Being Grey (Beings Trilogy) (4 page)

“You are still playing hard to get, I see. But that’s ok, maybe next time. How about Saturday night?”

I am so thrilled he actually wants to see me again after my blunders and bathroom break that I say “Sure, that would be great” before I even know I’d opened my mouth.

“Pick you up at 7? Or would you rather earlier if you have to be in bed at 8?” He teases.

“7‘s fine.”

I close the door behind him; do a little wow-he’s-hot dance and then sit down in front of the TV wondering how I should go about killing his best friend.

Chapter Five

It sounds flippant to say that we kill people with damned
Beings
, but it really is as simple as that. That night of my sixth birthday, my mum woke me up. My yellow glow-in-the-dark alarm clock told me that it was just past midnight. I think it was the first time I’d been awake so late. Mum crept into my room and was sat on my bed, smiling, her finger placed gently on her lips. “Be quiet, darling,” she said. “We don’t want to wake the house up.”

I followed her downstairs and into the kitchen. To my surprise, Uncle Thomas was sitting at the kitchen table with a small glass of orange juice ready for me. I loved my uncle dearly. I remember him being huge, but I suppose to a six year old, all grown ups are.

He wasn’t my real uncle. He was a close friend of Mum and Dad’s.

“Your Mum tells me that you saw the
Being
of the magician today?” he asked.

I nodded, holding my glass of juice two handed.

“And your Mum tells me that she explained to you about what we do?”

“Do you see them too?” I asked.

“I sense them differently, I can hear them. It’s like thunder and lightening happening at the same time.” That was scarier to me than the darkness I saw. I wasn’t afraid of the dark but thunder and lightening?

Thomas explained a lot to me that night; he was my mum’s mentor and meeting another person like mum and I took some of the scariness away.

Looking back on it, it seems like an extraordinary thing to introduce to a six year old. There have been times since, when I’ve sworn that I will never introduce my child (if I have any – no plans at the moment) to my work so young. But now I realize that it was the right choice. I grew up accepting it, before my mind had really taught me what was right or wrong. And I’ve also learned since that the earlier we accept our abilities and what we must do with them, the stronger we become when we do ‘come of age’.

That was my first lesson. And there have been so many since.
 
After that birthday, I joined the gymnastics team. I started taking karate lessons when I was eight. At 10, I learnt how to shoot a gun at the manor. That’s how I met Poppy. There she was in her designer gear. I remember laughing that her headband matched her jacket. It was some sort of green check. We still laugh about that now. She invited me over to ride her horses the following weekend, and we’ve never looked back.

Whilst mum and Thomas taught me lots, my second real lesson didn’t come for five years, when Poppy and I were introduced to Adrian and the rest of the gang.

He was already mentoring Annabel and Stefan, and Robbie and Luke had recently moved in after the death of their parents. I remember very clearly how he had us all state our names and had then left us alone to get to know one another.

Naturally it had been Poppy who had broken the ice.

“I smell.” She had said.

“I didn’t notice.” Stefan had replied.

When we eventually stopped laughing Poppy had managed to explain that she had meant she sensed people’s
Beings
through smell.

We in turn detailed how we encountered our first damned
Being
; me through sight, Robbie through pain, Stefan through body temperature, Annabel through taste and smelly Poppy.

“What do you call the in between people?” Stefan had asked.

“Mushrooms.” Was Annabel’s reply which resulted in us all giggling again. “They don’t taste like fillet mignon but thankfully not blue cheese either.”

“Ah, don’t even mention blue cheese to me.” Smelly Poppy had replied.

“I call them greys.” I had mentioned matter-of-factly.

“I like that. Sounds kind of alien, ET Close Encounter ish.” Robbie had replied.

And it had stuck. We have the pure, the greys and the damned.

It’s difficult to explain what it’s like keeping this secret I have. It’s all I’ve ever known so I can’t compare it to anything. It’s just my life. I think of everyone without my ability as the odd ones.

I hope I don’t make it sound like we’re killing someone every other day, because we don’t. I was introduced to this life at 6, and in the last 11 years, I have only seen few people actually die.

I’ve seen a ‘Gifted’ push a damned
Being
in front of a train. It shocked me, but it was done so quickly that no one else noticed at all.
 

Another time it was a damned
Being
that my mother killed. I can only liken the shock of this to seeing old people really kissing. I mean a going-for-it kiss! We all know they do it, but we don’t have to see it, do we?

Then there was the young man that my still impounded car cut in two at the petrol station.

And of course the very first one, the night of my sixth birthday with mum.

Chapter Six

“Hi Mum, I missed you.” It’s gone nine o’clock now. After Jason left, I’ve sat and stewed about it for an hour, and decided that sometimes with problems like this a girl just needs to talk to her mum. I may have a mentor for times like this, but when your mum only lives a few doors down its much easier. Besides, I love this woman so much it hurts if I don’t speak to her every chance I get.

“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Why do mums always say that?

“I just wanted to ask a few questions. Is dad about or can we chat alone for 5 minutes?”

“He’s in the study working on a speech for next week. He won’t come out until he’s hungry and we just had dinner, are you hungry?”

“I just had dinner with Jason Burford.”

“Oh my goodness. Jason Long Legs? How is he? Did he ever grow into those long legs of his?”

I know when I’m 35 my mum will still make me blush at boy talk. I can tell her anything in the world, but still, it is mum.

“Yup, legs look good. As does the rest of him. All except his
Being
.”

“Damned?”

“Dark grey, actually. And he was with Adam.” I get a frown at that. “Jones?”

“The bully?”

“You have a good memory!” I laugh.

“I always have!”

“Well, Adam’s
Being
is damned.”

Mum nods slowly, “Tea.” She says, and sets about making us both a brew. Over a cup of tea I explain that after Jason moved back from
Cardiff
he had met up with Adam. This surprises us both as they weren’t really friends when they were younger. I tell mum about Jason’s expression when I asked had he killed anyone yet.

“Jason used to be such a good boy. He always used to follow and protect you when you were young. Perhaps it’s your turn? But that does mean you’ll have to dispose of Adam.”

“I know.”

To my surprise, my mum tells me about a story about when she dated dad. My dad is not ‘Gifted’. He works for a big shipping company in the city. When they were dating, my dad was in the Navy and one of his crew had a damned
Being
. Mum had to kill him. When my dad later proposed, my mum didn’t feel comfortable marrying him without telling her secret. She even told him about killing the crew member. No surprise that my dad thought she was crazy and they’d broken up for a while. Months later they’d met up at one of Poppy’s mums ‘do’s’ and my dad told her he still loved her and would she recount her crazy story. She’d run out of there crying as she couldn’t be dishonest and Lady Howard had spoken to my dad. Mum has no idea what was said at that meeting but Lady Howard has a way of dealing with everything, she’s hierarchy. Mum and Dad were married a few weeks later.

We had another cuppa while I told her about Glen and about Robbie taking care of the boy on the train and then I went up to my old bedroom. There’s nothing better than waking up to mum making bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Chapter Seven

Adrian
sighs deeply. He always has a strange look about him when given something to think about. Leaning back in the chair, he’s as still as a statue. If not for his breathing, you’d think a taxidermist had worked on him. We are alone. Robbie and Luke are food shopping.

I’ve told him about Jason and Adam, brought him up to speed.

“We need the others.”

It takes about thirty minutes for them all to arrive and the waiting was done in complete silence.
Adrian
is patient. I’m not.
 
I’ve got so many questions spinning around my head, it’s a wonder I didn’t break anything with frustration before the others got here.

Poppy was the last to arrive Thank God she was shopping in
London
for the ‘do’. When she enters, she brings with her eight large glossy bags full of rustling tissue paper. Usually, she’d be pulling out the prizes and showing off, but she knows when it’s business time.

When she’s seated,
Adrian
nods solemnly. He’s tells them my tale.

“So just to clarify, Alice’s school girl crush now has a virtually damned
Being
and his friend, the school bully, now has a totally damned
Being
?” Annabel asks incredulous.

“It’s not uncommon to come across old acquaintances whose circumstances have changed.”
Adrian
replies. “In fact, sadly, it’s all too common.”

“But what can we do about it?” I ask.

Adrian
smiles, “A lot, or very little. For Adam, there is no going back. Once a
Being
is damned it can’t be undone. For him to have changed, he must have done something very serious.”

“Like kill someone?”

“Yes.” Adrian nods, “That would definitely be enough to change someone’s path for the worst.”

“But what about Jason?” Poppy asks. She sounds as lost as I feel.

“It shouldn’t be too late for him. But that will depend on a number of factors. First, is it him that has given up doing the right thing or is he being influenced? Both boys have changed. Adam’s
Being
is now damned where it was once a dark grey. And Jason’s is now dark grey where it was once almost pure. Perhaps both boys have been influenced?”

“I thought that it may have been Adam that altered Jason.” I say quietly.

“A reasonable theory. But there is another option.”
Adrian
pauses, as though for effect, “There could be a dark one at play here.”

“A Dark One, a destroyer of reason and logic?” Stefan teases, quoting one of his favourite Robert Jordan books.

Adrian
continues, not to be interrupted with his train of thought just yet. “There are also people with your abilities but with damned
Beings
. They promote evil. The same way that we can pour light into others to see the good in our kind, they pour in darkness.” He stands and stares out over the city. “For generations we have promoted and assisted those with pure
Beings.
Which individuals the bankers should place their money in, which teachers should school our children.” He shrugs. It’s such a small movement that it’s almost invisible. “They do the same. They show those with most promise where they can make their fortunes –through street crime, violence, theft. They are building their numbers as we try to eradicate them.”