B7/Ch17: WHERE THE NIGHTSHADE GROWS

Asha watches a nun from her hospital bedroom 

Within the sterile walls of Welshport Hope Hospital there is a long rectangle shaped room reserved for patients who are recovering from a long convalescence in a much more inviting atmosphere rather than just in regular hospital room. There are couches and plants, paintings on the wall, two small dressers and a private lavatory. A hospital hotel room in all its ways. 

In that room, Dr. Asha Hoffman sat in a wheelchair staring out onto a small garden just outside the window where a nun from St. Catherine's Church had volunteered to cheer up the flower beds by planting late spring lavender hyacinths. The nun had an apron stained from the smudged flower petals of reds and deep purples, proof of her hard work. Asha stared at the crimson stains on the apron like they were a famous artist’s design.

She was practically transfixed.

Dr. Nikolas Jordan, Asha’s one time paramour, entered the room all the way at the end and spotted Asha. He hadn't had a conversation with her since she had awoken from her coma and there was a lot to talk about. 

He was desperate to question her about where she and Gregory placed his little brother, the baby Aurora gave birth to. Asha and Gregory conspired and gave the child to Mary and Filipe to raise before the trial started. 

Nik discovered the secret betrayal just when Gregory kidnapped Asha who was close to backing out of their plot. When Nik found her, she was tied up in a secret room at Gregory's apartment and the building caught on fire; Asha coma came from burning debris that almost crushed her to death. 

The time had come, in the long rectangular room at Welshport Hope, for the truth to finally come out.

"Asha, good morning. So good to see you up and around!" Nik said pulling a chair up close to her.

“Nik! Hi!” She said spinning her chair around to see him.

“How does it feel?” 

"It feels good." She said with a smile. "I feel like I've been out of it for years." 

"Just a few months." He smiled; his cheek dimples deeper than she remembered. 

"So, what have you been up to?" She asked, her question odd and pregnant with suspicion.

"Up to?" Nik asked, slightly confused. "I've been working 'round the clock hoping you'd come to, for one!" 

"Well, I'm here. I've come to." She replied almost as if to say now take me home and never speak of what happened again. 

Nik could tell something was different about Asha. She didn't seem to be happy to see him and in a way that hurt his feelings even though she was the one who had done something terrible to his family. He took a beat to reply but decided enough was enough. He loved her, he deeply cared for his but the truth of what she did overshadowed those feelings now. He wanted to know everything and no set of romantic intentions, whether they were new or from the past, would stop him.

"Ash, I need to clear somethings with you. Important things…I really need to ask you a few questions." he said.

"But Dr. Ward already assessed me. He thinks I could go home soon." She replied, avoiding his inquisition.

"That's wonderful news." he answered. "But, I wasn’t going to asses you. I need to ask you a few questions about the night you delivered my mother's child." He added, finally ripping the Band-Aid off.

Asha’s head made a quick jerk to the left to face Nik, their eyes locked — she instantly knew, he knew. His questioning of that night, of that incident, being the first thing he wanted to discuss so soon after her revival was telling. 

"Why?" She shot back.

"It would help us to know what really happened and to finally understand why Gregory had you in that room tied up." He answered.

"What has Gregory said?" She wondered.

He took a breath and lifted a brow, "Asha, I’m sorry to say this but Gregory is dead. He was mauled to death by an animal the night I came and found you in his apartment. That's why I need to know from you. I need you to tell me what happened the night you delivered my mother's baby, you’re the only one who knows the truth." 

Asha's heart sank. It was the first she had heard of Gregory's death. There was a moment she felt she was going to tell Nik everything right there and then. She was free, Gregory's death unlocked her freedom from their pact and she could tell the man she loved what she had done and why, how she was blackmailed into doing it, how Gregory found out she wanted to tell the truth and he kidnapped and then her mind quickly switched position. She remembered waking up from her coma and seeing Nik kissing Danielle. She saw them in a romantic way, enjoying themselves in a passion while she lay sleeping in a coma.

This hurt Asha. She felt as if he had been playing her for a fool, but in truth her own betrayal of him and his mother was where his love became a ghost that haunted him the whole time she lay in a coma. He loved her, but the passion had now been transferred to the new nurse in town -- Danielle Holten. His love for Asha was the type of friendship. 

"Ummm..” she stammered. “I don't know, I can't really remember much. It's all very blurry. When I think about what happened I think about how wonderful you and I were together and how much fun we were having and then suddenly, I can't remember anything. It just all goes dark. I would like to just got back to those happy times…together." She said, lying.

Nik smiled uncomfortably knowing they could not. 

"Asha, what's the last full thing you remember?" Nik asked.

Asha thought for a second pretended only to remember things that happened just before she was kidnapped and few months before. She said she didn't remember the birth, she didn't remember the baby dying, she couldn't recall why Gregory kidnapped her or the fire. All of it lies. She knew exactly what had happened, but the risk of telling Nik the truth meant losing him forever. 

"Are you sure? Are you sure you don’t remember?" He asked, hoping she'd finally spark the truth.

"I can’t." She replied quickly. “I’m sorry.”

It was a giant disappointment. He wanted the truth from her without telling her he already knew small details from what he had overheard her say to Gregory, but most of all he wanted to know where the boy was especially for his mother Aurora. For his family. 

But his hopes didn't die.

"Alright, well it's very early yet. We could always try and refresh your memory another time. I think that maybe once the new psychiatrist begins work here at Churchill Green, we could get you an appointment and perhaps they could finally help jog those memories." Nik said.

"I don't know. Maybe. I think I just want to get home. Soon." Asha replied.

"I know you do." Nik replied with a grin.

As he got up from the chair she grabbed his hand and pulled him clos. "Will you come with me?"

He didn't want to say No, it felt too harsh to break up with her so soon after she came out of her coma, but at the same time he didn't want to lead her on. 

On the other hand, he felt that if she did stick around her maybe he could jog her memory before the physiatrist could. If he were with her more hours in the day he could finally crack her lost memories and finally find his baby brother. 

"Let's see what we can arrange. I've been staying with my sister at her new house, but I think I can manage something." He answered.

"Evie's house?" She asked.

"Alot has changed since you've been asleep, Ash. Alot!" He smiled then began to pull away.

She pulled him back, pulled him close to see if he'd kiss her. Nik, unsure what to do thought quickly and kissed her on the forehead leaving Asha with her lips puckered and cool to the touch.

"I'll see you soon, ok?" Nik said. 

Asha nodded with disappointedly expressing a sad wilting face and watched Nik walk out of the rectangular room. Once she was alone she turned back to watch the nun in the garden that she had been admiring before Nik came in.

Asha noticed the her ripping the lush flowers out of the ground and tossing them into a pail. 

Shocked, Asha rolled her wheelchair to a side door that opened out to the garden and called to the nun, horrified that she’d rake out the plants she loved seeing her plant.

“Excuse me! Sister! Why are you doing that? They looked so pretty!” Asha shouted. 

“Oh!!” The nun exclaimed, startled by Asha’s sudden appearance. “I made such a huge mistake, Dr. Hoffman. I brought the wrong plant to be placed here. I say, if my head wasn’t attached I’d surly lose it, lord love me. This is nightshade, can you believe that!! Nightshade!”

Asha sat back in her chair “Nightshade?” 

The nun confirmed in her Welsh accent “I don’t know what I was thinking. It grows in these wonderful full bushes but placed in the wrong hands it can be deadly poisonous.” 

Asha’s mind raced for a split second. 

“Poisonous.” She thought to herself as Danielle’s face appeared in her mind. 

“I have to start fresh.” The nun added. 

“Start fresh. Yes.” Asha said as her mind floated to her first waking moment of Nik kissing Asha.

The nun would do anything to make sure patients enjoying the garden were protected from a poisonous plant even after enduring days of back bending work of planting, pulling up and replanting bushes. Just like she would do anything to keep Nikolas from the poison of the truth. 

She loved him more than anything and would never let him go. 

Not without a fight. And as she stood there, the word nightshade flowed in her mind giving her an idea. A potentially deadly idea. 

****

Cora, Lucas & Lear at Gramercy Café

At Gramercy Cafe, Lucas Mural and Cora Taylor sat at a three top table outside in the wonderful spring air. They were there waiting for Lear who was running late from an appointment at his office. Cora nervously wrung a pale yellow cloth napkin run her hands remembering the night before when she and Lucas snuck into Lear's office and found her adoption papers. Although Lear and Baxter had kept so many secrets from her she still felt bad about going behind Lear's back. 

Lucas, who was incredibly smitten with Lear, also felt a twinge of guilt for planting the idea in Cora's head and then helping her in to Lear's office.

"I don't want him to hate me for this." Lucas said. "But you deserved to know. It's your life."

"I'm nervous about how he'll react and ... what he might do." She said lifting a frosted glass of ice water to her lips.

As she sipped the cold liquid, Lucas motioned with his chin that Lear had arrived. 

"Sorry, I'm late." 

"Hi!" Lucas said, hugging his partner tightly. "We haven't been here long." 

"Coraline." Lear said with a smile has he reached over and kissed his biological sister on the cheek. "I'm glad you're here." 

"Thank you." She said sitting back down in her crush of what taffeta.

"So what is on the menu for today?" Lear wondered innocently. 

Lucas and Cora shot each other a look that Lear noticed.

"What?" He said.

"We have something to tell you." Lucas revealed. 

"What is it?" 

Cora took another sip of water as Lucas looked to her to fill in her brother. 

"You've been so busy with the trial and there were a lot of unanswered questions about things. Uh... Lear...umm, Lucas and I, well...." Cora couldn't say it, She couldn't tell him they broke into his office and took files. 

To help ease the confession along, Lucas removed the key to Lear's office from his jacket pocket and placed it on the table. Lear recognized it right away. Ever the keen lawyer he put two-and-two together in no time but played dumb. He wanted a clear confession to what they did and why. Lucas slowly slid the key over to Lear on the white table cloth. 

"We had to find answers." Cora said.

Lear didn't reply, he only looked over at Lucas. 

"She deserved to know! Everything! It was so hard for you to find a moment because you were so busy and, well, I had a key and I went with her to find what she needed to find." Lucas added

"And did you?" Lear wondered.

Cora nodded. "There are still a lot of questions." She said.

"Like?" 

Cora reached down under the table where she had the file hidden in a satchel. She pulled it out and opened it to the page where a strange signature had been written down that no one could read. 

"This signature." Cora said. "I can’t quite make it out, do you know who it was? How were they involved?" She asked.

"It could be anybody." Lear said. "People involved in this type of activity, selling babies to families who couldn’t legally adopt them, used any kind of name. All I know is that there was someone who helped our father connect with a family, the Murphys, who were desperate for a child." 

"Someone who worked at an orphanage or something?" Lucas wondered.

"Perhaps." Lear answered. "Are you thinking of finding this person?"

Cora sighed, "I think I'd like to know more about Father in the moment he reached out to them. I want to know what Mother thought. I want to know every detail possible. This person, if they're alive, may be the only person who can answer that for me. You and Baxter were too little to know all the details."

"Coraline, in my line of work I've learned that sometimes knowing everything in all the minute details isn't always the best strategy. You should let it go -- get back into your life and live it. You know who you really are now and now you have control. You can decided if you want to connect with your Lockwood Family, like me and Rebecca or not. I wouldn't go digging into something like this if you're not prepared to hear things that may upset you." Lear warned.

"I think I'm ready though." She said.

"Are you sure?" He asked. “Sometimes it’s better to let sleeping dogs sleep.”

Before Cora could answer a seagull swung over their table screeching and calling to his friends on other rooftops. She looked up and saw the gull staring back at her. His white feathers almost seemed to glow in the afternoon sun. For her it was a sign, she was going off into the right direction.

"I am, yes." She said. 

Lear sighed and took the paperwork they stole back into his hands and read it over. He stared at the signatures and over the years he had seen many strange ways of writing. People, it turns out, have a way of scribbling their signature something terrible when they want to conceal something. He always knew when his clients were guilty of something because their signatures were usually an inky mess on the paper. The less guilty of something someone was the clearer and more confident their signature.

This talent Lear had also made him an expert at being able to read these shrouded signatures, just like the one on the paper before him.

"Well the first name here is quite hard to read because it's been smudged. The ink must of been wet when they wrote their name and when they passed over to write their last name smudged their first name. The last name however is simple: RIDGEWAY." 

"Ridgeway." Lucas replied.

"It's a start." Lear said.

Cora thought about the rest of the day. Ridgeway. She'd heard it before. 

But where?

****

Aurora & Caspian 

Down the street from Gramercy Cafe at The Welshport Inn, Caspian poured himself a small drink while a guest of his flipped through a magazine on a sofa just in front of a large window. 

The guest, Aurora Ashby-Jordan.

Caspian had stayed at the hotel that night in protest to his wife Rebecca's attempt to keep his daughter Danielle from revealing to him he was really Viktor Holten. Rebecca saw Danielle's hopes of reuniting with Viktor as a threat to their marriage but in reality it only proved to Caspian that Rebecca was as devious as Lord family member. 

"You haven't said much since I got here." Aurora said, putting down the magazine on her lap. 

"There is a lot on my mind." He replied. 

"Caspian," She began before he interrupted her.

"Shouldn't it be Viktor?" He asked.

Aurora lifted a brow, it was the first time he had acknowledged his real name. "Should it??" She asked.

He took a sip of his drink.

"If you really want to find out who you really were then go to Danielle. You have the right to do that. Rebecca didn't have the right to hide the truth from you. She was wrong." Aurora said.

"What happens when Danielle discovers what happened to me? At this point I don't know if she knows. But she will. What will happen then?" Caspian said referring to the time he was possessed by a demon that called itself THE HUNTER.

"I can't answer that, Caspian. I can't tell you what she'll say or do and what she'll think. All you can do, really, is give it a chance and be honest with her." Aurora replied.

Caspian turned to her, and smiled. She was being so kind to him despite their awful past. When he was possessed he had come to Aurora's room at Tirymor House but the creature was able to shape-shift into the face and body of Aurora's then-partner Gregory Reins -- they made love and conceived a child. Aurora did not know it was Caspian when they made love, it felt like a rape, a strange odd rape. But She had forgiven Caspian not too long ago privately, he-- she understood-- was under the power of something grater than she could even imagine. 

His mind was not in his control. His actions too were done why the creature that took over his body the entire time they knew each other.

The fact remained, that Caspian (or Viktor) had a past with Aurora and a past with Danielle. The middle point was a single mad who had two lives that he had to somehow consolidate and refine. On his own terms not have it curated by his current wife, Rebecca Lockwood-Lord-Casador. 

 "You've been so kind to me during all of this. You don't have to be." He said. "Thank you."

"I think that what we've been through has been something that I couldn’t have imagine ever happening, and we have survived." She replied. "Which brings me to the issue at hand. Caspian, somewhere out there is our child. Our little boy. Once you find your footing with Danielle, your daughter, I hope that we can do the same for our missing son." She said.

"Of course!" Caspian said. "I want that so much too." 

"Asha Hoffman is the key. I think once we get her to tell us what happened that night, the night I gave birth things will move so much faster, and finally, in our direction." She said.

"Our direction." He smiled. "I do like the sound of that."

Aurora blushed. She saw him so differently now that he was more himself than how she met him. The mistrust she felt of him for so long had vanished, she felt a calmness inside of him, his voice soothing even like a soft rain pitter pattering on leaves of spring. 

He put down his drink and walked over to her and sat next to her on the sofa. He grabbed her hand and slowly leaned in. 

They hugged and then after a silent staring into each other’s eyes a long awaited kiss. 

When they came to a hug again, over her shoulder on the room wall was an ornately decorated mirror and when Caspian saw his reflection he smiled, but it was a smile that he did not have on his actual face. The refection was looking back at him but with a totally different facial expression than Caspian actually had. It was as if it were someone totally different in the refection not really him.

He gasped and quickly released Aurora from the hug. 

"What is it?" She exclaimed. "Are you ok? What happened?"

"I.... I don't know." He said. 

Then, in a split second he suddenly got one of his headaches. The headaches that had been plaguing him for weeks now since his fall in the caves. 

He winced with pain and placed both his pointer fingers and middle fingers on his temples massaging the pain in his head. The mirror, the face in the mirror was his and yet it was not his. The headache scorched his mind like a wildfire consuming all his thoughts. 

"Sit back down!" She said quickly bring him some water. 

He grabbed the cup and drank from it then dropped it to hardwood floor breaking it in half. 

Aurora yelped and stepped back as he lay down on the sofa with his feet up.

"Should I call Dr. Ward?" She asked.

"JUST GO!!!!" he shouted at her. "GET OUT!!!" 

"Caspian?" 

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!!" He screamed at her.

Aurora, frightened and panicked grabbed her coat and left Caspian roaring with pain from his head on the sofa. He couldn't control his anger. There was a throbbing in his mind like a beating drum that would not stop and then, like the flick of a light switch he fell into a sweaty heap and slept. 

****

Rebecca confronts Christopher 

That evening, back at Welshport Hope, Rebecca had plenty to worry about. She sat vigil at Jacob's bedside as Celeste went home to be with her son Fabian. But she had other worries. Her min was on Caspian. She hadn't seen him in the days since he left Tirymor House angry with the truth of how she tried to keep Danielle from him. 

In the dimly lit private room where Jacob was recovering from his heart-attack, something else crossed her path to worry about. In the hospital room window looking in, was Christopher Wesley. The man with her son David's face, body and voice.

Rebecca's eyes locked on who she thought was her son...she had heard that this Christopher person looked like David and was the cause of the heart attack but she hadn't quite realized just how uncanny his appearance was. The stoic Rebecca stood up from her chair in the room and made a slight half turn, Jacob was still asleep.

She went out into the hallway and faced him.

"Go on." She said to him. He didn't know how to respond. "Tell me why you've lied to us all these years." She added.

"I don't know how to explain any of it, aside from only telling you that David died that night at the lighthouse. I’ve left him behind — he’s gone and I’ve found a new life away from my past." 

“So you thought.” His mother replied.

“Im sorry you can’t accept it. I really am.”

“Don’t you think I deserve better than that?” She asked. 

Christopher took a breath as memories of his Lord childhood flashed across his mind and how his own mother didn’t come to his defense about Sabrina’s death. 

“No.” He said softly.

Rebecca narrowed her eyes and slapped Christopher across the face.

"You have been gone for over 20 years. We thought you were dead. Twenty years, David, TWENTY! I prayed for you every single day. I cried, I mourned, I dreamed of you -- my son. My beautiful, beautiful son." Rebecca said, the anger slowly melting away her hardened exterior.

"I know you want to think that things are the same but they're not. David did die that night at the lighthouse and Christopher was born. My old life was painful, and I suffered and I don't want to go back to it. I had to move on to a new life and free myself. Do you know how horrible it was to know that the entire world thought I killed my wife? Most of all my own mother?” 

“David it wasn’t like that!” She countered. “We had no idea what happened, but Jacob…” 

“Yes, yes… but Jacob. I know about Jacob. He had even I me thinking that I took poor Sabrina’s life! But not for long. I began to remember, and all those years in London showed me no one came to my defense. You all just believed the worst lie Jacob ever told, and so I let myself die. Why not let the Lord family murderer vanish into the myth and let you all go one with your million dollar balls, fancy dinners and masquerades.” Chris said.

"So why are you here then? Why have you returned to us?"

Chris sighed then shrugged.”

"Ive been asking myself that same question since I’ve come him but in truth there was something in me that always knew I'd come back one way or another but when Genevieve found me it felt like a sign. I took one look at her and it all came back to me. How could it not? She looks exactly like Sabrina. I had to come home." He said.

"Is that the only reason?"

Chris remembered how keen his mother was at telling when he was lying. 

"Maybe some of it was to give it back to Jacob, all of the terrible things he did to me. I wanted to make him hurt too but... suffer as I did, but the plan just didn't come together. I think that was for the best." He explained.

Rebecca turned and looked into the small window into Jacob's room. Her two sons. Finally back in the same world together. Again. She had wanted this for so many years but thought it would never happen in this world. She'd have to wait until they were all on the other side to have their ghostly family reunion but now, there he was, they she was and there they were. The three of them together again after more than 20 years. 

"Have you seen Sebastian?" She asked quietly, her soft green eyes painfully aware of her grandson’s dark history.

Chris nodded.  

"He's so different." Chris said.

"He is." She replied. "But he's still your son. Never forget that, he is still you son no matter what." 

"What happened to him?" He asked, hoping for the truth.

Rebecca wasn't sure how far into the truth she'd go, and perhaps it wasn't the time to. She shook her head and placed her hand on his shoulder telling him that would have to wait. She would tell her son, Christopher, everything —someday soon.

"I'm glad you're back." She said softly. "Our family is almost intact again." 

Chris smiled and hugged his mother. Soon, they'd both tell each other the truth: about Sebastian, about his time in London, about where their worlds would meet again, what he'd do in the future. She hoped too that this was a sign that maybe they could all three put the past behind them and finally connect. 

It would take time — and it would be a battle — it would take a miracle.

****

Sebastian and Evie in Gabriel’s room 

As night arrived, Evie was putting Gabriel to sleep in his crib. She looked down at his beautiful face and his creamy peachy skin thanked God for having the little boy back in her life. She had been though so much and felt worth it all to finally be with her little boy again. 

As she watched her son, she felt a cool breeze bush across the back of her neck. She turned to see that the little boy's window was open. She could see the crashing waves far off in the distance. As she reached over to pull in the window and close it she felt a hand touch hers. 

Startled, she turned back and it was Sebastian, her former husband and Gabriel's father. 

"What are you doing here?" She whispered.

Sebastian smiled and turned to Gabriel in the crib. "I came to see him." Sebastian whispered. 

Evie moved her arms around her body hugging herself. She wished Sebastian had told her he was coming. Matthew was in the other room. She had invited him for tea.

As the two parents went into the other room, Matthew stood up at the sight of Sebastian. 

"You should have told me." She whispered.

"Why?" He asked.

"Listen, Sebastian, I think it's' time you know that Matthew and I are not seeing each other, but we are still friends. I care for him and he's in the other room. I don't think the two of you should be around each other. Not yet." Evie said pulling Sebastian into another room where they could speak louder.

"I don't have anything against Matthew." Sebastian replied. "Does he have something against me?"

Evie rolled her eyes. "This is not about you and him, it's about me. I want to take some time to raise Gabriel and be on my own. We've all been through so much that I don't know where or who I am right now. Matthew understands, I hope you can too." 

"I don't understand. Why would you say this to me? I feel like you're telling me you don't want me to come around here." Sebastian replied. 

"No, not at all. But are you able to see us as just Gabriel's parents and not husband and wife?" 

Sebastian thought for a second. "I want us to be together. We deserve it. Jacqueline is gone and we deserve that, don't we?" He asked.

"I need to find myself Sebastian."

Sebastian stood there in the small quaint library she had created in her new home. He realized the downfall a life in the shadows finally meant. Everyone in the world would move on with their lives. Grow up. Grow Old. Find Friends. New Loves. New Enemies, but for Sebastian his world was frozen in time. He'd never age. He'd never die -- naturally. Sebastian was seeing his world erode right in front of his eyes. And it hurt his heart.

"Evie please, we should go away --  away together and never come back to this place. I could keep you safe! I would! We'll take Gabriel and everything will be fine, can't you see? It can work. We can be a family somewhere far, far away from here." 

"What? No! I already told you I can't do that. My family is here now. I can't just leave that's not what I want." She said.

"And Matthew is here." Sebastian said suddenly suspecting Evie might not be telling him the truth about her relationship. "At night."

Evie lifted a brow "We're friends Sebastian. We just went through a horrible ordeal locked away fearing for our lives. That's all. Now you should go. Go back into Gabriel's room and say good night. You can come back tomorrow." 

"No." Sebastian said right off.

"Sebastian, please -- " She said before he interrupted. 

"If this is about me -- and what I am. I can tell you that I've been good! I can now control myself and I don't want to take the lives of people. I swear to you Evie, if we leave Welshport - together - we'll all be so happy. Together!" 

"Sebastian, stop, please." She said.

Sebastian's heart broke. He felt as if she only saw what she had been through. She hadn't thought about what he had been through. He had saved Filipe, he had helped save Johnathon from Jacqueline and even though there was so many things that had happened that were awful, he knew that he could still provide for her and save her and their beautiful boy. 

"I'll come back tomorrow night." He said. 

She smiled politely and once again, her body language showed something else, she was completely over Sebastian, the way they were. She loved Sebastian, but only as the father of her son, not as a romantic partner. 

She wanted to be independent. She wanted to find herself again; the woman she was supposed have become before she became the wife of infamous Sebastian Lord.

As Sebastian moved into Gabriel's room and said goodnight, Matthew stood in a hidden area in the shadows. He had heard the entire conversation. 

The worry was slashed all over his face. 

Evie went back into the living room only to find just the two cooling tea-cups. 

Matthew had gone, without saying a thing. He'd followed Sebastian to finally confront him and end their strange back and forth tug-of-war with Evie as their rope. 

B7/Ch16: KYRIE ELEISON

“Verity” and Mary 

On a blistering warm morning the day after Jacqueline, inside Mary's supernaturally created twin sister Verity, stood in her cell staring out the barred and caged basement window that looked onto a small courtyard that was gated off from the public behind Village Hall. She could see birds fluttering in out and of the Beech trees that cast shadows on Village Hall and wondered just how she'd get out of the mess the Witch Council had put her in. 

She turned slightly to the left and saw herself in the reflection of tin slab mirror and it was Mary's face looking back at her. A shiver went up her spin. She was very comfortable with shapeshifting but because this was a shape-shift forced on her by the council, she was unable to change back without their help. 

Her punishment, Jacqueline recalled, was to remain as Verity until she was put to death by fire and once flame touched skin, she would change back and the empty body of Verity would be the only thing to die off. 

This was a clever rouse by the council to absolve Mary, force Jacqueline to suffer the punishment and save her former coven sister as punishment for being the reason foe Mary’s exposure in the first place. 

Jacqueline however, had her doubts it would work. 

"OY!" A voice came from beyond the cell bars. Verity looked and it was a guard swinging his nightstick as he walked over to her. "You've got a visitor." he said in his Irish accent.   

"Who?" She asked.

"Your sister." 

Verity froze in place. She didn't expect Mary to come see her after everything that had happened but there she was, a free woman looking fresh and rested after a long night at Fatima's house.

The two woman, twins to the naked eye, stared at each other almost as if they were looking at a refection, much like the one in the tin mirror on the wall behind Verity. Mary felt uncomfortable with the guard standing there watching. She wanted to speak freely but there was no way she could with him watching.

She lifted her hand in a way that he could not see and brought it close to her chest and made a fist. The fist then hit her chest twice and then a pause then one more time and with this, time suspending in the cell and the guard would never know. 

Mary tuned back to see him frozen there and smiled seeing she could still cast a quick spell if she needed to.

"Very good sister." Verity smirked. "Careful with those little white spells. The more you cast them the quicker they turn black."

Mary didnt reply to Verity's obvious attempt to start a fight. 

"I only wanted to come here and see you so that I can thank you face to face." Mary said.

"And isn't a beautiful face!" Verity taunted.

"I swear I didn't know this is what they had planned." Mary replied.

Verity’s body language shifted in the cell as if to finally resign herself to her own punishment, one she had to complete per her oath to always obey the council.

"Oh, I know.” Verity replied softly. “I’ve only known for a short time myself. I don't blame you, Mary, not for this." Verity added, sneaking in a quick dig.

 Mary rolled her eyes. "What happens next?"

Verity’s jaw clenched at the thought of what did happen next. She slowly turned back to the basement window in her cell, the same basement window just the night before Mary had stared out. Verity put her hands up on the wall and on her tip-toes tried to look out and see if they were making the pyre any where near her eyeline. 

"Jacqueline?" Mary whispered, hoping to bring her back into a conversation.

"It's Verity." The double replied. "For now." 

"I asked you what will happen?"

"I'll burn. And after that I don't know." She replied.

Mary felt as if her body was holding her breath -- it was as she feared. Fire. She suddenly recalled a horrible nightmare imposed on her by the creature inside Caspian that made her feel the flames of a pyre, a pyre she was tied to. She could still smell the black smoke and taste the sulfur of the thought about it hard enough. It was a cold reminder of their station in the world as sorceresses, one minute basking in the light of magic the other burning in flames. 

"They're really going to let you die? For me?" Mary wondered. 

Verity tuned back and laughed at Mary's innocent question, a question that came from a place of good and true naiveté in the ways of the coven. 

"You still don't understand the ways of world, do you? They didn't force me to become Verity to save you because they like you Mary, and they didn't necessarily force me to do this because they hate me. This isn't about you and I, this is about creatures like us. The people who live in the shadows. I admit I was foolish for trying to go it alone and take Sebastian for myself in very childish ways. It got me in trouble, it caused me to lose my baby. But it has nothing to do with favoring one witch over another. They did for all of us. Every coven. Every secret society. Every creature that lives in a place no one in the mortal realm would want to be come." Verity explained.

"For the greater good." Mary said to herself.

"There you go." Verity said her hands falling down to her side.

"Seriously. Thank you. Regardless of how you came to be you--- or her-- it's saved me and I can go back to my children and Filipe. We can start our lives over again." Mary said.

Verity slowly walked back towards the bars. She stared Mary in the face and smiled but it was a smile that Mary could not read. Was Verity happy for Mary's release? Was she holding back resentment and it manifested in some strange, crooked smile? The urge to back away from the bars washed over Mary and she took one step back. 

"Get out of here Mary. Get out before your little time freezing spell wares off and you're caught a witch just as lethal as I am and they decided to burn both of us alive. Go! Get out!" Verity shouted.

Mary could see Jacqueline or Verity... or both... were in no mood to have a quiet moment to burry the hatchet. In face, the hatchet was raised and it very might be buried in someone's back if things didn't cool down in the jail cell. 

"Goodbye." Mary said softly and she walked back towards the guard snapping her fingers to bring him back to time. 

"This isn't goodbye sister mine!!!" Verity shouted from the cage. 

The guard looked around confused as to why Mary was leaving after what he perceived as only seconds. 

"THIS ISN'T GOODBYE!!!!!" Verity continued to shout, her face now smashed against the bars as Mary vanished back up into the main halls of Village Hall.

"Alright you! QUIET! Get back to your staring out the window. You've got one big night ahead of ya." 

Verity smiled her mind splitting between something created by the witch council and Jacqueline's own psyche. The chaos in her brain was pushing both personalities into a war with each other but she did was she was told and went back to the corner of the cell and sat in itchy covered cot in the corner. 

That night -- she'd burn.

****

Nik & Danielle become intimate 

Over at Welshport Hope Hospital, Dr. Nik Jordan read over paperwork as he stood in the hall making sure he dotted every I and crossed every T before leaving the chart for Dr. Ward to look over when he took over on the next shift. As he did so, Nurse Danielle Holten spotted him. A few days before they had kissed for the first time near Asha's hospital room where she had opened her eyes to witness it. 

But soon she fell asleep again, the medication she was on stronger than her will to stay awake.

Danielle approached Nik shyly. 

"Nurse Holten, how are you?" he asked with a sweet grin.

"Fine thank you." She replied as other nurses and doctors walked by.

"It's very good news about Evie, I heard another nurse talking about it. I'm sure your family is ecstatic." She said.

"We are!" He replied glowing. "No one more so than Gabriel. Having his mother home, finally, is going to do a lot of good for him." He added motioning for her to follow him down the hall.

"And has she settled back in?" She asked as they walked together. 

Nik nodded yes, with a sly look to his face as he took her by the hand and  stepped a few feet over to a stockroom where he turned the copper door knob. 

Their attraction to wild to deny now. The kiss they shared lingered on their memories, too filled with passion to forget. 

The two entered the stockroom together, he carefully shut the door behind them and locked it. When he turned around she had removed the pin in her hair that was tied up. Her dark locks had fallen over her shoulders like dark chocolate waterfalls cascading down in settling perfectly near naked neck. 

Danielle sat herself facing him on the edge of a large wooden table gripping it with both hands.

He rushed to her, moved her hair slowly from her neck and begin to kiss her where her jaw met her ear. She made a slight noise showing how good it felt to have his lips on her skin. She grabbed him by the back of his neck and slowly guided his face to hers. 

They stared at each other, hungry. 

They kissed, slowly as she removed his white lab coat and unbuttoned his shirt. As he stood between her legs he slowly lifted her skirt higher and higher up her thy. She reached down and unbuttoned his trousers, as he slowly opened her perfect white button up nurses shirt.

In that room, the two new lovers made love for the first time, both relieving a thousand pounds of pressure each  had been weighed down by since before they even met.

Her ordeal with Rebecca and Caspian unresolved, his with his sister and Asha still burning holes in his mind. But in that moment, in the small stockroom on the 4th floor, their two bodies became one under in a passionate moment of pure bodily pleasure where nothing in the world seemed to matter. 

**

Asha awakens 

Down the hall, and up a flight of stairs near the back of the hospital, Asha slept, her medication slowly fading off as the hospital's plan to wean her from the medication took shape. 

Another nurse folded Asha's fresh laundry and was placing it in a wardrobe and suddenly Asha stirred.

"Dr. Hoffman?" The nurse said as she turned to Asha who was waking up.

Asha rubbed her head, the feeling of grogginess form months and months in a coma still lingering.

"Well, well!" The happy nurse said fixing Asha's long black hair. "Welcome back! Dr. Jordan will be happy to see you, won't he!" 

"Where's... Nik." Asha said in a hushed scratchy unused voice. "I need to speak to Nik." she added, hoping to see the man she loved who was in another room making love to another woman.

****

Matthew & Evie discuss their future

That afternoon, a warm breeze filtered through the lace curtains at in Evie's home at Bellmore Beach. There was a perfume of sea salt and tea in the air that mixed with the soft sounds of the waves crashing just beyond the front on the pure white sand. 

Sitting on the wrap-around veranda, Matthew took in the fresh air happy his life had finally turned around since being locked away in the jail cell for several weeks. But his heart still ached at losing Evie again. This would be his last day at Bellmore Beach, he'd soon go back to his own home and start his life over again, this time without Evie.

As he watched the ocean Evie came out to the veranda dressed in a soft yellow dress. Her hair was pinned up showing off her elegant long neck. She saw Matthew lost in his thoughts and watched him for a beat unsure if she should interrupt him, but he could sense her there. He turned and smiled.

"You didn't say much after breakfast." Evie said, lowering the tray of iced tea down on the small circular table between two white painted wooden deck chairs.

"Oh?" He replied, not recalling being quiet. "I guess I just have a lot on mind."

"You don't have to leave right away Matthew; we've been through so much. I think you should stay here for a while to rest, don't go rushing off back to the village and live alone." Evie said, her heart aching for the man she still loved but had decided not to be in a relationship with anymore. 

"I really think that I should go back to my apartment." Matt replied. "Besides, I don't think Sebastian would really appreciate me hanging around." 

"Matt, don't do that." Evie said sadly. "I didn't chose him over you. I haven't chosen anyone except for my son. But I do want Sebastian to come around when he can to be there for Gabriel. He is his father."

"Evie can I ask you something?" Matthew asked quickly changing the tone of the conversation.

"Of course."

"Why doesn't he just leave like the two of you talked about before you decided to hide him at the caves? Why does he have to stay now?" 

Evie took a breath "Matt, things are different now. Jacqueline was a big reason we decided he'd hide away, but Gabriel was the reason why we kept him close. Jacqueline doesn't seem to be a problem now for anyone, most of all Sebastian. And now that she's gone, Gabriel can have his dad around more. It'll be better for him. That's all I want, for my son to have his father and mother in his life. He's never had us both around at the same time." 

"But do you really think it'll be safe to have someone like Sebastian around a little boy?" Matthew wondered knowing how Sebastian's behaviors were unpredictable at times since he became a vampire. 

Evie's body language quickly changed, she became stiff and somewhat offended that Matthew would even assume that Sebastian would do anything to put their son in danger. She lifted a brow and turned out to watch the sea. She took a breathe, she took a second to reply. 

Matthew noticed his words might have offended her. He got up from his deck chair and stood behind her. The little fly-aways from the back of her head danced in the breeze. 

"I'm sorry. I, I don't like the way that came out." He said.

"I need you to know something." Evie replied without looking at him. "Sebastian is my son's father and I don't know where things will go with him just as I don't know where things will go with you." She said now turning to him. "What I do know is that I want Gabriel to have Sebastian close and in his life. That's all there is to it. I'm not going back into anything --- with anyone. I would never let Sebastian do anything to put Gabriel in danger. I know how Sebastian can be, and he's promised me he's changed. I have to give him a chance. For Gabriel." 

"You're absolutely right. Your son is the most important person in your life and I overstepped. But now I need you to know something." He answered.

Evie braced herself. 

He took a breath "I will always love you Evie. I truly believe we are meant to be together, maybe not now, I can understand that. I'll wait for you. When you are ready, when you finally see me how I see you, I'll be here for you." 

Evie didn't know what to say, and she didn't have much time to even think before he leaned in and kissed her. The wind blew all around them hugging them. She let his arms close in all around her. The kiss warmed her but after a few seconds of passion she pulled back. 

"Evie, I..." Before he could finish Aurora came out onto the veranda. 

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?" Aurora asked sensing the tension. 

"No. No, not at all." Evie said. "Where's the baby?" 

"Napping." Aurora replied. "Have the two of you settled in? She asked, her light blue dress with a matching vest flowing all around her like the waves out on the sea. 

"So far so good. Getting better by the hour." Matthew replied. 

"After all that time in that jail cell, I can imagine how good it must feel to be back in the real world." Aurora said, sipping on the iced tea.

"Even though we're out, it's like things will never be the same." Matthew added, his sentence stinging Evie.

"Have either of you spoken to Mary?" Aurora asked.

"No. Not yet. I'm sure she's just reconnecting with everyone in her orbit like we have. Imagine, a secret twin sister!" Evie replied neglecting to tell everyone Mary told her Verity Spencer was really Jacqueline Gray. 

"I'm sure her little boy must be ecstatic to see her! Caleb is... what? A year younger than Gabriel?" Aurora asked, not knowing Mary's adopted son was actually her own child that Asha kidnapped and gave away. 

"About, yes." Evie said. 

"Poor thing." Aurora replied thinking of the little boy so alone without his mother. 

"I should be off." Matthew said.

"Off?" Aurora asked.

"Matthew has decided to go back to his apartment in the village." Evie answered.

Aurora stood up and looked at Matthew who was clearly upset about something. She glanced at her daughter Evie and saw her eyes welling up with tears. She understood then, that the two of them were no longer together the way they were when they both were locked in the jail cells. Something had happened. Something that ended their relationship. And it broke Aurora's heart, not only for Evie but for Matthew too, a man she had grown to care for deeply. 

"Well then, Matthew, you can't leave back home without taking something with you to have for dinner later. I'll put something together for you so you can have tonight. I would have for you to be home alone and not have enough to eat for the night." Aurora said.

Matthew and Evie smiled; Aurora's care warmed their hearts. 

Then Evie went back to the small table between the white deck chairs and picked up the day's newspaper that was carefully folded near the pitcher of tea and saw the headline splashed across the front.

"FIRST PERSON IN OVER 200 YEARS TO BE EXUCUTED AS A WITCH"

"Oh my god." Evie said. "It's really going to happen."

Matthew furrowed his brow and took the paper from Evie.

"Jesus Christ."

Verity was set to die at sundown. 

****

Verity and the pyre 

That evening, as the sun set in the center of the village a large crowd was beginning to assemble. They were all there that night to watch something that had not happened in over 200 years: the burning of a witch. 

The idea was shocking and everyone in town had known this would happen at the end of the trial but now that the moment had finally arrived, there were a nervous energy all around.

Forty people, then sixty, then eighty than more and more until the entire square just in front of St. Catherine's Church had swelled to more than 500. Practically the entire town. 

In the center of the crowd, a large pyre had been built with a thick wooden pole sticking out of the center of a all the wood that would soon be lit and where Verity would soon burn to death.

"This is the most insane thing I have ever witnessed." Baxter said to his photographer. 

"Do you think they'll really...you know, burn her up?" The photographer asked.

Baxter turned to his photographer and extended his arms, "Um, what does it look like to you? What's going to stop them? Churchill is determined to make this his big moment. He's the man that caught the Welshport Witch, put her on trial and got her executed. Maybe he'll run for governor on that!" The reporter joked.

"Do you ... you know, ever think that maybe this has gone too far? I mean so much happened because of what we put in the paper. It all started from, you know, us." The photog said.

"HEY!" Baxter shot back with a twinge of his own guilt seeping in "we're only telling the stories in our community. I didn't create what's happening here. But it’s happening. So I'm reporting it. All of it. Warts and all." 

After Baxter shut down his photographer's guilty conscious, and perhaps his own, Father Donavon Ryan made his way out of St. Catherine's Church dressed in his white robe and bible. He was quiet, serene and deathly unhappy. He was horrified by what the town had turned into and to have a human burned alive only 200 to 300 feet from the front door to the house of God felt like an abomination. 

"Father Ryan! Any sage holy words of advice for the crowds?" Baxter asked as the energy and crowd suddenly fell silent awaiting something good from the parish priest. 

"Kyrie Eleison." Father Donavon said, Latin for Lord Have Mercy.

"Gotcha!" Baxter replied with a wink.

As Father Ryan blessed the crowd and the wooden pyre in front of him, Mary, Filipe and Fatima arrived. The crowds parted as they entered the main area where Churchill was already standing with Nathan Cramer. 

"This is not a place for us." Fatima whispered.

"We have to be here for Ja---Verity." Mary said. "She saved us." 

"I don't know how I am going to be able to stand here and watch this, it's your face. It's... you! that's you that’s going to be tied up." Filipe added.

"We have to remember what the Council told me, the body we are witnessing burn isn't made like you and I, we have to hold true and pray that Verity really doesn't feel a thing. This is theatre." Mary recalled.

"A theatre of the grotesque. I don't feel safe, I don't feel right about any of this." Fatima said, as she crossed herself. 

Filipe held grabbed his mother's hand. "I think we should leave."

"Wait, here she comes." Mary said.

Off in the distance, a group of guards encircled Verity as they walked from down the street at Village Hall. They came closer and closer, Verity's hands were tied behind her back and with Mary's face in a new body she was stoic and strong in the face of her destiny to save the truth of what was really happening in the village. Verity would be the martyr that would never be sainted, at least not in the eyes of Father Ryan who only saw all of this as heresy and a disgusting display of inhuman cruelty even to an admitted witch. 

Once the guards and Verity arrived at the pyre, Father Ryan approached her. She smiled kindly and he blessed her by smearing on her forehead with anointed oils a cross. 

"Merci." She replied in French for some reason. 

"This is insane." Filipe said.

"Shhh." Mary replied.

Off in the shadows in an alley between to building Sebastian hid. He was sick to his stomach at what he was witnessing. The murder of someone just like him, someone of the shadows. Someone from the realm of the supernatural. Even though he knew it wasn't really his cousin Mary there being tied to the pole, it looked like her. He did not know it was Jacqueline inside Verity. 

Sebastian held on to the wall of one of the buildings bracing himself for something horrible. It was a sick darkness that fell over the town that he loved so much and even though he too had done terrible things he could not understand how everyone else would just agree that this was something natural and just. He felt, now, that he was not safe. He could not come back to town with some miraculous lie about how he was alive somehow to be with his son Garbiel.

If Welshport was willing to tie a woman to a pyre and burn her alive, what would they do to him? A vampire? What would they do to his son, the son of a vampire?

Sebatsian knew then, even before the first flame flickered below Verity's feet that he could no longer stay in Welshport. He decided then, that his family had to flee, and soon. He could not risk being discovered by the foaming at the mouth town's people and having something horrible happen to him, Evie and Gabriel.

The world as he knew was gone -- it had changed. And he and his family were in the most danger they had ever been in. 

As Sebastian, Filipe, Fatima and Mary braced for a horror show, Mayor Timothy Churchill stood on the small stage below Verity who was now being tied up on the pole by two of the guards. 

"We are here tonight to end the curse this witch has placed on this small island, on this small village on our people. For those of you who wonder why we have reached this point, it may seem foriegn and it may seem archaic but it is the way of the law that is written in our city charter. The end is here for Verity Spencer, the Welshport witch!" 

The crowd, minus Sebatsian, Filipe, Fatima and Mary, roared with approval.

"LIGHT THIS PYRE!!!" 

On Churchill's order, the fire was lit, and it went fast. 

Smoke billowed up into the air. Thick and black. 

Verity, her hands tied by thick rope behind her around a poke, coughed and choked on the thick clouds consuming every inch of space around her. She could not see. She could not speak. All she could do was breath in the smoke and hear the cracking burning fire below her feet. As it grew, she watched the red flames eat away at the wood quickly. The dry wood was no match for the hungry fire that would soon begin to since Verity's dress and melt her shoes.

She began to scream. The heat was intense. Mary covered her mouth as glimpses of Verity, with her own face. were visible as flames began to flicker golden light in her twin's eyes. 

Fatima closed her eyes and began to pray her rosary in Portuguese.

Sebastian backed away further into the alleyway and its dark shadows. 

Mary gasped hearing a voice that sounded like her own coming from Verity who begged for a quick death. 

"Jesus, Christ." Filipe said as he gripped both Mary and Fatima's hands. 

Father Ryan bowed his head and began to pray in Latin "Pater sancte, defende nos a nobis. ab hoc horrore nos defendat."

The fire consumed the entire wooden pyre in front of the town and in moments, Verity could no longer be seen. The smoke was intense. The fire was like a portion of hell had lifted up from the ground and appeared in the middle of Welshport. It was hot, like the sun, intense, overwhelming and soon, it was over.

Verity's body lay on top of singed pieces of wood seated in soot and blackness. 

There were screams and cries. The village soon seeing the ugly truth of what they'd done. 

A woman was dead.

Burned alive. 

The crowed was soon dispurpsed as a crew began to clean.

As The Mayor, Nathan and a few other town officials began to walk back to Village Hall to officially record the ugly scene, they passed Sebastian hiding in in the alley. 

Sebastian closed his eyes and transported himself into Churchill's mind.

Churchill felt a coldness go up his spine once Sebastian was in his head, he stopped in his tracks. 

"What is it sir?" Nathan asked, his eyes still watery from the emotional scene of Verity's death.

"Did you feel that?" Churchill asked.

"Feel what sir?" Another aide asked.

"That cold wind." 

The group looked at each other. Their skin was still warm from the giant fire they had just seen. No one felt anything cool or cold. "No sir." Nathan said.

"You'll soon feel the fire too, but it won't be one set by the town, it'll be in the depths of hell for all you've done." Sebastian's voice echoed in Churchill's mind.

"Who said that... WHO SAID THAT!!???" Churchill shouted. 

Churchill's mind was telling him the truth but his eyes were lying to him. There was someone talking to him, warning him of what was to come, but he was unseen. 

"Hell is waiting for you." Sebastian's voice once again said in Churchill's mind.

Churchill eyes were as wide as saucers. His heart was beating a mile a minute. "I ... I have to go. I have to go home. I can't be here. I have to!!!!" 

Churchill's job was done, Verity was done.

But Sebastian's was just about to begin. 

B7/Ch15: THE BIRTH OF VERITY

Jacqueline with the Witch Council 

Somewhere in a place unknown to mortal eyes, Jacqueline Gray stood at a pedestal above a dark background with a smoke from an unknown source flowing all around her. The smell a something burning caught her nose, it wasn't unfamiliar, she'd been there before. She's known this place in so many stories from her witch ancestors, but only recently has been called to appear here.

She was at the witch's council once again facing the three paneled veiled elders as they stood in judgement of Jacqueline for what she had done to Mary and Evie and Matthew. 

She had committed a crime against her coven sister and used her powers to further her own cruel agenda -- for this The Council had a remedy to fix.

As Jacqueline stood stoically in their eye view a catafalque once again appeared with a coffin on top of it. Jacqueline's jaw clenched knowing what appeared to be Mary's body was in that coffin. 

"Steph forward Jacqueline Grey, Sister of Highgrove." The center council member ordered as they stood.

The other members to the left and right then stood too.

"Unlatch the lid." they ordered. 

Jacquline stared down at the coffin her heart beating faster and faster in her chest. When she finally lifted the lid, there again was the body of Mary Goode.

"As you have quickly shown to us on various occasions, you are the consummate shapeshifting artist. You have shown yourself to be a witch whose talents of this sort have come to you quite naturally." The center witch said.

"Now we task you with doing it once again." The veiled witch to the right said.

"Now we task you by doing this you’ll restore the sanctity of your coven and save to life of your sister Mary.”  The veiled witch to the left said.

"I, I…don't understand." Jacqueline said softly. 

"You will become a new person with a familiar face. The name of this woman in the coffin before you is not from a person who is alive or has lived, but you will say she lives. The name we've given her is Verity Spencer. Her proposed life has been crafted, a mystery to her family -- she is of our creation yet the world will know her as Mary Goode's twin sister." The Center witch explained.

"Verity?" Jacqueline questioned. “A fake twin?”

"Jacqueline Gray you will shape-shift into this body, into Verity, and arrive in Welshport to free Mary Goode of her crime by taking the blame. You will be punished for the crime Mary has committed --- as Verity, they will believe you. A mistaken identity will explain the confusion." The witch to the left said.

"But... that is death, they’ll kill me!" Jacqueline exclaimed.

"So you do fear death!” The right witch noted. 

“Yet did not fear it for Mary.” The left witch agreed. 

“You will be protected of the fait of death you so crudely set course for Mary. Only the flesh, blood and body of Verity Spencer will suffer in the act of death. You shall survive and find yourself safe in your own body. Once again separated once the execution is done. Mary will be set free when Verity takes the blame resetting her life and freeing." The Council member in the center explained.

“She was foolish for using her powers in front of mortals and yet I should save her?” Jacqueline replied. 

The three council members turned towards each other knowing Jacqueline was partly right, but nevertheless they had to protect Mary.

“You’ve made matter much, much worse.” The center witch reminded.

Jacqueline knew they were right too. She took a breath and exhaled deeply knowing she could not escape the council’s decision. 

"Then, I won't die. I won't suffer in death once they believe Verity is to blame?" Jacqueline asked.

The three witches, veiled and shadowed by the place they lived nodded their heads. They'd protect Jacqueline from actual death if she’d protect Mary from death. The sister of Highgrove coven must shield each other. 

After a moment of silence and deep thought Jacqueline agreed. 

"I accept this as my fate and will do as I am told." Jacqueline replied softly. 

The three witches looked at one another again and were happy with her acceptance. They then clapped their hands in unison just once and Jacquline and Verity vanished into thin air merging their bodies into one.

The three sat down and resting now that their plans had gone to pass.

"Shall she do it?" The left witch said.

"She shall." The right witch said.

"Shall we trust her in the future?" The left witch asked.

"We shall." The right witch replied.

"If she survives." The center witch warned, knowing that their plan was not fool proof -- Jacqueline had to make sure she did as she was told, any break in the plan and she could die -- a caveat they purposefully neglected to tell Jacqueline, allowing her enough rope to hang herself should she break her promise.

"Yes…If she survives." the other witches repeated together. 

****

Confrontations Welshport Hope

At the hospital the Lord family gathered as Jacob was attended to after suffering a heart attack outside the courthouse after seeing the face of his long-lost brother David, the same David he framed for murder and thought had died after jumping off of the Welshport Lighthouse over a decade ago. 

Rebecca paced back and forth as Celeste sat stoically in a chair holding her son Fabian close to her. The five year old's eyes were sad and filled with worry over his father's wellbeing. Celeste squeezed him close. 

"He's going to be alright." She said. 

"I want to see poppa." Fabian whispered.

"Shhh." Celeste replied cuddling him close. 

"How could this have happened? How could he be alive?" Rebecca replied.

No one replied. 

"You should sit down too." Charlotte said, holding her grandmother's hand. 

"Charlotte, your uncle, how... how could he be here?" Rebecca said again.

Charotte knew her uncle was alive, but she promised she'd use the name he'd chose.

"His name is Christopher." Charlotte said in a whisper.

Rebecca's body stiffened "What do you mean? Celeste said she saw David on the street with Genevieve too and that’s what caused the heart attack. Who is Christopher?"

"It was David..." Celeste replied from the chair. "Wasn't it?" 

After a few beats, Dr. Ward entered and began rattling off things he was checking to monitor Jacob's condition. There was medical terms that no one really understood but the Lord women all kept their heads up and nodded along as if they did. As the family spoke with Dr. Ward they neglected to notice Genevieve and Morgan enter the room. 

"We shouldn't be here." Morgan said. "They may want to be alone and, I think maybe, you've caused enough trouble already."

Genevieve lifted a brow, "I didn't cause anything. I just want to see how Jacob is doing. That’s all.” 

"Maybe you should find --" Morgan began before Rebecca finally saw Genevieve in her peripheral view.

"YOU!" Rebecca shouted as she stormed over. "What the Devil is going on?" 

Rebecca stood there, her arms tightly wound around her body with just a peak of pink skin showing on her wrist that separated the dark glittery sleeve of her dress and her lace glove. She looked at the face that was so clearly reminiscent of her long dead daughter-in-law Sabrina who had just been seen on the streets with a man that looked like her long, assumed dead, son David. 

The scene was like the two had come back to life and were making their presence known to town.

"This is a horrible misunderstanding." Genevieve said.

"How so?" Rebecca said. “Jacob had a heart attack as you and my other son David approached the courthouse. Other's are saying it too. Baxter Murphy has a column already in the afternoon paper of The Globe. I can imagine the headline now, how my murdered daughter in law appeared with my murder son…”

"You know I’m not Sabrina and, Rebecca he's not David.” Genevieve interrupted. “His name is Christopher Wesley and I met him in London." Genvieve replied.

"That doesn't make any sense! How can that man have the save face as David and NOT be my son!" Rebecca shouted as people at the hospital all around her started to stare. 

"The same way that I can be look like Sabrina and NOT be her." Genevieve replied.

"I don't believe it. Your face is an anomaly and I’ve accepted your close resemblance to poor Sabrina for almost two years now, but that man is my son. I would recognize him anywhere. I gave birth to him Mrs. Thorne, He's MY SON!" Rebecca shouted, her eyes welling up with tears.

"He's not." Genevieve replied softly. "I wish it were David, I really do. For you for all of us but he's not. His name is Christopher, and he's lived in London for a very long time now."

Rebecca scoffed and turned to Dr. Ward who asked Rebecca to calm down and noticed she looked pale and tired. Rebecca, who had always trusted Dr. Ward listened to him and walked back over to where Celeste as and sat down next to her. Fabian unlatched himself from his mother's arms and went over to his big sister who took him into her arms.

"What is it?" Charlotte asked. 

"Everybody's yelling." The boy said.

"I know. They're very upset about poppa." She replied.

"Is poppa going go to go away?" He asked.

Charlotte looked over at her stepmother Celeste who dabbed her eyes as a tear slowly creeped out and rolled half way down her cinnamon toned skin. 

"No, not our poppa. He's going to be just fine. He just needs to rest." Charlotte said as Fabian finally cracked a smile.

"It will take time." Dr. Ward added. "We just have to keep watch over him and make sure that the stress to his heart and body are limited. So, we can't let anyone in to see him just yet." 

"When can we see him?" Celeste asked.

"We'll let you know Mrs. Lord." Dr. Ward replied with a sad look on his face.

Rebecca then got up and walked over to Genevieve again. 

"I want to see this Christopher Wesley in person. I will know for sure who he really is." She said.

"I don't see why you have to keep pushing this, Rebecca? I've already told you who he is." Genevieve replied.

"That is not acceptable. You'll bring him to Tirymor. Yes, that's what you'll do." Rebecca ordered.

"Mrs. Casador, you can't order me around this way and even if I did try and ask him to come to Tirymor I don't know if he'd want to. He has no interest in this family. Not now. Not ever." Genevieve replied.

"And what does that mean?" Rebecca asked.

Genevieve didn't know what to say without hurting anyone’s feelings any further. She wanted to say Christopher had let his old self die. David was gone, free of every dark hex the Lord family name held over him since the day he was born until the day he supposedly jumped off the Lighthouse and into the cold icy Atlantic below. For Christopher, David was dead -- dead and gone, but to Rebecca knowing her middle child could be alive and, somewhere in the village, she'd stop at nothing to find him.

"Rebecca — listen to me, Christopher is his own man now, no longer a pawn in this family’s game of murderous chess. So take my advice, let him go. I’m sure you can find more interesting lives to destroy." Genevieve replied.

Rebecca lifted a hand and tore it across Genevieve's face. 

Everyone in the room gasped.

"REBECCA!" Celeste shouted as she rushed over. "What are you doing?" 

Rebecca didn't know! Her whole world seemed to be crumbling all around her. Her husband was angry with her for keeping the secret about his own identity, her eldest son was in the hospital close to death, her former daughter-in-law was on trial for her life, and now her middle son may have faked his death. She had felt her anger boil over and Genevieve was the only person she felt she could release her anger on in the form of a slap. 

"Are you alright?" Morgan asked his mother.

"Genevieve I'm so sorry." Rebecca replied.

Geneveive held her stinging right cheek. Her right eye was watering from the pain. She took a breath and looked down at the small pouch in Rebecca's long dark dress where she knew Rebecca always kept a rosary. 

"You should get to your prayers Rebecca. You have a lot to pray about." Genevieve replied.

The tension in the hospital room quickly deflated as the Lord woman all went and sat back in the corner of the waiting room and Genevieve left back to the Village Inn where she'd fill in Christopher on what happened. 

"You shouldn't have done that." Celeste said to her mother-in-law.

Rebecca, who wasn't on good terms with Celeste either for her part in telling Caspian about what she overheard with Danielle, did not reply at first. She slowly turned her head to face Celeste and lifted a brow.

"She, she just knew what to say to hurt me.” Rebecca said, her eyes glazing over with the stress of everything happening all at once, 

“That was exactly why she said it, dear.” Celeste replied. “You’ll have to get a grip.” 

“I think I'm slowly losing myself to all of this." She said after a beat. 

"What do you mean?" Celeste asked as Charlotte and Morgan approached to listen. 

Rebecca reached for Charlotte's hand, her go-to confidant in times like these, and squeezed. 

Charlotte felt horrible for Rebecca but she agreed with Celeste, her grandmother was one more slap closer to being dragged back to Churchill Green Asylum. 

"I -- I have go to." Rebecca said.

"What? Where?" Celeste asked.

"Grandmother, don't go!" Charlotte said.

"I have to get some air. Please just give me a few minutes." Rebecca said as she let go of Charlotte's hand.

Rebecca then quickly left the waiting room and swooshed down through a corridor that led into the busy lobby. The lights of the lobby shined down and hit the tiny beads and stones on the sleeves of Rebecca's dress making them sparkle like black diamonds. 

Then, Rebecca pushed passed a nurse and a doctor at the front door and exited the hospital allowing the cool Ocean air to fill her lungs. 

She took a deep breath and then, like a wild animal trapped in a painful vice, she screamed into the air as people all around her quickly came to her aide as she fell to her knees and sobbed. 

Rebecca felt she was about to lose everything and gain another dead son. 

****

Lucas & Cora sneak into Lear’s darkened office 

Later that evening, as shops closed in the village and villagers scattered off to their homes in hopes to rest from the busy day, Lucas and Cora carefully slipped into Village Hall undetected headed for Lear's office with them the key to Lear Lockwood's office.

Village Hall had several corridors that ran through the odd H shaped building. At this time of the evening only a select group of officers patrolled and inhabited the building protecting the three incarcerated in the old jail cells in the basement as the police station was still being repaired after the fire. 

As Lucas and Cora carefully darted around darkened corners and slipped through to the back of the building where several lawyers had offices, including Lear, they finally arrived to the office door where Lear's name appeared on frosted glass.

Lucas slipped the key in and turned the nob granting them access to the office and most importantly all of Lear's files, including the original files of Cora's fake adoption and more information about how she was sold on the black-market as an infant. 

Lucas looked around the small office. The overwhelming stacks of files and paperwork gave him the sensation of claustrophobia. There were pillars of cabinets in front of him towards the window where Lucas was searching. 

"I don't know about this now." he whispered.

Cora turned back "What do you mean? I thought you said it would be ok?" 

"I -- I feel like maybe this was a mistake, maybe you were right, maybe Lear would be angry with us for doing this." He said of Lear, the man he had fallen in love with and suddenly felt as if he were betraying.

Cora nodded. "We should go then." She said feeling a bit deflated. 

As they began to turn back she looked over at Lear's desk and saw a familiar briefcase, a briefcase that she had seen once when Lear came to see Baxter. It was leather bound with a strap that Lear would wear around his shoulders. Something told her to look there. Something in that briefcase was calling to her she could not turn away.

"Cora?" Lucas said, noting her body slowly walking over the desk. "What is it?"

"Its in there." She said in a low voice. "I know it." 

Lucas took a breath and walked over to the desk. He picked up the briefcase, the medal latch had Lear's initials engraved on it in a double L where the two letters interlocked. 

Lucas looked at Cora and slowly unlatched the briefcase and removed the files. He put the papers on the desk. Cora came over and together the quickly read through them.

In only a few minutes, they found what they were looking for. The fraudulent adoption papers, the signatures of Henry Lockwood and the Baxter's. And one more that they did not recognize. 

"Who is this?" Lucas asked.

"It says it's of the broker." Cora replied recoiling to the idea adoption had a broker, as if she were a piece of real property. 

"I don't understand the writing." Lucas said.

Cora tried reading it over and over again, but the signature was unclear. "I can't read it." 

"Is this an address? It can't be." Lucas said.

"Yes, 1395 Morell Street. I know where that is. Do you think they were stupid enough to put their real address on here?" She wondered.

"Only one way to find out. We should go there." 

Cora gulped, "Do we really want to go to a place where someone was selling babies?" 

"It you want more answers, we should, but if you think this is enough just knowing that your father did sign this and sell you with the help of this person then we could stop. I'll leave it with you." Lucas said.

Cora again was caught in her mind. She wanted to know everything there was to know about why and how she was sold on the black-market and the paperwork was written in a way that made it look like a real adoption and gave no more information. 

"I think we should. If this person helped get me sold, then perhaps they did so for more babies and for that reason alone I think I want to know more. Tomorrow. We'll go tomorrow." She said.

Lucas went over and gave her a hug. He could see how stressful and worried she was about the whole thing but it now felt so much bigger than her, this was something hidden from her for her whole life long and she needed to find the scribbled name between her father Henry's signature and her adopted parents to know how it all came about and how many more children this person had done this to.

"It's going to be alright." Lucas said, hugging his new best friend.

She felt happy knowing he was on her side. She finally found someone on her side. 

****

Sebastian sadistically watches Timothy sleep 

As the night wore on, and the clock struck midnight, Timothy Churchill slept in his bed awaiting the next day's testimony in the case he had formulated against three of his constituents -- a case so strange in it's nature it captured the attention of newspapers all around the area. 

Everyone on the eastern seaboard began siting their local papers from The New York Times to The Boston Globe on the Witch Trials of Welshport Island and nicknaming the small village New Salem. 

It thrilled Timothy to his core to have his name in the papers. This newfound fame of his made him feel as if he’d reclaimed control of his family's name and catapulted it back into the stratosphere of popular culture and notoriety. It didn't matter who he hurt, it didn't matter what was true and not true. It didn't matter that the judge had returned his bribe for a guilty plea.

The only thing that mattered to the sleeping Timothy Churchill was the crack in the veneer of the Lord family mythology and having his own name pushed through it as the savior of his community.

Unfortunately for Timothy, his plot had angered someone unseen to the world for a very long time. A person that could do so much damage to him in his sleep that he'd never know what hit him.

Sebastian Lord stood in the darkened corner of Timothy's room watching him sleep. His eyes were black as night. He had not fed on a human in a very long time. He had kept his promise, not only to himself but to Evie, that he'd only feed on animal from the Tiymor Forest. 

But Sebastian had many nights to think about his conversation with Jacob, and he came to the realization that Timothy deserved to die with a bite to the throat for what he had done to the mother of his child. 

The vampire walked around the room and saw photos of the man’s family. Children who’d grown up and moved away, out west. A wife who divorced him and left him for a handsome younger lawyer and now lived in Chicago or Denver. 

There was a six shelf bookcase with stories from all over the world. Some of the best classic stories ever told. Sebastian thought how Evie would love these books especially the ones on art — her favorite subject.

He turned back to the sleeping mayor and saw him there in his bed, a figure of innocence sleeping with a cold hard heart beating ice cold blood in his veins. Sebastian had no sympathy for the man.

He wanted him dead. 

Sebastian then walked up to Timothy in his a deep sleep. He opened his mouth revealing fangs sharp and ready to pierce soft flesh of the mayor's throat and just before he bit down he decided to change his tactic and keep his promise to evie. 

He decided to do something he had never done before. 

Sebastian closed his eyes and telepathically entered the sleeping mind of Timothy, this was a new ability he’d slowly leaned to use. 

In his dreams, Timothy stood on a stage. The crowd roared in his favor chanting his last name over and over again in a foggy Welshport night.

The crowd echoed:

"CHURCHILL! CHURCHILL! CHURCHILL!" 

Sebastian, stood in the shadows and fog off to the side watching the dream in real time. 

Timothy sensed something off in his dream, a coldness, a dark presence that lingered over the moment like a dark cloud, but did not see Sebastian. 

Suddenly the crowd in the dream started to change. Each person chanting his name began to transform into a thick beech tree. Then others turned into pine trees, and others towering poplar trees. All of this transforming before Timothy's very eyes until a giant darkening canopy of tress covered the sky above him.

The mayor, in his own dream could not speak or move. He was held down by his feet by the growing grass all around him. He was trapped in place watching the trees grow taller and taller all around him.

Then, as he stood there shaking in the cold the fog parted and Sebastian, with this face slightly obscured by the night's shadows appeared. 

Timothy's eyes narrowed hoping to make sense of who was walking towards him and without a second thought, Sebastian lunged at the man trapped in the grass. The vampire grabbed him by the throat, the mayor tried to scream but nothing came out of his mouth. He could feel Sebastian's hands tightening around his throat cutting off his air. His eyes felt as if they were going to pop out of their sockets. He felt his heart rate slowing and Sebastian's vampire grin terrified him to the point he fainted there in his dream but just before the horrifying event in his dream forced him to black out, he could hear Sebatsian's voice whisper to him like wind through a cracked window.

"End your crusade, or I will end you." 

And in seconds, Timothy sat up in his bed with a jolt gasping for air and reaching for his throat that still felt the tightness of Sebastian's hand. He shivered in the room realizing his window was open, although he did not remember leaving it open. 

He slowly got out of his bed, walked carefully to the very open window and watched as the sheer curtain lifted up in the wind like a ghost reaching for him. He felt Sebastian's presence, but he was alone. His throat still sore from the grip of the vampire's strong calloused hand. 

Timothy reached for the glass window that had been left open and quickly shut it and locked it. He looked down on the deserted street below and saw footsteps in the wet pavement that led from the sidewalk below his second story window out into the street vanishing in the dark. 

"Try it." He said to the air around him daring the creature who invaded his dreams. "Just you try it." 

Sebastian was not to be dared, however. They would meet again. 

****

Courthouse chaos 

The next day, bright and early, the press yet again crushed the front steps of Village Hall awaiting the arrival of the Lord family for the day's trail. Standing in front of the press were Nathan Cramer and his boss the mayor Timothy Churchill who looked as if he'd slept only an hour the night before.

This did not go unnoticed to Baxter Murphy, ever the observant reporter.

"Mr. Mayor, you're looking tired, can you tell us how you feel this morning?" He asked as mass of flashbulbs snapped blindingly at Nathan and Timothy. 

"Uhh..." The mayor said, his voice scratching.

"-- We've had a long night working through a lot of things for the village apart from this very important trial, Mr. Baxter," Nathan interrupted "I'm sure you can understand." 

Baxter lifted a brow and tilted his head towards the Mayor awaiting for him to confirm this supposed late work night with Nathan, which was a lie. 

"Right." The mayor replied in one word.

"Right." Baxter repeated skeptically. 

Nathan turned to Tim and whispered, "We should get inside.", the mayor happily agreed as the press were given a lottery of numbers to enter in with the mayor and Nathan. 

As they were seated, Lear entered, alone, and quickly got to the front desk. Nathan noticed the accused had yet to come into court and Eden, who was already at his desk hoping to avoid a confrontation with Timothy, seemed to know they would not be brought in.

Timothy reached over the gallery barrier and pulled on Eden's jacket. 

"What's happening?" the mayor asked.

"Jesus, man, you look like hell!" He said of the mayor. 

"I didn't sleep much. Very long night." Tim replied. "Where are the witches?" 

Eden sighed, "Lear has a motion to vacate based on what we've seen so far. They'll be in shortly."

As the Judge Banning entered, everyone was asked to stand. Once the judge greeted everyone he sat at his desk and reviewed again the motion Lear had filed to vacate the case based on the weak case Eden had so far presented. It was an attempt to push the case out of the court, a case Lear said in his paperwork was legally baseless and there had been no proof yet of what the three were accused of. 

The judge then asked for the three supposed witches, whose charges were of witchcraft, public endangerment and the death of the one of Churchill's assistants, to be seated.

"We have here a motion by the defense for me to vacate this entire trial based on the lack of evidence far presented here. I have read this last night, as I know the state has and have made my decision." 

Timothy fumed that he was not made aware of the late night filing. 

"Barrister Syndey did you have any objection to what this motion presents?" Judge Banning asked.

Eden wanted the entire thing to end. The court had had enough. The accused, who Eden saw as innocent people trapped in Timothy's obsessed plot to take down the Lord starting with the two women who were merely married into the family, had had enough. The community had had enough.

But there was the unfortunate proof of the man's death in the caves. 

Mary sat at the table quiet. She had not spoke much since her return from the Witch Council. She knew something was going to happen with her directly, but she didn't know what. All she could do was remember seeing herself in a coffin, her face. Her body. Her soul. 

All she could was wait and see what that meant. And all Evie and Matthew could do was worry for her mental state as Mary's emotions were splashed across her face. She was tired. She was worried. She was slowly breaking down. 

Evie lifted her chained hands and reached over for Mary's and held them and mouthed "It'll be ok." 

As Eden shuffled through paperwork, Nik and Aurora entered the courtroom and sat in the back where Filipe and Fatima had been seated. 

"Mr. Sydney, I'm waiting." Judge Banning said.

"Your honor, the only objection I have is to the charge of murder."

"Mr. Lockwood?" 

Lear knew Mary was directly accused of killing the man, there was eyewitness accounts of it. He could not get this fixed without that charge going forward.

"The defense cedes the motion to vacate on the charge of murder, your honor, the others we ask for the court to carry out on basis of lack of evidence." 

"Very well. The court hereby orders the following: On the Charges of Murder, Witchcraft and Public endangerment for the accused Evangeline Jordan-Lord and Matthew Winterborn -- Vacated for lack  of evidence. For the Charges of Murder, Public Endangerment and Witchcraft of for the accused Mary Spencer Goode-Braga the court declined the motion to vacate."

The court gasped. 

Evie and Matthew were free, Mary would stand trial.

"Your honor, for all three on Mrs. Braga?" Lear asked, hoping to have some of the charges on Mary released.

"No, they can't do this." Evie whispered.

"The decision stands Mr. Lockwood."

"Your Honor, Wait." A voice said from the back of the court room.

The entire court turned to the back to see a blond woman, her face bright like the sun, her eyes blue like the sea...the face of Mary.

It was Jacqueline, shapeshifted into the body of the created double of Mary: Verity Spencer. 

The entire court once again gasped ad whispered in shock. Who was she? Why did she look exactly like Mary who was seated at the table. Churchill's eyes widened. Eden's too. The judge banged his gavel ordering silence in the courtroom.

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Lockwood???" The judge shouted.

"Your honor, I have no idea." Lear said looking down at Mary. 

"Who are you?" The judge asked.

Verity walked forward, the mayor stood up to get a better look and indeed she was the spitting image of the very same woman seated at the table. Mary watched as she herself could not believe what she was witnessing. She assumed something else would happen, not that the council would have created a whole new version of herself. In fact, Mary even looked down at her own hands that were still tightly wrapped in Evie's to see if she were still sitting where she was.

A bailiff quickly rushed the small gate that opened from the gallery to where the lawyers were sitting and blocked Verity from entering.

"Back away." He said to her.

"My name is Verity Spencer, your honor and I have come here to confess." 

"What is this?" Filipe whispered. 

Fatima sensed something off "More mystery of your dear Maria." she replied.

"A twin?" Aurora whispered to Nik who shook his head. 

"Ms. Spencer?" The judge asked looking at Lear who shrugged. "What is it you are confessing?" 

"The woman everyone at saw at the caves was not Mary Goode-Braga, your honor. It was me. I was there person there who did everything she is accused of. Unfortunately, Mary did not know I existed. In fact no one did. Our mother Eliza had hidden my existence my whole life because of what I could do. Sir, I am a witch. I must save my twin sister for what I have done in her place at the caves. My guilt has overtaken me, Sir, and I want to do what's right."

"A TWIN!?" Churchill screeched from his seat. The crowd behind chatting. 

"ORDER!!" The judge yelled. "Mrs. Braga, is this true? Do you have a twin sister?" 

Mary stood as she and Verity locked eyes, the exact same eyes. "Your honor, as this woman has stated, I did not know of her. I had heard stories and had had feelings that my mother had hidden something from me all my life but never in my dreams did I realize it were true. But here she is. In front of us all." 

"Ms. Spencer are you saying then, here in court, that you are the one witnessed in the caves who had some sort of supernatural power that killed a man?" 

Jacqueline, as Verity knew her task by the council and confirmed this "Yes sir." 

"How?" the judge asked.

"Two nights before the full moon festival I had come to the village in search of my sister. I had come to not only reconnect with my roots here in Welshport, but to reconnect with the life I thought I should have had. The constant anger I had drilling in my mind over the life I was denied consumed me. I killed people, I changed into a creature and took lives."

Filipe and Fatima looked each other. Verity was taking responsibility for his actions. 

Churchill could not believe his ears. 

"And when in the chaos of that night, after I vanished from the park, I found my sister's friends and tricked them into taking me a place where I could recharge my powers. A burial ground is perfect for that." Verity said, clearly playing on the folklore obsessed and supernatural myths the people of Welshport were very susceptible to and were so keen on believing. The game in Jacqueline's mind to speak for Verity was to use those tropes, those very fictitious horror story tripes and play on milk them for all they were worth.

 "The caves. That is where you recharge?" The judge asked.

"It's a very ancient burial ground, sir. Yes." Verity said, as Matthew stirred in his seat listening to them talk about the place his native people held so sacred to their hearts. 

"And that is where you were witnessed using your powers and where a man was killed." 

"Yes sir." She said. 

"YOUR HONOR!!" Timothy shouted from his seat in the gallery. "This is silly, this is... this ridiculous!!" 

"Ridiculous, Mr. Mayor? I think speaking as the person who started all of this, you'd find this a well serving end to it all, don't you? Ms. Spencer here has come to court, albeit perfect timing, to finally confess to what has been happening around here. We have answers. We have proof as to why Mary was seen doing this in the caves, when in fact, it was her twin sister who allowed us all to believe it was Mary. I think we should look at this new additional piece to the puzzle as fact."

"But--- " The mayor said before being interrupted by the judge. 

"I think we've had enough Tim." 

The mayor sat down. 

"I've made a decision. Let the record show, based on new evidence, a confession Mary Spencer Goode-Braga will be found innocent of all charges and will be set free along with Evangeline Jordan-Lord and Matthew Winterborn. The bailiff will take custody of Ms. Verity Spencer at once. Based off of the confession to all the crimes, I believe if no one has objection I can render a verdict."

Eden and Lear looked at each other. Neither wanted to push this any further. Verity, as planned, stepped forward and was arrested. She took a beath as the shackles were removed from Mary and placed on her wrists. The twins looked at each other. Mary knew form the look it was Jacqueline inside of Verity. 

Mary gasped. 

"This is incredible." Evie said. 

Mary looked at Evie and mouthed "Its Jacqueline." 

Evie gasped and her eyes widened in shock and she turned back to Verity who already had her back to her. 

"Ms. Verity Spencer, based on your confession here today, this court finds you guilty of the charge of witchcraft, public endangerment, and of murder, which we will amend to 8 charges of murder based on what you said you did at the festival prior to the arrest at the North Shore Cliffs. Do you agree to this?" 

Verity, her head held high knowing she was doing the bidding of the witch council agreed "I do." 

Filipe grabbed on to Fatima, who knew something was terribly off about the situation but said nothing.

"Well then, you will be remanded to the jail cells at Village Hall. At night fall, your punishment based on the law is death by fire." The judge said, swallowing hard as he had to go by the letter of the law.

He gaveled his decision and Verity was taken away. She turned back to the defense table where Filipe had come to Mary and grabbed in a hug. Evie and Matthew held each other as Nik and Aroura approached. 

Jacqueline, as Verity, felt her life slowly slip away and hoped that the council would do as they promised. Release her from the Verity's body just as the flames took over. 

"You're free! YOU'RE FREE!" Filipe said kissing Mary passionately who fell into his arms. 

"Finally!" Nik said to Evie who giggled. 

She looked at Matthew and he looked at her -- now they'd part again, their relationship now in tatters.

"I ... uh." Matthew said.

"I love you Matthew." She said. 

He smiled "I love you too." he replied. "I'll see you soon." he added as he sadly left the court alone. 

"Let's all go back to Bellmore," Aurora said to Nik, Filipe, Mary and Fatima. "We have a lot to celebrate."  

The celebration ended there, as Timothy fumed as he stared daggers into Eden Sydney. 

"You got what you wanted." Eden said. "A witch will burn tonight." 

Lear stood at the gate and together he and Eden left Timothy in the courtroom.

"Its not over." Tim said to Nathan. 

Nathan, for his part, was tired of Timothy's obsessions and decided right there and then to change his life "It is." He said. "It's really over. I quit." 

Timothy now alone felt the darkness in his heart overtake him. "Its not over." he thought. "It never will be."