Page 100 of Fallen Thorns
“Good, because I was worried there!”Not Mars.
“What a relief!”Not my mum.
“Anyone want another cup of tea?”
* * *
I sat aloneon the sofa, having bid my mother and Mars goodnight. Bess opted to sleep with my mum, so the downstairs was deathly quiet, the tower clock my only light source as I kept the curtains open.
The radiator clicked and rain trickled down the window. A car drove past, crossing through the sodden tarmac.
Michael had been right. Marianne had failed to block my mind. For my own good, she had tried, yet for my own good, she hadfailed. I didn’t know who to trust; hell, I didn’t even know who I even was anymore. Thisdarknesskept on growing and growing, but I didn’t want it to stop, did I?What am I to think this?It is not a darkness; in fact, it is the only true light.I didn’t know why I couldn’tseeproperly, yet then I felt I was seeing too much. My mind wasopen.Opened to greatness and power. Open tomore. So much more,Michael said. The creature, my creature.We are not gods.But our potential? Who was to say we couldn’t be...He is everything.
Iwantedto follow him, to see all he had promised — to be in the light. Yet I saturated my pillows with Arlo’s tears, muffled his cries into the sheet, and banged his fist over and over and over in silent pain as I knew — he knew — things would never be the same again.
I knew my purpose now.
* * *
Mars got along exceptionally wellwith my mum, and I awoke the next morning to the two of them already sat at the kitchen table, discussing their favourite artists then laughing into mugs of tea over references I would never have understood.
In the week that followed, I would watch them washing dishes, helping with groceries, walking Bess with us. They blended in so well, made it seem so easy.
“Mars was tellingme they manage a band?” my mum said one night once we were alone. I had since migrated back into my room, having made a makeshift bed on my floor beside Mars, but they opted for much earlier nights than I did.
“Yeah, Forever Red. They’re really good; I’m friends with some of them.”Arlo is friends with some of them.
“They seem too young to be something like that. How old did you say they were again?”
I hadn’t. “Twenty-nine.”
Her eyes widened. “Wow. Now I would never have guessed that. Wow.” My mum was in utter disbelief, and I would have been too, if I hadn’t met them under the circumstances in which I did. They looked my age, because their bodywasmy age. And I would never age either.Never.
“This might be a bit forward of me, and maybe I’ve got it wrong, but…” she reached her hand across the table. “Be safe. I know you’re a sensible boy, and I trust you implicitly but with older people, there’s a maturity imbalance… and I’m sure Mars means well—”
“Gosh, mum, no. We’re not like that. Mars isn’t mypartner.They’re my friend. Just like how Rani is my friend. We’re not… I’m not into them like that, or anyone, for that matter.”
She released a sigh and tapped her hand on the counter twice. “Good. They genuinely are very sweet, and I know these age gaps sometimes work out, but I’m just looking out for my boy.”
“I know, mum.” I smiled.
She continued asking me about my term in detail, expressing how she was excited to properly meet Rani the following day, but my mind wandered.
Arlo’s mind always flicks back to her, but he will learn what is more important in time. Once his first life passes, this one will be all but a blur.
ChapterTwenty-Three
“I’m just saying, how can no one have ever figured out you exist?”
We were sat in a triangle formation in my room: Rani leaning over the back of my chair, me on my bed and Mars resting against the wardrobe.
“The same way no one believes in the tooth fairy — no oneactuallygoes looking for us. Governments don’t waste time and energy into researching the existence of tiny forest people with wings. We don’t leave behind ancient texts that say ‘hey, by the way, some humans are immortal!’ The Manipulation helps of course,” Mars answered.
“The tooth fairy is real?” Rani perked up.
Mars just rolled their eyes.
“Hey, I saw that,” she laughed at herself.
