TIME AFTER TIME

unus.

ONE:

"Face Your Demons"

SABRINA.

Scarlet is drunk, Salem has relived this day too many times and I'm speed-walking ahead of the group with Fang. It felt like some weird fever dream, not the twisted reality I was still trying to wrap my head around.

We were all silent because I had a rule against linking the three of us when we were with Fang, she was too observant and would know we were up to something. Normally for an emergency like this, I'd break my rule but I couldn't will the truth out from me and to her raging eyes so I stuck with this compromise. Suspicion had been pouring out from her since the three of us told her we were leaving the party. The second after the three demons retreated I grabbed Fang from the party and told her we needed to go. 

"You guys are acting weird," she comments now, breaking the silence, looking back at my two sisters after I didn't acknowledge her look of skepticism. Scarlet was mad because we had let the villains get away and Salem wasn't speaking because she was thinking. I could feel a fresh breath of air, a cool breeze waft from her mind every time a new vision played in her head. Salem could see the future! If I could reach back and hold her hands I think I'd be able to see what she saw. But it would have to wait until we got home. Fang looked at me from the corner of her eye again, her angry stride unwavering, and I knew if I didn't speak now it would be worse. But I couldn't push another lie out of my mouth to her.

"Our mom called about a family emergency, we're just worried about her is all," Salem pipes up from behind us, suddenly alert. She was the best liar, then Scarlet, then me. This is why when I meet Fang's eyes I simply press my lips together in a hard line and nod in agreement. Her eyes are unconvinced but she smiles tightly before looking straight ahead and running ahead, pulling back the broken fence so we can return to safe, human territory. 

Salem and Scarlet have asked me a multitude of times why I haven't told Fang that we're witches. I knew that if I told her she would only fall deeper into the burden of holding so many secrets. All of them held a certain weight and I knew in the future there would be bigger problems she'd want to help us with. And if she did help, I knew she'd wind up getting hurt. Or worse. So I chose to keep her in the dark, to protect her. I also knew how angry she'd be with me once she found out how long I'd been lying to her. But the older we got, the harder it became to keep this part of my life a secret. 

Scarlet scoffs from where she was draped over Salem's shoulders, eyes heavy from the liquor. We were a few blocks from where we crossed the border and she only hurled once. "Just link us up Bree," she groans with exhaustion, "If Sleeping Beauty figures it out, Mom can just fix her head."

Now Fang's feet stop walking, "Figures what out?" Then her sharp eyes go to me, "And what does she mean by 'fix her head'?" I watch the pieces try to fit together in her eyes. Confusion turns into curiosity which bleeds into fear before shifting back into a colder confusion.

"Fang, we can't stop, we need to get home..!" I grip her hand and attempt to pull her down the street. We were passing the local park now, nearing the main road to get home. Demons could be lurking in the shadows and I couldn't live with myself if we had to fight them without backup. Our backup being the three witches who had to return to their mystical land before midnight. But instead of following my plea, Fang scoffs and plants her feet in place stubbornly.