Robbin

10. Sarah

"How was school?" Terra's dad asked, breaking the silence which sat like a cloud ready to burst and rain down on their dinner plates.

  She looked up from her dish as she scooped a heap of beans next to her meatloaf. "Fine," she lied.

"School was great for me," Sarah chirped, enthusiastically. Like Terra believed a word of that.

"Just fine, Terra?" her father asked, pointedly.

"Yes, fine." She gave Mrs. Carter the evil eye.

There was no response. Dinners had gotten rather awkward since the move. Even Sarah had little to say.

Of all the things her dad could ask to try to get them to open up, the new school was the least of Terra's concerns at this point. In the last two days, it had become rather more concerning that Carynthia, the other world it seemed, became more real to her every hour, calling to her as if from some nightmare and stealing away the only peace she had left in the form of a demon that had followed her back and seemed unusually interested in her satchel.

Also, the fact that Terra felt the need to carry her necklace in her satchel at all.

Sarah was the first to get up from the table, having managed to hound down her serving the quickest. Terra followed suit and hurried out of her seat to the sink to clean off her plate, leaving her mother and father sitting alone at the table.

"Thanks for dinner, mom," Sarah chirped.

Their mom looked up from her plate. "Terra?"

She turned, trying to hide her frustration behind a nonchalant wave of the hand. "Thanks, mom." She hurried out of the kitchen as fast as possible, her satchel swinging at her hip.

She decided to exit at the front door, though she didn't go far.

The evening air was cool against her skin and the moon hung as a crescent above the horizon.

She stepped down once and then sat, swinging her legs sideways and stretching them out along the cement porch, her floral printed flats curling with her feet. She leaned back carelessly against the metal railing. She would be sitting out here for a while. She hugged her satchel close to her.

She eventually closed her eyes. She even dozed for maybe a minute before sitting up suddenly and staring around with wide eyes.

She could swear she felt someone watching her. Then she spotted him.

He stood before a truck close by, handsome, with an almost boyish perfection: subtle jawline, sharp nose and unblemished skin.

It was the purse snatcher.

Two things happened next that stopped her already fermenting plans of escape in their tracks. First, the demon didn't move, as though plotting his next move carefully. Second, the door opened behind Terra and Sarah fell out. The first time Terra took her eyes away from the purse snatcher was to look at her sister. What Sarah said next was what Terra thought surprised her most.

"Are you just going to stand there, staring, or are you going to say hello?" She bent down to growl at Terra, "get lost, he's mine."

Terra leaned against the railing as if it might support her from the blow of shock.

"Yours?"

"Yes, mine." Her sister's eyes frowned down at her.

"How?" It seemed to be the only other word Terra could choke out.

"How else do you think? Boy meets attractive girl, girl meets attractive boy. He's a teacher." She giggled as though the inappropriateness was thrilling. "Well, a sub. So it's not like he'll get in trouble for it or anything."

She squinted at the demon unknowingly. "Come on, Dan! Walk up to the door like a gentleman," her sister teased.

Dan. The thing had a name. Terra felt like she was going to be sick.

  "Sarah, stop!" She finally found her voice and her feet again as Sarah stepped toward the stranger.

Her sister turned briefly, expectantly, and then kept walking.

What was she supposed to tell Sarah, that her boyfriend was really a creature from another world that Terra alone had discovered?

"Sarah," she squealed, but it was too late to stop the inevitable chain of effects. Looking out, she realized the pink skinned demon in human skin was loping toward them.

By the time Terra finally decided on running inside and dragging her sister with her, Sarah had already met up with the stranger midway between their house and the curb.

He would transform any second. Terra watched in horror as Sarah wrapped her arm around the man's waist. He would transform! She knew he would! If not now, then later, when Sarah was alone with him..

 Her gaze dropped from the Carynthian's amused stare, a faint glow emanating from her purse. Terra groaned in frustration. The longer she carried her necklace in her satchel, the harder it seemed to be to resist using it.

His face suddenly turned pale. Terra glared at him. She would use it if she had to. She knew what he really wanted.

He suddenly pushed Sarah aside and trotted back toward his truck as though followed by quickly approaching water. "I'll see you later," he barked. So he could talk. His voice sounded more human than she expected. Not like the demon who had screeched in her head. But he had to be a demon.

"What the hell was that about?" Her sister watched the truck depart, bemused.

But Terra just turned from her, stumbling through the doorway before her sister witnessed her disappear.

"You won't be seeing him later!" She called back.

She didn't get to see Sarah's reaction, because as soon as she locked her bedroom door behind her, she knew she would be getting the answers she needed, even if it killed her.

She realized her fingers were trembling as she peered into the folds of her satchel.

Her finger had only barely brushed against the chain when the unsettling of her insides like the unsettling at the lurch of an elevator filled her.

a/n: Okay, so reading over this I just realized this chapter needs a lot of work...

I think I made it a little better with this edit?

Let me know what you think:) Comment, vote and read on, my friends:p

Chay