NINTY-ONE

Luis slowly opened his eyes on the floor of the baby's room, his body ached badly and his nose and the back of his head were bleeding.

He looked to his side and saw a note written in blood, probably his own, it said,"The first death..."

Luis struggled to his feet and, holding his head, he limped towards the window, then collapsed on the floor beneath it.

He turned over and saw four thumb sized holes in his kidney and liver.

He winced in pain when the door was banged open and Ruby rushed to his side even before Mack could do anything.

She asked what happened to him, and coughing, he said,"I just fell, that's all."

"Luis, don't lie to me, what happened? Luis, Luis!"

His consciousness faded away.

He woke up in a hospital room, where a nurse was attending to him, a few minutes later, we all came in and the children were the first to get to him.

He smiled slightly at them when the triplets presented the three course meals each of them had made before him.

He chuckled then slightly coughed and looked at Lucy, who sat beside him and cupped her cheek as she held his hand.

"What happened to you?"She asked.

He was silent for a few seconds and didn't want to say it in front of the children, so asked for them to be taken out, Rose did it.

He then said,"It was Jonathan Welshes, he's back..."

***

"What?"Ruby asked.

"He's the one who attacked me and probably the one who choked the baby, but that's only the beginning."

"The note..."Mack said.

"He's, he's going to kill all of us."I said.

"Until he gets to me..."Ruby continued.

We all looked at each other.

Walking out of the room, Lucy was uneasy for breath.

She couldn't let her children get hurt and she knew that she might not be here much longer since Sekhmet had actually come to her once, in body, alive and well, with her typical creepy giggle.

When we met Rose, she asked us what happened privately and we told her then she took a single step back with a gasp, regaining her normal composure, she nodded and said,"We're going to have to do something about him, aren't we?"

"Anything we can."Lucy said with urgency,"I'll go and stay with Mack, you guys should get some rest."

We nodded and Ruby and Mack went to our home, not wanting to go back to the memories and possibly danger of their old one.

The triplets came with us, but Lucille stayed behind with Luis and Lucy.

We showed them around and said we needed to leave, which they allowed, but Ruby made sure to give Rose one more hug and an apology as well.

"I forgave you a long time ago."Rose said, then we left.

We went to the church premises, where people were already waiting for us, some of them in prayer, for us.

We sang a few hymns, then went into fervent prayer, not asking God to punish or harm Mr Welshes, but rather to save and rescue him, Kitten/Sekhmet and whomever else was with him.

Forthhold was having another fit and throwing his room out of order.

He yelled for the person to stay back, and yelled even louder, rocking the foundations of the entire palace, and then, there was dead silence...

***

Lucy had brought the sleeping Lucille to our home as she needed to report to school the very next day, so we let her sleep with the triplets in the second bedroom, while Ruby and Mack were in the guest house.

Sleeping, Ruby suddenly woke up when a heavy hand was on her mouth.

She tried to scream but her neck was grazed gently by a short and prickly beared as the person quietly said,"Shhh, I'm not going to hurt you..."

She was hyperventilating as she was lifted off the floor with the ease of a paperweight, then taken into the porch, where Rose and Lucille sat, motionless.

Forthhold let go of her mouth and she screamed, but he covered her mouth again then said,"Please, Ruby calm down, I just wanted to talk."

"Talk?! You just killed my baby!"

He looked away in shame as she spoke of all the terrible things he had done to all of them, and to her, including during her childhood.

He then said,"I know I've been a terrible...no, no words I can say can describe my grief or how much I wronged you, all of you, but I came here to seek your help."

"And why on earth would we help you?"She asked.

"Because this is your real father."Lucille said.

"What?"Ruby asked.

He sighed then said,"Ever since I underwent the ceremony I inherited from my parents, I thought I'd be wiser, more confident, with the strength of a dozen men, and I got all that and more, but lost my own soul, all this time, the man you've been speaking to, was no man at all, it was the..."

"...the demon?"Rose asked.

He sighed as Ruby asked,"So, why are you the one talking right now?"

"Because of her, believe it or not Rose's prayers had given me, even a sliver of freedom, I know this will end soon, but that's why I need your help."

"You need us to pray for you."She said, skeptical.

"Actually, fast and pray, in all the decades I was living in that body, I saw all the terrible things it did, not just to you, but to Rose as well, she has dyslexia, just like you, but he made...threatened her to hide it, because he wanted each of you to grow differently, Rose his briar of thorns and you, his diamond in the rough, he needed these two characters to make his offspring."

"And what about me? Why did he need me? I'm not even related to you."

"...I didn't always look like this, huh, he wanted the beauty you possessed for the ' next one ' as well, that was the reason he chose you, you were young, but your beauty was well renown."

Lucille didn't know what to feel, flattery though, was not one of them as Ruby asked,"And how do we know you can be trusted? How do we know you aren't him, it, whatever?"

"Ruby, I love you..."

Those four words, they stung her like a wasp, yet mended the heart which just got broken with every passing day within her, like a salve.

Crying, she hugged him and he hugged her back, kissing her hair and caressing her back.

He looked to Rose then said,"I'm sorry for all that I did to you, all of you, none of you deserved it and I don't deserve your help, it's all your choice, but thank you for listening."

He vanished as suddenly as he appeared and they looked at each other, then Lucille began to cry as she said,"I'm sorry about your baby, it was all my fault!"

"No, no, no, come here..."Ruby said and hugged her.

Just like her father, she kissed her hair and caressed her back, then said,"It wasn't your fault, neither was it his, but that's why we have to help him, and tell everyone else."

Lucille nodded and looked at Rose, then Ruby said,"Thank you sis."

Rose simply hugged her and aid,"You're welcome..."