Destiny
15 years ago
"Katie! Katie!"
I heard my parents call out my name and before I even opened my eyes I knew this was the moment they had been preparing me for during the 15 years of my life and I instinctively rolled out of bed and reached for the rifle already preloaded with rounds of salt and I was out of my room and racing across the hall to my parents room where their calls had come from. Despite my quick response I was already too late my dad dead body lay by the bed and my mother was fighting a losing battle against a yellow eyed demon. I fired off the rifle until there was nothing left to fire but it hardly made a difference and I could only watch as my mum spent her last minutes fighting. I knew there was nothing I could do and I remembered how she and my father had always said to run if it ever came to this moment. So that's what I did, without even thinking I found myself outside the house and I just kept running. I don't remember how long I ran but daylight eventually came and I hitched a ride across the border. That's how I found myself in Canada. After days of walking and hitching rides I was found by a guy called Alvin Klein and he took me in and I changed my surname from Campbell to Klein and Alvin told people I was his younger sister. It must have put the demons off my trail because they never found me. I knew not to tell Alvin the full story just that my parents had been murdered and I had fled. They never did find my parents bodies or the killer but how could the police ever find a demon even if I had told them and even if they chose to believe me over the more popular option of locking me up in an institution? So I kept quiet about demons, let Alvin assume my parents killer was human and I prepared myself for what my mum and her journal had always warned me was coming
Present day
I knew this wasn't going to be easy as I entered the IIB office
"Hey Katie" Tobey smiled at me
"Hi" I tried to act casual and think happy thoughts just in case he happened to read my mind "Is Alvin in?"
"Yeah, everything ok?" Tobey looked at me quizzically
"fine" I said and walked away before he could question me further
Hi there" Alvin looked up in surprise as I entered the room "We're not working a case together are we?"
"No but I need to talk with you"
"Ok, sit down"
I shut the door and ignored his request as I began pacing "you remember when you found me?"
" How could I forget?" he looked up at me "you looked scared and hungry and told me to drive further from Texas, we were in Toronto so I asked you how much further could we be"
"You've done a lot for me and I'm really grateful..." I began as I tried to smile to cover the tears I felt coming.
"What's with the trip down memory lane?" Alvin saw straight thru my fake smile "did something else happen?"
"I never told you who killed my parents"
"And I never asked, I thought it was too much for you to talk about but I hoped you would tell me someday, is that day today, Katie?" I had his full attention now.
"I want to but you'd never believe me, there's things out there that you can't imagine"
"I've been in this line of work longer than you" Alvin reasoned " I think I could imagine a lot"
"Not this time" I argued "There just a lot of unexplained things…" I trailed off
"You've met Tobey right? The mind reader who helps solve the majority of my cases these days"
"And remember how you reacted to him at first? But there's more out there than mind readers and a hell of a lot worse?"
"Katie" Alvin stood up, walked in front of me, grabbing my shoulders and stopping me from pacing "you know you can tell me anything"
"You really want to know?"
"I really want to know"
"The thing that killed my parents wasn't human, it was a demon, my patents were hunters, they hunted things like demons but this one was too strong..."
"Katie, I know what happened to you was awful, you watched your parent's murder and as a child maybe it was easier to belief only something non-human could do that..."
I couldn't stop the tears now as I felt like Alvin had just slapped me "no that's not it..." I began
"I know a psychologist... He ignored me
Suddenly I felt angry and the window at the back of the room slammed shut so hard that it smashed
"I have to go" I said, my voice shaking there's no point in trying to explain this to you but things are happening and I have to stop them. I know how crazy all this sounds but I just wanted to say goodbye and thanks. I made a promise to my parents" I turned and ran from the room. I heard Alvin shout out after me and almost bumped into Tobey as I ran past him
"Sorry" I called out without looking back.