Matt laughed and his eyes twinkled. There was something slightly unhinged about it. He breathed deeply and let out a long exhale. He raised his hand to his chest and did it again. Unshed tears made his amber eyes glassy.

"I have been waiting to test that theory since Robert Mercy disappeared 150 years ago! By the time I found Claire, she had completely reverted to normal human, but I still wondered if it would work if..." 

Matt stared at her. He looked at the other four fingers sitting misshapenly on the table beside him. 

With superhuman speed, he thrust his hands out, grabbing both the knife and the hammer. Brandishing the knife in Harry's direction, he focused his attention on the appendages on the table. Using the hammer, he set about pulverising them, working from the tips of each finger down.  Harry stood holding the toolbox and watching her already useless fingers being decimated. Despite the knife, she knew she should use his momentary distraction to attempt to get away again, but no matter how hard she tried her feet remained glued to the floor. 

After the destruction of the last weapon she could against him, Matt looked up. "It seems a loss, but I doubt they would've lasted long anyway." He chuckled and looked at her finger-less hand. "You'll hopefully grow me another set once I've got you back under control anyway."

Harry's heart pounded. She needed to get out of this house and get her family away.

Matt stepped towards her, bloody hammer in one hand and knife in the other. Just because he wanted her alive, didn't mean he wouldn't do serious damage to her in order to stop her from getting away.

He lunged, the knife protruding in front of him. Harry lifted the heavy toolbox, ignoring the pain in her damaged hand and using the object to deflect his attack. The knife connected with the aluminium, and Harry lost her equilibrium. She darted around the table as the toolbox fell to the ground.

She reached for a screwdriver so that she had something to defender herself with while she was re-opening the door. She grunted. She'd automatically reached with her right hand. After wrapping the still working fingers of her left hand around the torture implement, she stumbled into the chair she'd been strapped to for most of the day.

She began to push it out of the way, but as the table behind her rammed into the back of her upper thighs, Harry, the chair and the screwdriver collapsed in a tangle on the floor.

Matthew was upon her. His once average face a burning furnace of rage. He pushed the chair to the side and dropped his full weight onto her waist. Though he wasn't a big man, he was still heavy enough to pin her to the ground.

A hand wrapped around her neck, squeezing hard. Another hand clamped down on her mouth. It blocked her nose and rammed her head into the ground. Harry flailed her arms and legs, attempting to shift his weight. Some of her jagged movements collided with his upper arms but had little effect.

He lent forward and her arms no longer connected at all. His breath on her cheek added to the heat she was feeling from the lack of oxygen in her body. Within a few minutes she would pass out and she would be done for. She would be back in bonds with very little chance of escaping again. She would fail to deliver her end of the deal, meaning who knew what for Charlie, and Matt would go after her family, and probably Troy as well. 

Her thoughts started to feel foggy. Matt stared at her eagerly. His anger had been replaced with a deranged excitement.

He moved so his lips were just above her right ear. "Give in. You've lost. You'll be mine for the rest of time," he whispered. 

He lightly kissed the spot between her ear and the hinge of her jaw. Her stomach turned at the thought of the vile man's saliva touching her skin. The movement shifted something near her neck, below Matthew's hand.

Harry surreptitiously rose her left hand. It enveloped something long and slightly heavy. Something attached to a fine chain with an unmistakable rod coming from the end.

Her whole body felt heavy, but the thing in her hand sent waves of energy through her, giving her mind a moment of clarity and her body a moment of strength. Matt's torso started to shift as he moved his head away from the side of her face. 

It's now or never, she thought. She shifted the positioning of the pendant in her palm, exposing the rod above the base of her thumb. 

Turning a defiant stare towards Matt, and diverting his attention to her face, she lifted her left hand slightly and jabbed back down. It stabbed directly into the hand squeezing her neck.

Matt shot upwards. Still sitting on her, he raised his left hand, wrenching her necklace upwards, until it went taught and then snagged as it was drawn back out of his flesh. An ethereal glow erupted from the rod, bathing them both in light, and Matt stared at the hole in his hand that was quickly spreading blazing tendrils up his arm and through his body.

His face contorted into a hideous mask of unabated fear. It happened faster than it had with the others. His skin glowed, burning from inside out. He radiated heat that made Harry feel like she had stepped inside an open incinerator. He threw his head back. As the first flakes of skin fell from his rigid body, a high pitched scream escaped, sounding more like a song than the screech of terror that it was. 

He shook violently, causing the flakes to turn to dust faster. With a last deep exhale, the amber of Matt's eyes became hollow and his lifeless form fell forward, showering Harry in red dust.

The intense blue light that had exuded from the pendant died and Harry was alone.

A tear mixed with the demon dust encrusting her face. 

Matthew Smith, leader of the demons in Mercy's Creek was no more.

***

The opening of the front door of Matt's house was like stepping into light after a year of darkness. The idea Harry had only been captive for two days was conceivable. The sun was already low on the horizon, meaning the beginning period of the new moon was officially commencing.

Harry surveyed the scene in front of her. Liz's car sat abandoned behind Sam's Aston Martin, while another car, parked in front of a white van, gave Harry a moment's pause as she considered the death toll from the previous two days.

David stood beside the van looking apprehensive. His face transformed into a relieved grin as she rushed towards him mirthfully. She threw herself into his arms, causing him to lose balance from the combination of her force and his weakness.

"What are you still doing here?" she scolded, still hugging him for all she was worth. "What if that was Sam coming out that door?"

He held her tighter, breathing in her hair, despite its grossness. "If that were him coming through that door then we'd all be doomed no matter where we were. Sam?" David asked.

Harry sobbed softly, shaking her head against his bony shoulder. She remembered the tender way Sam had looked at her as he'd consigned himself to an eternity of torment. It was still amazing to her that a pure demon could actually be made to care.

The sounds of Charlie whimpering brought her back to the present. She broke from David's embrace and, with her good hand, rushed to open the car door to remove her from the seatbelt that restrained her. Despite David's protestation, he was clearly ready to act should he have needed to get Charlie away quickly.

Pulling her from the car, Harry wrapped her arms around the dirty toddler, repeatedly kissing her tiny face.

Harry's heart swelled.

As David wrapped his arms around the two of them, the pit in Harry's stomach filled. No matter what problems they'd had, they were both on the same page now.

They were a family again, and no-one would ever separate them now.

She allowed David to bundle her into the backseat of the van, Charlie still tightly grasped in her arms.

He called the Sergeant. When she arrived Harry would tell her everything.

No-one in this community would be in the dark again. She would no longer be the only legacy of Claire Mercy-Rossberg, they would all share that fate together.

Despite the possibility the Sergeant might think her crazy, with David beside her, no more did she just have hope that she could defeat the darkness. She would get them all on her side.

She had certainty.