The Tens, Vanessa Jones [i like reading books .TXT] 📗

no idea they were such. Everything we had been waiting for: the crosshatch, the missing link, to preparing ourselves for Venus' return was happening. But what we weren't counting on was you discovering us before we brought you here. Talk about divinity! It really rushed us and we made mistakes in our hastiness. We missed our first window when Venus was in Retrograde.'

Sophie couldn't help herself but look at Abigail like she was the unhinged one. The sweet girl had no reason to fib to her but she had obviously been fed a cacophony of lies, which again tugged on her heartstrings. There was more damage than she first thought.

'I know you don't believe me. I don't know how to convince you that it's true. And you don't have to believe it. But doesn't it feel like peace to have some semblance of an explanation why you suddenly started experiencing weirdness out of nowhere?'

Abigail was right. Half the painful battle of her deteriorating mental health was the inability to lay blame, to place a reason where it all started to unfurl. It was part of the appeal why she kept going back to therapy with Carla. And why she had to desperately find Alex instead of letting him go. Sophie was convinced that if she could just find a reason why she was unravelling, that she would be able to mitigate it: take the right vitamins, learn the right cognitive techniques, eliminate the stressors... and she would be fine. But the needle kept swaying too wildly for it to land on the answer.

'So, I'm not mad? Everything that has been telling me that I've been losing my mind has actually been happening to me? Even feeling sick all the time? That's because you lot have been slowly destroying me through Alex?' Sophie felt dizzy and a realisation took hold of her. As the screen to reality became less grubby, she saw that a whole group of people had been conspiring against her and there was no way she could have seen that. The whole time she thought was descending into some kind of irrecoverable madness.

A chill swept through Sophie like someone had opened a window. 'When you say I was born here, do you mean that I was born in this place?'

'As far as I know. It was a few years before I was born, but like me, you were born here.'

'That's impossible. My parents...'

Abigail gave her a sympathetic look.

'Are you saying my parents were part of this heinous tribe?'

'Yes, Sophie I believe so. They were valued and loved. Particularly for creating our first member born into The Tens.'

'Why the hell would they choose to be part of this nonsense?' Sophie was outraged.

'I can’t really be sure of their reasons. But I do know that a lot of people find genuine appeal in being part of a culture that takes care of their own. You heard Jesse’s story. Everyone is very loved here, even if you can't see it yet. As long as we follow the book and what Carla says, then life can be filled with safety, security and wonderment. And the pull of reconnecting again to Venus is powerful.'

'Did you know that my parents died in a car crash?'

Abigail stared at Sophie, waiting patiently. And then the penny dropped. All these realisations tumbled one after the other. And yet, a strange sense of understanding came with them. It was as if this was the information she had been waiting for her whole life.

'It wasn't an accident, was it Abigail?'

'I don't think so, from what I've been told. Carla and Clive threaten us with the tale all the time. It's a way to make sure we are too scared to leave. Your parents were doing the right thing, they wanted to take you away and live in the world again. They didn't want you to be subject to whatever Carla had planned for you. They had no hope, really. The day of their crash, they were all set to speed away with you in the backseat. But the car flipped out of control, which Clive still purports was the doing of the Wild Woman. Your parents were killed instantly but you, well you were reportedly untouched and unphased, sitting quietly like a ghost in the back. This was further testament to how we revered you as a magical one. Carla and Clive must have slipped you the memory concoction before the emergency crew arrived and then skulked back into the clearing. It’s nothing short of miraculous that, through a series of events, you found your way back to us.’

'I was raised in this place? Until I was five?'

'Yes. And because you were young, you were more receptive to the alchemical teachings. But more than that, we knew you had something special within you. At least, some of us did. Those of us who worked more closely with you have regaled us time and time again. Most of the commune didn't even realise that most of the abilities you already held within you at the time. That you could magnify any experience more than anyone. You are the crosshatch.'

There was nowhere for Sophie to put this information. She felt like it wasn't even hers to store away. If any of it was true, it wouldn’t just explain the way everyone at the camp looked at her but explained so very much in her life. Her lifelong sensitivity to being Ghost Girl, the hallucinations, hair loss, the missing parts of her childhood and nightmares. 'So why do Carla and Clive want to kill me? If I'm their supposed key?'

'Crosshatch,' she corrected. 'I don't really know. I think Carla discovered in your sessions that you weren't as powerful as they had anticipated. It would have been a huge letdown for everyone, nearly thirty years in the making. Carla hates to be wrong. I've never seen her admit to being wrong. That's why she keeps Clive