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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It's never easy being the weird kid.
The one that's different. Quirky. Doesn't make friends easily. Distant. An over-active imagination.
It's hard to explain why you're scared to go out after dark. Why shadows freak you out.
It's not easy when your body burns and betrays you and because no one can explain it, and when you can see in their eyes that they think you're making it all up for attention, you start to keep it to yourself.
That's when you know you're alone.
Secrets have a nasty habit of doing that. They push you onto the fringes of everything and everyone. Separate you from those that you love. Make you believe you are nothing. That no one will help you.
No one ever helped me.
I walked numbly over to one of the chairs seated in front of the desk and fell into it, bombarded by memories of her – my mother. Of all the times I tried to tell her, and she brushed it aside. Of all the times I tried to explain it, even when I didn't understand it myself, and she stroked my hair and said I read too many books.
And yet, she had known. She had always known.
'Why didn't she ever say anything?' I whispered. 'Why didn't she tell me what was happening to me?'
Marcus crouched in front of me, moving as if to put his hand over mine before instinctively knowing he couldn't. 'Because she was trying to keep you safe, just as I asked her to do.'
'Keep me safe?' I said, staring at him incredulously. 'I was just a kid. I was terrified. I thought there was something wrong with me. When she didn't listen, I had no choice but to try and deal with it on my own. I was a child, and I was on my own.'
Marcus shook his head, adamant. 'You were never on your own.'
'I was. She could have said something. She could have at least told me I wasn't crazy, that there was a reason for what I was feeling. But she didn't, so yes, I was on my own.' I felt sick thinking about it. All it would have taken was one word of acknowledgement. Just one sign to know she understood and that it was okay.
'Sarah, please, believe me, it was not your mother's fault. I asked her not to tell you. I thought that if I kept this world from you, then you would be safe.'
Anger bit back hard. 'By denying what I was?'
'By shielding you from it,' Marcus replied. 'It might never have seemed that way, but I was trying to protect you from everything. From vampires. From the Church. From everyone who would have ripped you from your life. I might not have been there. You might never have seen me. But, for fifteen years, I kept you both safe. I kept your existence a secret, and after that, when your mother...' He exhaled shakily. 'When she died, I knew I had to keep Dominique's attention diverted away from you. I could not risk her finding out that your mother and I had a child, let alone that she would discover you were a Sensor. Her jealousy, her obsession, had no limits.'
