It was late afternoon as I walked up to the door, and knocked. I looked behind me, to admire the view, a hazy orange sky began to burn darker with the coming sunset. This wasn't anything like Matt's home back in France, and as the door opened, Alice gasped.

"You're here! Already." She did a terrible job at hiding her shock, and her nerves, though considering the past I wasn't surprised or offended. It was a little different to this morning when I had been given the full celebrity treatment.

"Matt wanted to see me," I say slowly, hoping I hid my nerves better than she did.

Alice nodded, but didn't move; just looking me over from head to toe with scared eyes as she held the side of the door so tightly the tips of her fingers had turned white.

"Can I see him?"

"Oh. Yes. Of course. Um, you are invited into our home." She bowed, her arm waving out to motion me inside. "Please come in."

I wasn't sure what that was about but went inside anyway. Everything was white, except for the collection of ferns along the wall by concrete steps that led up to the next level. It was cold and didn't actually look like a home or anywhere I'd expect Matt to live. I followed Alice through to the room on the right, which was just as bare and minimalistic. My steps were loud compared to hers, each click of my heels seemed to make her twitch as she attempted to subtly keep staring at me as we walked and failed.

"He's down there." She pointed down a smaller staircase to the one in the foyer, and the smell of paints and coffee filled the air. "He's been working a lot lately."

I offer her a smile as I start down the stairs, pausing as she doesn't move to follow or leave. She hugs herself anxiously as her eyes stay locked on me and I'm not sure what I am about to walk into as I keep going. It's warmer down here, yet a small fan in the corner blasts me with a cool breeze as I enter the basement. The smell of the paints is stronger now and looking around at the canvas that is piled up around the walls, it's as if all the colour in the upstairs had been locked down here.

I don't know where to look first; some of what I see is familiar, older pieces and gorgeous scenery. Portraits of faces I don't know stare back as if they're scared their secrets will be told, and then the life and colour fade to darkness. Reds and blacks, pain, suffering. None of it makes sense, and in the opposite corner of the room, Matt is sitting at his easel, multiple pencils in his hand as he draws furiously on the paper in front of him.

Daring to go closer, I step around discarded bits of paper, broken frames and torn canvas. I see Alfie in a jungle, bits of Kara on her throne, more places and people I don't know and then the very familiar golden arch of Artemis' bow. If he knows I'm there, he doesn't show it, too busy drawing whatever it is that's haunting him now. His movements are frantic and hard, the tip of the pencil snapping before he tosses it aside and grabs another.

I feel like I'm intruding, and as I catch a glimpse of my face, I reach down to pick it up from the floor. It doesn't give anything away, my hair is tied up in a ponytail, my expression cautious and the rest of my body has been ripped away. I look around for the other part, wondering what else there had been to see, but it's gone, or maybe it never existed.

"Matt?" I say softly, it comes out as barely a whisper and I'm not sure he'd even hear me.

"He won't stop when he's like this," Alice spoke up from behind, and I spun around with a gasp as she managed to sneak up on me. "He gets in the zone. We've had months of peace, he could focus on his new show and I thought the nightmare we'd just gone through was over. About a month ago, he started waking up in the middle of the night again. The sketches started to get darker. He'd get moody and stop sleeping for a couple of days at a time. The drinking came next. Familiar faces started to reappear."

She pointed to the other corner, and we went over together. The gang's all here; every detail as clear and as focused as if it were a photo. Apollo, Artemis, Kara and Deimos. Even Hades got a look in. Some of the scenes I recognised, like the gathering at the Valkyrie bar and even Hecate's little cottage. Seeing the pile of papers near the larger canvases, I looked through them and our first trip to see Medusa played out like a comic strip.

"Is something bad happening, like last time?" Alice asked, looking at them beside me.

"Yes," I admit.

"I don't know if I can do this again." She frowns, looking exhausted.

There was a black shadow under her eyes that never used to be there, just like the wrinkles on her forehead and as she moved to put down the papers, I noticed the diamond missing from her hand. I looked back to Matt, his eyes glazed over yet he was so focused - seeing things we couldn't.

"I'm sorry." I wasn't sure what else to say to her. "He has a gift, and I know more than anyone how they often feel more like a curse. He never asked for this."

"Neither did I."

She looked at me as though I did, and this was all part of my plan to fuck with their lives. We could start a club, have matching jackets and personalised cookies for our weekly meetings, where we'd talk about all the stuff that kept happening that we didn't ask for to see who had it worse. I don't think my sarcasm would be appreciated right now and instead looked back at the pictures.

"I know." I couldn't find the words to say to fix it for them; they'd have to work it out for themselves and Matt's sake, I hope she could do it again.

"You're not very remarkable, I mean, I think you're something else. Someone else. You look, well, you're so normal. You could be any girl on the street. Do you grow wings or something?" Her question threw me, and I tried not to smile as I shook my head. Her curiosity has killed her fear. "And are there lots of ah, what's the word, Seers, like Matty?"

"Thank you, I think. Wings would be cool though." I shrugged. "And not many. There was an Oracle who used to live here, but she's moved on. Most of them have been hunted throughout the centuries, but Matt's not like them. He's not immortal, and his drawings make more sense than the riddles and breadcrumbs that others like to throw our way."

"They don't all do what he does?"

"No. They get visions too, but it just comes to them like a memory. From what I know it's over in a matter of seconds. Maybe because he's an artist, it's magnified to his strengths and so comes out this way."

Alice sighs, looking completely defeated. "He's so talented and brilliant. I adored him for years before we got together. I didn't expect this. We had plans to travel, we're getting married in less than six months. We wanted to start a family together. What do I do now?"

"Still do all of that?" If I could do it, they definitely could. "I know how you feel, trust me, I do and it's hard, and it's scary. I'd like to think he's worth the effort, but only you know that for sure. I can't make that decision for you and I can't promise it won't happen again. If this is how you're feeling, what's it like for him?"

"He keeps telling me he never asked for this, that he doesn't want it. When we moved out here, it was a fresh start. He'd said goodbye to you and all of this and I believed him, but here we are."

"I thought the same thing. He wasn't the only one wanting to move on, and I've learnt the more you resist, the harder it becomes."

"It's why I do the drawings. If I don't, I feel like my brain is going to explode." Matt's voice is rough and uneasy as he interrupts us. He drops what pencils he's still holding onto the floor with a clatter and stiffly stands up. "You got here fast."

"It sounded urgent."

He didn't say anything as he went to the pile we were standing near and flicking through the bulky frames, he pulled one out to be moved to the front and stepped back. Matt cracked his neck before doing the same to his knuckles which may as well have been nails down a chalkboard. It didn't help that I was staring at the Furies either. The three of them were on a cliff, the wind pulling back their capes and hair; the look on their faces was pure rage.

"They're coming through a lot. I couldn't ignore it anymore." He crossed his arms, looking less like the person I used to know and someone who was angrier with the world. I guess it had been taking a big toll on both of them. "Does Erinyes mean something?"

"That's who they are." I look away from the painting. "They are The Furies or Erinyes."

"I thought it might be the three Fates," Alice adds quietly before getting a little defensive. "I googled it. After the Greek Gods era, I found it interesting to read up on all these characters."

"You can't always believe what you read," I warn. "These guys may be exempt. Essentially they're the goddesses of vengeance, though they were supposed to seek justice, and be fair in their trials. Like all of them, shit went wrong along the way."

"I can feel that in the visions," Matt scratched his head, before pulling out a few more. "And it's like, they know someone is seeing them and don't like it. This didn't kill them, did it? The vision ended but I could still feel them, like their presence lingering around the scene."

The next one only shows Tisiphone with my sword in her chest, the other two looking near death on either side of her.

"I wish I could say it did and this was over."

"You fought well." He offered.

"Not good enough."

"So why are they here? Was it because of what you did?" I quickly try and think what he might be talking about, and rolling his eyes he flicks through the pages and hands over a sketch of Cain and I curled up together. "Do they know he's not dead?"

"Not quite, and also everyone knows now. It was a whole thing when the Furies came." I quickly gloss over it. "It's something I did. Someone woke them up from they'd be trapped in a mountain for like, ever."

Matt's face lights up, and he starts to go through all the paintings and papers, recklessly throwing things aside as he searches. "This could help?"

The paper looks like its' been scrunched up a few times before being flattened back out. There are smears of colours, whites and greys across the page that I don't think meant anything. It looks like scrap paper that he'd used to test colours on before getting it just right.

"It's a mountain."

"Oh, of course, it is." I squint, trying to make sense of the chaos on the page. "Great job with the snow?"

Alice suddenly springs back to life. "I'll make some coffee. Matty, do you want some coffee?"

I was pretty sure it was the last thing he needed, but she flew up the stairs before he could answer so I doubt it mattered what he wanted anyway.

"Yeah Elise, it's snowing." He grunted, sliding over two stools as he motioned for me to sit. At the table, he spread out others just like it. "It's a fucking snowy mountain."

"I can tell."

"Obviously." A bit of the old Matt comes through, and when he starts to smile I get the feeling he hasn't done that for a little while. "That's how it all started. I was having dreams of the cold, walking in the snow, feeling cold, cold wind, all of it. And then I woke up, and I was trapped in the ice. My fingers were black, my skin was burning. When I breathed it felt like my lungs were being frozen. Only then did I wake up, and Alice was in the corner of the room crying as I'd been screaming, wouldn't wake up and have ripped up the bedsheets."

"Shit." I frown, looking at him yet he seems kind of okay with all of that. "Vision?"

"Fucking nightmare, but yeah. The next few nights were all the same. I had no idea what it meant or what it was to do with." He shrugged. "I checked the news for any stories about avalanches or snowstorms, kept an eye on the weather in case a bad storm was about to hit somewhere. Nothing came up, and the next time I heard whispers. I didn't understand, it wasn't English or French or anything I know. I did hear God Killer, and when I was standing in the blizzard I could see someone, something, standing nearby."

A shape appeared in the white, definitely human and they had to have been wearing a cloak. Bringing it closer, I had a feeling I knew what it would be like and standing up, put one on just like it.

"That's exactly it." Matt nodded, pointing at me. "Do you know her?"

He passed over another picture and I sat down, ditching the coat as I prayed and begged to the universe that I wasn't about to see who I thought it might be. I wanted to be wrong, and fighting the ache in my chest, I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans before finally looking at it.

Not Portia.

I wasn't sure if it was better or worse though as I looked at his drawing of Nieve.

"She woke them up?" I forced myself to swallow, my hands trembling as I nearly dropped it.

"If she didn't, she had something to do with it."

"Anyone else? Was she there with two others? Like, one that has super pale skin and hair, and red lips and black eyes and looks like she'd be my age?"

"If she wasn't alone, I never saw or sensed them." He frowned, reaching out to be a hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

This changed everything.

"I-I am. I just," my heart was racing, the rush of blood a roar in my ears as my mind couldn't seem to wrap around what this meant. "Can I get, please, some water?"

A cold cup is in my hand what feels like a second later, and I take a tiny sip, then another and the glass is gone before I can drop it. Despite all that had happened, I thought, I believed they really weren't our enemies. I loved Portia, I trusted her and was ready to stand in her corner because I believed every word she had said to me. Instead, she may as well have just stabbed me in the heart as everything inside hurt, and the feeling of betrayal left me feeling cold.

"I don't want to make what you're dealing with any harder, but I didn't call you earlier because some of this stuff seemed to come and go like it felt passed and finished and I was trying to ignore it as best I could." Matt started, his voice low and cautious as if he wasn't sure I was going to be able to handle what was next. "Then I. Elise, do you know. Can I ask, are you pregnant?"

That got my attention, right as I felt Cain's presence behind me. "Why do you ask that?"

"Because of this." His voice was even, flat; not giving anything away which forced me to turn around to look at him where he stood in front of Matt's latest creation.

His eyes were focused on the painting, yet I could feel the anger and darkness in his gaze as if he was looking right at me. Cain didn't seem to blink or breathe as he just stared, and as Matt fell off his stool I jumped at the sound of it falling onto the concrete. He scrambled backwards until he hit the wall, reaching for the nearest canvas as if he could hide behind it.

Matt gave a little cough as if to clear his throat, his eyes wide in fear as Alice chose then to come back down the stairs. The whole room felt too small, and he didn't even look her way as she stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"Who, how did-" She started, the coffee cups smashing to the floor before I could think to stop it. "The Dark King."

If Alice had a breaking point, she just reached it. "Go, Matt. She needs you."

He dropped what he was holding and nodded, scrambling after his fiance in one swift motion that only proved how much he wanted to get out of there as well. I had thought he and Cain had been friendly with each other, but maybe not everything was as it had appeared. It didn't matter, but whatever was on the easel did.

"Cain?"

He didn't answer, and I slowly stood up. A cold fear spread over my skin as I neared, my hand lingering over my stomach as if to shield Blueberry from whatever I was about to see. I could hear shouting upstairs, but couldn't bring myself to care right now as instead, I forced myself to keep breathing. Adrenaline and fear fought for dominance within me and I managed to stand beside him. Cain was unmoving, but his rage-filled the air as toxic and dominating as the smell of the paints. From the window, the warm orange light vanished, and the crack of thunder above the house rattled the whole building right down into the foundations.

I was a coward as I avoided looking, slipping between him and the painting; he barely flinched at my touch, and even when I thought he was looking at me now, I realised he was just looking through me, too far gone. The last time he'd been like this, I had ended up being banished to the past and he completely lost his fucking mind.

No, that wasn't quite true.

I'd never seen this level of darkness controlling him.

Turning around, I braced myself.

"Don't." It wasn't gentle or a warning, if anything it was more of a threat, but I still looked.

I had seen this all before. Dejavu hit me like a slap in the face as I took in the destruction of life this battle had demanded. No colour was needed, the shading and sketches as clear to me as if I was already there, breathing it in. Only according to this, I wouldn't be breathing anything in.

The Furies win.

Hesitantly I touched the swell of my stomach, so much larger than it was now. My hair fell around my face where I had fallen, my eyes staring blanking up at the sky. I looked for familiar faces, the crowned figure on the ground nearby undoubtedly Kara and even the shape of Alfie could be seen near Hades. My sword was still in my hand, dirty and the crack in the blade made me shudder before I looked back to where my finger remained pressed on this edition of Elise's stomach.

"You're not here," I whisper, searching every face around me.

Cain leans over, pointing near the Furies and I see him.

Portia told me one day he'd die and I would burn the world down because of it. Now I wasn't so sure she meant me at all. I felt my heart breaking for this version of Cain and had no doubt this battle would end with only one winner after all.

"Visions change right? You can stop it." Matt asks and I look back to the stairs where he's just sitting there watching us.

I nod, yet feel completely lost as tears burn in my eyes. I don't trust myself to talk, so I just keep nodding.

I'd seen so many deaths, at my hand, at my will; family, friends, strangers. That whole disassociating thing Richard had talked about had never seemed more relevant and yet, through all of it, even having died already, twice, even -three if Ivy's attempt counted, it had never felt or been permanent. Looking at this, I feel it now. There wouldn't be a way to come back from this.

Fate was not on my side, not this time.

"You're pregnant, aren't you?" Matt asked, sounding genuinely upset about it. "Fuck."

Matt was slammed into the wall, the bottle of beer he had in his hands joining the earlier mess as he made a strangled gasping sound. I wondered if Alice was still up for that pity party; you didn't ask for this? Well, sit down lady and I'll let you in on all the things I never asked for.

"Visions change all the time." Cain manages to spit out, turning to Matt with the full weight of the situation now being thrown his way as roared. "You're wrong!"

I reached for Cain. "Let him go."

More thunder as the rain came now. Lightning lit up the room as the lights flickered and I was positive I heard a scream from somewhere upstairs. Matt was not someone who could take a dose of Cain's wrath, no one was when he was like this. Just like I had when he'd faced Apollo I reached out, but I couldn't do it, not like I had before. Again and again, I forced my powers on as he continued to torture Matt, and now I was getting angry.

"Cain!" I realised then, the power I was pushing against almost felt like mine. "Stop it! He's mortal, you asshole. Let him down!"

I grabbed his face, forcing him to look at me. "Stop."

"If he's dead, he can't-"

"No. Don't even finish that sentence," I warned, and the second of distraction was all I needed, just like with Deimos, I let the snake-like tendril of my power go and slipped its way in. "I thought you were better than this."

Matt fell instantly, gasping and coughing on the floor before he threw up. I went over to him, carefully helping him as best I could to stand again. He was fine, breathless, but fine which I was thankful for as at least Cain had managed to hold back; barely.

"Stay here." I don't miss the way his shoulders slump; in defeat or with embarrassment I wasn't sure and taking Matt upstairs, Alice is standing on the other side of the foyer with a carving knife in her hand. More lighting dances outside, and I didn't question where it came from. "I'm so sorry."

"I am too. I don't want these visions, Elise. It's been haunting me all day." Matt sighed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Congratulations?"

I force myself to smile.

"We're going to go. We won't be back, I promise." I say more for Alice's benefit than Matts as I hug him, and whisper. "Call me, text me, if anything-"

"I will." He squeezes me before letting go. "Stay safe."

Cain isn't downstairs anymore and as the thunder rumbles in the distance, I look to see the picture has been reduced to ash. Closing my eyes, I search for him and getting home he's just sitting on the end of the bed. The storm has moved here now, and as the thunder breaks overhead I jump. Our room still smells of popcorn, the candle undisturbed by recent events as it burns on the bedside table. Too bad it now makes me nauseous and as the flame disappears in a wisp of smoke, lightning sends shadows spinning around the room, the wind fighting the curtains as it finds a way in through the window that's slightly ajar.

I want to go to him and say so many things that are sitting on the tip of my tongue yet at my first step I'm on my knees, hugging myself as I curl up and want to disappear. It would be easier to deal with all of this if it wasn't for that tiny little lime sized creature inside. I had faced death before, I'd died, I fought and fought and not once did it ever feel like this. I'd only just faced the Furies, I had been accepting of the risks, of what it would mean because not once did I think it would end that way.

It couldn't end that way.

Cain sat beside me, and at his touch, I fell into his arms. I wanted to cry and scream, yet instead, I just felt numb. We didn't say anything, just sat there until finally, Cain moved us onto the bed. I wasn't sure if there was anything to say. I couldn't do what I know he needed me to do and I didn't know what I needed him to do for me either. I'm nearly asleep when he checks the time.

"The scan's today." He whispers, kissing the side of my head. I open my mouth and close it again, the words stuck in my throat. "I still see it."

I look up at him, not understanding.

"We'd have a bed for him by ours. A rocking chair just over there near the wardrobe. It's the best spot to enjoy the sunrise because I know he'll have us awake before dawn." I look over to the space I had imagined the same thing, and sure enough, theres' an overstuffed rocking chair sitting right there, the first rays of light touching the side of it. "I got up this time. He's changed and fed. Sleepy. You're just waking up, so we come to join you back in bed where I lay him between us and we just soak it all in together. It's our time to just, be, before we start the day."

This was my dream.

I'd seen this, felt it.

Just like I felt how real Matt's vision was too. The words are stuck in my throat, and I want to carry on the fantasy he just shared. Instead, I stop looking at the chair and shake my head.

"When I looked at the drawing, I felt that too. Matt's visions haven't been wrong yet."

"Don't give up, not yet, Elle. You can't," He decided, making it sound so simple. "We need you to believe it can change. What does Hecate tell you? Rise and rise again?"

"We haven't found her yet." We hadn't found her yet, and the last fraction of hope I still had begun to flicker; not yet extinguished.

"No, we haven't and Portia is probably hovering around, ready to-" Cain stopped, tilting my chin up to look at me, his eyes searching mine. "What is it?"

I took a deep breath, looking over the rocking chair one more time.

"Matt showed me who he thinks was responsible for the Furies. He saw it in another vision before he knew what any of it meant."

The chair went dark as new storm clouds began to roll in.

"She didn't." His tone was deadly.

"I don't know, but the one he saw was Nieve."

Outside, all hell broke loose as the storm hit and I didn't know if it would ever end.