Mae stood in front of me she appeared the way she died, twigs in her hair, face bruised and bloody, her dress was tattered and torn.

I really wanted to run away.

She looks like her final moments were not pleasant, and that she fought a lot. Underneath all the hell that happened to her, she still had her beauty, her eyes were the most lovely things about her.

That all changed when she caught sight of me and Joe.
   
"How dare you force me out here! Away from my child and from safety!   Who are you and what do you want?" Straight to the point I see.

I cleared my throat and dropped Joe's hand I stepped forward, careful to not mess with my salt circle. I did not want to give her the chance to run. I had her right where I want her – needed her if this conversation did not work out the way I wanted.
  
"My name is Theresa and this is Joe, we are here to help you. I promise – "
  
"Help? Help?! Do you think I want your help? Do you think I want to leave this place? Ha, you stupid girl I do not want to leave ever, trying to leave this place is what caused my son, my love and myself to DIE!!" With that she tried to disappear from our circle, thankfully the crystals did their secondary job and bind her to the circle.

When that didn't work she flew towards us, thankfully the salt circle stopped her. I could hear it singe her feet where it touched. She backed up with a hiss. I don't know much but I do know that is not a good sign.

Joe cringed and backed up I did not blame him. She was starting to look awfully scary, her eyes were changing from light brown to black. Her beauty was being replaced with rage.
   
"What have you done?!!" She screeched.

"I must get to my son, he is not safe without me. Let. Me. Go." She sounded strong and horrifying. I was little afraid, but my papa warned me she would mad, maybe not this mad at this point. I shake my head slightly.
   
"I can't let you go, you are what's hurting him, Mae, Jon deserves to be free and he deserves to decide for himself. Mae, you need to think about Jon. Does he deserve to spend his afterlife trapped in this house?" I waved behind me. 

"If that doesn't change your mind think of Jonathon, your love, you are making him watch you and Jon suffer."
   
"HOW DARE YOU TALK OF MY SON!" She screamed at me, I didn't even flinch, Casey screamed louder than her. "You know nothing of what happened."
   
"Actually my love I told her everything, just like I asked her to free you, I knew you would never leave here willing I would actually prefer you stayed here with me. But I do not want Jon to spend his afterlife here." Jonathon appeared beside me and totally freaked Joe the hell out.

I think any other cameraman would have dropped their camera and run. Joe jumped a little and sputtered a bit but he held onto my camera that I had totally forgotten about. I had placed it beside the circle I didn't even see him pick it up.

I will buy him dinner – er breakfast when all was said and done. Jonathon turned to me and he bends and kisses my hand once again, I was starting to get used to the touch of ghost lips on my hand.
  
"Hello Theresa, thank you for coming here."
   
"J-Jon-Jonathon, what are you doing?" Mae sounded more than a little surprised to see Jonathon here. That surprise quickly disappeared and turned into a rage like an insane amount of rage.

She quickly showed us that before was her calm. Her hair was now waving in the air as if it had electricity running through it, her eyes were jet black. She moved to the edge of the salt circle, she didn't care this time about her feet singeing.

She started to pace the edge, the air started to smell like burning skin. Not a great smell, let me tell you. I was starting to get a really uneasy feeling, I still have one or two tricks up my sleeve. I don't think now is the time to use either yet. This conversation needs to happen.
  
"It's all your fault, Jonathon all of it the running away, the being caught, our son being killed in front us, if I remember correctly, which of course I do a mother never forgets watching her child hang from a tree, this tree." She gestured to the oak in the center of the circles.
   
"Bounding me to this circle around this tree is just another kindness you've given me Jonathon. Did you forget what happened here? Did you forget what they did to me, to you and to our sweet Jon? You really think he will be safer out there." She gestured to the world.
  
"Why did you make me leave with him? What was so important that we couldn't stay here Jonathon?" She was screaming at him now and he just continued to look at like she was the most amazing thing to grace this earth.

He didn't seem to care that she was mad at him, that she was blaming him for everything. He straightened his waistcoat, which was just as tattered and bloody as it was when I first met him.
  
"Mae you are not saying anything I don't say to myself every day. It was my fault, I did cause all of this, I know. I will never forget what happened here. " He pleads with her but she wasn't listening to him at all. 

But Mae it IS safer for him and you away from here that hasn't changed. The only thing that has changed is the danger before it was my father he proved me right on that one." She crossed her arms and paid him no mind. 

"But now my love you are the danger, you are so afraid of what will happen when you leave that you don't even realize the worse has already happened. No one can hurt you now, you're already dead" She shrugged at him. Acting unaffected by what he said.
   

"We can be free Mae, truly free and we can be happy and together all of us, that's all I ever wanted. I made you leave because I wanted us to have our own house with more children then we could handle and I didn't want to have to hide as we did here!" Passionate was one way to describe him, desperate was another. 

"I wanted you to be my wife and to be free and I wanted our child to be free as well, to not have to work under his grandparents, aunts, uncles and be treated worse than a dog, for being nothing more then he was." Mae softens just a little bit, my heartstrings were being tugged on hard, he was so heartbroken it was palpable in his voice.     
  
"I never thought this would happen, I knew it was a chance we would get caught but I didn't think in a hundred years that my own father would kill us all. I'm sorry Mae, don't let the sins of the father be the sins of the son.  Please don't punish Jon anymore because of me." He sounded absolutely devastated when he spoke, he whispered the last sentence I got a little spooked by how haunted he sounded.

He pleaded with her silently, she looked a little taken aback by his admission. Her anger wasn't really letting her be rational anymore, her face quickly contorted back to pure rage.
   
"I AM NOT PUNISHING HIM!!!!! I love him more than anything in this world, I can not bear to allow him to leave this place, that is what caused this. That is final nothing any of you have to say will change that." She turned her back to us and started to softly cry. Jonathon tried to go to her but the salt did its job once more and kept him back.
   

"Well maybe he can change your mind, after all, it is up to him." Said a voice with a southern drawl that I would know anywhere. Papa showed up with his hand on a rather scared Jon's shoulder.

Mae turned to see who had joined us and when she saw Jon outside of the house she went absolutely out of her mind. She fought with everything she had against the salt and crystals thankfully the elements and tree were backing my circle.
  
"GET AWAY FROM HIM! JON GO INSIDE NOW!" She howled. Jon flinched away from his mother, taking a few steps back.
   
"No mama, I don't want to go back inside, I hate it here. There's nothing to do and you won't let me go outside. I'm tired of staying in the house all the time." He said in a firm but soft voice. He sounded older than his years. He looked up at my papa, Papa nodded at him.
   
"Mama, they're right; you are keeping us imprisoned here, you are the danger that lurks. Staying here is more unsafe then going out there, I want to be free finally free of this place and I want you and daddy to come with me. Please, Mama?" At her son's harsh words something clicked in Mae's head and everything cleared, she saw how she was being and how she was the problem.

Is what I really wish I could say but in reality, she did not take that well at all.

She screamed so loud I'm surprised the living had eardrums left and the house had windows. I heard some dogs howl in the distance.

Mae's rage was building fast, and since my father and Jon were both a trick up the sleeve. That left me with the last one. It was just going in on a wing and a prayer.
   

"Everyone joins hands, I got an idea." I grabbed Jonathon's and Joe's hand, while everyone spirits and humans joined hands Mae hadn't stopped screaming and crawling at the circles. I felt a surge of power raising within, it felt like nothing I had ever felt.

It started in my toes and worked its way up, almost felt like I was filling up with air I felt like I might float away. When the power reached my heart I knew exactly what to say.
   
"Mae, mother, and lover you have bound yourself and your child to this house using fear as your chains, hatred as your ropes and anger as your fuel. You no longer know the love of any kind. You're the greatest fear has arrived, I am unbinding you from this house using hope to break your chains, love to cut your ropes, and joy to douse your anger." A blindingly bright light started to form in the circle, it seemed to be coming from the tree. I had to scrunch my eyes up but I kept speaking.
   
"With the love of your lover, the love of your son, the joy you once all shared and the hope I have for you all in your afterlife, I demand that you be free of this house," I spoke in a calm, firm confident voice, which is very unusual for me.

My voice rang through the yard with an authority that I didn't know I possessed. As I spoke Mae become more erratic in her struggles of her confines. 
   
The light had grown into a ball of for lack of better word energy and had engulfed the entire the circle. When I finished speaking it exploded causing Mae to scream, er howl again. The light spread through the whole yard and into the house. When it hit us we were all knocked to the ground, all the candles; except the elements, one had been extinguished and the salt circle now had gaps. 

Jonathon was the first to get up and he ran to Mae, while Mae laid on the ground wrapped in a bright white glow.  Joe scrabbled to get and fix the camera, I sat up slowly making sure everything was okay.

I got to my feet anxious to see Mae and whether it worked. The tree beside her was no longer glowing, the power I once felt was gone leaving me slightly weak and a bit sluggish. I finally reached Mae, Jonathon, and Jon who had beat me to them. Mae looked like what I assume she did before that horrible night, as did Jonathon and Jon.

I didn't even realize how bad Jon really was before. Jonathon looked like a whole new man now, he truly was handsome now that the bruises were gone and the broken bones were healed.
   

Mae was crying and whispering sorrys and I love yous to both Jon and Jonathon. Looks like all was forgiven, I just kinda stood there looking at them all awkwardly. I guess the group had either seen or heard what had gone on because Xander was suddenly beside me, not saying a word.

We were later joined by my papa he placed his ghostly hand on my shoulder and slightly squeezed.
   

"You did good, Terrycloth you helped bring this family together I couldn't be more proud of you." I smiled despite my lack of energy. He looked at Xander "Take care of my girl, she's going to need some rest of this one. You keep an eye on her for me where's she's about to go I can't. I'll be seeing ya'll later." He kissed my forehead as was gone. I slowly made my way back to the ground happy, and content that it looked like Mae, Jonathon and Jon were going to be together for eternity. 

Joe, and I think it was Ida, who was gathering up our supplies. Ida reached for the earth candle, I jumped up.
   
"No you can't blow it out, it must be me." I walked over and picked up the green candle.

"Thank you earth power it proved to be needed. As promised I am returning it to you." I went around and thanked and returned what powers the other elements may have given.

Xander came up to me with my bag and he let me lean on him back to the house, he didn't say a word. Ok, he was practically carrying me and I wanted to pass out but something was nagging me, something I needed to do. I looked up at Xander and motioned for him to stop.

"I need to go see my mom when we leave here." He nodded back. Good enough for me and I passed out. I woke up a little later in my hotel room and I saw Xander was sleeping on the couch. I rolled over with the intentions of falling back asleep, we could talk about everything in the morning.