Song: Exit Music (For a Film) by Radiohead

She didn't know exactly how she would find them – dead, of course, but in what condition? And she knew it would have to be her to find them. They were her family; it would be wrong for anyone else to find their bodies. Like intruding on their privacy, she thought.

Blight knew it as well. "I can come in with you, if you want."

But Johanna knew that it was something she had to do by herself. Words failed her, and she shook her head – thankfully, Blight seemed to understand, and so Johanna went into her house alone.

Her hands shook as she opened the door. She wanted to close her eyes but what was the point of that?

She found Rowan first, in the hallway, curled up next to the shoes, one of her boots half-pulled onto her foot. There were her parents, slumped together on the sofa, looking as though they could be asleep if it weren't for the fact they were unnaturally pale, their chests still and unbreathing. Cubby in her basket in the kitchen, her furry little body stiff and cold. Bear was upstairs in his room, lying on the floor next to his dollhouse, a teddy clutched tightly in his small hands. They had been dead for probably no more than a day – it must have happened straight after they took Magnolia.

Johanna sunk to her knees and screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

0o0o

"Will I ever be alright again?" she asked Magnolia, forgetting, for a moment, that Magnolia was dead.

Magnolia took Johanna's face in her hands and kissed her on the forehead. "You know that I am not here."

"I know," Johanna admitted. "But I need you to answer me. Will I ever be okay?"

"No."

:(