Maria arrived home out of breath and flustered. Running into her Uncle Jim’s office she leant with both hands on the desk he was sitting at. “What am I?” she asked breathlessly Jim paled visibly. “WHAT THE HELL AM I?” she screamed at him. “Sit down Maria” Exhausted, she collapsed in the leather chair across from him. Jim crossed his arms and stared steadily at her. “What do you know?” he asked Maria rolled her head back, looking at the ceiling; she closed her eyes, “I know my parents weren’t killed by alien hunters, they were killed by our kind, Other Worlders.” She lowered her head to stare Jim directly in the eye. “Was my mother human” she spat the word out as if it tasted bad. “Amy was a wonderful woman, she didn’t ask for any of this, a soulmate from another planet, a child not entirely human, nor death by the hands of her husbands people, don’t you dare think less of her just because she wasn’t like us” “Soulmate? That’s a load of bull shit, everyone knows that’s just urban legend.” Maria shook her head as she spoke, finally resting her eyes on the large portrait above Jim’s head. “Maria, Maria look at me godammit…. You’re father and mother were Soulmates, you weren’t suppose to happen, its never happened before, but here you are, and now you know” Jims voice was raspy, and... and scared, Maria realised with horror. He doesn’t know any more than I do “Everything I know is a lie” Maria whispered “my friends will never except me, the Other World will never let me live.” Maria imagined the gangs reactions to this news, Kyle would probably laugh at her, think it all a joke, Isabel and Tess would look at her differently never quite accepting her again. Max would feel nothing but pity and prehaps disgust, but Michael… Michael would pick up the nearest weapon he could find, he felt as strongly as she did about preservation of their superior species. Maria saw herself on the run, from Other Worlders and alien hunters alike, with Michael leading the charge. “I can’t stay here” she finally said “No” Jim shook his head sadly “you’re mother….had family, The Parkers, I can make arrangements” “Yes” was all she said, before exiting. TBC

Part 3