The Keeper's Daughter

Chapter 1

Let's just get straight to the point. I'm not normal.

On the outside I'm sure I look like your average, twelve year old Aussie girl. On the inside though, I'm not so sure. I mean, when I think of normal, a mind reader doesn't come to mind or someone who can feel other people's emotions. But that's me. Yes I can read minds, hear others thoughts. And yes I can sense emotions as if they are auras reflecting off others and into my mind.

Have I told anyone? No. Of course not. I can just imagine what the government would do if they found out that I have powers reserved for sci-fi and fantasy characters. It wouldn't be good. They'd probably use me as a weapon to find out other countries' secrets. What if word spread and I had the U.S looking for me? Or China? I wouldn't be safe, so I've kept the secret.

I often wonder if my Mum knows my secret. She sometimes gives me books about dealing with emotions and how our brains work. Or stories with mind reading characters. I've tried to tell her about my powers countless times but can never work up the courage to go through with it.

I sit on my towel with the book Twilight resting in my hands. I've read it so many times I'm actually not sure why I brought it. I have a photographic memory so I tend to remember what happens in books right down to the smallest details.

I'm so glad it's summer holidays, six weeks of chilling out at the beach. It's after Christmas and New Year's so I have no plans, though the're a ton of tourists who must be planning on staying here for a while. It's the same every holiday. Yesterday I took the bus into the city to go to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic with Mum.

I love summer. When the sky is always blue and the sun is always shining, when the waves that roll onto the sand are clear blue and smooth. Night time is always dreadful though, thirty five degrees is great during the day but at night it's awful.

Instead of reading I lie back and cover my face with my hat as an extra precaution so I don't get burnt. I covered myself in sunscreen earlier but I don't want to go home looking like a walking tomato. My face burns easily.

I close my eyes and imagine the wall that I surround my mind with sliding neatly away. I let people's thoughts brush against my consciousness. The thoughts often feel as though someone is whispering in my ear, trying to drown others out. I've learnt to block people's minds but when I'm tired I find it much harder and it's easier just to sort through them.

Some books and movies talk about mind readers exploring people's minds to find memories instead of just reading their surface thoughts. I have never gone deeper than surface thoughts, it seems rather intrusive to search through a mind, leaving no stones unturned. I mean, just listening to thoughts is quite intrusive.

I begin to mentally catalogue the thoughts, sorting through them with ease. I mostly forget about anything that doesn't really relate to me or is not super important. The ones I keep are placed into a mental box of sorts where I can revisit them later.

I then move on to emotions. Many thoughts come with an emotion wrapped around them which I have fun trying to decipher. Most emotions are simple to figure out what they mean but some are rather confusing. There are many differences between emotions that seem quite similar, for example anger and annoyance. There is a fine line between them that turns them into two emotions instead of just one. Which side of the line they fall on is often hard to figure out so I practice everyday.

I let more thoughts enter my mind and sort them into not wanted and wanted. Then I feel an odd sensation, it is as if my brain knows that there is a thought but can not figure out what it is. I search until I feel the blind spot and propel myself towards it. I've felt blind spots like these before and usually if I run into them they shatter revealing a thought. I generally don't read the thoughts though because it doesn't seem right to delve into something that someone's mind is unconsciously blocking because it is too sad or traumatising.