Page 10 of Darkness Defined

My leg twitched.

How far could I get?

“But I will say, if you’re thinking of running, remember, you were running the last time I caught you.”

My eyes widened. Was it possible she could read minds? Was that even a thing?

“Well?” she prompted.

“Well, what?”

She frowned. “Just because I’ve read your file, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t introduce yourself. That’s just good manners.”

Who is this lady?

“I’m Matt and I don’t know what I am.”

She smiled again and started walking down the sidewalk. When I didn’t follow, she glanced back and waited. There was nowhere else for me to go and she’d already proved that running was pointless, so I joined her.

“I figured as much. Well, Matt, I have a proposition for you.”

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. “Proposition makes it sound like a choice.” It definitely didn’t feel like one.

“Observant, aren’t you? I suppose technically it is a choice, though I really hope you say yes and don’t make me persuade you.”

There was no telling if the persuasion would be a pros and cons argument or torture. Something told me neither would phase her.

“I’ve started a school to help our kind, Shadow Demons.” She glanced at me. “That’s what you are, Matt. We’re kind of a dying race and I may have created an atmosphere of fear over the last decade, making it especially unsafe for our kind.” Her focus shifted to the ground and the loose pebbles she was kicking. “I’m trying to fix that. By bringing together young demons and training them properly, we simultaneously ensure that they embrace their demonic half and that they don’t lose control and go on an accidental killing spree.” Silence hung for a moment.

“You’re insane.”

She gave me a crooked smile and shrugged. “So, I’ve been told.”

Chapter 4

The Outcast

A

Thesunwarmedmyback as I approached the community center. To my surprise, hardly anyone was around the bleached white building, shining like a beacon in the middle of town. Then again, with it not quite being summer yet, the usual classes and events hadn’t started, so that made sense. Of course, that didn’t stop the bulletin board from being cluttered with pamphlets.

I chuckled to myself as I spent a few minutes rearranging the multitude of paper. How the heck people expected to get anyone’s attention with everything overlapping like that was beyond me. I reached a cream-colored page that was hiding beneath an advert for a dog walker and paused. A small smile tugged at my lips as I freed it from the chaos.

The Denham Agrarian Poets Society has moved meetings to the private residence of Mary Elizabeth Parker. Please reach out directly for updated times and admittance.

I pinned the supposed “update” to a corner where others could see it. When my mother had uprooted us from Greece to this small parish in the UK, I’d never expected to find a community, let alone a community of supernaturals. Luckily, they’d recognized me as one of them and given me the rather vague advice of joining DAPS. Best decision ever.

I gave the board another once over, then dusted my hands and went inside, where I was immediately greeted by an older woman with a faded brown face and graying hair pulled up in a bun.

“Alexi! What brings you here?” Roberta Mannheim may have looked like a quiet old lady, but I was convinced she’d never had a quiet day in her life.

I smiled warmly and rushed to help her with the table she was currently relocating to the side of the room. “Nothing much, Robbie. Came to pick up a few things before mum and I head out.”

She paused and straightened up, giving me a beaming smile. “That’s right, your kiester got into that fancy early admittance program!”

I shrugged at her enthusiasm. That wasn’t quite the case, but it was the story we were going with.

“Come here, squirt.” She waved me over, and I obligingly stepped into her warm, grandmotherly embrace, or what I assumed a grandmother’s hug would be like. “Ooh, I knew you were too smart for this little old town. But gosh, we’re gonna miss you.” Robbie suddenly pushed me to arm’s length, her wrinkled face now serious. “Now don’t you go gettin’ yourself into any trouble, Alexi Roman.”