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It wasn&039;t a glorious ho

Nearly seven years had passed since I stepped through thein search of Art I found it alh Lord Loss had warnedon - and I missed every minute of it

Mureyer, a sadness in their eyes that hadn&039;t been there before

They thought I was a ghost Although seven years had slipped by, I looked exactly the way I did when I disappeared, even dressed in the same clothes Mu their eyes, panting with terror

I hadn&039;t expected such a reaction or preparedMum and Dad scream at me with horror I fell apart Collapsed in tears "It&039;s"It&039;s ed forward Maybe he wouldn&039;t have been so brave if I hadn&039;t been crying like a baby He poked h ain

"I&039; me, tell me he loved me "It&039;s me Kernel I&039; his head softly "It can&039;t be You&039;re no it can&039;t"

Then he fell on me, folded me in his arms, bellowed my name and burst into tears Mo atat the sa to explain I told the through after Cadaver, Beranabus, my journey betorlds, Lord Loss, Artery They didn&039;t believe me Couldn&039;t But they had no other explanation for how I&039;d turned up unchanged (except for lots of cuts, scars and bruises)

"We should take him to a doctor," Dad said "Have his body and ht be able to uncover the truth"

"No!" Mum hissed before I could insist that my story was the truth "He&039;d be a freak There&039;d be questions we don&039;t want to answer They&039;d take hiain, lose him like Annabella and" She didn&039;t say the na real Dad didn&039;t probe either It was the one part of my story neither asked to hear a second time

With no other option, they reluctantly accepted hbours about me Dad said we&039;d be treated as lunatics if I repeated my demonic stories Also, a lot of the people of Paskinston had lost children when Cadaver attacked He wasn&039;t sure how my reappearance would affect them

They hid me inside the house while they tried to think of a way to introduce e life Mum wanted to pretend I was an orphaned cousin who just happened to look a lot like their supposedly dead son Dad played about with a deep-freeze theory - he thought he could convince people that I&039;d been kept on ice by scientists for the past seven years

When they realised hoeak those explanations sounded, they decided to si away had worked once - why not a second tis, move to where nobody knew us, start afresh Mu away like thieves in the night, saying nothing to any of their friends, seemed like the only solution So that&039;s e did

After trying out some small tohere Mum never felt easy, we ended up in a city Dad found work on a construction site, Mum in a fast-food restaurant They teachthe day I stay indoors, watching television, reading, playing gao out and interact with other people Mum and Dad are afraid I&039;ll be taken fro this life It&039;s not how I thought it would be I did a brave thing, risked all to save h torments and overcaine But I&039;m not allowed to talk about it I have to keep it hidden, like so shameful We don&039;t even talk about Art, what happened to hiuise I tried discussing it with Mum once, but she clapped her hands over her ears and shrieked at ain

Mum and Dad aren&039;t happy either They don&039;t say so, but I can see that secretly they wish I&039;d never returned Losing me and Art was hard, but after seven years they&039;d learnt to deal with it They&039;d found peace in Paskinston, were getting on with life, grateful to have each other and a place to call home