A/N: Many thanks to starlight2twilight and tgurl620 for your reviews! Following this chapter there will be four more :)

Back to the Dark

Candy spat what she could back out into the glass, but it was too late. She had drunk without registering the strange taste. The familiar taste of Mater Motley's poison. Why had it been in the water? Why would Carrion put it there? Had everything he'd said been a lie? All this time had be preferred her incoherent and docile? Had he just been biding his time to drug her, and send her back down the path she had so desperately tried to change. Why?

But Carrion seemed just as perplexed as Candy. He took the glass from her hand and tasted the water for himself. It had been drugged. Candy looked at him with fear in her eyes. He knew instantly what she was thinking, that he had drugged her on purpose. He could read the betrayed look in her eyes.

Someone had set Candy up. He did not believe for one moment that Candy would go to all the trouble of trying to prove to him how well she was, just to start drinking again in his presence. In that instant Candy's previous words came back to him. She feared Miranda, and Miranda had access to this room. But so did all the maids, and various other servants. There was no proof, there was no one to accuse.

Candy pushed past him, and hurried into the corridor. She didn't know what to do, and already she could feel the potion working. She was starting to become light headed, and her vision wasn't so clear. She stood still for a moment trying to remember what she was doing, or why she had been feeling so upset. Suddenly she felt someone holding her shoulders and turning around.

"Hello," Candy said smiling.

Carrion took her hand and led her back towards her own rooms. He tried not to look at her face, which had lost all of its personality and her gaze gone from fiery to vague.

The opening of the door made Peta jump. She waited for her mistress, but when Carrion walked through first, Peta feared the worse. Then she saw Candy and she knew instantly that look on Candy's face.

"What happened?" Peta asked. She helped guide Candy to a chair, where she sat and looked up at them with a blank expression.

"There was that stuff she drinks in the water," Carrion explained.

"What? How…"

"Keep her here, and don't let her drink any more," Carrion instructed. "I'll be back later."

Carrion walked back to his rooms. In a dark mood he shouted at the servants he saw along the way to come and attend him. He dressed in his darkest colours, and called for his Collar of Nightmares. Once it was fitted the nightmares inside began to move, sensing his mood they swirled and danced around his face. Stalking through the corridors, he found Letheo already waiting for him in his office.

"I want you to find John DeWinters," Carrion said.

Letheo took one look at his master's expression and the way the nightmares were moving, and knew that DeWinters would not be in for a friendly chat. Something had happened to put his master in a bad mood, something obviously bad. And since his master's mood lately seemed to be dependant upon Candy Quackenbush, Letheo was willing to bet something had happened to her.

John DeWinters arrived looking as if he hadn't been to sleep for a long time. His shirt was crinkled and his eyes had dark shadows beneath them. But Carrion was in no mood to be merciful. The nightmares flared at the sight of the weaker looking man, and pressed against the glass trying to get closer to him.

"Take a seat," Carrion said, sitting down himself behind the desk. "I have some questions for you."

DeWinters did as he was instructed. He was tried; he'd been working solidly without a break, but had been pleased with his progress. He had been looking forward to putting his proposals before Lord Carrion, about his new tax system and spending plans. But he suspected that this was not what Carrion had called him in to discuss. But he reckoned he could guess what was coming. His sister had been throwing her weight around too much; maybe Carrion had finally had enough?

"Of course My Lord," DeWinters said, trying not to be intimidated by Carrion's appearance.

"I want you to tell me, what your sister expects from her time here," Carrion said.

John opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. He knew that whatever he said now would change his sister's future. He knew exactly what Carrion wanted to know, and he knew what he ought to say. But he still could not betray Miranda, no matter how much he might disagree with her ambitions.

"My sister is very ambitious Sir, she certainly enjoys being number one," John said. He tried to choose his words carefully. He did not want to lie, but he also couldn't tell Carrion the truth; that Miranda wanted Candy Quackenbush out of the way so that she could take her place.

"Except that she is not number one, is she," Carrion said, twisting around John's words. "But would she like to be?"

John hesitated. He didn't know what Carrion was trying to do. Was he trying to lead him into trap, or was he planning to give Miranda what she wanted?

"I don't know. I no longer see eye to eye with my sister, we do not want the same things," John said.

Carrion watched him closely. He could not tell whether John was trying to hide something from him, or if as he said, he no longer shared a confidence with his sister. Carrion suspected the latter was true. For a long time the pair had not seemed as close as they once were. Especially since John had stared working tirelessly with the new tax system. But it did not matter; he had a whole host of people to interview before he would make a decision.

As he left, John considered telling Miranda about what had happened, but when he found her waiting for him in his rooms, he hesitated. Her face was sour and she tapped her foot impatiently when he took too long to close the door.

"Well?" she snapped. "What did he want?"

"He? I suppose you mean Lord Carrion?" Even her tone irritated him, and her disrespect towards their master.

"Yes, Lord Carrion," Miranda said impatiently. "What did he want?"

John scowled at her. Miranda was getting too big headed. He felt like reminding her that he was the one with the credibility here, working hard, where as she was nothing but a 'whore'. She ought to be the last person demanding anything. But instead he bit his tongue and held his anger back.

"Nothing. He just wanted to go over my ideas. I haven't been updating him enough," John lied. As he spoke he didn't know why he didn't tell her the truth. The lie came out of his mouth before he'd even realised it.

"Oh," Miranda said sounding slightly disappointed. "I thought maybe…"

"What did you think?" DeWinters asked. There was obviously something Miranda wasn't telling him, and he was fast loosing faith in her. He wondered whether he ought to have told Carrion more about his suspicions.

"Nothing," Miranda said hastily. "Only… that little bitch ordered me out of his rooms. You should have seen her, she came bursting in like a demented harpy."

So Miranda had been put in her place at last, and she wasn't happy. But that didn't explain why she was so interested in what Carrion had to say. Unless she'd let something slip? Maybe she'd lost some of her usual control, and said something out of turn. Or maybe Carrion had seen into her greedy and ambitious mind, and not liked what he'd seen.

"Well, is that it?" John asked.

"Yes."

"OK then," he said opening the door. "Goodbye then."

As she left John decided to keep his secrets to himself. If she wouldn't confide in him, then he wouldn't in her.

Candy awoke with a thumping headache and an empty feeling inside. She was restless and couldn't stay still. She knew what she craved, and what she needed but it was hard to remember why she didn't really want it. She tried to close her eyes and ignore the feeling. But the more she tried not to think about the drink, the more she wanted it, until she reached over to her bedside drawer and half opened it. She slammed it shut and jumped out of bed. She needed to distract herself.

She called for something to eat, but it did little to fill the emptiness in her stomach. She walked in the grounds until she was tired again, lay in the bath and then listened to some music. Eventually Carrion came to see her and sat on the balcony with her. He looked down at the people stood at the gates, staring up at them. He seemed surprised to see them there.

"Can I do anything for you?" he asked at length. Candy's face was placid once more and there was a sheen of sweat on her skin.

"No, there is nothing," Candy said.

"I don't like to see you suffer like this," Carrion added.

Candy smiled at him, but she felt nothing at his admission of feeling. All she could think of was the drink. In the drawer in her bedroom was a small bottle of the potion. Just a little more wouldn't hurt. The damage had already been done. A little more would just take the edge off the pain and make it a little easier.

"I'll be alright," Candy assured him. She was itching to run into the bedroom and grab the bottle.

"I'll find who did this," he assured her.

"Of course you will," Candy agreed, her mind far away.

Carrion looked away. He preferred Candy when she was full of fire and screaming at him. This dull-eyed Candy was a completely different person, and she made him feel even more alone.

When Carrion finally left, Candy could not fight the craving any longer. Running into the bedroom, she grabbed the bottle and drained it. The liquid hit her bloodstream almost instantly, and she sank to her knees before falling to the floor, unable to stay awake. She was unconscious in seconds. The bottle slipped out of her hand and rolled towards the half open door, before coming to a stop. Then there was silence.