Nothing Is What It Seems

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"I'm not going to marry him!"

Sarah Williams stood in the doorway of her room, glaring with her pale green eyes at her father. Not twenty minutes ago, her boyfriend of six months had proposed. She had said no, and then ran home. Now her father stood just outside her door demanding to know why she had refused him.

He frowned at her. "Sarah, why won't you? He has a great paying job. You wouldn't have to worry about anything."

Sarah rested a hand on her door. "No, you wouldn't have to worry about me. I don't want or need some guy with a great job."

Why had she kept dating the jerk? She had only done it to keep her father and Irene off her back about having no social life. It wasn't like she could tell them the truth. She couldn't tell them she had fallen for a cruel Fae king or introduce them to her friends.

Sighing, he rested his hands against the door frame. "Sarah, you need to do more than just sit in your room."

Sarah shook her dark hair slightly, "I'm always at either school, the library, or the park. I'm not sitting in my room all day." She didn't really want to be home really because of Irene. Of course, Sarah couldn't tell him that.

"Sarah, you're studying English." He took a pause for a moment. "You won't make enough with that degree. At least with Jacob, you wouldn't have to worry about money."

Sarah had to fight back tears, "I don't care about the money. I'm doing something I love."

Her father sighed, lowering his hands. "Sarah, it won't support you. If your grandmother hadn't created that college account, I would have pulled the funding for that so called degree years ago."

Sarah glared at him, "So if I was studying law or accounting would you call it a so called degree?"

"Sarah, the point is that with Jacob you wouldn't need to worry."

He just didn't understand her, he wouldn't. No one in the house did. Only her friends in the Underground did.

Firmly Sarah told him, "I'm not marrying him."

He sighed, "Sarah, please reconsider."

She shook her head, "I'm not going to marry Jacob."

"Then find somewhere else to live."

Sarah and her father turned to face a woman with blonde hair. She walked over and placed herself in front of Sarah's father.

"Either you marry Jacob or get out. It's not like you do anything here. Toby sure doesn't need a babysitter anymore."

Sarah stared at her step mother. Of course, Toby didn't need her as a babysitter any more. Not too long after she had saved him, her step mother had decided to stay home more and all but chased Sarah out of the house.

"That's not exactly what I was thinking." Her father frowned, but didn't stop his wife.

Her step mother shook her head. "She won't listen to reason. So throw her out. You have till the end of the week to make your decision."

As just a quickly she had walked up, Sarah's step mother walked away.

Defeated, her father sighed and began to walk away. "You have a week, Sarah."

"You can't be serious?" Sarah looked after him shock.

"You have a week."

Still in shock, Sarah stood in the door way. Did her father really just go along with what Irene had said? Marry the idiot her father and step mother thought the world of, or leave her home. Slamming the door, Sarah tried to breathe. She was being thrown out just because she wouldn't marry a guy who was a son of one of her father's partners.

Moving over to her vanity, Sarah gazed at her reflection. Where would she go? The fund her grandmother had created could only be used for school, until she was twenty-five, which was still five years off. What was she going to do? Where would she go?

Beyond her door she could hear the others in the house settling down for the night. A few words drifted through her door. What ever she did she had to be quick. She looked past her reflection as an idea came to mind, but there was something in the way. Well a someone, but if there was a way around him. Then maybe she had somewhere to go. Of course, that wouldn't help with the fact that he still haunted her.

Looking into her mirror, Sarah sat down in the chair in front of the vanity. "Hoggle, I need you."

Slowly her reflection dissolved and was replaced with the face of an old weathered dwarf.

Once he was in view he frowned. "It's not safe, there's rumors the Rat's watching us to see if we're talking to you."

Sarah frowned, "Hoggle, I'm in huge trouble. I'm being kicked out."

Hoggle pulled back a bit. "Huh, what are you talking about?"

Leaning back slightly, Sarah placed a hand on the top of the vanity. "Remember Jacob?"

Hoggle nodded. "The idiot you were dating to keep your father off your back. What about him?"

Sarah took a deep breath, "He asked me to marry him today."

Hoggle's eyes grew wide for a moment, "What?!"

"Don't worry. I told him no, but when I got home my father cornered me. Then my step mother made the declaration that I either have to marry Jacob or leave the house."

Hoggle nodded, but then stopped. "Sarah."

"Hoggle, there has to be some way. We both know there's noting for me here."

Hoggle shook his head. "He'd find out, Sarah." He swallowed. "Also, if you were to come here, you wouldn't be able to get back."

"I already knew that." Sarah pleaded with him. " Hoggle, please. I know you and Didymus can find something. I have till the end of the week, but I want to leave before then, if I can."

Hoggle sighed, "I can't promise nothin', Sarah, but I'll look into it. You can't marry that idiot."

Sarah smiled. "Thanks, Hoggle."

Slowly, he disappeared from the mirror and once again her reflection met her. Now she could only hope Hoggle and Didymus could actually discover some way for her go to the Underground and find a way to be undetected by the Goblin King. She glanced out the window towards the moon. Hope was all she had now. Well, she could..., no that was not going to happen.