Glitch

sharp, aware look on his face—
    the same expression I’d always hoped to see in my brother.
    I squeezed his hand.
    “I was going to tell you but I could never fi nd the right
    moment. And then when you disappeared . . .” He shook
    his head. “Zoel, you don’t know—”
    “Zoe,” I interrupted. “I want to be called Zoe.”
    “Zoe. I like it.” Max smiled briefl y. “Anyway, I was so
    terrifi ed to lose you when you disappeared. I kept thinking,
    maybe if I’d told you sooner, maybe it would have made a
    diff erence.”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t remember anything about
    what happened to me— where I went, or who I was with— I
    have no idea.”
    “And they didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary
    when you came back? When they ran the diagnostics?” He
    watched my face carefully.
    I shook my head. “No. Nothing. When I got back, I wasn’t
    glitching anymore, at least not for a few weeks. So whenever
    they’d run the tests, everything looked fi ne. But . . .” I swal-
    lowed hard, afraid to voice the fear I’d been working so hard
    to bury. I cleared my throat. “Now that I am glitching again,
    next time I have a diagnostic, I’ll test anomalously.”
    “I’ll help you.” Max’s narrow lips tightened, making his
    face look suddenly intense. His hand gripped mine harder.
    “I won’t let them do anything to you.”
    I smiled sadly. It felt nice to have someone want to pro-
    tect me, even though I knew it wouldn’t do any good.
    “Max, if I get caught, there’s nothing you can do.”
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    G L I TC H
    He smiled sideways at me and leaned in close. “Not nec-
    essarily.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Zoe, don’t you see?” He laughed; then his eyebrows
    lowered. When I didn’t respond, he looked unsure.
    “I thought if you were glitching like me, that meant we
    had other things in common as well.” He paused, swallow-
    ing. “The . . . powers?”
    “Wait,” I said slowly. “Are you saying you can move things
    with your mind?”
    “What?” He seemed confused.
    I kept my mouth tightly closed, suddenly afraid I had be-
    trayed too much, too soon. Moments later, a look of amaze-
    ment crossed Max’s face.
    “Whoa!” His eyebrows shot up high. “That’s not what I
    meant. Well, I guess it makes sense that we might change in
    diff erent ways. I have another power.”
    “What is it?” I was full of relief, and both thrilled and
    scared to know the answer. Talking about any of this felt dan-
    gerous. I wondered if it was foolish that, after being so cau-
    tious, I’d suddenly opened up to Max without any hesitation.
    “Okay, don’t be alarmed. I’m going to show you what I
    can do.” He closed his eyes and sat perfectly still for a mo-
    ment. Then the air around him seemed to shimmer, refl ect-
    ing the light.
    In the time it took me to blink, Max was gone and the
    Chancellor was sitting in his place.
    I fell backward off the chair, my breath coming out in a
    strangled gasp. It had been a trick. The Chancellor must have
    149

    Heather Anastasiu
    had a subprogram installed at my last diagnostic to trick me
    into talking to Max, revealing my secrets.
    I scrambled back against the wall in my panic. If I could just
    get past her, then I might be able to get out the door and—
    I looked back up at the person leaning on the table. Sud-
    denly it was Max again, and he was laughing.
    “Stop it—” I said, my voice hysterical. How was she do-
    ing this to me? I grabbed the back of my neck to see if there
    was anything in my port. “Get out of my head!”
    “Zoe.” The person who looked like Max seemed alarmed.
    “It’s just me, it’s just me, okay?” He leaned closer and I
    fl inched, my heart monitor beeping.
    “Zoe it’s me, it’s Max,” he said again, his face con-
    cerned. He reached out to put a hand on my arm, then
    thought better of it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.
    The Chancellor wasn’t actually here. I just took her shape.
    Zoe, it’s still me.”
    I was huddled on the ground with my hands up, but
    something in the tone of his voice made me stop and look at
    him. “But—” I searched his face. It looked like him, so real,
    but I didn’t know what to trust anymore. Water streamed
    down my cheeks.
    “Oh no, Zoe,” Max said, his eyebrows bunched up high.
    “I didn’t think it would scare you. I didn’t think about it.
    You’re safe. I promise.”
    I got back to my feet and edged closer to Max, still