Read The 13th: Destiny Awaits for Free Online Page A

of when he would be gone. She told him about the loss of her part-time job, which, as she had expected, he welcomed, saying that she should use the free time for studies and maybe to find herself a hobby.
    “You know what the psychiatrist recommended,” he added.
    “Lots of things.” She emptied some cereal into the bowl and poured milk over it.
    “And you are not doing any of them,” her father said. “They called me and told me that they found salt and charms again. You have to stop humouring her. You have to promise me.”
    She had warned her mother to use the salt lightly, why hadn’t she listened? “I can't.”
    “You are not helping her by taking her charms and things. You are making it worse.”
    She pushed the bowl away. “You don't understand.” How could he? He never saw them like she and her mother did. He didn't even know that they could see them. All he saw were the charms and the fear. It was a wonder she had managed, two months ago, to wiggle out of her twice-weekly sessions with a psychiatrist.
    “Listen to me, Catherine, your mother needs to face reality, not cling to the things that drove her crazy.”
    “She's not crazy.”
    “She tried to kill you!”
    Kate jumped up. “She...” Her fingers curled around the obsidian that hung around her neck. He didn't understand, and he wouldn't understand even if she told him. That was why she had to hide it from him, afraid, always afraid, that someday he would see that she was like her mother. That someday he would gaze at her with the same expression on his face, judging, cold, and detached, as he had at her mother when the men in white took her. She swallowed and slumped back onto the stool. “She didn't know what she was doing,” she whispered.
    “I know.” Her father's hand wrapped around hers. “I know.”
    “She loves me,” Kate whispered, her voice wavering in doubt.
    “Yes, she does.” He squeezed her hand in reassuring manner. “And she always will. But she is not well and the way things are going, she might never be.”
    “At the last visit... she looked better.”
    Father shook his head and a tired sigh left his throat as he patted her hand. He stood up. “You should eat your breakfast quickly or you are going to miss school.”
    He didn't believe that her mother would ever get out of that hospital. But she would. Her mother would get better and Kate would help her with that as soon as Ethan showed her how to get rid of the colours.
    She decided to ask him to prolong their lessons from two hours to three. That should make him happy. She thought that she would see him somewhere between the school's parking lot and her locker as usual, but surprisingly he was nowhere to be seen.
    With the way her day had begun, it shouldn't be surprising that when she needed him he wasn't around.
    She opened the locker. The thud of metal against metal cut through the air.
    Kate flinched and, with a scowl on her face, glanced at the source of the sound.
    Sandra, a frown on her face, had stopped in front of her and, with her fist against the beige door of the locker, leaned over her.
    Great, Kate thought as she turned back to her books, clenching her teeth while she took the one she needed off the shelf. After her dinner with Ethan, she knew she would stumble over Sandra and her girls and that she would be subjected to their taunts sooner or later. She had hoped for later. Did Sandra really have to bother her right now? She really wasn't in the mood for it.
    “Hey.”
    Yes, here it comes. What would it be this time? References to her mother's insanity? Or was she going to hear all about her own faults, from her mental disabilities to her physical flaws?
    “Who is he?”
    “Huh?” Kate faced Sandra, noticing that the blonde was alone. That never happened. Sandra only worked in a group and expressed her contempt in company, where it could be fully appreciated.
    “Who is he? And why is he hanging out with you? Doesn't he know who you are?” Sandra