I shook my head hardly able to believe that this could possibly be true. But of cause it was. Nothing could make this change, and I’d never be able to pretend otherwise. I need to step back and accept it.
Skye took me to the hall and presented me with a ‘buddy’ someone to help me, but my god that girl has got issues. Just being around her, I can tell that there’s something wrong. But I don’t know her well enough to ask her yet. It would be rude to just up and ask her about her personal problems. Skye glanced at us sympathetically as she glided from the room and an awkward silence ascended upon us. I stared at her from across the room and she looked as though she were struggling to compose herself, I felt sorry for her and braved a sudden bright smile to reassure her. She blinked, and then returned the smile, standing up and coming closer. “I’m Alicia Willow” she told me grinning widely “but call me Ali everyone else does.” She laughed and the smile on my face no longer felt forced. “I’m Brooke Hall” I told her. Her eyes widened and she looked hurt and shocked, but before I could check how what I had just said could have possibly offended her she masked the pain and began a careful babble of chatter. “Do you have a nickname?” I shook my head and she carried on quickly, not the slightest bit put out, “I’ll call you Bee” she decided, then took my hand, “right, come with me and I’ll introduce you to some more people.” She glanced sideways at my panic stricken face “Don’t worry – they won’t bite” she laughed at a private joke that I didn’t share. Then she practically pulled my arm out of its socket as she dragged me through corridors.
We stopped outside of a bedroom door that seemed old and out of place in the modern building. “Come in” a voice called out, before we had a chance to knock. The door swung open and we slowly entered. The room was as tall as it was wide and I felt a sense of relief as I looked around the bright room at several friendly faces. Alicia bounced across the room and sat next to a tall brown haired boy, with dazzlingly green eyes. “This is Brooke Hall, but call her Bee” she announced, to them and they smiled at her optimism, “So what are you then?” a voice called out, I looked for the source of the voice, and a well built boy, that would have scared me on the street, put up his hand, “Hi, I’m Tyrone Jenson” he smiled then returned to the point “so, what are you?” I blinked and replied. “A Witch?” I seemed to almost be questioning the answer. He rolled his eyes, before getting out a wad of money and handing some to a smug looking boy sat by Alicia. She laughed, “Placing bets on what she was?” she asked them, “yup, and I was right, as per usual” the winner replied. “I’m Derek Nehalem” he told me and I smiled shyly, he was easily the best looking person in the room, but of course he knew this and seemed to enjoy this fact. He stood up and held his arms out for a hug, I glanced into his eyes and felt lost, in the blue that shimmered like the ocean, they almost rippled with the intensity of his stare, and I felt hypnotised. “Pack it in Derek” someone laughed, he smiled down on me and I felt embarrassed, realising that he was using a ‘personal power’ of some sort to hypnotise me. I looked away feeling stupid and felt his arms wrapping around me. “I’m sorry” he laughed. I felt confused thinking about the conversation. “What did you mean before, when you asked me what I am” I asked them, they looked at me in silence before the boy next to Alicia began to talk.
“In this world we are the outside race, the ‘mutants’ you could call us, we’re not of this world, we’re from a parallel world that co-exists with this one. We got here when a rip between the worlds was exposed and hundreds of us escaped. Witches, like you, but also Vampires, Werewolves, Shape- shifters, Demons. The creatures of the night, and then fairies, dwarfs, unicorns etc. The fairytales and horror stories you were told, were all based on actual fact. But they were twisted and warped to make them friendlier to children, only very few stories are actually accurate, and that’s usually because they’re written by one of us. We get along together, with the occasional feud and very few of us live up to our expectations and stereotypes. We’re here now, in this time, due to natural birth, but I’ve heard about you, you’re different, aren’t you?” I nodded, afraid to admit it. “It’s alright you know, most of the people here are different in their own way” he reassured me. “What I meant is that you and your brother were actually born in the supernatural world, rather than this, you were moved here after your parents disappeared. I believe there was another child moved as well. As his parents were with yours. But you see Brooke, you are of noble birth, you’re a higher ranking than us and you have more natural power than anyone else here, because you were born in the other world and also because your parents were two of the most powerful people to walk the Earth.” I shut my eyes. This was all a bit too much I felt overwhelmed. “Oh, I’m Alex Sonne by the way” he smiled at me. I gave him a weak smile back and tried to let the thoughts settle a little. To make themselves clearer and maybe then they would make sense instead of sitting there in my mind and polluting the air I was breathing until I felt suffocated by it. The boy next to Alex gave me a sympathetic smile and came and sat next to me, I felt his arm rest gently on my shoulder, and turned to face him. “Its okay” he reassured me, “you’re bound to feel a bit overwhelmed, but we’ll all be here to help you through it” he gave me a hug, before backing away to make room for Ali, to push past.