A/N: For those of you who read the original version of this story, I say kudos to you for sticking by even when I felt like it was just awful. This is the rewrite that I've been talking about for way too long and it is finally here! For those of you just joining me, welcome to the madhouse! I hope you find this story fits into some semblance of the dictionary definition of 'good.'

PS: I'm really bad at titles, so my chapter titles should be ignored. They're really just for my own amusement anyway.

THE MONSTER'S MASK REWRITE

"You will meet a tall dark stranger and he will fuck your shit up.

We don't know why, some kind of cosmic joke.

It is terrifying how little you will be able to control yourself.

The bills will go unpaid. There will be flies in the kitchen.

A smile will insist on flirting with your lips. Too much

of a good thing will chew you up and swallow you whole.

The moon is in your house and has nothing to say

about all your nonsense. Now may be a good time to go

on a long journey. The stars think you need to clear your head.

The stars think you need to run."

- Clementine Von Radics, Your Latest Horoscope

Chapter 1 – London Called. You Shouldn't Have Answered.

Six months before Khan Noonien Singh crashed the USS Vengeance into downtown San Francisco, Madelyn McGivers decided her life was finally rediscovering a semblance of normalcy.

It was a Sunday afternoon in late August. Her high heels tapped down the corridor that led to the office space owned by her grandfather, William McGivers. Since she'd been back in London for six months now, she came here every Sunday afternoon, or at least when William bothered to come into the city. Most of the time he was content to sit at home in his easy chair, admiring the view of his garden and the farmland that surrounded his large twentieth century home. But when he did find it in his heart to attend to a few items of interest in his portfolio, he always did it with Madelyn.

She stepped into his office without glancing up from the PADD in her hand, knowing he was sitting in his usual cushioned chair, waiting for her. Today was no exception. She heard him tapping away at his own PADD, but when her heels joined the clicking that filled the room, William paused and spun around in his chair to greet her.

He was approaching eighty, but no one could ever guess his age correctly and most placed him in his sixties. He had a spark in his McGivers-green eyes that never failed to make Madelyn grin; or cringe, depending on what was coming out of his mouth. She feigned to use the word 'senile' to describe him, but there were moments when she wanted nothing more than to storm out of the room and slam doors out of sheer exasperation at his stubbornness. The worst part was she'd been told she was just like him.

"Afternoon, Maddy," he said cheerfully in his Yorkshire lilt. "I thought we might take a look at this particular ledger here, since it's of interest to an old friend of mine who's coming by soon."

Madelyn came around his desk to get a better look at the PADD he held up. Financial figures and statistics and charts and predictions made a gridlock of the screen.

"You know, we could put all of this up on a holo projector," she said, eyeing the mess that glowed in front of her. "It'd make it a lot easier to see everything laid out in the open."

"But I've got everything right where I want it. I don't need some fancy new gadget to do my work for me," William replied, his tone breaking the boundary between genial and annoyed.

Madelyn smiled and didn't bring it up again. It was worth a shot, but she knew better than to press him. Once William McGivers made his mind up about anything, there was never any changing it. She took the seat opposite her his desk. "So who's this old friend you mentioned is coming by?"

William looked up from his laptop. "Admiral Alexander Marcus. He's been a beneficiary of mine practically since he joined Starfleet. I'm sure you've heard of him. You went to school with his daughter, Carol."

When she was fifteen, Madelyn had moved to London to live with William after her father was killed suddenly in a head-on collision. She completed her education at a prestigious academy where she'd made friends with Carol Marcus, a blonde with as much of a penchant for physics as Madelyn had for historical literature. It was a given that Carol would join Starfleet, and Madelyn hadn't heard from her in years since she'd moved back to New York for college and then just recently returned to London, so it was odd to hear that Carol's father, a Starfleet Admiral, would be showing up at William's office any minute now.

William had obviously seen the shift in expression on her face and rolled his eyes. "Oh, don't worry. He's not here for some formality. He's here to catch up with me, and probably ask for more funding for some top secret project—oh, I meant to ask you earlier, but how are you doing?"

Normally this wasn't the sort of question her grandfather would ever bother with, but in this case, Madelyn knew what he meant. It was a year ago yesterday that Mark had passed away. Her faithful husband of two years, they'd met at NYU as fellow graduate students and married as soon as they could, moving to Syracuse in 2254 to teach literature together at a local high school. Six months into their marriage, Mark was diagnosed with late-stage lymphoma. After he passed away, Madelyn knew she couldn't stay in New York alone, so she returned to London to be with her grandfather. William was her last surviving blood relative and she wouldn't leave an ocean between them if she could help it.

"I'm doing okay," she said, managing a smile through her thoughts, then quickly added, "Better than I thought."

William nodded slowly, not taking his narrowed eyes off her. Madelyn knew he didn't believe her, but she didn't care. Whatever he had wanted to respond with was quickly forgotten when his attention was drawn to the door.

"Ah! Admiral so good of you to show up early!" William pushed himself out of his chair with a grunt and came around to shake the Admiral's hand, then motioned to Madelyn. "This is my granddaughter, Madelyn."

The Admiral nodded to her, then turned back to William. "I had a slight change in plans, and happened to be in your neck of the woods earlier than I planned. I hope this isn't a problem."

Madelyn instantly disliked him, but only because he glanced at her as though she was just in the way. He was tall and broad shouldered and carried himself according to his rank as one of Starfleet's top admirals, but his American-ness stood out to her the most. He clearly hadn't spent much time in England, despite the fact that his ex-wife and daughter had retained their English roots. She wondered what had even brought him to London in the first place.

"I wanted to take a look at the records you have for the Kelvin Archives," Marcus was saying. "There were some discrepancies last time that I need to keep under the radar. You understand a lot of the work I oversee is top secret. Not even the other Admirals get to know about some of these things, solely for security reasons of course."

Though William appeared to be happy to help Admiral Marcus with his financial bookkeeping, Madelyn could see on his face he was holding something back. She wasn't sure Marcus noticed, especially when he kept going on about his eventual preparations for a possible conflict with the Klingons.

"The only reason I'm telling you this is because I trust you, William," said Marcus. "The past few months have been stressful and I've just now gotten to the point where I feel like I can trust my own men. You wouldn't believe some of the threats I've had to make."

"No, I'm sure I wouldn't," William replied quietly, scrolling through a PADD before handing it to the Admiral. "Here's everything from the last month. You told me to leave these spaces blank, and against my better judgment, I did."

The Admiral nodded and studied the PADD's screen. "I've got blueprints that go far beyond the resources Starfleet has allocated to my department." He held the PADD out so William could see it, highlighting a particular line with his finger. "If we want to be able to defend ourselves from the Klingons in the near future, then I need this amount tripled by the end of the month."

William took the PADD back, scanning the highlighted line before his eyes narrowed. "To be frank, Admiral, that's an absurd amount of money. You'd do better to take out a private loan from the Bank of England than to expect Starfleet's portfolio to match that, especially by the end of the month. Do you really think the Klingons present a threat big enough to warrant this amount?"

Madelyn noticed how the Admiral's jaw tightened, his feet planting themselves firmly to the carpeted floor. "Absolutely I do. There's nothing else that concerns me more than those damn Klingons and their inability to stand down. Preemptive tactics are what's going to save us in the end."

Madelyn flinched as her grandfather slammed the PADD down on his desk, his expression tightening.

"Don't you DARE start a bloody war with the Klingons, Marcus. I swear the moment they realize what you want, they will come back at you so hard you won't even know what you've done until you and all of Starfleet are crushed, and then they'll come for the rest of us!"

The Admiral raised his eyebrows at William's sudden outburst, and glanced over at Madelyn. "You wanna help me out here… uh, Madelyn was it?"

She raised an eyebrow and exchanged a glance with her grandfather. She wasn't one to take sides, but in this case she had to agree with William. What the Admiral was proposing sounded like warmongering to her, but then again she wasn't a military strategist, nor was she even a member of Starfleet. She'd never met a Klingon, or seen their military in action. She'd never even been in space. But she knew her grandfather, and judging by the look on his face, he needed to calm down or his blood pressure could spike.

She gave the Admiral a tight smile and went over to take William's arm, pressing her face in close to his. "Why don't you go take a walk, granddad? I think you've been indoors long enough, and it's a beautiful day. I'm sure the Admiral didn't mean to piss you off."

"No, I'm going home," William grunted. "You can deal with the rest of this."

He curled his lip at Marcus even as Madelyn guided him out the door of his office. She paused and looked back over her shoulder at the Admiral, who was still standing in place with his arms crossed, trying to figure out what to say to William.

"Admiral Marcus, maybe you could stop by tomorrow to get these figures worked out," she called. "I might be able to help you after work, if you need me to."

She offered him an apologetic look, which he returned before pulling out his communicator.

"You're a friend of Commander Owen Gallagher, aren't you?" he asked.

Madelyn turned from watching her grandfather stride towards the lift at the end of the corridor, and approached the Admiral, considering his question. A friend, sure, within the strict definition of the word. She'd met Owen back at school when she was fifteen, and they'd run in the same circles until she returned to the states for college. When she came back to London more recently, Owen had been the first to contact her to welcome her back with overt affections that instantly made his attraction to her obvious. But she'd never been interested and wasn't about to give anyone else any ideas. It was enough that she'd barely gotten over losing Mark.

"Owen's an acquaintance of mine, yeah," she replied. "We both went to school with your daughter, actually."

The Admiral grunted. "Right. Well, I can send him over tomorrow evening to work this out. I'm sure William didn't mean anything anyway. We've always disagreed over these things. I should have known better than to bring up those things."

Madelyn nodded. "Owen knows how to contact me."

"Great, thank you, Ms. McGivers. I'll let him know." He prepared to leave the office, then paused and turned back. "Oh, and if a man by the name of John Harrison attempts to contact your grandfather, would you let me know?"

Madelyn frowned, unsure where he was going with this request. "John Harrison?" she repeated.

The name seemed to make the Admiral tense a little. "Yeah, he's one of my guys. A real smartass if you ask me, manipulative, damn intelligent too, and frankly, he's dangerous. I haven't trusted him since the day he came under my command. I've been keeping an eye on his finger into Starfleet records, and lately he's been digging into some stuff he probably shouldn't have. Your grandfather's name popped up a few days ago." He lowered his voice as he spoke. "Just let me know if he tries to make contact, for your own good. He's pretty tall, pale skin, black hair."

Madelyn raised her eyebrows and took a breath, letting it out in a nervous laugh. "Alright. Should I be watching my back?" She wasn't sure whether to be concerned or not.

The Admiral paused, considering, then shrugged. "It's just a precaution. You can't be too sure about anyone these days. Just keep in contact with me and I'm sure you'll be fine." He turned on his heel and left the office. "Thanks for your time, Ms. McGivers."

She watched him stride confidently away, and was left standing alone in her grandfather's office.

A manipulative smartass. This John Harrison guy sounded like Owen. Madelyn laughed softly, but only because the last thing she wanted was another asshole in her life. She grabbed her handbag and stuffed several PADDs inside, then headed out of the office, locking it behind her. She needed to get home and get some rest, because she had university classes to teach tomorrow.

As she stepped out of the lift on the building's ground floor, she waved to the young woman behind the front desk who was also preparing to leave for the evening. Kelly Beckett was a few years younger than Madelyn, but had grown up in Leeds and moved to London for university. She had just begun her last semester and was due to graduate come December, at which point the two women planned to get an apartment together in the city. Meanwhile, Madelyn lived with her grandfather, but only because she didn't want him to live alone at his age.

Kelly swung her handbag over her shoulder as she hurried towards Madelyn, catching her before she could exit the building. "Maddy! I meant to send a call up to William's office earlier, but when I saw that Starfleet Admiral arrive I figured I shouldn't bother him." She caught her breath as she stopped beside Madelyn. "So a man came by earlier this afternoon, before you arrived, and wanted to talk to your grandfather about something—he didn't say what. I told him William only comes 'round on Sundays, and this guy said it was urgent. So I gave him your number. He seemed really nice, a bit intense, but rather dapper if you ask me."

"Kelly, slow down," Madelyn laughed, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. They stepped outside into the cool evening air and Kelly brushed a lock of blond hair from her face.

"Right, sorry. So I was just a bit excited about it because…" She lowered her voice and grinned. "He's really attractive, Maddy. I don't know what it is he wants to talk about, he didn't say, but if there was anyone you might be interested in—"

"Are you being serious, Kel? This guy probably just has some business with William, and you want me to ask him out on a date?"

Kelly cleared her throat. "It's been a year since you lost Mark. I just thought you might be ready for something new."

Madelyn chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. Though she appreciated her friend's insistence, she wasn't interested in having any sort of romantic relationship. She was too busy with teaching, and she frankly enjoyed it enough not to let anything else take up her time.

"Look, Kelly, I really do appreciate the idea, but it's just not something I need right now. I've got enough on my plate with school, and dating isn't high on my list of priorities."

Kelly crossed her arms. "If it's on your list at all."

Madelyn pursed her lips at Kelly's grumpy tone, but when the blonde couldn't hide her smirk, Madelyn just rolled her eyes. "You said you gave him my number. So I should be expecting a call soon—oh."

Her communicator vibrated in her purse and she dug around for it, then realized Kelly hadn't even given her a name. She flipped it open and held it to her face, giving Kelly a look when the blonde smiled mischievously.

"Hello?"

"Ms. McGivers, my name is John Harrison. I want to speak to you concerning a matter that may involve your grandfather. I would ask you to meet me somewhere at a specific time, but it appears I don't need to. Turn to your left and look across the street."

Madelyn blinked and did as he asked. There was a lone figure in a long grey coat holding a communicator to his face, but he was too far away for her to make out his features. The name however was too familiar. John Harrison. That had been quick. She remembered Admiral Marcus' warning, but she suddenly wanted to know more and since Kelly was with her, she decided she would pursue this entirely out of curiosity.

"I see you," she replied. The call ended abruptly as the figure crossed the street and headed straight for them. Madelyn put her communicator away and looked at Kelly. "Guess I'll get to meet him sooner than I thought."

Kelly was still smiling and didn't say anything as they went towards him. Out of instinctual courtesy, Madelyn reached out to shake his hand and John quickly took it, squeezing it until she almost winced. She had to admit he fit the Admiral's description almost too perfectly. His hair was black and slicked back from his face, and his keen blue eyes were set within a chiseled symmetrical bone structure. He was tall and fair skinned, and his broad-shouldered coat gave him an air of intimidation that Madelyn found attractive enough to understand why Kelly was still grinning like an idiot.

"I'm sure you're already aware that Admiral Marcus cannot know we've met," he said. "If he so much as suspects I'm working outside of his confidence, the consequences could be far reaching. It might be better if we went somewhere more private."

His voice was deeper in person, and Madelyn needed a second to process all of this. Meanwhile, Kelly snagged her shirtsleeve. "You don't need me anymore, Maddy, right? I'll just head home."

Madelyn opened her mouth to protest as her friend turned swiftly on her heel and waltzed across the plaza into the evening dusk.

"Call me later!" Kelly called over her shoulder.

Madelyn stared after her for a moment, then turned back to John and offered him a polite smile. "So my grandfather only comes into the city on Sundays and he's already gone home. Sorry I have to be the middleman here."

"It's not a problem. I've already spoken with him, but you may be more helpful. He wasn't exactly what you might call friendly."

Madelyn tried to restrain the smile that played at the corners of her mouth. "Well, Admiral Marcus may have unintentionally pissed him off." She found herself laughing through her words. "But William's always had an attitude." She glanced around at the mostly empty downtown plaza and suddenly realized she was alone with a strange man whom the Admiral had warned her was manipulative and dangerous. "Why don't we head over to that restaurant across the street so we're not just standing out here in the dark?"

John nodded and immediately started in that direction. Madelyn had to walk faster to keep up with his long strides, channeling her nerves through the fist that gripped the handle of her shoulder bag. She knew she needed to keep her guard up, but at the same time, she knew it was no coincidence that he had shown up so soon after Admiral Marcus had paid her grandfather a visit, and she wondered what those "consequences" might be that John had mentioned.

She decided she wouldn't trust either the Admiral or John, but at least she could attempt to have a civil conversation with the latter, in hopes of understanding what the Admiral meant by him being manipulative and dangerous. John had already outsmarted her by finding her so quickly, and that alone was enough to rattle her.

To Madelyn's quiet relief, the restaurant was busy for a Sunday night. She ordered a salad and thought it odd that John hadn't even glanced at his menu, then decided he must have already eaten, until she realized his attention was completely focused on her. She suddenly felt sympathy for any bug who had ever been trapped underneath the lens of a microscope, but when she met his gaze while she ate, she noticed his expression had softened, though it as still quite unreadable.

"So I'm guessing you want to talk to me because you didn't get anywhere with my grandfather," she said.

"Yes, I should have been more clear. I'm not accustomed to having people throw their middle fingers up in my face, but I assumed there was more to his outrage as I had barely begun to ask him questions."

Madelyn bit her bottom lip in a failed attempt to restrain her grin. William never failed to show people how he really felt, whether his temper had anything to do with them or not. And she was unfortunately used to apologizing for him.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. Sometimes he tries to make a point about not being professional, but I think it's just his age." She laughed softly. "Don't quote me on that, though. You might receive more than a middle finger to the face next time. So, what would you like to know, Mr. Harrison?"

"Please, call me John."

His expression told her he was amused by her commentary on her grandfather, and she decided she liked the fact that he preferred going by his first name.

"Alright, John, what sort of questions do you have that earned you the bird from my grandfather?"

"To be frank, Ms. McGivers—"

"Madelyn." She smiled at the way he considered her interruption.

"Madelyn. I want to know about your family, particularly your mother, your grandfather, and anyone else who bore the last name of McGivers."

She thought the request was strange, but kept her expression light. "Why?"

"If I told you why, there is a chance your life could be threatened."

Madelyn bit down on a slice of tomato as he spoke, and chewed quietly for a moment, eyeing him carefully. That wasn't something she'd expected to hear.

"Threatened how?"

"That's not important."

"Well I'm not sure I can tell you anything if you can't tell me why you need to know it," she said slowly.

John's expression seemed to withdraw, his eyes hardening for a split second, long enough for Madelyn to realize that whatever it was he was hiding, he was never going to divulge it.

"Look, John, there isn't a lot to my family anyway," she added quickly, not wanting things to grow awkward. "What little there is to know is probably public record."

"Then save me the trouble."

She was slightly taken aback at his bluntness, but saw no reason to do otherwise. "Well, my grandfather never talks about his parents, so I don't even know their names. I don't have any siblings, or aunts or uncles or cousins. My dad died when I was fifteen, and he was an only child. Now it's just me and William."

"What about your mother?"

"She died giving birth to me. I never knew her."

Madelyn watched the information she'd just revealed filter over his face, and it was as though he'd realized something and tucked it away. All of that was information she might share with anyone; it wasn't sensitive or private, and yet the look on John's face told her it meant a lot more than she realized.

She swallowed when it hit her that he might not really be interested in her family, but rather her family's money. After all, William was one of Admiral Marcus' wealthiest benefactors. If this man worked for Marcus, then he could have found out about William's copious funding and—

"I'm not after your family's wealth," said John with a slight smile. Madelyn snapped back to the present, realizing her suspicion must have spread all over her face, and that this guy was excellent at reading people. "Although others might be. And if what you said is true, then it would be a simple matter for someone with enough resources at their disposal to get both you and your grandfather out of their way."

Madelyn frowned, the suspicion that she was being manipulated creeping into the back of her mind. But he had a point. Still, even if someone was looking to take everything William had worked all his life to acquire, that didn't explain why John wanted to know about her family. Not that she had much left to tell him. It also didn't explain why William had gotten so angry when John had talked to him. Admiral Marcus had started the fire, but a few questions about the McGivers family couldn't possibly have fanned those flames, not even for someone like her grandfather.

John's rich voice dragged her from her thoughts. "There's nothing else you can tell me about your mother? Anything your grandfather might have told you?"

She shrugged. "I'll tell you everything I know. Her name was Susan. She was a champion marathoner, graduated from Princeton summa cum laude with a double major in Philosophy and Astrophysics. She went on to join Starfleet before she got married. I guess you could say she won at life, until she had me. That's literally everything I know about her, and I'm pretty sure you could easily find all that out by making a few phone calls." She leaned back in her seat, crossing arms. "Look, I honestly don't know what it is you want, but I don't think any of this is going to help you."

His questions were bothering her to say the least. What the hell did her mother have to do with anything? The only things Madelyn knew about her, she'd learned from William, who was Susan's father, and she'd just told John all of it. There were photographs of Susan scattered throughout the McGivers home outside London, so she knew she took after her mother's physical features, with wavy brown hair, green eyes speckled with brown, and a plain heart-shaped face. All of that was probably the large, unspoken reason William had agreed to let her live with him after Mark's passing, because she reminded him of his only child.

"No, Madelyn, you have been extremely helpful. Thank you."

She opened her mouth, prepared to utter something akin to a confused 'you're welcome,' when her communicator chimed. "Oh, sorry." She looked at the id to see it was her grandfather, then glanced up apologetically at John. "I should take this." She held the device up to her ear. "What's up?"

"Where are you, Maddy? I thought you'd be home by now."

She glanced at John again, frowning a little at the tone in her grandfather's voice. Something wasn't right. "I went out to dinner." Then quickly added, "With a friend."

"Does that friend happen to be named John Harrison? Listen, whatever you do, don't tell him anything about your mother. There's a reason I haven't told you much about our family, Maddy, and it's—"

The line was cut off and replaced by a solid tone. "William?" Madelyn lowered her communicator to look at it and make sure it hadn't died. It was working fine. "Granddad? Hello?"

She'd just bought him a new communicator last week so that couldn't have been the problem. She redialed and waited for the connection to be made, but the dial tone told her the line no longer existed.

"The line's dead," she said, staring at the device in her hand. No, something was terribly wrong. She looked up at John again, whose face had gone hard. "I should go home and check on him." She stood from the table and shouldered her purse. "I'm sorry for wasting your time. I'm sure you have other things you need to do."

She turned to leave the establishment but stopped when she felt a firm hand wrap around her arm. She looked up to see that John had followed her, but his hand left her arm as soon as they made eye contact. "You shouldn't go alone," he said.

Madelyn didn't reply. She didn't need to. She saw the look in his eye, the same one that told her he wasn't going to explain himself. Unsure at this point what was even happening, she turned again and proceeded outside towards the underground car park several blocks away where her vehicle was stowed, with John Harrison close behind.

To Madelyn, going home was like stepping back in time.

William McGivers' home was half an hour outside of London. The city had sprawled far from the Thames in the past couple of centuries, and now this house, which would have been considered a country mansion when it was first built back in the late 1990s, was merely a large antique with a healthy view of the city and the surrounding countryside.

As Madelyn drove her hovercar along the road that wound uphill towards the house, she felt her stomach twist into a knot. Her grandfather's car was in the driveway, but the house was completely dark.

"Oh god, something's not right at all."

She hurriedly stepped out of the car, ignoring John's suggestion to wait, and started towards the door in the side of the house that led into the kitchen. She stopped as her hand fell to the handle. It was unlocked and the door was slightly ajar.

She heard John come up behind her and hesitantly showed him the door without a word. She realized that if there was an intruder in the house, it would be better to let him go first, rather than risk herself being attacked, especially if this had anything to do with John's earlier warning.

She followed closely behind him, her eyes flitting to every dark corner. John crossed to the opposite end of the room, then turned and commanded the lights to turn on. The kitchen and its adjoining breakfast nook were illuminated, and a quick sweep with her eyes told Madelyn everything was where it was supposed to be. That didn't negate the fact that the door had been left open.

The silence in the house was crushing. She wanted to call out her grandfather's name, but she knew that was a bad idea if there was still someone lurking in the darkness. She followed John as he went into the next room, the living room, but had to stop suddenly to keep from walking into his back.

"What is it?" Madelyn whispered.

"You won't want to see this," he replied.

She felt the knot in her stomach tighten.

John turned and brushed past her back through the kitchen. "Call the police. There's nothing I can do here."

She watched him go, then turned back to the living room. In the ambient light coming from the kitchen, she could make out distinct signs of a struggle nearby. A lamp laying sideways on the floor, a shattered pane of glass that once belonged to a large picture hanging on the wall. She walked carefully into the room, her breath catching in her throat when she came around the couch. Her grandfather's body lay in a puddle of blood on the floor, his neck and torso covered in it, his shirt soaked. It looked as though his throat had been deliberately slit.

Madelyn felt her stomach turn and tore her eyes from the scene, clenching her jaw at the bile that rose in her throat. With shaking hands, she dug her communicator out of her bag, backing away until she bumped up against the kitchen counter. She found herself sinking to the floor, unable to form a proper sentence to the emergency operator for several minutes. She was reassured that the police were coming, and there was nothing else she could do but wait.

She couldn't bear to let William's body linger in her line of sight. He was dead. Her grandfather was dead. She crawled across the kitchen and pulled herself up into a chair in the breakfast nook. Her communicator sitting silent on the table, she buried her face in her hands.

You can read more fabulous poetry by Clementine Von Radics on her tumblr (her url is her name without spaces, this website won't let me post a link...)

You should also check out her book of poems, As Often As Miracles, available through Where Are You Press

I hope you enjoyed it so far! I'm looking forward to reading your reviews. I want feedback and most importantly I want to know that you want to read more!