Normal can be the most beautiful thing there is...
No one knows that more than Aline and her brother.
Aline Blake never knew what was going to happen. Only thirteen years old, she had no clue about life's dark secrets. But that would soon change...
...
We carefully entered the door, ashamed to have been found.
"Why are you two fighting over Sam's present?" I asked, glancing slightly at the bracelet I had already put over my hand.
Mom sighed. "We had agreed not to give it to you," she said.
"Why not?"
"Because we thought it would be too emotional," she explained. "But someone"—she narrowed her eyes at uncle Danny—"decided to ignore it." She glared at uncle Danny again.
He stared into her eyes. "I was only doing what was right," he said jeeringly.
Mom rolled her eyes. "Without asking me!" she snapped.
Believing that we would get away, we started walking out of the kitchen again. But mother noticed this, and she turned around. To my surprise, she didn't get angry, as I thought, but she just looked at me with a tired look. "Aline, before you go," she said and went to pick something up.
I stayed in the doorway, waiting while Mom rummaged through her old study.
She came out with a small bag. "Simon had this custom made a few years ago. He had a vision of what was going to happen to him, so he wanted to fix your thirteenth birthday present right then. Open it with your friends after you've gone somewhere more private."
I stared at her with wide eyes. "D-Did he?"
She nodded.
We sat down inside my room. The party had come to an abrupt end when everyone was affected by mother and uncle Danny's quarrel. In my hands I held Simon's present. The bag.
I knew there was something in there, but I hadn't dared to open and look. Mom had said clearly and distinctly that I would do it with Tristan and Katie, and that undisturbed.
They watched intently as I opened the bag and pulled out the contents. In my hand I held... a dagger. Simon had given me a dagger as a present. Why on earth had he done that?
Not because I was dissatisfied, no, quite the opposite. I loved the idea of being able to have a normal way to defend myself. But why did I get it now? Had Simon had a vision of something that wouldn't go well if I didn't have the dagger?
Tristan looked at me. "A dagger," he noted.
I nodded slowly. A dagger.
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