Sara shuddered to life, straight into the nightmare she'd always lived.
He stood before her, watching her a little boredly.
"You're needed in the kitchens by your mother."
"How is old Gertrude these past five days I've missed?" She asked bitterly.
"Oh, she's actually in a swell mood," He grinned, amused.
"What is it now? Has she found some fantastic way to turn herself into royalty?"
He glanced at her, still smiling wickedly. "Rather, yes."
He walked further on, leaving her staring after him in surprise. Sara knew how much he enjoyed her shocked reaction. She hated people who made it their entertainment to rub into other people's faces that they knew something the other didn't. He was
Gertrude snorted with her usual pleasantness when she found Jacob strewn over his bed, mouth open. He snored softly, his hard, muscled arm straining around his sleeping child.
Gertrude threw water on him for a bright and sunny awakening tactic.
He roared to life, shivering. Cate started to cry again.
He stared at Gertrude in furious disbelief.
She stared back unapologetically, and Jacob absently wondered how she could have possibly produced someone remotely similar to Sara.
"Where's Sara?" He demanded after a silence. He needed to talk to her as soon as possible…before he burst…
She looked impossibly ecstatic. "Hold your horses, lover boy, I have her coming soon as possible."
He stared at her. "Nutcases really do run thick around here."
She just cackled gleefully.
The door creaked open.
He waited.
Sara walked through, her long gold hair illuminated in the bright morning sunshine streaming through the window. She looked cautious, and her gaze went straight to her mother.
She looked suspicious.
"No hello?" He teased. Cate wailed in the background, thoroughly wet.
Gertrude flew over to her and started mopping her roughly with a towel, her wet black hair drying to resemble a stringy black mop.
Cate started to increase volume.
"Oh shut up!" Gertrude whispered excitedly, glancing back around to look at Jacob and Sara, who were both freely conversing.
Cate stared at her father, who was laughing with a woman she'd never seen before. Heat rose to her cheeks, and she suddenly felt jealous over this woman who was making her daddy smile. That was HER job, Cate thought angrily. She turned on the old woman, who was still scrubbing her with a scratchy towel. "OWW!"
The woman snatched her off the bed, taking her outside not to disturb them. Cate's scream was muffled by the slam of the door.
"Where'd you go?" Jacob asked softly.
Sara watched him as he played with a strand of her hair, wondering how much she could tell him. How much she WANTED to tell him.
"Jacob," She said, hurriedly changing the subject, "I think my mother's up to something."
It successfully distracted him. He sighed, dropping his hand from her hair.
"I think you're right."
Her eyes flew up to meet his sharply. "You know something?"
His eyes bore into hers, noting her eye color for the first time. They were not a blend of blue green, but rather splashes of each. It was beautiful. So was she. Everything she did was beautiful to him.
She stared back into his eyes, and confusion quickly fled from her eyes, replaced by a dazzled look. She grew lost in those deep black eyes. It was if they were bottomless, and she was going further and further…
Bottomless black eyes.
It described them perfectly.
"Sara, I – " He began.
Cate's piercing scream interrupted him, high and shatteringly loud.