3.

On the day Eve Grady lost her life Tanya Ferguson managed to get her hands on a thirteen-month-old Maxene and from as soon as she could, Tanya taught Maxene to be on the lookout stating that a danger could easily be right around the corner and if it were to turn that corner then Maxene needed to be ready for it, even if she were no more than being just a child.

Having been separated from whom she thought was her mother; Maxene knew being in a strange car with two strange men was a danger no matter how pleasant they appeared to be. In her own six-year-old memory, she only ever knew pleasantness. She knew not of her actual parents, what had happened to them though in time to come ... she will.

Tanya Ferguson had been on the run with Maxene with a want to keep her safe and prepare her to make a decision for herself to choose light and not darkness for with her own gift Tanya knew a darkness was and is coming without actually knowing exactly what lay ahead for Maxene and if Tanya could impact that darkness, then she'd surely try.

As odd as it is, both Tanya Ferguson and Bill Allen know something is on its way without actually knowing for sure exactly what that something is and of course, they both know this separately for neither know of the other and at that, how odd it is that they both are connected via little Maxene. Indeed, Tanya wanted to teach Maxene to choose good over bad and Bill wants to end at least one child with whom he believes is connected to his own daughter ... Maxene is such a child.

Darkness himself visited with Maxene for a first time on the day she would become separated from Tanya and the first situation Maxene experienced upon separation is being in a strange vehicle with two strange men and in this a second visit from Darkness himself, became necessary. Winston Russell, knowing what he knows, saw an opportunity and acted upon it, such is why there is a child in the back of his vehicle.

The second visit Darkness made with Maxene was very much unlike the first. He did not appear to her in shadow form or in human form rather he used that rabbit she was so fond of. Through the stuffed animal Darkness told Maxene what she needed to do, and she was more than willing to do it without hesitation.

With Winston believing he coincidentally came across young Maxene, he did not consider the fact that it was her who discovered him via the dark lord himself. The vehicle's accelerator hit the floor and it was not Winston Russell who was responsible for it doing this.

'Whoa take it easy there Winston; we are not in a race' speaks Bill Allen to his best friend.

'It's not me ... I'm not doing this.'

'Then who is ...'

'I don't know ... aw crap ...'

There is only so long a driver can keep control of a speeding car. It's what is in his way that causes the vehicle to twist, tumble and end up overturned with the wheels still spinning. Bill Allen as hurt as he would be from this accident, if it could be called that, would live. Winston Russell would not. Questions asked by Bill Allen to where the girl is when help arrives to aid the vehicle's inhabitants, a reply would ask ... 'what girl? Sir ... was there a girl in this vehicle?'

Bill Allen would not know how to answer that question and he wouldn't have to right away for he'd pass out at the accident scene ... as for where Maxene and her stuffed rabbit had got to in the moments of the accident and the time after it ... well ...

4.

William Allen, always having been known as Bill Allen, confidently sure that his very own daughter is a part of or is to be a part of something unnatural and unholy, went and set off on a mission with the knowledge of at least one other who is on the same path as little Charlotte Allen. Backed up and unclearly so by his best pal Winston Russell, Bill went out with the intent of taking the life of a child, that one other he was sure was on a similar journey to Charlotte.

If he could end a chain of events surely set in motion some time ago, go derail whatever is coming then maybe his daughter may be released from her path and this was his incentive to go after a six-year-old Nancy Ellis. His own conscience however got the better of him and before he could intentionally collide his car with one belonging to Benjamin Ellis, Bill pulled away.

When one opportunity to achieve a goal having been ... disrupted another opportunity immediately presented itself. Not being all so forthcoming with all he knows, Winston Allen had managed to abduct or at least pick up a third child, a third six-year-old on the same path as Charlotte Allen and Nancy Ellis. Just how many children are on this dark path Bill does not know and apparently it goes so much further and deeper than he could have ever guessed or imagined.

Something Bill didn't have time to consider was the fact as to what this third girl is capable of doing. His own daughter can duplicate herself at least once and she can do this at will as well as having it happen under certain conditions. The second girl, Nancy Ellis, had touched Bill's arm and when she did this, Bill's arm went to sleep, he lost complete and utter control of it. How strong a touch this girl might have ... who knows?

The transition from the situation of being confronted by Nancy's father to another situation of being in a vehicle with Winston and this third girl was instant, so time would be needed to consider what could or could not possibly be done. And indeed, time would be needed to consider the fact that this third child, Maxene Ferguson, also had a power or an ability but time for consideration would not come. But Bill Allen would not have the luxury of time; Winston Russell certainly would not have that luxury.

Guided by Darkness, Maxene ensured the vehicle with which she sat in the back of, a vehicle driven by Winston Russell with Bill Allen in the passenger seat, would crash. Her own gift allowed her to escape, and the actual crash itself ended the life of Winston Russell.

Continuing to be guided by Darkness, Maxene would find a more immediate path for her own future to follow, one which would bring her and her stuffed rabbit to a darkened underworld, an underworld which at this point in time had been home to a certain Sammy Fontaine for four years and a home he was soon to leave.

Some things may be just by chance and sometimes chance may not be chance at all for the hospital that Bill Allen would find himself within so happens the same hospital where Tanya Ferguson so happens to have been taken to after a road incident brought her travels to an end.

Bill Allen awoke in hospital after having passed out not long after emergency services got to him at the crash site. He had checked on his friend in that moment of disaster prior to passing out and if he had known at that time that Winston had lost his life then his own injuries possibly threw this fact from his memory for when he had been told upon waking of the status of the driver it threw Bill for six as if this news was new to him.

At the scene of the crash and before Bill had passed out, he had made inquiries of a child, there had been no child at the scene, injured or otherwise and of course Maxene had not been injured at all. In a hospital bed with a drip going into one arm, the other arm broken, Bill once again asked about a child.

'Your daughter and your wife were here, they have gone home to rest, we will inform your wife that you have regained consciousness ...' a nurse informs him.

His own daughter was not the child he was inquiring about though the nurse could not have known this. In his confused state and feeling that he still is on a mission, Bill makes a severely hindered attempt to move.

'Steady now ...' the nurse tells him. 'Your injuries will have you confined to bed for a bit.'

It takes a moment or so for Bill to settle and when he does settle, he then speaks again, 'there was a child in the car, her name I think ... is Maxene ... Ferguson perhaps.'

This surprises the nurse and Bill does not quite catch her reaction to his words. There is another patient in this hospital, and she has not been here all so long. The patient is Tanya Ferguson and in her brief moments of consciousness she has expressed concern her daughter whose whereabouts is unknown to hospital staff and of course too, the nurse does not disclose to Tanya what it is she is aware of.

Tanya Ferguson's injuries are much more severe than those Bill Allen reluctantly has to deal with. She will heal, in time; though will never quite again be what she once was. Finding Maxene is something that cannot be attempted for some time. Here, injured, in hospital, Tanya Ferguson has never been as trapped in her own life as she is at this point in time.

A couple hours after waking in hospital, emotion overwhelms Bill Allen. Tear's flow and a demand is made. No matter if hospital staff want to keep him bed bound so he can heal, Bill wants to see his fallen friend. The body of Winston Russell is resting within the hospital morgue; Bill Allen will not follow instruction until he gets his wish.

It took a little convincing including some on his behalf from the nurse he had spoken to upon waking. She suggested that she could escourt Mister Allen to the Morgue with the use of a wheelchair as long as he would promise to behave upon return to his bed. He agreed. Nurse Pike, as Bill would be informed, began the journey from the ward to the morgue but would be stopped only seconds after the trip began.

Even from his chair Bill could see Nurse Pike was distracted. Barely out of the room with which his bed resides, it was clear that Nurse Pike was focused on another room.

'What is it in there that has caught you?' he asks.

'Oh nothing ...' she tries to deflect, 'the view of outside is quite nice from that window is all.'

'It would more or less be the same view from the room I am in I'd imagine.'

'You are quite determined, aren't you?' Bill looks up to his assistant and almost right away she gives in. 'Alright, you got me. There is a lady in there who is seriously hurt. Apparently, she is the mother of the child you were inquiring about.'

'Seriously? Can I talk to her?'

'Unlike you she is resting and will be for some time. Her injuries are much more severe than yours. Maybe in a couple of weeks ...'

'... A couple of weeks' he interrupts.

She offers a stern look as if to remind him of his promise. He reluctantly agrees and it is onto the morgue they go. For Bill, a dread settles in long before they can get to the destination. The coroner sets out Winston's remains, and Bill is given a moment or two. Despite his broken arm and fractured left ankle, he gets up to be at his friend's side.

'Winston ... what have we done? I am sorry my friend ... will I ever know what it is you never told me? The next time I am at that bar of ours the drinks will be on me ...'

With that the tears return ... dejection, loss, whatever it is, Bill does not hang around long enough, nor does her return to the hospital at any other time to talk to Tanya Ferguson.