8.

In a moment of panic an arriving sixteen-year-old daughter and her biological father vanish. The daughter appears to be completely gone for the time being at least and the father returns unconscious just moments after he vanished. Now completely unchained where before his vanishing act he had been heavily chain, just as well he is unconscious but then again, he has never given anyone reason to believe he is dangerous, a little crazy perhaps but where there is one there is potential for the other, and at that someone actually did kill Eve Grady all those years ago.

Where Jerry went to is somewhere which certainly would give him cause to act up when a return is made. Where he had vanished to would have him momentarily nothing more than an observer upon an arrival to somewhere else. His vanishing moment from the interview room only lasted seconds, for Jerry the moment in which he went lasted a fair bit longer than a few seconds. With this and while in that other place he would completely be unable to interfere with anything he would see or hear.

A transportation of teleportation of himself had occurred and had taken Jerry Grady to the bedroom he shared with his wife and daughter within the house he had shared with his wife and daughter. Not only has he been transported to a place but also to a specific time too for Jerry sees his wife asleep in their bed and he sees her as she would have looked at a time close to her death. Eve Grady, in the time Jerry now belongs to, has been dead for about fifteen years.

Add to this the fact that Jerry can also see his daughter within the room but not as she should or does look in the moment in time Jerry belongs to but as she looked when he last seen her prior to her arrival at the asylum and in that moment almost fifteen years ago Maxene was a matter of mere months old, a little more than one year old.

He stands still for a moment properly considering his own sanity. Maybe that asylum is the right place for him after all. Has he really been crazy all these years? Is he really where he seems to be? Jerry sees baby Maxene sleeping in her cot, something she done very little of way back when. Someone is coming. Is his wife about to receive a moment of trouble? Presuming that she may indeed be in trouble, or about to be in trouble, he attempts to wake her.

To add to his woes, it has quickly become obvious that he cannot affect his surroundings in any way. When he attempts to touch his wife, his hands move right through her as if he himself were some kind of ghost. Shocked by this he begins to panic as for whoever is coming is getting so very close. Jerry shouts at Eve, his wife, and there is no reaction from her or their daughter. If he is not here to save his wife or daughter, then why is he here at all?

Panic subsides a little when the intruder enters the room. The intruder is a woman, and her initial appearance is one that seemingly has her here out of concern. There is no knife or weapon of any sort and her expression appears to be one of relief. 'Thank God' she says, 'you're here and alive'.

'Of course, I am' Jerry says before realizing that this woman is not speaking to him.

Does or did this lady have knowledge of his wife's death before it happened or even as it had happened? If so, then is she here to save her? Why had she not informed anyone else of the ensuing events? Another realization hits Jerry. This lady moves over to the cot. She is here for the child. When police arrived on the scene in actual time, there had been no child present.

'No, don't you dare take my daughter ...'

A crash occurs nearby. A car has hit a tree and this accident is clearly audible from within the Grady household bedroom. Is this Jerry's car that has crashed, with Jerry himself within that car? Was this when he was rushing home to be with her? The intruding woman takes Maxene in her arms then leaves quickly.

'Hey ... where the hell are you going with my child?'

As quickly as the woman had arrived, she is gone and so too is Maxene. There is someone else arriving. It is Jerry as he is or was in that moment in time. It is not long before younger Jerry has arrived up and into the bedroom and he has a rather large knife in hand.

What? No, this is not right; this is not how it was. There had been no knife first time round.

Younger Jerry heads straight for his wife as if he were possessed and stabs her repeatedly without expression or remorse. Eve had no chance, no form of defense, she never saw it coming. This is definitely not right. Jerry is watching himself murder his own wife. This, without a doubt, is not right, it cannot be real. Even as he watches it occur, he is sure that it is not right. It did not happen this way.

There is so much blood, it soaks the bed, it soaks his wife, it sprays the walls. Then knife wielding Jerry, with a blank almost robotic look upon his face, soon moves to the cot and when he sees that there is no child there, he moves back closer to the entrance of the room. He then begins to talk as if he is having an actual conversation with his wife, but Eve Grady is dead, she is very dead and there is no possible way she can respond to her husband.

Outside a cacophony of sirens gather, police have arrived, sure hadn't Jerry rang for the police on this actual day prior to getting home believing that an intruder was in his home and that his wife was in danger. Younger Jerry calls out for them and soon after when two officers enter the room, he himself notices how the room actually looks as if he had no part in what happened within and as if he were seeing his wife's remains for the first time. A shadow within the room which had gone unnoticed vanishes.

According to young Jerry, he has no knowledge of his wife's death. He says she was fine a moment or so ago as they had been conversing and he has no idea where his daughter is. In fact, he acts out, stating that they are both fine and still alive. Has Jerry himself been delusional all this time? No, he cannot believe that. What he has seen, what he has been sent to see is not real at all, it can't be.

There is a damp metallic blood like smell to the room which was there the first time round once the realization had hit, the same smell exists so he really has been brought back here despite the fact that he cannot interact with anything. This is a re-run of events from so long ago, still Jerry is sure that this view is a distorted or altered one.

If Jerry had actually killed his wife then what else is he guilty of? He is not guilty of anything; he cannot and will not believe that he is. What has happened is nothing more than a trick, a trick that ends here, if it is a trick. Jerry Grady in this moment is transported back to that visiting room within the asylum he has lived within for all those years since his wife's death and upon return he is unconscious.

***

A few hours pass after a visit has been made to Jerry Grady. Former Father, Jason Alveron and a lady he has recently met, Tanya Ferguson, are still questioning events of the day. Time for Tanya to discuss more deeply what it is she has already told Jason Alveron, time for her to explain what it is she believes it all means.

A battle is coming, one which she feels strongly that the wrong side will win. Light and Darkness, Satan has made a move, spawned nine daughters of which Maxene is one. All other details are unknown except possibly for one. That child Jason Alveron had been sent to unite with her parents. She may be a representative of Light, time now to go find her? Perhaps so ...

What Jason has been told is nothing new, sure he has had his own interactions with a couple of these daughters of Satan.