Dark Matter: The Secret Revealed

Chapter 7: Belinda

As I turned the corner to reach the area where Mr. Garant was being held, I was not surprised to see Michael speaking with Damien and Mrs. Garant. He had never met them before, but that would not have stopped him from coming. Michael was supposed to be in town for my graduation and normally he would have gone to the Bensons before the ceremony, but I knew after our encounter in Nauru that he would be concerned about me and want to be with me as I grappled with my ambivalence about using my healing power.

Michael adhered strictly to the principles espoused by the Group of World Servers and he had trained me to do the same. It was difficult sometimes, especially in the worst regions of the world where I had faced human suffering on a scale I had never seen before. But Michael knew, as did I, that this time was different. The family suffering was one that I held dear.

I also could not shake the feeling that he was here for something else—something that was somehow making me feel badly about the way I had treated him in Nauru. Despite our differences, I had to admit that I was glad he was here. He made me feel safe, especially after my encounter with the strange and marauding presence in the hospital stairwell.

"Hello my dear," Michael said. He had turned around sensing my approach. He always knew when I was close by. He embraced me and held me firmly. I flinched slightly. My lower back was still sore from my spill. He detected something was not right and broke our embrace. He gave me a concerned look and then planted a small kiss on each cheek.

"Michael!" I acted surprised.

"I was just telling Mrs. Garant that I spoke to Kevin and Sylvia from my car as I was driving in and they told me Damien's father was in the hospital and that you were here too. I drove straight here." He kept looking at me to see if there was anything wrong. He was on alert. Perhaps he sensed the presence of the dark stranger I had just encountered in the stairwell. He was an Old Immortal, and that meant nothing got by him.

Michael Thomas Garrison, a thirty-something immortal, was my teacher and guardian. He knew who and what I was. He had found me wandering around, lost and alone, so many centuries ago in Europe. I had very vague memories of those times, but what I remembered most was the moment I saw Michael for the first time.

He walked across this town square in front of St-Germain-des-Prés, the oldest church in Paris, which is where I was sitting in a heap of my belongings bundled together. I don't remember what I was doing there or how I got there.

"My dear," he had said. "I have been looking for you." I gazed into his eyes unable to resist his charm and the way he made me feel...safe. I had absolutely no problem taking his hand and entering his carriage on that fateful evening when my life changed forever. I remember him saying as he whisked me away that he was like me and that we would never die.

When Michael said those words, I didn't understand them right away, but they intrigued me and over time, they began to resonate. There were things that I started to notice after I met him—things which were strange. I could move faster than other people and my reflexes were quicker than others around me. My senses were more acute. I could hear people talking from up to a mile away. I also noticed that I could read people's thoughts from time to time. My mind reading was not consistent, nor was it upon my command, but it was undeniably something I possessed that others around me did not.

I couldn't remember anyone I knew before Michael, but somehow Michael convinced me that if I was to embrace my special nature, I had to learn to let go of my past and not dwell on what I could not remember. I knew one thing for sure that night I met Michael. I didn't want to be alone in the world. And Michael was the only one I knew who was like me. I became devoted to him and hung on to every word he said holding his sentences and his stories in my mind so that I could create a past—a foundation upon which I could establish my life and my identity.