I hadn't planned to continue this story, but specific scenes kept haunting me until I wrote them. I have one more chapter to add to this for now. I'm not sure how far I'll take it.


The sound of large feet pounding up the stairs told Annie that George had returned. When the door flew open, he made it all of three steps inside before the sight of her and Mitchell in the cage registered.

He cocked his head to the side and almost succeeded in holding in a laugh. "What are you doing?"

Mitchell groaned as he sat up from his prone position in the cage. "Oh no, not him again. I thought he moved out." His arms waved in George's direction and the smile on his face was anything but comforting. "He's always fucking here."

"Oh God, are you drunk?" George rolled his eyes and moved to pull a duffle from under his bed. "I hate it when you're drunk."

Annie popped from the cage to sit on the mattress. "Thank God you're here. I need your help."
George spared her only a moment as he began to throw random clothing into the bag. "What? No, I can't. That's what I came to tell you guys." He paused his movements and straightened to face both of his friends. "I'm going to that place with Nina, and the priest, and Professor Jaggat."

Annie wrung her hands in agitation. Now was not the time for George to be absent. "Can't it wait? This is kind of important."

"Good. Piss off." Mitchell had stood and moved to grip the bars of the cage. "'Cause I'm really getting sick of your dog hair in my clothes."

"Mitchell." George's reprimand was more of a confused squeak than a scold.

The vampire's eyes seemed to clear for a moment and his hands released the bars as if they burned him. He looked as if he was about to speak, but shook his head instead and turned away to curl up in the opposite corner of the cage.

George turned to Annie as the seriousness of the situation began to sink in. "What's going on."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you." She moved to the side of the cage where a pad of paper and a colored pen had been laying. She could feel Mitchell's eyes on her as she bent to retrieve the items. His gaze was tormented, and she was not sure which was worse; the pained expression that showed the Mitchell she knew was still in there or the smirking leer of the Mitchell who frightened her.

She rose and handed the pad to George. "I have a list. I need you to go round to the shop for me."

His eyes scanned the page. "Rope, chain, a tarp, floor anchors, arm cuffs?" He sent her a look that questioned her sanity better than any words could. "Should I just pop round to the Tesco? Are you mental?"

She huffed at his melodrama. "Look, I just wrote the list. It was Mitchell's idea." She glanced at the cage from the corner of her eye. "When he was more Mitchell-y." She focused again on the man in front of her. "Please, George. He said the cage won't hold him."

George looked down at the paper again before taking in the huddled figure of Mitchell. "What's happened?"

"Nothing." Annie shivered at the sound of Mitchell's voice. Bad-Mitchell was back all ready. The switches would have given her whiplash if she were still alive. "It's all good Georgie. It's all good."

For the first time since her death Annie was grateful to be a ghost. As much as this new Mitchell scared her, at least he could not hurt her. She would like to think that even if she had a pulse, her friend would not knowingly cause her harm, but there was a look in his eye, the look that he had given her as he had talked about her skin, that had her believing that he was fantasizing about that very thing.

She did not wait for either of them to respond again. Annie turned George towards the door and pushed him out of the room. "Just go. Please. And hurry back." She cast a look over her shoulder before continuing in a whisper. "I don't like being alone with him when he's like this."

George hesitated a moment more before nodding and heading down the stairs.

Annie took a deep breath before returning to the cage. She had promised Mitchell that he would not be alone and she aimed to keep that promise, no matter what. He was leering at her again and she pulled her cardigan around her once more. Too bad she hadn't died outside in the winter. A parka would have come in handy just then. She was not sure how long she would have to put up with Bad-Mitchell, but she would be glad to see him gone once and for all.


It had taken George a bit longer than Annie would have liked, he was sure, for him to find all of the items on the list. Bags in hand, he rounded the corner onto Henry Street and slowed to a stop.

"Nina." The name was past his lips before he could stop himself.

She and the priest were standing before his front door, ostensibly waiting for their knock to be answered. Both turned to look at him when he spoke, but it was Nina that answered.

"You said you were coming and then never showed." She closed the distance between them and George was grateful when the priest did not move to follow.

"Something's come up." He had spoken in a whisper but a crash from inside the house caused the effort to be irrelevant.

"What was that?"
George ignored Nina's question and pushed past her to block the door when Father Kemp raised a hand for the door knob. Using his body as a barrier, George struck a ridiculous pose in his attempt to act casual. He ignored the door opening behind him and the cold hands that took the bags from his grip. In a matter of seconds the door was closed again, with him now standing at odd angles, now with empty hands. Nina was looking at him with a mixture of bewilderment and irritation. At least she had been able to see Annie.

George snuck a look at the priest to find raised eyebrows and a concerned expression. "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

There was only time for George to open his mouth before another crash sounded from within. "Nope." He did his best to sound nonchalant, but the word came out too high pitched.

Having apparently had enough, Nina pushed past George, ducking under his arm to get to the door knob and into the house. He could only watch over his shoulder as she made her way to the stairs, torn between standing guard against one intruder and going after the one that had gotten past his defenses.

He motioned for the priest to stay where he was and turned to call for Annie. He had not made it to past the bottom step before Annie appeared at the top, ushering them both back down.

She kept up a steady stream of commentary as she bustled both werewolves back to the main floor and George was annoyed to see that Kemp had not waited outside as he had been instructed.

"What is going on?" Nina cast her eyes to the stairs again but did not try to get past Annie. George had a moment to be affronted by that.

"Oh, you know. A bit of redecorating gone wrong." Annie's laugh was as forced as her smile.

When Nina looked away Annie began mouthing to George to get rid of their guests. He tried to argue back, but had the unfair disadvantage of being seen by both of their visitors.

"It was so lovely of you to come and check in on me, but as you can clearly see that I am fine, I'm sure you have more pressing matters to attend to." He began to herd Nina and the priest towards the door.

Nina stopped him with a pained look. "Have you changed your mind?"

George paused in his actions, taking both of her hands in his. "Not at all." There was a thump from above them and he closed his eyes to pray for patience. Opening them again he continued. "I will be there. Tomorrow, or the next day, I'm not sure yet. But I promise you; I will be there."

She stared at him for a moment more before nodding and moving towards the door on her own.

Annie was still standing guard in front of the stairs and fidgeting with her hands when George finally closed the door, leaning his back against it for support.

"How about some tea?" He watched as Annie headed for the kitchen with disbelieving eyes.

"What the hell was that?" His question was half a yell and half a whisper. "What is he doing up there?"

He watched as Annie bustled around the kitchen, filling the kettle, setting out mugs, being Annie.

She lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "I thought it would be good for him to have something to eat, maybe a bit of tea." The look she sent over her shoulder was one of remorse. "I'll clean the mess, no worries."

A squeak escaped him before he could stop it and then he was bolting up the stairs and to his room. There were shards of porcelain and spatters of food on the wall and carpet next to the door. The lamp from his bedside table had been pulled from the wall and the shattered remnants of it now lay in his bed. The curtains were still on the window and George supposed that he should be grateful for that, but he could not help the blustering outrage that fought to come out. Only, he could not find the words and ended up starting and stopping the same thought over and over again.

Annie slipped into the room behind him settling a warm mug into his hands and placing the other out of reach of the occupant in the cage.

"Now." Her voice was that of a parent speaking to an unruly child. "If you're good I'll let you have the tea." She waited until Mitchell was looking at her before continuing. "If you can keep from causing a mess, I'll think about brining you a coffee. But I'm not scrubbing that out of the carpet if I don't have to." She added a nod at the end for emphasis.

Mitchell was sitting against the far side of the cage still, his hair hanging down into his face. He did not answer Annie, did not even look at her. George held the vampires gaze and could feel himself being weighed. He tilted his head and returned the gesture. What were the odds that they could get him from the cage and into the chair if he put up a fight? Not good. But Mitchell would not have been in the cage at all if some part of him had not wanted to be, or so Annie had said.

George broke the stare between them to consider the bags on the ground and ignored Mitchell's snort of amusement at having won their game. "Could we maybe set him up in his own room?" He addressed this to Annie. "I'd rather like to have my privacy back, thank you very much."

That seemed to get a reaction out of Mitchell, one unlike they had seen since he had fallen off of the wagon. The vampire was up and at the bars in an instant.

"Don't go in there." Mitchell's eyes held more of a plea than his tone had and George had to wonder at what they would find.

Annie had apparently had the same thought. She was gone in a blink and back in two, looking pale and sick.

"Annie?" George moved over to her, afraid that she looked faint. The thought passed through his mind to question if ghosts could faint, but he shook it off and led her to the chair. She sank into it without a word.

Mitchell moved back to his spot across the cage and curled into himself. Neither one would look at the other.

George stood to find out what neither was willing to tell him but Annie's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Stay here." Her tone was firm and brooked no argument. She left by way of the door this time and George found himself unsure of what to do with himself. He took Annie's seat in the cushioned chair and drummed his fingers as he waited. When she finally returned it was with a look harder than any he had ever seen her wear before.

Annie knelt in front of the door to the cage and fixed her gaze on Mitchell. "I've cooked and cleaned and looked after you both, and I've loved every minute of it." When she paused, Mitchell tilted his head up barely, enough that he could see her face. She pointed behind her, towards the hall. "That, will never happen again." Her tone brooked no argument. "Are we clear?"

She paused again and waited for Mitchell to nod and George was shocked to see tears and shame in the other man's eyes. George had never seen his flatmates like this before and could only sit back and watch as the scene unfolded.

"Now; you're going to get up, and we're going to let you out, and your going to help George set all this up." At that she motioned to the bags still laying on the floor.

It was not until Annie reached for the lock that George was snapped out of his stupor. "Wait a minute." He grabbed her by the arm to stop her from opening the lock. "We can't just let him out. What if he's lying?"

They both turned to look at Mitchell where he had risen to stand in the back of the cage. He looked haggard, beaten.

"Because this is his first test on his road to redemption." At her words Mitchell raised his head a little higher, drawing his shoulders back. He still would not meet their eyes but he gave a small nod.

For all of her strong talk, Annie's hands still trembled as she reached to unlock the cage.