Interlude I: Be Careful What You Wish For...

A/N: Here's the first interlude of And Then There Was Light. A character that hasn't had much to do in this story shows up in this chapter. Hope you all enjoy it! This takes place shortly after the end of chapter 5. Thank you very much Carolyn, I'm enjoying this with you! SSD

Meanwhile hundreds of miles away in Northern England...

There had always been some ghosts in Allerdale Hall. They had practically come with the place, if the stories were to be taken at face value.

There was no one residing in Allerdale Hall. No one among the living that is, and she most definitely believed the stories.

Something had been bothering her all day. Early in the morning, when it still counted as night, all of the candles in the place had spontaneously lit themselves. And the entity could not figure out why that had happened.

She knew that she had not caused it to happen and she was the only ghost in the immediate area. Her traitor brother was nowhere to be found, either in the house or in the land surrounding it.

The thrice blasted Americans were well out of her reach as well which irked her. She hated unfinished business.

Then the ghost remembered the business with the candles again. There were two possible explanations:

1) There could be another ghost in the house. Which she found unlikely since she could sense whatever entered and left her home.

or

2) A more powerful entity than she was toying with her from a distance. She conceded that the second idea was more probable than the first, since she held little power outside the house.

"Well well. I had thought that you would have figured it out by now. I was told that you had some cunning to go with that madness of yours."

She whirled around and saw a dark haired man dressed in a white shirt and pants. He was no ghost, but something different entirely.

"What do you want," she snarled.

The man kept his calm smile on his face as he replied, "I was just seeing if you'd figured out the good news."

She had a puzzled look on her face as she asked, "How could the candles lighting up on their own signify good news or anything at all?"

"A short time ago you were thinking about how or why they could light up on their own. Both of your theories could apply, but not this time. There is a third reason why they'd light up, and that is the one that applies here," the man replied.

"And what is that third reason?"

"Oh this is going to be fun," Mr. Jordan thought before saying with an evil grin, "The third reason means that a new generation has entered the world."

He could tell that it had gotten the ghost's attention.

"That's not possible. You're lying."

"Actually it is entirely possible Lucille," Mr. Jordan said using her name for the first time in the conversation, "They were not under your direct supervision the entire time.

"NO! Thomas would not do that to me. He was MINE! He loved me. He would not have given himself to that insipid girl, not in that way.

"I am very sorry to disabuse you, Lucille, but he would, and he did."

Mr Jordan paused a moment to see what Lucille might do next. He thought it would be something violent, and he was not disappointed.

Lucille launched herself at him, flying to his face from where she stood in the blink of an eye. Mr. Jordan didn't flinch. He didn't need to - there was nothing she could do to him physically. Or at all. As she was about to find out.

Lucille was outraged to find that she made no contact with the man. He was as insubstantial, even to her rage, as she herself might be should a living mortal attempt to attack her. Again and again she lashed out at him, ineffectually.

"Come now, Lucille, you should be happy. You are an aunt. Your family line continues," Mr. Jordan said to the irate ghost. He knew he was baiting her a bit.

"It was meant to continue with OUR child. Thomas's and MINE!" She was beyond reason, tears of rage and despair falling unheeded from her eyes as she hollered into his face.

Lucille flew about the room whipping up a whirlwind of dust which she launched at him, as pointlessly as she had launched herself at him.

"No smile for your brother and his wife's good fortune?" he almost felt guilty at that jibe. Emphasis on almost.

"Who are you?" Lucille hissed into his face. "Why have you come here to torment me with your lies?"

"Ah, well, that may take some explaining. But I assure you, my dear, I am not lying to you. It appears your hold over your brother was neither as complete nor as permanent as you imagined," Mr. Jordan answered, enjoying himself.

Lucille raised the cold damp logs in the fireplace to flame and hurled the flames at him. They licked around him, never quite touching him, forming themselves around him, leaving a void where he stood.

Mr. Jordan decided to drive a point home with his next statement.

"Lucille, my dear, do not upset yourself so much. You have what you wanted. You never wanted to leave here. And you never will. The family line will live on... just not the way you envisaged. It is a lesson for you, though, to be careful what you wish for. You might just get it. If not in the way you anticipated."

Lucille raged. She lifted one of the ornate heavy iron-based lamps and hurled it at the man. It didn't even make him flinch, let alone injure him. One after another, she hurled objects at him, lamps, vases, even furniture, but he withstood all of it without any sign that it even reached him.

"You know, they have their father's eyes." Mr Jordan could not help but throw in this information.

Lucille paused in her rampage. A moment, then -

"They? There are two of them? Two of them." She grew calm and drew herself up. "There is a girl and a boy. A sister and a brother." Her face grew wildly triumphant. "A sister and a brother."

Mr. Jordan had a very good idea why her mood had changed. He quickly said, "Oh, my dear. I'm afraid you are on the wrong track there. There is a sister and a brother, it is true. But that history will not be repeating itself. Most definitely not."

Lucille looked at him with, literally, fire in her eyes. If she could have killed him with that look, he would have been ashes in moments. Her wrath rebuilt itself, bolstered by Mr Jordan's comments. "Leave here," she hissed. "I will destroy you. Whoever you are, know that if, ... when, I discover your secret, I will send you to the deepest, darkest hell you can imagine."

Mr Jordan sighed a little. "Oh Lucille, many have tried. It only ends badly. It ended badly for them, and it would end badly for you. You may think there is nothing that can be done to you now you lack a physical body, but you would be horrified if you knew just how wrong you are. I promise you, any attempt to destroy me would only end in disaster. For you."

A scream rose in Lucille's throat, her hair flew about her wildly, wind rising at her bidding to whirl around them.

"You obviously have much to think over, my dear. I will leave you to compose yourself for a while." He faded from view.

Lucille's scream rose to an ear-splitting pitch, and the room was filled with swirling dust, debris and broken furniture, a whirlwind of hate and despair.

Mr. Jordan watched and listened as the distraught ghost destroyed the contents of the room. He almost felt sorry for her.

When he got back to the other side a voice called out to him saying, "Don't you think that you were being a little harsh with her, Felix?"

He turned around and saw Rose, his immediate boss.

"I just gave her the facts. And some hard truths that I knew she wouldn't like," Felix replied.

"Doing that with the crazy ones is dangerous, even for you, Felix," Rose warned.

"Her childhood may have driven her mad, but that doesn't excuse what she did. She had enough of her mind to know the difference between right and wrong," Felix argued back.

"Be a bit more careful in the future, Felix. She can't get free at the moment. She would need help and she might get that help in the future," his boss cautioned.

"There's only one person that can help her escape, and even he wouldn't do that lightly," Felix mused aloud.

"He'd likely do that purely to amuse himself. Or he might just want to get his hands on her to punish her properly in his eyes," Rose said.

"I'd love to see what he'll come up with for her when the time comes. And amusing himself and punishing her properly are not mutually exclusive for him," Felix said rubbing his hands together.

A/N 2: Hope you all liked Lucille's hissy fit. I picture the way she says "Sister" the way Darth Vader said it in Return of the Jedi. Mr. Jordan is so much fun to write. Picture his boss Rose as Betty White. Hm... who could possibly help Lucille escape at some point? I'd love to hear what you all think. The next chapter is a time jump to when Cassie and Hector are roughly 4 years old. What would be some things you'd like to see? SSD