I highly recommend you to read this and the following chapters at night, accompanied by some creepy background music (you can find something on youtube).

As usual, I don't own W.I.T.C.H.

They went to bed around ten o'clock after a fruitless search for any interesting program on the TV. On the way to her room to pick up her toothbrush, Will stopped by a window and looked outside. It had been cloudy the entire day and she had felt the temperature dropped significant when the evening came. Close up to the window, she could see tiny snowflakes that fell from the sky, signaling the arrival of the winter and the end of the autumn. It would probably be several days or even weeks before this happened home in Heatherfield due to its closeness to the ocean, but up here, it was only natural for the winter to come earlier.

"What are you thinking about?" An approaching Dean said softly to Will.

"Not much," she said, "it is snowing outside, do you think that will make it difficult to drive home tomorrow?"

Dean looked out the same window, and said, "Nothing to worry about, we have four wheel drive remember. Perhaps you might want to practice driving the car, I am sure I can persuade your mom to let you try."

Will gave a genuine smile back to Dean, "Thank you Dean, I will think about it, because I am not sure if I am ready to drive on snow filled roads yet." Dean gave her a nod and went into his and Susan's room to collect his stuff, Will followed his example by collecting her and William's too.

Soon, the sound of four pair of feet could be heard down the corridor as the family went to the bathroom together. The bathroom affair was a quick one, the cold weather outside had its influence on the temperature on the inside and everyone wanted a nice and warm bed to cuddle into before it became even colder. They went back, said goodnight to each other and went to their separate rooms. Unfortunately for Will, her brother had difficulties falling to sleep, and she therefor had to wait to after midnight before she could sneak out again.

The bed was nice and warm before Will felt her brother finally had fallen asleep. She stood up carefully not to wake him. "Come on Will, it is now or never," she thought to herself while her body tried to resist leaving the warm bed for the cold room, "You have done more dangerous things than this" but she wasn't sure if she meant getting up or leave the safety of her room. Nevertheless, she got up without waking anyone. Will felt the cold hit her feet like a fist and started shivering, "Maybe I should try with more clothe on tonight?" Will thought, and then an idea hit her. She tiptoed over the floor and found the old robe she had stowed away in the cabinet and put it on. That should warm her a little. She fumbled a little more in the dark and found her shoes too.

Beside William's light breathing and her owns struggle to put on the footwear, the night was deathly silent. Something that made it possible for her thoughts going back to the questions that kept building up in her head. "I wonder what happened to the demon when the asylum closed, was it sealed away again or was it forgotten? Mr. Henderson also disappeared, not long after that, did this creature have something to do with that or was it something else?"

Will felt scared again. She would have to face this alone, if she called on the other guardians and her parents discovered them, she would have a major problem explaining their sudden appearance all the way out here. But what if something waited on her in the hall or in some of the rooms she was going to investigate? The dark history of the house had really crept under her skin.

"I am not sure if this will be a good or a bad idea" she thought and pulled out the heart of Kandrakar under her robe, "But better safe than sorry," and with that, she transformed.

Will felt the warm and bright glow from the Heart flow through her, her body started to grow and mature while large fairy wings sprouted out from her back under the robe. Her wings were now longer than both her arms when she stretched them out and probably made a bulge on her back right now. Under her black monk-robe, her thin pyjamas made way for her guardian uniform and she instantly experienced the upside of having magical clothes, even if it was cold tonight they would keep her warm and to a certain degree protect her from harm. Will walked across the room to a tiny mirror that hung on the wall and looked into it, not everyone had the chance to see how they would look like when they grew up, but she knew that the redhead that looked back at her from the mirror was one of five on this earth who could do just that. Do to her new height and the boots she had (it hadn't been necessary at all to put on her other shoes), the robe she wore now fitted all of sudden. Her eyesight improved significantly too, more than enough to let her see well in the dark room and after taking a last look in the mirror, she opened the door and snuck out.

In her bed, Susan had woken up again and couldn't get back to sleep for some reason, and after tossing around for quite some time she began to feel the need of using the bathroom. Therefor she decided to get up, carefully not to wake her husband who lay beside her. She knew he hadn't slept well the last night for some reason, so she didn't wanted to disturb him now. Ever so silent she walked across the room to the door, opened it and went over to the bathroom, the floor creaking for every step she took.

Susan finished quickly and was on her way back to her room when she saw something move further into in the corridor. The dark made it difficult to see, but she was sure it was Will's door that opened.

Susan stopped, "Is that Will who walk over there?" she thought, and expected her daughter to walk towards to the bathroom as she could not see any other reason for her daughter to be out of bed. But the dark figure turned away and started to walk in utter silence in the opposite direction, towards the entrance hall and the reception. Susan couldn't for the life of it figure out why, Will had made clear that she didn't like this house, so why would she be up and walking during the middle of the night? Had her daughter lied to her, or was there something she was hiding? Knowing that her husband was sound asleep, she decided to follow after and see what was going on. Susan tiptoed after what she thought to be her daughter, trying to be as silent on the creaking floor as possible.

Will closed the door after her and started walking, she hadn't taken many steps however before she heard the sound of soft footsteps behind her. The fear came to her in an instant, her grim imagination gave her unpleasant ideas of what it could be and she didn't dare to turn around to see. Just to confirm that it wasn't her own fantasy playing with her senses or her own footsteps she heard, she stopped for a moment to listen. The sound continue a little and then they stopped. Will started to walk again, and after two steps, she heard the sound follow her once more. She almost panicked and began walking faster. The darkness of the bleak house closed in on her, while she tried to hold back her tears and soundless gasped for air. After what felt like an eternity in her mind, but in reality was just a moment later, she found herself on the stairs halfway up to the third floor. Her mind raced, what should she do? If she attacked it, she was sure to awaken her family and what would she do when they came to see what was going on. The demon would certainly attack them if they came too close! Will decided to continue to the third floor; that would at least put some distance between the two of them and her family downstairs. She finished the last step on the stairs and raced toward the office room, and when inside, she looked the door in a way that she knew would make it clear which room she went into, and teleported to the neighboring room.

Susan followed her daughter through the corridor, but stopped for a moment when she saw the black figure began walk up the stairs. "Will must have put on the moth infested robe she found in the basement," she thought, "If that thing ruins her pyjamas, she will have to buy a new one herself." The robe-clad figure went further upstairs, and when she was sure she wouldn't be spotted, Susan proceeded. She continued until she reached the third floor, Susan hurried up to the third last step where she crouched down and watched the door to the office swung open and closed. "That was the room she had wanted to have a closer look at earlier today," Susan thought, "Have she found anything in there she don't want us to know about?" For a split moment, her mind started to wonder about what that could be, money, some illegal stuff, valuable jewelry or something else? She waited a moment to give her daughter time to begin with whatever she was going to do. Then she stood up again, walked straight to the door, and put her ear against it, and when she didn't hear anything she pulled it open and saw nothing.

The room was dark and empty; Will was nowhere to be seen. Susan took a few steps inside the room to be sure, and thought "How could it be…"

"Susan!" a surprised voice said behind her. She let out a loud yelp and spun frightened around faster than she thought was possible for a woman in her age. And there, behind her in the doorframe stood her daughter. She wore the black robe, making her almost blend with the dark corridor behind and somewhat difficult to spot, and to make it worse, her normally fire-red hair looked gray with the lack of any light. Despite the dark and difficulties to see, Susan could see the expression on her daughters face, and it was one of complete surprise. Her daughter could only stare at her with big eyes for a moment, but eventually she decided to speak.

"What are you doing here mom?" she said still with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Why I am here." Susan answered, "I was on my way back from a trip to the bathroom when I saw someone snuck out from their bedroom and then I decided to follow." She said.

"Oh, I see," said Will.

Susan who was looking suspiciously at her daughter said, "That's good, but I don't see why you should need to sneak out in the middle of the night and come all the way up here. Would you like to enlighten me?" she said with a stern voice.

Will was relived that it only had been her mother she had sensed, but a new panic started to grow, what in the world should she tell her mom for her reason coming up here in the middle of the night. Her thoughts went back to the unnerving moments she had spent inside the other room, by coincidence; it was also the very bedroom that once belonged to Mr. Henderson. Suddenly she remembered a book that had laid there in her dark, and thanks to her being in her guardian form, the darkness didn't hinder her to notice it. The cover had said something about legends and fairytales so she tried to give it a shot.

"William had problem falling to sleep you see, and I remembered there was a book with fairytales up here so I thought I could go looking for it and read it to him. Hopefully it would help him to sleep." The lie wasn't that bad thought Will, she had often red stories for her little brother before he went to sleep, so maybe Susan would buy it.

Susan looked at her, "Hmm, but I am sure I could see you went into this room."

"Whoops!" Will thought, but before her mother could speculate any further, Will tried to contradict her, "No I went into the other room, right beside this one. I can get the book so you can see for yourself." With that, she quickly stepped out to the corridor and went into the other room to find the book.

Her mother followed a little behind but waited outside the room. Will picked up the book, went out to her waiting mother and showed it to her. Susan probably couldn't see the title from where she stood because she took a few steps closer to her and looked for the title of the book Will held in her hands. Her mother lifted her head again to look up at Will's eyes.

Her mother looked up at her!

She had now reached an age when she in her guardian form was taller than her mother, Will quickly jumped backwards to put some distance between them and prayed that Susan hadn't noticed it. To Will's relief, her mother didn't say anything, the dark probably made it difficult for her to see well enough, so Will began walking towards the stairs and said,

"Perhaps we should walk downstairs again, there is nothing left to do here now."

Her mother followed and said, "Very well, I believe you, but I don't think you should read for William at this hour, he should rather try to sleep than listen to your stories. It would probably be better if you read for him tomorrow instead."

"Yes mom," said Will. She would have to wait a few more hours until she was sure her mother had fallen to sleep before she would dare sneak out again.

Susan followed her into her room and found William sound at sleep, Will said that must have happened while she was away and that was a good thing, because now she didn't have to read. They said silent goodnights to each other again and Susan went back to her own room.

An hour later, Susan was still not asleep she was in deep thoughts. Something wasn't right, her daughter whom she had the impression of being afraid of ghosts, was wandering alone in the middle of the night, here, in an old asylum! What more, she was a hundred percent sure she had seen Will walk inside the office room, the very room she suddenly took interest in as fast as they stepped into the last day and not, the neighboring room. That also brought back another memory. When they had opened the door to the office for the first time, Will had said the name of the man who was on the portrait at the other end of the room, and Susan had herself walked over there and confirmed it. How could she see his name all the way over there, it was written with such a tiny writing, or did she already know who it was, and if that was case, when did she learn it? Her daughter had shown no interests in this building before she came here, and when she did, she seemed scared. Then she had found the annals from the monastery period and started to read through all of them. That was not the Will she knew. And going upstairs looking for fairytales, "Ha" that was a fairytale by itself. Susan had looked into her daughters eyes to read them and… now it was her eyes that bulged, she had looked up at her daughter, not down!

Something was far from right, but how could she prove it.

Beside Susan, Dean had woken. After tossing and turning around in the bed for a little while, he understood that his wife wasn't asleep either so he got up and said he wanted to go to the kitchen to get some water because he was somewhat thirsty. She said it was ok, so he left her alone in the bed.

Susan was wondering how, or if, she should confront her daughter tomorrow. It was far from the first time Will had done or said something strange but she always managed to slip away with some extremely thin excuses or lies. And when she tried to ask her friends, they always managed to cover for each other.

While thinking over this she was staring up on the dark ceiling above when she suddenly felt the quilt over her started to slowly slide down and disappear over the edge of the bed. Susan grabbed it and tried to hold it back but it didn't work, she rose up into sitting position and tried to jerk it back, perhaps it was stuck. It didn't do this time either.

"Dean? Will? Is anyone of you trying to pull a prank on me?" Curious she looked over the edge to see what it could be…

Will was going to sneak out again, perhaps there was some personal journals or maybe a dairy in his bedroom, she would have a look. Silently she slipped out of her bed and put on the old robe. Luckily, her mother had left the room before she had to pull it off and reveal her other clothes under it. Not wanting to transform back again, she had just slipped off her boots and gone to bed fully clothes in her guardian uniform. Now she opened her door, peeked out into the corridor to both her left and right this time to be sure no one was there. Agile as a cat she slipped out and tiptoed soundless along the corridor.

But when she passed the kitchen she heard a familiar voice;

"Hello Will, why are you out of bed so late, are you thirsty too?"

Will got a frown on her face and turned her head slowly, looked into the kitchen, and saw her stepfather standing there holding a glass of water in his hand.

And to Dean's astonishment she exclaimed loudly "What! Is nobody at sleep tonight!"

They both stared at each other without saying a word, and then suddenly they heard a voice screaming:

"AAAAaaaaaaaahhh"

A/N. Should I stop here and take a loong vacation?