4.

'Your mind is working at its best when you're being paranoid. You explore every avenue and possibility of your situation at high speed with total clarity.' ― Banksy, Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall.

On the first day of September 2018 thirty-three-year-old Harmony Richards was doing something she had done many times before, multitasking while driving. Overwhelmed by her ever-increasing workload she felt that choice in the matter had been taken from her. Her work has her on the road for hours each day so she uses this time to delegate and make transactions via her phone as much as possible otherwise she would never get on top of things.

This is of course a recipe for disaster and disaster eventually came when she failed to see a traffic light change from green to red at a junction she had come to. If truth were known the light change happened very quickly, quicker than what would be expected, and it happened right just as she had reached that junction as it also occurred intentionally.

Opportunity to see this light change had been taken from her. Crossing lights had changed quickly too, perhaps a bit too quickly as opposing traffic had already began to move a second or two before Harmony had reached that intersection.

Safe to say, or rather not so safe, Harmony's car had been hit. Damage to Harmony herself hadn't been quite as severe as the damage her vehicle had taken; still she would be required to spend a night or two in hospital for observation. At approximately eleven o'clock of the morning following the accident, something very peculiar would occur. Harmony's partner had come to be at her side so he would witness the events of this particular morning transpire too; he wouldn't and probably never would understand them though he indeed would see them all the same.

A certain Majella Smith so happened to be at this hospital, in fact she had come as a visitor and she also would come to pass by the ward Harmony so happened to be resting within and as soon as she did this Harmony would get up out of bed and go after her. Now Majella Smith and Harmony Richards had never met before this moment and neither had known anything of the other either, still, something compelled Harmony to go after that young lady.

Of course, Harmony's partner would be the first to react. 'Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?' he asked of her as she got up and out of bed.

She did not react or respond to him; she just took off out of her room and on down the hall where nurses would be mystified to see her up and out of bed. Any nurse that approached her, Harmony just swiped away with ease, knocking them over as if she had the strength of ten people and not the strength of a lady with minor injuries recovering from a very recent automobile accident. At a complete loss, her partner had no idea of how to react.

With all the commotion too, Majella would stop walking and turn to see what was happening behind her.

'Majella Smith ...' Harmony spoke with a voice not quite her own. It sounded as if her own voice had been joined by another, her whole persona appeared to be joined or possessed by another. '... This is your last chance. Your father wishes for you to join him and your sisters.'

There is a slight pause before Majella speaks. 'The man you speak of is not my father and he never will be ...'

A second pause is joined by a stare down between Majella and Harmony as all other people in close proximity are at a loss for what to do. Once a few seconds pass Harmony collapses and is caught by her partner before she completely hits the floor. Majella goes on about her business and when Harmony regains consciousness, she has no recollection of this incident occurring. What was to be a one or two day stay in hospital ends up lasting eleven days given the added strain and toll a moment of oddness took on her injured body.

Security cameras caught the hospital hallway activities and given the fact that Harmony has no memory of what she is told and finding it all difficult to believe, she would be given the opportunity to view the tapes. The tapes came with no sound though harmony's partner and some of the nurses could fill that in.

It could be thought that stress got to her, being overworked to the extent it brought about an accident though that lady Harmony spoke to, she reacted to the name Harmony called out and also reacted to what Harmony said as a whole as if those word she spoke held meaning. So, if it had been stress related then how could she know a strangers name and of what to say to her? Add to that the addition in her voice.

Given her ability to delegate and her natural determination, Harmony Richards decides to put work to one side as much as she can and when she gets out of hospital, she goes on a personal quest to find this young lady. All Harmony has is a name, the name Majella Smith, and a still printed out from the recording in the hospital hallway.

Is this wise? Harmony could not know why it might or might not be. It might be worthwhile, when it comes to her, to also try view any possible recording there might be of that accident of hers. Those light changes certainly were a little on the quick side. Whether that could aid her in any way or not she has a task set out before her ... so her quest begins ...

5.

Nancy Ellis, once Darkness had come to her, obeyed instruction from the get-go, even to the point of killing her own father. There can only be one father and if one says that the other must go ... well ... it was not as if she had to do anything brutal. A simple touch is all it took, and dear old dad simply sat down and fell asleep.

Her aunt Sharon always feared her, there was a fear that there is something very dangerous about the niece, witnessing, to a degree, a six-year-old touch the arm of a stranger and knowing she had done something to disable that man's arm ... well this just substantiated what had been suspected and when Ben Ellis died ... Aunt Sharon knew her niece had taken Ben's life.

She had lived with a father and witnessed the presence of another, there may have been somewhat of a mother figure in Aunt Sharon though Nancy had never known or even met her real mother, not during her childhood at least and if she could be thought of having had a childhood, and when her real mother is actually alive there would be nothing, she could do to prevent a certain curiosity from growing within herself.

Having turned thirteen, Nancy had quite the control on who she is and what she can do. A three-year-old Majella Smith reacted badly to being on hallowed ground when her own aunt had passed though at thirteen years of age Nancy Ellis indeed had an element of control. Being around for her father's funeral and burial did come with plenty of irritation but not so much so that she couldn't witness the funeral and burial. Hallowed ground hurt, it burned but like a day walking Vampire who can tolerate a certain amount of daylight ... coming close to a point where they could withstand little more. Yeah, Nancy had her own tolerance levels.

Nancy did not stay right to the end of her father's burial. What she did do was to take the time to head back to the Ellis family home for one final time. She packed a bag, left and never again returned.

Darkness did not prevent her from seeing her mother; in fact, he would see an opportunity he could further work to his own advantage. Nancy visited the grounds of that asylum on many occasions without making contact with her mother and this dated back to when she was thirteen. Periodically over the years she would observe her mother and she would also observe someone else too. On the twenty third day of March 2020, she thought it time to go and officially meet mum.

For Lacey Ellis March twenty third 2020 was not the first time she met her daughter. The day Nancy was born didn't count either as daughter was taken from mum as soon as she was born; still there had been a day before that day too ... March twenty third 2020 was the day Lacey Ellis travelled back in time, aided by Lexi Hansen, to visit her mother on the New Year's Eve coming into a new millennium.