Mum froze at the sight of Victoria with her hands on my chest, then went into full on raging mother-bear mode. The whole incident ranks as one of the most embarrassing moment of my entire life. I realised what she thought was going on, but before I had a chance to explain (Though really, what could I say?) Mum let loose with both barrels.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she yelled, her voice high-pitched outrage, “He’s sixteen years old, you…”

The stream of expletives that Mum aimed at Victoria is unprintable. I was amazed she even knew words like that. I tried to intervene, but Mum was raging. How dare this woman try to seduce her son? What kind of sick, twisted person was she?

Victoria couldn’t get a word in edgeways, though not for want of trying, as I buttoned up my shirt. Mum angry was a force of nature. Mum furious was something else altogether. Threats of calling the police came spilling out. Victoria tried to placate Mum, but she had no chance.

“Mum, for god’s sake,” I said once she’d sent Victoria away.

“For god’s sake nothing, young man, I know a predator when I see one,” Mum shot back.

“What? A predator? Mum, please you got the wrong end of the stick there, I swear...”

“Ethan, I don’t know what’s going on with you but enough is enough. You go missing for a whole night, you come back with the police and then that...” – again, I’m deleting the swear words here – “...turns up at our doorstep grooming you. I want to know the truth, right now.”

I was angry, hurt and humiliated. Just when I’d been getting answers, Mum had messed everything up. Victoria hadn’t been grooming me, she’d been actually helping! Finally someone had appeared that I could turn to and Mum had turfed her out with a two hundred miles per hour volley of threats and expletives.

“Well so do I,” I shouted back.

“What do you mean by that?” she said.

“I want to know the truth as well. You’ve been keeping secrets for as long as I’ve been alive.”

Mum suddenly realised what I was talking about.

“Ethan, no,” she said.

“You won’t tell me anything about my dad, you avoid the topic altogether. You can’t blame me if I’m keeping secrets now. I learnt how to do it from you after all!”

Mum’s face went from furious to on-the-verge-of-tears in two seconds flat. The colour drained out of her face.

“Ethan, please,” she said, “I’ve asked you not to press me on your father. Please...”

I was too angry to listen or care.

“I tell you what,” I shouted, “You tell me everything about my dad and I’ll tell you everything that’s going on. Until then, conversation closed.”

I walked out of the living room, slamming the door behind me and went up to my room and put some music on to drown out the sounds of Mum crying.

I felt terrible the minute I got upstairs. I was just too angry though. The fire was burning inside me, making me want to lash out in anger.

For a few seconds, the fire had taken over completely.

 

*

 

An hour later my phone rang. It was Victoria. I’d calmed down by then, though not before punching my bedroom wall a couple of times. Just enough to get my anger down, not enough to leave a dent in the concrete wall, which I was starting to think I was capable of. The scrapes on my knuckles healed over, the bruises vanishing within half an hour.

By the time Victoria called I was back to normal and feeling contrite. Why had I even been making such a big deal about dad anyway?

I ended up apologising to Victoria when I should really have been saying sorry to mum. That’s the way things go sometimes, I guess.

“I am so sorry, Victoria,” I said, “Mum just completely misunderstood.”

“So I saw,” Victoria replied, “I haven’t been shouted at quite that much since I was your age.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Ethan, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have appeared like that without an invitation. Of course your mother would something strange was going on.”

“I guess.”

“Hold on. I’m still driving, I’ll pull over. I wasn’t sure you’d pick up.”

“It really wasn’t your fault.”

“Well, be that as it may, I’m sorry we were interrupted because I broke our deal.”

“What deal?”

“I said if you didn’t lie to me I wouldn’t lie to you, but I didn’t have time to answer any of your questions.”

That was true.

“I’ll keep this as brief as I can, Ethan. Stewart - Major Wilson - was right about one thing. There is a war going on, but not the one he believes in. It’s not about humans versus monsters. It’s the age-old war of prejudice, fear and superstition versus enlightenment, rationality and science. I’m a scientist, Ethan, first and foremost. I’m trained to study, experiment and discover. Most supernaturals – what Major Wilson calls vermin - are people like you and me, but with a fascinating wealth of untapped potential. The discoveries we can make in genetics, biology, chemistry, even physics, by applying modern scientific methods to the supernaturals are astonishing. We can use these discoveries to save people’s lives – and by people I mean both humans and supernaturals. They aren’t freaks and they aren’t evil. Yes, there can be vicious killers amongst them, but that’s also true of ordinary humans.

“My business is saving people’s lives, Ethan. That’s what we do. Our definition of people is not, however, blinkered by prejudice and fear. Hence the sanctuary. Hence our reason for helping rather than killing the creature which attacked you. Incidentally, she’s alive and well. We still don’t know what she is but we’ve identified her gender.”

Victoria paused again as if considering whether to tell me the next bit.

“I had a son once, Ethan. A boy like you who would be around your age if he’d lived. Instead he died of a rare cancer, Neuroblastoma. Six months ago our laboratory had a breakthrough with an experimental cure for that illness. It’s far too late for my poor son, of course. But without the sanctuary and studying the supernaturals’ abilities, it would have taken decades to find a cure.”

“That’s who we are, and that’s what we do. We save people’s lives. I won’t apologise for that.”

Something I should have asked earlier occurred to me.

“The attack on Section 13. Was that something to do with you?”

“Saving lives, Ethan. Not taking them. We had nothing to do with that. Something is going on, something serious. The – what was it you called them?”

“The Monster Liberation Front,” I said.

“Whoever they are, they had a reason for their attack. They must have spent years infiltrating Section 13. They wouldn’t have blown all that hard work for nothing.”

They mentioned a file, I thought, but I said nothing.

I wanted to trust Victoria but despite that, I decided – belatedly – that some caution was necessary. I was slightly regretting having been so open with her. Letting other people into your confidence can be a hard thing to do. Not just at the time, but after you’ve done it. That’s when you wonder if you should have said as much as you did, or if your honesty will be used against you one day. The relief that I’d felt at being able to tell my whole story to someone was now tempered by worry that I’d been too trusting.

I decided, belatedly, that it was probably better to keep some secrets to myself. At least until I was completely sure about Victoria. I still wasn’t sure I could trust her.

Major Wilson’s words about her preyed on my mind. I was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt though. If I wanted to find out more, I had no other choice. The only indication I’d had that Victoria wasn’t who she claimed to be was the word of a fanatic who’d executed a man in front of my eyes. Major Wilson was hardly one to be casting aspersions on other people’s characters.

So I held my tongue about the murder, planning to find out for myself if it was in any way connected to all the recent events.

“Well,” I said, “Thanks for telling me that. It makes things clearer.”

“I need to get moving. Do you think you’ll be able to come to the sanctuary at the weekend? I can send a car for you.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

“Good,” Victoria said, “I’ll have you picked up midday Saturday. I’ll message you the details. You can stay Saturday night and we’ll have you back Sunday.”

“Ok, cool. I’ll need to meet somewhere else, though. You know, so Mum doesn’t find out.”

“That’s for the best,” Victoria agreed, “The fewer people that know what is really going on, the safer it is for them. I’d advise keeping the truth from your friends as well, Ethan, or you’ll be putting them at risk.”

“Yeah,” I replied, “Yeah, okay.”

“Good. I’ll message you the rendezvous details tomorrow and we’ll pick up at the weekend. I’ve got a lot of things to tell you.”

“Okay. Thanks Victoria.”

I knew Mum wouldn’t be happy about it, but I wasn’t about to turn down the only potential ally I had. I’d just have to lie to her.

Again.