B9/Ch16: IN THE AFTERMATH

Tension at Danielle’s cottage 

Danielle's cottage was quiet. She sat on her sofa holding hands with Aurora as the clock ticked away the minutes, then the hours that the men had gone after Viktor Holten, the man who's mind had finally split into two distinct personalities and had taken Cora captive in an automobile. In that escape, he drove off the side of the Northside Cliffs and into the wild crashing sea below. 

Baxter sat with Aurora and Danielle too. Tapping his finger on the edge of a wooden arm rest of the chair watching the door hoping his sister Cora would walk in safe and sound.

"This is killing me." He said softly. 

"We have to stay calm. We'll know what happened soon." Aurora assured them. 

Danielle sensed in Aurora’s voice that she feared the worst as the hours got later and later with no news.  

**

The search for survivors 

Justin, Nik and Aaron had traversed down a long rocky trail on the back end of the cliff and followed the beach along the coast to the bottom where they found  smoldering, mangled car.

The waves were relentless. They plowed over the rocks and the car, washing away all of the horror that had just happened. The men slowly approached, at times shin-deep in sea water. Justin raised his gun.

"I need you both to stay back." He instructed. 

"But I can help if they’re injured." Nik said, reminding them he was a doctor.

"Just stay back." Justin said as the three slowly approached.

Aaron's heart raced. His new wife was in that car. Was she alive? She had to be. She had to be alive, he thought. They had only been married a day, their relationship still so fresh, still so new. It couldn't be that it had ended before it began.

"VIKTOR!? CORA!?" Justin shouted over the crashing waves.

There was no answer. 

The driver side door was bent and twisted outward. The entire car itself looked like it had been cut open with a giant can opener. The metal contorted in shapes they had never seen before.

They continued to approach. Closer and closer they got with only the moon light bouncing off the water to light their way. The waves washed up on them harder and harder; even the sea was angry at being witness to such a horrific tragedy. 

"BACK! STAY BACK!" Justin instructed.

"CORALINE!!" Aaron shouted.

Justin peeked into the car and saw her. She was slumped over on her side. Blood seeped from her mouth but would wash away with a wave. Justin could tell her neck had been broken.

Justin turned back to Aaron. His facial expression said it all. Aaron collapsed into the waves. The water overtaking him. He begged God to take him too. Take him to be with Coraline. Nik rushed to the car to see her, there was no pulse. 

Coraline Taylor Murphy-Hamstead -- had not survived.

It suddenly dawned on them, Viktor was gone. His body missing. He was not in the car, no sign of him. But there were traces of blood where his body would have been. 

"The waves, they must of washed him out. Look!" Justin said, as the water did indeed come into the car. 

Nik helped Aaron up out of the sand and on to the rocks. He was completely soaked from head to toe. "Come on, come on. I'll take you back up."

"NO! I can't leave her!!" he screamed. "NO!!"

"Aaron! Please!" Nik said.

"I WANT TO SEE HER! I WANT TO SEE HER!" He shouted.

"No, Aaron! You shouldn’t have that in your mind."

But the heartbroken man did go back into the sea, pushed passed Justin and looked into the car and lifted Coraline’s body out of the car and brought it back to shore.,

Aaron sobbed over his lifeless new bride shattering him into a million pieces. 

****

The next day, as the warm air filtered through a stream of tightly locked clouds, the village of Welshport awoke to the blistering news of the tragic car accident on the cliffs the night before. The police, led by Constable Justin Ryan, held most of the truth close to the vest. Justin wanted no one to know what really happened -- in hopes to keep the reality of the strange case of Viktor Holden & Caspian Casador private with only the families involved knowing.

The Welshport Globe, for its part, was just as in the dark as anyone despite their prized journalist Baxter being directly involved. Even he couldn't muster the courage to write up something so real as his own sister's obituary. Not now. Not ever.

The body of Caspian Casador, or Viktor Holten had not been found. Garments of his clothes did wash up on shore in the morning. His body though, lost at sea thanks to the pulling of the strong sea current that night. 

****

Young Love in bloom 

In Village Park, as the warm air floated beneath the trees and the gurgling giant stone fountain splashed like the cadence of a river, 14-year-olds Morgan and Charlotte shyly walked hand-in-hand along the park path. He reached over and picked a small yellow flower and handed it to her. She blushed and smelled its sweet scent and then slipped it into his jacket pocket. 

"I think it looks nice here." She said.

The two youngsters had gotten closer. She had seen him as a best friend for so long, but their first kiss had changed all that. And she knew that it was the right next step. Morgan, for his part, had always loved Charlotte. From the moment he set eyes on her the second he arrived at Tirymor he knew one day he’d marry her. 

Their happy young love felt natural and easy even if the bog of reality was always trying to pull them under. Their youth seemed to shield them from the sadness anll around them: Coraline and Caspian's shocking deaths, Rebecca's imprisonment, Asha's death. Everything that has happened in darkness had to step aside to allow young love to bloom in the sun. 

Yet even then they could not ignore reality forever. 

"Have you spoken to Aaron? I know how close the two of you are." Morgan asked, Charlotte shook her head. "Do you want me to go with you to see him?"

"He’s like a big brother." She answered, "Tallest man I know. It’s so sad -- I just can't think of how he must be feeling." She added.

"Are you sure you don't want to go see him?"

"I want to give him some space. Everything has happened so fast." She replied. "I did write him a note though. I sent it out earlier today."

Morgan looked at Charlotte, who was wise beyond her 14 years. She had an angelic face; her blonde hair sparkled in the sun with curls that crowded her shoulders. He could tell that everything all around her had taken its toll. And it wasn't fair, not for a girl her age. Not for kids their age. They shouldn't have had to deal with so much adult struggle and pain -- yet here they were. Forced to face the dark shadows cast by the mistakes of their own family members over and over again.

Morgan held on to Charlotte’s hand as they moved to sit on the park bench. She smiled and scooted over to him, closer, so their legs touched. They had one more obstacle to worry about. What would happen when her uncle Christopher and his mother Genevieve got married. The coming marriage would change a lot in their relationship, they’d essentially be step-cousins. 

The biggest worry though was for Morgan who worried that Genevieve would want to move them away from the prying eyes of the Lord family and Welshport.

It was something Charlotte and Morgan had not talked about, hinted in quick chats, but never fully discussed: a possible separation. 

She looked at him, his face slightly turned away from as if he were too shy to look at her. She played with the yellow flower in his jacket. Charlotte didn't need to use her psychic ability to know he had something on his mind, more than about Coraline's tragedy. 

"What is it?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"Morgan, what is it? I can tell there's something else you need to say." She said.

He gulped. "I was just thinking about — things." He replied.

"Like?"

"My mom. Chris. What happens next."

Charlotte sighed "I've thought about that too, my father's hasn't made it easy for Uncle Davi---Chris, Uncle Chris--" she corrected -- to come back into the family fray. “Not with your mother who looks so much like aunt Sabrina." Charlotte added. “It’s haunting.”

"Haunting to you too?" The boy asked.

Charlotte thought about it for a second, the time when the spirit of the late Sabrina Lord inhabited her body and made her do some questionably deadly things. 

But that was years ago, Charlotte had been able to move past Sabrina's powerful and ghostly manipulations and helped her move into the light, but Genevieve’s strong resemblance was jarring. 

"I'll manage." She said with a smile to ease his anxiety. "And I think I can convince daddy to ease off of Uncle Chris too." She added.

"You think he'd listen to you?" Morgan wondered. 

 "Maybe -- now that my grandmother is gone away, he can focus on other things. His business. His control over everything the Lord family’s name and Empire touches. That's what he's always wanted. We can be sure that there won't be any drastic changes knowing he'll be preoccupied with all of that." 

"I hope you're right." Morgan siad.

"I'm sure of it." she replied. 

Morgan looked at the beauty in front of him and smiled, wondered to himself how could she be so confident. Then asked her "How? Huh? How can you feel so sure?" He asked.

Charlotte once again played with the flower in his jacket pocket. She didn't know how to say it in words, it was just -- there. She knew. She could feel it when she wanted to and turn it off when she didn't. How does one explain something so natural as her psychic tendencies?

She closed her eyes and, in her mind, went somewhere. Somewhere deeply inward and quiet where she could see people, places, things that were not visible to the naked eye. 

She went there, often, this place in her mind, to find solace. To find peace. Because there she could see the future. Her visions were not always clear and often times there was nothing to see. She would see images that made no sense, or places she had never heard of.  Many times those images were too vague for her to make sense of them. But even with those confusing visions she would go to this place in her mind that calmed her.

Such was this time. She didn't see anything specific. Not a face. Not a place. Just a feeling. A calming warm feeling that told her in this moment in time the thing she was most worried about would turn out to her favor. When? She had no idea, but it would.

Her young age still blocked her from truly harnessing her full powers. With time, she'd learn how to use them and control them and make sense of them, but for now, Charlotte would hold on to just knowing and settling into the feeling and emotion that washed over her when she entered this place in her growing powerful mind.

"I just know, I know things will work out for us and we’ll be able to stay together." She said to Morgan.

"What little shard of trust are you holding on to that makes you feel so sure?" He asked innocently.

She smiled and grabbed his hand and squeezed.

He then realized it was him. It was them. She trusted him and in was he that made her hold on. Charlotte knew that somehow someway they'd find their way through everything that was thrown and them. 

Charlotte snugged up under his arm on the park bench. The warn sun kissed their young faces and he lay his head on hers as the watched the fountain prattle on -- both hoping for brighter days ahead. 

**** 

The Braga house 

Across town, Filipe Braga hurriedly got little Caleb dressed for the day. The baby, pink cheeked and plump, giggled as his father put on a warm white long sleeve shirt and buttoned it to the top. The tickle of the collar made the baby laugh a bit more despite the worried face his father had on.

As Filipe laced up the baby's leather shoes, Filipe's mother's Fatima entered the nursery. 

"Where's Maria?" Fatima asked realizing the baby's morning ritual was usually done by his mother.

"She didn't come home last night. I -- I don't know what's going on. I have to go out and find her. Do you think you can watch Caleb?" he asked. 

"Claro que sim, querido." Fatima confirmed in her native Portuguese, happily taking the baby in her arms. "She never came back?"

"She’s been having a hard time." Filipe explained, nodding. "I know she's still trying to break free from what happened to her but to just leave the house and not tell us when she'd return. That's unlike her." Filipe said.

"And the island." Fatima replied.

"The island? What do you mean?" He asked her as they walked to the kitchen. 

"She left Welshport, I saw her near the docks. I assumed you knew." Fatima replied.

"NO!" he yelped. "I did not know. Why didn't you tell me. Did she go to her mother's cottage?" He wondered.

"Talvez." Fatima replied, agreeing. "Its her home, it's where her roots are. Its where her mother and little Louise are buried. Perhaps she went there to reconnect and find herself again." 

"I have to get there, I have to get to her. She's been --" Filipe sighed, "just not herself. I worry for her." 

"Go. Go. I'll be here with this little bundle and you take care of your wife, filho meu, go." 

Filipe kissed his mother on the cheek and his little boy on the head. He grabbed his coat hanging on a hook near the door and noticed Mary's cloak was still there. She didn't have it with her. This worried him more. A small boat ride from Welshport Harbor to Goode Island was quick but cold, especially at night. Something was definitely. off. 

****

Trapped twins 

Verity had been knocked unconscious after the fall into the pit with Mary. She had awoken only once but thee pain that came from a broken leg was excruciating enough to have her faint and sleep through the night.

The morning light peeked in from above through the ground level windows of the basement and eventually both twins began to regain composure.

Mary reached for her head, it was throbbing from the impact when she fell. She tilted her neck, stretching it half way around to help ease the pain, to no avail. The fall from the mouth of the pit had also given her a fresh concussion. She was weak and dizzy, but could not muster energy to lift her head up.

Verity’s body too felt battered, but she had no time to worry about herself, she had to think fast. A bone in her right leg cracked in half and had caused a huge bruise and she could not walk. She lifted up the dark skirt of her dress and looked down at the damaged leg. She closed her eyes and put her hands around the injury. She took a deep breath and with everything she had in her squeezed the injury causing her to scream in agony. 

Mary, startled by the animalistic yell, scooted away from her twin to one side of the dirt pit and covered her ears. A sudden glow of Verity's hands began to warm the injury. The powerful light was bright like the sun, and it began to heal her leg. 

It was Verity's true first time using her own magic for good, a good that benefited only herself. 

In just moments, the broken leg was healed, and Verity was good as new. 

"That was easy." She said in a hushed voice. 

"You've learned so fast." Mary replied. "How were you able to use your powers in here? There's a ring of salt around the edge." 

Verity rolled her eyes, she couldn't believe her own sister was this naive about the powers they both possessed, even when it was the subject of how to suppress those powers like the ring of salt.

"I placed the salt, Mary! It only keeps you from using your powers, not me. That's how spells work, or have you forgotten? I need to get out of here and back home, Filipe will be worried sick." 

"Verity, listen to me," Mary began, slowly getting up, only moving as fast as her ill body could muster. "you have to let me go home and back to my family. We can work all of this out together. We don't need to fight." 

Verity sensed a kindness coming from the woman in front of her. Her twin. Their faces created perfect likeness. 

Mary noticed this too, it was fascinating to see her own face standing in front of her and it not be a mirror. 

"We're sisters, after all." Mary said.

"Always the consummate actress." 

"I'm not acting." 

"Mary, what do you think would happen to me once we're back out there in the world together? I was not meant to live in this world for you. My life at conception was never fulfilled. You were the twin that lived and was born, I was gone -- gone before mother could ever know I was supposed to be alive. But the council knew this, they concocted this idea for me to live my own life as I should have -- but its too late for me to start fresh. Your life, however, is ready for me. A family. A husband. A world for me to step into and live, so fully. That's what I did, and I won't turn back now." 

"That's not true, you can still live your own life in your own way and I can help you, I would help you. I would be so proud to have a sister." Mary said.

Verity thought about it for a second. She didn't sense deception. Mary was saying things that Verity could only trust was the truth.

"You're so sincere, but this is now too far gone." Verity said.

Verity dusted her dress off. The mud fell to the floor in clumps. Verity reached up and closed her eyes. Her feet lifted off the ground, floating there as an invisible wind that began to blow, filling the pit and allowing Verity to rise slowly from her sister's possible future grave.

Verity had no intention of ever allowing Mary out of the pit. She had no intention of giving up the life she felt she had deserved and was entitled to but was not given the chance to fulfill. Destiny, as it happened, had kept Verity from this life: of a mother, a wife a sister.

But Mary had no intention of rolling over either and allowing her life to be usurped by her dreamed up twin. She lunged at Verity and pulled her down. Verity's concentration broke and she fell to the ground. Mary got on top of her sister. She began to hit her, Verity fought back and then like a stray bullet from a gun an energy blast from Verity's hand exploded between them knocking them both back, each slamming against the side of the pit once again knocking them to the ground unconscious. 

The blast was so large, that it shook the ground. A wide ripple effect went through layers and layers of dirt and soil and sea causing large waves to lift and build over the ocean. The waves were so large, smaller boats in the strait between both islands grew larger and larger almost capsizing them in the sea.

Filipe went down to the docks and started towards one of the small boats that were rented for a few hours to go out and fish or, for him, carry him over to Goode Island.

He reached down for the rope that had one boat tied to the dock. But someone walked over and grabbed his hands.

"No-can-do, Filipe. Look at these choppy waves. Can't let anyone on the sea using these little boats. Not until things calm down." the boatman said.

"Oh, I'll be alright, I just have to get to Goode Island, I won't be out long and it's just across the strait." Filipe said. "Please, it's an emergency."

"No-can-do. Come on up, we'll wait this out." the man said. 

"You're not listening, this is an emergency. I have to get out there now!"

"I heard you!" The man who managed all of the boats shouted. "But I said to get your ass back up and wait out the waves. We don't want anyone going out in this condition. You know the sea; it won't last long. Once it calms down again you'll be good to go. Now come back up here." 

Filipe sighed frustratingly. He looked over at Goode Island in the distance and worried Mary was in danger. More danger than he himself could have ever guessed. 

****

Saying goodbye 

On the top of the cliffs, just a day and a half after the shocking end to Cora and Caspian's lives, their closest loved ones gathered together there with large bundles of white flowers to throw into the sea in their memory. It had not been lost on them how fast it had all happened. The escalation of Caspian's mind splitting this way felt almost impossible to be real.

But it was real and they were gone. 

Baxter stood next to Lear. Her two brothers' (one by adoption the other by blood) held a large wreath of white roses. Lear couldn't believe he was at Cora’s memorial service. They had just gotten to know each other after years and years apart. It was as if the universe had only teased him with the love of his returned sister. 

Lear's partner Lucas walked over and held his hand. "Its going to be ok." He whispered.

Baxter noticed their closeness, a slight flash of jealousy hit him. He and Lear's relationship had fizzled many years ago, before Lear had even returned to Welshport. Now that Cora was gone, he felt a sense of longing for Lear again, an attachment, a connection to Cora too.

Lear began to move closer to the edge of the cliff, pulling Baxter with him. The two tossed the wreath into the sea and watched go out into the water like a little floating raft of roses. 

Aaron, Cora's new husband, and now widower, stood alone. He had a bouquet of white lilies. He was frozen in place. He couldn't get himself to move to the edge. He wasn't sure he could even move anywhere backwards or forwards. The shock of losing Cora so quickly after their wedding was too much for him. He choked up, tears rushing down his face. The bouquet fell from his hands and he began to sob uncontrollably. Aurora went over to him and hugged him. 

"I'm fine, thank you, I'm fine Mrs. Jordan." He said picking up the flowers. "Can you please do this for me, send the flowers to her in the sea. I have to -- I can't bear it." He added handing Aurora the bouquet.

"Of course, Aaron, of course."

Aaron wiped his tears and left back down the hill where he had parked the Lord family's car that he borrowed to make the trip. He couldn't stay there, not where it happened. It was all too painful, too fresh to devastatingly real to even comprehend much less participate in. As he walked back towards the car he passed Danielle and Nikolas. Aaron and Danielle’s eyes locked. The expressions on his face undeniably hurt. He stared at her as if to say “you don’t belong here”. 

After all, the mad man that took Cora’s life was her father Viktor.

Once Aaron had gone, Danielle took her turn. She had only a single white rose. Nothing fancy. She walked over to the edge, alone, and smelled the rose. She closed her eyes and said a little prayer for her father Viktor who'd taken back his mind via Caspian, and tossed the rose into the sea, vanishing into the white rush of waves when it hit the bottom. She began to sob and Nik rushed to her side. 

Eden stepped aside from Aurora and grabbed Lear's arm.

"I'm very sorry for your loss." He told his lawyer friend, whom he'd often find across from him in court.

"Thank you." He replied as he looped his arm though Lucas'. 

"I wrote to the facility your Aunt Rebecca is being held in and let her know about Caspian. I don't know if anyone in the family had reached out to her, but I didn't want her to read it in the papers." Eden added.

"Thank you, I think Jacob did as well." Lear said.

"I see, well, again I'm very sorry." 

"Why did he chase him?" Baxter asked.

Eden turned unsure what he meant, Baxter continued. 

"Justin. Why did Justin chase them like that. Caspian was out of his mind. He forced Caspian to do this." 

"No, I don't think I see it that way. We had no idea what Caspian was going to do. He had attacked us all -- even you -- and we knew that ---" Eden paused, seeing it was not the right place or time to go into details. "Look, I think you should speak with Justin about what happened. It's better coming from him." 

"Oh, I will." Baxter shot back walking as quick as he could with his limp, the injury still plaguing him from Caspian's attack on him, to a waiting cab.

"I'll never ever forgive myself." Danielle said quietly as the waves crashed below.

"Dani," Nik began.

"It's really all my fault. Did you see Aaron’s face? He thinks it too!” Danielle said. 

“Dani, no. He’s suffering. He knows the only person to blame is Viktor.”

“Everything is because of me. If I had left Welshport after I settled my mother's estate, I would have never seen my father again. I would have always assumed he died too. I would have never tried to reunite with him and Rebecca would have never wanted me out of the way, she would have never hurt Asha. Caspian would have gotten the help he needed and not stopped seeing Dr. Ward and Viktor would have never come back out the way he did. It was all me, Nik, It was all because of me." 

"Dani, I want you to stop this," Nik said grabbing Danielle by her shoulders, their faces locking in concentration that not even the loudest wave below could break. "None of this your fault. We can't go about blaming ourselves or others for what happened. Rebecca chose to hurt people and so did Viktor, no one forced them. Not you not anyone. You would never wish any of this on anyone and we all know that. Do you hear me?" 

She nodded. "I'll do my best." 

A tear ran down her face and Nik wiped it away and kissed the stain it left on her cheek.

Danielle then walked off to her own awaiting cab. Aurora came next and dropped Aaron's lilies for Cora over the edge for him and went over to her son Nik. She hugged him tightly and kissing his cheek. It pained Aurora to see the hurt for Danielle. There was nothing a mother could do but hold her son and hope for a better tomorrow.

"Give her time." Aurora said. "Just give her time, she'll understand." 

As mother and son went over to the same cab Danielle was in, Aurora made eye contact with Eden. She smiled at the handsome Barrister who smiled back, blushing even. 

"Baxter doesn't seem like he's going to let Cora rest in Peace." Lucas said to Lear. "Do you think we should be more friendly to him?"

Lear took a breath and shrugged. "I guess we're all he's gone for now." 

After the flowers had floated and sank away there was no one left on the top of the cliffs. There was only the sound of seagulls blaring their alarms for all to hear and the crashing of the waves below. The spray lifted into the air and sprinkled down like a light rain over the mourners who made their way back down into the village. 

The lives lost there would never be forgotten. Coraline's body would be buried the next day and Caspian's would be lost at sea forever. 

****

Tirymör 

Later that evening, as the sun slowly sunk behind the hills of mainland Maine, a warm fire in the hearth at Tirymor's larger drawing room flickered it's yellow flames on the pristine caramel toned face of young Fabian Lord who sat on the floor coloring a page with wax colors. He was a beautiful child. His dark curls of hair bunched at the top of his head while shortened at the sides made him look a bit older than his 4 years. His mother, Celeste, sat in a chair next to him, one hand on his head playing with his curls, the other flipping through the evening news edition of The Welshport Globe. 

"When is grandmother coming back, she was to read to me before bed, and she hasn't in so many nights." Fabian asked, his eyes never leaving the colored page.

"Darling, you remember what we talked about don't you? Grandmother Rebecca has gone away for a while. When she returns, she'll read to you. But, in the meantime, mummy can read to you." Celeste replied to Fabian's acceptance. 

As they chatted, Jacob entered with his own copy of The Globe. His face seemed pale. He'd read about Coraline and Caspian's deaths. For all his cold and callous plots and schemes, the idea that Cora had died in such a manner did not sit well with him. Even Jacob had a heart at times. She was, after all, his cousin and one time spy that ran a few trips of espionage for him. 

Never did he imagine this for her. 

"Did you read the paper?" Jacob asked Celeste.

She nodded and lifted up her copy. "Horrible. What's happening?" She asked rhetorically. 

"Sometimes I think I know, and then I realize I don't." Jacob replied, uncharacteristically sensitive to someone's loss.

"I expect you gave Aaron time off." Celeste replied.

"I'm not an animal, Celeste." 

Celeste rolled her eyes "Not always." 

"I told him to take as much time as he needed."

"Where is Aaron?" little Fabian asked, adding another difficult question to his roster. 

"He -- he's at his own home for a while." Jacob replied.

"Is he coming back?" the boy wondered.

"Of course he is, he's one of the family." Jacob said.

"Why is he going to be away?" Fabian continued.

"Well, darling, something has happened in his own family that he needs to take some time to adjust to. Do you remember when we talked about when someone dies? What that means?" Celeste asked calmly as Rebecca's white Maltese BeeBee entered the room and jumped into Fabian's lap.

"BEEBEE!!" The little boy giggled. 

"Son, do you remember?" Celeste asked the distracted boy.

"Yes!" The boy replied as the dog licked his face.

"Well, Aaron lost someone who died. Someone you know too." Celeste said. "Do you remember Coraline who used to live here and helped with Gabriel's tutoring?" 

"Of course he remembers, Celeste!" Jacob shot back. "Don't do this." 

"I like her. She helped in school too." Fabian recalled. "She died?" 

Celeste, ignoring her husband nodded, solemnly. "And Caspian."

Fabian's little heart broke knowing Caspian as a sort of Grandfather figure. His little eyes began to water, he held on to Beebee tightly, his only comfort in the split second of the news of two people he knew dearly had gone to another world. 

Fabian didn't understand death in it's literal sense. He was too young, too much of an innocent to grasp the terrible reality of what it meant for someone to die. All he knew was that when someone "died", they went to another world forever. Never returning, although in his intelligent little mind, he knew that was not always the case. People, in his own family even, returned from that world. He knew of this to be true. 

Fabian, stood up next to his mother who was sitting. He looked at her now at eye-level, dog in arms, and shook his head not trusting that these two new deaths in his world meant Coraline and Caspian would be gone forever. It wasn't over.

"They'll come back, somehow." He said.

"No, son, they wont." Jacob replied sadly. "Remember? They're in the other world." 

"Sebastian was in that other word too once. He came back. He came back and took Evie and Gabriel. I know this!" Fabian said. 

"Darling -- that's different." Celeste said.

"How?" 

No one could answer. When his parents stared at each other, both unsure how to reply the young Lord heir became frustrated. Beebee jumped out of his arms and the two rushed to the exit of the drawing room.

"I HATE WHEN PEOPLE DIE!!!"  he screamed. 

Jane came over in the corridor and watched the young child run up the stairs as BeeBee followed.

"I'll check on him." Jane said. 

"I hate this." Celeste replied. "It impossible to live under this kind of --- I don't even know what. Death. Loss. Horrors!" 

"It's life, Celeste." Jacob said, flipping his newspaper open already pushing the sad state of his son to the back of his mind.

"Aren't you even the slightest bit worried about Fabian and how he's going to deal with all of this in the coming weeks? His grandmother is gone, Caspian, Cora. What else is going to happen? He's already lost Gabriel and Johnathon too!"

"Gabriel and Johnathon aren't dead. Gabriel is somewhere off enjoying his parents and Johnathon is getting the help he needs. You said yourself he's doing fine at Churchill Green." Jacob replied.

"Well, I'm not so sure about that anymore. The other day when I went to witness his first hypnosis session with Dr. Pascal he began to say things that got Pascal suspicious." Celeste confessed. 

Jacob slowly dropped the paper lower, dropping it just below his chin, yet still open wide to the news page. "What exactly did he say?"

Celeste quickly realized her mistake. Jacob, she recalled, should not know Johnathon's confessions of the strange goings-on with the Lords and Tirymor. It was the whole reason she married Jacob in the first place to protect her brother from Jacob's cold hand of vengeance. Johnathon was already a symbolic threat being the bastard son of Jacob's father Albert, a new heir to the fortune Jacob so greedily protected for himself. 

"Mostly about Jacqueline." Celeste replied, lying. 

"That's all?" 

"Yes. Of course it all sounded like the fantasies of a mad man, married to a witch, but I had to caress it out of Pascal's mind." She said.

"Caress, huh? That doesn't really bode well for a married woman, caressing other men." 

"You're disgusting. You know what I meant. Pascal fixated on what Johnathon was saying about it all and I made sure I stopped it from getting worse." Celeste replied.

"Then I think you'd better make certain our little brother doesn't give anything else away while he's there. If anything, and I mean anything, gets out about Sebastian it could spell disaster for all us all. Johnathon remains a very big liability for this family, Celeste. Its your family too -- don't forget that." 

"I want nothing more than for Johnaton's time at Churchill Green to be free of any thing the Lord family name touches and poisons. He deserves that much. But what do you want me to do? I can't insist on being there all the time. I have to be invited by his doctor." Celeste replied.

"Of course you can insist! Don't you know who you are??? You're Celeste Lord! You're my wife! You wanted more, you wanted to be your own woman and get out from my shadow, well here's your shot woman. Get involved and make sure Johnathon keeps his mouth shut! This is about all of us, not just him. My mother's sentence, David's return, Caspian's insane end -- all of that has put me up against the wall with the Publishing House's shareholders. We can't risk anymore." Jacob explained.

Celeste felt a sinking feeling in her gut. She had finally crossed into the place within the family she had always wanted to be. She'd become the matriarch of the Lord family. This title came with the freedom she craved from Jacob, it came with it's own power, it came with protection just as she had always wanted. It was there right in front of her, but it also meant she was the matriarch of a family in crisis and there was no time to waste in making sure her brother Johnathon kept his quiet on the remaining secrets the family held under lock and key at Tirymor House. 

Celeste remembered she'd made a pact with Jacqueline. Together they'd be sure to keep a lid on Johnathon. For all their sakes. 

"I'll take care of it." she said softly as she looked up over the hearth and saw a large painting of Rebecca Lord staring down at her. 

Their roles reversed. Rebecca was now the old guard, watching down on her from a place or reverence and memory. They'd had a rough patch in the last few months, but now Celeste looked to her and wondered "What would Rebecca do now?"

The answer was simple. Everything and Anything. 

 In Celeste's care, the Lords would rise again. She'd make sure of it, to her dying breath, she'd make sure of it.

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.