Prodigy

Secrets

Kate stepped into her garden. Well, to call it a garden was quite an understatement. While she had written the paper to prove the voices in her head were true, the garden was a place, away from Zara, where she could practice her unique powers. This room was given to her when she was four. The room had never been small, but over time, Kate had expanded it using her magic and base powers until it occupied a space of several square kilometers. The plants in the indoor park were also not known in this section of the world. She had deliberately created these plants from samples of life taken by the voices in her head. So far, despite hundreds of tests trying to prove she was crazy, she had only proven that what she knew, despite it being different than anything taught in any institution, was real. This scared her to death!

At times she would have preferred to simply be insane. At least then the dangers she knew she faced would simply be hallucinations of a crazed mind.

A horde of drones took care of the garden and if anyone but her touched the door to this place, it would transform into a standard garden. This was another trick she had learned from the voices in her head, how to hide what you wanted to hide from prying eyes. At least she hoped that would be the case. No one in the house entered this room but her. Even the maids had no reason to enter this garden and her father never had time to ask about this place.

As she walked into the room, she relaxed the other side of herself, the side that she never let anyone see. Her face became less rounded and her jaw extended slightly. When she opened her mouth, four fangs protruded from her jaw. She knew she wasn’t a monster, but she knew a monster did coil inside of her.

She walked into a grove of black trees with dark purple leaves. Plump oblong fruit the color of dried blood hung from the thick branches. She picked one of the fruits from the tree and sunk her fangs into it.

This was the most useful of her plants. The blood fruit sated the thirst of the vampire in her. It allowed her to safely accept who she was. There were some of her abilities that she didn’t quite accept. She knew she needed to get over that.

In the center of the grove of blood trees a pool of water with a stone altar in its center stood. For a moment Kate studied the altar. It was a reminder of where they came from. I don’t like it. You are normal, that altar made me a monster. A soft, deep voice said. You are many things, a monster is not one of them. She pushed at the voice. You didn’t kill your mother. She answered.

The voice was silent for a moment. This was an old argument and no one ever won it. Finally he spoke. In a sense, you killed her, but it was the code…she asked. When they ask, we have little choice. We each must live with our own sins, sister. I will not belittle your personal struggle.

This was new. Why was he not fighting? She didn’t wait long for the answer. We gained a hint of what happens to magua in your sector. We are going to need you to investigate it. It may be time to let your father know.

She didn’t argue, but the thought of letting her father know just how different she was terrified her. I will consider it. She replied.