Chapter 186

Growing up as a care-home kid, I got used to being alone very early on in life. Although I'd had some wonderful years with my pretend-dad, I never once lost connection with the orphan child that I had once been, the one that I became again after he died. Wind me up and I would have started singing Hard-Knock Life as if the lyrics were second nature to me. It didn't matter where I ended up, which care home, which foster family, I had always felt endlessly alone. Ever since I had fallen into the proverbial rabbit hole and had discovered that my story was not your typical care-home kid tale, I'd wanted answers. Most nights, when the voices that whispered to me from beyond the Gates made room in my head for something other than their plaintive cries and twisted screams, what filled that space was questions, questions, and more agonising, unanswered bloody questions. And now, I was close. So close. Closer than I ever imagined I would get. One step closer to the being that had c