A hard slap to her face is what woke Kady up, the sudden pain spreading from her sore nose to the rest of her face rapidly. Fully prepared to hit Milo back, Kady sits up and turns her glare on him only to freeze in shock. Now, rude awakenings were something that made Kady angry, but the fact that she was woken up because her father was currently strangling her brother left her dumbfounded for a moment. Milo's face was a dark shade of purple and his movements were turning sluggish as August tightened his grip around Milo's throat, his eyes focused solely on his task.

Desperate and in panic mode, Kady grabbed the first thing her hand came into contact with and bashed her father over the head with it, sending August to the floor in unconsciousness. "Come on," she gasps, struggling to kick the covers off and moving to Milo's side of the bed. After reading the manuscript, they'd been too freaked out to sleep alone, so they'd retired in Milo's room and it's a damn good thing they did. Milo, trying hard to get his breath back, was unable to help much as Kady forced him to stand and half-dragged him out of her room.

They needed to get downstairs and warn the other two that August was on a rampage, but the stairs seemed so far away and Kady's asthma was making itself known as she shuffled down the hall. They were at the halfway point when she felt something hard collide with her back, knocking her to the ground and Milo against the wall. What little breath she had left was knocked out of her lungs by the blow and she could do nothing as she was turned onto her back to face August.

He was panting hard, pale green eyes holding no remorse as he pulled his arm back and then delivered a right hook that had Kady seeing stars. Even as dazed as she was, she knew for a fact that her father had hazel eyes and the person attacking them right now had to be Lucille. Kady wanted to struggle as August covered her mouth and nose with one of his large hands, wanted to scream and claw to get her daddy back, but all she could do was lie there and pray that he'd come to his senses.

She cut her gaze towards Milo, but he was worse off than her and blood was trickling down the side of his face from where he'd been knocked against the wall. Knowing he wouldn't be able to help any time soon, Kady looks back at August, her gaze pleading as she met and held his look. August had to be in there somewhere and maybe he could kick Lucille out of him before he smothered Kady.

But the longer he stayed like that and the more her lungs burned, she came to the realization that her father was long gone by now and she doubted she'd make it to Christmas morning. Her heart sped up, desperately working to keep blood flowing to her brain and she tasted blood as her teeth cut the inside of her lips because of the pressure August was using.

As suddenly as August was on her, he was off her again and Thomas was standing over her protectively. "How dare you," he growls at August, the air around him crackling with energy. He looked almost solid as he stood his ground, but there were two of him wavering in front of Kady and she was having a hard time in taking deep breaths to regulate her heartbeat. "They're only children, Lucille, and you will not harm them under my roof."

"It's not your roof," Lucille shoots back in August's voice. The smile she sends Thomas's way was predatory, her teeth bared and her hands clenched into fists so tightly that the dull nails cut into August's palm and causes blood to trickle to the floor. They stared each other down as Kady crawled to her brother's side, pulling him close and holding him as the terrible scene played out.

Quicker than she'd ever seen, August darted towards her, but Thomas was faster and shoved him to the side. He tottered for a second, then the leg of his pajama pants caught on a nail and he was sent backwards against the elevator, the cables not strong enough to support the sudden weight and snapping, sending the whole thing crashing to the ground. Lucille didn't even have time to cry out, the sound of grinding metal and breaking bone echoing loudly in Kady's ears as tears stung her eyes.

"Daddy," she rasps, shaking hard and staring at the spot he'd just been standing, only empty air now.

"Get Amy," Thomas instructs, helping the siblings to their feet. "I'll get the keys for that great metal beast that brought you here and you three can meet me outside." Kady only stood there, her eyes wide and her lips quivering as her tears fell. Daddy's dead…. Daddy's dead…. The words kept repeating, bouncing around in her head as she processed what had just happened. "Kadence Marie Hastings," Thomas bellows, shaking her hard enough for her teeth to chatter. "Do what I said and get out of here!"

"Y-yeah." She nods and wraps an arm around Milo's waist as she continues to the stairs and then down to the first floor. Waiting for them on the first floor was a mess of broken metal bars and August's body, a pool of blood spreading ever outward as he lay there—a large piece of metal speared through his chest and his head bent at an unnatural angle with a bit of white bone peeking out from the torn flesh.

"Amy," Milo gasps, standing a little better on his own and pulling Kady with him towards Amy's room. The little girl would be too sick to get out on her own and Kady hoped like hell that Emy would be sane enough to carry her out to the truck. Amy's bedroom is completely dark as Kady steps inside, a faint light coming from the little pink nightlight plugged in near her bed. The light was just enough to illuminate Amy's body, lying completely still without even the faintest breath to stir her thick hair.

"She's dead." Not entirely convinced herself and praying that it was only an illusion, Kady kneels in front of the bed and rests her fingers against the little girl's neck, flinching back when she feels the shifting of broken bone. "Lucille must have gotten to her before she came after us."

"Not quite true, Kady," comes Emy's voice from the doorway. Milo turns sharply and instinctively stands in front of Kady, swaying a little as he struggled to find balance again. Emy was standing there confidently and even smiling as she held August's pistol in her hands, aiming it in Milo's direction. "I killed her a few moments ago when I heard the struggle upstairs. My master will be pleased with it once she sees my good work." The sound of crashing objects overhead makes Emy look up, her smile not diminishing even as Milo lunges forward.

They struggled for the gun, Emy obviously unused to using one as she kept her finger on the trigger. Kady stood while they struggled, squinting in the darkness for anything she could use to knock Emy unconscious or at least daze her so that Kady and Milo could get out. The room wasn't anywhere near as cluttered as her own bedroom and she managed to throw back the curtains to allow for a bit of light to shine in and help her out. She casts a glance over her shoulder, Milo and Emy still fighting for control, and then she focuses back on her task.

Porcelain doll. There was a creepy antique doll set on the mantle, the porcelain shining in the moonlight as she grabbed for it and turned around. She barely made it two steps when a loud popsounded and Milo collapsed, the noise making everyone cover their ears and Kady shout in pain. The sound was unbelievably loud without the protective ear plugs August had forced her to wear when they went shooting together and she was acutely aware now that he made her wear them for her own protection.

Thankfully, Emy was just as caught off guard from the noise and Kady was able to cross the room and break the doll over Emy's head despite the disorienting ringing in her ears. "Milo," she shouts, dropping to his side and helping him sit up. A large stain was spreading across his shoulder, staining the light gray of his tee.

"Get a belt or something," he instructs, grinding his teeth to keep from crying out in pain. Her hands shaking, Kady moves to the wardrobe and digs around until she finds a tiny pink belt, and then goes back to her brother, letting her father's lesson in tourniquets take over as she tried hard to staunch the bleeding. "It's not gonna work good, so we need to get to the hospital."

Despite him trying to be brave, he still lets out a squeak of pain and his legs buckle under him when he tries to stand. "We have to get to the truck." Her heart was beating fast again, but the added adrenaline allowed her to focus better than she had upstairs, hooking her arms under Milo's and dragging him out of the room to the front door. Again, her asthma was interfering, but she pushed through the attack and managed to open the door before dragging him out into the scarlet snow and collapsing.

"Help me up." Both of them gasping in the sudden, stinging cold, Kady helps him stand and they lean on each other as they make their way to the truck parked halfway up the long driveway. As he'd promised, Thomas was standing beside the truck, looking weaker than before and barely managing a smile when the siblings stop in front of him.

"Drive carefully," Thomas advises," the roads will be atrocious this time of year."

"Thanks, Gramps, for helping Kady and me."

"It was my honor, now get in this contraption and get some help." Thomas opens the driver's side door, helping Kady shove Milo inside before she climbed in herself, having to adjust the seat and mirrors before turning the key in the ignition. "I love you both, know that always."

"Love you too, Grandpa," Kady says with a sad smile before turning the truck to face the gate and beginning to drive. At seventeen, Kady still didn't have her license, but she knew the basics of driving and had seen enough action movies to know she really wanted to ram the gates at the end of the drive, letting out a childish laugh as the metal bounced off the hood and to the side as she drove past.

"Tone it down a bit, Vin Diesel," Milo quips, smiling even through the pain. His face was ashen from the agony and blood loss, and Kady noticed the way he kept his lips pressed together in order to keep his sounds of pain muffled. "How about some music? I need the distraction." He didn't wait for her answer, grabbing the CDs from under the front seat and shuffling through them until he found the disk he'd put together for the car trip to California. "Jessie is a friend," he sings softly, voice cracking in places," yeah, I know he's been a good friend of mine."

"But lately something's changed that ain't hard to define," Kady sings along quietly, finding it hard to see through the swirling snow and darkness," Jessie's got himself a girl and I want to make her mine." It was the song their dad had been obsessed with when they were younger, so they both knew the words by heart and would sing it when they needed cheering up.

"And she's watching him with those eyes," they sing in unison," and she's loving him with that body, I just know it; and he's holding her in his arms, late, late at night. You know I wish that I had Jessie's girl!" They continue singing, Kady stretching out a hand to grasp his free one. His right hand was pressed tightly against his left shoulder as blood continued pumping out and she was worried about him passing out or dying right beside her before she could make it to the village.

"Sing it, Bubby."

"Where can I find a woman like that," he belts out even as he struggled to keep his eyes open. "I play along with the charade, that doesn't seem to be a reason to change. You know I feel so dirty when they start talking cute; I wanna tell her that I love her, but the point is probably moot." The song continues playing loudly, switching to Enter Sandman once it was finished as the classic rock fills the cab. By the time they were halfway to the village, Milo had gone quiet and his shirt was soaked through with blood, Milo staring out the windshield and shivering from the cold.

"Just a little longer," Kady mumbles to herself, glancing briefly in her brother's direction. When she looks back to the road, a woman is standing there a few feet away, Kady instinctively slamming on the breaks and cutting the wheel to avoid hitting her. It's only when the truck begins to spin wildly on the road that she realizes that the woman in the road had been Lucille, the woman's cackling laugh growing louder as the truck catches on a boulder hidden under the snow and makes the truck come to a stop.

The suddenness of it all and the lack of seatbelt had Kady lurching around in the truck and the abrupt stop had her falling forward, the top of her skull connecting with the windshield, and then she saw only blackness.


Milo woke slowly, fighting his way through a haze to full consciousness again and dreading what he would find when he opened his eyes. At first, everything was blurry and distorted, his head feeling like it was about to explode, but the blurriness cleared up after a few blinks. The truck was right-side up and his tightened seatbelt had done a good job of slowing the amount of blood that pumped from his wound, but he was still dizzy and felt sick to his stomach.

The coppery scent of blood filled his nose and he could already tell that he had shards of glass in embedded in his stomach and chest from the accident. Kady. He looks around for his sister, expecting to find her in the cab with him, just as confused as he was, but the driver's seat was empty save for blood and there was a massive hole in the windshield. Swallowing down his fear, Milo opens the glovebox and pulls out the pocket knife August always kept in there, cutting through his seatbelt in order to get out of the car.

His right ankle was swelling and pain shot through his leg whenever he took a step, but Milo stumbled his way over to the yellow and red blob a few feet away. Kady was lying there, her eyes closed and her lips parted, her blonde hair had streaks of red in it and the top of her head was crushed in from the impact with the hard glass; one of her legs was bent under her, there were scratches all over her, but what really caught his attention was the large shard of glass stuck through her throat. He knew then and there that the glass in her throat hadn't been from the accident, it was punched through too cleanly for it to have been anything else than murder.

Shaking with rage and grief, Milo rises and starts back to the truck, and climbs inside, having to pump the gas a few times before the truck roared to life. Once he was sure it wouldn't stop again, Milo goes back and picks Kady up, lying her across the back seat and brushing her hair off her face before he got back behind the wheel and began to drive towards the house. He didn't have anyone left in his family and he'd be damned if he left before he got some revenge of his own. Lucille had thought they would go down without a fight, but she should've just killed him when she had the chance because he was about to take everything she loved from her. He'd heard her whispering a lot over the past few weeks, always talking about being the lady of the house, so Milo was going to take her house from her.

An hour and a half later finds the truck parked in front of Allerdale Hall and Milo making his way to the small storage building. The shed didn't have much in it now that everything had been moved into the house, but there was still two gallons of gas for the lawnmower and Milo knew there was a lighter in the kitchen—he'd hidden it in there himself for when he wanted to sneak a cigarette. As he entered the house again, he could hear screaming and crashing coming from the attic, the noises faint.

Obviously Thomas and Lucille were going at it and he hoped his grandfather beat the bitch into the dirt. It would provide distraction enough for Milo to complete his mission at any rate. With one of the gallons in hand and the lighter in his pocket, he starts on the third floor, pouring most of the gas on the moldering books and papers before making his way back to the stairs, going from room to room and picking up small objects on his way—Kady's favorite teddy bear, the beanie he almost always had on, and wedding ring Estelle had picked out for August.

Halfway through the second floor, he had to pick up the other gas can to finish up, making sure to cover Emy in gas since she was still unconscious in her daughter's room. Just to make sure she stayed that way, Milo grabbed a heavy lamp and let it drop, denting in part of her cheek. Finally, Milo dumps the last of the gas on the front porch before bringing the Zippo out and lighting the flame. He was hesitant to let it fall, well aware that this could mean destroying Thomas, but the fear of what Lucille might do to somebody else had his hand relaxing and Milo jumping back as the flames climbed high.

Weaker than ever, he limps back to the truck long enough to pull Kady out before moving to lie down a few feet from the blazing fire. His sister was snuggled up to his side, skin cold and her breath no longer stirring his hair, but he needed this last moment with her before he said goodbye. Overhead the sky was turning different shades of pink and orange as the sun rose, Milo nodding once and closing his eyes.

"Merry Christmas, Kady," he whispers before he goes limp beneath her. The fire blazed on through the rest of the day, the only color to be seen apart from the vermilion snow. In the village, people celebrated with their families, blissfully unaware of the slaughter they would finds weeks later—three burned inside the home, two bodies outside that had been kept intact by the freezing snow surrounding them.

No one noticed the people in the half-ruined house that watched as they carted the bodies away, they didn't notice that each of the four phantoms looked exactly like the bodies had before their deaths. What Edith had written in her manuscript was true, that all Sharpes would be damned should they enter Allerdale Hall. But the Hastings were back together, Thomas and Amy were with them, and Lucille and Emy had been banished to walk the narrow clay mines beneath the house.

For the first time in weeks, all was well.