It was quiet when Jared arrived in Narra, the kind of quiet that made his pulse sound thunderous against his temples. He'd gotten here quickly in his relief to be free, revealing in the stretch of his legs and the breeze against his skin. But the moment he'd seen the warm glow of light coming from Leah's old house, he'd frozen up again, staring at the front door with a familiar morbid fascination.

He couldn't count the number of times he'd stood here, waiting for something to force his hand and place his mother in front of him. The idea of what she might tell him had been too terrifying for him to voluntarily go up to her before. But that didn't explain why he was hesitating now. His life had already been smashed to pieces. There wasn't much left to destroy.

But it was still with quick, jolting strides that he made his way up to the door and knocked, his heart thundering painfully in his chest as he waited.

For a moment, the house was quiet, but then he heard the faint pad of feet, quickly getting closer. And then the door was pulled open and Alice was there, her brown hair pulled back into a messy bun and her face open with curiosity. She was wearing slacks and a baggy shirt, the kind of relaxed outfit Jared was sure he would've seen her in daily if she'd lived past his infancy.

The thought stole all words from him and he found himself staring at her, his pulse sharp and painful.

"Can I help you?" Alice asked, opening the door wider, her eyes drifting over him uncertainly. "Are you looking for Brenton?"

Jared's mouth opened and closed, his throat going dry.

"No," he said, his voice more rasp and air than anything solid. "I wanted to see you, actually. Are you Alice Caldwell?"

For a moment, Alice was silent, her brow furrowed in confusion at his tortured expression, but then something shifted. He watched as her confusion gave way to a rising suspicion, and then, with a sudden gasp, she staggered back, her eyes going wide and her face white. He knew what she must be seeing; eyes like Brenton's, hair that more closely matched hers.

"Oh my god."

Alice's hand flew to her chest and fluttered there, unsure where to land.

"Jared?" she croaked.

Jared wasn't sure how to interpret her shock and his chest tightened.

"Yeah," he said awkwardly.

She blinked at him for a moment longer, and then ushered him inside, glancing nervously around the street, before shutting the door.

When she turned to face him again, her eyes were sparkling with tears.

"Jared," she said again, her voice choked with emotions. "What are you doing here? How did you know where –"

She swallowed, her cheeks flushed in agitation.

"Leah told me," Jared said softly. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. I would've if I'd known, but Brenton never told me."

Jared's voice died away and he glanced down at him hands.

Alice's expression softened and Jared watched uncertainly as she came toward him, her eyes wide and wondering, and rested a hand gently against his cheek.

"You're so grown up," she said, her tone breathless and bittersweet.

Jared nodded and tried to smile, but from the sorrow that crossed her face he could tell that it looked too pained.

For a long moment, Alice was silent, contemplative, but then her expression morphed into something more stable and she pulled back.

"Do you want some tea?" she asked.

The mundaneness of her request in the face of everything that had happened wreaked havoc on Jared's mind and he found himself nodding and following her down the corridor without making any voluntary decisions.

He could feel the tension hanging between them as they reached the kitchen as Alice put the kettle on, but he was too dazed to break it. He'd never really thought about what his mother would look like. He'd never seen photos, or been given descriptions, and he was taken aback by how small and normal someone he'd spent years building up in his mind could be.

Eventually, Alice turned to him and handed him a steaming cup, clearing her throat as she did.

"I imagine Brenton doesn't know you're here," she surmised.

Jared fiddled with the handle to his mug.

"No," he said slowly, unsure how to phrase what he was about to say next. "He thinks I'm dead."

Alice, who'd been in the middle of taking a sip, started spluttering, her eyes going wide.

"What?"

Jared scratched the back of his head, trying to stop the racing of his heart. "He sent someone to kill me."

Alice's face drained of colour and she turned away from him.

"No," she muttered, more to herself than him. "No, he couldn't have."

Jared watched her carefully, unsure what else to say.

"He did," he said softly. "The only reason I'm not dead is because –"

"You're immortal," Alice interrupted firmly, turning to face him again.

Jared blanched, staring at her in surprise.

"That's what you were about to say, wasn't it?" Alice asked. "That you're immortal."

Jared was frozen, waiting for her to elaborate, but she didn't, instead she just watched him, her face blank.

"How –" Jared cut off, frowning. "How did you know that?"

Alice sighed and moved over to the couches, slumping down onto a worn one and placing her tea down on the table.

"You should probably sit," Alice said, gesturing to the chair opposite her and rubbing her temples agitatedly. "There's a lot I have to tell you."

Jared did as instructed, watching her stare into space and collect her thoughts.

The wait was unbearable for him, the seconds dragging on as his heart thumped with mingled hope and fear, but then, just as he was beginning to get nervous, she begun.

"When I met your father, he was a very different man to who he is today," Alice said softly. "He was opinionated, and passionate and believed in making the world a better place."

Alice swallowed, her brow furrowing.

"I knew he was an orphan, and that when he was young, he'd been adopted by a family that worked for the government. He loved them all so much, but he didn't always agree with the work they were doing.

He never really told me what that work was. I knew he couldn't by law, and I was okay with that, until it started getting out of hand. He was arguing with them more and more often, and coming home furious. He began telling me that his whole family was corrupt, that they worked for a government who didn't prioritise human happiness. Eventually, he talked to his brother, Patrick, about what he was thinking. That was when they cast him out and vanished. Brenton was broken. He searched for them for years, but he couldn't find them."

Alice looked up at Jared then, her eyes sparkling with tears and affection.

"And then I got pregnant with you. When I told him he stopped looking, he stopped even talking about them. He said that having you would solve everything and I thought that maybe we could be happy again.

It wasn't until you were two that I realised how wrong I'd been. He knew I liked working, and he told me he could be a stay at home dad if that was what I wanted. I agreed because he was so enamoured with you, he seemed so devoted.

But then one day I came home from work early. Brenton was out with you, but he hadn't packed everything away the way he usually did and I found his diary. It was then that I realised what his family did for work, and what Brenton had been doing while I was out of the house. He was trying to find a cure for mortality and he'd been experimenting on himself, on you."

Alice's voice choked, and she looked away, rubbing her eyes hastily.

"I panicked," she said. "I was so scared of who he'd become and that night, I waited until he was asleep and then I took you and ran.

I didn't know what to do or where to go. The only people I thought might be able to help us were Brenton's adopted family. I still had Patrick's wife, Sophie's, number and even though I wasn't sure it was even connected anymore, I messaged her and told her where I was and what had happened.

She came the next day and with my help, they invaded our house, but by that time Brenton was already gone."

Alice looked away.

"The next month we stayed in hiding, protected by the S.I.S. But Brenton was resourceful. He'd radicalised another member of the S.I.S and they sold us out.

He came to the safe house and cornered me. He told me that I'd put the world's happiness at stake and until he'd given the world immortality, he couldn't trust me anymore. I told him he was insane, that there was no such thing as immortality. But he said I was wrong, and then he... he..."

Alice was crying now, tears streaming down her face, her voice broken.

"He snapped your neck right in front of me. He let me live to see you recover, to see what he'd achieved and then he killed me."

Alice swallowed and picked up her tea, taking a shaky sip as Jared stared at her in horror.

"I've been here with his dead half since," she continued quietly. "Hoping one day you'd find your way here and I'd be able to tell you everything, to convince you to stop him."

Jared swallowed hard, his mind whirling.

"How..." Jared's voice caught and he cleared it nervously. "How am I supposed to do that?"

Alice leant forward and grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently. His fingers felt dead in her grip.

"You need to kill him, darling. It's the only way."

Jared stared at her for a moment. Despite everything, the idea of helping to kill his own father made his heart sink. It was something he'd recoiled from only hours ago, but after hearing all of this, after realising how careless Brenton had been with his life, he couldn't keep deluding himself.

His father had never cared about him, he'd never loved him. He'd always been an experiment, a tool. He'd just been lucky enough to have been a successful one.

"Okay," he said, his voice thick with emotion and resignation. "Okay, I'll tell the S.I.S where he is, I'll let them –"

"No," Alice interrupted. "You have to do it. Your father made you immortal in a world that he's trying to kill. What do you think is going to happen to you – the only person whose incapable of dying – if he succeeds?"

Jared blinked. He understood what she was saying, understood it far too well, but he didn't want to, so he settled for confusion instead.

"What?" he asked.

Alice's eyes dripped with sympathy.

"You need to kill him, Jared," Alice said gently. "I've spent my entire time here researching it, and the only way to restore mortality is to kill someone who is... shadow-kissed, who has more dark matter in their blood than normal people and there's only three people alive at the moment who fit that description."

Jared swallowed hard.

"Brenton, Leah and Seth," Jared said.

Alice nodded.

"What if I can't find Brenton again?" Jared asked.

Alice's face was grieved, but determined. "You have to. If Brenton succeeds, and you're still immortal when he does, you'll spend eternity in pain, in a place devoid of everything."

Jared's blood ran cold.

"But what if I can't," he stressed, beginning to panic. "I know how he thinks, if he feels he's in trouble he'll run and settle somewhere else. Considering he knows I'm not dead and I haven't returned yet, he probably already has."

Alice straightened, her eyes going hard. "Then you'll do what you must. There's three shadow-kissed people, Jared. If Brenton gets close to succeeding, you have to kill one of them before he does."

Jared sucked in a breath and was about to response when there was a loud knock on the door.

Alice froze, her eyes darting to the front of the house in alarm, and then she jerked upright, grabbing his mug and running it to the sink.

"You need to go," she hissed quickly, moving back towards him and pulling him up. "That's the watchers, they can't know you were here."

"What?" Jared asked, bewildered and disoriented by her sudden fear. "Who are the watchers?"

"They're looking for Leah," Alice said, dragging him to the back door and opening it quietly.

"What? Why –"

"Please, Jared," Alice begged. "You need to leave."

Alice pulled him into a quick hug, her hair tickling the bottom of his chin for a moment.

"Come back when you can," she whispered. "Stay safe. I love you."

And then she pushed him outside and shut the door behind him.

...

Poor Jared :( What does everyone think of the revelation?  

This chapter is dedicated @Hamdi122 ! Next chapter will be out in 2 weeks :)

On another note, to those who celebrate it, Happy Christmas! I'm very much looking forward to a day full of family, turkey and present :P What are all of your plans?

I've also recently posted my submission to the National Geographic's #PlanetOrPlastic writing competition on my profile if anyone wants to go and check it out. It's called 'The Girl Who Danced on Water' :)

Anyway, I'll see you all again in the New Year with my next update!

Until then,

Skylar xx