2.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker's man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Prick it and pat it and mark it with a 'b'
And put it in the oven for my sister and me ...

Six-year-old Charlotte Allen is playing along with her double when her mother has a bit of a meltdown telling her daughter off, stating if she is going to play then she should at least use the proper wording in the rhyme. Mum is assuming daughter got the words a little wrong though as far as Charlotte is concerned, she used the words exactly as to how she intended to use them ... sister and me ...

Charlotte, both of her, just looks at mum as mum has that meltdown, neither Charlotte nor her double attempt to dispute anything with mum, just as well too as a phone call soon comes Corinne's way. The incoming call is exactly what Corrine does not need. It informs her that her husband has been involved in an accident.

Damned fool ... I knew he'd ... he'd ... but no ... couldn't leave well enough alone ...

Bill is fine and well, or as well as he can be, given the circumstances. Nothing hurt that can't heal ... his friend Winston Russell however ... Once Corrine calms having received the information she asks as to the details.

'C'mon honey, play time is over. We have to see how daddy is doing ...'

Charlotte, once again both of her, looks towards mum and seeing that this is a moment to be serious decides not to delay with coming together to be a singular girl. Within the car they travel to the hospital in, mum has something to ask.

'Honey, daddy isn't well. He is fine so there is nothing to worry about, just a boo-boo or two that will need to heal. He is a hospital where doctors and nurses will be taking care of him. Mummy is going to need you to be on your best behaviour. Is that okay? Do you understand?'

'Yes mom, I understand.'

This accident and the loss of his close friend with have a profound effect on Bill Allen. A recovery from injuries of the physical kind will for the most part come; the effect on the mind is to be at least a little different especially with the failure to accomplish what he set out to do.

3.

'We have to be careful' Lexi Hansen tells Nancy Ellis. 'We may not have this virus that is going round but we still could be carriers or maybe we just have yet to show signs of it. We do not want to set it in motion before we are even born.'

'It'll be fine, don't worry, it's all good.'

'No, Nancy, it is not all good. The time we are going to, your mother is about three and a half months pregnant with you. Now we don't want to endanger that, do we?'

'I guess not ... so are we doing this?

'Take it easy sister, we are doing this. Just don't take it so lightly, alright?'

'Yeah, alright, I've got it.'

'You better or maybe one of us won't be standing anywhere when we get back and father will not like that. Remember, it's Majella we want to get the better of. She has chosen the wrong side and you know that better than anyone. We can't harm her ourselves just as we cannot kill her. Father seriously would not be happy with that, but we can torture her by setting up that torture back in the past and this is what we are going back for.'

Lexi places her right hand on Nancy's left wrist. One second, they are in a quickly darkening world the next they are in a darkened room, so dark it takes both girls a moment to adjust to it. March twenty third 2020 has been left behind and an arrival to New Year's Eve 1999 has been made.

'Who is it? Who's there?' speak a female voice.

'Mum ...' Nancy moves to her mother and soon begins to unstrap her from the bed she is attached to. 'What are these animals doing to you?'

'Who are you?'

'It's me, mother ... Nancy ... your daughter ...'

'Daughter? I don't have a daughter ...'

'Yeah ... well ... you soon will ...'

***

It is never easy to bury a loved one though when December fifteenth, 2003 came ... well ... it was quite the difficult day for the Smith family. An accident has taken the life of Aunt Lynn, the aunt of Majella and her sisters, and the only sister of their mother's. Yeah, Tom Smith was never really all so close to Lynn though to her, Tom and the girls have been the closest family she had.

Lynn's likeness to Jenifer was something Tom could never get used to, especially since Jenifer's death. He didn't know if it made him happy or sad, most likely it was a bit of both with sad receiving the larger percentage and all the more so now that she herself is gone. Lynn's will and insurance listed Tom as next of kin. She of course had hoped to see many more years of life though if that was not to be, as indeed it proved to be, she had managed to take some solace in the fact that her funeral would be taken care of and that there would be some money left to aid Tom and the three girls.

Tom was certainly grateful to the funeral home for taking care of any and all details for the funeral and burial, all Tom would have to do is turn up at the necessary times and places. Just as well for Tom would have a lot on his plate just attending the funeral.

When Jenifer's funeral came round three years earlier, her third daughter would not be in attendance. With Majella only being a few days old and with Tom having to deal with the loss of his wife, neighbours of his saw to it that the new infant would be cared for while Tom went to grieve with his elder two daughters.

Yeah, Abigail and Lisa were just children too, but they were a few years old, they knew their mum and they could stand and walk, stay close by dad on this day. Not being a man of religion, Tom never saw reason to take his three daughters to mass either on Sundays or at any other time of the regular year. There had been a baptism for Majella and given the circumstances and the flexibility of the local parish church, a priest came to the Smith family home to perform to a brief ceremony and brief it would be with the infant not reacting well to the event.

So, aunt Lynn's funeral would actually be the first time Majella Smith would see the inside of a church. A little over three and a half years old is all she would be so there would be no way she could understand her own reaction on this day nor would she ever be likely to remember it once the day came to an end.

Majella Smith, no matter what choices she would go on to make in life, is still a daughter of darkness and even though she had no idea where she was going on this day or why, she reacted to it all the same. The nearer to the church she got, the warmer she appeared to become and a few minutes out from reaching the church Tom noticed this, still he proceeded to the church with his three daughters.

Pulling into a car park on church grounds Majella began to cry. Entering the church, she kicked up a fuss and her temperature continued to rise. In some respects, entering a church to a daughter of Darkness would be some sort of an equivalent of a mortal or holy person making a brief visit to the gates of hell. Again, a neighbour of the Smith family came to the rescue to take the three year old off of Tom's hands.

Tom explained of a possible fever breaking and the neighbour kept watch noticing Majella calming and her temperature dropping almost as soon as she left the church and moving away from it continued the improvement. Still, the neighbour moved on to the cemetery where Majella would once again kick up a fuss with that fuss once again being accompanied by a temperature.