Free Flesh and Blood by Nick Gifford

transform your life. I think you are mature enough to cope. Indeed, I hope that you are, for you must either learn properly now or by accident at some later date.
    To the point, I hear you demanding, quite rightly! To the point.
    You are gifted, Matt, just as many in our family have been gifted over the years. But with that gift comes a heavy responsibility, one that I have struggled to bear for my own 88 years.
    I will explain the responsibility, and the dangers, but first I must explain the gift.
    There is a peculiar, and special talent that runs through our family, inherited by roughly half of each generation: Kirsty and you have it, but not, I think, Tina – much to her chagrin! Neither Carol nor Jill have shown any indication of the gift, either.
    At this point, Vince’s words about the family madness, the special sensitivity, came rushing back: the family curse that only Vince and Mike, not being direct descendants in the Wareden line, could be sure of avoiding.

    Have you ever felt the urge to do something you shouldn’t? Something you’re too frightened even to think about? Everybody has these impulses, but most of us are able to keep them under control. Battling inside our heads is a whole set of alternative selves – the people we might have been, if only things had turned out differently.
    But it’s not as simple as that. The realm of the mind is every bit as real as what we call reality. Carl Jung was close to the mark when he talked of the collective unconscious. That shared mental realm is another world: a kind of hell, if you will. Its darker reaches surface in our dreams, and in the minds of the unstable.
    Rare individuals among us are especially sensitive to this other realm, this Alternity. Such sensitivity runs in families, as it does in the Waredens. You have a connection with this other world, Matt: your mind forms a mental bridge. Many of our greatest leaders have shared this gift: indeed, I have studied the scriptures, and I believe that Jesus himself shared it.
    But, as is so often the case, such gifts bring with them great dangers and responsibilities. I have told you about the special individuals, who can form a mental connection with what I have called ‘Alternity’.
    There are also special places. These places are where the two realms come close together, where Reality and Alternity brush up against one another. These places, or ‘Ways’ as I call them, are the foci of great power. Often, churches and palaces have been built at or near to these places, as new religions unconsciously tap into the power of the ancient.
    One such Way exists at Crooked Elms: no doubt that is why the church was built so close to the Waredens’ family house. That is how I know you are gifted, Matt: I sent you into the basement to test you, and you suffered – you know you suffered.
    This is because of your mental affinity with Alternity. At a Way, that affinity becomes physical: that mental bridge becomes real. In your head, you carry the key that links Reality and Alternity – a key you must guard. Your talent must be mastered, for the realm of Alternity must never be allowed to spill into the real world: the very fabric of our existence would be destroyed.
    Such a tragedy nearly happened a century ago, and again when I was a young man.
    It is something that must always be guarded against, and this is where we come to the responsibility to which I referred. The Way is weak, unstable; all kinds of people are drawn to the powers that emanate from these places. Alternity reaches out into their minds and pulls them in. The weak-minded think they can use the powers of Alternity, but in truth it uses them , trying to break through into our world. The Way is a weak spot and it must be defended by those who understand. It must be kept shut.
    The name Wareden comes from the Old English ‘Weardian’. It means guardian, or protector, and that is our role. We are sensitive and we are strong enough to keep the Way