Prospect

"Lanie!" Scarlett screamed, hurtling forward. The spot where Lanie had been was empty, a shimmer in the air like a heat haze the only remnant of her being there. Scarlett stumbled in a circle, waving her arms around hopelessly. "Lanie!"

Lucas grabbed her from behind and spun her around to face him. Tears were streaking her face and she collapsed against him, sobbing. He stroked her hair absently, observing the spot Lanie had vanished from. "A ... pixie," he said quietly, frowning in confusion.

Scarlett pulled away and frowned at him. "What?"

"A pixie," Lucas repeated. "It was using a cover, a kind of magic costume."

Scarlett physically shook her head; paranormal, she could just about deal with. But pixies? And magic? Nuh uh. "What," Scarlett hissed through her tears, "does it want with Lanie?"

Lucas looked genuinely baffled.. "I don't know."

"How do we get her back? Where is she?" Scarlett's voice was reaching hysterical pitches and Lucas rubbed her arms with his hands, locking eye contact.

"Lanie's going to be fine," he said firmly. "All we can do right now is wait."

"Wait?" Scarlett screeched. "While some thing has my baby?"

Lucas's mouth was set in a grim line. "There's nothing else we can do."

Lanie fell hard on her back and immediately curled into a ball, winded. Gasping, she forced her watering eyes open and took stock of her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was how there was no smell, none at all. In fact, it was so dark that she couldn't see a thing either. She refilled her lungs as best she could and stood up slowly, confused that her night vision had failed.

Where was she? What had happened? Where was her mom?

Not her mom, she reminded herself bitterly. A trick, and she'd fallen for it completely. How could she be so stupid?

"You're not stupid," came a voice from behind her. "I'm just a fabulous actor."

Lanie span around and a faint glow appeared from somewhere - she couldn't quite discern where -, illuminating a figure stood calmly ahead of her, arms crossed over her chest. Her mother-but-not-her-mother.

Lanie ground her teeth to bite down the terrified screams rising up in her throat. "Who are you?"

Her 'mother' smiled in wide delight and took a step forward. Lanie stepped back. "Oh, come now, Lanie," the creature said gleefully. "We both know the real question is 'What am I?'"

The thing's eyes flashed white and horrible, and Lanie sucked her breath in. "A pixie?" She ventured. The thing, the pixie, applauded. "But pixies aren't real. They don't exist."

And suddenly, the thing was there, in Lanie's face. This time, Lanie did scream, but she couldn't pull back; claw like hands were sinking into her wrists with incredible strength. "Does this feel," the pixie hissed, "like I don't exist?"

"Why are you doing this?" Lanie whimpered, and the pixie pulled back, her cruel smile playing on her lips again.

"Because," she said reasonably, "you are on my territory. And besides, I've been keeping an eye on you. A very close eye." She sat on the floor (although Lanie couldn't actually see a floor, she could feel it below her feet) and crossed her legs. "So, spit it out."

"What?" Was this a dream? A really horrifically vivid dream?

"Don't play dumb, Lanie," the pixie grinned. "You're bursting with questions. Let's get them out of the way, or we could be here for a very long time."

Lanie paused, narrowed her eyes and then; "Where am I? What do you want from me? Why do you look like my mom? How do you even know what my mom looks like?" It did feel a little better to have a few less question marks rolling around in her skull.

To her surprise, the pixie looked a little hurt. "Of all your questions, you didn't even ask my name," she sighed. "Manners are lost on the youth these days."

"Manners?" Lanie spluttered. "It isn't good manners to crash a car. It isn't manners to pose as someone's dead mother. It isn't manners to steal a girl from the roadside. It isn't manners to hole her up God knows where."

The pixie had the good grace to look shameful, though that smile didn't falter, not once. "Well then," she said. "Maybe we should have a little talk."

Lanie stared, then made an exasperated noise and dropped to the floor, sitting with her legs crossed like the pixie. "So. You know my name. How? And ... what's yours?"

"Like I said, I've been watching you for a while. Since Prospect, actually. And as for my name, I am Adelle. See, before the Break In, you were just another enemy. But now," Adelle's smile brightened, and so did the surrounding glow. "Now, you're interesting."

"Why?" Lanie asked the question, but she already knew the answer.

"Because you're one of us, now. And you're in danger."

"Yeah, no kidding," Lanie snapped. "I've been kidnapped by a pixie."

Adelle's white eyes sparkled. "You have no idea, do you? I'm not here to hurt you, Lanie. I'm trying to warn you. There are things scarier than paranormals in this big bad world."

"Oh yeah, and what's that?"

"Humans," Adelle replied simply, the self-assured smile vanishing. Lanie's blood went cold.

"Humans don't kill for fun," she whispered. "They don't break into cities and slaughter everyone they can find."

"Oh, they don't?" Adelle's voice was angry now and her image flickered like a fault television screen. For a second, Lanie saw why Adelle maintained her mother's form; not just to lure Lanie into her trap, but to hide what really lay beneath. Because for a horrible second, Lanie thought she'd seen black skin, empty eyesockets and a round, gaping mouth ringed with fiercely sharp teeth. And then her mother was back, looking angry and frustrated. "How many humans actually died in that break in, Lanie? Compared to how many paranormals were shot down?"

Lanie froze. "It was ... it was self-defense. The paranormals could have ... they would have ... they bit people. Infected them. Just look what they did to me." Her voice had become sour, bitter. Adelle's mouth twisted. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but shut it again; apparently, she figured Lanie didn't want to know. Lanie was glad.

"Anyway," Adelle sighed. "You should have known better than to think you could get away with just leaving Prospect in your rear view mirror. The Organisation are as interested in you as the paranormals. But for very different reasons. The paranormals are on your side now, Lanie. It's the humans you want to watch out for."

"What?" Lanie squeaked. This was all just too much. Her head hurt. Hell, everything hurt. "Why? We left, we didn't hurt anybody."

"That's not what they think. You were spotted at the scene of the break in. And then you left, aided by a werewolf."

A werewolf? Oh yes, Lanie remembered; the wolf who had lured the Organisation away from the broken gate. But ... "But I didn't open the gate. Alec Fletcher did! The ghost, it ... how could ... what?"

"Lanie," Adelle laid a hand on Lanie's arm and Lanie fought the urge to pull away. It was unsettling, like speaking to a life sized cardboard cut-out of her mother. "Humans don't stop to think these things through. They think you're responsible, and they're hunting you down. Your friend Paul sold you out to them the moment you left the village. They're hot on your werewolf little tail, and there is nothing more important than you not getting caught."

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Lanie cried out desperately. She couldn't take this. Paranormals were evil. And yet here Adelle was, telling Lanie she was equal to them now. And Scarlett and Lucas were not. She suddenly felt alone and different and out of place.

"You know the answer to that one, Lanie," Adelle said in that patronising voice Lanie was quickly learning to hate. And then she realised that she did know the answer; pixies were fey. They were uncapable of lying. They could only tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The truth could be manipulated, though, right? And pixies were playful, mischevious.

Lanie was so confused.

She stood up slowly, glaring. Adelle matched her movements with sinewy grace, looking wary. Her hand was still on Lanie's arm. Lanie's blood was hot and fast suddenly, a pressure building behind her eyes. Her heart quickened. "Take me back," she growled.

"Lanie," Adelle started, sighing.

"Now!" Lanie, charged with a sudden, unbelievable strength, seized Adelle's hand and twisted it around her back, slamming her face-first into the floor. Adelle screeched and then snarled, a furious lioness. She bucked and her skin blackened, her true form shining through her stolen skin. She twisted, baring her awful jaws at Lanie. Lanie trembled but didn't loosen her grip. "Back to where I was. Or I snap your arm clean off."

But Adelle was strong. She whirled suddenly, throwing Lanie off and then the tables were turned; Lanie on her back, Adelle pinning her down. Lanie's mother's image returned, but the pixie's true appearance was burned sharply in Lanie's brain. Adelle giggled that high, keening laugh. "That's right, Lanie, you keep thinking I'm the monster," she panted. "But sooner or later, you'll see. You'll see who the real monsters are."

Lanie screamed. A rushing noise, like a gale, whipped through her ears and she was falling into oblivion.