Waking Up as in Coming Home

The Witch

When Olivia is about to leave the house, Sarah stands somewhere to observe Olivia. Weirdly, the house is slightly calmer at this moment.

After the kids kiss their mum goodbye and run back to their rooms, Hugh goes to Sarah.

"What did u tell Liv so that she finally gave in?" Hugh asks.

"Actually not only her but all of u have to leave the house as well." Sarah can't hide the truth anymore.

"What? I can't. I need to fix the house before selling it"

"It's all explainable. Every experience that your kids had." Sarah sighs. "I see things people don't see. They are absolutely not friendly to u all. And the bent neck lady...well, I can help u to prevent...I just...I have my way to deal with it"

Sarah has seen it all. The spirits have told her everything. Nellie was haunted by her future self. She will die in the house. Theo has seen the dead Olivia. Sarah doesn't know how to tell Hugh that his wife is gonna die.

This may be one of the difficult things being a witch, never know how to disclose the truth to the loved ones. They will never be ready to say goodbye.

"What are u talking about? U sound ridiculous" Hugh scoffs. "What's wrong with Olivia?"

"You're my friend, Hugh. All of u are my friends. I care every one of u. That's why I'm saving u all. U don't have to understand what I'm saying. You're not ready. Just take the kids and leave this house" Sarah frowns and looks worried at Hugh.

"You're my friend too, Sarah. Alright, maybe there's something can't be explained by science. I just let it be dealt with by someone else. We'll leave tomorrow morning." Hugh finally gives in and gives Sarah a friendly pat on the shoulder and turns around to off to somewhere.

Olivia can't fight the feeling of returning to the house. She keeps thinking about the house and the bracelet she has on her wrist sort of burns her eyes when she looks at it.

"Go to the nearest motel pls" Olivia tells the taxi driver.

'Don't take off the bracelet no matter how badly u wanna take it off' Sarah's voice rings in Olivia's mind on the way to the motel.

Olivia sits on the bed when she gets a room from the motel. Her mind keeps going back to Hill House as if she's wandering there but from time to time she pulls her mind back to the motel room.

Hours pass and the night has come, the urge of going back to the house gets stronger.

She loses her sense at some point. All she knows is she has to go home and protects her children, to wake them up. She feels the fear of leaving her kids growing inside but at the same time she feels nothing for herself.

"I'm not ready to say goodbye" Olivia whispers to herself.

"Then go home. They are waiting for u" there's a voice tells her internally.

She grabs everything and put them in her bag. She catches a glance of the bracelet. She takes it off and holds it in her hand. "Help me...I wanna wake up" Tears stream down her cheeks.

One more glance, Olivia decides to go back to her home.

Sarah sits on the floor in her room sensing anything strange. She has been mumbling spells to protect herself in case Poppy Hill and other evil spirits attacking her. She's also preparing to declare 'a war' with Poppy Hill.

Sarah's mind receives something weird, which is the red room is open. It's like a warning to her. She also receives another silent message from the good spirits. 'Olivia is back.' Meanwhile, there's some sound coming from downstairs, the kitchen. She gets up and runs downstairs.

"Mum?" Shirley rubs her eyes and walks closer to Olivia. "I thought u went to Aunt Janet's"

"Well, I missed u all. I came back. Go wake your sister and brother. I'm gonna have a tea party with them"

Sarah sees this scene while going down. "Shirley" she whispers and guides the kid upstairs. "Go wake your dad. Don't ask why. U need to leave now." There's a sense of urgency in Sarah's voice which causes Shirley to run to wake her father.

As Sarah gets closer to Olivia, the colder the air changes. She also notices the bracelet is put on the table. 'Shit!' She curses mentally.

"Olivia? Olivia? What are u doing?" Sarah keeps a distance to the woman who is preparing the tea and tea cups.

"I'm gonna hold a tea party with the twins" Olivia smiles but her eyes look so hollow that is worse than the one Sarah saw earlier. Sarah looks into Olivia's eyes. That's not Olivia. It's another person behind Olivia's eyes.

"I thought I told u not to take off the bracelet"

"I didn't feel good. I felt sick when I had that on and...and my eyes were burning"

Olivia walks upstairs and Sarah follows. The red room is open for real. Sarah puts her left hand, which has her cinnabar bracelet on, on Olivia shoulder which causes her to scream.

"ARGH!! It hurts!" Olivia falls on the floor not being able to head to the red room. Sarah moves her hand on Olivia's head and mumbles a series of spells in an unknown language. Olivia struggles so hard and yells in agony. She tries to move Sarah's hand but every touch burns her. After a few minutes, Olivia stops struggling and pants on the floor.

At the same time, strong stink appears and surrounds both of them. Sarah knows it's Poppy Hill and she indeed shows herself.

"U force me to do it. Don't blame me" Sarah tells Poppy.