by Saless
Chapter 57
It didn't take them long to move everything out of Sarah's apartment. Once that was done Sarah opened a portal into Mike and Jill's apartment so they could get the rest. They decided to stay there since it was getting late anyway.
After returning to her apartment, Sarah and Erica put a movie on and saw almost none of it as they acted like teenagers in a movie theater. "I think we missed the movie." Erica said when she glanced over and saw the credits were rolling.
"Want to go to bed?" Sarah asked shyly, looking up at Erica through her eyelashes.
Erica smiled and kissed Sarah again. "You are so cute! C'mon!" she said, pulling Sarah to her feet. She pulled an unresisting Sarah to her bedroom, turning the TV and DVD player off on her way. As soon as the door was closed they started pulling each other's clothes off. Before they knew it they were lying on the bed, exploring each other's bodies…
Sarah awoke to a warm, contented feeling suffusing her body. She started to turn her head, but realized she was lying on Erica's chest, not a pillow. Instead she snuggled up closer and let out a contented sigh. Wow, that was just...wow! she thought.
Yeah, I didn't realize it could be that wonderful! she heard Erica say.
Wait, Erica?! Sarah thought, shocked.
What, you expected to wake up with someone else? Erica replied.
No, but I'm pretty sure you're not speaking out loud. I'm sure I'm not! Sarah thought.
What?! Oh my gawd, you're right! My mouth's not even open! I thought I was immune to this stuff? Erica thought back in confusion.
Mike and Jill said something about a bond between us but I had forgotten all about it! Maybe that has something to do with it? Sarah replied.
But I'm supposed to be immune to magic and psionics! Erica said.
I think Jill said it's a spiritual bond, maybe that gets around the whole Null thing? Sarah thought.
I guess. This is so weird! Is this what it's like to talk to Vash or Jill? Erica said.
Actually...no. I can't describe it, but there is a difference. Sarah replied.
I guess we should talk to Jill and Vash about it later. Right now I need to use the bathroom. Erica thought.
Aww, but then I'll lose my pillows! Sarah whined theatrically.
I'll make it up to you. Erica replied with a mental grin. Sarah reluctantly extricated herself from Erica and she went to the bathroom.
Sarah startled Erica while she was washing her hands when she said, What do you want for breakfast?
Erica realized that Sarah had figured out what she'd been thinking the previous morning and grinned, You, of course! Erica received a mental smile in reply and came out to join Sarah…
A while later Sarah was startled into movement by her alarm clock. "I forgot, I've got to work today!" she exclaimed as she scrambled out of bed. Erica reluctantly followed. Sarah was a little surprised to find Erica waiting to get into the shower with her, but smiled shyly and let her in. They were both too tired from their exertions to do much, but what they did woke them up quite thoroughly.
"No time to eat." Sarah noted as she threw some clothes on.
"That's okay, I enjoyed my breakfast immensely!" Erica replied, grinning.
Sarah blushed and looked down shyly and softly said, "Me too."
Erica slipped her feet into her shoes and kissed Sarah's cheek. "Come on, I'll drive you." she said. They both grabbed their jackets and Erica drove Sarah to work.
When they got there Sarah unbuckled her seat belt but didn't open the door. "I really don't want to go to work today." she said.
"Nobody's giving you trouble, are they?" Erica asked with a tinge of anger to her voice.
"No, I just feel bad about leaving you alone all day." Sarah replied.
Erica laughed, "We've been separated for a lot longer, I'll be fine! Besides, I figured I'd visit some friends while you're at work."
"Are you sure?" Sarah whined.
"We'll have plenty of time tonight! Go on, I'll see you later." Erica said. She leaned over and kissed Sarah. She'd intended it to be a quick peck, but they both lingered before they finally pulled apart and Sarah got out of the car.
"Will you pick me up?" Sarah asked.
"Of course! Now go!" Erica said, laughing. Sarah reluctantly closed the door and waved as Erica pulled away. When she turned to go into work she was surprised to find Tiffany standing nearby watching.
"Good morning Sarah." she said.
"Good morning." Sarah replied and started walking into the building. Tiffany fell into step beside her.
"Don't worry, I won't cause you any trouble over your girlfriend. But you might want to consider being a bit more discreet in public, unless you're willing to put up with the trouble it will cause you." Tiffany said.
"Uh, thanks." Sarah replied awkwardly.
"Hey, relax!" Tiffany said. "I'd like to be friends, if that's okay with you. Anyone who can get rid of John is worth being friends with! You did us all a big favor there."
"I didn't really do anything." Sarah said.
Tiffany shrugged, "Sure you did, you came here as you are instead of hiding it. That's a pretty brave thing to do. Now come on, we've got to get to work." They clocked in and started working. It was a slow work day, so Sarah was able to help Tiffany with the last of the cleanup of the records needed because of Kyle's thefts.
"How much did he steal?" Sarah asked at one point.
"A lot. Mr. Holsteader's really mad about it, as you can imagine." Tiffany replied.
"Yeah, I guess so. Did you mean what you said earlier, about wanting to be friends?" Sarah asked hesitantly.
"Yes, I did. I don't really have many friends, and I think you'd make a good one. What do you say?" Tiffany asked, nearly holding her breath in anticipation.
"Sure," Sarah said shyly, "I'd like that."
"Great!" Tiffany exclaimed, grabbing Sarah in a hug. Sarah stiffened up and Tiffany released her. "Sorry, I guess I got carried away."
"Uh, that's okay." Sarah said, and they got back to work. At lunch they talked, just getting to know each other better. Tiffany told Sarah that she was an orphan and was raised by foster parents. She was never adopted and moved out as soon as she could.
"They weren't bad parents, I guess." Tiffany said. "But they didn't really love me, or me them. We just never clicked. I haven't seen them in a couple of years. How about your parents?"
"Uh, we never really got along either. I haven't been home in a while." Sarah replied guardedly.
Something about the way Sarah answered that question was familiar to Tiffany, but she couldn't quite figure out what. She shook it off as it was time to get back to work. Things picked up after lunch and they didn't have much time to talk. Tiffany did manage to wheedle a little information about Erica out of her before the day was over, though.
When Erica arrived to pick Sarah up she was busy chatting with Tiffany. "Hi Sarah, ready to go?" she asked.
"Hi Erica, sure I'm ready." Sarah replied, a smile lighting up her face at the sight of Erica. Erica's own smile grew wide at Sarah's reaction. When Sarah got in the car they were drawn together like magnets and forgot all about Tiffany while they kissed. She coughed to get their attention and they broke their clinch reluctantly.
"Hi Erica, I'm Tiffany. I work with Sarah." Tiffany said hesitantly.
"Hi Tiffany." Erica replied guardedly. This isn't one of the people who gave you a bad time before, is it? she thought to Sarah.
No, and we've agreed to be friends. I don't know her real well yet, but she's nice. Sarah replied.
"Well, I'd better get going. Nice to meet you Erica." Tiffany said. She left and Erica drove off once Sarah was settled.
"How was your day?" Erica asked once they were moving.
"Great! I've never really talked to anyone while I was working before, it was a nice change." Sarah replied, smiling. "Did you find your friends okay?"
"Jen was at work, but I was able to talk to Lisa for a while. I spent the rest of the time with Karen; she's a teacher so she isn't working right now." Erica said, a frown tugging at her mouth but she managed not to let Sarah see it.
"Will you be able to get together with Lisa or Jen while you're here?" Sarah asked as they pulled into Sarah's parking spot at her apartment building.
"I think so." Erica replied as she got out of the car.
Sarah was about to say something when they came into sight of her door. "Why's the door open?" she asked.
Erica frowned, "I don't know. I haven't been back here since I dropped you off this morning." She pulled Sarah behind her and stepped carefully into the apartment.
"The door's broken." Sarah noted as she followed Erica. When she got a look at her apartment she gasped. Her living room was trashed; everything had been knocked over, torn up, or smashed.
To Be Continued…
Comments
Ah, to be in Love
Young Love. Aawwww!
Tiffany is starting to get close to Sarah. Guess she decided to follow Vash's advice and to open herslf to the group. Eventually.
And please, no conspiracy theoricists right now. I do NOT believe either in Covert Ops finding Sarah this soon or seeking the source of her portals in such a crude manner. In fact, there are four possibilities:
1)John or Kyle or another asshole fired from work is responsible - either they broke out or had paid a sum of money to be let out. They are vengeful, and irrational. So, they found where Sarah lived and left her a message.
2)It is a non-related burglary. However, destroying what you can't take with you takes valuable time and drains your strength, so is counterproductive. Also, breaking through the front door in the life of day? Even I know better.
3)It is indeed Covert Ops work. And I have already said what I wanted about it.
4)Someone from another universe paid a visit. Thrashed her living room. And made an exit through the door. This is unlikely, but is plausible if the door has signs of being broken from the inside.
Also, lucky group, they got rid of incriminating evidence just in the nick of time!
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Ain't love grand? ;)
Yep, their timing couldn't have been better! ;)
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
Interestinger and interestinger
(Yah I make up my own words. So sue me.)
It looks like Sarah and Erica are bucking for the 'uber cute' award. LOL. It's wonderful seeing them acting the way they should.
I'm glad that Tiffany is making overtures of friendship. Of course, once they have become friends, it's going to become even more difficult for her to reveal herself. Hopefully, Vash will be able to help. The fact that she willingly gave up her magic wands to vash, and eventually to Sarah, will help.
Now... the break in. I wonder if there is another magic user around. I don't think the guv'mint did it -- though you can never tell.
In any case, it's a good thing they moved all their loot to that uninhabited world.
Back to our two young lovers... That spirit link is interesting. I wonder if they can go to the POWYHL universe and help Erica wake up her spirit. That would allow Erica to heal herself, not to mention some pseudo-magic (A null with powers -- who'da thunk it). Also, since the spirit powers seem to be separate and distinct from magic, it would give both Erica and Sarah a whole new arsenal and toolbox.
They are truly becoming a force to reckon with. Whoever it is that ransacked the apartment had better watch out.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
They've already been to the POWYHL universe ...
... in chapters 20/21. So I guess they could go back there, but we don't know if Erica's spirit can be awakened. Sarah's is already wide awake according to Laura (and somehow I get the impression that Sarah has no need for even more power).
I agree that trashing Sarah's apartment doesn't really look like government work - wouldn't they either try to apprehend her or to search her apartment without being noticed, instead of alarming her?
(OK, they might be trying to frighten her into doing something unreasonable. That would imply that they have probably known about her a lot longer ... well, we don't really know that Tiffany didn't tell on them, or that others didn't come to the same conclusions as Tiffany did in the beginning of "Sarah's Shadow". Still, I'd rather not see too many government agencies in this story.)
--- Martin
The spirit training thing
The spirit training thing didn't work very well for the others, so it might not work for Erica either (Their auras were described as alien). Still, could be worth a shot... ;)
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
Allright Saless
you win....Yes i do love the romance between our two lovebirds, And yes you can write about love just as well as you do the other stuff!! And yes i should have commented yesterday!!!!
Anyway that's enough about yesterday, Just who has trashed the apartment? ....Could it be someone or something from the the so called dead world....Can't wait to find out!!!
Kirri
Yay, I win!
What do I get?! ;) Thanks Kirri! ^_^
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
What's Strange...
...is that it was Erica, the Null, who decided that they needed to move everything "just in case", ahead of the place getting ransacked. So the odds of her bringing precognition into play seem, well, null, unless her feelings for Sarah have more fully "cured" her nonmagical condition than she realizes.
Erica could conceivably have spilled the beans somehow while talking with her friends Lisa and Karen, though I don't know what would motivate any of her friends to do that. We can pretty much eliminate the government -- official investigators would enter with a warrant and covert ops would cover their tracks. Members of the media or private investigators wouldn't do anything that blatant.
Someone could have followed Tiffany away from the scene over the past few days, I suppose, and figured that with all the loot she took with her there'd be more there. But I'm not sure how they'd have known which apartment she came from. Someone who knows both Tiffany and Sarah could put two and two together; that'd pretty much pin it down to some not-yet-discovered associate of Kyle and/or John who doesn't currently work where they did. But vandalism for frustration's sake isn't logical, and if the idea was to plant something incriminating (or a bug of some sort) there, ransacking the place would be counterproductive.
I don't much like the idea of someone coming from their deserted planet and breaking out through the apartment door when all they'd have had to do was open it. (Someone dragon-sized, I suppose, might have done it, along with the living room damage, without deliberate intent. But the description in the chapter -- "knocked over, torn up, or smashed" -- doesn't sound as though that's what happened.)
We've all (I think) been assuming that any reference we've seen to anyone sneaking through the portal behind our protagonists has been Tiffany. I suppose it's possible that she's not the only one. If someone from another universe got stranded here and is trying to get back, they could have ransacked the apartment, unsuccessfully searching for the portal they came in through.
I suppose Venus or another of the gods could have come by to follow up, but that'd violate my conception of the situation, which is that they can't come into play unless Sarah (or possibly someone else in Sarah's world with that power) opens up a portal TO them. (Vash? I hope not.)
Eric
Hair?
No mention of Tiffany's multicolored hair? I suppose it could be passed off as growth after a dye job, but if she has always been blonde and now shows black roots somebody is bound to wonder.
They know they can survive
We don't know much
About Tiffany's background. Is she local, is she from out of town, does she...
*Nagging feeling in the back of the skull.* Aha!
Tiffany told Sarah that she was an orphan and was raised by foster parents. She was never adopted and moved out as soon as she could.
So Tiffany is mostly a loner. and will not be immediately catching attention. And as for noticing? I'll say: If you can not hide it, flaunt it! Meaning - all she has to do is to get a brunette dye job. Problem Solved!
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
They're just dark roots
They're just dark roots right now, so most people would overlook them (a close friend or family member might notice, but as you've pointed out, she doesn't have much in that area). That idea might work, or it might not... ;)
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
Lots an Lots
Cavrider----Just another " Grunt."----Well let's see Tiff. is holding out the hand of friendship . Being an orphan the holidays ,must be a real downer . Erica seem to still have her fires burning for Sahra , but there is guilt about her friends . Why ? Sarahs house was tossed , what of Jill and Mikes ? Not to mention Tiffanys . If all three got tossed then the artifacts are mor to blame , drawing outside influence . Very good chapter !
Cavrider----Just another " Grunt."
Thanks
Thanks Cavrider!
Saless
"But it is also tradition that times *must* and always do change, my friend." - Eddie Murphy, Coming To America
Uh Oh! Poor Sarah!
What a mystery you let. Can Vash ell who did it? There are three possible reasns for the trashing"
1]men that got fired because of Sarah,2] the government 3] magic users looking for the magical treasure.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Let's look at the
Let's look at the second and third options first. As has been pointed out by others, the government would, if operating openly, submit a warrant to look for what it was after; or, if it were operating covertly, have taken steps to ensure that it left no trace of having been there. In neither case would it have either broken down the door or left the place in shambles. Therefore, your second reason can be quickly dismissed. As for the third, any users of magic would surely have used their powers to enter stealthily (leaving the door intact) and to find whatever they were searching for. Again, this means your third reason can, in all probability, be tossed aside.
This leaves two possibilities. One is that your first supposition is correct. John and his cronies certainly seem the sort to 1) break down the door and 2) destroy the contents of the apartment of the person they blame for their having lost their jobs (and facing serious legal troubles in more than one instance). This certainly could be the case; and I suspect it well might be the correct one. But there is one other opssibility that you haven't considered. This could be the work of someone who had witnessed Sarah's testing of her powers the previous day and covertly followed them to her apartment, then waited until Erica had taken Sarah to work to break in, hoping to find and take some of the magical items he/she had seen being brought into the apartment the previous day, not knowing they had already been transported to another, far safer, hiding place.
Which of these options is the correct one will depend on whether or not Mike and Jill's apartment has also been broken into and ransacked. Saless hasn't revealed that little detail yet; and it will prove to be the one clue to which of these two remaining options is the correct one. The story can become very interesting with either of these options proving correct.
I do think it entirely possible that some government agency or other will eventually take an interest in our intrepid heroes; but I feel it is still far too soon for this to happen.
Jenny
Jenny
Figure it out
I don't know if Sarah can portal through time, but Mike can definitely turn into a bronze dragon and go between time. Then, they can either watch the apartment, or set up some surveillance cameras.
So... if it's the guys that got fired and are in legal trouble, what do they do? If they can prove that it was them, that's just another nail in their collective coffin.
Or, Sarah can ka-girl them and send them to Gor. (Or someplace where women are second or third class citizens like the middle east.)
And if...
And if it is the government then don't forget Tiffany wasn't too far away, and she didn't stash her stuff in another world (as far as we know). That could be bad for her.
On the other hand...
On the other hand, Tiffany has been using her shadow power to keep both herself and the treasures she has accumulated hidden from the sight of others. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that anyone, the government included, is aware of what she has amassed.
Jenny
Jenny