Erin paced fretfully across the floor as she watched the clock hands tick move ever steadily towards midnight. When the curse had first been laid upon their youngest daughter, she had never dreamed that when Tabitha would turn sixteen, the country would be in the middle of a civil war, that it would have been raging for three years, and she would be left alone to fend for herself and her children as their normal way of life had crumbled around her feet. She desperately wished that Mark had been able to acquire leave in order to help her find a way, even this close to the deadline, to mitigate or dispel the curse. But it had been nearly three months since she had last had word of his battalion and she feared the worst.

"Mama?"

She looked up to see her baby girl coming into the library and over to her side, a sad look on her face. She knew that Mark wouldn't have agreed with her telling Tabitha about the curse that she had managed to have laid upon them when she had been born. "Hello, darling. You should be sleeping."

"How can I sleep when I know that this is probably the last moment I'll ever see you alive again? I've already said my goodbye's to Karen and Bruce, but I wanted to spend my last few hours with you."

Her daughter began to cry openly, and Erin held out her arms, allowing her to run over and hug her tightly. As she closed her arms around Tabitha, Erin struggled to hold her tears inside, knowing that if she started to sob, she'd never be able to stop, and she wanted to put on a brave face for her daughter. "I'm still trying to think of a way to break the curse. There has to be something that I can do to atone for my mistake."

"You did everything you could, Mama, and besides, at least this way you'll know I've made it through this awful war alive, and that one day I'll find true love, even if it takes a different form than yours."

Erin nodded as she stepped away from Tabitha, framing her face with her hands as she stared into her daughter's soft grey eyes that reminded her so much of Mark. "But I don't want you to spend God knows how many years trapped in a vessel of stone, separated from your siblings." Tabitha shrugged a little as she drifted over to the bookshelf that contained her favorite books, pulling out a well-worn copy of Pride and Prejudice before she took a seat on the settee and began to read.

Letting out a little sigh, Erin drifted over to the settee and took a seat next to her daughter, pulling out the pins that held her hair up and running her fingers through the long tresses to remove any lingering tangles before fashioning it into the crown of braids that always looked so elegant on her. "When I wake up, I'll still have a little piece of you with me now."

"Just as I'll always have a little piece of you with me, forever," she replied as she touched the locket that was pinned to her bodice. Inside, there were cuttings of hair from each of her three children, and a picture of Mark. "This will always remind me of the time when we were a family of five." Tabitha nodded as she leaned back against Erin, and they both lapsed into silence as her daughter read. Too soon, much too soon, the clock on the mantle began to ring out the chimes, and she struggled not to count to twelve, knowing that with the last one, they would be visited by the same witch who had cursed her seventeen years ago now, on the date of Tabitha's christening.

A violent shudder tore through her body as they heard the front door to their home open and close heavily before the sound of footsteps heading towards them filled her ears. Unconsciously, she tightened one hand protectively around Tabitha's shoulder, as if that would save her child from the fate she was about to meet. "I see that you've already told your daughter about what's going to happen to her."

The voice was exactly as she remembered it, and when Erin finally was able to tear her eyes away from her daughter, she could see that the woman also appeared to look exactly the same as well. "I thought that it would be better if she knew what was going to happen, rather than surprise her with the bitter truth when you arrived."

"Then you are smarter than many of the women I've made bargains with. Are you ready to meet your fate, Tabitha?"

Erin frowned as she clung to her daughter, shaking her head a little. "There has to be a way to save her from this. I would do anything."

The witch woman fixed her gaze on Erin, and she tried not to shiver again at the cold, calculating, look in her eyes. She had known that begging the woman for her daughter's life when she had been in labor with Tabitha would lead to bitter consequences, but now that the time to pay was here, she wanted to change the deal. She wanted her daughter to live. "Anything, Erin?"

"Yes," she replied without hesitation.

"Very well, I will transfer the curse I laid upon Tabitha at her christening onto you."

"Mama, no! We need you, they need you!"

She pressed her lips to the top of Tabitha's head before gently pushing her daughter away from her so that she could stand and face the woman eye to eye. "If I take on the curse myself, I want you to promise me something."

"You are a bold piece of brass, aren't you?"

"I can afford to be when we're talking about my life. I want you to promise me that they will come out of this war unscathed. Even if Mark doesn't come back from this war, I want them to safe." The first scalding tears splashed against her face as she held the woman's gaze, willing her to agree to the new caveat. Finally, the witch woman blinked first and nodded, and Erin felt all the air escape her lungs in a woosh of relief as she staggered forward. "Thank you."

"Do not thank me, Erin. You have no idea what the future will hold, for any of them."

"I don't need to. You promised me they'd be safe, and that's all that matters." Squaring her shoulders, she turned to look at Tabitha and gave her daughter a tender smile. "This way you can live with your siblings, and your father, if he comes home from this damned war. I love you, my sweet daughter. Now, I know exactly where I want to be until true love finds me." In the back of her mind, she knew that it wouldn't be that long until the War was over, and Mark would be home, and he would kiss her and break the curse. But she couldn't tell Tabitha that, since that would ruin her plan of desperation.

"What, you don't wish to remain in this house until the end of the War?"

Erin tried to keep her face neutral as she shook her head. "I want to be in my favorite spot on our property. The willow tree by the lake, where I can watch the sun rise every morning." The witch woman nodded her head as she gestured for Erin to lead the way, and she hurriedly hugged Tabitha before whispering in her ear. "Don't follow us, I don't want you to see what happens. But you know where I'll be, okay?" Her daughter nodded and Erin kissed her cheek softly before leaving the house and making her way down to the lake and her willow. This was the tree where Mark had asked her to marry him, where she had told him that they were having their babies, and it was a familiar, comforting, spot. "All right, before I lose my nerve."

The witch woman nodded and Erin listened to her chant lowly as a queer sensation began to tingle at her feet. She glanced down and gasped a little as she watched grey stone begin to encase her feet and then her dress, turning her into a living statue. Not wanting the expression on her face to be one of sorrow and fear, she deliberately took a few deep breaths, calming her spirit before she tried to place a placid smile on her lips. The last thing that she was conscious of was the sight of her daughter's face, and the smile wobbled on her lips before she could see no more.