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Not So Human Excerpt
© Jeannette DiLouie

The engine hummed to life under Deanda’s guidance. Yet even as she pulled it out of the space, Sabrina kept her mouth shut, still overwhelmingly concerned that the four men might somehow appear out of nowhere. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and the girls made it out of the parking lot and onto Route 30 without further trouble. Just to be on the safe side though, it wasn’t until they had left the developments and strip malls of that highway for the trees and open farmland of 222, that Sabrina spoke up.
“What happened to your car?” Now that she had the freedom to ask questions, she found herself focusing on the most trivial of them all.
“This is a loaner. We’ll drop it off when we get to where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?”
“Away.”
Frustrated, Sabrina shook her head. “No. I want answers, and I want answers now. I’m dressed like a baby prostitute driving ‘away’ in a rented car after four creepy guys just followed me all over Lancaster. Now what was that all about?”
She steeled herself for the answer. Drug deals gone bad. International spy rings. FBI conspiracies. She could take the news, whatever it was. While any mention of aliens would be disconcerting, Sabrina tried to mentally prepare for that as well.
Deanda first glanced in the rear-view mirror and then at her. “We’re moving at eighty miles an hour, right?”
Sabrina didn’t bother glancing at the speedometer. “Sure.”
“So you can’t throw yourself out of the car when I tell you what I’m about to tell you. Your brother would kill me if anything happened to you.”
Sabrina got very quiet then, her insides doing their familiar little drop at the topic. Unlike Eugene the other night, Deanda was very well aware she didn’t have a brother. So unless she was suffering from some sudden and inexplicable memory loss, she was pulling a very inappropriate joke.
Sabrina stared at her friend for a few seconds.
“That isn’t funny.” The three words were all she could manage.
“I didn’t intend it to be.”
Sabrina didn’t know how to respond to that, so she waited for her to continue. Maybe it was how Deanda’s eyes were still discolored by the contacts, but they looked very, very serious. And her glossy lips were set in a way that didn’t seem to bode well either.
“I’ll tell you everything, but first you have to promise me you won’t do anything stupid, okay?”
Sabrina nodded, and Deanda took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.
“You’re going to think I’m insane, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Looking very nervous, she glanced over and then straight ahead again, her hands digging into the steering wheel.
Sabrina took a deep breath of her own.
“You’re not quite who you think you are,” Deanda continued slowly, like she was pondering every syllable before she spoke it.
In no mood for the elongated version of whatever story Deanda was about to give her, Sabrina interrupted. “Just tell me. Spit it out. Please.”
So Deanda did, uttering the last four words Sabrina ever would have expected.
“You’re a faerie princess.”