Time to Come Home

The Dark

Sarah walks into the house. She stands still observing the surrounding. There's no difference from Hill House by the appearance. Sarah knows it's not Hill House when she sees the creepy spirits which have spider body and human heads crawling on the floor. This is definitely the former house of the dark wizard. Only dark wizards create evil spirits like that. Those evil things just stare at Sarah. They don't even dare to approach Sarah.

When Sarah looks into the staircase, there are two human figures standing there.

"Dad? Mum?" The figures of Fredrick and Cassandra appear at the top of the staircase.

Cassandra extends her hand as if she wants to take her little girl's hand.

The only difference is this Hill House is quiet unlike the one she used to stay in. Sarah flutters her eyes closed and shakes her head. The figures of Fredrick and Cassandra disappear when she opens her eyes again. She walks up the stairs. The squeak sounds of the stairs makes the atmosphere creepier.

The red door is still here. Sarah remembers what was in there back in Hill House. She intends to search the entire house before searching the red room.

"My love" a familiar voice appears behind Sarah. She turns around and Olivia stands in front of her.

Sarah doesn't have anything to question. The feeling is warm and familiar. Olivia leads her to the corridor which all the kids' room are there. Sarah follows, of course. Olivia points to the twins' room. "Save your siblings" Olivia says.

What Sarah sees is Luke and Nellie are struggling. They are captured by those evil spirits in the former dark wizard's house.

"Lily! Help!" Luke yells. The yell echos the whole house and Sarah's heart aches for that.

Verna keeps the Crain in the room. The Crain sits down and stares at this mysterious woman.

"U know witchcraft can be beautiful. But everything has two sides. Witchcraft can also be dangerous. It solely depends on what wizards and witches think when they perform magic." Verna pauses and raises her hand. "U know, Sarah's parents were basically dark wizard and dark witch. I didn't wanna get my hands dirty but they earned it"

"U killed them?" Hugh asks trembling.

"No. It is a deal. They said they would get out of dark magic so that I let their daughter live. But if their daughter lives, they have to die to make up all the loss people suffered. They had to die anyway."

"She was just a little girl and u totally broke her heart" Olivia says.

"That's y I brought her back to u. Broken hearts can be mended" Verna pours herself a shot of whiskey. "U gotta see how dark she is. Her parents taught her dark magic"

"No she isn't a dark witch" Olivia chimes in.

"She took the dark magic spell with her when she came to find u" Verna continues.

"She has a kind heart" Olivia almost yells.

"U couldn't seem to change her, could u? Your Lily is slowly getting back to her real self."

"She died for us all." tears start rolling down Olivia's cheek.

"That's what I'm getting to. She killed a soul. We don't kill souls usually. This is unforgivable. She knows it well" Verna sips her whiskey. "She's in here, in the house. I purposely chose this house because her parents died here and it's full of evil souls. Don't worry. U won't be affected. When she gets to u, we will know if she's worth living" Verna smiles.

"Stop it" Hugh gets up and gets to Verna. But within a blink, Verna vanishes in the air.

"Lily! Help!" Luke yells.

The couple goes to the twins. They are still sleeping. They are obviously struggling in their sleep. Hugh and Olivia gently place their hands on their children's heads trying to comfort them.

"Is there something we can do, Liv?" Hugh looks at his wife. "How do we get out of here?"

"I...I...I don't know, Hugh. We can't get out of this room. I need to see...I mean I need to see the whole place. I need to...find Sarah"

Olivia sits back down on the floor. She closes her eyes and controls her breath to enter the meditation state which Sarah has taught her.

Sarah rushes to the twins when she sees the spider body human head entities crawling to the twins. Some of them even wrap their legs around the children to restrain them and try to suck their blood.

She puts her hands on the twins' heads and mumbles some ancient words. The entities back away immediately. The twins throw their arms around Sarah after they are released. She hugs the twins tight.

There's an urge growing inside Sarah for destroying those evil entities. She loosens her grip on the twins. She reaches her pocket to take out the purple paper but Luke grabs her hand.

"Let's get back to mum and dad, Lily. I wanna go home" Luke says.

Sarah kneels on the floor to Luke's eye level. "Where are mum and dad?" Sarah asks the twins. She knows she isn't Sarah. She's been Lily all this time.

"I don't know" Nellie says. "U come find us then we can have a tea party"

"This is not u, darling" Olivia's voice comes from the direction of the door again. "Come home"

Sarah sees both her mum and Olivia stand by the doorway. Olivia holds out her hand. Sarah holds out her hand as well but when she almost touches Olivia's hand, there's a scream.

"Lily!"

"Steve"

Olivia flutters open her eyes when Steve screams for Lily. Hugh checks on his son. "I almost got her" Olivia talks to herself.

"Mummy? Where is Lily?" Nellie wakes up and blinks. "She was there"

"Did u see Sarah? Is she in this house?" Hugh asks.

"I saw her...she...she was in Hill House. She was in the twins' room. She uhhhh she is losing herself. That isn't her. And I felt she was nearby...just somewhere" Olivia is definitely trembling.

"Mum, calm down. We can find Sarah" Theodora holds out her hand. "Close your eyes. We will find her again"