Being Grey (Beings Trilogy)

Prologue

It’s not a good thing and it’s not a bad thing. You could call it a talent, but it comes with some drawbacks; like being an ‘A’ list celebrity will mean dealing with paparazzi every day.

The night of my 6
^th
birthday I discovered my destiny. It involves killing people.

I suppose its best to start at the beginning.

My sister, Lisa, is two years older than I, but our birthdays are just a few days apart, so we always shared parties until she grew out of pineapple and cheese on sticks. It was my sixth birthday, Lisa’s eighth, and my mother had arranged for a magician. We’d decided it would be fancy dress and had spent half the day eating too much and generally trashing the house as only young children can do with twenty of their friends.

I heard my mother talking to someone at the front door so I ran out to see which of my friends had arrived late. There was a gentleman standing there with a black cape, a black top hat and a rabbit in a cage. My first impression was of tremendous excitement until I noticed my mother’s face. I’d never seen her looking so horrified. Her back was rigid, and she stood before him in a way that I’ve realized since was one of defence. She was defending the entrance to our home from him. She was telling him he had to leave. Leave now.

I crept up to her and peered at the man from beside her. At first she tried to push me away but then she held me close as she talked to the magician.

In later years I’d learn that the look on her face changed from determination to resignation – there was almost sadness there. “I really think you have to leave. There’s obviously been some sort of mistake”.

“This is
12 Bluebell Drive
,
Alice
and Lisa’s birthday party?” The magician said.

“Yes it is. But I don’t want someone like you around mine or anyone else’s children.” Her voice sounded calm and controlled, but it was laced with anger.

The colour on his face had drained but he recovered quickly. “What do you mean? I’m the magician. See? Here’s my rabbit.”

“Leave now and you’ll live a little while longer. But I will find you and I will kill you. It’s what I have to do when I look at a
Being
like yours. I know what you do to children. I can’t prove it but I don’t have to. My only interest is in stopping you and the only way I know how is to kill you.”

These were distressingly strong words coming from my mother – she was always so carefree and calm. The laughter lines on her face proved her vitality. Hearing her like this, however, didn’t scare me. It felt like a natural side to her that I just hadn’t met yet. I finally turned to the man on the doorstep. His eyes narrowed and I saw something I can’t fully explain. Try to imagine someone breathing out when it’s really cold and frosty outside. That plume of warm breath like a soft fog against the cold air. Now try to imagine it seeping out of every pore of a man. Now see it as dark as night.

I ran to my bedroom hearing the front door slam and my mother’s steps on the stairs behind me.

“
Alice
, you sensed it, didn’t you?”

I knew what she meant and I nodded numbly.

She sighed, “Darling Alice, I knew you had the ability but I didn’t want you to have the responsibility that comes with it yet.” She held me close, thinking before she continued. “Every second daughter born of someone who can sense
Beings
and every first son will have the ability. It’s been passed on for hundreds of years. We can sense the good in people as well as the bad.”

“Mummy he was leaking darkness.”

“So you could see it?” She’d asked, nodding. “You will find some people that have so much goodness in them you will almost be blinded by the light that pours off them. That fog you saw is what we call a person’s
Being
. And everybody’s
Being
will appear to you as a colour, varying in shade, from a blinding white light, through shades of grey, to the very blackest black.”

It had frightened me. And here was my mother telling me that we all had these
Beings
in us.

“What colour am I?”

My mothers smile filled the room with such warmth, that I suddenly saw her properly for the first time in my life. And she shone with such a purity and brilliance that my breath caught in my throat. “My darling,” she said softly, “you are as white and as pure as snow. We help the good people; the people who have
Beings
that are the purest brightest white. We help put them in positions of influence so they do the right thing for humankind. Like provide jobs, start charities, find cures for deadly diseases. It’s a very special gift sweetheart.”

She told me how I could inspire and do good in the world with my ability. She explained how there were many of us, and that one day I would belong to a group who could protect the good from the evil. To such young ears, it sounded like fairies fighting goblins.

Sometimes now, that analogy fits far too well.

“The magician downstairs, he is completely evil; his
Being
showed us. He is the type of person who does bad things every day. His
Being
can not be saved, and people like us, people who can sense and who understand, we know that he must be dealt with. We must make sure that he can never harm anyone ever again. This is the downside to our gift. The dark side. When you sense a
Being
like his, there is no redemption for him. We have to remove evil like that. You have to kill people with damned
Beings
like that.”

That night she took me with her to a kill for the first time.