"I just think you've had a shock, and you're handling it the best way you can."

A huge sigh shook Erin's body. Annabelle thought she could hear tears hiding behind it.

"He'd be here if he could," Erin whispered.

"Who?"

Erin frowned. "Lucas, of course."

Her mouth opened and closed, but Annabelle couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't irritate her sister.

"Look!" Erin's voice trembled. "They're here to get me, too!" She grabbed Annabelle's sleeve and pulled with one hand as she pointed with the other. "There. By the window! Just like when they took Lucas."

Annabelle followed the guidance of Erin's extended finger. There by the window was the solitary firefly.

"Honey," she said, her voice calm even if her heart was thumping a hundred miles an hour, "it's just a firefly. See?"

"No, Annabelle, it can't be! It's too early for fireflies."

Erin was right. It was March, far too early for fireflies.

But there it was, a flickering point of light dancing at the window, smacking against it, as though asking to come in.

Annabelle shivered.

"It's them! Don't let them get me!"

Erin's grip tightened, pulling Annabelle onto the bed.

"Erin! Let me go. I'll close the curtains."

"That won't help. They can come through the walls. Don't you watch the Sci-Fi Network?"

"No, I don't," Annabelle replied in a deliberately calm voice, trying to free herself from Erin's grip.

"What about the stories you write for your paper?"

"Erin, you know perfectly well I make those up." Finally loosening Erin's hold on her, Annabelle quickly went to the window, jerking the curtains closed. Now as anxious about the mysterious flickering light as Erin was, she hurried back to Erin's side, tightly taking her sister's hand.

The sisters stared at the closed curtains, waiting, listening. The ticky-ticky stopped.

"Annabelle, what do you think it is?"

"It's nothing. I'll bet it's only leaves falling or maybe even raindrops catching the light from the room." Before Erin could inform her it wasn't raining, she added, "Or maybe your guardian angel looking in on you."

"I think I need one," Erin whispered, still clinging to Annabelle's hand.

"Hey, squirt, loosen up. I gotta go." With a fake grimace, she tipped her head toward the bathroom.

"Sorry," Erin whispered. "Sorry." She released Annabelle's hand, but her grip tightened again and she said in a hoarse whisper, "Hurry, though. I don't want to be here alone when they come."

Was her sister always going to be nuts? It was a struggle to keep her tone easy when she answered. "Sure thing," she said, and escaped with all possible speed into the adjoining bathroom. Annabelle gently closed the door and only then did she permit her body to start shaking and the tears to pool.

"Oh, Erin," she moaned, struggling to keep her voice low.

It was so unfair. Sweet, trusting Erin had given her heart to a rat who'd betrayed her. Now the rodent was gone.

At first Annabelle had been sure Erin had been driven delusional. Not only about the aliens who took Lucas, but about Lucas himself. Even after her visit to his apartment, Annabelle clung to her original theory: Lucas was laughing with his buddies in some bar about how he'd gotten Erin to put out and then left her to face the consequences alone. But she'd gone to every bar on Franklin Street, and a few on the side streets her father had forbidden her to even look at, much less enter.

No Lucas.

Of course, she hadn't told Erin any of this. She was sure her sister would go right off the edge if her fears about Lucas's safety were confirmed.

Still he'd left her alone. No matter what happened later, that much was still true, and it was still enough to earn her big sister's ire. Preferring anger to fear, Annabelle nurtured that emotion.

"The no-good-" She clipped off the rest of the words. He wasn't worth it.

Thank Heaven, she'd listened to her Granny. At least she still had her self-respect, which was more than Erin would have when she finally snapped out of this fantasy.

Meanwhile, she thought, her tears trickling, one by one, down her cheeks, she could forget sharing the burden of their mother's care with her sister. Now Annabelle would have to put her own life on hold to take care of both Erin and their mother.

Leaning over the small sink, she splashed cold water on her face and sniffed her tears to a stop. She dried her face and hands.