When Sarah Solomon took refuge in an old cottage in the woods, she knew it would only be a matter of time before the monsters came a' calling.
Cursed with a power she neither wants, nor knows how to harness, Sarah has become a target, but who is he...
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T/W: reference to suicide and parental death.
When the laughter burst out, I hadn't meant for it to happen.
It sort of pushed its way to the surface, an unstoppable force, exploding outwards in such a short-lived rush of noise that everyone looked at me like I was mad. It felt like madness. And yet, I couldn't be the crazy one, right? They were the ones who'd said such insane things. They were the ones who believed it.
Marcus DiCenzo, my errant and unwanted father, wasn't dead.
He was a vampire.
A fucking vampire.
The laughter died as quick as it had come. I felt it shrivel, along with whatever last resolve my body had been holding onto.
Michael seemed to sense it first. It was the subtlest shift in position, but over time, I'd come to spot when a vampire was going to make their move. I knew I wouldn't make it to the door before he did.
'Sarah...' he said, his tone maddeningly gentle, because I didn't want gentle. I didn't want anything but out. 'I know this is a shock...'
'Not a shock,' I said, scrambling up from the seat and moving around the side of the couch. 'It's sick. That's what it is. You people are sick... crazy.'
Maz twisted on the sofa, as I began to move towards the door. 'Sarah, please, just listen...'
Michael was already blocking my path. Of course, he was.
'Is this why you got me here?' I accused him. 'To tell me some twisted story about my father? Did he owe you? Is that it? Did you think you'd get a cut of my non-existent inheritance?'
'I didn't know,' he insisted, shaking his head. 'I swear to you, I never knew he was your father. If I had...'
'If you had, what then?'
He looked stumped. 'I... look, it doesn't change anything. We're still here for a reason and it has nothing to do with Marcus DiCenzo.'
'Au contraire, mon ami,' Sébastien said. 'I beg to differ. Perhaps the reason you are here has everything to do with Marcus DiCenzo.' His eyes found mine. 'Sarah, I understand your desire to flee. This situation feels unbearable, no? But you have come this far. You have defied your natural instincts and why? Because you seek the truth, just as much as Michael does. Because, no matter what your powers tell you, inside you know there is something more to all of this. You feel it, as does he. Otherwise, you would not be here.'
He was right. I hated him for saying it, but he was right.
Why would I have willingly accepted to stay with Michael and the others, if I didn't know that there was more to all of this than being saved by a vampire who said he had seen me in dreams he wasn't meant to have?
