TIME AFTER TIME

tredecim

THIRTEEN: 

"A Mahogany Letter"

SABRINA. 

I hadn't expected a response. At least not one so quickly.

I had written letters to my father, most of them when I was younger. But the one I sent three days ago was the first in a decade.  When I tell my sisters, they both are silent. Salem feels proud that I took the initiative to find another way to help Mom. Scarlet's silence is full of rage. 

When she finally speaks, Scar grits her teeth. "Mom told us to stay away from them."

"She told us not to tell anyone about them, not to stay away."

Now she bares her teeth at me as she seethes, "They're demons! We can't trust them."

"If we were going to contact any of them," Salem rises to stand between us in hopes of defusing the situation. "Bree's is the safest."

Scarlet withdraws her lethal stare from me to smolder Salem, "Right, because your dad is dead, and mine is a monster?"

Salem shatters to a pale blue. Her hand goes to her neck, where she lightly touches the purple gem attached to her golden chain. She stares down our sister, not with a similar rage but with a blistering hurt. Scarlet is the first to look away. She shoves her chair out of her way, yanking her jacket from off the table, "I'm going to study. I am not on board with this." Before she leaves the room, taking the heat with her, she warns us over her shoulder, "Find another way."

When it's just the two of us in our aching bungalow, Salem and I stare at one another with the silent concern that had been brewing between us about our sister. But when Salem opens her mouth, it's not to voice her concern like I had thought. Instead, she surprises me when she nods to the envelope, "Open it. Let's hear what Moss said."

The letter informed me that he would be happy to be of aid in finding Mom. His letter was brief, but other than his support, he suggested we meet so nothing would be lost in translation. It took us over a week to convince Scarlet to come with us to the meeting. While it was frustrating, the timing worked in our favor. It took two days to decide when and where to meet, then three more for me to receive his response. I wrote back to confirm the day before we were supposed to meet. 

The night before our meeting, Salem and I cornered Scarlet. "We are doing this with or without you. We prefer to do it with you."

"I'm not working with a demon." Her arms were crossed, daring me to persuade her. But I wouldn't enter her mind just to get what I wanted. Either she decided for herself, or she wouldn't want to. 

Salem's frustration was quickly rising to meet Scarlet's, "This is Moss we're talking about. Bree's father who helped change our diapers and made Mom's garden." She took a step closer, her words sealing her case, "And it's our only lead to saving Mom. We tried to find the waterfall and it was a dead end. We're not sailing, we can't take the Train, and we're not risking any other witch's safety on Oasis to find another solution. Either get with the program or miss the opportunity to save Mom."

Scarlet's silence said it all. And then, before we parted ways, she hissed, "If he tries anything, I'm shattering him myself."

The next morning the three of us returned to the human realm for a stroll in in the city's botanical gardens where Moss had comped us guest passes for the day. We found him sitting amongst butterflies, when he turned to take us in I was met with the nostalgic green mist. I hadn't seen him in years and he looked just as I remembered him. Short cut brown hair. A thin nose that bridged into thin eyebrows. There was a red flush in his low cheekbones as he rose to his feet, his hands holding a small box that was seated beside him. He didn't look like a demon, just a man who taught me how to tie my shoes.