The pupils who had not participated in the Seven Wonders had stayed someplace else while the trials were taking place. Now that they were coming back to the academy, they were alerted about the ballot in which to cast their votes for the next Supreme. Voting had happened for the first time ever in the history of the coven. With such a powerful group of young men and women, the other twenty-six students who fought for their places in the elite group and lost in the competition-like mini games had a say in who would lead them next. However, the candidates could not vote for themselves or for each other—Cordelia had discouraged it.

The three remaining council members sat at the dining room the afternoon after voting had occurred at that morning. Counting ballots and organizing them in piles was not too tedious of a task because there had been no votes for Isabelle and there were only twenty-six students casting their votes. There piles for each potential Supreme. At the beginning of their ballot count, there had been an even amount of votes per witch—as they counted, Cordelia used her Second Sight to see the reason why they voted for who they did by simply touching the paper.

"I voted for Cordelia because she is wise and an all-around peaceful person. She'd make an excellent Supreme, considering her mother was one."

Another paper gave her another vibe.

"Robert's the man! He needs to be the first male Supreme! He'd make history!"

Another ballot came the voice of another student filling Cordelia's head; it was a young witch from the academy.

"Leland is totally chill. He should be the first male Supreme. I heard he died and came back to life."

Another before putting it in the corresponding pile; this had been for Christina.

"I legit love her. She's so angsty, but doesn't take any shit. She'd be perfect."

Cordelia simply giggled before saying the following: "the reasons why some of the pupils voted for our candidates…comical."

"Really?" Zoe asked.

"My Second Sight is telling me everything," the blind witch said.

"Oh, look, someone voted for me!" Queenie said, looking down at a ballot with her name bubbled in. "So happy!"

The ballots had been counted and were quite fair—a formal meeting was called in the courtyard, embellished by vines of ivy and thorn-stemmed roses with potted plants brought back to flourishing life by Clara. Every student, even the participants in the Seven Wonders, was encouraged to dress in a more formal manner than they had while attending classes at the academy. Short dresses and casual suits was the dress code, and a plethora of colors was shown in the crowd before Cordelia as she spoke.

"Good morning, everyone," she said. "Thank you all for making this possible. This has been quite a process this past week, and I want to begin this by saying, as head of the council, how proud I am of all of you for trying your hardest to try and compete in the coveted Seven Wonders."

There was clapping—even Clara and Amy, who stood next to Andrew, clapped with them.

"Miss Julie would have wanted us to move on, and your votes for the new Supreme have been counted. The Supreme has been elected!"

More clapping; the little girls giggled and looked up at Cordelia with admiration as the soft wind blew their hair.

"It was very close, and we have never before in our history have had a voting process in picking the Supreme, but because there are more students than ever and a powerful bunch who underwent the challenges, it was only logical to do so. So young ladies and gentleman, without further ado, I announce that our new Supreme is…Zoe Spencer!"

Everyone clapped and cheered as the doe-eyed witch looked at Cordelia with a look of shock on her face. Kyle, who had been standing behind his son and the daughters of Misty Day, walked up to his wife with Andrew running nearby and planted a soft kiss on her lips.

"Congratulations, sweetie," he said with a boyish grin.

Zoe looked out beyond to the students who approached her and gave her hugs and well-wishes of congratulation. She received a hug from her joyous son before a few young witches smiled at her and acted like giddy schoolgirls.

"Miss Zoe, I'm so happy you're Supreme!" one of them said.

"Thank you," Zoe smiled, "I couldn't have done it without you. All of you."

"Congratulations," said a young warlock.

"Thank you so much!" the new Supreme repeated. "It's an honor."

"Also," Cordelia called out during the moment of joy the students were spending with their new Supreme, "I would like to announce the new members of the Council of Witchcraft. First, a council is nothing without its head member, so as I resign from my position as such, I would like to extend the honor to Queenie!"

"What?!" the ebony witch asked, joyful tears in her eyes; yet she was shocked at the sudden news from the older witch. "You're resigning?"

"I've spent my whole life here, Queenie. I've had a nice time and I'm thankful for all the moments spent with you guys. Even when I was a student myself, my times with the witches of my generation were a blast," Cordelia explained. "Now, it is time for me to simply move on."

"Oh, I wish you didn't have to," Queenie sighed sadly, "I'm really gonna miss you."

The two shared a hug and swayed slightly, and Cordelia patted her back.

"You will make an excellent head of the council, Queenie. I'm sure of it," the older, blind witch said. "We will keep in touch."

"Where are you gonna go? And what about Clara and Amy?" the obese witch asked.

"I found a really nice house in California," Cordelia said. "As for the girls, I plan to adopt them."

"You want to adopt them?"

"Yes," Cordelia replied with a nod. "I…I care about them a lot. I care for their well-being. Also, I never was able to have children. Now I can experience being a mother figure to two lovely, powerful girls. We will come back every summer."

"Is that a promise?" Queenie asked.

"Yes, that is a promise. Witch's honor," Cordelia said.

She went back to her place of speaking and raised her arms in the air.

"Also, I would like to extend my congratulations to Robert Dunwall, Leland Parsons, and Christina Scheer, as they are the newest members of the Council of Witchcraft!"

Another round of applause broke out as Zoe and Queenie took their places back near Cordelia.

"And last but certainly not least, a school of this much prestige is nothing without its new headmistress. That honor goes to Melissa Ortega!"

The Hispanic beauty's eyes widened as she looked at Cordelia, going over to her to give her a tight hug as she muttered in Spanish to herself.

Ah, Díos mio! Gracias! Muchos gracias!" she said with excitement. "Why are you leaving?"

"I've decided it's best for me to move on. I'm resigning from my position and I have plans to adopt Clara and Amy and move to California with them. It is my promise to visit every summer," the blind witch said. The two girls finally came forward and looked up at her with smiles.

"You…want us to live with you?" Clara asked.

"California?" Amy asked curiously.

"Yes, my dears," Cordelia said. "I was going to ask you if you would like to live with me, because I had plans of adopting you both."

"You wanna adopt us?" Clara's face lit up as she smiled.

"Yes, Clara," Cordelia smiled.

"We'll come live with you," Amy said with pure joy, running into her arms and smiling as Clara joined them in a group hug. Life could not have gotten any happier; except for maybe one thing. Melissa approached the blind witch as soon as she let the little girls go.

"Before you go, I want to give you a gift," she said.

"A gift? But it's too soon," Cordelia said. "I'm not leaving yet."

"May you please take off the sunglasses?" she said in her soft-sounding Latin-American accent.

The students watched as Cordelia slowly removed her sunglasses, and they gasped to see the heavy scarring around her eyes from when she had sulfuric acid splashed in her face by a witch hunter years before. Then, Melissa went behind her and had to get on her tip-toes to put her hands over the puffy, red scars surrounding her eyes as she concentrated. Using her healing abilities, she was able to rid her completely of the scars before finalizing her "gift" to Cordelia with an orb of light directed at her eyeballs. It radiated for a split second before going into Cordelia's head, and once the young witch took her hands away from her eyes, the receiver of the energy could not believe what she was seeing, literally—Melissa had granted her sight back and restored her eyes to their original chocolate brown shade.

"I can see!" she exclaimed, holding out her arms and nearly crying tears of joy as she hugged Melissa. "Thank you! Thank you so much, Melissa!"

"Now you can see everyone, but do not worry about your Second Sight. It is still there," the Hispanic witch said. "You are very welcome, Miss Cordelia."

Now life was at the epitome of greatness—what could possibly go wrong?

After his banishment, David had been stuck in limbo in the dominion of dead people's spirits, demons, lesser entities, those repenting for foul deeds during life. Foul deeds during life, he thought as he moved through the darkness and toward a tower surrounded by torches. I did foul deeds as demon 'n an incubus, if that's what they mean, But durin' my life I always tried to be a good boy. Even though I landed myself in the occult, I still was a good boy.

Inside the tower high up, past the locked cells of many souls who had committed terrible acts of malice during their lifetimes sat a woman upon a suspended straw bed from the wall. Each spirit-prisoner in the decrepit, gray stone, dungeon-like tower was given something terrible to do to punish themselves, whether it meant holding off on relieving themselves for days, depriving themselves of food and drink for weeks on end, or being chained tightly to a wall without any chance of lying down or stretching. This woman, however, had already received the brunt of her punishment; being bloody-eagled a million plus times was enough for her to simply gaze in a mirror constantly to look at how horribly she had aged.

In life, she was a great beauty—youthful, stunning, her hair the color of virgin snow and her skin the same smoothness of a marble sculpture. She also was quite powerful, even dangerously so, but anyone with power of that magnitude could control their rage and anger somehow. Now, she was washed-out and horribly aged; wrinkles and sunspots mottled her skin; her once full black eyelashes were gone; her eyes, once the fiery color of amber, were now a dull light brown shade that looked soulless and simply dead. Her lips, once full and pink, had excessive ravish-me-red lipstick smudged at the sides. Her hair, a brassy blonde shade, fell over her face as she gazed into the mirror some more. It wasn't only the walls driving her to insanity; it was having to look at herself and remember what had been and what could've been.

Suddenly, the gate she was locked behind opened—a familiar, yet sinfully handsome face seemed to be her escape for a brief moment. His eyes were intensely blue and penetrated through her softly. His hair was brown and styled in a messed look from his time alive. His body was built and incredibly strong-looking, and he was as tall as her memory remembered him to be.

"My, my," he said. "I thought you'd remember me."

The woman's spirit stayed silent.

"Elina Darling…"

"Don't ever call me that," she grunted hoarsely, turning away from him with the mirror in hand as she keep looking into it.

"But why? Why'd you change your name?" David asked. "Oh, I know…'cause you didn't wanna be daddy's lil' whore no more."

The eyes of the woman's spirit blazed, almost turning red as she gritted her teeth and stood up from her place on the uncomfortable, suspended straw bed.

"Take that back!" she hissed. "Get the HELL out of here!"

"But don't you know who Iam, Elina?" David asked. "I'm David Loring. Farmer's market. Barnwell! 1979! We met there! Don't you r'member?!"

"No, I don't, and even if I do, I'll deny it all the more!" she sneered.

"I have to admit, I wasn't mad at you. I was mad at your daddy for makin' you into what you were," the incubus stated. "He corrupted you, Elina. You could'a been so much more."

"My father was nothing but a drunk bastard after he lost my mother. I didn't respect him after that. He was fucking joke," the spirit replied forcefully.

"You wanted to be a nurse," David said. "You wanted to use your healin' power on people to help 'em. R'member that night you burnt me by accident? R'member how you healed me up real good?"

"That was an accident," Elina's spirit replied haughtily. "I never healed again after my daughter tried to off herself the second time."

"Because you had too cold of a heart to have any left," David answered; the spirit rolled her aged eyes and shook her head.

"It doesn't matter anymore," she stated. "I'm dead. I'm in Hell. That's all there is to it. Leave."

"Hm, those smudged red lips escape the cruelest of words in the most allurin' way," David smirked. "Spit your poison. You're only hypnotizin' me."

"Leave!" the woman's spirit shouted as a long, bony finger pointed to the locked dungeon cell door.

"No." He paused. "By the way, this ain't Hell, Elina," he said, walking closer to her spirit and looking down into her dull, lifeless light brown eyes. "You already been to Hell, havin' your lungs ripped out the back o'er and o'er again. This is between Hell and redemption for all them vile things you done in life. Half of 'em, I can't blame you for."

Elina's spirit, grotesquely aged like a shriveled-up raisin, stood up with her black, tattered, shroud-like dress falling to her feet with the mirror hugged to the side like a schoolbook. Their eyes met, and her soul's voice sounded bone-chilling and intimidating.

"I killed my father to put him out of his misery. I killed my brother's wife to punish her, but to punish him as well," she explained. "I've killed clients while working in the brothel, which I am now truly remorseful for because I only killed them for the thrill. Of course, minus the two who tried to rape me. I tried to kill my own children because they were a shame to me, but I gave them up when I failed. I tried to kill my husband, but my daughter was there to revive him back to life. I…I…"

She collapsed to the floor of the dungeon cell, dropping the mirror she was sentenced to look into to view her ugliness—it shattered into large, sharp shards as she covered her face with her decrepit hands. As her tears fell, the incubus came over to her and crouched down, taking her form into his arms and holding her close.

"Shh…" he whispered. "….Elina…."

The demon closed his eyes as he heard vague muttering coming from the spirit he had been holding.

"What's that?" he asked tenderly. He let her go, and her lifeless, dull light brown eyes stared at him; he could still see the youthful fire in them as she had during life.

"I used t-to be so beautiful," she sobbed. "My life t-took such a terrible turn…I never wanted to be a-as evil as…a-all t-that. I was an…awful mother…I…a-abused what I-I had…and now…I-I am nothing."

"You exist, my dear Elina…you're even admittin' that you weren't always the monster you think you became," David said softly, holding the sides of the aged soul's head, his fingers nestled in her brass-colored hair. "You never were a monster to me. If anythin' I never told you how much I loved you for who you were."

Elina's spirit gasped slightly and she furrowed her eyebrows inward with confusion.

"Your eyes may look dull as charcoal, but they pierce through me still, my darlin'. They're scannin' me, readin' me, but what I say is true. Even after I died in '85 in that car crash, 'fore I b'came a demon, the tickin' of the clock drove me to insanity," David explained. "I was sent to college, and I thought ev'ryday, 'how much longer can I wait b'fore I see my Elina again?' But of course, the sun rose and fell….the moon rose and fell…hm…" The demon paused and thought of what to say next. "Darlin', don't you see you been everywhere but here while here at the same time? You been in my heart, Elina. Even as your soul blackened and you…aged, I never stopped lovin' you. I'll love you 'til I'm wiped outta existence. My adoration for you will never sway. Elina…"

There was a moment of silence—she had a fleeting thought of the horrific ways her three children died on Earth. She felt a familiar burning deep inside her core, the rekindled flames flickering against the walls of her heart valves, tearing away at her heartstrings.

"Elina…this is Heaven. I didn't know what Heaven was 'til meetin' you," he explained with a slight smile as his eyes sparkled lovingly. "I had a different idea of what it was like to be in paradise but…" He sighed, singing his next sentence in the song he had sung so much in her name: "The only heaven I'll be sent to is when I'm alone with you…"

David took Elina's tortured soul back in his arms, holding tightly as he sung softly in what sounded like a whisper to her ear. Thoughts ran through her mind as he continued.

"Command me to be well…"

You're past that point, buster.

"There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin…"

As David pressed his lips to the wrinkled cheek of Elina's aged soul, she reached down at where the mirror had shattered against the cell floor and discreetly held the longest, sharpest shard she could find, gripping it so tightly that it nearly cut her hand.

"In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene…"

You created madness. You killed my three children. She gripped the shard and grabbed a duller piece of broken mirror as David held her, peeking as she rubbed the two pieces together behind his back.

"Take me to church…I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies…"

Elina's soul proceeded to sharpen the makeshift blade of glass on the larger shard by rubbing the edge with the duller piece.

"I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife…"

I'm sharpening my knife right now. Keep singing.

"Offer me that deathless death…"

No. I prefer quick and painful.

"Elina, let me give you my life…"

No, I'm taking it anyways. The vengeful woman's spirit gripped the sharp, long shard and got out of David's embrace, quickly stabbing the broken mirror piece into the side of his gut. As he gasped in pain, he looked to see where she had stabbed him, feeling the sharp object run him through to his back.

"OW! Ah…" That was for killing Julie, she thought, she may have been an inbred bastard, but she was my bastard.

STAB! Right into the opposite side right after abruptly switching hands.

"AH! Elina! IT HURTS!" David screamed tearfully. "Don't hurt me, my love!"

That was for Chase, she thought, the other of my inbred bastards. I misjudged him while alive, but I was wrong.

JAB! The last, forming a perfectly traceable upright triangle of wounds, hit him deep in the heart. Elina's soul even twisted the shard of glass as David died right at that moment. Taking his dead body nearer, she whispered in his ear.

"That was for Eleonora," she hissed. "You killed my children, and I decided that you pay for your misdeeds."

Upon pushing the demon's corpse back on the floor, she stood up and gasped at three women fading into view with the help of colored orbs designated to their beings. The first to come into view came from a mint green orb and was dressed as though she had lived in the 1600s—aside from sparkling, intense sapphire eyes, most of her platinum, tight curls were back and kept beneath what looked like a coif with straps hanging down toward her shoulders. Her outfit was simple, consisting of a white chemise beneath a fitted bodice and billowing skirt that was part of the over-garment.

The second woman was the tallest and possibly the oldest, and Elina's soul could recognize her face as she came into form from an indigo orb—she had long raven black curls with a streak of gray, a chiseled face, long brown tunic with a white apron held by brooches, a leather pouch hanging off her belt, and a bear fur draped over her shoulders.

The third woman came into manifestation from a purple orb and was the shortest present. Elina immediately knew who it was—she appeared to be dressed in clothing from the 1950s, a plain gray blouse with a green crinolined skirt, hose covering her legs, and black x-strap shoes with a low heel. Her golden hair was up in a crown braid, and on her youthful, beautiful face were slight freckles over the bridge of her nose. Her lips were somewhat full and pink, and her eyes were luminous and verdant, expressively glittering at her.

"Mamma?" she asked—the last woman to appear was Britta, her mother.

"We have come for you," she said in Swedish, looking into her daughter's aged face as she shook her head with disbelief.

"I…I don't understand, mamma," Elina's spirit stated.

"We could just leave you here," the woman with the coifed head snickered. "We'd be happy to arrange that."

"Ingibjorg," the tallest woman hissed. "Hush!"

Elina's spirit stared up as the woman, who looked like someone from the Viking era, approached her. It was just then she noticed that the woman had been holding a staff carved with strange symbols only she herself could possibly know. Remembering her life on Earth, she gasped and immediately knew her name.

"Geirdís?"

"It is I," she said in her harsh-sounding, yet calm voice. "Your mother speaks the truth. We have come for you."

"I don't understand," Elina's spirit said. "Why?"

"Those who live without discipline die without honor," Geirdís stated. "You have restored your honor, and you have fully redeemed yourself."

"By simply killing yet another person?" Elina asked with confusion at the tall, intimidating woman's logic, looking down at the demon's corpse—no blood seeped from the body.

"It is not that. It is that you avenged your children. He killed them," she explained. "Now, you may come back to the Other Side and thrive with those who have gone before you."

Elina's tortured soul was in shock, looking at the three women; she fixed her eyes on Britta, who came closer to her and held her hand.

"You won't look like this anymore," she stated. "Some golden apples will do the trick just fine."

"And your powers," Ingibjorg said, "they'll be given back to you."

"Are you ready, descendant?" Geirdís asked, extending her other hand.

Without hesitation, Elina nodded—no more Hell for me, she thought as they faded out of the dungeon cell, no more suffering.

A/N:

That's a wrap! Incubus is over :3

Did you like this fourth installment of my AHS series? I don't know if I will continue this, but it may be an idea to consider for the future.

As a side note, Elina DID end up redeeming herself for the crap she's pulled, and the three who visited her are her ancestors Geirdís and Ingibjorg (if you didn't know previously) and her mother Britta. Yes, she made an appearance as well.

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Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, and did everything else! ;)