Annabel woke up in the morning and saw the curtains were drawn. She wasn't sure what time it was. She must have overslept. She looked at her phone. “Are you kidding me?” she asked herself reading the time. It was seven in the morning. If she wanted to wake up at that time, it would never happen.
She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. “I'm not going today,” she said thinking about work. She needed to rest after the weekend she had. She would be too concerned with checking over her shoulder for the Unseen to attack her to serve coffee properly.
She opened her door and peeked out into the hallway to see if anyone else was awake. She didn't want to accidentally wake up the entire house. They shouldn't suffer for her rising early. She started down the hall and saw Crispin's door was opened. She crept closer towards it. She wanted to see if he was awake too. She stopped when she heard voices coming from inside.
“You can't tell me what to do. I can determine for myself what I should or shouldn't do,” Sera said. She sounded agitated with Crispin. This was not the first time they argued like this.
Crispin responded with, “You don't know how to properly defend yourself. Why should you be out? Do you want to be attacked?”
“I was with Henry. If something happened he'd help me. I thought about that before I left.”
“Henry would help you if it didn't interfere with him getting some chick's phone number. I know him. We've worked together for over twenty years now."
Annabel thought about what he said. She wondered how old Crispin was if he and Henry worked together for that long. She thought he wasn't older than thirty. She must be wrong.
“That's it then? I'm stuck in this house for the rest of the time we're here. I don't understand why you're acting this way. Do you want me to beg? Oh please sir, can I go outside or do I need to get clearance for that too?”
“I'll give you clearance to go outside.”
“I was being sarcastic. I don't see why you're so angry about this. You're the one who first brought the human here. You broke your own rule.”
“She's being attacked by the Unseen.”
“Yeah right.”
“She is.”
“Oh Annabel, I think you're so pretty.” Sera made kissing noises, knowing it to agitated Crispin. She was angry with him for keeping her here. There was nothing more he could do to her since she was inside of the house. Her goal was to force him to let her get away if only for peace in the house.
Crispin had enough. He knew what the real problem was. “You can't hang around Henry. He's a bad influence on you.”
“Now you're going to tell me who I can talk to?”
“Yes I am. If you don't like it, you can always leave and go back home.”
“Fine. All hail King Crispin,” Sera said stomping out the room. She was angry with him. He was being unreasonable.
Annabel headed back to her own room before Sera or Crispin saw her in the hallway. She didn't want to get involved in whatever dispute they were having. She made it back to the room and stood against a wall so she could not be seen. She heard Sera's steps heading downstairs. Annabel peered out of her room once more before walking to talk with Crispin.
She saw Crispin left his room and walk to another one. She counted the doors and saw it was Henry's. Crispin was going tell him the same thing he said to Sera. He was not allowing this behavior to continue. It wasn’t happening while they were in danger of an attack from the Unseen.
Annabel would talk to him later. She didn’t have to worry about waking up anyone now. It seemed everyone was already awake. Entered the living room, she saw Sera sitting on the couch watching TV. It was some reality show. Annabel grinned realizing no matter what species you were, television was a form of entertainment.
The mood was tense in the room. Annabel couldn't tell why. There were two options she thought about. It could be the argument Sera had with Crispin. There was also the feeling of Sera not liking Annabel.
“Hi Sera,” Annabel said. She sat on an oversized chair in the room. It was close enough to talk to Sera without being next to her. She wanted to lighten the mood of the room. It was becoming overbearing.
Sera didn't turn her attention away from the screen. “You heard the entire conversation?”
“I heard the last part.” Annabel wasn't going to lie. She learned her lesson about that.
Sera positioned herself facing Annabel. “I'm sorry. I'm usually not that moody, it's – do you have any brothers?”
“Oh, you and Crispin are brother and sister?” Annabel smiled and nodded to herself. It made sense now. That was another thing she could cross off her list. There was nothing else keeping her from asking him out.
“Unfortunately yes. He thinks he knows more than me about everything. He tells me what to do since he has more experience. I would have experience too if he let me go on the missions. It's annoying to put up with it all the time.”
“How long have you been chasing the Unseen with him?”
“I've helped them for about ten years. Actually,” she looked up and counted silently, “It's more like eight years. The guys have been together for a while now.”
“They travel from place to place hunting the Unseen? That doesn't seem like an easy job to do.”
“It's not only hunting the Unseen. They search out and investigate what happened to people who appeared to be killed by the Unseen. It's a gruesome job. They also have to worry about fighting knights.”
Annabel wasn't sure she heard the last part correctly. “Fighting who?”
“Knights. It's a long story and it's too early for me to get into it. It'll give you something to talk to Crispin about. I know it's not easy to get Crispin's attention. He can't focus on things for long before drifting off onto something else.” Sera's attention drifted back to the television.
“Thanks for telling me that,” Annabel turned her attention to the television as well. It was easy letting her mind go blank so that she stopped thinking about everything else going on.