B7/Ch4: THROUGH THE JAILER'S BARS

Filipe arrives at Lockwood Thicket

Filipe slowly crept around the brush and trees around Lockwood Thicket dodging in and out of the pattern of shadows the leaves made by the moon light. 

As he stepped into an open area of grass just near a back window of the cottage, the light of the moon suddenly registered in Filipe's mind. He looked up and saw low clouds floating over a cycle shaped moon.

"Not full." he thought to himself, relieved. 

Then Filipe carefully felt around the back window hoping for some sort of opening. There was none. He then slowly pushed on one side and by the flash of luck, the old window cracked open, the lock never latched from the inside and like a thief in the night, Filipe crawled into a dark back room inside Lockwood Thicket hoping to find Sebastian. 

In the Cabin's main room, a mid-sized parlor where Jacqueline had a fire burning inside the hearth, she stood over a boiling pot of herbs and teas. Standing near here in a frozen state were her two lovers.

She carefully walked over to then, a mug of her hot herbal tea in hand and circled them again and again like a shark in deadly water. She knew she had them trapped, their minds awake with thoughts on how much they both wanted to destroy her for their captivity. But with her powers locking them in their own bodies, she had the upper hand.

"Irony, huh?" She said to them, her long black dress whispering around at their feet as she circled. "The three of us together in this little place all because we can't get along. We could get along, you know, but the two of you have to work together... for me." She said. 

Sebastian and Johnathon's eyes stared deep into her as if they could see her dark soul hoping to give her some kind of sign of their hate of her.

Jacqueline could sense it. Their energy was as palpable as a winter wind over the face, and just as bitter. 

"Here," she said to Johnathon "this will help." 

Jacqueline moved her open hand over Johnathon's face in a circle. Her powers slowly opening his jaw as if he were doing it willingly. His eyes showed fear and terror as she slowly poured the tea down his throat, a tea that would soon seep into his body and lock him in the vice of her control even further than he was before. This powerful tea she brewed was like a tether to her powers and the two men she loved and lusted for were now only minutes away from being like toy soldiers in her army.

Filipe, slithering down the hall like a snake in the grass, watched as Jacqueline gave Johnathon the tea. He knew there was no time to lose, but he had to find a way to distract the witch. But this time, luck was not on his side.

"Would you like some tea too Filipe?" Jacqueline said, sensing him easily. "You know you could have just knocked on the door, I would have let you in." She added stepping to the side so that she could see Filipe more easily as he stood at the end of the hall. 

"What have you done to them?" Filipe asked entering into room where the light of the hearth glowed bright.

Sebastian's eyes darted to where he could hear Filipe's voice.

Jaqueline furrowed her brow "None of your business." 

"I -- I need Sebastian's help." Filipe said, taking his time to get closer to her.

"Do you, now? And what would he do for you exactly? You don't actually think Mary's idea of his blood and yours being the same in the world of the supernatural, do you? You know, I do worry about my coven sister. She's truly having a lot of trouble interpreting her mother's spell book. If she and I had remained close, I might have taught her better, but...." 

"Just let me take Sebastian." Filipe said, interrupting Jacqueline. 

Filipe put his hand on Sebastian's frozen harm, Sebastian's eyes locking with Filipe's.

"No." The witch said, quickly. 

"I need him, Jacqueline. I can't stay the way I am." 

"I just told you Sebastian would be no help." She replied.

"I don't believe you."

Jacqueline narrowed her eyes and reached for Filipe's hand to remove it from Sebastian, but he swatted her away, the force of his hand so strong it knocked the mug of tea out of her other hand. 

"Well!" She said, her tone somewhat entertained. "You are a very strong one, I'll give you that. But I'm a bit stronger, you see?" 

Jacqueline lifted both her hands and Filipe's body vaulted towards the other side of the room and stuck to the wall, his feet desperately trying to reach for the ground. The witch walked over, Filipe now trapped in her control. He struggled to release himself from her powerful invisible grip. 

"Like a fly in a web." She said, her face now inches from his chest. "I do wish we'd had more of a conversation with me before you just burst in here trying to take Sebastian. I need him too, and perhaps I need him more than you do." 

"Jacqueline.... please...." Filipe said, struggling to breath while stuck to the wall.

"We barley know each other Filipe, really, do you think I'd just give up someone I love for you? A relative stranger to me?" 

Filipe, however, wasn't just the mortal Jacqueline remembered him to be. His insides were different. His body chemistry had shifted now that he too was consumed by the powers of the supernatural world. He may not have been in his wolf form, but the forces deep inside his body were still a strong as they were when the moon was full.

Filipe was only biding his time until he could strike.

And strike he did.

With a jolt of his body, he leapt off the wall free from her powerful grasp and knocked her to the floor. Her face falling into the tea that was spilled from when Filipe knocked the mug from her hand. She quickly learned Filipe would not go down easy with magic. She had to use a different method. 

Getting up from the floor she regrouped and lunged for him, her hand twisting as if she were holding a knife and then out of thin air a knife from the kitchen suddenly materialized in her hand.

She swung the knife at Filipe. He dodged it. She swung again slashing his shirt and barley skimming the top layer of skin on his forearm; a stain of blood slowly seeped through the fabric of his sleeve. 

Sebastian's eyes watched as the crimson river began to pool on seams of the white shirt sleeve. 

Jacqueline swung her knife wielding hand again, this time leaving her open to Filipe, who swung a closed fist towards her that landed on her face knocking her to the floor. 

Jacqueline collapsed.  

"Oh god!!" Filipe said, realizing he had just punched a woman. 

He quickly went to the floor next to her and rolled her over. He tapped her face to wake her, she was alive but unconscious. The knife from her hand now lodged in her stomach. 

"JACQUELINE!! JACQUELINE!!" Filipe shouted, blood seeping from the wound in her abdomen. "What have I done???"

As Jacqueline lay there bleeding and unconscious, Sebastian and Johnathon slowly came out of their frozen state like two ice sculptures melting in the sun. 

Johnathon's body, weak from being in this state for days and days, fell to his knees. He could barely see out of his foggy eyes. His mind still uncertain of what had happened to him. Sebastian, much clearer minded, rushed over to Filipe.

"We have to go!" The awake vampire said.

"But, what about her? She may die!" Filipe replied.

"We can't worry about her now, Filipe, please come, we have to go!" Sebastian shouted, forgetting she was supposedly carrying his child that was now in danger.

Sebastian helped move the dying Jacqueline out of Filipe's terrified hands and helped him up. The ran towards the door, Sebastian turned back and saw Johnathon slowly betting his sea legs back.

Sebastian ran back to Johnathon and helped him up. 

They looked at each other dead in the eyes and Sebastian grabbed him by the throat but not to hurt him only to force Johnathon's eyes to lock with his.

"YOU WILL GO BACK TO TIRYMOR-- FORGETTING ALL THAT OCCURED HERE. YOU WILL GO BACK TO TIRYMOR-- FORGETTING ALL THAT OCCURED HERE." 

Sebastian's words, his orders to Johnathon, went around and around Johnathon's mind. The hypnosis seeping into every fiber of Johnathon's already mind controlled brain. 

Then, finally, Johnathon spoke for the first time in days.

"I will return to Tirymor, forgetting all that occurred here." He replied hypnotized by Sebastian's voice.

And like a flash, Sebastian and Filipe were gone. 

Johnathon too, slowly but surely, left Lockwood Thicket half awake and half in a daze. He followed his orders of Sebastian to return to Tirymor without his bewitching wife who lie on the floor bleeding from an accidental knife wound to her stomach. 

As Johnathon walked through the dark forest along the path that would lead him back to the family mansion his mind became clearer. The cold sea air filled his lungs and opened his mind to what had happened and what he had seen at the Thicket: Jacqueline with powerful mind control, teas that took hold of his thoughts, he and Sebastian frozen there, Filipe tossed to the wall like a rag doll by his pregnant wife. The Stabbing!

Johnathon then stopped dead in his tracks, the path in front of him forking left to Tirymor, right to the Village.

Without a second thought, Johnathon turned right and followed the path to Welshport Village instead.

He had a lot of questions that needed answers. 

****

Rebecca and Caspian have a conversation 

The next day Rebecca and Caspian stood stoically in one of Tirymor's dimly lit drawing rooms posing for a painting that they'd soon hang in the very same room. After the mob attacked the mansion, many pieces of art were damaged and some even destroyed. It then dawned on the mistress of the house that she wanted a new, fresh painting of herself with her new husband. A record of her happy marriage to hang on the dark yellow walls -- this painting would oddly face a painting of herself with her late husband Albert. 

For Rebecca, the strange placement was symbolic of her two lives: the first as the wife of the Albert Lord: the intense publishing prince who went mad in his mid 50's and died in a mental hospital, and the second as the wife of the man without a past Caspian Casador. 

The painter had already created much of his new piece and after several hours, he allowed Rebecca and Caspian a moment to relax after their many hours of posing. Caspian helped Rebecca over to a sofa where her long maroon gown crumpled at her feet. She adjusted her opera gloves and jewelry as Caspian proudly sat next to her in view of the artist making shade adjustments to the painting.

"We've come along way, haven't we?" Caspian said, his eyes locked on hers.

She nodded. "We have." 

"I'm very proud of the man you've helped me become, Rebecca. I hope you know that." 

She smiled and squeezed his hand but a gnawing truth about him would not vanish from her mind. She knew who he was, she knew his true identity -- the man he was before his demonic possession took away all his memory and his past. She overheard Danielle Holten's revelation that Caspian was her presumed dead father Viktor Holten. This truth seemed to be a death knell to Rebecca's current happy marriage, at least she thought so.

"Have you thought more about digging deeper into who you were before becoming Caspian?" She asked out of the blue. He looked at her surprised, knowing of her discomfort with the idea of him searching for answers.

"I have thought about it more, yes." He replied.

"And?" 

"Well after what happened at the caves and how much I worried about you while I was being treated at the hospital I realized, perhaps this is where I am meant to be and maybe, just maybe, the person I was before all that awfulness was never meant to be found." 

"Do you really feel that way? Caspian, you can be honest with me." She asked, the feeling he wasn't being truthful lingering in the air like a Parisian perfume. 

"I do. Rebecca, I can't keep wondering about my life before. I thought I could, but it seems silly now. No one ever looked for me. Perhaps who I was before wasn't good. Perhaps that's why that vial creature chose to come into me, I was open to it's evil. I don't want to be that person anymore, not if I have you and this family who love me." Caspian replied as he kissed Rebecca's soft powdered cheek. 

His touch made her heart skip a beat. There was something in her whole body that finally felt connected to life again. After Albert's death, Rebecca fell into a world of suspicion and darkness. Her whole existence was made up of wondering about the other side of life -- what happened after we died. She wanted to know, she wanted to lift the vail of that mysterious realm in hopes to connect to Albert again. The man she loved practically her whole life and the father of her 3 children. After meeting Caspian all of her superstitions and controlling manners fell away, most of them anyway. Hearing Caspian say these words finally meant to Rebecca she was right to keep the truth from him.

Viktor Holten would stay dead. 

As the two cuddled on the sofa in the brightly lit yellow walled drawing room, the head maid of the house trotted down the long marble hallway towards the main entrance to Tirymor. Someone had run the mansion bell.

Jane reached for the double door's long iron handle and pulled it open to see the dark-haired Danielle Holten standing there with her arms folded over her body shielding her from the mid-morning chill.

"Yes?" Jane said, unceremoniously and somewhat irritated. 

"I'm sorry to bother you, miss, but I'd like to speak with Mr. ...uh... Mr. Casador." Danielle said clocking Jane's irritation with someone at the door interrupting her work. 

"I'm sorry miss, but he's occupied at the moment with the Mrs." 

"Is there anyway I can tear them away, I really need to speak to them, especially Mr. ..." Danielle paused again finding it hard to call her father by his adopted name "Casador." 

"Whom shall I saw is calling?"

"Nurse Holten." 

Jane stood aside and allowed Danielle to wait in the foyer as she went down the long marble hallway towards the yellow room. Once she entered, she found the couple once again standing as the artist had posed them exactly as they were. 

"My apologies, there's someone here to see you." Jane said.

"Who is it?" Rebecca asked.

"A young woman calling herself Nurse Holten." Jane replied.

Rebecca's stomach dropped.

"Nurse Holten?" Caspian wondered. "Perhaps she's here for Dr. Ward?"

"I'll go check!!" Rebecca shouted breaking from her pose. "I'm sorry Leo, I have to see this young woman." She added apologizing to the artist who rolled his eyes in frustartion. 

"Why don't I go?" Caspian asked.

"No, no, no, daring, you stay here let Leo finish with you and I'll see what Nurse Holten needs."

Rebecca quickly grabbed Jane's hand and together rushed back down the hall but through a side exit leading them into a second room they all called the cloak room where no one could hear them.

"What does she want?" Rebecca asked sternly.

"I don't know Miss. She only said she wanted to see Mr. Casador."

"Get rid of her." Rebecca replied.

"But how?" 

"Jane, you've been here a very long time, you should know by now how to lie. It's what we all do best, we lie. Do it." Rebecca scolded, showing a bit of her Lord family force.

"What if she won't leave?" 

"Absolutely do not let her stay, in no way whatsoever. I want Nurse Holten to leave the premises, tell her we are incredibly busy and when we find time for her, we will call on her."

Jane nodded and went back through the cloak room door, into the hallway and down towards where Danielle was waiting on a small red velvet lined chair facing a long set of rectangular windows facing the lush garden outside, Rebecca watched all the way down the hall, unseen.

"I'm sorry, Miss Holten," Jane said, her voice echoing in the cathedral ceilings. "they just can't see you at the moment." 

"It's so important, I really, really have to see Mr. Casador. Is there anyway you could just tell them all I need is five minutes or..."

"Miss. Holten, I've already asked them, and my job is not to be a messenger. I'm here to make sure this household is kept running. Do you see the size of it? Imagine now the staff that I have to round up every five minutes to keep it going --- running back and fourth for you would take away from that, now, I'm very sorry but I have to ask you to leave." Jane replied rudely. 

"This cannot wait!" Danielle shot back, refusing to get up from the chair.

"IT MUST!" Jane shouted. "Now, please go." 

As the two continued to argue and Rebecca watched from the far off hallway door that lead into the cloak room, Celeste began a hurried decent down the long staircase shocked at Jane's behavior. 

"What is all this!?" Celeste asked as stepping off the final step, her dark dress shuffling towards the two women.

"Miss Holten has been asked to leave Mrs. Lord, and she wont." Jane answered.

"Well, why has she been asked to leave?" Celeste asked.

"Mrs. Casador --- " Jane began before being interrupted.

"I'm actually here to see Mr. Casador, but I've been told he's too busy. Mrs. Lord, if there is anyway you could please speak to them for me, especially him, so that I may talk to him I would very much appreciate it." 

Celeste looked into Danielle's eyes and could tell there was something very serious happening in the young Nurse's mind. She felt awful for her but knew her place in the household and if she'd go against her mother-in-law there would be hell to pay. But on the other hand, Celeste realized too that there must be a reason Rebecca would be so adamite as to not want to see Danielle. Who was Danielle to Rebecca and why would she refuse to even see her for a very short time. There was nothing going on at the mansion that would prevent even the quickest meeting. 

It was obvious to Celeste there was much more to uncover.

"If Mrs. Casador says she cannot see you, or that they cannot see you now, then perhaps you should heed this and come back later or...perhaps a better plan is to wait until they come to the hospital. I'm sure Caspian as a checkup with Dr. Ward soon. If this is about his injuries, well then Dr. Ward can call the house." Celeste said.

"It's not about that." Danielle replied itching to tell Celeste the truth but wanting Caspian to the first to know he was her father Viktor -- alive!

"Again, we should heed Rebecca's wishes. Please go." Celeste said, her eyes narrowing. 

Danielle did not want to leave but felt up against a wall. She couldn't just blurt out what she knew, she wouldn't just tell the world her father was alive and he not be the one she was telling to. So, she listened and gathered herself up from the velvet lined chair and left the foyer broken hearted.

Jane thanked Celeste for pushing Daneille out and went back to her duties, Rebecca too happily went back to her painting pleased with Celeste's action.

Celeste, on the other hand, saw an opening to her mother-in-law's very powerful hold over the house. Danielle was clearly there for a reason outside of her job as a nurse and that made Rebecca fearful. That made Rebecca refuse to her, whatever that reason was Celeste knew it threatened Rebecca to a degree where she literally hid. 

And Celeste wanted to know more. Much, much more.

****

In the Village Hall jail 

In their jail cell at Village Hall, Evie, Matthew and Mary wondered what the day would bring. It had been a full week and a half since their incarceration, and they still awaited their day in court. The process, as they understood it, would be much longer as they awaited state barrister who was coming into town from Augusta. 

Evie sat in a corner on the floor tracing the shape of a thick brick with her finger. The hard stone scraped along her fingertip as she slowly began to write Gabriel's name invisibly over and over in perfect cursive. Mary watched from her end of the cell and her heart broke she knew the longing Evie felt for her child much in the same way as she felt for hers. 

Matthew came over, his hair thick and slick with days without washing, and sat down next to Evie. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him. His scent comforted her even though it they'd all be in the cell together for all that time without washing, but it was his and she loved it. 

"We're going to make it, ok?" He whispered to her.

"I don't know," She whispered back "there is so much against us. They want to make sure we don't get out of here. How can we prove ourselves innocent in a way that they'll believe? They want this to be true so they'll make it true." 

"I won't let it happen." Matthew said, attempting to reassure her. "There is no way I will let them do anything to you. Do you hear me?" 

"Matthew -- I'm sorry." She said. 

"For what?" 

"There have been some moments while we've been here where the silence of our thoughts has really made clear to me how unfair I was to you. Going back and forth between you and Sebastian for some time hasn't been kind. After all that Sebastian and I have been through, I still went back to him. Even after what he did to Alice. That was unfair to you." Evie explained.

"You don't have to apologize." He answered, his heart filling with so much love to hear her admit her part in their triangle. 

"But I do!" She answered. "You've been so kind and wonderful to me and to Gabriel-- and then of course there what I did in the caves. Allowing Sebastian to be placed there in such a sacred place to you and your family and your people. I should have been more mindful of that -- and I wasn't."

He smiled at her, the light from the windows shining down through the bars creating shadows that blocked out part of her peach-toned faced. Her bright sea blue eyes piercing through him like rays of light through storm clouds. 

Nothing she could do, could make him angry with her. He loved her. He adored her. All he wanted to do was protect her and her son from all the outside evils and he vowed to do it, regardless of how she felt about Sebastian. He would always be there on her side. A protector. He lover. A friend.

He pulled her into an embrace and lay her head on his chest listening to his heartbeat. Every thumb warming her soul. 

"Alright! Alright! Up, you!!" A guard shouted through the bars. 

Evie and Matthew got up from the ground and dusted themselves off.

"What is it? What's happened?" Mary asked.

"The extra cell's been fixed up for the Mister here, he'll be moving." The guard said.

"Moving?" Evie exclaimed as she grabbed hold of Matthew's arm.

"That's what I said witch!" The guard shouted at her. "Now move over and let him pass." 

"I would much rather stay here." Matthew replied.

"Would you now?" The guard asked mockingly. "And I'd much rather be a hefty 50 pounds lighter, but we don't always get things we'd rather have in life, you see? Now get over here."

"Matthew, no..." Evie whispered.

"It's all right, I'll just be right over there, right across from you." He said exiting the cell with the guard.

Mary grabbed Evie and the two stayed closed. "It's ok." Mary said.

"GO!" The guard shouted shoving Matthew violently to the point he fell to the flour. The two women screeched at this, but Matthew got up calmly and put his hand out to Mary and Evie calming them.

"GO ON MALE WITCH!" The guard barked, every word a joke to him. "Or are you a warlock!?" He asked laughing. An adjacent guard blocking the door on the other side laughed. 

Once he was settled in his own cell far across the room, the door to Village Hall opened and Aurora Jordan entered. She rushed over to the cell where Evie and Mary were where Evie met her at the bars. Their arms quickly tangled through the bars and Aurora reached in for an uncomfortable hug.

"Are you alright? Have you eaten?" Aurora asked as she and Mary also greeted each other.

"I'm fine, we're fine." Evie said.

"I have good news." Aurora said. "Nik is on his way now to speak with Lear, we're hoping he'll take on your case."

"Lear?" Mary asked.

"He's the only one we could think of on such a short notice and is local. We'd have to go all the way to Bangor or Augusta, maybe even Boston or New York to find someone else. Lear is ... well, Lear. But I think he'll help." 

"I don't know if I trust him. He helped take Gabriel from me." Evie reminded her.

"I know darling, but it was either Lear or wait for someone from the mainland and we don't have a lot of time for that. I think Nik is confident he can sway him, after all, the two of you are mother's to Lord grandchildren. Lear would be doing this to help his own cousins." Aurora replied.

Evie felt her stomach drop. She thought about it for what seemed like hours but only seconds passed. She worried that not only would her life now be in the hands of man who once helped forge papers to remove her from her son but also put her in a mental institution. 

"I want to trust him but..." Evie said.

"Evie we don't have a choice." Aurora replied sadly. 

Evie took a breath "Ok...ok."

Aurora reached through the bars, feeling her heart sink unable to make her daughter's worries melt away and give her daughter more confidence. She could see it all over Evie's face: the fear, the anxiety that Lear Lockwood would be the one taking her case but she trusted her mother. 

"Where's Matthew?" Aurora asked suddenly noticing his absence.

"Back here!!" Matthew shouted from his cell across the room.

Aurora gasped. "Oh!! Are you ok?" She added, noting his haggard look from the shove to the floor. 

Matthew nodded. "Just a little lonely is all." He joked 

"3 Minutes Mrs. Jordan, you have 3 minutes." said a guard. 

"How's my son? How's Gabriel?" 

"Fine, fine, he's been watched over right now by Cora. He's in good hands. As soon as I leave here I'll be back with him. I'd bring him to see you but... I just think he'd be confused and frightened of this place. Its very dark down here and so menacing to get to." Aurora said, referencing they were in the old town's jail cells under Village Hall as the police station had been burned down and was under construction. 

"No, of course, I agree, I'd have for him to see me here too. Just tell him I love him, would you? Tell him we're going to get out of here and we're going to come for him and we'll never be separated again." Evie asked.

"I'll tell him." Aurora said with tears in her eyes. "This is all just so--- so-- stupid!" She shouted. Her motherly frustration began to boil over and she turned to the two guards in the room who were still counting her minutes and added "To think these innocent people are being charged with 17th century crimes is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!!" 

"Don't blame us, ma'am! We're just here to watch over them so they don't use their powers." A guard joked.

Mary stood there fully knowing she was the only one guilty of what they were all accused. She felt horrible for allowing herself to have gotten so angry that she showed her powers to all that were at the caves that night, it was her fault they were in this mess and she couldn't help them out of it otherwise there would be more proof that she indeed have powers which would lead to much more danger for them all. She had to think of a clever way out, but Lear would have to help her. 

"Aurora, this is all my fault, I promise as soon as Lear gets here I'll figure a way for us to be free. There is no reason Evie or Matthew should even be here." Mary said.

"I appreciate that." Aurora replied. "After what I heard you did at the caves, however, you and Lear have a lot of work to do, but I'll him anything to find a way around this stupid, stupid trial."

Mary didn't know what to say, she could sense Aurora's anger towards her, it was like heat radiating from the sun and burning her skin. She felt horrible, but assured Aurora once again she'd stop at nothing to be free.

"Tell me," Evie said quickly changing the subject freeing Mary of her mother's ire, "what of Caspian? Have you two spoken since you discovered what Asha and Gregory did your child."

Aurora shook her head. "I tried to get a hold of him but he never showed."

"OH!" Evie recalled "that's right, the mob that came to the caves had Rebecca, Jacob and Caspian with them! They'd all gone to Tirymor and brought them to the caves. He was there!" 

"He never received my message." Aurora realized. 

"Time's up!" The guard shouted.

"But we.... " Evie began before the guard ripped Aurora from her grasp. 

"I said time's up." 

"MOTHER!!" Evie exclaimed as she watched her mother being escorted out of the room of cells. Aurora reached back hoping she could reach her daughter for one last touch before she was removed to no avail. The door slammed in Auror's face leaving the accused alone again in the cell room.

Mary walked over to Evie, they hugged and moved over to a bench in the cell. 

"Poor Caspian." Evie said, her nose slightly runny from crying. 

"What was that about? What did Asha and Gregory do?"

"Something awful. They conspired to take my mother's child away from her, the child she'd conceived with Caspian. They told her the baby died but in reality they'd taken the baby boy and given him away."

Mary's heart felt as if it stopped. Her blood ran cold. 

"A baby....a babyboy?" She said, stammering her words.

Evie nodded. 

It suddenly dawned on her. 

The child was Caleb. Asha had given Filipe a child to adopt, a boy. Aurora and Caspian's child.

Mary said nothing. Sat there, her hands cold as ice. Evie noticed and started to rub them to warm. 

"Mary? Are you alright?"

She did not answer, she only thought about what to say about the boy, Caleb. She looked at Evie, a newfound friend. A cohort in a terrible situation. Should she tell her the truth and make things easy for Aurora and lose this new child she adored so much, or should she keep it a secret.

Mary decided on the latter: Keep it a secret, at least for now.

"Fine." Mary replied. "Just feeling a little cold and hungry."

"Me too."

"Me three!" Matthew shouted from across the room as the women giggled. 

"SHUT UP!" a guard said entering. "SHUT. UP! Food's on it's way." 

Mary sat there, her mind only thinking of the child she'd been raising and loved could soon leave her life all together. Forever. 

****

Jacqueline loses her child 

At Lockwood Thicket, laying in a pool of her own blood, Jacqueline Gray breath had shallowed. Her pulse weakened and her skin began to change color and cool. The fire in the hearth had smoldered and only embers below the blacked wood within the ash sent smoke through the twisted thick branch one beech wood that had burned almost all the way through.

Then a sudden spark in the embers. 

A large burst of fames raged reigniting in the hearth.

The pool of blood began to shrink and reenter Jacqueline's body as if she were a sponge soaking up excess dish water. Her heart rate increased it's pace. Her skin warmed and became once again it's beautiful shade of coco. 

The silence of the room went from the sound of death to a large gasp coming from Jacqueline who sat up like a phoenix rising from the ashes allowing a deep breath of air enter her lungs. 

The witch's eyes showed life again, but something was very different.

Her baby was gone. The knife in her stomach began to retrack from her belly all on its own. It fell to the floor and her wound healed under her corset -- not a scar in sight. 

Jacqueline burst into tears realizing her child with Sebastian was dead and the only person she could blame was herself, but she found it easy to shift it to Filipe who'd hit her so hard she fell to the floor landing on the knife in her own hand. 

Jacqueline sobbed into the floorboards, face down her head facing her collapsed knees. She begged god to return her child, but God did not listen. God was not there for a woman who had done such terrible things in her life. 

She stammered up from the floor, her face stained with tears and blood that had come from the floor that did not go back into her body. As she walked towards a mirror and looked at her stomach, she felt the emptiness of not being a mother to Sebastian's child. 

"PLEASE! PLEASE BRING THIS BABY BACK! PLEASE!!!" She screamed into the mirror as more tears fell down her face. 

It would not happen.

Jacqueline's child was gone. 

Her link to Sebastian was gone.

Her hold over him --- gone.

She thought of the child Mary lost when she and Mary had a physical fight one night on Goode Island. Filipe and Mary had mourned this child greatly, their first child together who's death Jacqueline was responsible for. The irony of her own miscarriage now with Filipe involved -- not lost on her.  

Jacqueline's devastation forced her to her knees, this time in front of the fire. Her mind racing with furious anger. She could barely see the fire through the tears coming down her face but the fire burn and warmed her. She was like a keg of gun powder and the fire was tempting her to explode. 

"DAMN YOU!!!!!!! DAMN YOU ALL!!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.

Her voice calling to all the darkest forces in her heart and a murder of crows began to circle Lockwood Thicket. First there were 6 then 8 then 14 then over 20. 

More Crows came at Jacquline's calls. 

40. 50. 100.

All the trees were dotted with more and more crows with red eyes, hundreds of red little dots speckling all the trees around Lockwood Thicket. 

Jacqueline was now even more scored than ever.

And the entire world would pay.

They'd all pay dearly, especially now Filipe and his precious Mary Goode. 

B7/Ch3: RECKONINGS

Nik, Aurora & Danielle at Asha’s bedside 

As dusk turned into night, Aurora and Nikolas arrived at Welshport Hospital to take vigil at Dr. Asha Hoffman's bedside. Her coma had not wavered, and she remained in her sleep healing from burn from the fire and trauma of being held hostage in a secret room by the late Gregory Reigns.

Nik hoped she'd wake soon so that they could finally reunite, and Aurora hoped she'd come to and tell her the location of the child she took from her at birth.

But Asha's state was one of mystery. No one knew when -- or if-- she'd finally regain consciousness, but hope was strong. 

Danielle Holten, the newest nurse at Hope Hospital, entered Asha's room to tend to Asha. She was a beautiful woman of fair skin and dark brown hair that lit up the room when she entered. She had an ease about her despite her own hardships in her own young life: Her mother's premature death after her father's long disappearance were her main woes of life. She had even just recently filed papers with the state of Maine and her father's home nation of Denmark recording him as dead. He hadn't been seen in almost 4 years and declaring him dead would finally free his estate to her. 

It was a devastating end to his disappearance, but it had to be done as her own mother's more recent death of what Danielle called a broken heart, locked her family's funds in her father Viktor's hands. To survive financially on her own, Danielle needed to declare him deceased. 

Returning to Welshport to work from Boston was the best thing Danielle could have done for herself and ever the hard worker she sank into her duties like a trooper all the while hurting from her family hardships.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was here for Dr. Hoffman, I can come back." Danielle said, embarrassed that she entered Asha's room without knocking.

Nik stood up, he hadn't met the new nurse yet. "No, no, its ok, we're just visiting." He said. "Dr. Jordan." He added extending his hand.

"Oh! Dr. Jordan, of course, how do you do?!"

"Fine, thank you...this is my mother, Mrs. Aurora Jordan."

"Pleasure Mrs. Jordan." 

Aurora smiled "Likewise." 

"I could come back, really, I just needed to quickly make some changes for Dr. Hoffman's bed." Danielle said. 

"Go ahead Nurse." Dr. Ward said suddenly from the door. "I'd like to speak to the Jordan's while you do that." 

Nik and Aurora shot each other looks and stepped outside of Asha's room allowing Danielle to work and Dr. Ward his time.

"What is it Peter?" Aurora asked, closing the room door behind her. 

"I heard what happened in front of Village Square with Evie." Ward replied. "What is going on in this town!?"

"We were there doctor, just before we came up to Hope. We saw it all. It's a very dyer situation but we're working on getting help for Evie -- for all three of them." Nik answered.

"Help?"

"They're going to put them on some kind of kangaroo witch trial for all to see, so we're in need of a lawyer, I have Lear Lockwood in mind." Aurora said.

"Lear? Of all the lawyers around, do you think Evie would trust him?" Ward questioned.

Nik raised an eyebrow, he had had the same worry.

Aurora chuckled, "Seems to be a very common worry about Mr. Lockwood, but as I told Nikolas if anyone knows how to slither out of something and get away with it, it might be him. Evie is still Gabriel's mother, after all, the Lord family should do all they can to protect her. Not to mention Mary...she's Charlotte's mother too." 

"Yes, but that family has no love loss for Mary. They've never liked her, her relationship with Jacob was nothing compared to Evie and Sebastian's. I wish you luck on that front." 

"Thank you, Peter." Aurora said smiling. "But that's not all." 

Nik turned to his mother, unsure of what else she had to say.

"Coraline Tyler was the person feeding Baxter Murphy all of the inside information. She confessed this to me and all this time we had her right under our noses and never even knew it. She's devastated to say the least. She's crushed by what her actions have caused." Aurora explained.

"No!" Nik exclaimed. "So that's what you were talking about when we ran into Baxter." 

Aurora nodded. 

"Well we can't leave her around Gabriel anymore, can we? If she's betrayed us this much, how can we?" 

"I agree with Dr. Jordan, she can certainly do more damage!" Ward added.

"No, no. I don't fear her. She knows her place now, I have a very good feeling she's done helping her brother. He's on his own now, Cora promised me, and I made it very clear that she should not cross us again." 

"Mother..." Nik began before his mother stopped him.

"Trust me." She said. "Cora won't betray us again." 

"All done." Danielle said exiting Asha's room. "You can go back in."

"Thank you." Nik said, his bright smile warming Danielle's heart. 

"Of course, Doctor, I hope Dr. Hoffman is able to help you both as soon as she's awake." 

"I hope that's soon." Aurora said turning to Dr. Ward. "Peter, is there anything else we can do to help her? The longer we wait the longer my child is out there without me. I'm desperate."

"I wish there were Aurora. I truly do, but with this kind of ailment, which is so very mysterious to us still, all we can do is keep her healthy, check her vitals every chance we get and hope for her recovery very soon. Her vitals are strong, her heart and lungs are working beautifully even after inhaling all that smoke while she was under the rubble. This is a good sign, but waiting until her brain heals is what we can do now. Patience is key." 

"We understand." Nik replied, a doctor himself knowing there was truly not much they could do.

"If there is anything I can do to make Dr. Hoffman more comfortable, Dr. Jordan, please let me know." Danielle said with a sparkle in her eye.

"Call me Nik please. I'm off duty." He smiled back.

She smirked. 

"Nurse, we have last minute late check up to get to." Ward reminded her. 

"Yes Doctor, with Mr. Casador." 

Aurora's ears perked up. 

"Caspian is coming?" She asked, remembering how he never arrived when she called to tell him about their child being alive.

"Yes, the mob assaulted him that night and he had a bit dizziness after hit to the head. I wouldn't worry, he's doing quite well."

Nik could tell what his mother really wanted to do: stick around and speak to Caspian about the but it was not the time, he thought. 

Nik shot a look to Aurora and shook his head. She sighed, understanding and reentered Asha's room with him while Ward and Danielle carried on with their duties. Danielle quickly rushed over to the Nurse's station to gather the paperwork on Dr. Ward's on Caspian. She read over his medical record to refreshen her memory on his prognosis.

 Ward's notes:

"Head trauma after scuffle: Small laceration above eyebrow. No dizziness after six hours. No distinctive attributes to further brain issues or skull fractures. Patient is alert. Memory of recent events, clear. Patient due for check up in a days' time."

As Danielle rushed back from the nurse's station she saw Rebecca by Ward's office door. Ward had his back to Danielle and Caspian was hidden behind Dr. Ward, and as soon as Ward entered his office revealing Caspian, Danielle gasped and dropped the papers all over the hospital's black and white checkered floor in shock.

Rebecca, Caspian and Dr. Ward turned and noticed. Ward quickly came to help her. 

"Are you alright Nurse?"

Caspian held out his hand to help Danielle up from the floor after she picked up his records.

"I... I'm... oh... I'm fine. I think. No, I am. I'm sorry. I just ... I'm sorry, Doctor, can I please have a minute for a break. I suddenly feel a bit faint." She said to Ward but never once taking her eyes off of Caspian. 

"Yes, of course, should I send someone out with you to be sure you're alright?" Ward asked.

"No! Not at all." Danielle replied finally meeting Ward's eyes. "I'll be very quick and return to help." 

Then she again stared at Caspian as if she'd seen a ghost, this fright, this sudden gasp and odd behavior sent chills up Rebecca's spine. Something about it told her Danielle wasn't just feeling overworked, or the strain of her job. It was clearly Caspian's face the sent her into such a state.

Caspian and Ward entered the office, but Rebecca excused herself to the lady's room but instead followed Danielle outside.

Danielle stood in a small courtyard breathing in heavily almost on the verge of tears. Rebecca hid behind a large pillar and listened as Danielle stood on the stone path short of breath.

Two other nurses came walking in from Churchill Green, the asylum on the Hope Hospital campus and noticed Danielle in some distress.

"How can it be? How can it be him????" She whispered to herself pacing in on the stone path of the courtyard between rose bushes and ferns. 

"Nurse Holten? Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." One nurse asked.

"How the devil is he alive!?" Danielle asked, the two nurses look at each other confused.

"Who dear?" The other more heavy-set nurse with beautiful caramel toned skin asked.

"My father. I just saw my father alive." Danielle replied. 

In silence behind the pillar, Rebecca gasped and covered her mouth, shocked at Danielle's accusation. 

*****

Genevieve, Christopher & Morgan

In the morning, as a sky full of seagulls sweeping across a blue background sang in a late-night fishing fleet returning with their catch, Christopher Wesley and Genevieve Thorne emerged from their room at the Inn for breakfast. 

Geneveive, still lost in the fog of what she saw the night they'd returned to the village, had only thoughts of her son Morgan. She worried for him being at Tirymor and involved in so much chaos with the Lord family. Her guilt leaving him for so long along in Welshport to search out David Lord weighed on her heavily. She felt selfish and stupid. How could she had allowed herself to be so consumed by Sabrina's ghostly possession of her mind to the point where she'd leave her only child alone in a strange place only to return and find that place in shambles. 

She'd been a terrible mother, and the pain would scar not only Morgan for life, but Genevieve would never forgive herself. 

Together at an outside table at Gramercy Cafe, Christopher poured Genevieve a cup of coffee. She looked off into the distance lost i her thoughts. 

"You know everything is going to be ok, don't you? We'll be fine. We'll take care of what we came to do and you'll be able to leave Welshport with you son in due time." Christopher reminded her.

"How can you say that?" she replied, stunned. 

He passed her the coffee "Genevieve, this was all your idea, coming here to get back at Jacob for what he did, do I need to remind you of that?" 

Genevieve snatched the coffee from his hand and lifted a brow "And I told you that after seeing what we saw when we arrived here that that was off the table. Christopher, my son's life may have been in danger the whole time I was in London running around after a ghost. That doesn't sit well with me. I don't know what I was thinking." 

"You can't be serious? I came all this way for you, for this idea you had and now you're abandoning it? I came all the way back to this place against my better judgements and now--- " 

Genevieve cut him off.

"Your better judgements? Aside from the whole idea of getting back at Jacob why did you come back? You know to be quite honest you with I don't see why you're pushing so hard for us to move on with the plans. They're dead, ok, David and Sabrina are dead and so are the plans. I don't know what I was thinking, there's no revenge on this earth that will bring them back and I'm done with it, Christopher..." she said, pausing before saying "If that is your real name." 

"What?"

"Your decision to come back to Welshport felt much more personal that I think you're leading on, I'll just say that. So, what is it? Tell me? What is your real connection to this place-- 'Christopher'"? 

Before Christopher could answer, a shadow blocked the sun in front of both Christopher and Genevieve. The arguing pair turned and saw Morgan Thorne standing in front of them. 

His eyes wide with shock at seeing his mother sitting there in front of them. 

"Mother? Is it really you?" 

The young man, now almost 15, had rushed down through the village from Tirymor House to find Fatima Braga. He was desperate for her aide in getting Mary out of jail and had come on his own leaving Charlotte and Caleb at the mansion. He had not expected to see his mother sitting there, in front of his very eyes, fresh from her lengthy trip to London.

"My boy!! My BOY!!" Genevieve exclaimed, jumping up out of her cafe seat. She grabbed his soft, cool face with rosy cheeks and kisses hum all over. She ran her hands through his thick brown hair and pulled him into a hug so tight he could feel hear heart beat next to his. "Look how tall you've gotten!"

"What are you doing here? How long have you been back!?" the boy asked.

"Just the other night, my love, I had planned to go to Tirymor today to see you." She replied.

"How... how could you have not told me you were here? Do you even know what's been happening? Do you even care? Do you know what I have been through since you left me here?" Morgan said, his eyes filling with tears at his seeming abandonment. 

"Oh Morgan, my Morgan, my darling Morgan, I know. I know everything, I heard about it all when I first got here. In fact, we saw some of it and its awful. I'm awful. Darling, I will never forgive myself for leaving like that. I'm so sorry. I thought Johnathon would have taken care of you and I see that was a big mistake."

"He didn't. He never did. He ran off and did his own thing, got married. I have barely seen him. Mary and Filipe took me in. They cared for me all this time." Morgan replied, turning to Christopher and somewhat recognizing his face as David's. "Is this? Is that who I think it is?" 

"Morgan, good to meet you son. I'm Christopher Wesley." 

Morgan turned back to his mother. 

"I met him in London." She replied with a hint of embarrassment. 

"I have to go." Morgan said, unsure of how he felt about his mother running around with David's look-a-like. 

"No, honey, sit with us. Have something to eat, please." She replied in her most motherly tone.

"I ate thanks." the boy shot back. "I have things that I need to do.” He took a breath before starting again. “I wish you had told me mother, I wish you had told me you were here. I wish you had come for me and I wish we could leave this place forever and go back to San Francisco. But now it’s all so different." 

"Darling, listen to me! We can do that! We can leave. We can go up to Tirymor right now and get your things and take it all away. We can leave as soon as possible. I want nothing more than do be with you again, my love. I'm sorry for everything. I know what I've done is unforgivable, just leaving you that way and taking off on some ridiculous quest that means truly nothing to me now. I should never have chosen those feelings over you, darling, I regret it all." Geneveive said to Christopher's slight annoyance. 

Chris sat back in his chair and swallowed his croissant with a gulp. The feeling of regret now boiling over in his whole body. He'd come back to this place, a place he'd never want to see again after he left and now all that he had been promised was washed away. Geneveive's plan now feeling like it was ashes in the wind blowing away all hope of getting Jacob to suffer justice for what he'd done to Sabrina and David. 

"No." Morgan said shocking Geneveive. "It's too late, too much has happened and I need to help my family now." 

"Your family?" Geneveive replied in confusion. 

"Mary, Filipe, Charlotte, Caleb -- they're my family now. They've helped me took me in and saved me, and with everything that's happened I won't abandon them now. I know what that feels like and I would never do that to people I say I love." 

Those words broke Genevieve and in a way Christopher too. They were both running from something and the words from an almost 15 year old boy came like a slap to the face for both of them; right across the face without even touching a single patch of skin. 

There was no amount of revenge that they could plot against Jacob that would save them from their own pit of guilt. As much as Christopher wanted to push on with the plan -- he was now seeing it through Morgan’s eyes, a surrogate for his own child he'd left behind in London.

In fact Christopher was now contemplating letting go of it all for the sake of other family members he'd left behind along time ago. 

In the end, Christopher and Genevieve had abandoned, deserted, ran from their entire lives for so many years.

They had never faced their demons: Christopher held his past close to the vest and Genevieve’s ugly divorce from her ex husband, the late Steven Thorne, had only forced her into her own bad habits: running from San Francisco, meeting Johnathon in Boston, jumping into an engagement with him and then breaking it off once she became consumed by Sabrina’s spirit.

It had all come to a head now, and Morgan, in a few sentences, stopped them both in their tracks from running away ever again but being the mirror they needed.

"We're not going anywhere." Christopher said. Genevieve turned to him, her eyes narrowing thinking he was still dead-set on the plan for Jacob.

"I told you it's done." She whispered. 

"I know." Chris replied. "Its done." 

Not understanding their coded talk, Morgan released himself from his mother's hold and stepped back. "I have to go." 

"Darling, wait!" Geneieve shouted as he began his way again towards Fatima's house.

He turned back to see his mother and only waved to her. The lack of care for her cut Geneveive deep. In her mind, and in reality, she was a horrible mother for doing what she had done to Morgan. And as the waiter brought out their breakfast Geneveive vowed to herself to make amends with the young man she loved the most, the one who'd grown so much in her absence and had become so handsome and independent without her help. 

"I'll never forgive myself." She whispered into her coffee.

"You'll have to. I had to." Christopher said.

Geneveive turned to him, again his mysterious life floating around them like a ghost. 

"Were you serious when you said that we'd stay here? Because if we do, I already told you I won't go up against Jacob, I won't do it anymore, too much is at stake with my relationship with Morgan and I can't lose anymore ground than I already have." 

"As much as David and Sabrina's story deserves a final end on Jacob, seeing the hurt in your son's eyes means more to me than --- than anything else right now." Christopher said to Geneveive's relief. "I have my own amends to make and maybe it's finally time I do." 

Geneveive caressed his Christopher's face. She could see that his past life was haunting him just as much as her own was, but the difference was hers was exposed for all to see in Morgan's anger towards here. Chris' on the other remained locked away in his heart and mind. 

"When are you going to tell me everything Chris? When are you going to break free from whatever is holding you back from the truth -- your truth?" She asked him.

The sun light flexed it's warmth over their faces and through the trees that lined the street placing their leafy pattern of shadows over them like a puzzle that had missing pieces. 

He looked deep into her blue eyes, so blue they shamed the morning sky, and kissed her on the lips. He tasted the coffee and the sweet thickness of her lipstick. 

"Never." He answered. 

****

The jail cell 

That afternoon, Evie, Matthew and Mary sat inside the makeshift jailcell in Village Town Hall awaiting the next stage of their incarceration. Standing at the front of the cell with arms through the bars, Evie and a drunkard stared at each other from across the room of cells as if they were sending messages back and forth through glares. 

His dark eyes and long dirt black beard came from a baroque painting. The shadows of the dimly lit room dipped into the creases of his wrinkly face. He lifted his arm through the bars and pointed a finger at Evie, the nail dingy with grit from his time on a fishing trawler. 

"I can smell the witch from here." he said in a husky voice. "She's bewitching me now with her eyes. GET HER AWAY!!! GET HERE OUT OF MY GAZE!!!" The drunk man said. 

"Alright, Richard, back away from the cage!" A police officer yelped back, banging his nightstick on the bars as the drunkard quicky shot back to the shadowy corner of his cell. 

Evie, startled with the exchange with the mane who had her father's name, gulped. 

The police man walked over to her as Matthew came and took her into his arms.

"I don't know if I believe in magic and witches, myself," he said tapping the nightstick on the bars, "but if I were any of you, I'd do my best not to make any more commotion. Especially with the likes of Richard here. The more you all add to the hysteria, the more the villages think its all true. Just my advice, is all."

"We're not witc--" Evie began to say, but Matthew hushed her. 

"Thank you, officer." he said

"We have to get out of here." Evie whispered. "If this trial actually happens, they're going to find a way to make it seem like we are what they say we are. Churchill is obsessed with this, I don't know how we can get out of this, Matthew."

"This is all my fault." Mary said, sitting on the bench in the cell. "I've brought all of this on the two of you and...and I think I've made a decision." 

Matthew and Evie turned to Mary. "What do you mean?" He asked her, still holing Evie in his arms.

"I'll confess to the charges and say that the two of you had no idea or have no connection to me in that way at all. That you're innocent. They'll have to set you free -- I'll even say that I put spells on both of you and that's how you've been able to survive all those extreme situations." She added.

"Mary, no!" Evie said, shooting out of Matthew's embrace. "You're not responsible for any of this! Jacqueline Gray is! She's the one who started all of this! I know it! I can feel it! She's the reason we're in here. I saw her at Tirymor. She's pretending to be in love with Johnathon DeViana and they're even married now. I don't know how, but I know that she's the reason we're in this place. She'd do anything to make sure Sebastian and I are kept apart." 

"But Sebastian is gone." Matthew recalled.

Evie turned to him, sensing a bit of concern in his voice. Although Evie and Matthew had rekindled their love, the ghost of what Sebastian and Evie's once strong connection lingered and the vampire's missing body meant that there was still also a missing piece to Evie's heart. 

"It had to be her too." Evie replied. 

"Mother." a small voice said outside the bars.

"CHARLOTTE!!!" Mary shouted, rushing to her daughter who was holding baby Caleb in her arms. "What are you both doing here? We're Morgan?" 

"Oh Charlotte!!!" Evie said rushing over next to Mary. 

The three touched and reconnected through steel bars. The baby cried at the sight of Mary who was unable to hold him. Their connection, mother and adopted son, had strengthen over time but the distance and time apart over the last 4 days had worn on the little Braga child. 

"Morgan went to see Fatima, hoping she'd help us get you all out of here." Charlotte explained.

"You shouldn't be here. This is no place for children." Mary responded.

"We had to see you. Are you all alright?" Charlotte asked, one hand buckled under baby Caleb, the other clutching Evie's hand.

"We have our moments." Evie replied. 

"I don't want you children crossing that channel alone. It's too dangerous on that little boat." Mary scolded.

"We're not on Goode Island anymore." Charlotte said with slight hesitation.

"You're not staying at the cabin?" Mary asked, Charlotte gulped.

"Father came for us. We're at Tirymor with the family." 

Mary stepped back, her heart sank slightly realized her children were back in Jacob's hands. It had been over a decade since she and Jacob had been apart and the memories of the way he spread terrible lies about her all over the island to gain custody of Charlotte when she was little came flooding back. It was as if Jacob had come and done it all over again. 

"But its' alright!!" Charlotte added. "We're ok. You don't have to worry about anything. Father is...well, he's different. He's actually being very kind to us. He feels actually truly awful about what's happened to the three of you. He didn't want us to be alone at the cabin. We're safer at Tirymor." 

"She's right." Evie said. "The Lords can protect the children. I'm hoping my mother has the same idea to bring Gabriel there. But Jacob having a conscious? Well, I never thought I'd see the day." 

"That's because he doesn't have one." Mary noted "Not one that speaks out over his own worst instincts anyway. Just be careful while you're there love." 

"It's very different now at Tirymor. Jane told us the villagers had stormed the house the night they took you all into custody and they ravaged the place. Now everyone is clearning up the mess. I've never seen it that way before." 

"Everyone?" Evie asked.

"Well, except Johnathon and Jacqueline. They've been spending time away." Charlotte recalled.

"She's probably been at the Thicket." Evie thought to herself.

 "Charlotte, tell me about Morgan's visits with Fatima, have they found away to get through to Filipe? Time is of the essence."

"No, not yet. As soon as Morgan gets Fatima's help to find Sebastian then we can make sure it's all done and maybe we can get you our of here.

Evie thought again "Find Sebastian."

"Mother, why don't you..." Charlotte paused and looked around. Then got closer to the bars to whisper "use your powers to free yourselves? Once you're free, once you're all free, we can all search for Sebastian together and help Filipe."

"She can't." Matthew chimed in. "If something should go wrong, and she's discovered using her powers again, it's only certain guilt. We shouldn't risk it. There's too much at stake." 

"Sebastian. Jacqueline..... powers." Evie thought to herself. The wheels of her mind turning as the others spoke. 

"But what if Mary found away to make everyone forget? Make it all just disappear! YES! Why didn't we think of that before?!" Evie expressed, finally breaking free from her inner thoughts.

"Matthew is right." Mary shot back.

"No!" Disagreed Charlotte.

"He's is. If we are discovered, if I am discovered --again--using sorcery that could spell disaster for anyone connected to me. I can't risk anyone getting hurt. Too much has already happened for us to be that careless." 

Outside, in the brush under the small 3 x 3 cell window with it's rusted over bars, Filipe Braga had secretly come to see Mary and just as he was about to reveal himself at the window, the guard came to shoo away Charlotte and the baby.

"OY!" the guard shouted in his cockney accent that Evie quickly recognized. "You've 'ad just about enough time with the mumzie now. On your way!" 

Filipe ducked back into the bushes under the window. 

"We're not done!" Charlotte said. 

"Oh your done you are. Go on now, take the baby home to grandmum or 'hoevers's watching over ya. Go on. GO!" The guard said.

Mary reached for her two children and hugged them through the bars. "I love you. I love you both." she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I love you too." Charlotte whispered, her own tears already streaming down her peach face. Mary's gentle hands slowly wiped them away. The two not knowing when they'd ever see each other again. The baby then grabbed Mary's finger ad squeezed. The scene of mother and children saying goodbye possible forever created a painful energy in the room. Evie's heart sank as she thought of her own baby, Gabriel, and how she'd hadn't seen him in so long. The time apart from when he was born to when she was free of the coffin, to when she was taken into custody at the caves. She missed him desperately, just as Mary now missed her own children.

"Ill give you one more minute." The guard said, his heart warmed by the sight of the family.

Evie buried her face in Matthew's chest as her tears stained his shirt and then, like a burst of lightening sparking in her mind, she remembered again. Sebastian. Jacqueline. Powers.

"THE THICKET!!" Evie shouted, startling them all. "Sebastian has to be at the thicket. You'll find him there!" 

"What? What are you talking about?" Mary asked.

"Jacqueline must of taken Sebastian from the coffin at the caves and hidden him at Lockwood Thicket. That's the only place she would know Sebastian would want to be to feel safe. She knows this, she has to know this. She could be there with him and not at Tirymor where the family would surly find him. Nothing happens at Tirymor House without Rebecca knowing, and Jacqueline would be quick to realize that. Lockwood Thicket is the only place she'd feel was the right place to keep him." Evie explained.

Outside, Filipe did not hesitate. If anyone knew Sebastian the best it would be Evie. He quickly took off towards the Tirymor Forest to Lockwood Thicket, the small cabin Sebastian held close to her dark heart.

"Charlotte, get to Fatima's. Go now! Tell them What Evie has said, but be careful!" 

Charlotte nodded her head and hugged her mother through the steel bars once more and rushed off with her little baby brother in her arms.

"Should we have done that? She's awfully young." Matthew said.

"Charlotte is a very strong-minded girl. She'll be careful." Evie reminded him.

"I just dont have very good memories of that place, I don't know." Matthew said, recalling his sister Alice died at Lockwood Thicket in a fire. 

Evie realized this and hugged him. 

"Fatima will take care of her." Mary said of Charlotte. "I hope."

****

Lear, Lucas, Cora & Gabriel 

In a small office in town inside Village Hall, Lear Lockwood and Lucas Mural sat together having a mid-day coffee. There was tension in the room, as the two, in a newly formed relationship, were still at odds over Lear's involvement in the chaos that had happened in town. 

As Lear shuffled through some of his legal briefings, Lucas saw a copy of the day's paper folded on the desk. Eager to catch up on the day's news he reached for it but was only met with Lear's arm swatting down the folded newspaper back down to the desk. 

"You don't want to read that." Lear warned. 

Lucas sat back in his chair. "Not again."

Lear nodded. "Unfortunately."

"When is it going to stop?" Lucas asked. "Hasn't Baxter done enough to this little village?" 

"He's set on exposing the Lord's and, well, when Baxter has his mind made up he's very determined." 

Lucas took in a deep sigh and realized he'd have to go to a place with Lear that he didn't actually expect would happen so soon in their new relationship. They needed to talk about Lear's involvement in all that had happened. "Lear, I think we should talk about that more. The way all of this happened." 

Just before Lear could reply, a silhouette outside the frosted glass of his office door with Lear's name and title painted over it appeared. Them came a soft knock on the glass. Lear went to the door and opened it, standing there was Coraline Tyler with baby Gabriel tightly knit in her arms. 

Lear choked up "Cora."

Lucas stood. "Come in!" 

Lear turned to Lucas, surprised at his reaction almost as if he knew she would be there.

"What can I do for you?" Lear asked, motioning for her and Garbriel to enter and take a seat.

She never allowed her eyes to meet Lear's. She was stone faced and a bit icy with him. She had not spoken to him since their encounter in the village. It was a contentious conversation where she had confronted him over Baxter's accusations that Lear was her actual brother, not Baxter, and that Lear had helped conceal the truth from her all these years in order for them to use her one day in a wild scheme to destroy the Lord's. 

All those years later, the plan went into motion, and Cora played into it as their pawn.

"I'm not here because I want to be. I was asked to be." She said, rocking the close to 2-year-old boy in her arms. "I have to be sure I'm back at Bellmore Beach before Aurora Jordan returns." 

"Asked?" Lear questioned.

"By me." Lucas revealed. "I asked her to be here because I think we all need to break free from everything that is holding on to you too. When I was still home, in my country, I did this. I was like you both. I let so many things control me from my past. And it got me nowhere. Holding on to lies hurts us more than we think. They eat us from the inside. We rot. You both have a history. You must respect that and be truthful or no one can move on." 

Lear noticed Lucas's emphasis on the words no one. Lucas was including himself and his relationship with Lear. 

"I don't know what you want me to do." Lear said softly, his heart sinking in the feeling that he may lose Lucas so soon after they had just gotten to know each other, but the tangled web of betrayal Lucas was lost in was chocking the life out of everything he loved. 

"Tell Baxter to stop." Cora said. She reached over and grabbed the newspaper from the desk and revealed her supposed brother's latest scandal filled headline:

SOON: TRIAL OF THE YEAR! MAYOR CONFIRMS: ACTUAL WITCHES AMONG US. Wealthy Heiress, Evie Jordan-Lord, and two others accused in breaking centuries old law. If Found Guilty Sentence is Death!

"This has gone too far." Cora added. "These people are innocent and what he's done is turn the town against them."

Lear looked at little Gabriel as he read the headline about his mother. 

"Do you really think your brother will listen to me after all this time? I mean we may have worked together in the past and I've admitted my involvement in this, but I promise you, I promise you both, he's gone much further than we had discussed. I doubt he'll stop or retract anything if I ask him." 

Lucas shook his head and exhaled, frustrated with Lear's reluctance. "Lear look at what's happening. My friend is now in jail because of these lies. Matthew is a good man, Evie too. Because of you and Baxter all of this has happened. Can't you see that? Can't you see that you could be the beginning of helping free then? Look at that in the paper!"

"This was a waste of time." Cora said softly as she got up from her chair. 

Then to Lear's surprise Lucas got up from his to follow Cora out. Together they had had enough of Lear's inability to see the damage he and Baxter had caused. It was now clear there was more to Lear than Lucas ever saw in the very short time they'd been together. It hurt Lucas, deeply, to feel that had fallen for a person who could see nothing more than ways to lash out at who he deemed deserving of it. Lear's past has never truly been healed, and Lucas saw that perhaps, Lear didn't want to be healed from it.

"Wait! Wait! Please... don't go." Lear said, quickly rushing to the door and blocking the three from exiting. 

"Why shouldn't we?" Lucas said, his tone sharpened. "You don't want to make things better, not for Cora, or Gabriel's mother, not even for yourself. This is your sister! You have lied to her for years, you've allowed Murphy to lie too. And for what? What is all for? Lear, I like you... I like you so much and you have done so many good things to help me stay here. For that I am so appreciative, but the rest of it. The two of us, we cannot move on to better things if you keep up with the lies. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Cora looked at Lear than back to Lucas and back to Lear. She had confronted Lear about the story that she was born Maggie Lockwood and that she had been stolen and adopted by the Murphy family as a baby. Lear lied and said she wasn't Maggie, hearing Lucas say she was --again--indeed Lear's baby sister made her stomach knot. 

Lear too saw the hurt in her eyes and in Lucas'. He felt so guilty. He felt that all this time he had been blinded by his anger towards Rebecca but perhaps he too had been lied to. Maybe Rebecca had been telling the truth all this time and that maybe, just maybe, Lear's father was the one responsible for it all with his gambling and irresponsibility. But he did not reply.

"Let's go." Lucas said, putting his hand on Cora's shoulder guiding her out the door. "I'm sorry." he whispered.

They were both just feet out of Lear's office when suddenly "OK!"

Lucas and Cora turned.

"Ok, I'll talk to Baxter I'll tell him to retract many of the stories as best he can. I can't promise you anything because, as Cora knows, Baxter is hardheaded and thirsty for this type of attention. But I'll do my best."

Lucas' eyes sparkled "Are you sure?" 

"I'm sure." 

"Truthfully?" Lucas asked again.

Lear smirked. "Yes, Lucas, truthfully." 

Lucas bounced over and hugged Lear, and in the hallway, just outside of Lear's office he kissed him. Their first real kiss. 

Cora smiled feeling a small, tiny ounce of hope return and began walking out with Gabriel. 

"Cora!!!" Lear shouted. "WAIT!"

But she did not turn back. She wanted him to know that actions spoke louder than words. For her to turn back to him, she'd have to see his words play out in real life. Cora was done with allowing others to say one thing and do another. 

Without facing Lear, Cora shouted from the end of the marble floor hall "Show me your truthful and then we'll talk again!" 

Then she and a cooing baby Gabriel disappeared in the labyrinth of corridors that within Village Hall. 

****

Morgan and Charlotte catch up 

Back at Tirymor House, the head maid Jane Donnelly, Charlotte and little Caleb were together in sitting room. Charlotte read from her favorite book, Anne of Green Gables, she saw Morgan pass and walk into the adjoining room. She could sense there was something the matter, something had happened. 

Charlotte carefully folded the book and followed Morgan into the other room, nosey Jane moved over to a chair near the exit of the room she was in hoping to hear the two chat. 

As Charlotte entered the smaller parlor that was one of the last rooms in Tirymor to get electricity and was decorated with a large medieval tapestry brought over from Bavaria by Albert Lord's grandfather, she noticed the French door that led to a small L shaped veranda was open.

Charlotte stepped on to the veranda and saw Morgan standing in the center of the L shaped porch looking out onto the grounds of Tirymor House. 

"Morgan? What is it?" She asked him.

He shook his head. "I have to tell you something, something that happened earlier and I haven't found a way to come clean."

Charlotte gulped. "What happened?"

"I saw my mother in the village Charlotte. She's come home."

"Why, that's wonderful news!! Why are you so sad?" Charlotte asked, her 14-year-old heart lifting back into her chest. "You see! Things are changing Morgan. While you went to Fatima's and saw your mother, I went to see mine. She told me where they could find Sebastian. We have to go back to Fatima's to tell her too." 

"I never made it to Fatima's." He said sadly.

"You, you didn't?" She replied disappointed, the slight breeze blowing into her soft blond hair. "Ok, that's ok. But we have more information now anyway, so we should go now and tell her about Sebastian and where we can find him to help Filipe." 

"Charlotte, you don't understand. My mother has returned, and I spoke to her and she wants to leave Welshport -- with me! She doesn't want to be here anymore. She, she was with this man, this man that she came home with from London and that's who she wants to be leave with too. At least that's what I gather from our conversation." Morgan explained as he reentered the house -- Charlotte followed.

Morgan and Charlotte went back into the small parlor and into the hall where Jane quickly hid herself from view. The two teenagers began walking towards the large staircase that lead up to their room as they continued to talk. 

"She is your mother." Charlotte said. "It wouldn't be so bad being back with her. After all she went all the way to London on some stupid hunch of mine and came back to be with you. You should give her another chance. Think of all the time I lost with my mother." 

Morgan turned sharply to face Charlotte at the base of the stairs just before entering the long hallway "Charlotte, my mother left me here. You were taken from yours. There's a difference." 

"Some, yes." Charlotte agreed. "But people deserve second chances." 

"I don't kn---" before Morgan could answer Charlotte his eyes lifted to two of the butlers rehanging a large painting that was to Charlotte's back. The villagers had torn it down in the lotting of the mansion and the painting of a man dressed in equestrian style clothes next to a dark horse with a white patch of fur between its eyes had been reframed. The man in the painting stood there, clear faced with a smile that seemed to jump out at Morgan. The light from a window across from it made it almost glow. 

"That's him." Morgan whispered.

Charlotte turned to see the painting was of her uncle David.

"Uncle David? That's Sebatian's father." She said.

"No, that's the man my mother was with." 

Charlotte's eyes widened. "She found him? Your mother actually found Uncle David in London? So... my premonition was right? He was there this whole time?" 

"No," Morgan whispered, looking around to see if anyone could hear them "it can't be the same man, you hadn't really gotten into the strength of your powers at the time you told my mother to go to London to find David, there's no way they're the same person. It has to be a coincidence." 

Charlotte lifted a brow, "Haven't you learned anything? There are no coincidence in Welshport. There's only one way to find out if that's David or not." She said, also in a whisper. 

"What?" He asked.

She pulled Morgan into the next room at the top of the stairs. It was Albert Lord's library. Morgan looked around and saw shelf after shelf, as tall as him or taller, filled with books of all kinds. The room was shadowed by trees blocking the sun from entering the lattice framed windows. 

"Here." Charlotte said, grabbing Morgan's hands. "Close your eyes and think of the man you saw with her mother." 

Morgan did as he was told. 

Once his eyes were close, Charlotte closed hers and went into his mind. She followed the path of his thoughts deep into this subconscious where she began to see his memory of his mother sitting at the Gramercy Cafe with the man. The stranger's face still fuzzy in his head, Geneveive's however was clear as day.

Charlotte moved closer, her telepathic body slowly getting closer and closer to the man sitting with Geneveive. 

And just as Charlotte's eyes became clearer and the person's face began to appear a jolt of something powerful yanked into a different realm.

Charlotte released her hands from Morgan's and fell to the floor, eyes still closed.

"Charlotte? CHARLOTTE?" Morgan exclaimed falling to her side. 

In her mind, Charlotte was once again in a dark place -- blackness all around her. She could smell the smell of rosewater. There was the sound of wind going through trees. 

"Whose there? What is this?" She asked, her voice echoing in the bog. 

The sound of wind in the trees continued. 

"ANSWER ME! Why have you brought me here?" 

A figure began to emerge from the shadows of the place Charlotte could not identify. The shadow was of a man, he started walking closer and closer as the wind in the trees got stronger and stronger whipping Charlotte's dress and hair into a storm. 

"WHO ARE YOU?" She shouted over the wind. 

And as the wind came across her face in the bog of the black place her name was whispered.

C h a r l o t t e 

"Who are you?" She asked again

C h a r l o t t e 

Her name was again whispered in the wind like a hiss from a snake. 

But then it was clearing, the darkness of the place started to brighten. The shadow of the person began to clear and almost a face was seen. Charlotte stepped closer, and closer seeing a signet ring on the man's finger, the letter S clearly showing. 

 She gasped "Sebastian!!" 

But just before she reached her cousin Sebastian in this world, she was yet again yanked out of it with a forceful joke pulling her out as if she had just broken the surface from under a wild ocean wave.

She awoke in Morgan's arms. 

"What happened???" Morgan asked, the two on the floor. 

"I don't know. But ... Sebastian. he came to me. Sebastian came to me. He's alive."

Sebastian was alive. And he was trying to get to his little cousin Charlotte for help. He was trapped at Lockwood Thicket with a witch who was keeping him and Johnaton DeViana hostage and in a frozen state. 

It was Jacqueline who had yanked Charlotte out of her telepathic connection to Sebastian. It was Jacqueline, who was circling Sebastian like a vulture, who sensed this connection of Charlotte's and Sebastian's and realized she had more trouble than she knew. 

"Sneaky Little witch." Jacqueline growled to herself as she caressed Sebatian's beautiful face. "You almost got me." She told him his eyes moving back and forth as Jacqueline encircled him.

But just outside Lockwood Thicket, another threat to her bewitching betrayals.

Filipe Braga had arrived. 

B7/Ch2: BOUND BY BEWITCHMENT

Sebastian confronts Jacqueline 

"What have you done!?" Sebastian growled from his darkened corner of Lockwood Thicket, staring from behind dark eyes that did not expect to open up in his former home. 

His face slowly seeped out from the shadows as if he were floating up from a black bog. He had been asleep for almost a year. He hadn't seen his onetime love Jacqueline since saving Evie from her untimely grave the winter before. Awakening in the back bedroom of his surprisingly remodeled old haunt was jarring.

"I've saved you that's what I've done." Jacqueline replied confidently as she stepped aside showing Sebastian the frozen in place Johnathon still holding the broken table leg mid plunge, inches away from it's intended destination: Sebastian's heart. 

"Why am I here?" the vampire asked, allowing the glow of the candle to finally hit his face.

"Something has happened in the village; I had to take you away from where Evie hid you. If I hadn't the world would now know you as you are. I couldn't let that happen." She replied. 

"Where's Evie? Is she alright?" 

Jacqueline lifted a brow, she hesitated to answer. He could sense she was searching her mind for a lie.

"Jacqueline, what have you done to her?" Sebastian assumed. 

"I haven't done anything to her! Of course, you'd see me as the villain in all this, when this time, I haven't laid a hand on your precious Evangeline. The town's gone mad with vigilantism, there was some creature in the night roaming around killing people violently. They somehow got the idea your family was hiding that monster, and it was you. Mary Goode is to blame for all of this. That deadly thing is Filipe Braga, she tried to save him using you --- your blood. Evie took her to find you, but I put a stop to that!"   

"Filipe? Filipe is killing people? How would my blood have saved him?" 

Jacqueline shrugged, unwilling to answer anymore. She walked over to the man she loved more than life itself and looked him in his now calm and cool blue eyes. His face filled with worry for everyone he loved. 

"You don't have to worry. You're safe here." She said.

"Why did Johnathon want to kill me? How did he know I was here?" 

Jacqueline sighed "He followed me." 

"Why? Why would he follow Jacqueline?" Sebastian asked with a pregnant pause, somehow feeling like he already knew the answer.

She felt uneasy in her stomach. He knew, she could tell he knew. She lifted her hand and showed him the ring. 

"We're married." 

"You've infiltrated my family by marrying my uncle! My God! What have you done to them? Did you hurt anyone?? Where's Evie? Where's Gabriel!?" Sebastian shouted rushing over to the witch he once loved and grabbed her by the shoulders.

Suddenly, as his hands made contact with her body he felt rush his body. It was like an electrical surge, a powerful burst of energy entering his entire system. He could feel her heartbeat he could sense her body working for two; all her internal systems working to protect something inside of her. And then it was clear, a second heartbeat. A child. 

"A baby?" He whispered.

Flashes of the times he and Jacqueline made love came to him. Their passion when he did love her was intense but faltered when he discovered everything she had done to Mary, Evie and little Gabriel. 

Sebastian then quickly removed his hands.

She smirked. "It's not what you think." 

"Whose child is this?"

"Mine." She replied with a wink. 

"Jacqueline, is this child mine or Johnathon's?"

"Who's do you want it to be? I can make miracles happen, my love. I can tell you who I'd like it to be, would that help?"

Sebastian quickly grew frustrated with Jacquelin's coyness. He rushed her grabbed her by the neck. Their bodies quickly levitated and rushed across the room again as he pinned her to the wall. With his grip tightening, his eyes once again turning color, his hiss revealing fangs ready to dig deep into her neck. 

Jacqueline's entire body began to heat up, burning Sebastian's hand around her neck as if ten-thousand suns were scolding him. He bounced off of her and she fell to the floor in a smokey heap.

"You still haven't lost your bite, but you should know one more thing before you ever think of doing that to me again." She hissed.

Sebastian's eyes narrowed as he nursed his quickly healing scorched hand. "You'll destroy us all." 

Jacqueline stood up and flattened her dress that had crumpled in the tussle "I'm only trying to do what's best for me and my child, don't you see that? Johnathon was my only way to keep myself from death, Sebastian! You were gone, nowhere to be found. Evie selfishly hid you away in a place I'd never find you. I had no one, NO ONE! I had to have protection, and the Lords are the most powerful people here. Their money, their home, their everything would protect me and your child from whatever came for me." 

Sebastian stood there stunned. 

"My.... my child? I don't believe you. You lie, you're aways lying!" 

"It's true!" She replied. "We conceived him Sebastian, just before you abandoned me to save Evie. I had no choice but to find a way to keep myself out of danger and marry Johnathon to save this child. Mary would have exposed me when our coven collapsed, and we all know Evie was hell bent on finding me and destroying me for what I had done to Gabriel and of course what I did to her." She added with a brow lifted, referencing how she buried Evie alive and was partly responsible for Gabriel's deafness. 

"Mary tried to help you!" Sebastian reminded her of the time when Jacqueline first came to town and Mary took her in.

Jacqueline shrugged again "It seems fait had other plans." 

"Other plans?" Sebastian asked, feeling the danger now more than ever in his veins.

"Mary is the one who was exposed." 

"Exposed? What do you mean? TELL ME!" Sebastian pushed.

"Sebastian, Mary needed you to save Filipe. She sought out Evie who knew where you were because she told everyone that YOU saved her. The entire island was shocked because they all believed you've been dead all this time. They went after you, Sebastian, they wanted to find your hidden body and kill you. Mary, Evie and even the good sailor Matthew Winterborn all got caught at the Cove where Evie had hidden you. Lucky for them, the villagers opened the casket, but I had gotten there first and transported you here. I would never ever let them take the father of my child from me. Unfortunately, Evie, Mary and Matthew were trapped -- the villagers saw Mary use her powers and they've been arrested and accused of ... witchcraft. But you're safe. That's what's important, I saved you... no one will ever take you from me again. Ever." 

"No, no, this isn't right! I was supposed to finally find peace and Evie was supposed to move on with her life and raise our son. This is all wrong...I have to help them!" 

"What about us? What about our child?" She shouted.

"How can I believe a woman like you? This child can't be mine! It must be my uncle Johnathon's."

Jacqueline's blood felt hot as lava; how dare he deny their child "This child is yours." She said, her voice falling into a deeper, darker tone.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. He wouldn't believe the witch who'd done so much harm in the past. He turned and bolted for the door, but Jacquline swung her arms around herself as if to enter into a hug and she vanished in a puff of smoke reappearing out of thin in directly in front of Sebastian blocking his exit. 

She then touched his face with her hand and froze Sebastian still.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." She said, walking slowly towards him. "I saved you now twice from making terrible mistakes." 

Sebastian was frozen but his eyes were moving and following Jacquline as she circled his stiff body. She ran her hand over his round shoulders and down his spine and over his backside. She ran her arm up his side and over to his back and then under his jaw until she was again facing him.

"I'm not totally evil, you know." She said with a whispery, sultry voice. "I do see why you're so concerned. After all, Evie is the mother of your child — your first child —and I did try to kill her. But she's moved on with Matthew, you both decided that was best for her: to move on passed you. And now I am carrying your baby, your sweet new baby. Again, I can see you're very concerned...so...in good faith, there could be something I can do to help." 

Sebastian's eyes watered, a single tear fell. 

"Now, now, my love, don't cry. I can try and fix things." She whispered as she wiped his tear. "For a price." 

His eyes looked down from his frozen face as her hands rubbed her pregnant stomach. "You stay with me -- with us, forever. And I'll do what I can to save Evie and Matthew. Mary on the other hand, is a lost cause. They saw her use her powers. I can't fix what they've seen. But if you agree to remain here with me, I will do what I can to help get Evie and Matthew free."

Sebatian tried to speak, but he couldn't.

Jacqueline snapped her fingers, and his mouth was able to talk, she asked him again if he'd agree and Sebastian only said one word: "Agree."

Jacqueline was elated. She snapped again and flames on candles burst on alight on their own. A fire quickly ignited in the hearth across from them also on it's own. 

The deal was done.

Jacqueline hugged Sebastian's tightly frozen in place body and kissed his lips. "Forever." She whispered. 

Sebastian's eyes then looked towards his uncle, Johnathon DeViana who was still frozen in time with his arms up and the stake still tightly gripped in his hands above his head. The vampire wondered how the two of them would get out of Jacqueline's clutches. One bound to her by law, the other by the laws of the shadow world; a place no one could ever understand but she and Sebastian. 

Sebastian was trapped by the witch who once held his heart and now her plan to keep Sebastian as her own would be the only way to save them all from certain destruction. 

Standing over the bed the frozen Johnathon had no ability to speak — but he heard every single word. 

****

The Braga’s receive a visit by Father Donavon

Later that day, Fatima Braga scurried around her small cottage in in the village in between tarot card appointments and palm readings for her clients. She fiddled with an overboiling kettle on her wood-iron stove and quickly poured the scolding hot water into three teacups and carried the silver tray back into her small sitting room that still had the drapes drawn. 

This room, a private one away from the prying eyes of her clients, was just as busy.

Sitting on a fluffy love seat awaiting the tea was Welshport's parish priest Father Donavon Ryan and Fatima's son Filipe. 

Filipe's wound was healing nicely from the late Gregory Reigns gunshot. He still had soreness and home-done stitching to contend with, but his estranged mother had kept him healthy-- and alive.

All this would have been such a normal reunion if not for the fact that Filipe was still afflicted by his lyncanism and awaited, terrifyingly so, for another full moon. 

Father Ryan took his tea and carefully looked over a small hand calendar he brought with his from the rectory at Saint Catherine's.

"Sister Mary Paula had this in one of her desks. She marks down various important feast days. I counted and from the last full moon there are about 28 days to the next." Father Ryan informed them.

"That's about a month or so to figure all this out." Filipe said. "The longer we wait around here the more danger Mary, and the children are away from me. I have to find Sebastian myself, if Mary is right and he and I are still linked than he can save me and I can save Mary and the others." 

"Filipe, there may be no saving Maria." Fatima said to Filipe shock. "The villagers have already decided that she is what they say she is. It's like a disease of the mind --this mob mentality-- they are out for blood filho." She added using the Portuguese word for son.

"Stop that, stop trying to mother me. You had your chance, and you gave it up." Filipe snapped. "And it doesn't matter what either of you say, I've had enough waiting around for help to come. I have to get to Sebastian before it's all over and before the full moon returns. Have you heard from the children? I have to get to Goode Island as soon as possible." 

Father Ryan and Fatima shot each other looks. There had been news of Charlotte, Morgan and little Caleb they'd kept from Filipe, those glances did not go unnoticed. 

"What? What are you two hiding?" He asked.

Father Ryan opened his mouth to speak but Fatima cut him off. "They're safe, firstly." She answered.

Filipe tilted his head confused "But secondly?" 

"They're not at the Cottage on Goode Island." Father Donavon Ryan replied. 

"Well, where are they?" 

"Filho, just remember this might have been for the best...." Fatima added trailing off. 

"Where are my children?!?!" Filipe demanded to know.

"At Tirymor House." Father Ryan revealed. “I heard the head of household, Jane Donnelly speaking to a woman at mass yesterday and she said Jacob came for them on Goode Island to protect them. Mary must of told him where they were." 

"No, no! Not with Jacob! He's diabolical! He can't be anywhere near my children. I have to get to them; I have to get them now!" Filipe said slowly getting up and winching with pain as he did. 

"Filipe! STOP!" His mother cried. "Charlotte is his daughter, you know this. He has every right to her. And we have to focus on getting to Sebastian. I have faith in Celeste, she's a mother now, she will care for them and protect them from anything Jacob's influences. I don't think he's in that mind set anyway."

"How are you so sure?" Filipe asked.

Donavon and Fatima glared at each other. More news they hand's shared with Filipe since he'd return to his human self. 

"The Villagers stormed and ransacked Tirymor House shortly after the attack at the park -- they believed the creature was hidden by the family. Jacob and the rest of the Lords are slowly but surely getting their home back in order and restructuring their security. The children are safest there until we get you healed." Donavon explained.

"How do you know all of this?" Filipe asked.

"This town holds new secrets." Fatima added.

"Everyone is talking about it." Donavon said. "Luckily your mother and I--" Donavon began before being cut off by Filipe

"Aunt, she's, my aunt." 

Donavon looked to Fatima for approval, she slightly nodded her head. Filipe had not yet accepted her as his real mother, and not the aunt he always knew her as.

"Yes, luckily for your aunt and I we have positions in the village where people tend to feel most comfortable talking to us or around us with ease. We get the information almost firsthand this way. It'll keep us in the loop and help us navigate our next move." 

"Good." Filipe replied. "Then it'll be up to me to get myself back to where I was: in a happy family with my new wife and our children. I'm going to find Sebastian and he'll help me; he owes me this. My blood saved his life, even though it was used to create that ghastly version of himself, he is alive because of it." 

"You're still hurt!!" Fatimas said reaching for her son who'd gotten up from the loveseat after downing his tea.

Filipe grabbed his estranged mother's hand that had latched on to his arm as he got up and held it tightly "My wife has been arrested along with two of my friends for crimes this town think they committed...my crimes! I have to help them, and I have to help them now. Do not try and stop me." 

Filipe dropped Fatima's hand and walked out of the room to his bedroom, now in the main house, to dress and to do his best to find Sebastian. 

"We have to let him, Sister Inez." Father Ryan said, using Fatima's former nun's name.

"I can't help but worry." She replied.

Donavon agreed "This nightmare feels like it's only just beginning." 

Fatima looked toward an open doorway into a parlor and followed her instincts and went inside. 

In the parlor, at a small round table with a blood red tablecloth with golden fringe dangling over Chinese carpets was Fatima nearly stacked tarot cards face down.

Father Donavon followed Fatima into the parlor. 

She flipped the top one over. 

“The hanged man.” She said with a gasp. The symbolic tarot of a man hanging by his left ankle on wooden gallows smiling a sinister grin to confuse the reader, but Fatima was not confused. She knew it meant the end of a trial, the search for knowledge gone array, the end of a long inquisition brought on by deceptive means. 

“Inez, no.” Donavon said, always the religious skeptic. 

She turned back to the priest and crossed herself.

“God help us.” 

****

The Lords on the Tirymor Veranda

Meanwhile, Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador stood out on a Tirymor's north facing veranda towards the front gates through its arched walkways snuggling her beloved white Maltese BeeBee. In the distance she watched several grounds keepers nervously repair the damaged iron gates the village mob had ruthlessly demolished when they stormed the family compound. 

BeeBee watched too, a low growl vibrating in his little chest at the strangers in his garden. 

Her deep auburn hair slowly seeped with white strands of long stressful events, but the storming of her own home by the villagers she thought she knew, was beyond measure.

She turned back and looked through the French doors behind her, still open from when she walked out. An army of house maids, led by the head of household Jane Donnelly, quickly managed to put the house back together in one form or another.

As she oversaw the rebuilding of sorts, Rebecca's son Jacob walked through the French doors and joined his mother on the veranda. 

"Odd, isn't it?" He said, sipping a smooth brandy from the inside bar.

"What is?" 

"That we stand here untouched by this when we, of all people, know that maybe just maybe we're somewhat to blame for it all. Perhaps not all of it, but a very healthy portion." Jacob replied, in a rare showing of self-awareness. 

Rebecca's eyes narrowed "We?"

Jacob smirked "None of us are innocent, mother. Not even you." 

Rebecca's own sins, even ones she'd never dare speak out loud came crawling back into her mind. All of their actions, Jacob's, hers, her son David's, even her dearly departed Albert, had all added to the mythology of the larger-than-life family hidden from view in the Tirymor Forest. 

Rebecca scoffed at her son's notion and walked back into the house where maids quickly came to attention and curtsied as their mistress entered. Rebecca, in a long eggplant toned dress that came to a chokehold grip at the base of her neck, smiled and thanked them all for their hard work just before departing into another room where Jacob's wife Celeste was reworking art that had been torn off the walls.

"How are the children?" Rebecca asked Celeste, knowing her granddaughter Charlotte, young Morgan Thorne and the baby Caleb Braga had been brought to Tirymor by Jacob the night after the mob for safety. 

"Charlotte and Morgan are obviously getting back into their old Tirymor habits which is nice to see." Celeste said. "Little Caleb, I don't know about. He's skittish. Clearly not use to so many people around him. But he'll get use to us." 

"Charlotte's a good big sister." Rebecca replied as she regally sat on the large love seat opposite Celeste. "She'll bring them both into the fold soon. I know her well." 

"Have you seen my brother or his wife? I haven’t seen them around the house." Celeste asked. 

Rebecca thought for a second "No. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen them either." 

Celeste's worries of Johnathon's new wife had yet to ease as their young marriage still shocked her. The idea of her brother jumping into something like marrying a woman he barely knew and taking on the task of raising the child she was carrying without actually knowing if it was his or not felt dangerous to her. Celeste had no real and tangible evidence for doubting Jacqueline's baby was truly her future niece or nephew but the world she lived in now, where the protection of the Lord family fortune only held secure if a child was born, was not at all foreign to her. 

Celeste wrote the book on that. It was her own motive for marrying Jacob. 

"Oh good, you're both here." Jacob said entering the room.

"Speak of the devil." Celeste thought to herself as her mind filtered out thoughts comparing herself to Jacqueline. 

"I'd like tell you both something very important now that the children are here." He said.

"What do you mean?" Celeste asked. 

"Well there's more to why I brought them here than what I told you. It's not just that Mary is being held on those ridiculous witchcraft charges." He replied.

"Ridiculous? We saw what she did at the caves Jacob, she's in absolutely no shape to be rearing three children, much less, Charlotte, one of our own. It's good you brought them here. Here they'll be brought up without the lure of any of the ungodly worship." 

Celeste rolled her eyes "Really? We're not going to start acting like Tirymor is some sort of saintly sanctuary." 

"Alright alright...we're getting off track." Jacob interjected. "Its not just about Mary's incarceration, it's about Filipe." 

Celeste's heart almost stopped. She hadn't truly thought about the man she was in love with for over a decade before she cheated on him with Jacob to protect her brother. A sin she too had long hated herself for. 

"Filipe?" Celeste asked, with Rebecca's eyes darting to her daughter-in-law as if to catch any twinge of love still left for the one-time Lord family valet. 

"Mary came to here early on before all of this happened. She wanted to see you, Celeste. She wanted to deliver a message to you about Filipe. She felt that you needed to know that he was ill and in trouble but that she was doing everything she could to help him." Jacob explained.

"What sort of trouble?" Celeste asked.

"As we all know that creature, we saw the night of the Full Moon festival was not Sebastian. It was Filipe." 

The women gasped. 

"What? How?" Rebecca asked.

“I don’t believe it!” Celeste said to Jacob and Rebecca’s surprise. 

"Mary didn't explain and I honestly didn't want to go any further with it, but knowing all of that I couldn't very well leave my child on Goode Island with Filipe roaming around hunting people. They're safer here." 

"Of course." Celeste added. "But he'd never hurt the children, would he? Even in a state of illness. Are you sure Mary didn't explain more? It's just so... I mean, what in the world? How can that monster be Filipe?" 

"How can Sebastian be what Sebastian is?" Rebecca replied. "It's what Churchill said, it must be.” 

“Mother really? You don’t actually…” Jacob began before his mother interrupted.

“Witchcraft." 

"Oh for god's sake. Listen, I won't deny these mutations have happened to Sebastian and Filipe are unbelievably difficult to explain, but witchcraft? Really? It has to be some sort of scientific problem within them. Yes, something inside of them that's causing them to be this way. Something we'll never ever understand and I for one, do not want to understand. I shall just accept what they are and hope to god they never set foot at my door." Jacob replied.

"And what if that happens? What if they do set foot at our door? Wouldn't Filipe try and find his family and come here?" Celeste asked, fearing for them all. 

“To look for what Celeste?” Jacob said turning to his wife. “For you? His love.” 

Celeste rolled her eyes at his sarcastic tone.

“That’s been long over, you know it.” She replied lifting her left hand with the giant diamond wedding ring that weighed down. “The truth is we just don’t know what to expect if he does come here for the children.” She clarified. 

They all stood there in a beat of silence. If Tirymor was truly the safest place on the island, seeing as it only took a mob minutes to tear down the iron front gates and break through the front doors a creature as giant and vicious as whatever Filipe was could do it in a shorter time.

"We'll just have to put more measures in place to barricade the house in a different way." Rebecca said.

"Shall we entomb ourselves Mother? Shall we erect giant walls instead of iron gates?" Jacob replied sarcastically. "No, better, shall we place towers around the mansion with snipers or maybe a moat! Yes! A lovely medieval moat with crocodiles and Amazonian piranha. That'll keep us safe, now won't it?" 

Just as the threesome's conversation began to heat up, Rebecca's husband Caspian entered the room dressed as though he was ready to leave.

"Is everything alright?" Caspian asked, hinting at his awareness of the room's tension. 

"Yes, we're fine, Jacob's just being his regular obnoxious self." Rebecca replied as she shot up from the love seat and headed for her husband. "Where are you off to?" She asked, noting his coat. 

"Hope Hospital." He replied. "Dr. Ward would like to have a checkup with me after I hit my head at the caves." 

"I'll go with you." Rebecca replied to Caspian's acceptance. "I think I've had just about enough of this scenery." She added shooting her son a look of annoyance. 

Once the Casadors had cleared the room, Celeste took it on herself to wonder where Jacob's head really was. She slowly made her way to him where he now sat, replacing his mother on the love seat. His brandy now sitting on the side table, its amber tone matching Celeste's own gorgeous skin. 

"You don't really think Mary is innocent of what they say she is, do you? Rebecca told me what you all saw at the caves. How can she not be what they said she was --- she killed one of the mayor's aides with her powers or whatever you'd call them." 

"Celeste, if I say that I believe Mary is what they say she is, then I have to believe what they saw Evie and Matthew are too. No one really knows what we saw that night. Maybe it was lightening? There is a large opening at the top of those caves, perhaps some lightening came at the exact time and did what it did. I don't know." Jacob said, protecting Mary. 

"Lightening?" Celeste asked, clearly skeptical of her husband's account. 

Jacob decided to change his tactic:

"If I believe Mary, and Matthew and Evie are witches, then I have to believe what Filipe is. I have to believe what Sebastian is. I have to believe in things that have no explanation and no real understanding, and that is not the person I am. I know the day is the day and the night is the night and there is no in between." Jacob replied.

"There's dawn and there is dusk." Celeste shot back. "That is in between." 

Jacob smiled, she was playing a very food game of chess, but he was an even better player. He'd never say to anyone what he truly saw. For him, that night, Mary was no witch. It was a very unlucky weather patterned that hit where it hit. 

"Dawn is day, dusk is night -- there is NO in between." 

He would not budge. And Celeste worried if this sudden hint of protection of Mary was coming from a different place. A place where his mind would go sometimes in the middle of dinner. A place where his heart would wonder in times where they'd have an argument, and he'd remember the happy times with Mary. 

The same place where Charlotte was conceived. 

Celeste worried that this could be a crack in her security and his devotion to her. Could his devotion suddenly switch back to Mary-- the mother of his first-born child-- in her time of need?

**** 

The three accused arrive at court 

Outside of Village Hall, the sun had dipped casting the evening shadows over town. Villagers began to gather in front of a large stage where Mayor Churchill had promised them all more information about what had happened the night of the Full Moon Celebration and those arrested at the Caves of the Dænian people. 

Around the perimeter of the wooden stage, large gas lamps had been set up allowing the entire area to boom in a glow of yellow light as night overwhelmed the sky above. 

Inside Village Hall, the accused: Mary, Evie and Matthew, stood together with their hands tied at the wrists behind four guards. Matthew stood close to Evie, his pink finger interlocking with hers; a small gesture of protection even when he could not promise it. 

"Tonight I think I die." Mary said.

"No!" Evie replied. "They won't. This is some kind of show, Churchill knows his accusations are groundless. Witchcraft? He can't prove anything like that. He'd have to make everyone believe in ghosts and zombies and--"

"--vampires?" Mary replied cutting Evie off.

Evie did not respond.

"Shh." Matthew said. "They're coming." 

"Bring them out." Timothy Churchill ordered as three of the four guards grabbed one of the accused and followed the fourth behind Churchill and his aide Nathan Cramer out to the awaiting crowed.

Under the dusk sky, the crowd began to shout at the accused as each was placed center stage behind the mayor and his microphone. Baxter Murphy, slithered in the crowned with pen and paper, ready to record every word he could as the mayor spoke. 

"WITCHES!!!" Shouted men in the crowd.

"HANG'EM! HANG'EM NOW!!" Another man shouted.

"DAUGHTER OF ELIZA FIRST!! THE ORGINAL WITCH!" A woman screamed, noting the long Welshport lore about Eliza Goode, Mary's reclusive mother being a witch. 

A truth no one really knew was true. 

The Mayor lifted his hands to quiet the crowd and spoke:

"My fellow Welshportonians, I thank you for coming on this evening, later in the day in fact, at my request. It is good to know that word of mouth can still bring us together. I have used this entire day to process what we as a community should do to the accused after what many of us saw at the caves the other night. What we know is that what we saw was unhuman. What we witnessed was supernatural and dangerous. In fact, we know that these three have all displayed acts that are unusual and undeniably strange and must be taken account for." Timonthy shouted to the crowd's pleased yelps. 

He continued. 

"FACT: Evangeline Jordan-Lord miraculously survived being buried alive, by her own admission HOW?" 

"WITCH! WITCH"! Villagers shouted.

"FACT," The mayor went further, "Matthew Winterborn, the last member of the aboriginal Dænian tribe of people who have long held the myth of otherworldly connections and powers, he too survived drowning at sea and returned here -- suddenly -- and reunited with the one buried alive! HOW?!" 

"WITCH! WITCH!"

"Last but not least, one Mary Goode, who's whole life and family past has been shrouded by many hisses and whispers thanks to her mother's own past dealings with darkness. I saw her with my own eyes destroy a man with powers from her hands. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!?" 

"WITCH! WITCH!!" 

"I ask your calmness and patience." Churchill shouted over the cries of the crowd. "Every criminal in this nation deserves due process and I have no intention of skipping this for these three. A trail will take place!" 

The crown cheered.

"I have called upon our Governor in Augusta and he has promised me quick prosecution on the grounds of witchcraft thanks to a law we still have on our books from when this community was settled by the good Welsh people in 1631.  The act of witchcraft is spelled out in this law quiet clearly and no man or woman shall be free of it if they break this law. It does not matter how modern our world becomes in the face of the future and in the times we lead now, they have committed this crime while this law, unrepealed, sits on our charter. Barrister Eden Sydney, a good man I have known most of my own life, is headed to Welshport as I speak to prosecute these three for what they have done to our community with powers unknown to us now!" 

The crowed began to shout and clap and cheer the Mayor for his hard work as Mary, Evie and Matthew stood in silence. Mary and Evie trembled with fear. They were all seeing the darkest days ahead of themselves. Mary herself knew there would be no way out of it but death, it didn't matter how optimistic Evie was. 

In the crowd, Nik and Aurora who were heading to Hope Hospital but stopped hoping to get a glimpse of Evie, who they were unable to see or speak to because of the nature of her supposed crime.

"This is insane, they cannot truly believe all of this?" Aurora said, tears welling in her eyes.

Nik seemed panicked and helpless seeing his sister on stage shaking like a leaf cuddling herself next to Matthew for warmth. 

"She's terrified. She utterly terrified." He said of his sister.

"A trial??? As if this is Salem!? They're all insane." Aurora whispered. "We have to do something." 

"What can we do?" Nik asked to Aurora's silence. 

"Lear." She suddenly remembered. "Rebecca's nephew is a lawyer, we'll get him to help defend them against this stupid law. He seems like a good lawyer." 

"He's the one that got Gabriel taken away! Evie will never want to be defended by him!" Nik recalled.

"He's all we've got, honey, Evie will just have to swallow her pride for now. I don't like him either but what can we do? They need help and if anyone can worm their way out of laws on the books, it's the Lord family lawyer." Aurora replied. 

Nik sighed. 

"You don't really think the whole town believes in all this hocus pocus, do you?" A voice came from behind. 

Aurora and Nik turned to the voice behind them, Baxter Murphy emerged from the several people behind them. Aurora's face tightened. 

"Get away from us." She said.

"This is practically all your fault." Nik added.

"I wouldn't go that far." Baxter replied.

"We know what you did, we know you sent your sister to work at Tirymor to leak private family information into the papers. This is your fault! Look around you! You've made this. This is your story come alive!" Aurora shouted back. 

"You're right, Cora was my mole, but I had no idea the entire town would lose their minds, Mrs. Jordan. No, in fact I thought people would have run me out of town by the end of the month. This is just beyond my control." 

Nik was sick of Baxter's smug face and stepped up to him. They were practically nose to nose now, they could feel each other's breaths. 

"I fucking can't wait until you finally get what's coming to you." Nik said with his jaw tight and his hands balled in fists. 

Baxter lifted a brow. His eyes turned down to the fists.

*

Inside Village Hall, Mary, Evie and Matthew was locked in the small cell together. 

Churchill rushed past them with his aide, Nathan. Together they scurried into his office and locked the door behind them.

"Sir...." Nathan said, his eyes wide with shock. "Eden Sydney?? When did he agree to come here? And what law is this that you've sighted?" the aide asked, knowing Churchill had one again lied to the public.

"Now, now, don't get your knickers in a twist, Nathan. I'll get on it as soon as I can. Eden is good friend of mine from law school. He'd jump at the chance for this case. I'll personally call him in the morning. And you can find the law in any of the city's charters. For some reason over the years, not a single time since the charter was revised and amended was THAT law taken off. It's perfect."

"Sir there is no judge in this land that will even entertain this trial, you know this! And you told everyone Mr. Sydney was on his way!" 

"And he will be, son. He will be. You'll see." 

*

Back outside, the crowd began to disperse. But Nik and Baxter's contentious conversation was only heating up.

"Relax, relax." Baxter said as Nik was getting very close to punching him square in the nose. 

 Aurora pulled her son back. 

"Come on, Nik, we have to get to Asha." Aurora reminded him of their original task.

"You wanted a story, didn't you?" Nik shouted as he walked away with this mother. "LOOK AROUND BAXTER! YOU HAVE YOUR STORY!"

People around Baxter began to stare now away from the main stage where the accused were finally being rushed off back into Village Hall and into their makeshift cells as the main jail was still burned down. Baxter realized he was being watched. He began to feel strange, and a bit on the spot. Had he truly created this chaos himself just so that he could have something to write about?

He told himself this was not of his making; it couldn't have been all from his stories in the paper. This was inevitable. This outcome would have happened regardless of what he wrote in The Globe.

At least that is what he was telling himself to save himself from any accountability. 

But the truth, the truth was in his columns. He wanted chaos. He craved pandemonium.

And he got it -- but at what cost?