2.

'Why?' she asks of her father.

'For you, my dear. I believe your future is still not written. There may not be long left, and it is only a matter of time unless things change, but I believe in you ... my girl ... there has been opportunity though you have yet to cross the line ...'

'You do not have to do this father. It is I who is of Satan ... not you?'

'Not true. My soul has been sold, sold so there may be a chance for you to have yours. Please take advantage of this.'

'Father, don't do this ...'

'I have no choice. I am out of time. There is still time left for you. I must take this woman's life before sunrise. It's to be done and is as good as done. Now you go my daughter, do good things. For the memory of your mother. You have time.'

Charlotte Allen is confused, she is conflicted. She has taken it as is, that her life is meant to be. She is a daughter of Darkness, now Darkness has taken her biological father and Bill Allen has come to be locked into something he should never have been involved with. Reluctantly she does leave this barn, she heads back into the nighttime darkness and considers as to if she really belongs to it. This is the first time she has questioned the darkness.

There is nothing you cannot be in this world her father had told her when she was young, and these words can't help but come to Charlotte. Can she control her fate? Or is she to be what Darkness would have her be?

She has yet to cause harm. Opportunities have been thwarted so she does have time. She thinks of Majella and her flat-out refusal to represent darkness. Could there really be hope in her future? Leaving her actual father in this moment, it is not so easy especially with the screams of a stranger echoing out into the night. No help is going to come for that stranger, that stranger will soon meet her end and there is nothing Charlotte Allen can do about that.

Odd as it is, at a time months after a Ball has taken place, a daughter of Satan other than Majella does not want a life to be taken in the name of Darkness. All of a sudden, her place in a brewing war is no longer as appealing as it once was, it is no longer appealing in any way, shape or form.

***

Corrine Allen watched from behind a curtain as her husband left the family home for a final time. Had they ever really been a family at all? Certainly not for quite some time at the very least. Trains that pass one another in the night would work as a description ... familiar to one another but nothing much more than that. He didn't even discuss it with her when they came for him ... he just ... left.

The worst thing about it all being that he would lead away by a man who had been dead for years before making a return to the Allen household and the previous time this man had been here, he had made an attempt to take Charlotte's life at a time when she was no more than a young child of six years of age.

Thing is that there is no more waiting, an endgame has begun. It will either succeed or it won't so something had to be done to ensure it does not succeed. There was to be a murder of a child to be set forward for Charlotte and she most likely would have gone along with it if it hadn't had been thwarted by a vision Majella Smith had. To Charlotte, such an even never existed, so she knew no different and in essence, Charlotte has not yet performed an action which would send her beyond a line.

Perhaps a time has come to visit a certain sister and the sooner the better for if the reverse were to come ... that might be a completely different coming together, altogether. If this stage of the war of the world were to come to an end either with a victory for Light or with a stalemate, then the answer lies surely with or via Majella Smith.

***

September 29th, 2018.

Tom and Lisa Smith are well aware of what transpired a few months prior. They know what it means to and for Majella. As much as they care for her and worry for her, they know she needs her own space. The awareness is definitely there for the pain she imparted upon Sammy Fontaine, they with give the youngest member of the Smith family the time she needs for herself. Family will always be family. Tom and Lisa will always be available for Majella when she needs them to be.

This night, however, is night of a gathering of another kind. Lisa Smith has become engaged. This night is to celebrate this, thing is that there is no sign of Majella. If Lisa is having a night like this one, she would love to have her sister close no matter what kind of mindset her sister is in. after all, the maid of honour for the wedding when it comes round, there can only be one candidate for that. This night would be the night to set that in motion though indeed there is no sign of Majella.

'Does she even know?' Lisa asks her father.

'How could she? Neither of us have spent much time with her lately and we both understand why this is so. If there were a way for her to know then she'd surely come, even if she did not feel up for it ...'

There is nothing more father and daughter can do at the moment other than hope the other living member of the family will make it to the current location before the night end. For now, the lucky guy in question is here and he has made a beeline towards his fiancée. This lucky fellow ... well he so happens to be a young man by the name Arthur Billingsworth.