"Daddy?" Christina called out. She searched the house for her father. "Daddy?"
"Chrissie, what's wrong?" asked her father. He stepped out of his bedroom. The room had always been sacred. The children weren't allowed in and they had to knock to get their parents out.
"I think something's wrong with Sara. She's falling into the trap, daddy. She's going to get hurt, just like I did. You need to make sure that doesn't happen. Keep an eye on her. Don't let her get to obsessed with this demon." Christina told him. "I have to go. The elders are calling me away to meet a new assignment." She orbed out. Her father stood there, looking slightly amazed. He wordlessly shook his head and headed downstairs to prepare dinner.
~
"Sara, what do you mean?" Jersey asked her. She looked at the picture being held up by Sara. It looked nothing like the demon who had attacked them earlier."
"That demon. My mother." Sara spat out. She couldn't make her mouth form a complete sentence. "That. Demon."
"Sara, tell us. What's up with that demon?" Jordan put in. He walked over to the two girls. "That doesn't look like any demon we've seen. Ever."
"That's not the demon, Sara." Jersey told her.
"But." Sara didn't want to tell them what she was talking about. She couldn't. She had seen that demon before. When she was very little. Seven years old.
"Sara! I'm it!" her brother Sam screamed out. He chased her across the yard and to the swing set. She climbed up the ladder and started walking across the top of the monkey bars.
"Look at me!" she screamed out. "I'm in the circus!" Suddenly, the bars began to shake under her feet. "Sam, quit it! I'm going to fall!" The shaking continued. "Sam?" She looked down. Her brother was no where to be seen. There was nothing within sight. She twisted around. She saw a small creature on the pole of the ladder, shaking it violently. She screamed.
"Mommy! Help!" she screamed again. Her mother came running out the door. With a twist of her mothers' hand, the shaking stopped. Sara looked down. There was nothing there. She stepped down the ladder. "Mommy?" she asked.
"Darling, we've got to get out of here," her mother told her. The next thing Sara knew, she was traveling in a new backyard. She was playing with a kitten her mother had bought her.
"Where's Sam and Stephen, mommy? Where's Daddy?" she asked. Her mother just patted the kitten, calmly.
"They've left. They're gone, Sara. They're never coming back."
"But Mommy!" Sara began to protest. "We left."
"No, we didn't. They've left us. They won't ever see us again. They're gone, Sara. Try to forget them." The little girl began to play again, forgetting.
"That's the demon who split up my family." Sara was able to tell Jersey.
"No, the demon who killed your mother was different."
"No, that's a different demon. This demon did something weird. I'll tell you later." She walked out of the room and into the guest bedroom where she was staying. I forgot them. She thought. I need to get in contact with Sam. "Christina!" she yelled out. "Chrissie!" But nobody appeared. Instead, there was a knock on the door of her room. "Come in." In stepped Cole Turner, Jersey's father. Sara instinctively backed against the wall.
"Sara, Chrissie said to tell you she was meeting a new client and that she wouldn't be able to be in contact with you. But she said to give you this," he handed her a note. "I'll leave you in piece."
Sara walked over to the desk and unfolded the note. She began to read.
Sara,
I guess you're wondering where I am. I had to go to meet a new client of mine. If you've gotten this, it probably means my father has spoken to you. You must remember that we love you and we don't want anything to happen to you. You've got to keep yourself from obsessing too much. I'm going to enclose your brother's phone number.
Christina
Sara took the strip of out from the bottom of the note. She wordlessly picked up the phone and began to dial.
Miles away, a man picked up the phone. "Hello."
"Hi," said Sara, "This is kind of hard. I got your number from Christina. This is Sara. I'm hoping this is Sam."
The man on the other end began to weep.