Hello everyone! I hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter. Another sad one, but it gets better from here. As the title of my story says, 'Family is Forever'. Alcina will see many familiar faces. All is not lost, but she must fight and suffer through the megamycete in order to be truly free… Thanks as always for tuning in!

Darkness. Terrible darkness.

Veiny branches bound her arms, legs and torso. She could not move. She was sinking into /it/. The megamycete. It was taking her completely now. She was of no more use.

'The megamycete catalogs all of us.'

'Mother Miranda?'

'We are all part of it. Bound by it. We are gifted its power, but something of equivalence must be exchanged. To take. We must also give back.'

'NO!' Alcina struggled, fighting as hard as she could to be free of it. But the harder she fought. The faster it pulled her down. 'I do not deserve this. I did not ask for this, did I?'

'You came willingly,' Alcina could still hear Mother Miranda's voice, though it was mingled with another. Something deeper. Inhuman. 'You were alone. Lost all that you had and came to us obediently. Without question.'

'You took advantage of that!' Alcina's mind screamed back. 'I was broken and hopeless. I was left with no other option.'

'Do not lie to me or yourself. You did it in order to seek your vengeance. Your heart wanted it. You had a choice. There is always a choice.' Laughter. His laughter. Roderick's. Mother Miranda's. The Cadou.

The parasite had her now. Only her head remained above it. Her eyes slowly shutting. Perhaps… perhaps she did deserve this after all.

She was pulled under.

Surrounded by all her victims. Hundreds of maidens and men. All wielding weapons to beat, slash and stab her.

'Run!'

The megamycete released its hold on her. A sudden hit to her back sending her forward.

'The gauntlet.'

'RUN!' the voices screamed at her.

This time a knife slashed at her arm. A young woman with empty sockets. Black hollow holes.

'Suffer,' she said.

Over and over again.

Her body was breaking. Shattering into pieces until she finally collapsed. Continuing to be stabbed and beaten. Her arms gone. Then her legs.

'Suffer.'

A snap of fingers.

'Alcina.'

The abuse ceased.

The smell of something dead meeting her nostrils. She could move. Her limbs still attached. The darkness shifting to an image of a shed.

Snap.

She stood inside the shed. Watching as two men stood in front of a table where the foul odor was coming from.

Splat. Splat.

Alcina could smell blood. See it pooling underneath the table.

'Cut off the head.'

'No…' Alcina stumbled back, but there was no door to escape through. She was trapped unable to look away as the men moved to each end of the table.

'Alcina.'

A scream burst from her lips.

'Fredric.'

Tears rolled down her face. His green eyes directed to her.

'Help me.'

The man standing behind Fredric's head had hold of an axe, laughing at the pathetic state of him before he swung it down.

'NO!' Alcina frantically tried to move, but she was held back by an invisible hold. Watching as it took another swing for Fredric's head to fall.

'Alcina.'

He said again, his eyes still staring straight at her.

'Help me.'

Her entire body trembled.

'Let me go!'

Bang!

Gun smoke.

'Gods. Please. No! Stop. STOP!'

She had been whisked away again. Back to the moment of Josie's death. Her child dying in her arms. Her beautiful girl.

Josie wrestling with Roderick.

'JOSIE!' Alcina surprised to find she could move this time, sprinted straight for Roderick. Her teeth bared. A guttural roar erupting out of her. She would kill him. She would protect her! 'You bastard! Cowardly piece of filth!'

She gasped, tripping over something. No. Not something. A hand had grabbed her by the ankles, causing her to topple over and slam her face to the floor.

'S.U.F.F.E.R.'

{…}

"Mother."

'Who is that? Who is calling to me?' she blinked her eyes. Darkness all around her still. 'My imagination?'

"Mother!"

'It cannot be.' She watched as a single butterfly flittered passed her face. Green, red, blue, yellow and purple. A beautiful creature. Painted with the loveliest colors she had ever seen.

"Mother. Mother, can you hear me?"

Wait. She knew that voice…

"Where am I?"

A hand rested gently on her right shoulder and then a second. She blinked her eyes open rapidly. It could not be. No she did not believe it.

They were seated beside her on a large bed. She could not tear her eyes from them. Their appearance much different now. They looked as they had looked in the portrait.

"B-Bela? Da-Daniela?"

Were they her children? Or were they the souls of the girls she had sacrificed? Sybilla, Vivian and Ezrabeth come back. Come back to torment her. Seek vengeance against her?

Suffer.

She waited. Her heart galloping in her chest upon the next thing they would do or say to her. She could feel Daniela or Ezrabeth's hand trembling on her shoulder. Her chin quivering violently as the tears pooled in her beautiful blue eyes.

"Mother," she squeaked. "You are here. You are here."

Alcina released a shuddering breath.

It was her.

"Daniela. My dearest child."

Daniela launched herself at her mother, wrapping her arms around Alcina's neck and burying her face into the crook of her neck, sobbing.

"Shh, Daniela," Alcina swallowed thickly, patting her child gently on the back and looking straight at Bela. She was smiling. Tears of her own sliding down her face. So full of color and life. Rosy pink cheeks.

"Welcome back, Mother," she said, keeping her hand rested on her mother's shoulder.

"Bela, my Bela." She leaned over and kissed her cheek, breathing deeply and taking in her scent. Smiling at the feel of her curly locks tickling her face, though her heart grew heavy. She straightened her posture, continuing to hold Daniela in her arms as she settled.

"Mother. I—we…"

"I know," she whispered, eyeing about the room. "I am sure you have plenty of questions, and quite frankly I do to…" she frowned, looking back at Bela. "Where is Cassandra?"

"She had gone out for a walk through the garden," Daniela said, pulling back from Alcina slightly. "Shall I go fetch her?"

"Outside?!" Alcina said in alarm.

"Mother," Bela said. "That does not affect us anymore."

Alcina had no words. Even more perplexed by what was happening, which could only mean…

"Go ahead and bring Cassandra inside for me."

"Yes, Mother," she said. "I will be back shortly."

Once Daniela had left, Alcina rose off the bed without any issue. Her eyes roving around the room. It looked so familiar. Knowing it was no room found in the castle.

"Mother," Bela said, watching her closely.

Alcina did not answer, spotting a hand held mirror resting on a vanity, she picked it up and held it up to her face. Just as she thought. Her face. Her eyes. No doubt her height, too. She was once again human.

She set the mirror back down and went straight to the window, throwing open the curtains to allow the sunshine to flood inside. The world outside. The sky blue. A lush land of green stretching out for miles. A few trees dotted here and there.

The manor.

Of all the places to be. She was back at the beginning again. She closed her eyes. Gooseflesh forming up and down her body as the sun warmed her skin.

'This is my old room, but how can that be? The manor had been burned down.'

The sound of heels made her open her eyes and turn to face the door. There she stood.

"Cassandra." Alcina whispered.

Daniela stood beside Bela now, the two holding hands and watching their sister. She did not move, or speak. She dressed in a pretty red dress with a single pink flower placed in her hair.

"Hello, my love."

"Hello…, Mother."

So many emotions were playing across her face, but she made no move to her mother.

Alcina remained by the window, accepting the reason why Cassandra was hesitant.

"Tell me what is going on inside of you, precious."

Cassandra shut her eyes for a moment at her mother calling her that, her finger's clenched up into tight fists.

"You. You took her. Took all of them." She opened her eyes. "I saw her. The one named Vivian who had this face, but she was not angry with you. No. She did not hate you, nor did they. Sybilla and Ezrabeth." Cassandra was breathing heavily, eyes flashing open as she stared straight at Alcina. "The portrait in the Entrance Hall. Daniela had mentioned it. Your story. I always knew! I always knew it was a fabrication."

Alcina nodded.

"You were always astute. All three of you. And now you know the truth. You met them. Those children."

"In that dark place, Mother," Daniela whispered, squeezing Bela's hand.

Alcina lowered her head, the emotions finally surfacing. She covered her face as the tears flowed. Her whole body trembling as she continued to weep. Did they suffer as she had? What torment and pain had they endured in that madness? She felt such guilt. So much guilt.

"But Mother…"

Alcina lowered her fingers as Cassandra continued.

"It does not matter to me now as it did not matter to me then. For no matter who we are or where we go, I am yours. You are mine." With that final statement, Cassandra rushed to her mother, arms out wide as she embraced her mother in a loving hold. "Mother… I have missed you."

"Cassandra, oh my precious one, how I have missed you."

{…}

Journal Entry:

What a strange thing. I still do not quite understand what this is. This other world if you will. Awoken to find myself in my old manor. Everything is just as it had been. No plate was out of place. The rugs. Paintings. All of my jewelry and clothes, but for how long? Does time not exist in this place or in the darkness? My torment from my victims. How long had that truly lasted? Then seeing Josie and Fredric. Over and over again. It all kept happening the same way.

I have been here with my daughters for two days' now, and have wondered if this is real, or something conjured up by the megamycete. If so, does that mean my children are still lost within that dark place? Frightened and alone?

My hand trembles as I write this. It is sometimes unendurable. My mind torturing me with these intrusive thoughts, and perhaps that is the point. Yes. How the megamycete is tormenting me still. Suffer. A reminder that it is here with me still. In a small way it will never leave me, nor my daughters.

Just last night of was jolted awake by the sound of Daniela screaming. I rushed to her room and found her hiding underneath her bed. After fifteen minutes I got her out and led her back to my room. From there she told me about her night terror. How she was being sucked into the blackness. She hearing the voices of the maidens she had tortured and killed. Feeling their pain as they had felt it the moment of their terrible, agonizing deaths.

My suspicions confirmed. They too going through the same thing as I had.

The voice. She had trouble describing it to me, but I know. I had heard it, too. Bela and Cassandra have not had these night terrors. Nonetheless, Bela has told me she sees and hears things at times. A voice whispering to her. A cold chill breathing at her back.

Even in this seeming paradise, we are still captives. Just as we were in the village. Trapped, but I will not spout my grievances. Nor will I question anymore of this world. I am with my children, and that is all I ever want.

Of course they have inquired about the manor. Daniela having been snooping about in the library and finding a photo album. Flipping through the pages she had found a photograph of myself with Fredric, Helena and Josie.

"'The girl on the right looks the most like you'," Daniela had commented.

I told them that was Helena and the other was Josie.

"'Who is the man-thing'?" Cassandra had asked next.

"'My husband, Fredric.'"

"'Your HUSBAND?!'" Cassandra was astounded to hear that including Daniela, who was staring intently at Fredric.

"'Do you disapprove of him?'" I had asked her.

She pondered the question seriously for a moment before answering.

"'No, he is quite suitable… and charming.'"

I could not help but titter upon seeing her cheeks redden. Clearly attracted to him. I always knew Cassandra had fine taste.

After that all three continued to look through the album. Cassandra and Daniela wanting to see more, which I allowed them to do. After all, they are their family, too.

Alcina closed her journal, opening a drawer to place it in when she froze. Her focus fixed on a butterfly hairclip. The exact one Helena had worn as a little girl.

"This was not here before…" She picked it up carefully in her hands, finding a single strand of her daughter's hair still attached to it. "Helena." She had not visited Josie or Helena's old rooms. They were locked and Alcina kept them that way. "Not yet. I cannot just yet. Forgive me, my beauties." Alcina opened her journal and placed the strand inside. Tucking it away for safe keeping.

Alcina checked the drawer to ensure it was locked, she rose to her feet and walked over to the window. It was getting darker outside and still no sign of them.

"I wonder where they are now?" Alcina mused out loud. "They spend their entire day exploring the grounds. Just the other night I was forced to collect them. It took me thirty minutes when I finally found them in the fields, all three staring mesmerized at the fireflies. I promised them tonight they could go back out and collect some. Cassandra and Daniela already finding jars in the kitchen to place them in." She began to smile.

"Mother?" Bela called out to her from the doorway.

"Time?"

"Yes," she said, Daniela skipping towards them.

"Then let us not waste another second," she walked to the door, not even having to ask where Cassandra was.

"She is outside," Daniela stated. "She thinks getting a head start will give her the advantage to catching more. Why must she make everything a competition?"

"It is who she is, Dani," Bela answered her. The two walking ahead of their mother down the hall, while Alcina followed behind in silence. She had been listening to them when a gentle breath of a breeze brushed across her cheek. A short burst of cold air. She stopped, glancing back down the hall.

"Come along, Mother!" Daniela called to her.

"Yes, yes I am coming." She kept staring back down the hall, having sworn she saw a flash of white rounding the corner in the direction of…

"Mother?" Bela touched her arm.

Alcina turned her attention to Bela with a weak smile.

"It is nothing. Come. Let us go find our Cassandra before she catches all of these fireflies."

{-}

Alcina had taken a seat on a lone bench. Watching as Daniela and Cassandra were jumping around to catch the elusive bugs. It made her happy to see them so jubilant, but something in her heart kept pulling her attention to the manor. A call that she needed to answer.

"Are you all right, Mother?" Bela took a seat beside her.

"I am," Alcina said, looping her arm around Bela's and placing a kiss to her temple. "It has occurred to me I never thanked you for watching over them in my absence."

"You needn't thank me, Mother. It is my duty after all."

Alcina just smiled, watching as Cassandra leapt up into the air and clapped her hands together.

"I got one!"

"Let me see!" Daniela said, trying to get a look at it between Cassandra's fingers. "There! I can see its light blinking."

"Quickly! Grab the jar!"

Daniela began her frantic search for the jar she had set down, while Cassandra continued to yell at her to hurry.

Bela bit down a snigger at her; however, when she looked to her mother did all humor vanish. Her eyes distant. The troubling far away look she held.

"Those rooms. They belonged to Josie and Helena," Bela said.

"… yes," Alcina said softly.

"Why do you not go inside?"

"I—" Alcina now looked up at the starry sky, struggling with the words. "I suppose I am afraid to go, because of the memory. The reminder that they are forever lost to me."

"They are not, though. The photographs we have looked through. The clothes. Their rooms, and most importantly is the memories you hold. The love you will always have for them. Eternal." Bela kissed her mother's cheek, bringing Alcina's focus back down to her child. "You must go inside those rooms, Mother. You must."

"I got three so far!" Cassandra's voice broke the stillness.

"I have five!" Daniela laughed.

"What?!" Cassandra glared after Daniela, who had so foolishly left her jar unattended. Grinning mischievously she grabbed hold of it and started to open it to release the bugs until:

"Cassandra!" Alcina and Bela shouted at her.

She cursed, leaving the jar be and going off to capture more of the bugs.

"I will, Bela," Alcina said. "I will go into the rooms."

Bela smiled, resting her head against her mother's shoulder.