Mae

Prologue

Australia, June 2013

The house was empty. Every room was bare. All of Mae's childhood dreams and hopes, packed away in a stack of boxes. Mae had never understood why her parents kept so many secrets. Her father would leave the house for days at a time, researching the native spiders of Australia and performing experiments and doing "things too grown up for children to understand."  

She knew her dad was a scientist and he studied spiders, but she knew nothing else of his occupation. Her mother had homeschooled her and her brother Jake, and Mae had excelled in maths and science, hoping to impress her dad. Other than dance lessons, which Mae thoroughly enjoyed, she had no contact with the outside world. She had only Jake, who was two years younger, to play with. Her parents loved her and were very kind, but she often wondered why they had to live like this. 

Now as she stared at the boxes, she realised that her father's scientific expeditions were a lot more than just the study of spiders. It was dangerous business and her parents were just trying to keep her safe. The secret research had put her parents' lives in danger and so they were sending her and her brother away to protect them. In a few hours Mae and Jake would be boarding a plane to Korea to attend a boarding school of performing arts. Their father was from Korea and had pre-arranged for his mother, their grandmother, to meet them at the airport.

Mae's birth name was Sim Maesun, honouring her Korean lineage, but while she lived in Australia, she took on a more Australian version of her name. Mae Parker, as her mother's maiden name was Parker. Her father came up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Time to go, my Spiderling."

Mae smiled at the pet name. She would miss her parents. At the airport, Mae and Jake were checked in and their belongings were loaded onto the plane. They met their grandma, who they had only seen in video calls and the pair warmed up to her almost instantly. Their father gave their grandmother a small briefcase and whispered a few words. 

An announcement over the speakers indicated that it was time to go. Mae hugged her mother and father goodbye and let her grandma take her hand as they left the terminal. She was only thirteen and already leaving her parents. Mae held on tightly to Jake as they climbed the stairs to the plane, aware that he was only seconds away from breaking down into tears. She could tell he was being very brave, as she was almost in tears herself. Mae turned around just before she entered the plane and caught sight of her parents for the last time. 

The last thing she heard from her parents was her mother crying, "I love you," and her father saying, "we will come back for you when this is all over, my Spiderlings."