A Rendezvous with Death

Chapter 28 "Death Becomes Her…NOT!"

"Great. I'd been dumped in Hell's waiting room."
―Karen Chance, Touch the Dark

AN: Sorry to keep you waiting...again! Hopefully, this loooong chapter will make up for it! I'd suggest you keep a light burning while you read...just sayin'!

Saturday, June 8, 2013

EPOV

Bella was still busy shopping when Mac and I caught up with her in the electronics store. Since so few places allowed dogs inside, I'd had no choice but to leave Sam in the car, both here and at the garden center. It was a warm day but I'd been lucky enough to find a parking place beneath a shade tree. I also left the windows almost all the way down once I'd realized he wasn't going to make a break for it. It wasn't an ideal situation but he was definitely safer here than at the house. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to wait too long for us to return.

Now, with Mac distracted choosing a few children's movies for her DVD player, we stepped a few feet away to talk freely without the worry of little ears hearing scary things.

"So what did Angela have to say?" I asked anxiously.

"Well, we have bad news, more bad news and worse news. How do you want it?" she replied, clearly distressed by what she had to tell me which set my already strained nerves on edge.

"Does it matter?" I implored, unable to even pretend to prepare myself for the worst since I couldn't fathom things being any worse than they already were. Boy, was I naive!

"No, I guess not," she sighed, still reluctant to say more.

"Please, Bella. It's not going to go away just because you don't want to discuss it," I insisted gently but firmly.

"Yeah, I got it…I get it! So, I told her everything that happened yesterday and this morning. To say the least, she was confused and frightened for us all," she replied, becoming a little pale as she recalled her conversation with Angela.

"Why confused?" As a lawyer, I tended to break down each bit of information separately in order to get a clearer picture of the whole problem.

"Because she was under the impression the entity controlling Carrie was the only real threat. But now..." she trailed off, fear causing her to pause, afraid to repeat the words Angela had spoken.

"But what?" I pressed impatiently.

"She thinks we may be dealing with far more spirits than we originally thought and possibly even darker ones than she first believed. She didn't say the word but..."

Bella glanced over at Mac to make doubly sure she couldn't overhear.

"I think she's worried about it being a..." Bella mouthed the word demon, more afraid to say it out loud than she was of being overheard.

"Why does she think that? Because we were attacked?" I speculated.

"Yes! Because we were attacked when we were together and Carrie was nowhere near us…we were in your house. So who, or what, tried to kill us this morning? Who followed Mac to the park? According to Mac, Belle can't leave your property. Angela doesn't believe the spirit that tried to kill us was Belle. She's adamant Belle's spirit is harmless simply because it's made no attempt to harm Mac. We've never seen the male entity anywhere but in my house so I have to assume that, like Belle, he can't leave it."

"Well, what about Belle's sister? She was murdered by the male entity, too. Couldn't she be the one doing the harmful things? What was her name, anyway?" I asked.

"You can't remember it, either?" she gasped. "That's so weird. Angela and I were unable to recall it, as well."

"No matter…I'll look it up in the newspaper clipping when we get home. So, we'll just have to hang tight until the PRF team arrives. Did she say when that would be?" I inquired.

"That's more bad news. Apparently, the team is stuck in Italy where they're experiencing mass flooding. The airports are closed but they have reason to believe they'll be open again in a couple days. Then they'll need another day to regroup before they can investigate," she explained.

Until now, I hadn't known in which part of the world the team was located. I'd heard about the terrible flooding in Italy on the news just the other day. Certain parts of the country had apparently been declared disaster areas. I could only hope the team was in one of the lesser affected areas and would be able to get a flight out soon.

"Well, we've dealt with this situation on our own, so far. We'll just have to keep doing what we're doing, stick together and try to stay safe until help arrives. Angela doesn't seem to be any clearer about what's going on than we are," I mused.

"She's not and she's very apologetic about it. She really wants to help but she doesn't have the ability to do anything on her own. She rarely does investigations so she can't offer any factual help," Bella justified in Angela's defense. "I told her that, for safety's sake, Sam and I are staying with you. That worried her a great deal even though she agreed we are probably safer together."

"Why would that concern her?" I asked.

"The fact that Carrie laid claim on my house. By leaving it because of her, I gave up my claim on it…gave her just what she wanted and, in fact, may have empowered it/her by leaving," she clarified.

"Oh, this just gets better and better, doesn't it?" I sneered sarcastically, throwing my hands up in the air.

At the shocked look on Bella's face, I instantly decided my sarcasm was only hurting the situation and changed my tune.

"Bella, I promise we will find a way to fix this," I told her.

"I hope so, Edward. Carrie's life depends on it and maybe our lives, as well," she murmured, casting a sad, worried glance in Mac's direction.

I think, for the first time, it really hit home with me that this wasn't just a series of frightening, unnatural events. This thing had harmed us both and if it could injure, it could kill. She was right, though. Carrie was in imminent danger. How long could she hold on with an evil entity sharing her body? Apparently, she wasn't strong enough to fight for and gain control even for a short period of time. My eyes squeezed shut to think she may already be lost to us forever and how that would destroy Bella. She loved her sister deeply…you could hear it in her voice when she spoke of Carrie.

No! I wouldn't accept that and I wouldn't share my fears with Bella. There had to be a way to save Carrie…to save us all.

"I did have one idea and Angela agreed that it's not only not a bad idea but it might actually help the team when they do arrive," she said, interrupting my dark thoughts.

"What's your not bad idea?" I chuckled, curious where this was going. Bella knew more about this kind of thing than I did so, if it could help in any way, I was all for it.

"Oddly enough, I kept getting flashes of Carrie telling me about a haunting case she'd watched on TV where the people had purchased some property and built a home on it. To everyone's knowledge, there had never been a building on that land so why were they being haunted? They were unable to get help and had no clue where to start looking for a history on such a thing. Eventually, they decided to buy surveillance cameras and tape recorders for capturing EVP's to see if they could get some information on their own. That's what made me come here to buy several cameras and a few digital recorders," she concluded.

"Okay, I get the cameras part but what is an EVP? Do you mean just record sounds in the room? Because the cameras would do that, wouldn't they?" I asked, still confused.

"They would but that's not what I'm after. EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Basically, you ask questions when you're alone in the room. Even though you may not hear anything at the moment, sometimes you hear a disembodied voice reply to your question when you play the tape back," she explained.

"Seriously? You think that kind of thing actually works?"

"Sure I do, now. Does furniture usually move all by itself? If you can accept that, why not accept EVPs? We're dealing with things that have unknown capabilities. I once teased Carrie about believing in such things and she told me something that blew me away. Did you know we only use 10% of our brains? Despite all of our vast knowledge and technology, we still don't fully understand how the brain works. How then can we possibly discount what may or may not lie on the other side of life or what it is capable of? Perhaps these bodies in which our souls are bound prevent us from using our abilities to the fullest and once we're freed of them by death, our limitations are lifted," she rationalized.

I had to admit she had a point but I couldn't agree or disagree with her. All I knew was that, since coming here, I'd seen, heard and felt things I would have scoffed at previously. Now, I could believe just about anything is possible.

~o0o~

On the way home, we agreed to drop Mac and Sam off at my house and make sure Leah would keep a watchful eye on them. Then, we'd return to Bella's and set up the cameras and attempt to get some EVPs. Angela had warned Bella, if she insisted on attempting to do this alone…without the team, to be extremely careful about the questions she asked. She was not to challenge the spirit, demand anything or compel any answers. Until the team arrived, she advised Bella to treat it as though it were a guest in her home. The last thing she wanted to do was to anger the damn thing and, if anything unnatural happened, we'd leave the house immediately and not attempt to gain any further information.

We didn't say much with Mac in the car and what we did say was as cryptic as possible. Just as we turned onto Weeping Willow Road, I heard the wail of sirens behind me and pulled over. Two police officers, a fire truck and an ambulance flew past us and Mac's eyes nearly bugged out of her head trying to take it all in. I couldn't recall her ever having seen the flashing lights or hearing the siren of a police car. Dark memories of the last time I'd seen them came rushing back at me with such clarity I squeezed my eyes shut to block the images from my mind.

"Wow! Look, Daddy, look! Where they goin'? They're flyin!" Mac squealed excitedly.

"They're rushing to try and help someone, Bunny," I explained, eyes still tightly shut.

Leaning forward, I pinched the bridge of my nose. Too much was going on right now and I so didn't need images from the day my wife died torturing me, as well.

"Is somebody hurted? Will they be okay, Daddy?" Mac asked.

"The police and paramedics will do all that they can to help them, Mac," Bella chimed in to answer when I couldn't.

There was a gentle touch on my right arm.

"Edward, are you okay?" she asked softly.

I heard the concern in her voice and felt the warmth of her hand. Covering it with my own, I opened my eyes. The images faded swiftly away and I smiled warmly at Bella, lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it in gratitude. Despite what we were going through, I was very glad she was in our lives.

"I'm fine, Bella," I assured her.

Seeing that traffic was clear, I put the car into "drive" and pulled back onto the road.

"Where they goin', Daddy? Does anybody besides us live on this road?" Mac asked.

Out of the mouth of babes, I thought. As far as I knew, there were no other homes on this street. It dead ended a mile or two down the road. Fuck! I floored the gas pedal and caught up to the ambulance in time to see them turn down my driveway! Terror filled me with such speed, I felt sick.

"Bella, please stay in the car with Mac and Sam. Mac, do not leave the car! Do you understand me?" I ordered a little too harshly.

Her excitement turned to confused fear as she clutched her bunny to her chest. Sam sat up in the back seat and laid his head on her lap as though offering not only comfort and protection but keeping her in her car seat, as well. It seemed like we'd never reach the end of the driveway despite the speed we were going. Leah and Jake's faces flashed through my mind. What if he'd ignored my request and tried to read the journal looking for answers about Carrie now that he knew something had possessed her? What if he, too, had been filled with rage and had attacked Leah? What if Jake had gone to find Carrie, brought her back to Cullen House and she'd done something to them both? What if Leah had been cooking and the pilot light had gone out and now she was lying dead in the kitchen? The endless possibilities were running rampant in my mind. I only knew I didn't want Mac or Bella to see whatever had happened or risk being injured, as well.

"Yes, Daddy. What happened? Is Leah and Jake okay?" she fretted, her little face beginning to pucker as tears welled in her eyes.

"I don't know, Bunny, but you need to stay in the car with Bella until I find out if it's safe, okay?" I replied, softening my tone considerably.

As I neared the house, I recognized Lauren Mallory's white Bentley sitting in the driveway followed by a virtual train of emergency vehicles. What was she doing here? I jumped out of the car only to be stopped by two police officers.

"I'm sorry, sir. I can't let you in there. This is a crime scene," one of them informed me.

"A crime scene? That's my house! What happened? Are Leah and Jake all right?" I demanded, struggling against them to enter my home.

"Please step back, sir. You can't enter the home until we've completed our investigation," the shorter of the two officers ordered.

With his hand in the center of my chest, he attempted to push me backward but I was taller than them both by nearly a foot. I wasn't about to be kept out of my own home when my family was in unknown danger.

"The hell I can't!" I yelled, faking right then running left past the both of them.

"Leah! Jake!" I hollered, bursting through the open front door to find Leah and Jake standing with another officer in the foyer. Leah was crying openly, her hands covering her face as she leaned on Jake for support. Jake looked pale, in shock, and frankly scared out of his mind.

"Thank God, you're both okay!" I groaned in relief.

I pulled Leah into my arms and, whether he liked it or not, put my hand on Jake's neck and pulled him into the embrace, as well. We might not be related but, in the past eight months, these two had become part of my family…the brother and sister I never had.

"Edward? Oh, God, it was awful!" Leah cried.

From here, I could see straight down the hall to the bathroom. The door looked to have been decimated by a fireman's ax and the constant repeating flash of a camera showed from inside. The two cops who'd tried to keep me out finally caught up with me. Jake stepped back as they rushed into the room but the officer who'd been talking to Leah and Jake waved them off. Once they'd disappeared back outside, I noticed Jake had a bruise on his arm growing darker by the minute. His shirt was also soaked in perspiration front and back.

"Mr. Cullen, what is your relationship with Lauren Mallory?" the officer inquired.

"Relationship? There is no relationship! I met her once when she came here soliciting my involvement in her tourism business. I wasn't interested and she left. Now, will you please tell me what happened?" I growled, thoroughly irritated at being left in the dark.

"Miss Mallory is dead, sir. She's been murdered," he replied in a matter of fact tone that seemed extremely coldhearted to me.

"Dead? Murdered?" I gasped, feeling like someone had just punched me in the stomach. "How? Why?"

"That's what we're trying to determine," he answered.

And so it went for the next hour as homicide detectives joined the motley crew at Cullen House. They asked a million questions of us and gave little information in return. Whispering among themselves, they cast sidelong glances in our direction as if disconcerted that all of our alibis panned out. No one mentioned or even alluded to the fact that Cullen house was haunted and that this was the work of some evil spirit. Frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised if the entire town was well aware of my resident ghost. Despite myriad questions and Leah's unwelcoming attitude towards the Mallory woman, I got the distinct impression the police didn't seriously consider any of us suspects in her death. In fact, they seemed to have been expecting a suspicious and unexplained event to occur here for quite some time.

Through Jake and Leah's answers, I was able to piece together what had happened. It was the why and how that boggled my mind. Jake's arm was bruised from his attempt at trying to break through the door to get to Lauren. Looking at him, it was hard to believe his muscular physique had been unable to manage it. It told me that, like the furniture moving to block our path this morning, something supernatural had prevented him getting in. She'd still been locked in and screaming up until the fireman had swung his ax. At that first swing, she'd fallen silent and when they entered the bathroom, they found her completely alone and stone cold dead.

The homicide detectives eventually left, the questioning stopped and it was time for the body to be removed from the bathroom. The ambulance stretcher was rolled down the hall and, as the paramedics waited to offer their assistance, it was the firemen who lifted Lauren out of the bathroom and onto the gurney. What I saw at that moment chilled me to the bone and will haunt me all of my days. Her body wasn't limp as it should have been. It was, quite literally, petrified…inflexible as stone. She was wet from head to toe with what looked like splotches of mud smeared on her clothing and skin. Her silver blonde hair, which had probably been pulled back into an elegant twist, was in wildly tangled, wet disarray, hands and arms frozen in a protective position over her face. Multi-colored bruises painted her legs, arms and throat but her face was the most horrific. Her once lovely features were twisted into an expression of sheer terror, eyes wide and bulging, lips purple and pulled back in a silent scream that would never be heard.

~o0o~

Even though her body had been covered with a sheet, parts of her body stuck out from beneath it due to her stiff form. Just the sight of that lumpy, sheet covered mass and protruding body parts made me dizzy and nauseous. During my career, I'd seen more than my fair share of battered women and dead bodies in photographs but this was beyond monstrous.

The police had already arranged for Lauren's Bentley to be towed away as evidence. They'd also placed the refreshments Leah had served Lauren in evidence bags. I assumed it was to have them tested for any kind of poison residue. I couldn't very well blame them. Under the circumstances, that was their best guess, although they weren't making any move to arrest Leah on suspicion of murder just yet.

As the body was being loaded into the ambulance, I returned to my car to find Mac in the front seat curled up fast asleep in Bella's arms. Sam's muzzle rested on her left shoulder from behind, still keeping watch on my girls.

"She got scared when she saw the cops pushing you back and started crying," Bella explained in a whisper. It took a while but she eventually cried herself to sleep."

"Better for her to see that than what I saw," I confided softly.

To Bella's credit, she didn't ask questions right away. There was a dark tension in the air that was palpable. I started the car and followed the train of vehicles around the circular drive until I was parked in front of the house. As soon as I got out and opened the door, poor Sam lunged from the car desperate to relieve himself on the nearest bush. Retrieving Mac from Bella's arms and hefting her over my shoulder, I offered my hand to help her from the car certain she was cramped having held a sleeping Mac in her arms for over an hour.

Hesitating in the foyer, I was unsure what to do with Mac. At this point, there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell I'd leave her alone in any room in this house and yet I knew we all needed to talk. Clear cut answers on what had happened were needed, not just what I had pieced together, and Bella needed to know these entities we were facing were capable of killing us all. Deciding the best option was to place Mac on the sofa in the music room, my plan was to leave the sliding pocket door leading to the dining room open so we could all sit in there and talk. As a safety precaution, I braced the door open with a broom from the kitchen by placing the wooden handle inside the locking mechanism.

Leah was far too frazzled to do anything about dinner, not that I'd expect her to…she'd been through enough and didn't need to worry about serving us, so I made her sit quietly while I ordered pizza to be delivered.

With one more check on Mac, we gathered around the dining room table and began filling each other in on all the details we were aware of. Finally, after Bella relayed the information she'd received from Angela, there was a heaviness in the atmosphere that weighed us all down. There was no longer any point in not talking about these spirits inside the home. All our efforts to date hadn't stopped it from trying to kill us.

"I remember Ma telling me somethin' similar happened to Mr. Lawrence. He was in the psychiatric hospital at the time but he died in his bed the same way. They had to have a closed coffin for him because they couldn't remove that look on his face," Leah was relating.

She'd finally stopped crying but her hands were still shaking.

"Wait. If he was in the hospital, it couldn't have been the ghost, right?" Bella asked, having just been told the story about my Great Uncle Lawrence for the first time.

"Course it was the ghost!" Leah scoffed. "He lived here…stirred it up and by makin' all them changes. Rumor had it they was about to release him from the hospital and he told 'em he wasn't about to be run off by no ghost or stop his renovations. Well, the ghost stopped him forever and that's a fact."

"Damn! I wish your mom was still alive, Leah. She might have had all the answers we need to stop this thing forever," I complained, feeling defeated.

I ran my hands through my hair with my elbows on the table. I didn't know how to fight the unseen or protect those I loved from facing a horrible death. All I wanted to do was get everyone on a plane and leave this haunted house from hell far far behind us. That was the hard part…knowing that dumping this place on someone else or even burning it to the ground, despite my love for it, wouldn't stop this from affecting us. The damn thing could follow us anywhere so we might as well stay here and face it.

"Ma ain't dead," Leah said, looking surprised at my statement, and my head snapped up to look at her in shock.

"What?"

"Ma ain't dead. I don't know where you got that idea," she replied, shaking her head.

"Leah, I have to talk to her…as soon as possible! Can we go tonight?" I cried.

For the first time, I felt hope coursing through my veins.

"But, Edward, you don't understand. Ma's in an old folks home. She saw somethin' here, somethin' horrible, and it gave her a stroke. I took care of her long as I could but when it got to the point where she needed constant medical attention, I had to give up. That stroke took away her ability to speak properly, too. Oh, by now, I can pretty much understand her but it's taken me years get used to her new speech pattern. It was like learnin' a whole new language. So, even if you went to see her…even if she agreed to talk to you about her experiences here, which she won't, you'd never understand her," Leah explained.

"Then translate! You have to get her to talk to us. She needs to tell us everything she knows. Hell, our lives…Mac's life depends on it. If there's anything she can tell you at all that you don't already know then it could help us to stop this thing before someone else dies!" I begged unashamedly.

"Edward, this house, the family itself and possibly Bella's, as well, is cursed! The only way to stop what's happenin' is to free the spirit that's causin' this…like the poem says, "she continued.

"Exactly my point! Your mother knows things she's never told you. You said so yourself. Those things might lead us to the answer on how to stop this!" I shouted, pounding a fist on the table.

"Wait! What curse? What poem?" Bella interrupted.

I could see in her eyes that, like me, she had a tiny bit more hope now, at the mention of Leah's mom, than she'd had a moment ago.

"Tell her, Leah. It can't hurt and it just might help. Carrie's in danger, too, don't forget," Jake chimed in.

"First off, y'all have to understand somethin'. All my life, my Ma worked here and rumors of Cullen House bein' haunted were alive and well even back then. Growin' up, kids at school used to tease me by tellin' me the ghosts at Cullen House were gonna get me and Ma one day. I don't know where the curse poem came from but they used to taunt me with it whenever I'd walk by.

Until the dark spirit is freed,

From that which it's bound,

The curse will remain,

Upon Cullen ground.

No fruit will she bear,

No prosperity make,

Till the wrongs have been righted,

For those that justice forsake.

Then they'd laugh and call me Ghost Girl and a buncha other insults," she sighed.

"Hell'n that curse is so cryptic it could mean a million different things, assumin' there's any truth to it at all," Jake scoffed.

"I know, right? It's like the Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde only darker and more sinister," I mused.

"Edward's right, Leah. The only reason we even know about the Edward of 1860 having murdered the twins is because we looked it up. We couldn't find anything else so, if your mom knows the true histories, you have to at least try to get her to pass them on to you," Bella encouraged.

"Okay, I'll try but I'm goin' alone," Leah insisted. "She won't open her mouth at all if she knows you're a Cullen. Maybe if I tell her you're renovatin' and that the troubles have started again, she might tell me what she knows to protect me. Then again, she may just tell me to get the hell out while I can."

The rumble of a storm building up outside woke Mac a short time later which coincided with the pizza delivery. By the time we finished eating, it still hadn't begun to rain and Leah left to go talk to her mom. After making sure we'd be okay here without him, Jake returned to his house out back assuring me nothing had ever bothered him out there…so far.

After a mad dash upstairs to quickly wash up and change into our pajamas, we brought Mac's Barbie dolls downstairs for her to play with while Bella and I talked.

"In the morning, after I talk to Leah to see what her mom was able to tell her, we'll go and set up the cameras at your house to try for those EVP's," I offered.

Knowing how worried she was about her sister, I hated that her plans had been put on hold. I'd hate it, too, if I'd been run out of my home under those circumstances…unable to go back for fear of my own safety yet knowing my sister was trapped and being victimized at the same time. My heart went out to her.

"It's not your fault, Edward. You had no idea Lauren Mallory would come here again or that anything would happen while you were gone. I don't even know what good it'll do but I have to try," she declared.

"Of course you do. We'll get her back, Bella. If there's any way to save her, we'll do it together," I promised.

"Thank you. That means a lot," she replied.

Before I could say anything else, the phone rang. It was Angela. Asking her to hold on for a minute, I told Bella who it was and asked her to distract Mac so I could tell her what had happened to Lauren. By the time the call ended, I was torn between terror and joy. The PRF team would be on a plane arriving back home by 10 am tomorrow morning. Travel time being ten and a half hours from Rome to Atlanta and another hour and a half to Macon, they would need the next day to regroup which would get them here the day after tomorrow.

That was the good news. The bad news was that Angela was sure an entity capable of killing and possession had to be a demon. I decided not to tell Bella the bad news…she was scared and worried enough as it was. Of course, when I told her the PRF team would be on their way in the morning, she was overjoyed.

Although neither one of us had ever watched any of the TV shows on how this sort of thing worked, she knew Carrie had seen them all. If only she could talk to her sister, Carrie would be able tell them so much. With her sister around, we wouldn't be flying blind in this. Guilt filled me as she talked about Carrie. Maybe I should have told her the bad news but I didn't see how scaring her any more than she already was would do her any good.

"You know, I've been thinking about that poem. The answer is in there somewhere if we could just figure it out," she was saying as I tuned back in.

"How do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, it says 'Until the dark spirit is freed, from that which it's bound.' That implies the spirit that's here…the one that killed Lauren, right?" she continued.

"You're discounting the one that has a hold on Carrie. She tried to kill Sam so she could just as well be the dark entity," I suggested.

"No, I don't think so. The curse is on Cullen ground. The poem says so. I think maybe what's in my house maybe separate from what's going on here," she concluded.

"How can you say that when the spirit in your home looks just like me…like the guy in the newspaper? He was a Cullen," I insisted.

"True, but if he's over there then who's here with us?" she wondered.

"Who says it's not him doing these things? He's murdered before and he could do it again. It was a woman that was killed, after all," I reminded her.

"Okay let's forget that for now. The poem said 'No fruit will she bear, no prosperity make.' That has to make reference to your orchard. You said yourself it had never turned a profit yet the trees showed no signs of disease," she proposed.

"I thought so, too, but when we discovered 1860's Edward had killed his fiancé and her sister, it made me wonder if the 'No fruit would she bear' was in reference to them. Maybe he was going to marry the one but had gotten the other one pregnant. If that were the scenario, he could have refused to help the pregnant sister, the fiancé might then have found out about it and refused to marry him, threatening to expose him for it, and he killed them both," I argued as passionately as if I were still practicing law.

"I'm starting to believe Jake, now. It's so cryptic, it could mean anything," she conceded.

As the night wore on, the storm intensified. At first, it was nothing but a distant, rolling thunder and heat lightening licking across the sky. As the storm grew closer, the thunder rattled the windows and the lightening illuminated the entire room. That's when Mac really started to get frightened. With no signs of it letting up any time soon, I began to wonder what to do about the sleeping arrangements, not only because Mac was afraid of the storm but, after recent events, because it was unsafe for anyone to be alone in any room. Having us all sleeping in my bedroom was certainly out of the question.

It was Bella who came up with a solution to my dilemma by way of comforting Mac. She suggested an indoor campout, a phrase that confused the hell out of me, so I just followed her lead. Together, we pushed the coffee table out from in front of one of the two sofas in the living room, pulled in a small love seat for Mac to sleep on and arranged them all in a triangle shape. When Bella made a pyramid out of three lit flashlights and placed them in the open space in the middle for a campfire, I finally got the idea.

To make the tent, we stretched blankets across the tops of the sofa, holding them in place using bag clips she found in the kitchen. The final touch was packing the sofas and love seat with blankets and pillows before crawling underneath and onto our separate "beds."

Mac fell for the whole set-up hook, line and sinker. She was so excited about camping out, she completely forgot to be afraid of the ever increasing storm. The power went out a few moments later and, when Mac just grinned happily, I was once more grateful for Bella's brilliance and her presence in our lives.

As my precious daughter fell asleep, I looked across to Bella and mouthed the words, "Thank you."

AN: Now aren't you glad I ended on a happy note after all that angst? I'm already working on the next chapter and hope to have it ready sooner rather than later but RL being what it is, I can't promise. Thanks for stickin' with me, anyway!