"I was a shock" Lester commented "I thought that Amos had gotten sensible at last, and that we could start planning for his 'arrival' as a long lost relative. I should have known better. I come in, and what do I see buy Wendy there, in a trance."

Wendy joined them by the TV. "I want to see how they played it. The first couple of days are still in a haze. I do not know yet if it was something that he did to me, or just my past life memories trying to break through."

"In any case, Amos got violent when I told him that he could not do it."

-0-

"I lost everything and everyone! All I knew and loved is gone. My mother, my father, my little sister, Prudence. And Annelise. She IS Annelise reborn! I will have her again. And maybe others! And you will not interfere! You understand, Lester? You will not take Annelise from me!"

-0

"Amos can be truly fearsome when angry." Lester said "He was not as vicious as they depict him. And he DID believe that Wendy WAS Annelise. I could not get through him at all. Neither could Prue."

"Prue?"

"Remember the little girl that showed up, playing with her ball?"

"I remember her." Beverly said. "She looked solid enough one moment, then she vanished. I tried to talk to her, but she paid no attention to me."

"She talked to me. She said that I had to take care of her brother. That her brother was making a mistake and that he did not listen to her"

"And in the meantime, the situation with Violet startend getting to a crisis point."

"Good think about Violet being there. She ended up taking the blame for what Amos did then."

-0-

Forrester and Maxwell greeted Griff Lennox

"So after so many years of making fun of me and my field, you finally need my services?" Lennox could not help needling Forrester.

"I guess that Life has a way of knocking away your certainties. Yes. I confess. I do not know what to make of it, and I think that you do. I apologize for my words, and I would be glad to read more on your subject."

"It is OK, Forry. We poked fun at each other often enough."

Sheriff Maxwell told him what they had run across.

"Two burnings, followed by two cases of hypothermia. I see the pattern It is as if whoever or whatever caused the burning spent its own energy and had to recover it by taking it from others. Which were left to freeze."

"And fortunately they got treated early enough"

"Did they say anything?"

"Only of being touched by something very cold. And the cold spread through them."

"Yes. It makes sense. Is there a missing person case too, I understand."

"Yes Wendy Pruitt is now missing."

"Whoever is doing it might be using it as a way to recharge, and give her no chance to tell what happened. I am afraid that if she is not soon found, she miight lose all her energy and die of it."

-0-

Violet tries to embrace Charlie who runs away from her.

"I hate you! You left me!"

"I did not want to. I had to leave, but I always wanted to be back."

"I hate you! Go away!"

Beverly tries to calm Charlie down, and tells Violet that it is better that she leaves for the moment.

"You are only the hired help. I don not have to listen to you. And your employment will be done once I get my son back"

"Still, you are only upsetting him now. He will not listen to anything you say."

Violet turns around and leaves. "I will be back, Charlie"

Beverly watches her leave and wonders. Is it only irritation at being called hired help, or is she really getting a bad vibe from the woman?

-0-

Lester sees the little girl bouncing the ball on the wall.

"Please help my brother." She says to him. "He does not know what he is doing"

Before he can answer she vanishes. Then he sees her go up the balcony. He follows her. She vanishes again. Then reappears a few feet away. He tries to follow her, and each time she tells him the same thing "Help my brother." Then she vanishes and reappears again and again.

-0-

Violet kneels by the ruined altar.

"Great Ra. Let my son return to me Let him not listen to the lies his father and aunt tell him. I have no daughter to offer, yes. But if you smile on me, I can pass on my heritage to him.

She bends over and touches her forehead to the ground extending her arms. "Hear my prayer, Great Ra,"

She stays there a while murmuring. Then she rises again and walks away.

As she leaves, Griff Lennox moves to the altar. "Yes, I bet that no one here recognize this for what it is. They do not believe, and thus they are helpless when things go happen. But I do know, and I know what's to be done."

-0-

While Charlie draws, Beverly reads the old family records. She remembered that there had been another Violet in the family tree. Maybe it is all coincidence, but the vibe she felt when talking to Violet does not go away.

Yes, there is a Violet Raleigh Benchley. And a Violet Rafferty Benchley before And another Violet Rayburn who almost married into the family.

And they had something in common, she realizes, apart from last names which began with Ra...

At her feet, Charlie draws a woman surrouned by flames. And the title "Mother"

-0

Griff talks to Maurice. "What can you tell me about Violet Benchley?"

"We were lovers once."

"Maurice, there is more to her than you realize."

"I think I know her fairly well. She wants her kid back. She thinks that she can straighten him up. I am not so sure. But a mother's love is a powerful thing."

"There is something else about her."

"Griff, you see the supernatural wherever you go. It is your personal hobbyhorse. When you are right you are aright. But you pull some boners sometimes As Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"

"I guess I will not convince you. You are not thinking with your brain, but much lower."

"I know her. And you are off the mark."

"Well, maybe I am. Please keep this to yourself."

-0-

Wendy walked the corridors in a trance. She talks of long ago people and events. She mentions little Prue. She recognizes Amos, but when he tries to get close, she shies away. "it s not proper, she mutters. He talks to her in French, but she does not react. She ask "What do you mean?" She calls him Mr. Benchley, never Amos…

"She still has too many of Wendy's mannerisms. She needs to remember more."

Amos bites her and contacts her mind that way "You must remember, Annelise"

Lester remembers that Annelise is the resident ghosts…. Annelise cannot be both a ghost and reincarnated. He tries to tell that to Amos, who tells him severely to shut up, or he'll regret it

-0-

Mr. Lennox, you must see this….

"I am sorry,you are.."

"I am Beverly Stern. I correspond with Professor Harris."

"Yes, he mentioned you. He said that you showed promise as an amateur historian"

"Me mentioned your name as someone who knows about… weird stuff."

"The supernatural, do not be afraid to say it."

"You are investigating something. Here."

"Yes, And your interest is?"

"I found something that may be up your alley. Something that scares me."

-0-

"And so I met Dr. Lennox. He was a very nice man. And he was glad that I had told him what I had found. We talked. He told me that I had the gifts to work for people like him. I.. I told him things I did not tell anyone else. He offered me a different life…. " Beverly's voice broke. "It stills hurts me to think of him."

"Did Violet kill him?"

"Yes. Alas, Maurice could not keep the secret from her. She had ways. It was not that she tricked him. She just used her power and it all came out. Maurice blames himself for it still. He did not really want to believe that the woman he had loved once, that she still loved, could be a monster. Even if he knew better. He hoped for the best. And she knew that he was hiding something. She showed him this scarab, and then he told her all he knew"

"And then?"

"Then she knelt by the fireplace and muttered something. And that's when his car went off the side of the road, and caugh fire. Violet always killed with fire."