Doctor asks.
    â€œThere’s no point in them investigating Sofía’s disappearance,” Harold says. “They’ll find nothing. Nothing at all.”
    â€œThey might,” Dr. Franklin says. “They’re not here to do anything but help.”
    â€œThey can’t find her. No point.”
    â€œWell, obviously there’s no point,” Ryan says, rolling his eyes.
    â€œThe 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