Chap 10

I hope you guys forgive me that I´ve been gone for quite a while but I had a whole bunch of personal stuff to handle and suffered a VERY bad kind of writers block... So, even if it´s been a long time I hope you still read this and review! I hope to be able to continue all my writings on a regular basis now but I won´t make any promises as I´m leaving for an exchange year on Thursday and have no idea how life in America will be.

Lots of hugs to all of you who reviewed - it really means something to me!

Well, this part focuses on Prudence and might be a bit mean... I hope you enjoy nevertheless!

Sydney still watched Prudence, eyes widened and caught between shock and amazement about the girls ability to... well, pretend. The next moment he realised that not only he but also Raines had underestimated Prudence to a degree it practically laughed at them. He should have known that the daughter of the two most important pretenders the Centre ever had would be much more than the ever calm young woman who always obeyd to everything she was told. He actually felt ashamed for thinking of her in that way.

"Get over it, will you?" Prudence raised an eyebrow and started the car "Really, it´s been annoying how easy it was to make fools of all of you."

"I´m terribly sorry, Prudence." Sydney managed to say.

"It´s okay. I just expect you to keep quiet about this." Prudence smiled at him warmly.

"You have my word."

They drove to a small, nearby house. Prudence took the keys, opened the front door and gave her grandfather a doubting look when she walked inside "Gee, the Centre really thinks of me as a grown woman. That doesn´t exactly look like the home of a teenager." she said and eyed the very old-fashioned style her living room had been furnitured and decorated in.

"I´m sure we can change that."

"Thanks, but that´s just fine with me. In a weird way I feel honoured."

Sydney had a lot of questions flying around in his head but he knew that if he stayed too long, Raines would get suspicious and maybe even forbid him to see Prudence again. So he just told her what he was supposed to tell her and left after his granddaughter gave him a hug and another bright smile that reminded him much of her mother and grandmother.

After Sydney had left the house, the girl´s smile vanished and instead she cynically laughed. "Too easy again, good old grandfather."

The Centre had controlled her whole life . They´d taken everything and everyone she had ever cared for, and even those who had had nothing to do with the Centre when she went to a boarding school for a year had deeply disappointed her. In all these years of wondering why and blaming herself for not being good enough to be truly accepted and loved, she had finally come to one conclusion: using others is better than being used by them. She had her own plans to bring the Centre down. To have her revenge. But she didn´t show it in that stupidly obvious way her father did, nor did she have the trouble her mother was having in deciding which side she was on. She was not on any side. And after she´d be done with the Centre, there wouldn´t be much enough left to cause her trouble with any bonds she could make. Prudence knew that no one would probably be able to stop her. She wasn´t like the rest of the Centre. She didn´t believe in the good in people like her father did , but in their dumbness. She also didn´t believe that money and power was everything, like Raines did. She had learned not to believe or trust in anything as this world was unsteady and nothing was to being taken as granted.

Turning around, Prudence recognized the ghost of her grandmother standing right behind her, giving her a sad look. Without a word she left the house and sat down in the shadows of a tree in the small garden that now was hers and hoped the ghost wouldn´t follow her. She sure as hell wasn´t in the mood to hear the selfish moral speeches of her grandmother who had failed in every possible way.

Unfortunately for her, transparent figure sat down next to her. "Don´t you ghosts ever age?" she mocked.

Catherine didn´t answer her question but took a deep breath "You know why I´m here."

"No, I don´t have the slightest clue. It´s not like you had been telling me the same thing over and over again in the last three years." the sarcasm in her voice was more than clear.

"I´m going to tell you over and over again, honey, until you stop being stubborn and endangering yourself."

"For the very last time, Catherine! I. Will. Not. Be. A . Part. Of. Your. So. Called. Plan. Your plan failed and you know it. You just tend to see people as something to rely on, which is not possible because they´re all stupid and led by emotion. Look at you daughter! She´s called Ice Queen , which is the overstatement of the decade, and her mood is changing from hot to cold in a few seconds. Emotions. I don´t plan on making the same mistake you did with wanting to safe everyone. I will sacrifice whatever has to be sacrificed. Just like I was sacrificed for my family´s madness. And unlike you, Catherine Parker, I don´t fear my death because I won´t be leaving anyone behind I´d care for as I don´t care for anyone. I hope you got it this time. You can´t even make yourself tell my mother about me, can you?"

A single tear slowly made it´s way down Catherine´s cheek when she didn´t respond.

"See? That is where you´ve ended up and where my parents are going to be ending up: dead for no reason with none of their golden goals ever reached because of stupidity and emotion."

With that, she left the ghost alone and went back inside. She had only left the house because she had been almost sure that Catherine would follow her and as she didn´t know whether or not the house was tapped - though she tipped on a yes there - it had been the safest way to hide her Inner Sense from the Centre. This time Catherine wouldn´t follow her and she knew it...

Ya, i know it´s short again... It´s the middle of the night here but I really waned to continue this (LOL)