"Why are you so obsessed with drawing this thing, anyway?" I ask as Miguel attempts to pick the lock to the room where they keep our stuff. He has managed to get us past the security door with a bobby pin. I am impressed.

"Stop distracting me. We only have twenty minutes." He barks in a whisper. I look around nervously. How would they punish us? We already have nothing.

"Exactly" he answers my internal question. He opens the door.

"Get the stuff" he orders like a crack head.

I freeze as I grab the sketch book and pencils, spotting a purple hairbrush dad bought me last Christmas. Dad had tried to get me to draw on the way from Idaho to Washington, but I couldn't bring lead to parchment. Despite all the suffering I've caused him, he loves me, and I couldn't draw him one lousy picture.

I pull the supplies out of my bag, we run back to the recreation area. Miguel grabs the pad and paper from me and starts drawing, but he's doing it all wrong. I snatch it back and quickly sketch the demon, ignoring his protests. I turn the image toward him, and he stops.

"That's it!" Amazement on his face then excitement.

"We gotta show them." He exclaims.

"Who?" I ask, working on cleaning up the lines.

"The others. They can't see them. They don't believe me." He explains.

"That there are demons?" I ask.

"That all of the staff here, are." He claims.

My eraser skids to a halt. "What?" I ask, looking at him as if he's grown a second head or claimed the people in charge of our care are demons.

"I went in to see the Doc one day and found this thing in there. I blinked and the demon was gone, Dr. Hemsworth was standing in its place. It's simple from there to deduce that Janine and the weekend tech are as well." He stares me dead in the eye, serious as a heart attack. "You don't believe me." he says, reading my mind.

"Whatever. The others will once I show them the drawing." He huffs, giving me an annoyed look.

He is not just criminal, he is insane. He's just like my mom.

...................................................................

I jumped to my feet, ready to fight. Desert surrounded me, a terrifying abyss to my right. I scurried away from the ledge. 'I blacked out?' I assumed, but my phone showed no time had passed. 'I froze time?' I am hallucinating like the voices only much worse.'

"Rabid Babies." I cursed as I tore the tape off my face. If it's true pain will wake you from a dream I was defiantly not dreaming.

I noticed a viewpoint not too far away with some cars parked nearby. If last time really happened, I should have learned my lesson about getting into cars with strangers, but what choice did I have in the middle of the dessert?

There was an elderly couple admiring the canyon. "Hi." I greeted, trying to not sound as desperate as I felt. "My friends accidentally left me out here." I lied. "Would you please be willing to give me a ride into town?" I asked putting my hands together pleadingly, doing my best to smile sweetly while hoping my baby face would do the trick.

"Oh dear. How could your friends have left you here?" The older woman responded, putting her hand to her mouth.

"Of course, we'll give you a ride." Reassured her husband.

"Thank you both so much." I said while trying not to show how much I was freaking out. I didn't want them to know I was losing it. They might not be so willing to help me.

The couple drove me to Flagstaff, and we parted ways at a gas station. They offered to let me wait for my friends at their hotel or to even drive me to where they were staying, but I politely declined.

I didn't have cash or cards. According to google maps, it was a twelve-hour drive. What could I tell dad that would make him okay with me not getting home until one a.m. Nothing. I was still grounded. He didn't let me stay at friends on a school night, anyway. There was only one option, and it was not a good one.

"Paige Hardware." I am relieved to hear my mother's voice for possibly the first time, ever. I was sure that if anyone could understand what was going on with me, it was her.

"Mom. It's Sara. I'm in Flagstaff Arizona. I have no money and no ID." I explained the situation in a clear, calm manor if only to keep myself from going off the deep end.

There was a long silence.

"I'm coming to get you. Where is your ID?" She asked matching my calmness, surprisingly.

"In my locker." I answered, with a strange mixture of shock and relief.

"I'll be there in a few hours. Where are you exactly?" Mom asked briskly.

I told her the name of the gas station and she hung up. I wished I would have taken the couple up on waiting at their hotel. They fed me and gave me some water, but now I had to pee. Gas stations aren't big fans of people loitering in front of them or letting unpaying costumers use the restroom. I went around the back and popped a squat behind the trash can then wondered down the street a way.

My phone rang. "Dad" displaying on the screen. My stomach hurt as I moved to accept the call. "Hi, dad." I answered, trying to sound normal.

"Where are you?" Mom demanded.

"By the fence, behind the gas station." I responded. The call ended. A grey ford explorer pulled into the alley.

Upon recognizing my mother in the driver's seat, I hopped in. "Thank you for helping me. I...."

"How did you get here?" She interrupted. "It's not possible. The school said you were in your morning classes. I got your wallet out of your locker. So, how did you get here?" She demanded accusingly, her knuckles white from her grip on the steering wheel.

"I don't know. I... I was hoping you would tell me." I replied, my chest tight with a building panic as I gripped the door handle while staring wide eyed at the woman who was barely more than a stranger. I had not realized how much I'd invested in the idea that my mom would understand what was happening. Her response dashed all my hopes.

My dad's phone rang on the center consult. "Hello." Mom answered. "I've taken her to Arizona." She responded to some unheard question.

Then I heard dad yelling on the other end.

"It's time she met my family. We'll be back tomorrow." Mom answered.

Dad must have stopped yelling because I didn't hear anything on the other end.

"I will." Mom answered, then hung up.

I knew my mom grew up in Flagstaff, but I was surprised at how soon we reach our destination. It was an old beat-up trailer on a dusty patch of land surrounded by a rusted fence that creaked as she opened it. Mom led me to the stoop without a word and knocked.

A heavy-set woman, nearly half a foot shorter than my mom, but with her blue eyes, and similar features opened the door. "Hi Barbra." The woman greeted with a tired inflection, before taking a drink from her beer. "This your daughter?" She asked turning her disinterested gaze on me.

"Hi, mom. This is Sara. Sara this is your Grandmother Sara." My mother responded with obvious strain in her voice.

I looked away and shifted nervously as the woman I was named for studied me with a glare.

"Came all this way, might as well come in." The woman offered before turning and walking back into the darkness of her trailer.

"Have a seat." The woman gestured to a worn couch and sat in an even more beat up chair.

On the mantel was a picture of a man who looked to be in his 40s. His hair was the same auburn color as mine and my moms, his smile looked a lot like my mom's. Below the picture was an urn.

"Why are you here, Barbara?" The woman asked after a long moment.

"I wanted you to meet your granddaughter and for her to meet you." Mom responded.

"How old are you, Sara?" The woman asked, while leaning her elbows on her legs, with her beer hanging between her knees.

"Eighteen." I responded nervously, fidgeting uncomfortably in my seat.

"The same age your mother was the last time I saw her. She went off to college and never came back. Thought she was too good. Then she got knocked up with you, out of wedlock. The only good thing about your grandfather dying so young. At least he didn't have to live to see that." The woman belligerently slurred.

"The only good thing about my dad dying so young was dead men can't beat their children." My mother replied, evenly.

My eyes went wide, observing the two women regard each other with such hatred.

"Didn't hit you hard enough, as far as I'm concerned." The woman countered. "If you're gonna speak ill of my husband, you can take your bastard and get out." The woman continued, cracking open another beer.

"I fulfilled my obligation. You met your granddaughter and she met you. I'll leave it to the two of you if you wish to know one another." Mom announced while standing. Then she left out the same way we came.

I ran after her, not wanting to be alone with the belligerent woman. Mom got in the car, I quickly followed suite.

We pulled into a motel and my mom got out. "Wait here." She ordered when I opened the door to follow.

She came back after a few minutes. "This is your room key. We leave at 4 a.m." She instructed before grabbing a bag out of the back and walking away.

My stomach grumbled but I could see she had no intention of feeding me. I went to the room. It had two full beds and a tv, it was probably not clean, but I didn't see anything visibly dirty. I climbed on the bed and flipped on the tv.

I woke up to a knock on the door. Looking out the peep, I found mom and opened the door.

"Let's go." She ordered.

"I have to pee." I answered, running to the bathroom.

She wasn't there when I came out, but I found her by the car. She took my room key to the office, and we left. It was my first time in an airport. It was so many moving people. Mom got our tickets, handed me mine and my ID, then led me to the TSA line. It was a long line.' Why are so many people at the airport this early in the morning?' We got on the plane, but we didn't have seats by each other. I finally found my seat between a heavy-set man who looked to be in his 50's or 60's and a small woman who was either 20 or 50. I took my seat and buckled in. I didn't know I was afraid of flying but the thought of this giant can of cheese being the only thing between me and a fifty-thousand-foot plunge to the earth has me feeling a little short of breath. The thing started to roll and so does my stomach. We all survived and landed in Idaho a mere hour and a half later. I followed my mom to my dads' truck in the airport parking lot and climbed in the passenger side.

"I won't tell your dad, but I'm going to go away again, until you've left for college. Once you go, I don't want you to come back. You're a demon Sara. You'll hurt those around you. It's in your nature." My mother stated while staring out the windshield as we drove down the freeway.

I didn't know what to say. My eyes stung. She had never been so blunt with what she thought of me. Never so calm and certain. She would be relieved to never see me again and I couldn't deny I felt the same in that moment. It would hurt dad if I never came back, wouldn't it? That was why she came and got me, right? I knew she loved him. 'Does she really think I am that dangerous?' I agonized, unable to disagree.

"I'll stay away if you don't come back for the rest of the year." I countered, the damn tears escaping again. I stared hard out the window, whipping at the tears furiously.

...............................................

'What if he thinks I am a demon? Will he hurt me? I have been treating this guy like any other kid at school, but this isn't school. This is a mental health facility.'

"I'm not going to hurt you." He scoffs. "And you're not a demon." He adds as if it is the most absurd thing, he has ever heard.

"How is a sketch going to prove anything?" I ask.

"Well, doesn't it look like her?" He asks.

I look at it hard. "Janine?"

"No, the doc" He huffs.

I look at it again and I guess I see similarities.

"I guess it does have slightly humanoid features to its face, maybe."

"Here give me it." He draws a lump above the creature's hollow eyes. I seem to recall the doctor having a mole there. Did the thing I saw in class have a mass there? Maybe.

"That proves nothing Miguel." I reply with a snort.

"Maybe to someone with a simple mind, like you." He defends, taking back my sketch pad.

"You're an asshole." I argue, trying to grab back the book.

"Yeah, but you want to lick my asshole." He counters, snatching it out of reach.

"Fuck you." I demand, though I can't completely deny it. Curse my hormonal teenage libido.

"That, too." He laughs, still giddy from finally getting his 'proof'.

"Maybe, but I wouldn't." And that I was confident in.

He stops, looking at me with an odd serious expression. "Oh really?" He challenges while coming closer.

I freeze as he brings his pillowy lips inches from mine. 'Maybe. I think.'

"Dang it," I seethe, stepping away from him. This isn't fair.

"Well, I can't teleport, so I say that's unfair." He counters.

"Really. And I can? Huh. That's what was happening yesterday. Who's basic now?" I taunt.

"Still you. Teleportation, enhanced strength, and senses. These are the most common. Reading minds and seeing demons those are less common." He informs in his infuriatingly assholeness, those full lips quirking sexily.

"Shit!" he exclaims, running into a nearby room.

What's his problem now?

"Good morning, Sara." Janine greets, making me nearly jump out of my skin. She appears, looking at me with that empty smile on her face.

"Good morning." I reply in a high pitch nervous, perhaps guilty way.

"I heard you and the doctor had a good conversation." She says, now holding a cross bow she must have had strapped to her back. "I'll give you a five second head start to get to the cafeteria, since it's your first day." She offers while leveling the cross bow on me.

I stare at her as she starts counting down. As I run, a bolt sticks in the wall behind me.' What the fuck?'

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Thank your for reading(: 

Do you think Miguel is criminally insane?