B9/Ch15: NOSEDIVE

The Murphy house in Welshport village 

A half-moon floated in the sky above Welshport. The village grew quiet, a seemingly normal night where the waves off the coast crashing up against the rocks was the only noise breaking the silence of the village.

With most things in Welshport, however, looks were deceiving.

Near the center of town off a small, sloped street, the newlywed couple of Aaron and Coraline Hamstead, carried their suitcases down a small flight of stairs at the Murphy home. She was dressed in a tight coat that covered a heavenly white dress, mirroring her virginal wedding dress. The honeymoon called.

Aaron, at the bottom of the stairs, looked up at his new wife. His face shining with adoration. The look in his eyes as she carried the heavy suitcase filled the room with a brightness that could have come from a thousand suns. 

"Are you just going to watch my sister lug all of that down those stairs or help her?" Baxter said, slowly making his way into the foyer with a limp. His body still healing from attack. 

"OH!" Aaron said, quickly rushing up the remainder of the stairs and grabbed the suitcases. "I was just transfixed by my new wife." He chuckled.

"Oh, you." Cora said, kissing his lips. 

"So, what exactly is it you both want to see in Charleston, huh? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone going down there for a honeymoon." Baxter asked.

"Aaron's family is there." Cora replied. "I need to meet my new mother-in-law." Cora giggled. 

"She's very excited." Aaron added. "We should get going, Mr. Lord is only letting use the car for just a week." 

"Always on a schedule, that one." Cora added.

The threesome headed out to pack the car and begin their new journey. 

**

Aurora, Eden & Justin at Danielle’s house 

Just one block over, the frantic Aurora Jordan, Eden Sydney and Constable Justin Ryan made their way up the small stone path to Danielle Holten's cottage that was hidden on a street that was thick with trees. The dark surroundings made by the lush brush put Aurora's nerves on an even thinner edge.

The mad Caspian, the man they were here to warn Danielle and Nik about, could be hidden anywhere. 

"Quickly." Justin commanded as he placed one hand on his gun holster. 

The lights inside Danielle's home were on. Danielle and Nik cuddled on the sofa as the light of the soft lamps hit them, casting a warm glow on their faces. 

Danielle, in a soft cool-toned dress, lay her head on Nik's chest. He held her, tightly to him, comforting her as the finally felt safe from the danger that surrounded them just weeks ago after Asha's death.

"Dr. Ward was so gracious welcoming us back to the hospital." Danielle noted, her voice muffled by her face's close proximity to Nik's chest.

"We deserve to come back to work." Nik said kissing Danielle on the head. "We didn't do anything wrong."

"I just wish -- I... everything could have been done so differently." She said.

"I know. The whole thing just went left. I never should have lied to Asha. I should have been up front with her and told her..." 

As Nik continued, a frantic knock came to Danielle's door yanking the two quickly out of their private conversation.

Danielle sat up, she turned towards the clock on the wall, it was half past eight o'clock.

"Who could that be?" She wondered. But she didn't to wait long. Aurora shouted outside, announcing herself.

Nik quickly ran to the door and opened it to find his mother, the barrister and the constable. 

"What's happened?!" Nik asked, his mother's face showing no signs of calmness.

Aurora, Eden and Justin pushed into the house "Is everything alright here?" Justin asked, quickly closed the door behind him and locking it. 

Danielle froze in her own living room. "What's going on?" She wondered.

Aurora turned to her. She reached over and grabbed Danielle's hands that were tightly wound in one giant fist of 10 fingers in front of her. "Its your father. Darling, I'm sorry to tell you this but the headaches he's been having have worsened, they've created something inside of his mind that have turned him -- I don't even know how to explain it."

"He's ... he's not like he was before is he?" Nik asked, rushing over to hold Danielle.

"Before?" Danielle asked, forgetting the story of her father's demonic possession. 

Nik looked at her, his reaction explained it all. "No, he -- he can't be. Not again!" She said.

"We don't think its that. No." Aurora replied, also hinting at Caspian's previous possession. "We think that the blow to his head when he fell at the coves caused an injury in his mind that has made split. He's not himself, or perhaps he's back to himself. It's hard to know." 

"I don't understand."

"Caspian is calling himself Viktor now." Eden said. "Viktor and Caspian have had a sort of battle inside the one mind. When Viktor takes over bad things happen. We believe he's the one that attacked Baxter. He also attacked Aurora, he strangled her." 

"NO!" Danielle exclaimed.

"Are you alright???" Nik worried.

"I'm fine, yes, yes. But we came here, rushing, to be sure you were both ok. If Eden hadn't come to the beach house to hand Caspian papers about this divorce from Rebecca, I would have been dead. He saved he." Aurora said reaching for Eden and holding his hand.

"Thank you." Nik said to Eden, his eyes filling with tears as the thought of his mother's attack. 

"Are you both sure there's no one else here?" Justin wondered.

"We're sure." Danielle said. "After Cora and Aaron's wedding we came right home." 

But Justin was not sure. His face froze in an expression that sent shivers up Danielle's spine. He slowly reached for his gun holster and removed his weapon pointing towards a doorway in the living room that led into the darkened kitchen. 

Everyone followed his Justin's eyes towards the kitchen and the open kitchen door. It was a back door that led to a small path through a back garden. 

Danielle gasped. A small gust of wind blew through the back garden and a shadow slithered out from behind the wall revealing Caspian Casador -- but his face was cold. His eyes blackened and void of the warmth that had lived there since the horrors of his possession. This was Viktor Holten, the battered, withered, mentally deranged father Danielle had thought died. 

His reinvented self, as Caspian, was actually a saving grace for him. The cooling of the volcanic mind of Viktor wouldn't last forever and now he stood there, dangerously homicidal. 

Aurora reached for Danielle and pulled her close behind Eden and Nik who themselves were behind Justin and his gun. 

"I'm only here for what's mine." Viktor said. 

"Get out." Nik shot back.

"Danielle, come to your father." Viktor said.

Danielle didn't move. 

"Caspian, you're ill. There's something very wrong with you and we can get you help, but you have to listen to us and let us take you to Churchill Green. There's a new doctor, he can help you. He can help do something for you." Aurora said.

"SHUT UP!! I don't want to hear anything from you. I'm here for my daughter and I'm here to take back what's mine." he said stepping forward.

"BACK AWAY!" Justin said, his gun straight in front of him. 

Viktor grinned evilly and lunged towards Justin. 

In a split second, Justin pulled the trigger, Danielle screamed, "NO!!!" and reached around and lifted Justin's arms up and the bullet went into the ceiling. 

Viktor slammed down onto the Constable. They rolled around on the floor. Nik and Eden quickly tried to pull them apart, Justin got up, Viktor pulled out of Eden's hold and yanked Danielle out of Aurora's arms. 

The two women screamed as Viktor held Danielle, his daughter, in a choke hold. 

"This is all I've wanted. My family back. My -- my family." He said.

Justin lifted the gun up and pointed it at ready to shoot him dead.

“Now, now constable, careful where you point that.” Viktor crudely joked. 

“Why are you doing this??” Nik shouted. 

“Vomit, listen to me. Don’t hurt Danielle. Just let her go and we can figure out what’s going on with you. It’s nothing that can’t be fixed.” Eden added. 

“Fixed? I am fixing it! You all think that Caspian is th real personality. On the contrary my friends, this is who I’ve always been and will always be. I’m just here to reunite with my dear sweet Danielle.” 

“Please, please let me go.” Danielle said through a clinched nervous jaw. “You’re hurting my neck.”

“That’s what your mother said once.” Viktor replied coldly. 

Then, in her mind, Danielle finally recalled her childhood. A house with just herself, her father Viktor and mother Lina. It was not the happy healthy world she pretended to always come from. It was a house of pain, abuse, and alcoholism. Viktor was a sinister cold man who kept his family on eggshells. It was what the devil saw so appealing of him. His pure sick way to keep a family he was supposed to love in constant worry and pain. When Danielle left for nursing school, encouraged by her mother, she was saved. Lina however sacrificed herself to Viktor’s abuse only to die later of a broken heart. 

The memory shot through Danielle’s mind like a lightening strike. She suddenly stamped down on Vikto’s foot with her heel. He roared with pain, releasing her from his grip. Danielle rushed to Nik’s arms and Justin shot his gun, missing Viktor by an inch. 

Viktor, seeing he’d never get his daughter rushed out the back door with Justin and the deputy on his trail. 

“Are you alright??” Nik asked holding Danielle close.

“I — I don’t know.” Danielle said. “That man was my father.” She added.

“No, no darling he’s not well. He’s been fighting these problems for many years.” Aurora said. 

Danielle shook her head. “No. That was him. That’s how he’s always been. I remember now. He hurt my mother. He was a drunk — violent. He’d lock me in my room and they’d fight and he would hold her down and — and smother her in a drunken rage.” 

“I’m so, so sorry.” Nik said holding her again in his arms, a place she felt comfortable and safe. 

Eden sighed as Aurora began to cry watching Danielle speak of her terrible childhood. Stepped over to her and let her cling to him too. He held her tightly as she cried. 

**

Baxter & Aaron packing the car 

Outside the  Murphy’s small house around the corner, Aaron and Baxter lifted a few suitcases into the small automobile's front compartment. Cora eagerly awaited her new husband inside. She thought about the life they'd soon lead. She felt strong enough now, knowing everything about her own life and where she came from to finally live happy and married.

Aaron and Baxter exchanged a few silly teases about being sure Cora had a good time on their honeymoon, when out of the shadows of the evening the mad Viktor Holten rushed in. He was sweating profusely, almost foaming at the mouth. 

"WHAT THE DEVIL!?" Baxter shouted. The silhouette of the man all but solidified the memory in his mind. "It's him!" 

Aaron turned and saw Caspian, as he knew him, looking incredibly vicious and maniacal. Before Aaron could do anything, Viktor launched a fist to his face knocking him to the ground. 

Inside the running car, Cora screamed and tried to get out, but with the adrenaline in her body running, her mind shocked by what she saw, she forgot to unlatch the small lock. 

Baxter yelped as Viktor approached. "It was you!" the reporter said, recognizing his attacker. 

Viktor said nothing, just glared at him as Justin and the deputy came rushing towards them from the same bushes their guns drawn.  Seeing this, Viktor pushed the limping Baxter to the ground and jumped into the Cora and Aaron's car. 

"MR. CASADOR WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?" She shouted at him.

Viktor said nothing, he moved the car into drive and set off.

"CORA!!!" Aaron screamed getting up from the ground, his lip busted into two large bloody pieces.

"Get the car! GET THE CAR!!" Justin shouted at the deputy.

"Take mine! HERE!" Baxter said, tossing one small key into Justin's hand.

The deputy and Justin jumped into Baxter's parked car and started it. He stalled. They tried again. Stalled again. One more time, and finally the older model T started and the car drove off after Viktor and Cora. 

**

Worry grows inside Danielle’s cottage 

Back at Danielle's cottage, she paced back and forth along the perimeter of an oval Persian carpet that had small details of several beautiful flowers along its border and inside in the same oval shape. She gnawed on her finger nail, but not hard enough to break it, just little nibbles that help her keep her nerve.

Aurora walked over and handed her tea, a fresh pot she brewed to keep everyone calm.

"Sit." Aurora said. "Sit."

Danielle nodded and followed Aurora's direction to the sofa. 

"How could this have happened? How could I have forgotten everything he had done to us?" Danielle wondered.

"Its actually very common." Eden replied. "People who have gone through very troubling times in their lives often push them to the furthest part of the minds. Its a way to cope. A way to carry on living without having to be confronted with the dark past of their lives. I see it often in cases that I try when the trauma is high." 

"I wish I could have helped him more." Danielle said.

"You were so young when it all started, Dani, you didn't know." Nik said.

"Once Justin is able to get control of Caspian -- or Viktor -- we can get him the help he needs and hopefully in a few months the two of you can restart." Aurora replied optimistically.

Eden and Nik shot each other a look. They weren't convinced of that.

** 

The car chase 

The two cars drove manically around the winding roads and streets of Welshport. Viktor was on a mission to get away from anything that would try and stop him from doing what he wanted: Self distruct. 

Cora could see it in his eyes. The sickness of wanting to destroy without care for anyone else invovled. They were all driving at fast speeds. The streets were like snakes twisting and curving upwards towards the Northshore Cliffs. Cora's heart sank, she did not know where this would end.

"Mr. Casador, please, please stop the car and let me out. I don't know what's going on!" She shouted.

"QUIET!" he roared back. 

"Please, I just got married, see?" She said showing him the ring. "We were about to leave on our honeymoon and -- and I don't know what's happened, but you have to know I have nothing to do with what's going on. Please, let me out!" 

Viktor said nothing, Cora continued to grip her hands around anything she could to steady herself in the car. The speeds now were too fast for her to even look out the window. The velocity was raging, like a shooting star blasting through the atmosphere at break-neck speeds.

"They're going to crash!" The deputy said to Justin.

"Just keep on them, we have to make sure he doesn't hurt Coraline Hamstead." 

"But they're going too fast. I can't catch up to them at this speed up these hills." the deputy reminded.

"Keep up, you're doing fine." Just added, knowing they probably would never catch up.

The cars went faster and faster and faster through the eastern edge of the Tirymor Forest on a street that was paved poorly and headed upwards towards the Cliffs. Viktor had no intention of getting out, he had no intention of helping Cora. His mind was on one thing and one thing only, THE END.

"PLEASE!!! SLOW DOWN!!!" Cora screamed.

"QUIET!!!!" Viktor shouted. 

He looked at himself in the review mirror. The face suddenly changed. It was Caspian, looking back. Their eyes, the same eyes locked. Caspian was now trying to regain control of the body they shared. 

"NO!!! NO!!!" Viktor shouted, as he began punching the side of his own head. 

Coraline gasped and shouted as their car began to bounce back and forth over the line on the two way street going up the hill towards the top of the cliff. She could see the edge of the road become a gaping hole of a giant ravine out of Viktor's window. The ravine became larger and larger and wider and wider as the car went up the hill.

"FUCK FUCK!!!" The deputy said, watching Viktor and Cora's car drive erratically.

"Jesus! Did she grab the steering wheel?!?" Justin wondered out loud. 

Caspian continued to pull back into control in the mind and body he shared with his once old-self Viktor Holten. The two were struggling for power over bodily and mental autonomy while driving a car that was speeding up a hill side like a bullet from a gun. It's intended target no one knew.

Cora continued to scream as the car veered to the left, her side, hitting the side of a hill. Her window cracked and then shattered. Glass flew into the air and all over her body and face as Viktor shouted for Caspian to stop trying to take over.

"ITS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!" Viktor's menacing voice shouted as his fist slammed into the side of his own head blasting into a full-blown headache. 

The pain was intense, like a thousand hot knives cutting through his brain. The car was going back and forth in the dark on the hill. Viktor managed to open his bloodshot eyes to see they were finally making the turn towards the top of the hill. He spun the car around and stopped it. 

Dirt, dust and fog filled the air around the car.

"GET OUT!" He shouted; she did not move.

Justin and the deputy's car finally arrived. They could only see the headlights in the dark as the dust settled.

"GET OUT!!" Viktor shouted again.

She refused. She didn't know what he was going to do to her. 

Justin and the deputy got out of their car. Guns drawn. 

"Jesus. Jesus. Jesus." the deputy whispered to himself, fearing what was about to get out of that car.

"VIKTOR! Let Coraline go!!" Justin shouted.

"GET OUT!" Viktor said to her.

She was paralyzed with fear. She was in the same white dress that was a smaller, more walkable version of her wedding dress. It had specs of blood from the little cuts she sustainted from the broken glass. her arms were stretched out, bracing herself for whatever this monster was going to do. Her breathing was shallow and she had no sense to get out of the car as he instructed. 

**

"We have to go after them." Aaron said.

"We don't know where they went!" Baxter replied.

"We can figure it out. We have to go!" Aaron shouted again.

"How? They took your car and I gave Justin mine." 

Aaron then recalled where Viktor and Justin had come from. The block over, where Danielle lived. "Nik! Maybe Nik is at Danielle's and has a car we can use." 

They quickly rushed over to Danielle's cottage where the found the lights on. There was a car out front, The deputies car. The two quickly came to the front door and banged on it. 

Everoyne in the house felt the jump of fear in the heart, startled at the knock.

Eden slowly got up and went to the door and opened just a small crack, then when she saw who it was opened it all.

"We need the keys to that car!" Aaron said, through a mouth full of blood.

"What happened to you!?!" Danielle asked, the nurse in her quickly rushing to help aide his wound.

"It was Caspian, he came out of nowhere looking like the devil himself and got into Aaron's car and drove off -- with Coraline inside!" Baxter explained.

"Oh my god!!!" Aurora exclaimed. 

"Contsable Ryan went after them, but I have to get to her. I have to get to Coraline." Aaron said as Danielle cleaned his busted lip.

"Why was Justin after Caspian?" Baxter wondered. 

No one replied keeping the reporter in the dark.

"Well someone better tell me what the hell is going on, my sister is with that psychopath!" 

Danielle gulped, she felt the guilt once again fill her like one the cup of tea Aurora was refilling for Baxter to sip from. 

Nik grabbed the keys the deputy let fall on the floor to the car "I'll explain on the way. Let's go."

"Nik wait, you're not going with them are you?" Danielle worried.

"I'll be alright." He answered.

Then, Aaron, Eden and Nik left Danielle's house. Baxter stayed behind still injured from his own attack weeks before. 

**

Tragedy 

"GET OUT OF THE CAR, NOW!" Justin shouted, his gun still pointed the direction of the driver's seat.

"I'm not going to tell you again," Viktor said to Cora "Get the fuck out of the car." 

"What's happening, Mr. Casador, why are you doing this?" She asked, her voice tiny and breaking with fear.

Viktor did not answer, his headache was taking over, the pain was too high and he could not bear to speak. He banged his head on the steering wheel, hoping to stop Caspian's pull into his mind. 

"You need to end this, end what you are doing." Caspian's voice said inside the mind.

"GO AWAY!" Viktor shouted.

"You need to stop this. Stop what you are doing." Caspian said again.

"I SAID GO AWAY!" Viktor yelled again.

Coraline then realized she needed to get out of the car, just as she did, Aaron Nik and Eden's car arrived. 

The two new beams of headlights from that car shined into the car with Viktor and Cora. The brightness broke Viktor out of his talk with Caspian. He stared into the turning beams as they approached.

Cora reached for the lock, unlatching it. She pulled the door handle and at the same time Viktor pulled the car in reverse. Her door swung open, the bottom of her skirt flew out flapping in the air like a white flag flailing in the wind.

"OH MY GOD, NO!!" Aaron said as Viktor's car spun around, towards the edge of the cliff. Their headlights shined into the spinning car showing Coraline with the most fearful expression anyone had ever seen and then as Aaron and the rest of the men watched Viktor drive the car off the edge of the cliff.

The car flew for a few seconds, suspended in air. Then it tipped at the front nosedived towards the bottom of the rocky shoreline. 

Justin and the deputy rushed to the edge of the cliff. The fog flew passed them like smoke from a fire and as the puffs of white fog parted they saw the mangled remains of an automobile at the very bottom of the cliff being engulfed with crashing sea water. 

Aaron, Nik and Eden jumped out of their car and rushed to the side of the cliff too, seeing the same thing.

"WE HAVE TO GET DOWN THERE!!!" Aaron shouted. 

"Quick, this way! There's a path there that can take us to the bottom. We have to hurry, the waves are rough." Nik instructed as they all quickly followed him. 

At the bottom, a mangled car twisted into the rocks, the waves continued to pound filling the car to it's rim with sea water. 

B9/Ch14: IN THE DARKNESS OF THE MIND

Verity checks on her captive Twin 

The evening felt heavy, like any summer night. Thick air over Goode Island mixed with the salty smell of the sea as Verity Spencer slowly made her way to her ancestorial cottage amid the noise of chirping frogs in the ponds that guided Verity back as if they were judging her return. She had come to finally check on her prisoner, her twin Mary, she trapped in a pit in the basement after Jacqueline's report of her grave illness.

Verity entered the house. Jacqueline was not home. It was quiet, too quiet. Verity quickly made her way into the basement where she feared the worst. Had she done it? Had the illness overtaken Mary and all that would be left in the crudely dug pit would be the body of her twin sister? 

Verity rushed down the stairs. Turned quickly to the left and made a b-line to the open mouth of the hole. It's oblong shape felt like a gateway to hell, something cold and sickening fell over Verity's heart.

It was guilt. 

Verity fell to her knees and looked in and saw Mary on the old dirty mattress. 

"Mary?" Verity said, her voice soft.

Mary stirred, she was not dead.

Verity exhaled in relief. 

"Verity?" Mary asked, her face pale, her eyes sunken in. Her heart fluttering with the lack of nutrition, clean air, and mild dehydration.

Verity poured a fresh pail of water from the sink that was installed two years earlier in the basement while Filipe was locked there while under his lycanthropic curse. Verity walked the water back to Mary and carefully lowered it by rope. "Drink." Verity said.

Mary grabbed the pail and began drinking from it, she didn't even grab a cup. She used the rest of the water to wash her face and hands. 

"Jacqueline said you were ill." Verity noted. 

"I am." Mary answered coldly. "I have chills. I can’t concentrate. It’s from lack of proper nutrition and who knows what else. You have to end this, you have to get me back up to the surface so that I can get well, Verity, I won't survive if I continue to be here. This isn't right, not for any human." 

"No. I -- I can't do that.” The twin answered. “I'll bring you fresh clothes! And more food and -- and I'll bring you medicine." Verity stammered. 

"NO!" Mary shouted up, a shocking fresh bound of energy shooting from her lungs. "This cannot continue! I have to be back with my family and you have to make that happen." Mary added, quickly tiring and returning her body to the dirty mattress on the floor of the pit.

Verity did not like Mary's tone. It was as if Mary was parenting her and forcing her to do something Verity recoiled from. The magically created twin had felt the touch of love, had seen the new world of life that she had taken from Mary and there was nothing going to stop her from continuing this life. Mary's life.

"I've already said I cannot do that. Don't you understand? I've seen and felt so much, I have been able to jump into life already lived and -- and I love it. I want more. I can't go back and start from scratch. This was my destiny and Mary, I can't just give it up so easily." Verity explained.

"Filipe will know you aren't me. I know he will." Mary replied.

Verity smiled and shook her head. "He hasn't yet. Not even in bed." 

Then silence. Mary felt like she was hearing things. Like her mind was playing tricks on her. Her twin sister didn't say what she thought she said. It couldn't be. She wouldn't. He wouldn't. But then again, how could he not. She loved Filipe, and Filipe loved Mary. If he truly believed Verity was Mary of course, he would make love to her. 

"You and Filipe....." Mary began, as she slowly got up from the mattress and tried to look her sister dead in the eye. Her heart felt heavy almost like a rock breaking the surface of the sea sinking lower and lower and lower into darkness until the depth has devoured it into oblivion. 

Verity said nothing back, only shrugged. "You're sick." Mary added. 

"No," Verity smirked wickedly. "You're sick." 

Mary continued "You have no idea how this will blow up in your face, Verity. I can tell you it won't end well and the only person who'll suffer in the end is you. Your wretched life will only become more and more wretched." Her eyes filled with tears, but not only of sadness but frustration that she could not get her sister to understand the damage she was doing.

Then, in a quick moment of reversal, Verity's guilt reverted back to pure ambitious and cunning mind games. Seeing Mary was feisty albeit weaker, made her decide she had nothing to lose now. She could help Mary get better and still keep in the trap. 

As Verity's head vanished from the mouth of the pit, Mary screamed for her sister to return. But she did not. She could only hear the footsteps go up the staircase to the main level of the house. She heard Verity walk across the house and into the kitchen. It sounded like she was removing pots and pans to cook. 

"She's going to kill me." Mary said softy to herself. "She's going to kill me." 

Mary knew now no one was going to save her. Not Jacqueline, not Filipe, and certainly not Verity. She had to figure a way out of the pit quickly, even without having her magic powers. Mary was resolute: this would not be where she died. She was going to get out and take her life back from the twin that was forcing her to suffer. 

Upstairs, Verity made a small dinner for her twin. She smiled, feeling a strange sense of happiness that Mary was alive and seemingly not as ill as Jacqueline made her out to be. All of this part of her delusion, a way to block the feeling of guilt from slowly seeping back in. 

She turned and started to take the food she had quickly made to her sister and as she went she passed an old photo of Eliza sitting on a chair dressed beautifully with little Mary on her lap. A blond cherub child with big eyes and a small tuft of angelic hair on her head. It was a photo Mary's late father Caleb had taken with the newly invented photographic camera. 

Verity stared at it, this child could have been her. That childhood could have been hers. It was yet another taunting reminder how her life had never come and proof of why she was doing the right thing.

While Verity made the food and stared at the photo and thought about her life, or the life that could have been Mary had mustered immense strength and had dug holes in the side of the dirt walls in the pit. She put her feet in them. Then climbed up. Dug more holes in the side of the walls. She put her hands in them. She continued this way forming a ladder all the way up to the top of the pit. Her face and body covered in dirt. Her hair drenched with sweat. Her head throbbing in pain as she pulled her self up to the surface. She was weak. Her arms like jelly. 

Mary almost fell backwards into the hole but again her strength held her tight. She pulled herself up and hid in the shadows.

Verity reentered the basement and walked down the stairs with the food. She came to the opening of the pit and placed the food in the pail. Just before she was going to lower it into the pit she looked in and saw it was empty.

Mary jumped out from the shadows and attacked Verity. They rolled around frighting on the basement floor. Tearing at each other's face with slaps, pulling each other's hair. The rolled around screaming and punching and slapping. Mary over Verity. Verity of Mary. A tangle of twins that eventually wore on until they rolled into the pit and fell in together. 

Verity broke her leg in the fall. Mary knocked out cold.

The twins trapped. 

Together. 

****

Julian meets with Johnathon 

At Dr. Julian Pascal's office at Churchill Green Asylum, Johnathon entered and found a warm fire burning in the hearth that was to the side of the psychiatrist’s chair and the sofa Johnathon was to sit on. Julian was sitting with his notebook open, Celeste was watching on the other side of the two-way mirror that had a large golden frame locking it to the wall, while Jacqueline sank into a false wall where the corridor broke out into two sides near the office door to listen to the session. 

"Please sit down." Julian said, getting up to greet his patient. "I know that we've been focusing more on allowing you to rest while at the hospital and not work on a more rigorous therapeutic regiment. But I come from a class that finds benefits in this part of your recovery." Dr. Julian explained as Johnathon sat.

"I've never had therapy, not here or anywhere." Johnathon replied. “It’s a bit odd.”

"Yes, I can understand how strange it may be at first. Not many have had a true sit down introspective discussion in the manner we will today." 

"What do you need me to do?" the patient asked, as he took in a deep breath.

"First and foremost, I’d like you to just relax and get comfortable. Throughout this session, we'll just talk. I'll ask questions and you'll respond honestly. That's all." Julian explained.

Johnathon's hands were sweaty. He wasn't sure how to deal with this new idea, this new form of healing the mind through therapy, through a psychological dissection. But Julian had it in him to find the root of Johnathon's mental breakdown, and he was determined.

Julian walked over and sat next to Johnathon and removed a small locket from inside his dark wool jacket. It was oval shaped and had small grooves carved into the front that looked like intertwined ivy. Julian released the chain from inside his hand and the locked dropped, long and sparkling in the fire, in front of Johnathon's eyes.

Julian began to move the locket back and fourth. The light from the stained glass window caught the ridged frame of the small lockets cause little bits of light to catch Johnathon’s eye. He started at the light fractals as they dance in the light.  

"Just look directly at the lights the locket is expressing. Watch as it flickers. Let your mind drift, Johnathon, drift into this light. Let yourself fall deeper into a place where this light is warm, where it holds you in your most quiet space in your mind so that you hear nothing but my voice. Close your eyes now, Johnathon, close them and lay back." Julian said, as Johnathon obeyed.

When Julian returned to his chair, Johnathon was now in a sleep yet, awake and able to answer. This hypnosis was a doorway into the tortured man's subconcious.

In the room behind the mirror, Celeste scooted her chair closer to watch. Her hands were in two tightly wound fists. 

"Johnathon tell me about your childhood." Julian asked. 

"It was a happy one for the most part. I have an older sister. She's always watched out for me. She's kind and warm. Very much like my mother. My father was a hard worker. Both my parents were. My sister was the one who watched over me while my parents worked. They died young and my sister helped me through school." 

"That's very nice, I'm sorry to hear your parents are no longer here." Julian consoled. "What else would you say about your childhood would make it unique?" 

"I learned a secret. Something that changed the way I thought about who I was. It was kept from me, and when it was revealed I was supposed to continue to keep it a secret so that I wouldn't get hurt." Johnathon explained.

"A secret?" 

Celeste was on the edge of her seat. She wasn't sure she wanted her brother to be this open. 

Outside listening in, Jacqueline too kept her ears open, wondering where this would go. 

"It was about my father. He wasn't really my father. My mother had had an affair that I was not aware of. My birth father is really Albert Lord."

"I see." Julian replied writing down this notable bit of family history. "And I know that would have been painful for to hear and not only that it must of been painful to be asked to continue to lie about it." 

"Yes." Johnathon said.

"Eventually it was revealed, yes?" 

Johnathon confirmed. 

"And as that came out how did you feel?" Julian prodded.

"Lost." Johnathon answered.

"How so?" 

"I was in the middle, half this DeViana, half Lord, and yet neither side seemed to know what to do with me. Then there was all the rest." Johnathon answered.

"The rest? Can you tell me more?"

"The rest of the Lords. What they are. Who they are. What they want. What the push for. And what they've done. Even how they reacted to my marriage." 

Celeste and Jacqueline began to worry the hypnosis was about to go to a place there were unsure was safe for anyone, much less Johnathon.

"What do you my by that? How is it that those attributes about the Lord family, your paternal side, affect you?" 

Johnathon's answer began with a pregnant pause that Julian felt lasted hours, when in reality it was only seconds. The hypnotized man searched his memories to figure out a way to explain what his family, the Lords, were truly about. The secrets the hid behind the stone walls of Tirymor House were like time bombs waiting to be heard from coast to coast.

Bombs filled with dark secrets of lies, murder, vampirism, madness. Ghosts no one in the Lord family wanted out in life for all the world to see. 

"They have people who live but are not living. People not like us who can see the day— who are not people who are cold and calculated and need to kill to keep their own world alive." Johnathon said.

Julian sat up, his brow furrowed at first concerned but then a glimmer of a smirk shot across his face. Julian seemed to suddenly become delighted with these words that didn’t deem like fantasy, and madness. They seemed liver memories. They were strange experiences that were coming from a man that had a mental breakdown but because of his altered state of mind, they came out so truthful and real. It was as if the madness had receded to the back of his mind and truth was now front and center. 

"Blood lust? Alive but are not alive? Johnathon can you be clearer? Can you elaborate More?" Julian asked writing it all down and underlining blood lust in a quickly flick of writing, as if he was writing down direction to a hidden treasure. 

"They seek a life force. I had to help. I had to help hide it, some have powers, powers from a dark unnamed source. Given to them at birth." Johnathon began.

Julian’s jaw tightened he whispered “life force” 

Celeste got up from her chair and stared into the mirror. The family secret about Sebastian could not be spoken about she could not let it, as she was one of the people who asked Johnathon not only to keep it hidden but to bury Sebastian herself in mausoleum hoping to lock him away for good.

Jacqueline moved from the hidden wall and rushed to the door and put her ear to it when she heard the words that sent her into a slight panic: magic from an unknown source. 

"A life force?" Julian asked writing those exact words in his book. "Go on. What else?"

"Blood." Johnaton reiterated. "The nephew wants and needs blood." Johnathon added clearly.

"The nephew?" Julian asked after writing it down and circling it. “Tell me about him.”

Celeste rushed out of the adjoining room and into the hall way there she found Jacqueline in her true form just as shocked at what she was hearing.

Celeste catches Jaqueline 

Celeste gasped at who she saw. 

"YOU!" She hissed. 

Jacqueline turned, she felt caught but at the same time she knew that despite Celeste's distrust of her they both needed to stop Johnathon from saying anything more.

Inside, Julian continued, "What else? What else about this nephew, does anyone know his whereabouts?"

"My wife. She was similar to him. Darkness in her was similar. Otherworldly. But I loved her. Truly. I...I feared what they could do but I listened to my sister, I listened to everyone. I became confused and I didn't know who was real and what I could trust with my own eyes and heart." Johnathon explained, finally piercing the source of his breakdown.

"We have to stop him, he can't say anymore." Jacqueline said. "He can't." 

“Are you behind this? Johnny’s — decline?” Celeste asked, suspicion all over her face. 

“No! No!” Jacqueline replied truthfully. “He and I have worked out our differences I’ve been working here…” she paused not ready to tell Celeste everything. “We’ve slog come back to each other, and he’s in there right now exposing every secret your family has ever hidden. Think of the mobs that stormed Tirymor searching for Sebastian—the so called monster. It can happen again.”

“The mob you egged on.” Celeste recalled. 

“Celeste — we’re wasting time.”

Celeste's face showed no love-loss for the woman standing in front of her. The woman she did not know was a witch, only as Jacqueline the supposed gold-digging opportunist that married her brother who's mind was already broken. This was woman the woman who betrayed the family and sent the mob after them to the coves the night the late Mayor Churchill put a target on the Lord's backs. 

"What do we do?" Celeste asked.

Jacqueline arched a brow and grabbed the door knob and squeezed. 

"Who is this nephew Johnathon?" Julian asked.

Another pregnant pause. 

"Johnathon? Call you tell me who this nephew is?

"He's dead." 

The door burst open. "That's enough." Celeste replied. Julian, startled by her entrance quickly got up from his chair and pushed Celeste out of the room and closed the door.

The fire in the firepalce began to burn hotter than ever. A spark fell out of the fire and hit the carpet, yet instead of burning it grew into the shape of a woman, it was Jacqueline who shape-shifted from the flames into herself. She knelt down next to the hypnotised Johanthon and whispered into his hear.

"You shouldn't have done that. You should have stayed in the room watching." Julian replied to Celeste

"I want you to stop. I need you to. He needs to rest. My brother isn't making any sense." she said.

"I was getting close, Celeste. He was saying some interesting things, if I had just a few more minutes I know that I could get much more deeper and know much more,." Julian noted.

"No! They were words and fantasies of a man whose mind is -- is -- damaged. I demand you have him taken back to his room and figure out a different way to help him. I don't like what I saw." She said.

“But there is something I need to know.” Julian said

Celeste shook her head “This ends now.”

Julian did no reply. He took a deep breath and walked Celeste back into the room with the two-way mirror. "I'll take care of it." He said.

When Julian reentered his office, Jacqueline was gone, and Johnathon was sitting up awake, which surprised Julian.

"Are you alright?" Julian asked.

"What happened? Were did you go?" Johnathon asked.

"How do you feel?" Julian wondered.

"I -- I feel tired. My head feels heavy. I don't know what happened. Did you get any information?" 

Julian said he did but that they'd have to work together another day. The doctor walked over to his note pad, and everything he had written on the pages was gone.

"My pad. Did you take my pages?" Julian asked.

Johnathon didn't know what he was talking about, and Julian could tell the man had just woken up as he walked in. But the papers were gone. 

In the other room Celeste watched with baited breath. Jacqueline entered through the door. 

"It's going to be fine." The witch said.

"Where did you go? When I opened the door you were gone!" Celeste said.

Jacqueline didn't answer truthfully.  "A secret door. But we won't have to worry now." She added showing the notes.

Celeste snatched them from Jacqueline's hands and read them over. She looked back at Jacqueline in her nurse's outfit and realized she'd been working there. For how long, she did not know but then an idea came to her mind. 

"You need to protect him. Whatever you're doing, however you're doing it, protect Johnathon." Celeste said.

Jacqueline arched a brow. A new page, blank and ready to be written for her life. "What's in it for me?" she asked.

Celeste narrowed her eyes. "Really? I thought you loved my brother?"

Jacqueline sighed, she did love Johnathon. It had taken her a very long time to deal with the loss of Sebastian and the child she was carrying. But the events of the witch trial and the council and Verity's entire situation had changed Jacqueline in a way. Gone was the woman who wanted to hurt people for her own love-sick reasons, she was now a person who was determined to finally be seen and heard in her own way. She'd learned her lesson, it was now time to find a way back to her own true place in this world, the way she was before she ever met Sebastian Lord. 

"I do." Jacqueline replied. "He's still my husband, and I'm trying to be here for him. That's why I sneak around as a nurse here. Its the cloesest I can be without being seen." She further explained.

"Fine, good." Celeste replied. "You protect him here and perhaps we can find a way to bring you back into Lord family fold -- as a member of the family." 

Jacqueline thought about it for a minute. The idea of having a family had always been so tempting to her. But the Lord family? Could she? After everything she had done to Sebastian, and Evie and Johnathon and turning the town against them? Jacqueline saw Celeste for what she was, a woman desperate to her brother Johnathon. It clicked -- she would do it and answered surprisingly "Its a deal."

The sisters-in-law had a new pact of protection to save their mutual love of Johnathon who had been taken back to his room. 

For his part, Julian may have lost his notes and he may have lost the confidence in Celeste but he knew exactly what he heard. There was indeed more to what Johnathon had said that he was not only intrigued by but knew that he was on the right road to find what he needed. Celeste's reaction was proof enough. 

Now alone, Julian looked into the glass of the two-way mirror and looked at his own reflection. His eyes suddenly glowed like two little green lights that vanished when he blinked. His face twisted into a grin, pleased with his stroke of luck with Johnathon’s revealing hypnosis.

This doctor was here to find something that was just as important as treasure, and Celeste DeViana-Lord was clearly the key to its finding. 

****

Aurora & Eden arrive at the police station 

Meanwhile, in a frantic rush, Aurora Jordan and Eden Sydney arrived at the Constable's station. They had just been ambushed by a mad Caspian. His mind split, his body wanting to kill as is alter-ego Viktor Holten took control of his mind and body.

Aurora entered first. She quickly scanned the room as two deputies stared at her. Her face white as a ghost, her throat still stained with the marks of Caspian's hands and his attempt to strangle her to death.

"Are you alright ma'am?" One of the deputies finally asked, just as Eden entered, seconds later.

"Where's Constable Ryan?" Eden asked.

Seeing the county Barrister in such a panicked state sent shivers up the deputies spines.

"I'll get him." The deputy answered.

"Do you need to sit down?" Another deputy asked Aurora.

"All I need is for Constable Ryan to track down Caspian Casador!" She said. "NOW!"

Justin Ryan, the new young constable exited his office looking over papers. He saw the panic on Aurora's face, the complete and utter horror on Eden's as the two looked disheveled and exhausted after the fight with the mad Viktor.

"What's happened here?" Justin asked.

"It's Caspian. He's... he's out of control." Eden answered. "He attacked Aurora, he attacked me."

"He's the one who attacked Baxter Murphy. He's out of his mind and he's tried to kill us." Aurora said. "I -- I don't know how he's gotten this way. He's been having headaches and they've made him more on edge, but he's just snapped. He's dangerous, Justin. We have to stop him or someone is going to die." 

Justin could tell they were not exaggerating. He saw the look of panic and fear they displayed and quickly went back into his office and grabbed his gun. 

"Alright, where do you think he's gone?" Justin asked, returning to the front desk armed. 

"Danielle." Aurora replied. "He's probably gone to find his daughter Danielle." 

"Let's find her first." 

With that, Justin, Aurora, Eden and another deputy quickly left to find Danielle Holten. 

****

Celeste & Filipe reunite 

As the evening wore on, Celeste DeViana-Lord, her 5 year old son Fabian, and Tirymor's head maid Jane Donnelly, were in the village collecting groceries and items needed for the household. It wasn't customary for a member of the family to accompany Jane on these duties, it was usually Jane and another maid or butler, but Celeste needed the outing after the day she had at Churchill Green.

As they walked down the street towards the awaiting car near the end of the block, several attendants of the grocery store went ahead of them with the bulk of their items. The three-some walked slower admiring the new pretty strung lights along the avenue that had switched on as the sun was going down. 

As they admired them, Filipe Braga and his young son Caleb walked up the block.

Celeste's stomach instantly dropped. She hadn't seen her former partner in a very long time, much less talked to him. But there was no way around this eventual crossing of paths, not in town as small as Welshport. 

She admired him, making a new life for himself with Mary and their adopted boy. He looked good, happy, healthy. A flash of their last interaction with him on one of Tirymor's garden terraces drunk and angry, bitter at Celeste's betrayal and affair with Jacob that was their ultimate undoing was still a sting that had never left Filipe’s heart. 

"Well, hello there!" Filipe said, his friendly voice floating through the air like the calming buzz of a hummingbird’s wings. 

She smiled and greeted him too, a polite double kiss, one on each cheek. 

"How are you Filipe?" She asked, admiring his strong handsome face. His warm eyes, a lighter shade of brown than she recalled, still so focused, so calming, so real. She couldn't take her eyes off his strong shoulders, the same ones she had often cried on, held on to, loved. 

"I'm well thank you. Jane, how goes it?" He asked politely recognizing the accompanying maid. She curtsied back. 

"And this must be little Caleb? Such a sweet little face." Celeste said of the boy in Filipe's arms.

"Yes, he's perfect." Filipe replied. "And you!” Filipe said to the growing Fabian, “Boy, look how tall you're getting!" Fabian shyly hid behind his mother with a large smile across his adorable face. “He has his father’s smile.” Filipe added, like salt to the wound.

Celeste held her breath. 

"Like one of the beech trees in Tirymor Forest, he just grows and grows." Jane replied, breaking the silence. "Why don't I take young Fabian across the street to the part for a second. I have a shiny new penny that I bet he could throw into the fountain and make a wish, would that be alright ma'am?" 

Celeste smiled and nodded. 

They watched Jane and Fabian quickly cross the cobble stone street over to Village Park, a cold chill ran up Filipe's spine as a memory of the Full Moon ceremony where he, in wolf form, killed and maimed many of the village. He moved his body so that his back was now facing the park, he couldn't look at it any longer. 

"I read about Rebecca." He finally said. "I'm sorry about all of that. I must be terribly difficult for you and Jacob to watch her go to prison. You know, in all the years I worked at Tirymor House when I was a teenager she never ever gave me the hints of being capable of hurting anyone like that. To imagine her killing Asha in such a way -- accidently or not -- my god." 

"Rebecca has had a very difficult time dealing with a lot of things in her life in the last few years. I guess we should have all seen something like this coming." Celeste admitted.

"Murder?" 

Celeste sighed "Well, her demise. However it manifested, it was bound to happen."

"Demise. I see. And how is Jacob handling it?" He asked.

Celeste shrugged "He turned her in. So, you can guess how he's doing." 

"He turned in his own mother? That's --- that's...." Filipe began before Celeste cut him off.

"That's Jacob." 

Her face suddenly fell. Filipe could see there was something more on her mind, in her heart. Something she wouldn't tell him, not now. Filipe was too far outside of her world to allow back in. It would hurt too much to admit to the man she betrayed with affair that her whole world felt as if it were crumbling around her. Her marriage to Jacob was, for better or worse, a marriage of convenience. She had taken Jacob's proposition to make love then marry all to protect her brother Johnathon from Jacob's jealousy when it was discovered Johnathon was also Jacob's half-brother. Another heir to the Lord fortune, Jacob's desired treasure, was always a target to the master manipulator and sociopath. 

Filipe reached out and squeezed Celeste's shoulder. His big hand cupping the puff of her sleeve and squeezing. The firmness of his grip, even in that small time frame made her body tense. She wanted to jump in his arms, the same arms little Caleb was in, the very symbol of Filipe's new life. 

She patted his hand, a sign for him to remove it. "I hope you're alright over there. That house can probably get quite lonely." He said.

"It can be, yes. But you know I've really gotten used to it Filipe. Things for me are the way they are because that's where they're supposed to be." She revealed. 

"Do you really believe that? That all of this was how it was supposed to be?" He asked.

"I do. Don't you? Had I not done what I did to you with Jacob you would have never found Mary and the two of you would never have formed such a lovely family together. Charlotte can't speak more highly of how wonderful it is to be around the two of you. It really boils Jacob's blood." Celeste giggled recalling her stepdaughter's delight of living with Mary and Filipe. 

"Well Jacob will always be Charlotte’s father, I can’t change that. Mary has really loved having her around more." Filipe replied.

"How is she?" 

Filipe then paused, now it was his turn, his face too suddenly falling into thought of how Mary has been slightly different in the last few weeks. There were little nuances of behavior he did not recognize. But the trauma of the trials, it all still burned in their memory felt as if it could be the culprit to Mary's strange behavior. 

"She's pulling through." Filipe said. "The trial a few months back were very difficult. I think she's just adjusting to the whole idea of what could have happened." Filipe replied.

"I'm sure you're both happy just to be able to hold each other at night again." Celeste replied, suddenly thinking of being held by Filipe at night too. A welcomed image from her memory suddenly flashing in her mind of his big arms holding her tightly in bed after they’d made love. 

Filipe smiled, the moment sudden hitting his memory too but not in a good way, recalling his long 15 year relationship with Celeste that ended because of her affair did not hit him the same way it did Celeste. For him there was no yearning for that to return, he had moved on and was happy. 

"We should let you go, it's getting late." Filipe replied, snuggling Caleb to his chest.

Celeste shoot the memory from her mind and agreed but before she went off to find Fabian and Jane she turned back "Filipe..."

He only walked two steps before turning to her, he said nothing, only waited to see what she would say to him as the parted. 

"I'm sorry." She said.

A small smile hit his face. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't say it was ok, because what she did was not ok. He couldn't say he was sorry too because he had done nothing to apologize for. He only nodded, held on to Caleb's little body, and began his walk back to his mother's house in the village whispering to the baby "Let's go see mummy." 

Celeste took that for what it was worth, a small barely visible acknowledgement that she apologized. She took a deep breath and dashed across the street to find her son and maid. 

“Let’s say nothing of seeing Mr. Braga, shall we?” She said to them. 

Jane arched an eye brow and nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

As the threesome went back to their awaiting car with their groceries, a familiar curious face watched them closely from outside of a restaurant.

It was the very peculiar Dr. Julian Pascal who was smoking in the fresh evening air awaiting his friend, the new Mayor Nathan Cramer for dinner. Julian was even more curious about the Lords and Johnathon’s revelations in the hypnosis session. His eyes flashed a quick green light again as he threw down his cigarette and let it smolder on the cobble stones. 

There was clearly more to him than met the naked eye.

***

Julian meets with Nathan 

Nathan Cramer had filled his new role as the 46th mayor of the small town and island of Welshport nicely. He'd cleverly taken the shocking death of Timothy Churchill, a murder, and covered it up to save the town even more trauma hot off the heels of the calamitous witch trials. 

The decision to not allow justice play out and conceal the true manner of the ex-mayor's death was not only strategic but the best thing Nathan felt he could do to save the town he loved from falling deeper into the decay of suspicion and anger. 

It was an ironic reward when he became the next mayor and the very young age of 36. 

Nathan's new friend Julian recognized the hard-working person Nathan was in just their few private meetings at the mayor’s office when Julian came to town as the new head of psychiatry at Welshport Hope’s Churchill Green asylum, it was this feeling and resolute nature Nathan held that made Julian call for the meeting at the restaurant.

Most importantly he hoped Nathan could shed some light on the Lord family — thanks to Celeste's odd reaction to Johnathon’s bizarre revelations in at his hypnosis session.

At the table inside the restaurant that was about half filled, Nathan poured them a glass of Douro Wine. The surface of the crimson liquid glowed with the low lighting of the restaurant. There was a tint to it that looked dark, almost black towards the bottom of the curved glass, like blood pooling. 

"Everything alright?" Nathan asked, breaking a small sliver of bread that had been placed on the table. "You said you needed me to give you some insight about something. Not a patient, I hope." 

Julian smiled, "No, no. Nothing like that. Well, maybe." 

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" 

"I had a strange session today with someone. I know, I shouldn't speak about this, but I'll leave it anonymous. The patient had what normally I would consider delusions during a hypnotic state. That's not uncommon. As our mind slips into the place where we actually don't recognize while awake, things come to light that we can't really understand lucidly. In the hypnotic state those things are clearer even if they're part of a delusion or a fantasy." Julian explained.

"Hmmm..." Nathann thought, considering what the psychiatrist was saying. "You're not convinced whatever this patient said was a delusion, do you?"

"I normally would Nathan, but it’s what happened after that made me think twice. I know I'm new here, but what was said has fascinated me. I hope you can help me understand it more." Julian answered.

"Dr. Pascal I am always here to help our citizens through difficult times but I’m not sure how I can help your patient, not like this anyway."

"I think you can. You know everyone in town, their ups and downs -- every single one of their dark shadows.” Pascal said as Nathan looked at him with bewilderment. "And of course their good ones too." 

Nathan looked at him strange again, for his odd choice of words “Well perhaps, but I don't pry.” 

“You see mayor, I had the family member witness the sessions behind a two-way mirror. Witnessing the sessions helps the family understand the struggle of the afflicted person more -- and when this patient began to explain things from their subconscious the family member barged in and stopped the sessions cold. They said a lot of strange things while under hypnosis— very strange things. Which makes me believe there’s more to it.”

Nathan then understood. "I see, basically Confirming it, then."

"Yes!"

"What exactly did they talk about?”

Julian took a breath. Then sipped from his wine, the red liquid stained this mouth, giving him a vampire grin. He wiped his mouth on a white cloth. Seeing the red stain smeared on the white cotton linen napkin made his heart pound faster recalling Johnathon's words of blood lust and magic. This almost thrilled him remembering. 

"I -- I can't really make sense of it to even say it out loud." Julian said, yet his mind held a secret.

"I wonder then, if even you can't make sense of it if its even really --- " Nathan paused.

"Blood." Julian replied. "Powers, mysterious powers. A lust for blood." 

Nathan froze in his seat. He did not reply but his face was clear enough for Julian to come to a clear understanding that -- yes, there was something to Johnathon's words.

"What aren't you telling me mayor? I can see it, I can see it in your eyes."

Pascal noticed Nathan suddenly go somewhere in his mind. It was obvious the mayor was searching his memory something he did not want to stay out loud. Julian then slowly reached into his pocket. He gripped the locket he used to put Johnathon under. He wondered if he could someone do it to Nathan and get the answer he so desperately needed out of the mayor. 

The psychiatrist slowly brought out the locked and just before he set his hypnotic trap but Nathan shook his head and broke his concentration and thwarting Pascal’s plot of hypnosis for answers. 

Nathan shook his head again as if to shake out the memories of accusations of witchcraft and the woman who was burned at the stake. The horrors he saw, the frightening images of powers and what happened at the coves and the search for Sebastian's supposed living corpse. 

"I think you should chock it up to someone who's ill and perhaps searching for answers about his own delusions." Nathan said, hoping to cover for his facial expression. 

"Really?" Julian wondered.

Nathan nodded confirming. 

The waiter came, his face nervous severing the mayor. His pencil tapped his tiny order note pad. His appearance took the pressure off Nathan, thankfully, and they began to move on to their dinner order. 

Julian was disappointed — his true mission to Welshport was on a time table. He needed to find what he came to town for, and find it soon. 

Nathan’s quick brush off didn’t help matters either. It only convinced Julian Pascal that Welshport was a place that hid more than anyone was about to admit to. Even Nathan Cramer. 

 

B9/Ch13: END OF AN ERA

Jacqueline surprises Verity 

On a cool evening, Jacqueline made it over to Welshport Island from Goode Island just before she began her night-shift at Churchill Green Asylum where she could be near Johnathon. But the condemned witch had one stop to make: The Braga family home. 

Her mission was to confront Verity on the horrible state of Mary's health. As broken as their coven was, Jacqueline realized she could not sit back and watch Mary suffer this way, not after everything they'd all been through during the devastating witch trials, even though Jacqueline had took the brunt of the blame for that — rightfully so. 

Nevertheless, Jacqueline recognized that Verity had gone too far to keep her new life secret.

The warmth of a home, the love of a man, the dependence of loving children was like a drug to Verity. She never imagined just how happy she would be living Mary's life. Although there were bumps along the way, Verity felt secure in her scheme.

Verity walked into Caleb's nursery, a small room of pale blue with a single window that had it's drapes drawn. She had checked on the boy and realized it was time for his feeding. She picked him up and walked him to the rocking chair where she removed her breast. 

The two had not exactly bonded, as she would hope, and Caleb would not nurse. She tried and tried but the boy would not nurse. This wasn’t the first time. The baby in fact never nursed and in Verity’s frustrations she’d often end up giving him a milk and flour formula in hopes no one would notice.

As Verity continued to try to get the baby to nurse from her breast she suddenly felt the eyes of someone watching her. It was a heaviness on her, the weight of someone who knew her secret, knew the truth was watching her with anger from the darkened shadows of the baby’s nursery.

Then like the came the clicks. 

A silhouette of a woman suddenly appeared in the blackness of the room— Jacqueline — snapping her fingers awakening candles all around Verity and the baby as they were still seated in the rocking chair. Verity gasped, shocked to see Jacqueline, and quickly put the baby back in his crib and buttoned the top of her dress.

"What are you doing here?" Verity asked in a panic. "What do you want?" 

"You've certainly settled in quite well in this role, haven't you, flambeau." Jacqueline said, jokingly using the French word torch a nod to Verity's time tied a burning stake. “Too bad all that milk has gone sour.” 

"Jacqueline, get out." 

"No. Not until you hear what I have to tell you about -- its Mary." Jacqueline said. "She is ill Verity, she's very ill. I don't know what her illness is as you've been very clever to write a ring of salt around the pit you've placed her in, but I can see with my own eyes just how bad things are. Are your intentions to kill her?" 

"What? NO! I wouldn't kill her. She's ... my sister. I -- that's not what I want to do." Verity admitted.

"Then? How long do you think she'll live at the bottom of pit? You have to end this."

Verity's concerned face quickly changed to a frozen expression of mistrust. "End it? Why would I end it? Why would you want me to end it? There's no love loss between you and my sister. After all you had her arrested for witchcraft. I'm only here because of all of your actions." Verty reminded.

"And I've been thoroughly punished. But what you are doing out there will only come back to haunt us all. You must hep her."

"Still..." Verity answered with suspicion. 

"Verity, I have nothing to gain from asking you to help Mary. The witch council was very clear when they revoked most of my powers. There's nothing I want from her -- aside from her life being spared. Even I don't want to see her die -- not anymore. Not after everything I've lost and she's lost. I just isn't worth it." Jacqueline admitted.

"That's an interesting change of tune. The once confident and defiant Sister of Highgrove has seen the light of good?" Verity replied, suspiciously still.

Jacqueline rolled her eyes.

"The only real reason you'd risk it all by being seen in Welshport as yourself is if there was something advantageous in Mary return to her life and for me to -- what? -- vanish into the oblivion? It's not going to happen Jacqueline, I've seen what it's like to have a life outside in the real world and its wonderful. Every emotion, every sensation, every touch and hug and kiss and -- I tell you, the moments spent with Filipe alone together as husband and wife. I'll never give that up." 

"You're in love with him; you've really fallen in love with him." Jacqueline replied in shock, not seeing that that was a possibility.  "Well, you can't be in love with him. You have to stop. You have to help your sister in that hole you left her in so she doesn't die." 

Verity turned away, almost as if to hide her face with embarrassment at the realization that she was really in love with Filipe. It was true. Jacqueline didn't need to look her in the eye to know it. A woman who had loved as hard as Jacqueline had Sebastian knew it when she saw it others. It was an animalistic glare, the eyes of someone who could only see themselves with that person and no one else. Nothing in the world would stop the power of obsession-- it was the hurricane of all emotions, and Verity was now square in that storm herself. Not Jacqueline, or Mary's alleged illness could take Verity out of her new life.

The imposter Mary stared at the family photo sitting in front of her on a dresser while Jacqueline continued to beg her to help her twin Mary. The photo was of Filipe and the ream Mary, and their children: Charlotte, Caleb and even Morgan who had become a sort of surrogate son. Even though it was Mary in the photo Verity saw herself, they shared a face after all. Jacqueline's voice suddenly cut through and she reached for Verity's arm and yanked her around so that they'd face each other.

"You have to stop!" Jacqueline shouted. 

Verity freed her arm and crossed passed Jacqueline, taking the family photo with her. 

"Or what? You'll expose me? If I'm exposed -- you will be too! Everyone will know what you did to Mary, everyone will know how you tried to have her killed -- burned as a witch and everyone will know that if it wasn't for me, Mary would be dead and gone. My life saved hers." 

"But now her life is in danger. Don't you see? This is a test; this must be a test by the witch council. They've given you an obstacle and you're failing!! You're allowing your blood sister, and coven sister, to suffer. Look what they did to me when they punished me for getting Mary and the others tangled up in trials. I was sanctioned. They bound me, and I've yet to receive my full powers back. Is that what you want when they eventually discover you just let Mary rot in that hole with nothing more than scraps of food and a lamp?" Jacqueline said, hoping to appeal to Verity's human side. 

"Mary won't die." Verity replied, holding the photo tightly to her chest. 

Jacqueline could say no more. She had to be over at Churchill Green shortly for her shift. "Just remember this Verity, the witch council -- they watch and they wait. If Mary dies that is a mistake that they haunt you, the council will see to that." 

With those last words Jacqueline snapped her fingers twice then vanished into thin air leaving Verity shaken. 

The imposter paced her room. She could still smell Filipe's aftershave. It filled her lungs like the powerful smell of fresh jasmine blossoms engulfing her whole body. It reminded her of his body. His strong shoulders. His big arms and how he carried her to bed and made love to her and how deeply he'd kiss her on areas of her body she didn't know a man could kiss. His tongue, the taste of her all over him. It was passion, and it was erotic and she could not give that up. 

The thought of losing that intimacy with him and free Mary seemed life ending. She thought of how she may never find what she had with Filipe ever again. 

"No." she whispered to herself as she sat on the bed. "She'll never come home." 

Verity knew now that not only was Mary's existence a threat to her own happiness -- but now so was Jacqueline Gray. Perhaps both of her coven sisters needed to be gone-- for good. 

****

Aurora comes to and meets Viktor Holten 

Dawn. The sun started to rise over the dark blue sea near Evie's Bellmore Beach house. The light peeked through the front parlor; its white walls awash in the glow of the early morning. Aurora stirred on the floor, her face turned to the right protected from the light by a half-closed drape in the window. 

Her neck was sore, her head buzzing with the blow it received when she hit the floor. 

Although the sun was coming up, the room still had the slight shadow of the night in it's recesses. Her eyes could not make out much just yet, as they were not only opening for the first time in over 12 hours but recovering from Caspian's violet attack. 

Sitting across from her smoking a cigarette, was Caspian himself, his feet resting on Eden Sydney's unconscious body, himself a victim of an ambush by Caspian's alter ego Viktor Holten. 

Aurora, groggy and sore, mustered the strength to stand and looked around the room that had been torn about in the two fights. 

"I'd lay back down if I were you." Caspian said. His voice cold and vacant of any emotion other than hate. 

"What have you done?" She asked, finally spotting Eden under Caspian's feet as if the Barrister was some sort of human ottoman. 

"What have I done? Not enough!" Caspian answered. "I've finally come to my senses, Aurora, finally. And please stop calling me by that ridiculous name. Caspian.  That was the name the creature gave me.” He said with a sudden sinister grin slicing across his face. “You remember the creature, don’t you? How it loved you one night in your bed."  

Aurora felt sick, he was taunting her with the night the possessed Caspian tricked her into sleeping with him. She stepped back, her long dress caught under her heel and she fell slightly but caught herself on the adjacent sofa. 

"Careful now, you wouldn't want to bump your head. Again!"

"I don't understand what's happened to you, you've gone... mad? You’re not… my god, are you what you were before?" Aurora questioned, believing the demonic creature had returned. 

" I can see where you'd be confused.” Said again, the crooked grin still marking his face. “No, I’m not the creature again. You see, this is who I've always been. I am Viktor Holten. The man, in the flesh. The very, very hungry flesh of a man who wants only to hurt. It's sick isn't it? Why would I want to hurt anyone, you may ask. Well it stems from decades and decades of life hitting me in the face and taking what it wanted and never ever giving back. Life is not kind, Aurora, not in the slightest. Now I pay it back." Viktor began as he slowly made his way towards Aurora. 

"Caspian, or Viktor, or whomever you are, I know you are not this way, this isn't who you are!" She said, walking backwards closer to the front door. Her eyes darting back and forth from her captor and Eden still on the floor but slowly waking up.

"You don't know me, Aurora. You never did. You knew Caspian." Viktor mocked. "The man with no background, with no family, with no history. Unfortunately for you all of what he was, was pretend. He's gone now. Gone for good. The headaches took care of that. The head trauma I sustained in the caves, well that started the process. I've come back to my body, my mind, MY LIFE!" Viktor yelled.

"What do you want?" She wondered, Eden slowly still waking.

Viktor stopped his slow walk to Aurora, she stopped too. It was a strange dance one step, two step, yet their bodies did not touch. He was watching her, any flinch of her body towards the door and he knew he could grab her and break her neck. There was nothing left for him to do but that. He had zero reasons for keeping her alive. 

His whole life had come to this. The man that was Viktor lived a dark history. He was brought to America from Denmark in hopes to make money, millions and millions of dollars he was promised but the man he partnered with in their shipping business lied, cheated and stole every dollar of invested money. Viktor began to lose his mind, everything crumbled in front of him including his wife Lina who'd began an affair. Danielle, Viktor and Lina's daughter, had been away at school, none of this known to her. 

Viktor's hate for this fate, his desire to destroy his cheating wife and business partner led to the entrance of the dark figure Eliza Goode had summoned years ago. The creature, Eliza called the Hunter, found the hatful soul of Viktor, entered it and reclaimed the body -- as the host -- and named himself Caspian Casador. 

Now he'd finally returned to his rightful place -- in his own body and own state of mind thanks to the head trauma he had suffered at the caves months ago when the town had taken the Lords hostage and assaulted him there. 

Viktor stared at Aurora, her heart pounding in her chest "What do I want?" he repeated. 

Aurora didn't answer she only stared at him as a cold chill ran up her spine. 

"I want to send you back to your husband Richard. TO HELL!" 

In a split second, the hateful Viktor, his heart full of rage and detest for human life, lunged at Aurora, she screamed closed her eyes and turned away as if to block what was about to happen to her but then nothing happened. 

She remained standing.

When she opened her eyes again, Eden had grabbed Viktor, they were rolling around on the floor. Fists flying, grunts, punches, blood splattering from Viktor's mouth. The two men, equal in height and body mass, once again became entangled in blows. 

Aurora screamed and ran to the other side of the room. She grabbed a heavy silver candles stick and rushed behind Viktor who turned, swatted it out of her hand and landed a punch to her face. Aurora went flying to the floor and Eden then leaped onto Viktor bringing him down as well.

They continued to fight, and rip at each other's clothes. Aurora got up, her lip plump from Viktor's giant hand hitting her. She rushed to the candles stick and when she turned back around the men were standing facing each other with their arms open as if they were ready to hug. Viktor's face bruised on one side, Eden's eye swollen from a blow. 

"You're quite a formattable beast, Barrister Sydney." Viktor said, Eden said nothing.

"Aurora, find a telephone and call Justin Ryan, tell him what's happened here." Eden ordered.

Viktor only released a deep chuckle, unafraid of anyone. There was nothing Constable Ryan could do to save any of them. 

The man once possessed by a demon had himself been like a demon in human form. A man who allowed powers of darkness to make him do even more horrible things. He was a lost soul and only felt hate and disdain for anyone around him. Lina, his former wife, died with this on her mind. The guilt and pain of what she had done. His business partner was never heard from again, and when Danielle came back to Welshport to handle her mother's will assuming Viktor was dead too, she never dreamed he was the man named Caspian.

Viktor wanted to cause pain, suffering, like he had been forced to suffer in. There was no way out for him. His future was locked in the destiny he lived in way before the demon took over.

"Nothing will stop me from fulfilling what I have to." Viktor said, then he rushed Eden.

The men growled like two wild animals in the forest, pawing and beating each other with their first. Viktor pushed Eden back. The two men fell over the larger sofa that went backwards and both fell through the front window of the parlor. 

Their bodies blasted through wood and glass; Aurora screamed and covered her face. When the shards quieted on the floor and only the loud ocean waves could be heard in the new warming sun, Aurora rushed over and saw that only Eden was on the porch suffering from minor cuts.

Viktor had vanished into the morning.

"Eden! EDEN! Are you alright???" Aurora said, coming to his aide.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine. I just need some bandages." He said gripping a cut to his hand. 

"Come with me." Aurora said, hurrying him back into the house. 

"We have to get out of here and over to Justin, now! This man is going to kill someone today!" 

With those words it finally sunk into reality to Aurora, the man she once knew as Caspian, a man she was slowly beginning to be more and more fond of, was no more. 

The man named Viktor was on the loose and she could have easily been one more of his victims. Flashes of their past flooded her mind. How his possession was more a real version of who he was than the man that came after. The evil plots, the coercion, the twisted manipulations and sinister mind games were all ammunition for the man she thought she was falling in love with.

A dangerous man, no longer hidden behind the lore of the creature that once over-took his body and mind, was on the loose and only Aurora and Eden could help stop it.
 

****

Celeste meets with Julian 

Around the same time that afternoon, Celeste DeViana-Lord arrived at Churchill Green Asylum to an appointment Dr. Julian Pascal had arranged for her. She was there not as a patient of his but as a family observer for her brother Johnathon who had suffered a set-back in his mental health care only weeks ago when Celeste arranged for him to remain at the asylum a bit longer. 

Celeste, dressed in a beautiful plumb dress with leather gloves and her hair up in dark curls, needed the time away from Tirymor, certainly to care for her ailing brother, but also to keep her own mind free of the constant revolving chaos of her husband Jacob and his family. 

She entered a small room inside the hospital. It was warmly painted with windows towards that back that looked over a large garden. There was a sofa, almost the same color as Celeste's dress, that faced a large window that looked into another room just on the other side of the wall. In that room, a single comfy chair, a large sofa, a bookshelf and lamp. There was a faireplace, it looked like a parlor of some sort with a bay window directly across from Celeste's view. 

Dr. Pascal entered Celeste's room, his smile brightened up the already warm room, he closed the door behind him quietly and walked over to Celeste. She began to stand to green him but he motioned for her to sit back down.

"No need to stand, please Mrs. Lord. Thank you for coming at such short notice." Julian said.

"Of course!" Celeste answered excitedly, then quickly feeling foolish for it, as it wasn't a happy occasion. "I'll do anything to help my brother get back on his feet." She added.

"I was hoping you'd say that. As you can see, we are looking directly into the room next to us. This is where Johnathin and I will have our session." He explained.

"Oh, when you asked me to come to one of his sessions, I assumed because you wanted me to participate. What exactly will I need to do?" 

"Well, you will participate but in a way that isn't as conventional as you may think. You see, I need to understand more about Johnathon's psyche. I need to understand what and who he is; where he came from. He's been very good at holding back. I can't help him if he's dishonest or withholding information about his world that might help me get to the bottom of what exactly has turned him to such drastic mental breakdowns."

Celeste gulped. She knew what had done this to her brother. The shock that he was the son of Albert Lord, not of Paulo DeViana, the horror of discovering Sebastian's secret, Celeste asking him to help rid them all of Sebastian, the marriage to a woman who betrayed their family and sent an angry town with weapons to kill them all, the loss of a child before it was born.  

"We all have our ghosts, doctor, I'm sure you can understand why someone wouldn't want to reveal them all. It's too painful." Celeste replied. 

Julian nodded, "Yes. Well, think of me as the ghost hunter." He said, reaching for her hand and squeezing it.

That quick feeling of affection or attention from such a handsome man sent a jolt up Celeste's arm and into her heart. She felt her hand quickly pull away from him like he was made of fire and her skin felt the touch of the flame. He felt it too but like two teenagers in a forbidden romance they quickly gathered their wits and focused again on Johnathon's care.

"In just a minute, nurse Isabel will bring in Johnathon and we'll begin his session. I just want you to listen and see if you can pinpoint places that he is holding back truth. That's all. Once I know where those fractures are in his story I can better help drill down a way to help him through it." Dr. Pascal explained.

Celeste smiled politely and Pascal exited her room. She didn't want to help him in truth; Johnathon's mental health issues were caused by deeply strange issues within the family that she wasn't sure any of the Lords wanted out in the universe again. The witch trial had caused too much trouble already. But she sat there, clasped her hands over her lap, and hoped Johnathon would remain tight-lipped.

Nurse Isabel, Jacqueline in her transformed self, walked her estranged husband down the long hallway towards the room where Dr. Pascal was waiting. They were arm in arm -- Jacqueline's mind was on Verity and Mary. 

"You haven't said much since you came to get me." Johnathon said, dressed in his pale blue hospital clothes. "I've missed you."

"I've been off work Johnny. You know that if I'm able to continue to come see you looking like this I have to keep a regular schedule so no one suspects. I'm sorry. I do wish we could get out of here soon." She whispered.

"My sister has control of my life right now. I don't know how to get out from under it." 

"Don't worry, I'll figure out a way." Jacqueline replied. "Listen, when you get in there do your very best to answer Pascal's questions but beware ...he's fishing for information. We can't let him know everything." 

"What kind of information?" Johnathon asked.

"Anything to help figure out what got you here, do you understand?"

Johnathon searched his mind; it didn't take long for him to remember his breakdown. The demise of his marriage to the very woman he was talking to, the horror of realizing what Sebastian truly was and the loss of the child Jacqueline was carrying that he believed was his. All of that compounded with the sense he would never truly be a member of the Lord family despite who his biological father was.  

"I'll do my best."

Jacqueline, as Isabel, smiled, looked around and saw no one was around as they got to the door of the room Pascal was waiting in. Feeling free to do so, she kissed her husband on the cheek and squeezed him tight.

"Careful." She whispered again. 

Johnathon nodded and entered the room where Pascal was waiting patiently with a note book. 

"Johnathon, so good to see you. Please come in, make yourself comfortable."

Johnathon took a deep breath in and noticed the mirror on the wall. It was oddly shaped, rectangular still, but there was an oddness he could not pint point. He entered and sat and Celeste watched from the other side with bated breath at what this hypnosis would reveal. 

 

****

Jacob & Charlotte reunite at Rebecca’s hearing 

Elsewhere in town as the sun filtered through an afternoon sky of high clouds and a blustery cold wind off the Atlantic, the courthouse near Village Hall began filling in an impromptu hearing regarding Rebecca Lord-Casador's fate. 

Jacob entered alone. He walked towards the front of the courtroom on the side of the Assistant Barrister representing the state of Maine. Jacob calmly chatted up the AB, as she fiddled through the papers Barrister Eden Sydney had written up for the hearing and had not shown up for.

Charlotte entered through a side door that came from a corridor that led out to a small park. She quickly spotted her father Jacob and rushed over to him just as her uncle Christopher and his fiancée Genevieve entered with Morgan with a group of others through the back of the court. It was a strange and uncomfortable courthouse family reunion to hear what would happen to their very own matriarch.

Jacob turned from his chat with the AB and smiled at his daughter whom he hadn't set eyes on in weeks.

"Well, good of you to show up." He said to Charlotte. "How's your new life as a Braga." 

Charlotte clocked his jealousy as she had been living with her mother Mary and stepfather Filipe Braga. The soon to be 15-year-old paid no attention and didn't take his bait. 

"Why are you sitting on this side?" She asked him.

"What do you mean?" He replied, as Chris, Genevieve and Morgan sat on the side of the defense. 

"The family usually sits with the defendant. Grandmother will be of there." Charlotte noted.

Jacob arched a brow and sat his daughter down next to him in the old wooden Courthouse bench that oddly resembled a church pew.

"Charlotte do you know what your grandmother was accused of?" He asked in a whisper.

Charlotte nodded, as Baxter Murphy, Danielle Holten and Nikolas Jordan entered room with Lear who rushed up to the front desk. 

Charlotte and Lear made eye contact as she replied "Yes. I've read the papers."

"So then why would I sit with that side? We have to protect our family's image, our business. There is millions of dollars in play here. Your grandmother's antics has battered our company and us; I have to do damage control. Seeing me on the opposite side shows that the family doesn't coopt what she did." Jacob replied in an honest, yet cold reply.

"But she's your mother. You have to support her." Charlotte answered.

"You want me, the co-head of a company that will define your own financial future to sit behind a confessed murder?" 

Charlotte sat there stone faced, she sat there staring into the face of a murderer and an attempted murder himself and the hypocrisy felt choking. She felt her blood pressure rise and it was as if all her skin's pores open up with the sickness of Jacob's betrayal of Rebecca. 

"I, I can't believe you'd say that." She replied. "But I'm glad you did. I should have thought twice before I assumed you'd rally behind your own family. But you'd rather sink them, shoot them, and strangle them any way you can. Just as long as you get ahead. I feel so sorry for you daddy." 

Charlotte got up from the courthouse bench and sat next to Morgan. He looked over at her sympathetically and grabbed her hand. She squeezed it tightly as a bailiff walked Rebecca into the courthouse. 

Rebecca, her hands clasped in shiny silver handcuffs, looked around the filling room. Her two sons on either side of it. Her granddaughter stood up slightly so that Rebecca could see she was there too just before the bailiff turned Rebecca around to face the front of the courtroom.

"Where's my mother?" Nik wondered. 

Danielle looked around the room, no sign of Aurora. 

"She said she'd be here too." Nik added.

"My father isn't here either." Danielle said of Caspian. "I would have assumed they'd both come, being that Rebecca is his ex-wife and all." 

"Maybe it was too much for him to come. Especially if he's suffering from headaches."

Danielle nodded in agreement. That had to be it, she said to herself. 

"She looks --- ten years older." Christopher said of his mother.

"She's been through a lot, honey, anyone would seem aged." Genevieve replied.

"I hate all of this." Chris added. "If I could change it all I would. I would have never ever gone away and dealt with Jacob myself all those years ago. It wouldn't have come to this." Chris whispered.

"You don't know that." Genevieve replied. "We're here now because of what she did not what you didn't do. Chris she's confessed to it all. We have to remember that." 

Chris nodded and reached for her hand which Genevieve took happily and held. 

"ALL RISE!" The Bailiff announced. 

"Here we go." Reporter Baxter Murphy said to Nik as he grabbed his pen and paper notes. Nik rolled his eyes.

"The Honorable Judge Coleman Banning presiding." 

Rebecca took a deep breath. Her mind filling with what she had done. What she had confessed to and worst of all -- poor Asha Hoffman who's life was gone. 

As the Judge read the situation of the case, Dr. Peter Ward and his wife Laurel entered quietly into the courtroom. Dr. Ward had a double stake in the hearing. It was at his hospital that Rebecca committed her crime and he and Laurel had been friends with Rebecca and Albert for decades.

The judge rattled through the precordial and formal notes in the case in front of him. This final stage of the case, which to him had come at lightening speed because of Rebecca's confession and her choice to skip a trial and go straight to her punishment. Rebecca's choice was her right, but to Judge Banning it was odd. 

"Do you fully understand what you've confessed to Mrs. Casador? And on top of that, do you understand what you've chosen by way of skipping a trail where evidence would be heard in your defense. By choosing me to go straight to your judgement leaves out a lot." The judge noticed.

Rebecca turned to Lear, her nephew and lawyer who nodded that it was ok to respond out loud. 

She stood. 

"Your honor, I have fully confessed to the crimes that I committed -- alone. I want this to pass so that my family who are all here in this room can move on with their lives. I know they need it, and frankly sir, I need it." She replied stoically.

Judge Banning narrowed his eyes. "Are you doing this only to make things easier on your family, ma'am or are you truly ready for my judgement on the counts." He replied pulling up the paper that read off the counts she was accused of "1 count involuntary manslaughter, 7 counts negligent bodily harm with special circumstance of poisoning." 

"I am doing this, sir, to take responsibility for those I caused illness and most importantly for Dr. Asha Hoffman's life." She replied, "But also for my own family. It is both." 

"Very well." Judge Banning said pulling a pen from the drawer in his bench, signing the decision in ink that he had made and had been written ready to read out loud. He cleared his throat.

"Ms. Assistant Barrister of the state, I'm surprised to see you here alone." Banning said, noting Eden's absence. "Where is our new District Barrister Mr. Syndey?" 

The AB stood "Sir, unfortunately your honor he was indisposed and could not make the hearing." She said.

"Indisposed. I'll note that." Banning replied disappointed, then added "Mr. Lockwood, have you anything to add?"

"No sir. My client has decided this on her own and I do not believe she should be refuted." Lear said.

"Prosecution?" Banning asked. "Any issues?"

The AB stood once more, "No sir. We've looked over the papers and are content with what is present in them."

"Good." Banning replied, clearly annoyed with the quick motionless hearing. "Mrs. Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador, please stand." Banning demanded, as Rebecca stood. "I have read your case, all the details of it. I have seen the evidence and have noted this in my decision. I have thought about this with the very short time I was given with this case due to your request of a speedy hearing as is your right, guilty plea and no contest to a bench trial. In the above and entitled action, I hear-by approve your guilty plea of the poisonings of seven patients at Welshport Hope Hospital causing illness to six and of the more serious crime of death by the same means of Doctor Asha Anand-Hoffman. Ma'am, I sentence you -- more formally as -- Mrs. Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador -- to 10 years in prison."

The room gasped in the length of time.

The judge banged his gavel. "Should your behavior there, in prison on the mainland of the state of Maine in the town of Augusta, fair well your sentence will be reconsidered. This is so after 2 years of incarceration." 

Banning banged his gavel and closed the case. The bailiff came quickly and took Rebecca into custody.

"GRANDMOTHER!" Charlotte shouted. Morgan grabbed Charlotte's hand. 

Rebecca turned and smiled but was quickly ushered out. All the drama quicky noted by Baxter for his afternoon column in The Globe.

"I didn't get to hug her goodbye." Charlotte said with tears in her eyes.

"She knew you were here, that's what will get her through." Morgan said hugging Charlotte.

As the court began to clear Nik, Danielle were confronted by Dr. Ward and his wife. Dr. Ward reached for Nik's hand and shook it.

"I am truly sorry I accused you both of anything. I truly am." Dr. Ward said.

"Thank you." Danielle said softly.

"You're both welcome to come back to work anytime." Ward added.

"Thank you sir, I'm sorry too for anything that attributed to this tragedy. I truly am." Nik added.

"Dr. Jordan, if I know anything it's that we have a lot to learn still about ourselves as people. Doctors aren't perfect. Let's move on from this and hope for better days." Ward answered.

For their part, The Lord family was numb. They couldn't fathom Rebecca's future in prison. As they stood stunned in silence in the courthouse, Jacob began to make his way down the aisle of the courthouse, Chris stepped in front of him stopping him cold.

"This is all your fault." Chris told him, as Baxter quickly moved around to catch the chat for his column.

"Chris, let it go." Genevieve said.

"How is this my fault David?" Jacob asked, calling Chris by his birth name. "Did I give her the idea to do this? Did I choose this for her? She took responsibility for what she did. We should be proud that she did this." Jacob added.

"She wouldn't have had to go to prison for 10 years had she had help with what to do. You turned her in! She didn't have time to clearly think it all through." Chris noted.

"Chris, this was her choice." Lear added now standing with his cousins.

"Wouldn't you have put on a case to help her? Regardless of her guilty or not?" Chris asked Lear.

"Well of course."

"But she didn't get a chance to even think of that thanks to Jacob's quick call to the Constable. You did it on purpose, you wanted her to panic, you wanted her to crumble under the pressure of it all, and for what? Huh? FOR WHAT!!" Chris shouted.

"Chris!" Geneieve exclaimed. 

Jacob smiled, his cold expression proof of what Chris was saying. It made Chris sick to even look at his older brother standing there in his beautifully tailored suit with this bow tie and hat. His hands strong and thick covered in luxuri0ous leather gloves. 

"I guess we can all see what side of justice you're on, little brother. Let that be quoted in Murphy's column." Jacob said replacing his hat as Baxter hurriedly wrote down the events of the brotherly argument.  

"He planned this all." Chris whispered to Geneveive as Charlotte and Morgan circled them.

"Why would he do that?" Lear wondered. 

"Money and Power." Charlotte said. "My father only thinks of those two things and how close he can get to them." 

"He won't get away with it. No, not this time. Chris whispered. I won't let him." 

***

Behind closed doors, Rebecca began her decent back to her holding cell. She would be sent to Augusta soon. As she walked the heaviness of her loss started to settle in. 

Everything was gone. Her home. Her family. Her hopes. Her husbands. Her life.

As she walked with her hands locked in silver cuffs, several people in the hallways began to come to watch the great Rebecca Lord be carted off. There were deputies from the police station, courthouse clerks, even Judge Banning himself.

As Rebecca made her way through them all, she began seeing their faces changes and morph into laughing faces. Faces that hated her. Faces that wanted her hurt and dead. Faces the feared, and suddenly their faces changed again to Albert's face. Everyone standing and staring at her had the face of her dead husband Albert laughing at her.

Rebecca began to pull out of the bailiff's hands fearing for herself. She began to breath heavily and panic. The faces got closer and closer to her. She looked up at the man yanking at her arm, the man's face too had suddenly changed to the cruel face of a laughing Albert.

Rebecca screamed.

The courthouse shook with her voice. Her family heard her. Charlotte closed her eyes and tried to telepathically link to her grandmother just behind the walls but to no avail. 

The faces were all around Rebecca, haunting her, taunting her. She screamed again and then fainted in the arms of the bailiff taking her back to her cell. 

Rebecca Lord, the stoic queen of Welshport. The head of the Lord family. The iron lady of Tirymor House had fallen from grace and her downfall would be the catalyst that changed the face of her family forever.