The Offering

Chapter 7

I discovered the following day that I had been suspended from school for the next two weeks. Angela broke the news over breakfast, she recounted the phone call and detailed how she had been informed of my 'wholly unacceptable behaviour' and that despite the 'tragic circumstances' I was currently experiencing the school could not make any 'allowances'.

A sad smile was on her face as she broke the news but she asked no questions and seemed to require no explanation. To my relief it seemed my encounter with Jake had cancelled out any anger or disappointment she may have had towards me. But I couldn't help being disappointed in myself, the way I had acted just wasn't me. At least I didn't think it was but lately I was unsure if even I knew who I was anymore.

We sat in silence at the breakfast table, I had no appetite so my plate of eggs and bacon sat untouched and probably cold by now. I hadn't slept for a single second after what I'd experienced during the night. I was unable to shake the feeling that somebody had been in my room with me but that still didn't make any sense. It wasn't possible, was it?

I took another sip of my coffee, my third cup of the morning. It wasn't having the desired effect and instead I could feel a dull headache forming near the nape of my neck. I was exhausted but alert at the same time.

"I need to explain something to you," Angela suddenly gave, she spoke at such a quick tempo it was as though she had been forced to speak.

I just nodded and took another sip, she took a deep intake of breath which made me instantly curious. What was it she wanted to say that seemed so difficult?

"Since you were a little girl you were different to others," Angela chewed on her bottom lip the same way I did, I knew she was nervous and her words sounded rehearsed, "We never really spoke about it and maybe we should have."

"We don't need to be talk about it," I assured her, the truth was I didn't want to talk about it.

"We do Alice, we have to," she stated, "The truth is Alice, what you have, what you are, there's more to it than you think."

I was confused, my mother had never said anything to me about this before. Any episodes of 'sensitivity' I had experienced as a child she had treated like some sort of learning or behavioural difficulty. She had comforted me as a mother should, explained to me that some children just see the world differently to others and reiterated to me that there was nothing wrong with that.

There had been no doctors appointments, there was no name for what I had, I was just 'special' she had said. Never, ever in my entire existence had she given me any insight into what it was that I had. Angela had seemed as clueless as me but she had supported and at times defended me always.

Then a change had come, as I had gotten older and the frequency of the episodes had increased my mothers patience seemed to wear thin. I was around ten or eleven years old when I began to recognise the lies parents told to maintain the innocence of their children. I'd known then that she didn't really think I was special at all. I was her burden and she was stuck with me.

Angela had tried not to show her frustration but I'd heard her sobs through the bedroom wall in the night. So I decided to stop confiding in my mother. I pretended that it all went away and one day soon after she began to smile again. I'd known then that it was the right thing to do.

"What is it? What's wrong with me?" I asked, my voice trembling as I anticipated her answer.

"It's complicated Alice-" she started.

"Just tell me what it is," I snapped, anger was my overwhelming emotion in that moment, how could she have kept secrets from me all this time?

Angela's eyes blinked several times over and she reached for my hand. Without thought I withdrew my own. Angela's face filled with hurt, she nodded and replied simply,