Sarah picked up the phone and dialed Michael’s number. It rang five times before it went to the answering machine. She hung up the phone and looked at Dave.

“I think something’s wrong.” She said.
“Do you wanna go over there at lunch?” Dave asked typing away at his laptop.
“Yeah. He’s either scared shitless or is passed out drunk. As a fly in a beer can.” Sarah said.
“He doesn’t drink, does he?” Dave asked.
“Only if he’s real worried.”
“So that’s what happened to my bottle of rum.”


“Hey, Sarah, I heard what happened last night.” Beth stopped Sarah in the break room.
“My god does everybody know?”

Sarah plopped down in a chair and opened her can of Surge.

“Practically. But hey, look at it this way, you got it before Matthew did.” Beth remarked. Sarah burst out in laughter with Beth and suddenly Matthew came in and their giggles ceased.
“Hey guys.” He pulled a can of Surge out of the fridge and opened it. He took a sip and smiled, “Man, this stuff is really good.”

Sarah had to keep down her giggles, but she couldn’t stop looking at Matthew drinking a can of Surge. He shook his head and walked out and the two burst out in a roar of laughter.


Lisa looked at Sarah. She was sitting at Bill’s desk. She was concentrating on a picture she was drawing. Lisa couldn’t believe Sarah, her Sarah, and the same Sarah who called her mom by mistake when she was five and got lost at a carnival, the same Sarah was practically a grown woman. But then again, she was almost fifteen and she had a lot more growing to do. And it looked like she couldn’t get any bigger. Lisa couldn’t imagine Sarah getting any bigger. The height of 5’6” suited her well, and one day she could be as tall as Dave. But teenagers grow. They do a lot of it, and Sarah was in store for a growth spurt soon. But no matter what would happen, the fact was that Sarah was practically grown up, it was unsettling to Lisa, and she didn’t want her Sarah to grow up.


Joe looked at Sarah drink her cup of coffee at Bill’s desk and begin to draw once again.

“Where’s your lil’ boyfriend?” Joe asked. Sarah looked up briefly and looked back up and sighed, “You know too?”
“Yeah. Everybody but Matthew knows.”

Sarah put her head in her hands and shook her head, “My god this is a nightmare. Everybody knows what happened, Everybody thinks me as a stranger now.”
“I don’t. You’re no stranger. I know you, dude. You’re the chick who had a thing for me. You’re the chick who pinned me successfully without me letting you win at the age of 11. You’re the chick who punched me at her birthday party. You’re the chick who doesn’t care what other people think of her because, well, that’s you. And why should you care now? They know you, know we all know you, so what’s the big deal?” Joe sat on the desk. Sarah looked up at him and smiled, “That was the most intelligent thing I ‘ve heard you say with out joking. …What the hell have you done with Joe, you damn alien!” Sarah said with a smirk. Joe smiled and ruffled her hair. It was meaningful; Joe’s words and it meant something special.

Sarah knocked on Michael’s door. Dave stood behind her with his hands in his pocket. Sarah looked back at Dave after a minute passed. She shrugged her shoulders and turned the knob successfully. She peered into the apartment to see that it was practically pitch-black. She couldn’t see anything. “Michael?” She called. She stepped into the darkness and just as Dave was about to come in, Sarah’s foot hit something, “Michael?” She said into the blackness. Suddenly the door shut and Sarah heard Dave’s muffled voice. She then heard the locks on the door locking up. She turned around to see a glare on a pair of evil baby-blue eyes. Sarah gasped and tripped back wards landing in something wet.

“Here, lemmie help.” The deep evil voice as smooth as the smooth peanut butter, said. Then a flame sparked and a candle was lit. The flame’s light bounced off of the blue eyes of evil. His eyes flickered as well as the flame and Sarah could see the face of evil. Sarah looked at what she landed into. Blood. A pool of it. It was all over her back and hands.

“Daddy’s back.” Evil said.


“Sarah? Sarah!” Dave banged on the door. His eyes were wide and alert. He couldn’t leave Sarah alone in there, but he had to get help. He pounded on the door and screamed, “SARAH!”  stood quietly listening for a reply and all he heard was the faint sound of a deep voice and whimpering.


Beth picked up the phone, “WNYX,” She said. “Yeah,” She listened, and as she did her eyes grew wider. She sat up straight and looked around. She stood up and looked for Lisa without leaving her desk. Lisa was in the booth. “Yeah, ok. I’ll keep a look out.” Beth hung up and ran into the booth. Lisa had just finished up.
“Sarah’s dad broke out of jail. And they think he may want to find her and even kill her!” Beth said scared and worried.
“Well there at Michael’s now.”
“Do you know where he lives?”
“Yeah.”
“Lets go!”

Beth and Lisa ran out of the booth and Beth stopped and looked at Joe. She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the elevator with Lisa.


“Michael,…” Sarah whispered to herself and ran her index finger along his jaw line. He was passed out on the floor of his bedroom. His mother knocked him out when he got home and then and then Sarah’s real father killed her. And that’s what Sarah tripped over. And that’s whose blood she landed in

“Michael,” Tears ran down Sarah’s face as she tapped his cheek hoping he’d wake. She took his hand and slapped it. “Michael” She whispered.
“Sarah, my beautiful daughter!” Her father entered Michael’s bedroom with a drink. He handed it to her. She shook her head.
“You not thirsty? Not at all?” He asked. She shook her head. “Drink anyway.” She shook her head. He forced the cup to her mouth. The cup cut her lip when it knocked into her teeth and pulled down. He poured what he could, when she wasn’t coughing it out. He threw down the cup and with one hand grabbed her mouth. His thumb on her right cheek and all other fingers on her left. She looked around as he stared into her eyes. “You got pretty blue eyes like your mother.”  He said evilly as he always did. “She was a great gal. And one day she said, Brad, honey, we’re havin a baby. And few months later, there you were. As the years past I watched Kimberly grow apart from me and then one night after she came home from, drinking and partying and screwin, I killed that son of a bitch.” He laughed. Sarah held Michael’s hand tightly as tears fell down her face.
“And then, well you know the rest.” He smiled. His eyes drifted down to her lip.
“You’re bleeding.”

He put his index finger to the bleeding spot and pulled back to show how much blood was on his finger. He smiled and looked at Michael lying on the floor. Sarah dropped his hand as her father put the blood on his lower lip. Brad looked up and saw Sarah’s tears. He took a tear from her cheek with the index finger he used with the blood. He put his own lips to it and ate it. He smiled, “Just like your mother’s”
“What was she like?” Sarah’s words sounded cracked. Brad looked at her; Sarah had said her first words to him in nine years.
“She was a wonderful cook, she cooked at a restaurant even. She loved you, I guess, she had to but for the first four weeks of you being home, she didn’t touch you. Then one day I saw she was all cuddly with you. I was confused but at least she was taking care of you.”
“Was she pretty?”
“Beautiful. Much like you. You look so much like her, except the eyes, those are mine.” Did Sarah really have evil eyes, just like her father? Brad stood up and walked out of the room. Sarah quickly wiped Michael’s lip and whispered, “Michael… wake up!” She began to cry again in fear. But when his hand reached out and grabbed her hand, her sobbing ceased.  Michael’s eyes opened and they fixed on Sarah. He sat up and groaned.
“Shhhhhhhh!” Sarah whispered.
“What’s wrong with your lip?” Michael asked.
“Shhhhhhh!” Sarah covered his mouth and then Brad came in.
“Who the hell are you?” Michael yelled. Sarah began to tear up; she knew what was going to happen.
“I take it that your Sarah’s boyfriend.”
“Yeah, what are you doing in my house? And who the-“ He cursed, “are you?”
“I’m Sarah’s daddy.” He said in the most evil tone he could make. Michael’s eyes widened and he noticed Brad pull a knife out from behind his back with an evil grin.


Dave sat in the doorway biting his knuckles and listening to Sarah scream. Suddenly he saw Lisa, Beth and Joe come down the hallway. Lisa had a gun in hand. Dave jumped up and ran to them. “Something’s going on in there. I tried to go in and someone pushed the door shut and locked me out.” Dave was scared as hell. He feared for his little girl, the thing that made him not hesitate to get out of bed in the morning. Suddenly they all heard Sarah scream. Joe’s eyes widened and he pushed Dave out of the way of the door. Joe began to kick it and finally the door broke off its hinges. He walked in the dark apartment and saw the body of Michael’s mother on the floor. “Oh, man. Brad's definitely here.”
“Brad?” Dave asked.
“He broke out and wanted to find Sarah.” Beth said.
“Sarah?” Joe yelled.
“Joe!” Sarah screamed from a room down the hall.
“Shut up!” The evilly, angry voice of Brad screamed at her. Then she screamed again.

Joe ran down the hall and stopped at an open door where he saw a man hovering over Sarah with a knife to her cheek. She was covered in Michael’s mother’s blood and her own. From out her side blood poured and her lip was still bleeding. And Michael lay behind them, he too was bleeding, but from his leg and stomach. He lay on his side and was coughing up blood.

Joe looked at Sarah, he looked into her crying eyes, her scared eyes, her eyes screamed as well as her own voice. Joe pulled a gun out of his jacket and pointed it to Brad’s back. Brad turned around and his evil babyblue eyes starred at Joe.

“Drop the knife.” Joe ordered. He pointed the gun at his head and looked at Sarah, this was for her. And may she never go through this hell again.