Author's Note: There seemed to be some interest in this idea, so I think I'll try it out. This is a spinoff of Arrhythmia, not a standalone story. If you are not reading Arr, this story will not make sense.

Something Better Someday

I'm like a kid who just won't let it go,
Twisting and turning the colors in rows.
I'm so intent to find out what it is;
This is my Rubik's cube.
I know I will figure it out.
- Athlete

"We're here," James said, and Aubrey knew that something was not right.

As a matter of fact, she knew thirteen hours prior to the present, when her father had roughly pulled her out of bed, forced her to get dressed, and then shoved her into the back of the car, without her brothers in tow, that something was very, very wrong.

The car door slammed after James stepped out, leaving Aubrey to sit and stare at the small two-story house they were parked in front of. He yanked open her door next, with a baleful, "Get out."

Aubrey quickly unbuckled. Did he expect her to know where 'here' was? Did he expect her to find her way home from 'here'? It would be a little different than finding her way through the woods, but honestly, she could probably do it. She stepped out of the car, not daring to speak, and watched him walk around to the trunk.

"Shut the door. Were you raised in a shack like this?" He nodded to the house beside them.

"No, Sir." Aubrey closed the door.

The air around them smelled briny and of fish – and across the street, a middle-aged couple were walking along in their swimsuits. It was warm, and the rays of sun suddenly beating down on her skin added to the exhaustion she felt from staying up all night – and the exhaustion made it difficult to focus. Were they at the beach? Like…on another vacation? Surely not, not so soon after they went to Disneyworld. Also, her father would have picked a fancier house, and why wasn't the rest of her family here? But when she looked back at the car, her father was throwing her luggage at the front yard. So, they were staying 'here'. Of course, they were. He wouldn't drive them this far just to turn around and go home.

But, where was 'here'? And why -

He slammed the trunk without unpacking his own things. "Go."

"I'm sorry, Sir?" Go where? Up the sidewalk? To some strange little house, half the size of her own, that she had never been to before? There was a minivan in the driveway. It looked like someone lived here.

James grabbed her by the arm, his fingernails pinching too hard against her skin. He pulled her without mercy up the sidewalk and the stairs to the front porch, his adult strides twice of size and speed of what Aubrey's nine year old legs could carry her. Once there, he knelt down and released her arm to grab her face instead. "Is this where you want to live?"

Aubrey felt frozen in place as she struggled to understand her surroundings. "It's" -don't stutter, Aubrey- "not a bad house." Sure, it was rather small, and it could use a new paint job, but it wasn't like those shacks Aubrey saw in what the documentaries she watched referred to as 'slums' and 'ghettos'. Maybe they were moving? Maybe something happened to her father's job, and they were poor… Judging by the reddening of his face, that's not the answer he wanted. "But-"

"Knock."

"Who lives here?" The only place her father randomly dropped her off at was Grandma and Grandpa's house, and they would never live in a place like this. They had an entire wall made of glass, and things that they told Aubrey were worth more than her life, so don't touch them. This place had an old wasps' nest stuck to the roof – but at least there didn't appear to be any wasps. That was a plus, because Aubrey was standing directly under it, and she was allergic to-

James released her face to smack her in the temple with his palm, and Aubrey knocked on the door with the side of her head.

She quickly turned and rapped with her fist before her father could get any ideas about turning her head into an actual door-knocker, then took a step back.

Somewhere inside, a dog started barking – the far away sound was joined by the sound of its feet scrambling across hard floor as it charged the door.

No.

It was followed by human footsteps, and the door opened a couple of inches, just enough for a boy a few years older than her to look out without releasing the monstrosity behind him. "Who the hell are you?"

Aubrey had half the nerve to ask him the same question.

"Where is your mother?" James asked.

"I don't have one." The boy leaned back, and a dog snout tried to wedge itself between him and the doorway, "Julia! It's for you!"

Aubrey took half a step back, away from the nose attempting to sniff her. It would have been a full step, but her father's hand gripped her by the back of her dress.

"I told you to stop calling me that, Daniel," the other person, Julia, responded, saying what must be his name with a Latino accent, "My name is Mom."

"You're not my mom. And I told you I'm not Spanish, my dad is from Puerto Rico!"

Aubrey furrowed her brows. But before she could tell him he was an idiot, he was being pulled back by a hand belonging to the person who was apparently not his mother – and Aubrey's stomach twisted itself into tight knot. She looked up, watching the wide smile on Jillian's face fade into confusion, as the color in Aubrey's own face drained completely away.

Jillian stared at Aubrey's father for several seconds, before apparently deciding not to address him first. "Hi, Aubrey. It's good to see you again," she cooed down at her, the words people say when it isn't good to see them again, before hitting James second with a very perplexed, "What are you doing here?"

Aubrey was about to puke on the 'yay, you're here!' welcome mat beneath her feet. This wasn't real. This was some sort of dream. She was tired and hot and, quite possibly, hallucinating. This was – How did her father - ? What was he going to do to her? Her father killed people; he had told her he did. What if…what if he was going to kill these people? She stared on in horror. What had she done?

"Her stuff's on the lawn," James said, "Give it a week. You'll give her back."