Crossed Worlds

Chapter 29: Vulnerable

  Jade and Alyssa walked back to their friends slowly, without saying a word to each other. When they got back to the field, James came running towards them.

"Are you guys okay?" He grabbed Jade and she just nodded, though she didn't feel okay at all.

Everyone else quickly followed and gathered around them both, which made everything ten times worse. Jade looked up at the surrounding buildings, realising that she was trapped here, that she really was in some kind of danger, that a huge part of her life had been a lie.

Her heart started to thump against her chest and she realised that she was struggling to breathe. Everything went blurry, and James's hands on her felt like prison bars for some reason, so she shook herself free and took off running.

When James went to follow, Alyssa stood in front of him and held him back.

"You better explain what the hell happened back there," he pushed against her, but she didn't budge.

"I'm going to follow her. Just me. All right?" She looked into everyone's eyes, and they were alite with fury, so everybody just nodded.

She turned on her heel and disappeared in a blur, catching up to Jade instantly and finding her behind a building on a small bench. Jade looked up to her with tears in her eyes, and though she did not smile or look particularly welcoming, she moved up so her now sister could sit down.

"I know it's a lot to take in and you probably don't want to tell any of them right now. But you shouldn't be alone," Alyssa stated matter-of-factly.

Jade just sighed and picked at her finger nails.

"This is crazy, trust me, I know. But, if you want a very weak form of clarity, well, I can explain more to you. Of what I remember," she offered.

"Okay," Jade sniffed.

Alyssa shuffled in her seat and took a deep breath, running her manicured nails through her glossy dark hair.

"Well, I think I was taken when I was around two. So, it's obviously mostly a blur. But I do remember parts of it. I can...I can remember my mum, our mum, singing me to sleep. She would trace the features on my face and I'd...I'd fall asleep almost instantly," she had begun to cry.

Jade looked up at her as a tear rolled down her own cheek.

"She did that to me, too," she almost whispered.

"I started getting told off all the time, and I wasn't sure why. I remember the agony of teething, I guess it was my fangs coming through," she weakly laughed. "I used to run so fast with my weird superhuman speed. I didn't even understand it myself. I loved outrunning them both. I was slowly and surely giving myself away."

Jade didn't know what to say. She just sat with her lips parted in shock.

"I started getting visited by random, scary people. Then, one day, I was taken away. I was kept in a weird kind of care home for six months, before I was rehomed in the Wild One sector," she continued. "I was brought up by many different people. I've never really had a parental figure or anyone who truly cares about me. My first 'parent' was Doctor, who would just try and figure out what I was. I felt like a subject, not a child."

"He labelled me as a vampire, and I guess that made me hard to rehome. So, I just got passed around until eighteen, when they gave me a little flat I live in by myself now, and left me to my own devices, really. I didn't do much with my life, until those agents turned up. Now, here we are. I have a sister."

Jade reached out and offered her hand. She didn't expect her to, but Alyssa took it, and they sat like this for a few moments, digesting everything that had been said.