S as Satanophany

Chapter One - Part 1

Derek woke up with butterflies fluttering in his stomach. As soon as he saw Sarah’s naked back glimmering under the morning sun beams, he knew that this would be another day in paradise for him.
Derek and Sarah had been together for a year now and he could hardly believe how lucky he had been to meet her. Their encounter had been provoked by a fortunate series of coincidences and last minute change of plans that neither of them could have expected. If they had actually wanted to find their soul mate that cold winter evening, they would never have met as it’s despair and disillusion that had brought them in the same place that night. You see, Derek meeting Sarah was almost and accident. A beautiful amazing one perhaps, but an accident it remained.
He didn’t want to wake her up. She looked so calm, so peaceful when she was asleep. Not that Sarah wasn’t a calm woman, she actually was. But in her sleep she looked even more like an angel as she already did. Her face was relaxed and her long light eyelashes gently caressed Derek’s chin every time she breathed. He was crazy about her. Utterly, undeniably, fantastically in love with Sarah Gregory.
Derek slightly backed up in the bed and admired lovingly Sarah’s long blond locks on her porcelain-white back. She was beautiful. 

The alarm clock rang. Sarah graciously opened her green eyes and stared sheepishly at the door of her room.
She could feel Derek’s naked body close to hers, his male warmth radiating from his strong chest, yet it wasn’t enough to chase the fears and doubts away. Sarah was anxious, nervous, panicked actually. She had a bad feeling about what was going to happen. Some how she knew things were going to change... dramatically.

“Morning sunshine, whispered Derek as Sarah turned around and hugged him. How did you sleep?
- Not too bad babe.
- You seem worried, anything wrong?
- There is something I have to talk to you about... My parents called me yesterday and told me they were going to do the world cruise they had planned to do last year. The problem is that my little sister just finished her studies in Paris. She will be coming back to London tomorrow but mum and dad will be already gone.
- Oh... They want you to take care of Serena during their cruise.
- It’s a nightmare! I told you how Serena and I just don’t go along! We can’t spend an entire day together without fighting. How am I going to possibly manage to live with her during three whole months?
- She is twenty-three now Sarah, she probably has matured. I’m sure she has changed and become a more responsible and reliable person.
- You are talking about Serena Derek, S-E-R-E-N-A. It’s just not possible for her to be anything else than the freaky party animal she has always been. Believe me, she is a desperate case.
- Try to be positive babe. It’s maybe the occasion for you two to make peace and finally build a healthy relationship. Look at how we met! It’s the proof that life has loads of surprises in store for each and every one of us.
- Guess you are right, muttered Sarah”.

But Sarah wasn’t convinced. Derek didn’t know how much of a brat Serena was. The spoilt little diva, mummy and daddy’s princess, they had passed her everything even the abortion! Sarah had never had so many chances. Her mistakes had always been heavily reproached to her. She had no other choice but to be perfect whereas Serena could be a proper b***h.
Sarah’s frustration was even stronger as she knew that Serena would probably damage her relationship with Derek. He had just moved in with her and they were in such a good place! Why did Serena have to come and destroy everything?
Life was really unfair; she offered you something and took it right back from you as soon as you actually started to believe you could enjoy it. Happiness and life in general was all about not losing what you had so difficultly obtained. If you believed a faint instant that you owned what you gained, you were screwed.
Sarah held Derek closer to her as he stroke her hair.
He maybe wasn’t “the one” but he was the sweetest and most loving man she had ever met. She wished she could believe just as he did that they were meant to be but...But she just didn’t believe it. She couldn’t actually explain to herself why she didn’t feel the same way as he did; yet she knew for sure that she wasn’t crazy about him.
Nevertheless she cared for him and really liked him. It was sufficient.
For the time being at least.


Serena walked out the train dragging her two heavy suitcases. She gazed around and spotted the elevators. After a few corridors she finally arrived into the station where strangers were waiting for their loved ones.
Nobody waited for Serena. Her parents were already on their cruise and Sarah had told her she would be at work. Yet Serena saw a very elegant seductive man holding a placard with her name on it. Happily surprised, Serena walked up to him and smiled to the beautiful stranger.
“I believe you are waiting for me?”
Derek was astonished by Serena’s beauty. He hadn’t imagined her so ... womanly. After all Sarah had said to him about her, he had pictured a post teenage wannabe diva whose superficiality reflected on her physique. She was nothing like that. Natural bare face, silky curly brown locks, adorable sexy smile, glittery grey eyes, she was a fine young woman. He also realised how much Sarah and Serena looked alike: the same eyebrows, the same eyes even if their colour was different, the same small nose, the same luscious lips, the same smile... Serena was thinner than Sarah who had all of a woman’s curves, yet that made her even more seductive in a way... Her body was still young and full of promises. Life was eager to carve her body.
Derek made a move to shake her hand but she was faster and kissed him on the cheek. Immediately he felt a gush of excitement run through his veins. The contact of their skins made his heart race making him blush heavily.
“Wow, you sure are a shy type of guy, she chuckled.
- Actually I’m not, he responded with a little smile. I’ve just been surprised by your spontaneous behaviour.
- Spontaneity is surely something you mustn’t have with Sarah!”

And there we go, the battle had just started and Serena had given the first hit. Derek looked coldly at Serena, disappointed in her scornful behaviour.
“ Seems like I’ve upset you. You should relax Derek! I was only joking.
- You know my name?

- Derek Spencer, carpenter from generation to generation. Born in New Haven Connecticut on the 29^th of September 1981. You moved in London two years ago and met my sister in an obscure little pub about a year ago. My mother briefed me.
- I’m afraid I don’t know as much about you.
- Not surprising, she muttered with a dark look, Sarah hates me. But don’t worry, during these three months of cohabitation you will have time to get to know me...completely.”

Derek wondered what Serena had meant. Was she flirting with him? Did he want her to?
No, of course not. He loved Sarah and Serena knew they were together. He probably was just confused by the young woman’s charming personality.
He actually liked her. At least for now.
Derek leaned down and took Serena’s luggage.
“Let me handle that.”
She smiled and followed him across Saint Pancras station.

Serena watched Derek walk. He was a very handsome man; his tall strongly built figure was very appealing to her and reminded her of her first high school love. His short blond hair seemed soft and his sparkly green eyes made her feel all funny. Her sister was very lucky and had almost never been single. 
Serena had always been jealous of Sarah’s boyfriends; they were all kind and clever seducing men who had all cared for her. Sarah had never been dumped. She always broke up with the men after having cheated on them.
Would it be any different with Derek?
Serena doubted it.
After this thought she immediately felt the need to protect him from what would obviously happen. She wanted to spare him the heartbreak and humiliation.
He turned around to look if she was keeping up and Serena saw in his gaze something she had never seen before any man’s eyes; a gleam of happiness was flickering and once again he started blushing. She smiled at him as she didn’t see any point in not showing him that she... liked him.
Yes, Serena liked Derek. Actually, Serena was wondering if she hadn’t fallen in love the very moment their eyes had met.


Sarah hang up and sighed. The numbers on her computer screen were reminding her of all the work that had left to be done. Her eyes met Derek’s, or rather, Derek’s picture on her desk. She looked at him for a little while, daydreaming and remembering how they met.
They met a bit more than a year ago, on Christmas night. Sarah was very lonely, as her parents had decided last minute to fly to Paris to spend Christmas with the brat. She had been, as usual, left behind while the other one was spoilt and loved. She had decided to get wasted somewhere far from her home without any risk running into anybody she knew, stay alone and moan on her dull boring existence.
Derek had ended up in the same place as her by complete coincidence. He had got lost when supposed to meet a friend and ended up miles away from where he should have been. He entered this pub called the “RePUBlic” wanting to ask for directions. That’s when he had spotted this beautiful woman who seemed so desperately lost. And when her eyes met his, he fell in love with her.
If Derek had instantly fallen in love with Sarah, it had taken her time to really fall for Derek. He was gorgeous, funny, reliable, kind but... Their hadn’t been and still wasn’t any “spark”.
She felt guilty. She loved him because he was loveable but she wasn’t in love with him.
Did it matter? Was it bad to commit herself to such a relationship?
She was already thirty-three and to be honest time was running. Everything and everybody around her constantly reminded her that the clock was ticking and she had to start thinking of getting married, building a family... She already had the career; now what she needed was the father of her children slash husband.
Derek was the perfect candidate.
Sarah sighed and brought her long hair up in a ponytail. She always did this when she was troubled by something.
More than her feelings for Derek, her sister’s arrival in their lives was the real problem.
Why? Why did her bloody sister have to always burst in her life in the worst moments?
That brat’s birth had been the beginning of the end for Sarah; she hated her sister since the very moment she came out of their mother’s womb.
Sarah knew the truth about Serena, a truth the parents had made her swore to keep a secret. But she no longer wanted to hold her promise. She decided this very instant that if Serena messed up her life again, she would spill the beans. No matter how much it would destroy the brat, no matter the damages, truth would be told.
Sarah was a good woman but her darkness was her sister. No one knew why they hated each other so intensely, and Derek was unfortunately about to experience on a daily bases their hatred.
Sarah closed her eyes and tried to remember how lovely it felt when the parents sent Serena to France... It was the best moment of her life.
The phone rang and she decided to focus herself on work again.
Enough of tears and despair had been spent on Serena. It was time to start fresh.

Serena was sitting across from Derek in the tube. He was pretending to be intensely focused on the map above her head but she knew he actually was avoiding her. What was he afraid of?
She looked at her phone and remembered there wasn’t any signal in the tubes here. She already missed Paris. She sighed loudly and gazed dreamingly through the windows, remembering that lovely guy she had been with the last couple of weeks. He had promised her he would visit as soon as he could and eventually move in London if they got really serious.
Yet compared to astonishing manly Derek, Nathan was a kid. Serena was looking for much more than a kid.
His eyes met hers and once again he blushed. Yet this time he smiled at her and she felt this incredibly good feeling dance in her chest.
“So, how is living with my sister turning out?

- Your sister and I are very happy Serena.
- You are, or both of you are?
- Not even settled in yet and already you are trying to mess up our relationship? asks harshly Derek.
- I’m rather trying to see if you guys actually have a relationship.”

This girl was something. She knew him for less than an hour and was already feeling comfortable enough to provoke him. Derek couldn’t help but smile. She smiled back and he felt his heart tighten in his chest. Butterflies where twirling in him and he felt as if he was sinking into clouds. Never had Derek felt something like this before. This sensation was completely and entirely new. Stars appeared from the corners of his mind and danced before his eyes, surrounding Serena with an aura of heavenly light. The more she smiled and the brighter the stars shined. The butterflies kept on flying, flying, flying higher. From their wings fell sparkles of light that tickled his skin. He was shattered and yet assembled again the instant he met her eyes. Serena kept smiling and her smile was, he knew it for sure, the most pure and genuine smile that had ever been offered to him.
Derek was feeling what very few among us are given a chance to feel yet...
The train stopped.
As the doors opened strangers rushed in and packed themselves in tiniest corners they could find. Derek couldn’t see Serena anymore. An old fat lady’s bottom was in the way. He spotted brown curls and saw her stretching her neck towards him. She was laughing like a little girl.
What a beautiful smile he thought to himself... He laughed as well then leaned back in his seat. It didn’t matter that the train was packed, smelly and overheated. It didn’t matter that people were stressed and moody. It didn’t matter that they had this butt in their way. Actually nothing else mattered except her smile.

Sarah grabbed her bag, switched her desk lamp off and checked her reflexion in the mirror as she was walking out of her office. She looked tired but still had her good looks. How would Serena look?
Last time she saw her she had bright pink hair, a septum piercing and never removed her thick black eyeliner. It was her “rebellious” period. One of the numerous ones...
Could it actually be worse than her previous look? No, unless she had decided to become obese or transgender. These last thoughts made Sarah laugh: trying to picture Serena as an obese or transgender gave awkward yet convincing results.
As she walked down the quiet corridor towards the elevators, Sarah remembered the day she discovered the truth about her mother. This very truth that had changed everything and doomed her relationship with Serena. She still was angry with her mother for what she had done, yet the one she hated above all was her sister. Her sister reminded her day after day of how love and life can go so wrong. Of how easily you can lose all you have.
Sarah had grown bitter and the years passing by hadn’t soothed the pain. Actually it kept on growing.
The lift’s doors slid open and Sarah hurried inside. In some kind of sick twisted way, she was eager to see her sibling again. Curiosity probably.


Derek entered the key into the lock and pushed the door open. Serena let herself in dropping her bag in the middle of the corridor. Derek looked at her venture through the different rooms while silently following her. He enjoyed watching the different expressions on her face as she touched this or that object.
A child, that’s what she was. A little twenty-three year old girl.
Derek liked this ambiguity he sensed in her: half child half woman, Serena had an astonishing natural charm that defied everything he thought he knew until then. Rules of seduction, what’s desirable and what’s not, good or bad looking, Serena blurred all the lines and boundaries. A wild, luscious, mysterious, fascinating creature. Quiet disturbing yet undeniably magnetic. Something about her, something he sensed in her that made the butterflies buried in his soul awake and flutter.
She lifted one of the frames displayed on the shelves and closely inspected it. Derek joined her and recognized the picture that had been taken of Sarah and him on their last summer holiday in the Maldives islands. They were hugging tightly, Sarah’s back against his chest and his arms crossed over her shoulders. He beamed as he remembered how happy they had been that holiday.
Serena on the other hand was considering the picture quite coldly. She found it “cliché” and thought to herself that poor Derek had it all wrong. He probably thought he had found the woman of his dreams future mother of his kids but she knew he was being fooled. With Sarah, a happy family future was something no man could rely on.
Serena shook her head sadly yet remained silent; it was to soon to tell Derek how wrong he was. He wouldn’t believe her and she perfectly understood why. First had she to gain his trust before attempting to open his eyes on reality.
Serena didn’t think a single second her sister might have changed. It was simply not possible. Sarah was much too stubborn and self-centred to even consider taking into account people’s suggestions or advice. She had always been incredibly confident, believing only she knew what was right and what was wrong, never bothering to listen to what others had to say. Serena had stopped a long time ago trying to change her sister as she had quickly understood that some battles couldn’t be won.

Derek watched Serena carefully put the frame back on the shelf. He noticed that one of her fingers, the left middle finger, was tattooed. It was a small yet very well drawn half sun half moon symbol. He looked at it and wondered what it meant to her. He felt like asking her yet he knew from his friends that nothing annoyed inked people more than the famous question “What does it symbolise?”.
He figured that he would probably discover sooner or later what it meant as Serena was planning anyway on introducing herself entirely to him.
A sudden loud moan interrupted the silence. It came from Serena’s belly, who giggled and said: “You heard it! It wants to be fed!
- You are lucky, I’m a very good cook!”
Derek fixed her in no time delicious spaghettis bolognaise. They were enjoying the meal in the kitchen, sitting one across another.
For an instant he felt deeply ashamed as he realised he was comfortable, relaxed and not concerned by anything with her. With her sister it was another story; Sarah was a quiet woman yet you felt she always had something troubling on her mind. Serena was so young and fresh, so natural and playful that she seemed to be the type of girl that nothing ever bothered.
Derek felt free to be himself with this young stranger whose chin was covered in tomato sauce. He laughed and she giggled as she playfully smeared sauce on his face.
A child. A woman. A child in a woman’s body. Or was it a woman in a girl’s body?
As she leaned forward to smear sauce on his cheeks, his eyes discovered the sensual yet still young and tender n*****s that bounced freely in her loose shirt. Amazed by this amazing view, not even ashamed, Derek realized he was rediscovering himself. Suddenly Sarah’s generous breasts seemed meaty and heavy, her round belly seemed disgraceful compared to Serena’s flat tattooed one. Derek was loosing himself in Serena’s shirt and she was laughing while covering generously his forehead with squashed meatballs.
All this was awkward, inappropriate. He knew it yet he couldn’t stop himself from admiring this rebellious, slightly damaged and imperfect body. If Sarah was curved like a bombshell, Serena reminded him of a bewildered savage child whose beauty lies in her smile and eyes. Sarah was a diva but Serena, she was a natural unusual complex beauty.
He caught her wrist playfully and attracted her towards him. Her hips were now lying in her plate, the shirt completely uncovering her chest and her daring stare dived in his eyes.
At this precise moment Derek wanted to kiss Serena.
She wanted him to kiss her. She was literally burning for it.
Yet both knew it would be foolish and instead decided to clean up the mess they had made before Sarah came home.