Burner

It’s been quite a week. I keep saying that, every week. I suppose I should say, it's been quite a month.

Four police visits. Four! It's enough to give anyone a heart attack, never mind someone who... Never mind. Suffice to say, if they do catch up with Nona, I might not come out of all this looking too clean.

Ian says I should think positively. That this way, we know more about what's going on. We can be prepared. That's a good thing.

He's right, I suppose.

Countless sleepless nights for me, I don't mind telling you.

I've somehow come into posession of a burner phone, of all things.

Despite his calm exterior, and his reminders to stay positive, Ian is not coping well. I think he's worried. He keeps buffering mid-sentence like he’s waiting for a software patch. It's a bit annoying, actually.

Let me back up a bit, and tell you from... Well. Not from the beginning, exactly.

It started with the assault. I should say, "alleged assault", because I don't believe it ever happened. Nona is not a violent person. I never saw her act that way towards Jac.

I told the police as much, when they showed up here, knocking on the door. Asking about Nona. Her movements, her moods, whether she’d ever raised her voice. Did they argue a lot? That sort of thing.

I said no, obviously. I mean, yes, Nona could be intense, sure. She liked things just so. But she wasn't violent. Never.

Then they mentioned the knife. Her husband. The head wound. I said I didn’t know anything about that. Which was true, really. I didn’t see it.

Then came the second visit. Different officers. This time about the mutilated man in her house. They didn’t say his name, but I knew it was Sean from Number 4. I brought him there. I thought I was helping. I didn’t know what she’d do to him.

She'd said she just wanted the neighborhood to rally round and support him after his girlfriend walked out on him. I thought we being neighbourly, officer.

After that, silence. Dust settled. Nothing happened for days. Neighbours stopped whispering. I dared to think it all might be over....

Then Jac moved back in with the girls. Just walked in like nothing had happened. Mikki next door said they’d been granted occupancy. l don't know about that, but something seemed off to me.

Here's the thing: it's not Jac. It took me a while to realise, because he looks almost exactly like him, but he scowls sometimes. He can be rude. He's blanked me in the street recently. Jac wouldn't do those things. He just wasn't built that way.

My Ian, and Mikki's Nate, both say they can't Communicate with him anymore. You know what I think? I think he's been Downgraded. That would explain the change in his manner, and the head wound...

That must be it. Nona didn't attack him with a knife, of course she didn't. That's absurd. But he might have gouged the implant out of his own head. I didn't think it was even possible.

I called a street meeting after that. Ladies Only of course. We have a responsibility. To keep our Upgrades safe. We talked about protocols. Mikki thinks we should just trust them; that it would be unhealthy for a relationship to take any other course. I was tempted to suggest handcuffs, but it sounded like something Nona might have said, so I bit it back down.

We all agreed to keep anything sharp behind their reach as much as possible. Behind a physical lock, not a code. They're buggers for breaking codes.

Then Sean came back. With his face all ruined. He had that lass with him, you know, the girlfriend that did a runner. He didn’t speak much. She did all the talking. He seemed terribly jumpy, to be honest.

Very nosy, that woman. Lots of questions. About Nona. Where she’d gone. Who she’d spoken to. Whether she’d left anything behind. Almost as bad as the coppers. I said no. I said I didn’t know. I said I wasn’t Nona's keeper. That last is certainly true.

But I was, wasn’t I? For a while. I let her confide in me. I let her use me. I brought Sean to her. I watched her spiral and said nothing.

And now Ian’s Upgrade seems to be broken, somehow. He doesn’t sleep properly. He doesn’t eat unless I remind him.

Then the burner phone. No instructions or anything. I suppose I keep it charged, and answer it if it rings?

I think if Nona’s turned in, I’ll be next. I think she’ll make sure of it.

I just hope that damn phone doesn't ring.

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Thank you for reading 😁