B4/CH11: INFFERNO SUMUS

A ghostly apparition in tunnels below Tirymôr 

A slow murmur growled in the bowels of Tirymor house deep under the mansion in secret tunnels that acted as passageways and getaways for long dead family members. The sound Johnathon and Geneveive were hearing was the storm still raging above them outside. 

As they shifted around in the tunnels with just the small glow of a lantern Celeste handed them before she locked there. For their own safety she said. 

Johnathon believed in part that his sister Celeste was trying to help them from the dangers in the mansion but at the same time, he could see this as a clear way to scare him half to death and in hopes of pushing him out of the eye of the Lord family all together.

"She did this on purpose. She wants me out, she doesn't want me anywhere near her claim on this family's money even though it's my own birth right!!" Johnathon shouted, his voice echoing in tunnels as they walked blindly in the murky light.

Geneveive, who's mind was cohabitated by the spirit of her look-a-like Sabrina Lord, rolled her eyes.

"You don't know that, and you're going the wrong way." She said to his surprise.

"How do you know which way to go?" He asked.

Genevieve didn't know--- but Sabrina did.

"Call it woman's intuition." Genevieve replied. 

Sabrina knew all the ins and outs of Tirymor House's secret passages and hidden doors. She knew the hide away walls and underground routes that lead to the inner gardens and the secret paths to the outside and the streets. There was even a passage, deep underground, that lead directly to the village and opened near a small house the Lord's owned. When Sabrina was alive and married to David Lord, Johnathon's missing half-brother, David taught her every single secret of the mansion.

It was now apart of Genevieve's DNA. 

Genevieve grabbed the lantern from Johnathon's hand and lifted her dress so that the front of her hem stopped dipping in the random puddles below. She took charge and started down the long corridor underground that would lead them safely to the northern part of the Tirymor estate and to open air below the garden outside. 

As the two continued to walk, the came to an open area below ground. There was a smell, a strange smell of sulfur and dust. Something felt off about underground room that was square shaped and had to flanking passages that looked like arms stretched out wide. One leading to the north side of the mansion and the other to the south.

"Which way?" Johnathon asked.

Genevieve knew to take the right "arm" to the north, but something held her in place in the center of the room.

"Gen?" Johnathon asked seeing her staring into the darkness of the center of the room. "Are you ok?"

"Look." Genevieve said as a small ball of light began to glow in the center of the room.

The two walked closer as the ball of light got bigger and brighter and soon began to take shape, the shape of a person. 

Genevieve stepped back fearing it was something connecting to the chaos above them in the mansion. She grabbed Johnathon's arm to pull him back too but the light, the shape, intrigued him. He reached for the light; his hand fell into it like it was dipping into a bright liquid forming a person. 

"My god!" he said astonished with what he was seeing. "What is this?" 

In Genevieve's mind, Sabrina knew exactly what it was--- a spirt. A ghost. The real question was: Who's?

Then, as the light continued to form a person, a face was finally clear. Eyes. Nose. Lips. Ears.

Then clothes. A jacket. A white shirt. A bow tie. 

Then hands. With a wedding ring. A signet ring. Pants formed. Shiny shoes. A cane with a silver orb on the end. Genevieve's eyes widened when Sabria recognized the cane. It was ALBERT LORD, Johnathon's biological father and Sabrina's long dead father-in-law.

Johnathon backed away from the glowing spirit. He gasped in shock at seeing the person form. 

"Do you see this? Genevieve? Do you see this???" Johnathon exclaimed.

She did see it, but to her spirits and ghosts were no shocking matter, because one lived inside of her, the surprising part was that it was Albert.

"What do you want?" Geneieve said to the spirt. 

Albert turned to Johnathon and smiled "Do you know my face?"

Johnathon turned to Genevieve "Is it talking to me?"

Geneveive gulped and did not answer him but spoke again to the spirt of Albert "What do you want??" 

"Ive only come here to speak to my son. My dear sweet son. Cristina once showed you to me when you a baby, the week you were born. You were so beautiful." Albert said of Johnathon and Celeste's mother Cristina as his voice echoed in the empty room of the underground tunnels. 

"Your son?" Johnathon repeated. "Albert Lord? You're Albert Lord?"

The ghost of Albert did not say anything only smiled and nodded his head. 

"ALBERT!!" Geneveive shouted, Sabrina forcing her to speak loudly. "WHAT DO YOU WANT!" She asked him a third time.

Albert turned to Geneieve recognizing the shared face as Sabrina's. He smiled coyly and floated over to her. His glowing spirit circled her and saw that the woman in front of him was two people, the living Genevieve and the ghostly Sabrina. 

"Such a clever and ironic twist to your story, isn't it? It's unfortunate we're all not as lucky as you to have someone with the same face to come back to. Good for you dear Sabrina." Albert told her. "I'm not here to hurt anyone. To take anything from anyone. To absorb myself into anyone. I'm only here, and the only thing I want, is to see my youngest son and to tell him he's making the right choice. Stay on as you are, boy. Stay here at this house. It is yours too. Long have you been deprived of your inheritance as my child and that in part is my fault. I hope you can forgive me and also forgive Cristina, your mother." The ghost said.

"Forgive my mother? Why?" Johnathon asked.

"For keeping the secret. She and I loved each other and together we created you. But our affair was something that should have been handled differently. I was married. She was married. Those types of affairs, done in the shadows, in secret, cause too much pain. Please do not hold it against her." Albert wished.

"I can't believe this is happening. Geneveive, am I dreaming??? The air down here, is it too thin? Am I hallucinating??" 

Geneveive shook her head. "It's real Johnny. This is real." 

"With all the financial gain that comes you way as being one of my children, Johnathon, also comes dangers. I hope you understand this. Please listen: There is more to being a Lord than just money and power and prestige. There is more than the fame and the lore of our family. Mistakes, horrible terrible disastrous mistakes were made that go back generations. My father and his father and his father before him. We each paid a price for the other. And now... my children pay the price for me. This will soon come on you as well. For that I too apologize." Albert explained.

"You should follow the light Albert. Leave these dark traps that you keep yourself and go." Genevieve said. "The curse of your name can be free once you leave into the light." 

Albert turned to her; his ghostly eyes seemed to be filled with the night sky. Sparkling with stars and empty like outer space. He smiled at her understanding all she wanted was him to leave and to perhaps keep yet another secret, the secret he saw so clearly: Sabrina's ghost inside of Geneveive. 

Albert again floated over to Geneveive and whispered "I see you Sabrina, I see you well deep in that body. You've chosen a perfect cell for the rest of your days, but remember, Genevieve is not immortal. Keep her safe. Keep her whole. And if you want to do that, to live a long life that was taken from you too soon, I say reconnect with the threads that were cut. Reconnect with the man you loved." 

"What is he saying? GENEVEIVE! WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!?" Johnathon shouted, his mind beginning to feel like it was collapsing in the presence of the ghost of his dead father. 

"Go to the light Albert." Sabrina, in Genevieve's voice whispered back, over and over again. 

Albert smiled at her and floated back to Johnathon "Take your place son. This is your home too. Do not let anyone take it from you, not one more day more. Not Jacob. Not Rebecca -- no one." Albert said, then he turned back and said, "And not David." 

David's name sparked Geneveive's curiosity. He had been missing since Sabrina's death. Everyone feared him dead, but the spirits of both Albert and Sabrina knew he was alive and in hiding. 

"How do I do that? How do I take my place here?" Johnathon asked. 

But Albert did not reply. He moved back to the center of the room and began to vanish into the darkness and his voice only repeated back to his son "Take your place. State your claim. Take your place. State your claim. Take your place. State your claim."

As Albert's spirit began to dissipate Johnathon cried. "WAIT! WAIT! Please tell me more! Albert! HELP me!" 

"He's gone." Geneieve said.

"What did he tell you?" He asked. 

Geneveive did not reply with the truth. "He wants me to help you. I will. But only until Morgan comes, just like I said." 

"What does he mean for me to state my claim?" Johnaton wondered as Geneveive began to walk towards the Northern exit of tunnels. 

She wasn't sure how to reply. She too had questions, she wondered what he meant by that and also about finding David. Could David still be alive? Was David somewhere near? 

There would be time for all of those questions to be answered, but only when they could their way out of the tunnels.

Together, Geneveive and Johnaton continued in the darkness below the mansion and pushed on towards the northern exit where they'd find freedom and as they walked Johnathon's mind raced. He would do what his father wanted, and in doing so, he'd have to expose Celeste and that meant Jabob would soon know his beloved wife betrayed him by telling the family secret of there being yet another heir to the Lord fortune, something Jacob and Celeste wanted to be kept secret. 

A rival to Jacob's claim on the money was the true danger Johnathon was about to deal with. Jacob had a way with eliminating his rivals, and sometimes that meant murder, Sabrina Spencer-Lord, Sebastian Lord and David Lord knew all too well the pitfalls of being in Jacob's way.

Now, Johnathon was about to put himself squarely in Jacob's crosshairs. 

To his own, deadly, detriment. 

****

Rebecca kidnaps the baby

Rebecca's mind was completely devoured by Caspian’s influence and control. She was no longer thinking logically. She was no longer behaving like a sane person. 

And she had Evie & Sebastian’s child.

She Scurried down the winding staircase of Tirymor holding the baby tightly to her chest. If anyone was going to keep their part of the deal, of sacrificing the new norm for the return of another gone before it had a chance to live…it was going to be Rebecca herself. 

She wanted her reward for sacrificing Evie's child like Caspian promised. She wanted her baby Victoria-Vivan returned to her alive, breathing, in her arms just as Evie's baby was now and just as Caspian promised.

But that could only happen if Rebecca completed Caspian’s original devious plot…no matter if the original idea had changed. In Rebecca’s bewitched mind it didn't matter that Caspian no longer was interested in the new baby and that he had changed his plan to now involve Aurora. Rebecca’s mind control was too far gone; and in her arms her great-grandchild’s life in danger only minutes after it’s birth.

She rushed down into the foyer guided by the light of the flashing lightening outside. 

She opened the front door, the storm swirling above her head and took the baby out in the muddy, cruel world it had just been born int. 

"You'll seen see the peace of heaven. I wish I didn't have to but...but its all about Vivi. My love Vivi. My dear sweet child that was taken from me 28 years ago. Taken too soon!" Rebecca told the child as she quickly walked down the muddy path into the village. 

The baby cooed as Rebecca tightened the swaddle of the baby's blanket.

"Oh, sweet thing, I know it's cold. But it won't last. I promise. You'll soon feel warmth forever more." she said to baby boy cryptically. Then he opened his eyes and looked at his great-grandmother. His eye color was still undefined, but his face was so close to Sebastian's when he was born. A single twinge of reality sprouted while Rebecca continued down the long muddy path from the mansion to the village. 

Rebecca smiled at the resemblance. But then, she snapped out of it. Caspian's mind control had taken over her whole brain. She was lost to all reality no matter how many times it peaked into her brain trying to snap her back to who she really was: a rational woman who would never ever think of doing what she was doing.

Kidnap and murder? It was incredibly out of character for Rebecca.

But the devil had infected her. She was on a one woman rampage thirsty for a promise from the demon to bring back her baby if she gave the life of the newborn.

The whole idea of one baby for a baby-- an eye for an eye-- was a cold act of retroactive justice. This was how Rebecca saw it. The child born of Evie and Sebastian on this night would give way for the universe to return her child if she gave it back to the universe. One death for a rebirth.

Caspian promised her. She wanted, and demanded, he keep his word. She would keep her word no matter how vial the situation was. 

And as the storm continued to swirl off and on pouring the strange warm rain over her head, She saw a speck of light in the distance passed the thick trees of Tirymor Forest. 

The light, far off towards the horizon, swung back and forth in the sky. It was the beam of light from Welshport's Lighthouse. 

The lighthouse was such a sore spot-on Rebecca's heart. It was the last known place her son David was seen alive. It was where he jumped to his supposed death into the crashing waves of the Atlantic below.

She looked down at the baby. She looked towards the far-off spinning beam of light and realized it would be there that she sacrificed Evie and Sebastian's child. 

She would throw the baby from the lighthouse into the sea just like David when he jumped. 

And then, once the deed was done, her demented and corrupted mind told her that her own sweet daughter Vivan-Victoria would return.

"Vivi." Rebecca whispered as she quickly made her way towards the lighthouse. 

****

The Act of exorcism  

At Tirymor, Caspian's powers began to strengthen. 

He was floating in the center of the bedroom. Stitches of electricity zig-zagged around his arms and legs and bare feet. The veins in his neck and hands were like black tree roots splintering all over his body.

His voice was deep and monotone; he laughed at the sight of Father Donavon Ryan attempting to exorcise him from Tirymor forever. 

"BY THE POWER OF THE LORD, I SEND YOU BACK TO HELL!" Ryan shouted as the windows burst open again allowing the wild wind of the storm to flow in again.

"You have no power here priest! It's time you see your own future!" Caspian shouted over the wind.

Then, the monster lifted his arm up with his hand in a fist. He opened his hand and Father Ryan began to lift from the ground and in a sudden motion, Ryan's body flew across the room and his neck fell into Caspian's open hand that quickly closed choking the priest as they both floated in the middle of the air in the room as the small sparks of electricity zipped around them. 

Jacob began to come to after falling to the floor. 

He looked up and saw the frightening sight of Caspian choking Father Ryan. He tried to pull at Ryan's dangling feet, but Caspian slapped him away with another powerful burst of energy from his free hand and Jacob was again knocked out cold on the floor.

Father Ryan was pulling at Caspian's tightening large hand. He felt his eyes begin to close. The air was now thin, he couldn't get out of the tight grasp of the evil creature. Caspian could see the life fading from Donavon's eyes like the dimming of a candle just before the last bit of wick gets consumed by the liquified wax. 

Caspian lowered his head so that his cold white face was at Donavon's ear and whispered evilly "Now close your eyes, priest and see where the end of life leads." 

Donavon Ryan then passed out in Caspian's choking hold.

In the blackness of his mind, he began to see the flicking of flames. Fire burning all around him. An evil laugh could be heard echoing in the distance corners of his subconscious. Then there was another laugh that seemed to be getting closer and closer to where Donavon was standing. 

The heat was immense. He was literally burning in the flames of some kind of sulfuric world where the ceiling was made of dark stone and the ground was molten lava. 

Then, the flames formed a body, a man, the face became clear. It was the evil devilish creature sent to Welshport inside th host body that formed as Caspian Casador. 

"You are not saved by any means just because of the book you hold so sacred to you heart. There is no God here for you Priest. None. You're here because of the secrets you hold and the lies you've told. You're here because of the lives you did not save and the lives that I was able to snuff out and absorb. You won't save them; you won't save yourself. I'll take it all for me. I'll take them for the prince of darkness, and we'll continue our reign of a world of the soulless. All because you failed your life. You did this. It was all you." Caspian explained.

As the heat and smoke of the flames continued to build in Donavon's face, he knew it was a lie. He knew none of this was his doing and the devil was tricking him to give in. 

"I will never give in to you." Donavon Ryan said. "The sins I've committed make me human. They make me real. They make me a child of truth, someone who will never attempt to pass as anything other than flawed." 

Flames grew hotter and higher. The heat singed Donavon's face as Caspian's frustrations grew with Donavon's resistance to him.

**

The new Sisters of Highgrove unite powers

In the Inn across town where Mary, Sebastian, Filipe and Jacqueline were hiding the ticking of the clocks stopped. The rain too suddenly stopped around the hotel. But six feet away from the exterior walls the rain continued, it was as if some sort of invisible dome of energy covered the Inn protecting it from the rain.

The distant rain and eerie silence woke Jacqueline who felt uneasy about the strange silence. Mary caught her staring out of the window into the darkness.

"What is it?" Mary asked.

"Look. The rain." Jacqueline said pointing.

"How is it doing that?"

"We're being sent a message Mary. Whatever is happening at the mansion, it's not working. Something is wrong and whomever is attempting to destroy the creature is failing. Our guides have opened up a channel for us to intervene. We have to act." Jacqueline said.

"Act how? Are we ready? I don't know what to do." Mary said, the novice of her craft now obvious to the more experienced Jacqueline. 

"We don't have time to ask questions. If you brought me here to help you, we need to do it now. Come." Jacqueline said grabbing Mary's hand. 

Jacqueline took Mary outside to stand under the protected area that the rain did not touch. They held hands under that invisible shield protecting them from Caspian's storm and she told Mary to close her eyes as they held hands.

Filipe and Sebastian came out too. They watched intently. 

Mary began to feel her hands heat up, but the heat was not from touching another person it was heat as if she had her hands over a fire. The heat began to almost burn her, there was a slight bit of pain; Jacqueline felt it too.

"He's strong." Jacqueline said in a whisper.

With her eyes still closed and the wind slowly moving everything around them but not disturbing their clothes or hair, Mary asked what they needed to do.

"Focus. Focus on the house and the creature. Focus your mind's eye on the monster, Mary, and let our foremothers tell us what to do." Jacqueline said.

And as the two witches held each other's hands and focused on the task of vanquishing Caspian once and for all their eyes suddenly snapped open in unison glowing white with swirls of electric powers inside them like whirlpools of energy. 

Then, the two witches Mary and Jacqueline, felt the powers of their coven rise inside their bodies. The gifts of the Sisters of Highgrove entered their bodies by way of the protective shield. Then the two began to recite a spell in Latin, word for word together. 

"Ignis egreditur. Nunc incendia linque.
Quae opus sunt tibi inveneris.
Ignis egreditur. Nunc incendia linque.
Tollat te mors de hoc mundo et mittat te ad inferos."

The witches continued to repeat this spell banishing the demon back to hell over and over and over again, louder and louder and louder over the sound of the falling storm.

"What's happening?" Sebastian asked as he noticed the winds suddenly turn the other direction.

"Did you feel that?" Filipe asked, feeling the wind shift too.

**

At Tirymor, Caspian felt the wind too.

Floating in the room, he saw the curtains begin to fly out of the window instead of into the room showing the wind had turned, it was now pulling away from Tirymor, and it wasn't his doing.

He floated there as Donavon's life was slowing being taken and then, like two white sheets themselves the spirts of the witches came in cackling like evil hens. They were laughing in the face of Caspian. His angry became more and more dangerous. He dropped Father Donavon's body to the floor allowing the air to renter his lungs.

His gasping and chocking on the floor awoke Gregory who had been unconscious the whole time from being thrown across the bedroom earlier in the exorcism. 

The two men crawled over to Jacob who was still unconscious, and they tried to revive him.

The spirts of Mary and Jacqueline, infused with all the power of the Sisters of Highgrove continued to say their Latin spell over and over laughing the whole time, infuriating Caspian who could not fight back because the powers the witches had were stronger than his.

He became frustrated. No amount of power from his large hands would stop the ghostly apparitions of Mary and Jacqueline's sorceress spirits worked against them.

"STOP!! STOP THIS!!" Caspian shouted. 

The witches stopped saying the spell, then Jacqueline spoke: "You were created by one of our sisters, you were made by one of our sisters, you were a mistake by one of our sisters. And now, Casador, the demon, you are banished from here by one of our sisters." 

"You are banished from here." Mary repeated.

"You are banished from here." Jacqueline repeated. 

Then together as a solid coven "YOU. ARE. BANISHED. FROM. HERE!"

Then, Donavon, Jacob and Gregory both stood up, Donavon lifted his arm showing the large crucifix and repeated what the witches said "YOU ARE BANISHED FROM HERE!" 

Caspian looked down at his stomach and it was as if the tunic he was wearing was burning. A hole began to form in a perfect circle of cinder and ash and fire. He began to feel his skin peel back, his eyes began to fade from black to yellow to normal. The black veins in his arms, legs and feet began to go back into the flesh of his body. His face began to reform back to a normal face. The heat of the fire burning away his clothes engulfed him, he came totally covered in fire burning him, taking him away completely ravaging the floating man like a moth who flew too close to a flame.

His screams shook the house and Charlotte and the baby, hiding in the turret room held each other tight.

Johnathon and Geneveive still searching the corridors below the mansion saw dust and danger come from the ceilings and fall on them after the shaking. 

"Its collapsing!!!" Johnathon screamed as he pushed Genevieve to one side to shield her from falling debris. 

Aurora awoke on the floor of Evie's room and had to hold herself to a table as the shaking continued and then noticed Rebecca and the baby gone.

Caspian's body fell back down onto the bed smoldering and smoking and nude as all the clothes had been burned away. His skin had burned off on his face and limbs. His hair singed. The bottom of his feet looked as if he had been walking on hot coals. 

Back in the village the rain completely stopped.

The waves in the ocean calmed.

The night sky became clear, not a single cloud of rain could be seen.

Celeste burst into the room and Jacob rushed to hold her. "Is he... dead?" She asked.

Jacob didn't know, and only Father Ryan was brave enough to touch the smoldering body of Caspian.

"I don't sense it anymore." Ryan said.

"It?" Jacob asked.

"The entity." Donavon answered. 

"My god." Celeste said, as she made the sign of the cross over her body. 

"But is he dead???" Gregory asked.

Ryan looked up from smoking body that was Caspian's and turned towards Jacob, Celeste and Gregory but did not reply. 

Then, the electricity at Tirymor came back on, buzzing away as if nothing had ever happened. 

**

Back in the village, Filipe helped Mary and Jacqueline back into their shared room. The two witches were exhausted. They had used up so much of their bodily energy to have sent their spirits over to Tirymor and vanquish the monster Eliza Goode had underestimated. 

Sebastian stood of the Inn leaning a pillar of the veranda smoking a cigarette, watching the night fade away and felt happy this part of nightmare was over.

As he watched several people in the village from the pubs that had closed up with patrons inside as the storm passed suddenly began rushing out and running towards their vehicles and driving off in the direction of the south end of the island. 

Filipe emerged from the Inn to join in the celebratory cigarette with Sebastian.

"What's this about?" He asked Sebastian as he lit the cigarette.

"I don't know." Sebastian replied as he continued to watch the people running and driving off.

"Maybe they're going home? They've been trapped in these taverns all night while the storm swirled around." Filipe said lighting a match.

"But they're all going that way. Look." Sebatian added pointing to the road that went towards the east end of the island, away from the village. 

The Inn manager soon exited the lobby in a rush too.

"Sir! SIR!" Filipe said stopping him. "What's happening here?" 

"You didn't hear?" The Inn manager asked.

"Hear what?" Sebastian replied.

"Mrs. Rebecca Lord! She's lost her mind! A ship that was coming into port while the storm was brewing sent a mayday message over wireless saying they saw a person on the edge of the lighthouse. Just dangling there!"

"WHAT?" Sebastian shouted. "How do you know it's Rebecca Lord?"

"When they saw the person just out there in the middle of the storm the boat was close enough to see that the person was a lady, and she was carrying something. It was odd to the sailor at the helm, so he contacted the lighthouse wire to check on the person. Well the shit hit the fan then! Rebecca god-damned answered the wire herself! She said she was ready to go, ready to take a life. SHE HAS A BABY WITH HER! She wired back the ship, some strange words, some strange shit. We're all going out there to stop her, boys, she's gonna jump WITH THE BABY!" 

It didn't take a single second for Sebastian to connect the dots. The baby must of been Evie's baby. 

HIS baby!

Filipe and Sebastian's hearts both began to race. Could Sebastian's child have been born he wondered? Or was the baby Celeste's? 

"IM GOING WITH YOU!" Sebastian shouted to the Inn manager who hurried him to get into the car.

It was clear to Filipe, who stayed behind at the hotel to watch over the resting Mary and Jacqueline, that whatever died at Tirymor that night, did not fully end the evil on the island.

The malevolence strengthened by Caspian's existence that poisoned and warped Rebecca's mind still spun it's evil force around Welshport; just like the spinning light of the lantern of the island’s Lighthouse where Rebecca stood on the iron gallery deck holding the new baby. 

They stood there, wind in Rebecca’s long red and white hair, her expression vacant and hollow; the baby wailed in the cold wet air as the waves crashed on the razor sharp rocks below them. 

A vision of Caspian’s malevolent mind control metastasizing in real time. 

 

        

B4/CH10: CHAOS IN THE DARK

The exorcism of Caspian Casador 

A continuing storm slammed the islands of Welshport and Goode in the Frenchman Bay of the state of Maine. The ocean crashed like an angry beast that wanted to swallow the islands whole. In the center of The Tirymor Forest, the Lord family mansion was under siege by a creature's fury.

Father Donavon Ryan held up a cross in the face of evil. The lights flickered. The thunder cracked in the sky with a lightening flash that lit up the room. 

"Our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name...." Father Ryan prayed out loud.

"Thy kingdom come; thy will be done..." Gregory and Jacob joined in.

Caspian, the creature tied to the bed whose eyes were dead, black and vacant, laughed in the face of the prayers.

"This is futile. All of this is too late. When will you learn? I've been let in and I've been given the strength to carry on more than the three of you even know." Caspian said.

"Shut up. SHUT UP!!" Jacob yelled at him as the lights in the house flickered again. 

Off and on. 

Off and on. 

Off and on. 

"Do not speak to him. I demand you leave this place! Leave this place now, and stay forever away! I command you, by the love of the lord, by the light of heaven to leave this place, this body, this house FOREVER!" Father Ryan said as Jacob and Gregory, who flanked Caspian's bed, crossed themselves.

"Amen." the two men said.

Caspian laughed. He was subdued by the ropes and by the cross in his face but his powers were still very strong. 

The storm let out a loud bang of thunder again. Rebecca, who was fully possessed by the powers of Caspian was in her room staring at herself in the mirror. Her face was vacant. Her mind controlled. Her eyes glowing yellow.

Then, in a spark of insanity, she screamed into the mirror. She ripped the ribbon that was holding her braids tightly in place and let her wild curls free. The scream was almost inhuman. She grabbed a glass bottle of perfume and slammed it into the mirror shattering both and slicing her hand open. 

Her mind was crumbling into the wild disaster of Caspian’s control, the stoic and firm Rebecca was now a just a vacant pawn of insanity powered by Caspian’s promise of the return of Rebecca’s lost daughter in exchange for the evil sacrifice of Evie’s coming baby.

Then the flickering of electricity continued; weakened by the storm suddenly went out leaving an insane Rebecca bleeding in the dark.

Only blackness now. The entire mansion was under the shadow of night with only candles burning and the flashing of the lightening outside. Rebecca, screamed again, her mind infected by Caspian's evil.

She grabbed a lit candle and rushed down the hall, long and winding and burst into Caspian's room.

"MOTHER! GET OUT!!" Jacob screamed at her. 

Caspian looked at her, his eyes flashed from black to yellow then back to black. Rebecca tried to snatch the cross from Father Donavon's cross from his hand but she missed. 

Jacob got up from the bedside and went over to his mother and shook her.

"What in the world are you doing? Get out of here, this is a dangerous place." Jacob said as his breath puffed in the cold room.

"I Will not let you do this! All of you will know the truth soon. We have to keep the sacrifice, we have to keep the sacrifice!" Rebecca said repeating herself over and over again.

"She's out of her mind!" Gregory shouted.

Caspian then closed his eyes, the room's temperature dropped even colder. The window's burst open. Wind blew in, rain splattered all over the wooden floors. Curtains lifted as the wind blew in, papers began to fly from the desk and picture frames began to shake. He began to laugh, a deep and sinister laugh that felt like it was coming from the depths of hell.

"BY THE POWER OF GOD, THE LORD OUR SAVIOR, I COMMAND YOU TO LEAVE THIS PLACE! LEAVE THIS BODY! LEAVE THIS WORLD FOREVER!" Father Ryan screamed at the demon.

Caspian's body began to float off the bed but remained tied by the ropes. He laughed as a glowing yellow energy swirled around him. Father Ryan continued to pray. He held tight to the cross and sprayed Casian with holy water from a silver aspergillum. The drops froze midair and hit Caspian's body like little rocks of hail.

"Mother, get out of here, get out now!!" Jacob shouted to her over the wild coming from the window.

"You have to stop this! YOU HAVE TO STOP THIS!!" Rebecca said, her hair swirling in the wind her mind in shatters from what it once was thanks to Caspian's powers. "He's here to save us, he's here to protect us! He's here to take us back to where we need to be!" 

"What is she talking about?" Gregory screamed as he tried to pull Caspian's floating body down.

"MOTHER GET OUT!!" Jacob screamed as Father Ryan continued to pray.

Rebecca's mind was completely overtaken by the creature. As Jacob tried to push her towards the door and close it on her, she reached over as she passed a desk and grabbed a letter opener. She raised her hand and brought it down to stab Jacob in the arm, but he blocked her with his other arm. She was now screaming like a mad woman. Her mind slipping away. Jacob squeezed her wrist she roared like a pinned down wild animal. The letter opener fell to the floor and Jacob slapped his mother across the face which seemed to bring her back to some sort of normalcy. 

"What...... what am I doing?? What's happening?" Rebecca asked clearly out of her mind, but Caspian's eyes signaled to her again. "STOP THIS! STOP THIS!!" She added. "He's going to save us! WE HAVE A THE SACRIFICE!!!" She screamed. 

"What sacrifice? Jacob! Get her out of here!" Gregory yelled again.

Jacob nodded and continued to push his mother back out of the room and into the shadowy hallway.

"JACOB! STOP!!" She screamed as the door closed on her face. 

Inside the room, the creature tied to the bed opened his mouth and let out a roar that shook the whole house. 

**

Celeste, Charlotte and baby Fabian trembled in the nursery as the house shook.

The door burst open and Aurora came in.

"Hide." She said. 

"What's happening????" Celeste asked.

"Just hide. Take the children and hide." Aurora repeated before rushing back out.

**

Genevieve & Johnathon get a visit from Celeste 

In their shared room despite their decision to break up, Johnathon and Geneveive were awakened by the shaking. 

"What was that?" Johnathon asked, in his groggy voice.

Geneveive reached over to flick on the lamp.

"The electricity is out. It must be the storm." Geneveive said. Then she felt it. The ghost of Sabrina that lived inside Geneveive's body felt the powers down the main hall and over in the room where Caspian was.

She stood up from the bed and stared at the door in the dark. Something was coming. 

"Get up." She said in a hushed voice.

"What?" Johnathon asked confused. 

"Get up Johnathon.” She replied, her voice almost paralyzed in tone.

“What is going on?” He asked again. 

“We have to get out of here." Genevieve replied.

Johnathon got up, he reached for his robe and swiftly slipped into it. He looked at Genevieve who seemed frozen in fear only because she knew what was coming. The devil. The demon down the hall was raging. 

Then the door opened. It was Aurora. 

"HIDE!" She shouted.

Johnathon grabbed Genevieve's hand and they took off down the hall to hide somewhere else away from whatever was happening. 

As the two recently broken up couple made their way down a long hall the took them towards the nursey they ran in Celeste, Charlotte and baby Fabian.

"What's happening? Is it a hurricane?" Johnathon asked Celeste.

Charlotte looked at Genevieve, the two knowing something much more supernatural was occurring than weather related. 

"Charlotte, take the baby to my room and wait for me there. Johnathon, Genevieve, follow me." Celeste said as she grabbed some candles and matches. 

Charlotte then took baby Fabian and did as her step-mother said.

"Come with me." Celeste said to her brother and Geneveive. 

Celeste rushed back down another hallway Johnathon and Geneveive followed close behind as the storm raged on and as Caspian's exorcism continued on the opposite side of the east wing. Celeste's nightgown of soft silks flowed in the air as she ran. The curls of dark hair like a lions mane swished in the cold mansion's air. 

The spirit of Sabrina Lord that now lived inside of Geneveive felt her body tightening with fear. She had not felt this feeling in many years. The sensations of human emotions seemed to overcome her. She began to cry out of fright. She began to feel real dread, like the day Jacob killed her. Geneveive's human emotions were now part of Sabrina, and it was overwhelming her in real time. 

"Where are we going?" Johnathon asked her as the tree kept running. 

Celeste suddenly stopped and felt the walls of a strange hallway that lead them into the west wing. They stood in front a wall that had a painted door that matched the mural of the wall it hung on. This door led to secret tunnels below the mansion that once took the family form the west wing down several secret corridors down through the mansion and into a long dark room below the house. It was a safe room to hide the richest family on the easter seaboard from anything and everything they feared. 

Celeste pulled key from her pocket and unlocked the secret door.

"Go, go in here, and when this is all over, I'll come for you." She told Johnathon and Geneveive.

"WHAT? We're not going in there. What's happening?" Johnathon asked.

Celeste truly didn't know but she had plenty of past events of Tirymor logged in her mind to know that whatever was shaking the mansion, whatever was hurling the feeling of death and terror in her body so strongly was real and it was unflinching.

Celeste had seen death. She had seen darkness around each corner of the mansion before, she was not going to allow it to creep into her life and take any more lives of people that she loved. Not even if it would benefit her. 

"Johnathon listen to me," Celeste said grabbing her brother's hands out of Genevieve's grasp. "You want to be apart of this family so badly well, this is a large part of this family. They have deep roots in the world of darkness and in things we do not understand. Whatever is shaking this house right now has more to do with that than it does with the storm above us now. I'm asking you right now to go in this hiding place and stay there, stay there until I come for you tell you it is safe." Celeste ordered.

Genevieve grabbed Johnathon's hand away from Celeste. "Listen to her." She said, Sabrina's mind now controlling Geneveive's whole body she too knew the darkness that could creep up in the mansion and kill anyone. 

Johnathon looked at Celeste then looked at Geneveive both had expressions of terror written all over the face. The thunder clapped again flashing in the windows just beyond the hallway that hid away this hidden door. 

Johnathon, without saying anything, took Geneveive into the secret passage to Celeste's relief.

Celeste handed them candles and matches and then pulled on the door to close it "Come back!" Johnathon said. "Get Charlotte and Fabian and come back." He added.

Celeste lifted a brow; lightening lit her face with a white flash, and she said nothing and closed the door.

Johnathon and Geneveive stood in the darkness and listened to Celeste lock them in the secret tunnels inside of Tirymor house.

"She'll come back. She will." Johnathon said to Geneveive. 

But in truth, he wasn't so sure she would.  

****

Nik & Asha in a romantic moment 

At the hospital Nik and Asha were having a long night. They worked for hours and hours as the continued to make their way to being official doctors. Nik, for his part, was pushing himself to working in the psychiatric part of the medical field, while Asha was leaning towards family medicine.

In the small room where they were studying, the light began to flicker off and on and then suddenly completely off.

"This storm is out of control." Nik said as he got up and looked out of the window.

"I don't think I've ever seen it this strong before." Asha replied.

Dr. Ward entered the room with lantern and some extra candles. "Are you two ok?" he asked.

"Yes Doctor." Asha replied.

"Is everything alright?" Nik asked.

Dr. Ward nodded. "Just a power outage. We'll have to wait this one out. The storm is quite strong. The nurses have been instructed to tap into the lantern and candle supply and bring them to each hospital room. We've also given our most ill patients some medicine to help them sleep through the night." 

"I'll be glad to stay on and help." Nik replied. Asha said she would too.

"Thank you both. I'm going to head home. My wife doesn't do well in storms and she's home alone with little Samantha. I'll be back in the morning." Dr. Ward replied speaking of his young granddaughter who had come to live with once orphaned. 

As Dr. Ward left the room, Nik and Asha settled in for a long night at the hospital.

"I hope everyone at Tirymor is alright." Nik said. 

"It’s an old house most of it doesn’t have electricity yet. Good old candles will do the trick.” Asha smirked. 

“Could be sort of romantic.” Nik said with a boyish grin. 

The two of them sat down next to each other on a small love seat and got comfortable. Asha thought about the secret she was hiding about Alice and the book she found. It was eating at her that she knew something that he didn't, especially about Alice. But she promised Matthew she would not tell anyone about the book she found. It was to her benefit that she kept it secret, but it still bothered Asha she was beginning her relationship with Nik by withholding something that perhaps he should know.

At the same time, if Matthew was telling the truth, Alice and Nik were truly over. Alice’s life as she knew it was gone…if she were supposedly out there somewhere in some strange alternate stage of afterlife, she was someone else or something else. Nik would never see her again.

"You seem preoccupied, are you alright?" Nik asked lifting his hazel eyes from his medical book.

She smiled back at him. The glowing lights of the candles hitting his beautiful face like a setting sun. She wanted to tell him what she found at Matthew's so badly but she held back. She leaned over and they began to kiss. They kissed slowly and deeply parting their lips. 

Asha was in love. 

She could not let anything break them apart. Happiness was so close, Asha felt, and she could not let anything get between them. Not work. Not her education. Not Alice's memory. Nothing.

She slowly began to peel away Nik's clothes. And he hers. 

In the dark, while the storm raged and inside the small room where they were studying Nik and Asha made love for the first time. 

****

Evie encounters chaos in the hall 

Evie rolled over in her bed with the rain tapping at her window. She opened her eyes. The blurry fog of sleep still clouded her vision. She turned to her right expecting to see her mother who had fallen asleep next to her instead of going back to her own room, but that side of the bed was empty. 

She lifted her head slight to look out into the room thinking maybe her mother was up and sitting in the room with her but the room was completely dark. The one small lamp that was kept lit on one of the side tables was dark. The blackout in the mansion from the storm had taken it too.

Evie moaned as her large baby belly's heft pulled her up out of her bed. She looked around again, her hair pulled to one side in bundle of dark and light brown curls. She walked over in her night gown and opened one of her drawers guided by the light of the lightening coming into her widows. She grabbed two 12 inch candles plunged them into the silver hand-candelabra sitting on the desk. 

Then, just as she lit them, she heard a scream down the hall. 

Her heart was pounding. She quickly grabbed her robe and with the yellow flickering of the two fresh candles in her eyes she dashed down the hallway fearing her mother was in danger.

The halls on the third floor of Tirymor House where many of the family's bedrooms were, could become a tangle of confusion if a person was not accustomed to running down them in the dark or even with the slightest bit of light as Evie was. But she was a professional now at the layout of the mansion regardless of the amount of light the touched the walls or the floors maneuver her way to find the person screaming.

As she finally turned a corner, she came to an 'T' Shaped corridor. Down the corridor she saw Rebecca standing with her own lantern, pounding on Caspian's door. 

Her voice was the voice Evie heard screaming.

"What is it? WHAT'S HAPPENED?" Evie asked as she caught up to Rebecca still howling a horrible scream as she banged on Caspian's door that was being held shut by Jacob. 

Rebecca stopped crying and screaming. She looked at Evie, she looked at her belly. The baby. The baby was what Rebecca wanted. If she had Evie's baby, Caspian would give Rebecca the child she lost many many years ago. Her daughter Vivian-Victoria. 

Rebecca's mind ran in circles. She mumbled to herself crazily. Evie strained to understand, but it was impossible.

"What...what are you saying?" Evie asked, cautiously as Rebecca's eyes zeroed in on her womb. 

Under her breath Rebecca muttered over and over again "Sacrifice for Vivi. Sacrifice for Vivi. Sacrifice for Vivi." 

Evie gulped, unsure of what was happening to her grandmother-in-law and took a small step back. 

Inside the bedroom, just behind the door where Rebecca and Evie were standing Caspian continued to float over his bed tied at the arms and legs. His eyes were now back to yellow, glowing bright like the sun. Father Ryan continued to pray as did Jacob and Gregory who remained at each side of Caspian's bed. 

"Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee...." Father Ryan recited. 

"Blessed art though amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." Gregory and Jacob replied. 

Caspian then lifted his head that was in a position where he was staring at the ceiling. His eyes bright and fiery. His mind still controlling the wild storm that was battering the island of Welshport.

"Yes, yes." the demon growled. "Speak of thy fruit of thy womb." Caspian said hinting at Evie who was just outside the door.

And suddenly, with a sharp power and fury, a burst of energy from Caspian's body exploded and swirled in the room knocking over Jacob and Gregory who fell to the ground. The men's eyes turned yellow like Caspian's, but they were completely unable to get it. They had been knocked unconscious by the burst of energy yet their eyes remained open.

Father's Ryan's eyes opened wide with fear. The ropes around Caspian's arms and legs snapped off open by open. Caspian's body began to rotate from a position of laying in mid air to now standing with this feet pulled together floating over the bed. 

The monster lifted his hand and the bedroom door flung open. 

Evie and Rebecca saw the Caspian's monstrous face. Rebecca's face turned twisted and oddly happy with seeing him, Evie's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fainted in Rebecca's arms.

"GET HER OUT OF HERE!!!" Father Ryan screamed to Rebecca.

"LET HER GO!!" Aurora said at the end of the hall. 

"Do NOT touch her! SHE'S MINE!" Rebecca shouted at Aurora.

"Rebecca let her go!" Aurora screamed at the other woman as Evie lie limp in Rebecca's arms.

Rebecca looped Evie's arm around her neck and with the strength of someone much younger and stronger lifted Evie's body from the floor and began to walk away with the young pregnant woman. Aurora pulled Evie's other arm around her own neck, and now both women were holding Evie up and slowly walked her back to her bedroom. 

Evie lay in her bed slowly coming to. Rebecca stared down at her, holding her hand comforting her while Aurora smoldered in the corner wringing out a wash cloth with cool water for Evie's forehead. Evie, moaned and groaned. Then while she was still in between her fainting spell and lucidity she grabbed at her stomach.

Her water broke. The baby was coming.

"It's time! "ITS TIME!!!" Rebecca shouted as she noticed the sheets quickly soak with fluid. 

"Oh my god, Evie? Evie Wake up darling! EVIE WAKE UP!!" Aurora shouted carefully tapping Evie's cheeks. "You have to wake up darling, the baby is coming. Please, honey wake up." 

Evie's eyes flipped open. The blueness sparkled in the dark room. She was confused but felt the labor pains quickly come. She wasn't due for another month. Her body felt like it was being crushed in a vice. She twisted in pain, she rolled over and screamed into a pillow as the baby began its way down through her body. 

"You have to turn over, Evangeline, you have to lift your legs." Rebecca said pulled back the sheets.

"Darling focus, please focus. The baby is coming, we don't have time to call Dr. Ward and even if we did the storm is too strong for anyone from the hospital to come. We're going to have to do this together." Aurora said squeezing Evie's hand.

Evie nodded. 

"Evie keep breathing." Rebecca said seemingly out of Caspian's mind control. 

Aurora looked over at Rebecca with suspicion and worry but she couldn't act on anything. Evie was her main concern and things were happening fast. 

Evie pulled on the white sheets in pain and screamed into the night. The pain was immense. It was as if her loins were on fire. She yanked at the pillow with her teeth, the baby seemed to be ripping her inside out. She screamed and screamed until Rebecca shouted that she could see the child's head.

"You're going to have to push, Evangeline. You have to push!" Rebecca said.

Evie roared like a mother lion. Then pushed.

The sweat poured down her face like the rain on the window. 

She roared again, pushed. Pushed more. Squeezed her mother Aurora's hand. Aurora encouraged her to push. To stay awake despite the pain. 

"Push, my love, push!" Aurora said. 

"The head is here! Oh! The baby... the head!!" Rebecca said with excitement as the baby was slowly coming.

"Evie push! PUSH DARING!" Aurora shouted. 

Evie nodded, she felt like she was about to die, she felt like she was going to pass out, like the air in her lungs were deflating quickly. Her heart was pounding in her chest. The sweat was everywhere. her body seemed to be everywhere too. The left side of the bed, the right side of the bed. 

Then finally, one last push and the baby was out. It screamed it's first breath and Rebecca saw it's face, the face just like her grandson Sebastian. 

Rebecca cried.

Aurora cried. 

"Its a boy. The baby is a boy!" Rebecca said.

Evie laughed as her body fell back in exhaustion. She could feel herself slip into a sleep. She couldn't hold herself awake.

Rebecca stood in the center of the room holding the new Lord baby boy. She smiled at him knowing that his baby was a connection to Sebastian. She cleaned him, and washed his head with the little water from a porcelain basin at the side of the room. 

"I'm so sorry." Rebecca whispered to the baby knowing that this child was the child she needed to sacrifice so that Caspian would gain more power and bring back Vivi. 

Her warped state of mind was now a danger for the new child. 

"Rebecca hand me the child." Aurora said. 

Rebecca turned to Aurora, her eyes were yellow again. Aurora's furrowed her brow and took a step back from the menacing looking Rebecca. 

"Rebecca... give me the child." Aurora repeated more forcefully but still frightened at Rebecca's evil face.

Rebecca, filled with the powers from Caspian, powers that were not her own. Powers that she did not possess; powers she had no control over or understanding how to use then. Her eyes frightened Aurora to her core. 

The bed blocked Aurora from moving any further away from Rebecca who lifted her free hand up in the air. Then, with Caspian’s powers still flowing though Rebecca’s body, a jolt of yellow light burst from Rebecca's hand and hit Aurora's chest knocking her to the ground. 

Aurora lay there unconscious. Evie lay in her bed exhausted from just giving birth. She opened her eyes. Again there was a blur from sleep and a pain in her body. She again lifted herself up and saw a dark room with just a few candles glowing over on the desk near the window. 

"Mother?" Evie's voice said in a whimper. 

She saw no one. She turned to her left. No one was sitting on a chair that was there.

She turned to her right. No one visible, Aurora however lay on the floor still unconscious.

"My baby. Where's my baby?" Evie said in a small whisper to herself as tears quickly rushed down her face.

Aurora got up, moaned and pulled herself by grabbing on to the bed.

She looked over at Evie who had panic all over her face. Aurora looked around the room and saw they were the only ones there...the bedroom door was open.

The baby was gone, and so was Rebecca. 

                     

B4/Ch9: THE DEVIL'S SEA SHANTY

Matthew’s ship hits a storm 

The storm swirling above Welshport grew and grew. The wind howled in the trees. The ocean seemed angry; it bashed up against the rocky shoreline with a force that felt it would dislodge the ancient stones that held the island together.

The ships at sea rocked over giant mountains of waves. Up high over valleys of water then down deep into the flowing and cascading waves that pushed the ships up again. Over and over like in a repetitive motion. 

This was no ordinary storm. This was Caspian's doing. The was the fruition of his promise to Rebecca to remove Matthew from Evie's life...one way or another. He sought to do this too as Matthew was a clear sign of the good in the world. Caspian saw it, Caspian felt it, and Caspian feared it. The demon new if Matthew lived, the good in him, the love from his heart, the innocence and light he held in his body would thwart Caspian's control not only over Evie and those that she cared for but the rest of the Lord family and perhaps the world that Caspian so wanted to rule.

A storm, with winds of so strong they could rip the paint off buildings, the barks off of trees, and the skin from human bone was brewing. A hurricane of devilish and monstrous proportions was the only way to sink Matthew's influence. 

Literally. 

In his room, lit by candles that glowed of yellow and orange light, the demon Caspian sat on a Persian rug with images of lions and tigers devouring their prey. The drapes were not drawn despite the growing storm outside. His window was open allowing the powerful winds to bluster in lifted the heavy drapes into the air. 

Caspian's eyes were closed, his mind locked on the dwelling violent sea outside. His fury, evil and malevolent called for all of his powers to swirl out of his body and into the atmosphere to brew the storm. It rained like never before, gushing water onto every surface on the island.

Villagers scrambled to hide. They covered themselves in their windowless rooms hoping for the storm to pass quickly. Window shutters locked tight. Doors too. 

Caspian's powers were overwhelming, and the fishing trawler Matthew was on the in the bullseye. 

On the trawler Matthew and the rest of the crew frantically tried to pull in the sails. They scattered around the deck of their ship ripping at cords and ropes. The sails whipped in the wind unbound. 

"Rip'em off! RIP'EM OFF!!" one sailor yelled out to another instructing him to release the sails towards the bow of the ship.

"THEY AINT MOVIN!" Another sailor screamed back, as the latch holding the ropes was stuck.

Matthew, hearing this too, quickly ran over to help. Then another man came. 

Three men pulled and pulled on the latch holding down the ropes that held the bow's sails up. Then suddenly the metal latch released lifted into the hair and smashing one man in the face. 

He groaned a sound so inhuman as his teeth burst from his mouth. The pain was intense. He couldn't see with all the blood in his face. With the ship bashing in the wild storm, the sailor was unsteady on his feet. Covering his face in pain, and unable to hold his step, he fell overboard and into the wild ocean that took him under. 

Matthew and the other sailors looked into the dark water in horror as the rain poured down over them.

"He's gone mate! GONE!!" One sailor shouted. 

Matthew, his eyes wide with fear, looked back towards the mainland and towards Welshport Island, his heart sank worried for Evie and the baby she was carrying while the storm, Caspian's storm, raged in their direction. 

****

Mary’s nightmare of fire 

Flames, dark flames burned all around Mary Goode. Her legs seemed to be trapped, tied to something. She could not move. She screamed for Filipe but the sound of the fire overpowered her voice and he did not come for her. She tried to reach her trapped legs and her arms were tied behind her back to a large wooden stake.

Her lungs filled with smoke black as tar.

Then, in the heat and smoke of all the fire burning around her Mary saw a face. The face laughed at her as she suffered in the pyre. As the smoke and sulfur continued to choke Mary, she was able to make out who the face belonged to.

Caspian.

She screamed at him, she cursed at him and begged for him to untie her, but he laughed a laugh so deep and menacing that it shook Mary to her core. 

As the face of Caspian taunted her in the fire, it began to grow larger and lager and his mouth came closer and closer to Mary and in a split second Caspian looked at her and said “Cook witch!” and opened his devilish mouth and swallowed Mary whole.

“Caspian! Stop this! Stop all of those!” Mary shouted over the sound of enraged flames below. 

Caspian only laughed at her. 

Mary screamed again, the fire continued to fill her lungs and the air around her with thick black smoke that swelled in the sky and clouded over Mary’s burning body.

How did she get here? How did Caspian tie her up and she had no memory of it? 

With the confusion suddenly lifting from Mary’s mind she realized it had to be a nightmare, a nightmare controlled by the demon who infected the island of Welshport. 

With this realization Mary screamed in horror as Caspian’s growing face began to come down over her body and his mouth devoured her and suddenly the sound of her own  scream awoke Mary in bed at the Inn in the Village safe and sound and not surrounded by Caspian's flames of hell, burning like a witch from Salem. 

But oddly, the stench of sulfur remained.

"Are you alright?" Filipe aske, his big arms pulling her close to him. She could feel the warmth of his bare chest. 

She felt safe.

She reached down to where her baby bump was growing, the child she and Filipe created when they first made love locked in the turret room at Tirymor, she breathed a sigh of relief— it was still there. 

"There was fire! I was burning, the heat! I can still feel it Filipe, I was dying I was dying!!” Mary explained of her dream. 

“You’re ok now. You’re safe. The baby is safe. If Edd just a dream.” Filipe answered back. 

“No, it was more than that. It was him….Caspian knows we're here. He can sense us. He's incredibly powerful." concerned for her growing child.

"Mary, listen to me," Filipe replied, looking her dead in the eyes "we won't let him hurt our baby, or Evie's baby or anyone. Whatever happens from here on, it will be the beginning of the end of Caspian Casador." 

Mary stared deep into Filipe's eyes "Do you really think so?"

"I do. I have to, we have to. We don't have a choice." Filipe said speaking over falling rain outside. 

Then, another strange sensation came to Mary as she sat up in bed. It was almost like the reverse of what she felt in her dream. It wasn't fear. It was calm. She looked towards the window and slowly got out of bed. She tip-toed to the window that was open slightly allowing the sound of pouring rain to fall and drops to splatter over the windowsill.

She pulled back the lace curtain and from her view of their room at the Inn she saw a large ship pulling into the shadowy docks down at the Village marina.

"Sebastian." She whispered.

Filipe got out of bed and covered himself in a blanket from the bed as he walked over to her. 

"Sebastian?" He asked confused.

"He's come back. That's him! I can sense him! HE'S BACK!!!" Mary replied in excitement as she quickly reached for her clothes that were carefully flung over a chair in the room.

"Hurry, we have to meet him down there. He could have her, he could have the last sister!" Mary said quickly putting on her dress.

Filipe nodded and followed suit. 

**

Sebastian & Jacqueline aboard the USS IGNIS

The terrible storm raged on in the night. Somehow the ship from Boston found the swinging light of Welshport Island's lighthouse and docked safely.

Sebastian, Jacqueline and the rest of the passengers from the ship named IGNIS scurried down the long ramp on to the dock-side. Jacqueline looked up into the sky as the rain fell on to her face. She touched the water. It was warm. She then turned to the sea and saw it thrashing up against the docks and the shoreline and couldn't imagine how they even made it to Maine from Massachusetts alive.

"This is his doing." Jacqueline said as Sebastian interlocked his arm with hers.

Sebastian, seeing the storm too as something he had never seen before in all his life on the island nodded his head in agreement.

"Otherworldly." He replied of the strangeness of the strength of the storm. "We don't have a lot of time, we have to take cover. He'll know we'll here." 

As the smattering of gathers parted and scooped up the small number of passengers that came to Welshport Island, two familiar faces stood out in the darkness like two bright candles under the shadow of their umbrellas. 

Filipe and Mary.

Mary rushed to Sebastian, her vampire cousin, and in the pouring rain grabbed hold of him and hugged him tight. She had feared he gave up on and would not return or worse. She thought perhaps something awful had happened and he was dead.

"I'm so happy to see you, So So happy! Thank goodness you've returned!" She said to him as Filipe caught up.

"As you can see," Filipe replied "things have gotten very strange." 

"It's him." Sebastian said of Caspian. 

Mary nodded. "And this.... this must be her." Mary added noticing the woman next to Sebastian. "We've been waiting for you." 

Mary and Jacqueline's eyes locked. They began to tear up as they realized just how connected they were almost like sisters, real blood sisters and not just fragments of a diminishing coven of witches. Jacqueline grabbed both of Mary's extended arms and interlocked her hands with Mary's. There was an instant latching of powers together. They felt it, like a surge of energy rushing from one body to the other. The powerful energy even made Mary's baby bounce in her belly. 

"Oh my." Jacqueline said, feeling the baby in her own body as the two witches slowly melded into each other as one telepathically.

"We have a lot to catch you up on. We met with Gregory. He let it slip that people at Tirymor are on to Caspian too. We're not alone in this." Filipe said.

"Jacob too?" Sebastian asked of his uncle.

"Especially Jacob. There have been incidents at the house causing Jacob concern especially around your grandmother. She's not been herself they say. They know Caspian's game. They even called Donovan Ryan to help." Filipe added.

"The priest." Jacqueline said surprising the three. 

Filipe confirmed. "How did you know that?" 

Mary turned to Filipe and smiled "She's my sister. She can feel it. Can't you?" 

Jacqueline smiled back almost shyly as the rain continued to pour over their umbrellas. "We have to take cover. We have to get somewhere safe, if he's as powerful as I can sense, we're not safe here. He knows more than he leads on and he's probably already sensing me here. Sebastian too." Jacqueline replied as three yellow-eyed owls landing off in a close by tree watching the group.

"Agreed." Filipe replied.

"If Father Ryan is helping--what does that mean? Can Jacqueline and Mary still join together and fight whatever Caspian is plotting to do with my child?" Sebastian wondered as they walked over to a side, smaller dockside where a small boat was tied up and awaiting then.

"Father Ryann is going to need all the help he can get from us. I have a feeling their planning to vanquish Caspian as soon as they can. They know the darkness he's brought to Tirymor and the family. We have to get back to Goode Island and be safe." Mary said.

"But look!" Sebastian said pointing to the wild ocean. "Is it safe?" 

"Sebastian's right. It's not safe to travel on this boat to Goode Island. We have to go back to the Inn. That's our best bet." Filipe replied.

They group agreed and rushed off in the rain back towards the Inn where'd they'd hunker down for a very long and painful night. Mary held Jacqueline's hand the whole way. 

****

Father Ryan’s arrival at Tirymôr 

The rain fall slightly subsided but continued to pour down as the hours went on through the night.

In the strangely warm rain and mist, a small car pulled out of the circle driveway at Tirymour house and drove off quickly passed the tall iron gated entrance to the estate leaving Father Donavon Ryan on the front steps; cold, wet and trembling. 

He turned from the car as it drove off into the distance and vanished and walked towards the front door. As he lifted his gloved hand to pull on the door knocker the door opened revealing Jacob Lord how put his pointer finger up to his lips motioning for Donavon to stay silent.

Then Jacob handed the priest a note.

"This monster knows all. He probably knows you're here. I have Constable Reigns standing watch in the room across from him. We must go up as quiet as possible and surprise him." 

Father Ryan nodded his head after reading the note. 

The two slowly walked passed the foyer that was glowing with candles. The electricity had yet to reach this part of the mansion. Only the bedrooms and two of the drawing rooms had been lined with electrical wire in the old house walls.

As they ascended the large red carpeted circular staircase together, a flash of light from the sky brightened the 6 rectangular windows that went around the staircase. Jacob, who was leading Father Ryan, turned and looked down at him and again put his finger to his lips to remind him to stay quiet. 

**

Aurora confides in Evie 

Thunder rolled; lightening came again then more thunder.

Evie sat in her room watching from a high window as the rain crashed down over the entire estate. Her stomach felt strange. Uneasy. She took a breath and patted her baby belly that was bigger than ever. 

"There, there." She told her little baby. 

A knock came at her door. "Honey. Are you alright?" Aurora said, her stomach too uneasy in the night.

Evie smiled sweetly. "I've never seen a storm like this." 

Aurora walked in and closed the door behind her. "Neither have I. Not since I left England." 

"I'm a little nervous. Matthew is out there. The sea is...I don't know. It's unruly." Evie replied.

"Maybe they turned back once they saw how dangerous it was. He could be on his way back right now." Aurora replied holding her daughter's nervous hand.

"I hope so." Evie said as she turned again and looked out of the window into the distance where on a clear night, she could see all the way to the ocean, but on this night, she saw only darkness. "Since Sebastian died in the fire I have had this sinking feeling that something worse was coming. I haven't told anyone. I never would put that pressure on someone. After all, everything that's happened to me in the last 2 years is because of me."

"Because of you? What are you talking about? Sebastian's death in the fire wasn't your fault." Aurora asked as she cuddled up to her daughter. 

"In a way it was. Had I just let him be and never tried to be with him again while he was..." she paused "the way he was, then maybe things would be different." 

"Yes they would have been. You would have never gotten to know and love Matthew the way you do now." Aurora reminded her. 

Evie smiled but still felt guilty. "I just feel like maybe I'm cursed. Maybe I did something in a different life that's causing so much pain in my life. Why else would have my whole marriage to Sebastian have gone so wrong. It literally crashed and burned all around me. And now I'm staring out of this window and watching a storm ..." Evie paused before saying what she was really thinking and feeling.

"Darling, you didn't cause any of the terrible things that have happened." Aurora replied. Then she realized all of the terrible things she herself was responsible for and the grief it would cause Evie if she revealed it. "Listen, you are going to have a baby soon. All these emotions are just because of the new life growing inside of you. You're not responsible for the horrible things from the past." 

Evie turned to Aurora from the window and smiled at her mother and just before she thanked her for her kind words she noticed Aurora's facial expression. 

"What is it?" Evie asked. 

"What? Nothing." Aurora said, lying.

"Mother, I know you. When you bite your lip like that, I know you have something on your mind. Tell me." Evie said as the lighting flashed. 

Both mother and daughter flinched in the bright light.

Aurora couldn't hold back. She had to confess... but not everything.

"I did something that I regret." Aurora began.

Evie's eyes squinted in suspicion. "What have you done?" 

Aurora had plenty of skeletons in her closet, one in fact that she would hold on to and not reveal to Evie, that being the death or the truth of the death of Robert, Evie's father and Aurora's late husband. This confession felt much worse to Aurora. Aurora stood up from the chair and tangled the dangling ribbon from her sleeve nervously. 

"Last night, I did something that I am embarrassed about and surly you'll hear about soon. Rebecca seems to be the type of woman is incapable of being discreet but you should know, or hear it from me, before anyone else." Aurora said.

Evie got up. Her stomach churning as the storm rolled on. 

"What did you do?" She asked her mother.

"In a strange, mistake in identity, which is truly the only way I can honestly explain it, I was intimate with Caspian Casador. Please, darling, don't make me go into details." Aurora confessed.

Evie covered her mouth in shock, but then giggled. "CASPIAN?" She said, not knowing his true evil yet.

"It's not funny. Darling he's not a well man. He's got some hold over Rebecca and sometimes I feel he's trying to do it to me too. It was almost like I was dreaming, and then I woke up and he was in bed with me, and Rebecca was there and there was shouting, and Rebecca was angry. It's all very blurry and confusing. He kept saying that he wanted to make a child with me." Aurora added to Evie's now serious reaction.

"A child???" Evie replied confused and a bit horrified. "How can that even be?" 

"You see?” Aurora replied. “It's all very bizarre. In truth, and again this is rather embarrassing for a mother to admit to her child, but I thought I was with Gregory. I thought it was him in bed with me."

“But why would Caspian say you were pregnant?” Evie asked

Aurora again couldn’t reveal all. She knew that Caspian has very much wanted a child, a baby, to empower himself more than anything on earth. He wanted Evie’s baby and had brainwashed Rebecca and Aurora to help take the child once born. 

That plan had been changed, thankfully, but the idea Aurora couldn’t bring it upon herself to confess her complacency in the bizarre plot no matter how brainwashed she was at the time. She knew how awful it would be for Evie to know this of her. It was ter one more secret Aurora had to keep from her children.

“I don’t see how Rebecca still keeps him around. Even Jacob is suspicious of him. I just feel so awful about everything. I never meant to go to bed with that man.” Aurora explained.

Evie sighed. She could see her mother Aurora was feeling uncomfortable about the whole situation. The night was wearing long, both women were in the state of a whirlwind of nerves and anxiety. Evie, being the good-natured person she was decided to leave it alone. Let the winds blow and the rains fall and not pursue anything else from the whole sorted event of the night before. 

"As much as it is confusing and frankly very strange for me to hear what all of this mother, it must of been awful for you to wake up in a state of confusion in such an intimate affair. Especially with that deranged talk of you carrying his child!” Evie replied. 

“Deranged. That’s a good word to use to describe Caspian.” Aurora added. 

“I can say however that if Jacob is suspicious of him, you won’t have to worry too long. Jacob has a way of getting rid of people he’s not fond of. Trust me, I know.” Evie replied alluding to the horrors Jacob subjected her to in the past. 

“So you’re not ashamed of me?” Aurora worried grabbing her daughter’s hands. 

Evie smiled sweetly. She never saw them being as close as friends like this and dispute the cold rainy weather outside their closeness warmer her heart.

 “Mother, you're all adults, the discomfort and silliness of it all will pass.” Evie said not knowing how deep Aurora and go that matter Rebecca has fallen prey to Caspian’s predatory plot. “Just like this storm. It'll all pass. But there's a bright side." Evie added perking her mother's attention.

"Bright side? What could that be?" 

Evie, worried but confirmed that Matthew would return to her turned back to the window where the rain soaked the glass. She opened the window where on a clear night she could see towards the sea but tonight there was only blackness all around her.

"Matthew will return." Evie said hopefully. "And when he does, we'll all leave Tirymor and let Rebecca have Caspian for whatever she wants, and you and Nikki will move with us and we'll be done with the Lords." 

Aurora could see how happy this idea made Evie. She didn't want to stomp on her dreams. She saw her beautiful pregnant daughter staring out into the sea, or where the sea would have been, and waked up to her from behind and held her tight. 

She said not a word and let the rain and thunder rumbled again in the sky speaking for her. 

The storm, it's strength, was growing and so was the danger for Matthew out at sea. 

**

Rebecca’s rosary beads 

Rebecca tossed and turned in her bed. She couldn't sleep. There was uneasiness in her house in her heart, in her mind. She sat up in bed. Her eyes wide open, no sleep lingers in the green of her eyes.

Out of bed now, in her white nightgown with her whitening red hair tied in a neat braid she went over to her desk. She opened a drawer and pulled out a small box that when she opened revealed a glistening silver rosary.

The thunder clapped again. She flinched in the flash. Her heart skipping a beat it seemed.

She reached for the rosary and as soon as she touched it, it burned her fingertips.

Rebecca watched as the rosary fell to the floor. She reached for it, and on the second touch she felt the cool of the silver. 

"God help us." She said to herself. "God help us all." 

And as she spoke, a small crucifix she had on a side wall between her two large windows began to flip upside-down on its own and Rebecca's eyes began to glow yellow. 

Caspian’s work was just beginning. 

**

The rain was getting louder and louder as the two men, Jacob and Father Donavon Ryan got closer to the bedroom Caspian was in. 

The hallway, dark and clouded with the puffing smoke of several candles seemed like an ominous sign to Donavon that things were about to get very frightening for him and the others in the house.

He tightened his grip around the handle of his bag, the leather of his gloves squeaked as his grip squeezed. 

Then, a door opened, and Gregory peaked through. Jacob nodded to him as he entered with Father Ryan.

Whispering, Jacob revealed the plan: "Just outside in the room across the hall is Caspian. He may already be expecting us. I don't know. Gregory and I will enter. We'll do our best to subdue him and tie him down. And then you can begin." 

Gregory showed Father Ryan the ropes.

"What if the ropes don't work?" Father Ryan asked.

Jacob lifted a brow "You of all people should have more faith, Father. That's all we have now. That's all we have." 

**

Charlotte trembled in her room as she too saw the wild storm raging across the sky over Welshport. 

Her mind suddenly flashed flames. Dark fire. 

Smoldering heat like the sun hitting earth. She saw her mother Mary's face. 

Charlotte was seeing Mary's dream from early on in the night. More fire. More flames. 

A thunderclap snapped Charlotte out of her sudden waking dream. 

It was terrifying to see for a 12-year-old girl. Fearing what she saw in her mind, in the dreams her mother was having, and that Charlotte was tapping into, the young psychic girl quickly made her way out of her room and down another hallway and into her little brother's room where Celeste was standing with the baby attempting to sooth the child's wailing. 

"Something is going to happen." Charlotte said.

Celeste turned to her back lit by a storm flashing in baby Fabian's window. 

"What do you mean?" Celeste asked reading the terror on Charlotte's face.

Charlotte did not respond. She did not have the words. Celeste only took Charlotte's facial expression for her word just as yet another flash of thunder lit the windows. 

**

Caspian’s powers & Matthew’s ship 

Caspian sat in the center of his bed. His legs were crossed, his eyes closed. He was preoccupied in his mind and had no sensed Father Ryan's arraival. He had other fish to fry, in truth, he had other's issues at hand.

Especially that of Matthew Winterborn.

As Caspian's powerful mind continued to rip and tare through the sky in the form of a storm, and he had not sensed the priest enter, things were about to change the the tables turn.

Matthew's ship was in peril. 

The sea washed over the bow of the ship. The water pulled at several sailors and took them overboard. The salty water, controlled by Caspian and the storm heaved and pulled down the ship, the violently pushed it back up in powerful waves. The rain tore through the sky and came down.

Matthew and the remaining men did all they could to control the ship but the storm was more poweful than they could have ever imagined.

"WE'RE GOIN' DOWN SIR!!!!" a sailor yelled to Matthew.

Matthew grabbed his hand and pulled him into the bridge of the ship and closed the door behind him. Another sailor came running and tried to open the door. He banged on the window begging to be let in. Matthew ran to the door and as soon as his hand touched the door knob the boat tilted and everyone fell to one side. The man outside flipped over the bridge and into the sea. Matthew and the sailor with him in the bridge fell over each other and hit the wall. Then the boat again flipped back to the other side. Tossing and turning in the ocean like a toy boat in a child's bath.

The ocean's waves, dark and hungry for more, bashed up against the glass of the bridge.

"I don't know how long the glass will hold. Once it bursts there will be a rush of water, do you understand me? You'll have to try and swim out." Matthew told his last crewman.

"I can't! I can't swim in that!!" The man yelled.

"YOU HAVE TO! You have to!!!" Matthew said grabbing at the man's shoulders and shaking.

Then it happened. The waves, with the power of a storm created a demon hit the glass the two men in the bridge watched as the glass cracked. The crack grew and grew across the entire bridge and the waves burst through washing into the bridge like a giant untamed waterfall.

The sailor grabbed on to Matthew. Death in their eyes. The water filled faster and fater and Matthew too a deep breath and held it then dunked his head. The sailor lifted him back up as the water began to fill up to their chins.

"YOU HAVE TO HOLD YOUR BREATH!!!" Matthew screamed.

"IM SCARED!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!" The sailor yelled back. 

Matthew slapped the man across the face; an attempt to shake the terror out of him for his mind to clear and focus on survival. Then once again ordered him to hold his breath. 

This time the fellow sailor did it and then both dunked their heads and swam through to the burst window of the bridge. But the water was too swift. It pulled them both in an under current pulled them with such a force they went deep into the ocean. 

The dark waters swallowed the ship and the sailors. 

And Matthew. 

****
 

In his bed, Caspian smiled sensing the boat go under.

Then, in a flash of thunder Jacob, Gregory, and Father Ryan burst into the demon's bedroom in such a fast motion that Caspian had no time to react. 

Father Ryan pulled a large wooden cross. "WITH THE LIGHT OF THE LORD I REBUKE YOU!!" Father Ryan yelled.

Caspian's eyes turned yellow, and he hissed at the sight of the crucifix. His handsome human face, carved with wrinkles of time, twisted into a monster's face. Jacob and Gregory were strong, and they yanked each arm of the beast and tied him to the bed. Then they got his legs and tied them each to a post.

The demon inside Caspian’s host body hissed and spit. It tried to bite Gregory & Jacob but his restraints were too tight. The crucifix held high up in air and in Caspian’s face seemed to subdue the monster slightly, giving the men time to think in his weakening state.

Then, a voice from the evil man trickled out in an evil growl. "Clever. Clever. Clever priest. But its too late. The sun has set on the house of Tirymor. It's over." 

“SILENCE DEMON!!” Father Ryan screamed. “With the light of the holy mother and the grace of our lord god I command you back to the depths of darkness where you belong. FREE the hold you have on this man’s body!”

The temperature of the room dropped. Ice began to form  Caspian’s eyes turned from it’s glowing yellow to black and empty as if they had disappeared completely out of their sockets.

With a deep twisted laugh that chilled them to their bones Caspian shouted “YOURE TOO LATE, YOU FOOL! YOU’RE ALL TOO LATE!!!”

His face transformer to the monster within the body of the man, just long enough for Father Ryan to see. 

“DEMON BE GONE!!” The priest screamed as his breath former puffs of white smoke in the air.  

Caspian’s laughed again then spit at Ryan who began to pray louder and louder so his voice beamed over the sound of thunder clapping. 

**

A body floated in the sea amid debris of Matthew's fishing trawler. 

Then another body. Then two more bodies. They floated there, lost in cold waves. Lost in the storm. 

Lost at sea forever.