Chasing a half-crazed professor through the woods with her son on her hip wasn't exactly how Kimberly envisioned her afternoon when she woke up this morning, but here she is. Miller obviously saw something his logic couldn't handle and it sent him spiraling if the way he was running around sans one shoe was anything to go off of.

"Emery," she yells after a good fifteen minutes of searching," Emery, wait! Hold on!"

"We have to help him," her husband says, breathing hard when he finally skids to a stop.

"We can't even find him." And it was true, there was no more crashing sounds of someone fighting their way past the hanging limbs of the numerous weeping willows or leaves crunching underfoot. Hell, she couldn't even hear the panicked yells anymore and the house was half-concealed by the trees and vines. "Let's just get back inside and tell the others, alright?"

"But—" He cuts himself off, gaze trained on something that Kimberly wasn't able to see.

"Who is it?"

"Vic." His voice is strained and tears have gathered in his eyes as he continues to stare on in horror, taking a stumbling step back and nearly tripping over a rock. Kimberly reaches out a hand to steady him, squeezing his elbow reassuringly. "Go, go right now!" She hesitates just long enough to hear Nicky whimper and then she's sprinting towards the house, Emery right behind her in a mad dash for the closest thing to safety they had out here.

"Em—"

"Keep going!" The three of them practically crash into the house, Emery only stopping long enough to slam the door shut before following Kimberly towards the end of the entrance hall where three others had gathered. Nick looked baffled, but took the child all the same when Nicky reached for him, letting him hide his face in the crook of the psychic's neck. Kimberly wasn't going to complain considering her son usually refused to let strangers anywhere near him, but he was heavier than she remembered and it was a welcome break. They must share a wavelength or something.

"What happened," Joyce demands. Kimberly tried not to meet her gaze for too long, not liking the blooming insanity she could see there. "What's with the hysterics?"

"I saw Vic, that's what! This stupid house has him lurking around in the woods like the big bad wolf!" Emery was breathless after the run, but he kept his back straight and his chin up. It was more than could be said for Kimberly, she was bent over with her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. I really gotta start going to the gym again. "And I saw the professor, too. He was real enough to push me against a damn tree."

"That's not possible—"

"Like hell it isn't! I just ran after him through those woods trying to get him to calm down! If he isn't real, then I'm the Easter Bunny! As if that wasn't bad enough, my mother's somewhere behind the house and I can't even help her because those things keep popping up like some twisted version of Whack-A-Mole."

"Perhaps we should all just take a breath," Nick advises, voice soft as he rubbed his hand over Nicholas's back in gentle circles that soothed the four year old.

"I'll calm down when I'm as far from here as I can get! As soon as I get out of here, I'm packing my family up and we're moving to Canada!"

"What we need to do is leave while we still can," Kimberly states firmly, using her patented Mom Voice to capture everyone's attention. "The doors are unstuck, so let's gather everyone up and get the hell outta dodge." It's the sound of footsteps that has Kimberly's gaze snapping to the left, spotting Sister as she runs up to them.

"Joyce," Sister calls, worry eating away at her," it's Annie, you have to come quick. Sh-she's unconscious and Steve's trying to wake her up, but…." There are tears in her eyes and she seems to be on the verge of a panic attack as she looks on at the group. "Please, just hurry."

"Where is she," Joyce asks, the crazed light leaving her eyes if only for a moment. This was a real-world problem, one that could affect her investigation, and she needed it solved as soon as possible.

"In the parlor near the kitchen." Nicky squirms until Nick sets him down, and then he's running through the halls as if his life depends on it. Kim and Emery waste no time in chasing after him with the others in tow, Nicky seeming to know exactly where he was going as he burst into one of several rooms and didn't stop until he had his arms wrapped around Bear's neck with his face buried in the dog's fur.

Steve gives them all a bewildered look, but doesn't question how a child had known exactly where to go. He holds Kimberly's gaze for a moment, projecting old memories of Nicky and Bear's interactions over the years until she gives a slight nod of her head. Some type of psychic ability that works with animals, she thinks, a real-life dog whisperer.

"The phone's working again," Cathy says, voice uneven as she holds up the handset. "Should I call an ambulance?"

"Of course not," Joyce snaps, looking up from where she'd been studying Annie. That's when Kimberly takes the time to really look at the teenager, the way Annie's eyes moved behind closed eyelids in REM sleep yet her thoughts still floated high above her. She's getting stronger and that could be a problem if they didn't leave soon.

"To hell with that," Emery fumes," I'm getting my family the fuck out of this house!" He storms off, Kimberly making to go after him when she felt a slight tug on the hem of her shorts and looked down to find Bear holding her in place by his teeth. She knew from past experience that Bear could hold her down with ease if he really wanted to, his muscles bunching as if preparing to tackle her.

"Bear, release," she commands with a hard tone. The Husky lets out a deep, rumbling growl in response and tugs hard enough that she would've fallen had Nick not grabbed her arm. He straightens her with a kind smile, though it disappears when the phone Cathy still held let out a horrendous screech. She slams it back down in the cradle, lips pursed in frustration.

"Honey, can you hear me," Joyce asks, and Kimberly notes that Annie's woken up. Annie says nothing as she sits up, brown eyes looking around the people gathered and then misting slightly as if she were fighting some sort of trance. "Annie?"

"That's not Annie right now." The teenager tears her gaze away from the dolls and glances at Kimberly, her posture all wrong for it to be Annie. "What's wrong, Ellen? Tired of my family stopping you from playing your little mind games so you have to use the body of a little girl to do it? I've heard of desperate people doing desperate things, but this really takes the cake."

"You are so different than my sister," Annie says, accent cultured and practiced," but you are no less welcome here, Kimberly. And you've brought sweet Nicholas as well; he'll be a fine host one day, a Rimbauer through and through." She smiles, sharp and cutting as she holds Kimberly in place using Annie's telekinesis, keeping her from scooping Nicky up in her arms. "These halls are so lonely these days, lacking in the power Rose Red needs to keep building. You'll forgive me for insisting that you and your friends stay a while longer."

Kimberly's seen the house respond to things enough times by now to know that the slamming doors are a different kind of response, one brought on by Annie's need to be understood. The windows rattle at the force and small cracks splinter the wood of the doorjamb, the very foundation seeming to shift and groan in protest until the silence fell just as suddenly.

"You should go and check on your husband, he might go into shock otherwise." And that cold smile never left her face, the door to the parlor swinging open silently.

"Stay with Nicky while I get Emery," Steve instructs, already running out of the room. Cathy and Nick go after him and it takes everything Kimberly has to stay in the room. Bear still has a tight hold on Kimberly's shorts, his panting breaths hot against her leg. Annie seemed to deflate after that, falling back against Sister like a marionette that's had its strings cut. When she opens her eyes again, she's back to herself with no Ellen around.

"Are you okay," Sister asks, cupping her face gently. "Back to earth again?" Annie nods, staring around in the same way Nicky did sometimes. She sits up, though remains slouched against her sister as though she didn't have the strength to stay upright on her own.

Joyce digs through a medical bag that seemed to have come out of nowhere—Kim knows she must have grabbed during the run to the parlor, but rational thinking isn't something she has time for right now, thank you—and readies a piece of gauze with some medical tape. "Hey, sweetie," Joyce implores," can you face me for a second?" Annie presses her forehead against Sister's shoulder, paying no mind to the nasty gash near her hairline or the forming bruise surrounding it.

"Annie, be a big girl for me. Let her help you." She frowns but moves her head enough that Joyce can patch her up, looking none-too-pleased about the whole thing. Kimberly didn't blame her, she probably just wanted to sleep for a few hours after being possessed.

"Do you feel dizzy, hon? Maybe a little lightheaded or sleepy?" Annie doesn't say anything, cheek pressed against Sister's shoulder as her gaze became unfocused. She was drifting off, flying high above everyone as she tried to pull her thoughts together into something she could understand better. She wasn't a mute, Kimberly's heard her giggling and talking on occasion, but she wasn't a big fan of talking when there wasn't a good reason. "How about we stand up for a second?" Sister nods and all three of them stand, Bear releasing his grip on Kimberly in favor of sitting protectively beside Nicky with his tail wrapped around his ankles.

"I'm gonna go check on Em," Kimberly says, taking her son's hand gently in hers. "C'mon, kiddo, let's go find your daddy." He makes the sign for follow and Bear lets out a soft bark and trots beside them as they start to walk. Bear had picked up sign language surprisingly well, even the stuff Nicky had made up before he started classes.

At least my baby has some protection inside this monstrosity.