Prudence stares in confusion at the large building before her. "A barn?" she asks hesitantly stepping closer to the seemingly innocuous structure.
Ann laughs and the sound has an eerie twinkling quality to it that raises the hairs on Jacob's neck.
"Not what you were expecting?" Ann questions with a smile. "Do not let the edifice fool you, my dear. Just like the skin you walk around in merely houses your spirit, this barn is much, much more than its shell."
Jacob's apprehension mounts as he watches Prudence gingerly move her small pale hand along the wood of the door. Her touch is infinitely gentle, as she peers almost trancelike at the structure.
"How does it work?" Prudence asks her eyes never leaving the old weathered wood.
"Now that is an interesting question," Ann begins. "You see we are so in the habit of viewing ourselves as separate entities, our lives as our own, are we not? And yet the truth of the matter is that there is truly only one life," then quietly after a pause, "one death."
"You're alive, Mr. Crocker," Ann continues turning suddenly to address Jacob, "simply because the life-force is flowing through you. Think of it as a river with multiple tributaries. We are not exchanging one life for another, but rather just diverting the river's flow."
"So this barn, it will divert Prudence's life-force to Thaddeus?" Even as he poses the question, Jacob can feel bile rising in his throat at the thought.
"Oh no," Ann laughs, oddly cheerful Jacob notes, given the circumstances. "No, no," she continues, "the barn is merely a holding place for Mrs. Driscoll."
"But what is there to hold?'" Prudence asks softly. "Won't I be dead?"
"Your soul, of course," the witch answers distractedly as she busies herself drawing an odd circular maze in the dirt before her.
Jacob catches Prudence's eye just in time to see a flash of terror there before she can conceal it. It loosens something in him- a protectiveness he'd been unaware he was capable of before Prudence Driscoll came into his life.
"Her soul?" He spits out angrily.
The animosity in his tone is not lost on Ann Teagues who stills her actions and rises to her full height to pierce Jacob with her cool grey eyes. There is an intensity to her gaze that quickens his pulse and causes his fingertips to go numb as his blood rushes from his extremities to pool around his heart.
"Certainly," she replies icily. "There may be only one life-force, but each soul is still unique. When the life-force drains from Mrs. Driscoll her body will return to the earth, her memories and experiences decaying with it, but what of her soul? After what we do here today, the heavens surely won't accept it. Surely you didn't think this kind of magic would come without a price?"
"Are you sure you still wish to do this my dear," she continues turning toward Prudence, "when so much is at stake?"
Prudence's eyes linger for only a moment on the heap of blankets covering her lover who has been somewhat unceremoniously left lying alongside the barn before quietly nodding her head.
"Good," Ann all but purrs and Jacob's hands grow colder and his heart beats faster as he feels panic rising within him.
"So her soul will just remain locked in this barn for all eternity?" he asks incredulously. "Sounds like hell!"
"Yes," Ann answers calmly, a small smile forming on her lips, "yes, it does."
