The eyes are easily deceived, and so does the mind play tricks on you. Magic has a way of betraying you, and it shall betray you even harder if you wish to use it for your own benefit. These are all facts that we should have taking into consideration.

But what should I be considering here? The fact that in front of me is a woman that is a fair age of seventy is by all possibility, my beloved. This truly has become insane, so I close my head for but a brief second and shake all the images out of my mind hoping that I would see different.

"Sebastian, it is me. Anastasia, the woman you call your beloved."

"My god! What has happened to you?"

"Well, it seems the spell had some other consequences."

"You are here to reverse which one?"

"Well, I am truly hoping both."

"My beloved, it pains me even more now. I should have turned you when we had the chance."

"I thought you might say that, now that I have lost my beauty."

Now, what do I say to this, of course, I would prefer with all her beauty, for as it stands now, I shall cringe at the thought of making love to a seventy-year-old. Who knows, by the time we get home, she is eighty. This does bring a frightening reality to mind."

"We need to hurry up, Elloise; I suggest you do this faster. My dear friend Edward here has not had a fairy in years, and believe me; it is not in a way that you shall derive pleasure. Now tell me what it is that I can do?"

Then right in front of my eyes, I watch, much to my horror, as Elloise tears the Book of Spells into three parts and hands us each one. Yes, there is that part of me that wishes to give her a scolding, but I know this is to save Anastasia.

So I go to sit by my beloved and place her head gently on my lap; there shall be no way that we shall be apart if this is indeed going to be the last hours of her life. I gently place a soft kiss against her pale skin. Even though she is all wrinkled up, she still has the most delicate skin that I have ever felt in my immortal life. Then I tangle a loose strand of her now grey hair around my finger and tuck it behind her ear. I softly whisper in her ear for nobody else to hear.

"I love you with all my heart, my beloved. I shall be with you every step of the way; I shall follow you in death."

If my beloved, for any reason, does not make it through today, I will be joining her shortly into the realm of the afterworld.

But put this thought beside, with my part of the Book in hand, I start to flip page after page, and as I go along, I mention each spell that I believe that shall work.

"Elloise, here is one that says "Eternal Beauty?"

Elloise takes the Book to inspect what I have found, "Sebastian, it says, "Eternal Beastly."

"Well, slap me silly and call me a Delilah, but that does not look like that at all."

"Focus; you are wasting precious minutes."

I do so wish to tell her that it is her fault that we are stuck in this situation, but it truly is Anastasia and mine, for we should have never played with the power that the Book holds. But it is this very power that makes us rush to save her life.

And my thought has not even run its course, when I come across another one, "Mmm, Elloise, we have one here that says, "Instill Mortality."

"Sebastian, do you care to read that again?"

"Oh, morality, never mind then."

I am starting to think that I am far more useless than I am useful. Have I lost the ability to read, or is fear crippling my mind and making me see what I wish to. If only they had these spells in sections, or at less in some order. They are all jumbled up as they came to mind by whomever, which or fairy. And just to think that every one of these spells has been performed at least once. This does bring the question, does power really corrupt those that seek them? Well, if we look at Anastasia, I would say that it is a definite yes.

So from turning people into gnomes, giving trees life, and by life I mean talk, then to making water creatures wake the earth, one after one of these spells do seem to get crazier. But not that this one would help Anastasia, I do feel the need to mention.

"Now Elloise, I have not read this one wrong, so do tell me "Return Of Manhood" is it truly implying by what the picture is showing?"

"Ha! You would have had that one performed on many occasions; faithfulness never used to be a trait you held well."

"But can't they just like stitch it back together?"

"My dear Sebastian, in those days, there was no way that you can…stitch…it…back with. Now please find something useful, for I hate to point out that your beloved is looking far worse than she did but an hour ago."

As Elloise says these words, I look down at Anastasia that is resting on my lap. What I have failed to notice is that she has aged even further; why have I not felt it? Well, how do you even feel someone's age? But aged, she has done a great deal, was truly under the impression that it happens gradually, but it seems to happen on every hour. So if we take this happens every hour, it…

"Elloise."

"Oh god, Sebastian, what now?"

"Is there not a spell that can increase time, like giving Anastasia more time, adding more time to an hour?"

Then Edward comes with and even far brilliant idea, "What if you put her in a bubble or cocoon and freeze all time?"

Elloise looks quite impressed by the babble of two old Vampires, but then she needs to remind us, "That is a rather great plan, the problem, we still need to find one, thus still leaving us with our current problem."

And just at once, like that, my heart drops back onto the floor where I but a moment picked it up from. So I go ahead with far more haste in finding whichever spell comes first. But then there is a thought that jumps to mind.

"Elloise, what if we can't find one? Can you create one from scratch?"

"Sebastian, you know that it is not just that easy."

Well, I think I should officially shut my mouth, for I am only but upsetting myself at my frustration with not being able to help my beloved.

So it takes me and half an hour of nothing, and as I look down at Anastasia, I see that she is still fine; she is still eighty.

Then it takes me another half an hour for more of nothing, and as I look down at Anastasia, I see that she has now indeed turned into a ninety-year-old woman.

With that, I spend the next half an hour going through pages and pages of absolutely; you can guess it, nothing. As I look down at Anastasia, I am relieved to see that she is still the age of ninety.

Time is no creeping closer and closer to an hour, and soon she shall come to an age where very few mortals pass.

And what is also creeping close is my part of the Book is nearly finished. I have been through this whole godforsaken thing, and I have found nothing. None of us have found a single spell that shall reverse the one that we used to reverse the curse of an Ancient. If I think about it again, it really was not worth taking that risk in the first place. We played with fire with someone's life, and it has come like karma and bit us even harder than a bitch.

Then it happens…

The pages of my Book come to an end, and as I look over to Edward, he too is sitting with his on his lap. I can see the sadness in his eyes, as with everyone around this table, we all feel as if we have failed Anastasia.

So comes the time, and how I wish it would not come to an end; Elloise gently places her Book down next to her and reaches out for my hand.

"My god, Sebastian, I am so sorry."

With that sad realization that we have done all that we can, I pull my beloved even closer into my body, and as I whisper, "I love you." There is a reality that knocks me straight back. In a mere instant, I have risen from my chair. Then searching for eyes that I was so hoping I did not have to find, I look at the blue bottomless pools that are the eyes of my beloved.

Then it happens…

The fountains erupt; there are tears that tickle my eyes and come streaming down my face. They are flooding my eyes and drowning my mind. I have never in all my life felt this much pain; agony is not even a word that can define. My beloved has passed away, and I did not even notice it. She is gone from me; she has lost that battle that every mortal fight when it comes to their end. The only problem is that her mortality did not give her a full life; it was ripped away by some force that not even a supernatural can tame.

The hell with this force; it is just life; life is not fair and will kick you in the gut when you least expect it. It has taken the only woman that I will ever love and ripped her out of my hands. It did not ask; it did not demand; it just took. It took what was not its; it destroyed a life. It destroyed a love; it destroyed hope. It crushed hearts. It stabbed me in the heart with a thousand dagger. It stabbed all those that love her even deeper in the back.

Now, my summer is gone; it has grown into autumn. There is an icy coldness that has now set over my heart. There is sadly, and bitterly, not even a warmth that is coming from her body. She has gone as cold as death. Death stood waiting for us when we entered this door yesterday, and today we came back for it to take her. We have fed into its hands.

There is no such thing as fate. Yes, I am fated to be alone now, but is being alone what I truly choose? I can not live without Anastasia, and I have made this very well-known. My life without her is nothing but getting lost in a maze without any sight of getting out.

There is no way around this for me, I am, and I have when I was rushing to come to be her side, made the decision that should she perish, I shall join her side. Anastasia is the end of my beginning and the beginning of my end.

And as I look at Edward with tears covering my face, indeed he is shocked, but he is also broken beyond a point. And I am afraid that I am about to inflict a pain on him so great.

With what shall be my final words, "Edward, my dear friend, I love you as a brother, and please give the same message to our dear sister, Lilith."

I, from the back of my pants, where I had hidden it before we left, I take out the Ancient blade. With my resolution clear, my love strong, I slam the blade deep through my heart.

"Sebastian, no!"

I drop to the floor, and everything goes black.