Annette and Dantes crashed through the door and into Alicia's room. Tobias must have heard the screaming too, as he wasn't far behind. As they entered, they found the room in shambles. Clothes were strewn about the floor, lamps had been knocked over, even the dresser and bed had been overturned. Other than a few rays of the setting sun bouncing through the window the room was almost pitch black, and Alicia was nowhere to be found.

"Mom?" Annette called out to no reply. She took a few more steps into the room with Dantes close behind.

"Mom, you here?" she tried again, stumbling over the mess on the floor. Dantes grabbed her before she could fall and pulled her upright, "Careful."

She nodded and then whispered, "I don't see her."

Dantes' hand fumbled along the wall looking for a switch for the lights. He flipped it, which didn't help much. A low hum, followed by a lamp that sputtered to come to life was all that it achieved.

"Could she have left?" Dantes asked, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the low light.

"I don't see how. The door was locked. It only locks from the outsi..." she started before Dantes hushed her.

"Listen," he whispered. Annette quieted down, attentively listening to the sounds around them. It took her a moment until she picked up on the feint scratching sound that Dantes was referring too.

"What is that?" she asked. Dantes shook his head, unsure of its source himself.

He motioned towards the far end of the room, "It sounds like it's coming from over there." Carefully he stepped over the mess on the floor and made his way to the corner where the noise was emanating from. A large cabinet had been knocked over and leaned against the wall. He kneeled down, placing his ear near it and listened for a few moments longer.

Shaking his head, he grabbed the cabinet and pulled it over revealing a small crawl space door that was slightly ajar. He took another moment of silence to listen intently to the scratching noises that echoed from its darkness. Carefully reaching forward, he pushed it open only to be greeted by an ear shattering scream.

"Mom?!" Annette yelled as she rushed over to Dantes' side and looked into the unlit crawl space. Huddled in the darkest corner, and looking like something out of a horror film, was Alicia. Her eyes were glazed over, and she appeared to be mumbling something under her breath.

Dantes held out his arm, stopping Annette from rushing to her.

"...Careful. She's further gone than I realized," he whispered, taking the lead and entering the crawl space.

"Alicia, can you hear me?" he continued as he moved closer. She didn't respond. It was like she was in her own little world, talking to someone or something that couldn't be seen. Whatever she was saying wasn't a language he was familiar with. It seemed odd, with weird sounds and a clicking of the tongue. If he had to guess, it sounded tribal in nature but also very old, maybe even older than angels and demons themselves.

"Alicia?" he tried again to no avail. He turned his attention back to Annette, "What language is that?"

Annette scrunched her brow as she tried to listen to the words Alicia was muttering, "...I don't know. I've never heard anything like it before."

She reached her hand out to her mom, touching her on the shoulder. It was greeted with an ear shattering scream that caused her to retreat several steps as she covered her ears.

"Mom! Mom stop! Please stop!" she tried yelling over her mom's screech to no avail. The scream continued for at least another minute without a break or gasp for air, far longer than any normal human could achieve, before finally coming to an end.

Annette started to reach for her mom again and Dantes quickly grabbed her.

"Don't," he stated as he held her tight, "Look at her eyes."

Annette squinted into the darkness. Her mom had moved back into the farthest corner of the crawl space and it was hard to see the result of her outburst. Annette kept leaning further forward trying to make out something in the shadows, anything at all as Dantes tried to stop her from getting too close.

Annette's eyes finally began to adjust and that's when she noticed it. The face she saw in the shadows barely resembled that of her mom. Her eyes had deepened and there appeared to be something resembling black ink draining from them. Her mom's mouth also seemed to be frozen in a state of anger or panic, it was hard to tell, as it hung open while saliva dripped from her lips. She didn't move, but a low hum reverberated from her throat.

Hysteria began to overtake Annette's emotions and once again Dantes found himself trying to hold her back.

"Is she...is she...," Annette screamed out.

"No. She's fine....she's...," he shook his head. "She's breathing. I just don't know if...Are you sure you checked for possession?"

"I'm sure! I'm sure!" Annette was in tears as she fought against Dantes to get to her mom. It was all he could do to hold her back. "Let me go...Please let me go," she murmured before collapsing in a heap in Dantes' arms.

He held her warmly, not quite sure what he could do to comfort her, although his eyes never lost sight of the statuesque monster that appeared to have taken control of her mom.

"We're missing something...we have to be," he mumbled under his breath.

"What are we going to do? I can't leave her here, not like this..."

"I have an idea. You might not like it though..." She nodded although he could tell she was hesitant. "The empty storage room downstairs. There are no windows, right?"

Again she nodded.

"How long would it take you to put up an entrapment spell in the room? We can keep her there. There's no worry of her being hurt by the lights and at the very least it buys us some time to figure out what to do next."

He could already tell by the look on her face that she wasn't liking the idea.

"We're not locking my mom in a storage room!"

"You have a better idea? We can't leave her here and when the sun goes down, who knows if she'll try to run. At least this way we can keep an eye on her."

Annette stood silent for a moment, quietly contemplating their options until finally her shoulders fell in defeat.

"You're right. How are we going to get her down there?"

"I'll figure it out. Can you get the spell ready?"

Annette nodded, took one last look at her mom who was still frozen in place as the low hum continued to emanate from her throat, and then hurried from the room.

"Alicia?" Dantes tried again after a few minutes to no avail. The way she sat so still, and paleness of her skin, caused a chill to run up and down his back.

"I swear I'm sitting through an episode of Doctor Who with a weeping angel that hums..." He shook his head, trying to push the thought from his mind.

It didn't take much more than an hour for Annette to return, something that surprised Dantes since it took time to concoct an entrapment spell, particularly the preparation the ingredients needed to go through before they'd work. Even with all of the ingredients on hand, several hours would have been expected, and then another hour to prepare the room.

"That was...quick..."

"...How's she doing?" Annette asked, ignoring his statement.

"Hasn't moved...hasn't broken from the humming either," he responded, his eyes still carefully upon her. "How did you prepare the spell so fast? Those ingredients take awhile, and they don't last too long after they're prepared."

"It's not important. How do we move her?"

"Annette..."

"I don't want to talk about it, okay?" she spat back.

"So your whole lecture on keeping secrets, it doesn't apply to you? Is that how we're playing this?" he responded with a bit of annoyance.

"It's....it's complicated."

"Welcome to life, where no choice is easy."

Annette let a large sigh escape from her lips, "...It was a precaution."

"For your mom?"

"...For Elyssa." There was a moment of silence and Annette was afraid to look at him. She didn't know if he'd be angry, or understanding, but the possibility of the former worried her.

"We should get your mom downstairs."

"You're not upset?"

"We're being honest, right?" he asked.

Annette nodded in answer to his question.

He hesitated for a moment, "She's getting worse. I think it's worse than she lets on at times. I don't like the idea of entrapment but...sometimes...," his eyes wandered to Alicia, "to keep those we love safe..."

Annette knew all too well what he meant, even though she hated the idea. They didn't exactly have a large range of choices to choose from at the moment and time was running out.

"Okay, I'll grab her and you make sure I have a clear path to storage," Dantes said as he took a few careful steps towards Alicia.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, just cover your ears...ready?"

Annette nodded as she stood by the crawl space door, holding it open for what was likely to be the sprint downstairs. Dantes readied himself next to Alicia, taking another glance at Annette, and then without hesitation he grabbed Alicia by the waist. To his surprise, she didn't struggle. She didn't even scream although the low humming continued.

As quickly and carefully as he could, he carried her to the door, and then stopped.

"Grab the blanket," he ordered, motioning with his head to the blanket laying beside the overturned bed. Annette snatched it and tossed it over Alicia, covering her from head to toe to shield her from any stray light.

Without another word they started quickly heading downstairs, with Annette holding open doors and Dantes doing the carrying. Oddly, and to their astonishment, getting to the storage room was trouble-free. Once they arrived in front of the door though, something changed. It was as if Alicia, or whatever was possessing her, knew about the entrapment spell that she was about to be thrown into.

She began to struggle under the blanket, and it was all Dantes could do to hold her still. His hands gripped her more tightly as he struggled to get her through the door without hurting her.

"Careful!" Annette shouted as she held the door, a look of worry passing over her face.

"Just hold the door!" he shot back while almost losing his grip on her. It took several minutes before they even got her partially through.

"Almost there," he said through gasps for air. Just as he finally got her through, Annette let out a loud yelp in pain.

"What's wrong?"

"She's got my arm," Annette squealed as she tried to pry Alicia's hand from her forearm. Dantes reached out to try and help, which didn't bode well for holding Alicia still. Whatever had overcome Alicia had given her incredible strength, which made it even more difficult as he didn't want to injure her while pulling her away from Annette.

It took almost all of his strength, along with Annette's, to pull her free. When they finally did, Annette's forearm was red and swollen from how tightly it had been gripped.

Again Alicia let loose an ear shattering scream as Dantes dragged her to the center of the room.

"Finish the spell!" he yelled over her to Annette as he held Alicia in place.

Annette lowered her head as she pulled a small bundle of leaves and other herbs from her pocket. She began chanting an incantation that was barely audible over Alicia's screaming. Suddenly the bundle in her hand erupted into a brilliant display of various colors before finally fizzling out.

"It's done," she shouted back! Without another word, Dantes let go of Alicia and ran for the door, grabbing Annette and dragging her along with him. He turned just as they passed the entrance to see Alicia gliding through the air behind them, her mouth still wide as she screeched that horrible sound like an angry banshee.

As Alicia came upon the entrance, she reached forward, just missing Annette's arm as Annette was pulled through the door's threshold. A second later Alicia was thrown back into the center of the room. The entrapment spell had worked, and both Annette and Dantes let out a sigh of relief.

"That was close," Dantes finally spoke after catching his breath. Alicia had finally calmed down and now sat silently in the center of the room, once again motionless like a statue while resuming the odd humming noise from earlier. He peeked into the room, which Annette had emptied of everything but a small cot.

The walls were adorned with intricate symbols that had been painted across them. Even the ceiling and floor were covered in the symbols. From what Dantes could tell, everything was safe and contained.

"I need to wash up," Annette abruptly spoke, before disappearing down the hallway. It caught Dantes off guard, and after taking one last glance inside the room, he wandered off to follow her.

"Is everything okay...I mean besides the obvious mess we're dealing with?" Dantes asked when he finally caught up to her.

"I just...It feels wrong what we did." Annette responded as she entered the kitchen.

The kitchen resembled how they both felt, hopeless and disheartened. It wasn't everyday they had to lock up a loved one, and the fact that it had come to this wasn't a proud moment for either of them. They'd been in tough situations before, but nothing like this. If things didn't turn around soon, Dantes realized he might have to condemn Elyssa to the same fate. He was reminded of that grim reality when he glanced at his phone that he had left on the counter and noticed the missed calls and texts Elyssa had sent.

"I should get going," he finally said, not wanting to continue the discussion and sink himself into an even deeper depression than he was already starting to feel.

"Is everything okay? " Annette asked from her spot in front of the sink, washing her hands in the warm running water. She felt dirty, filthy even. There wasn't a speck of grime on her hands, but that feeling wouldn't go away. It was the guilt, and she hoped that maybe by scrubbing she could wash it off, as pointless as the idea sounded.

"I think so...I'm not sure...I don't know."

She glanced over her shoulder at him. He looked worn and worried, and almost as if he had aged a hundred years in just a matter of minutes from carrying the weight of the world. She wondered if their latest problems had worn her in the same manner. She started to scrub her hands even harder underneath the water to little effect.

Time was of the essence and finding the three fates when they had no idea where to start was going to be a monumental task. Things were looking bleak for all of them, and she only hoped that just like in the past, things would turn once again in their favor.

"We'll figure it out. If you need anything, just let me know and...," she hesitated for a moment, "we have to hurry."

"I know Annette. We'll fix this. I promise." His voice didn't have much optimism.

"No. I mean we have to hurry."

He looked up from staring at the missed calls on his phone, as Annette turned to face him. Slowly she lifted her arm. Along her forearm where Alicia had grabbed her was a gaping cut. Unlike a normal wound though, it didn't bleed. Instead, it seemed to ooze with a dark black type liquid that slowly seeped beneath her skin. Whatever time they had had just been shortened, and what little bit of magic they had to rely on in Annette would soon be gone too.