However, you have to remember, unless you want Alexandrea to have died for nothing, you will quickly pull yourself together.”

The only thing that I could think of to calm her down was to get Elizabeth a drink. Then it occurred to me. I should get her drunk and she will fall asleep, not having a clue of what had happened during the Witching Hour. I decided that under the circumstances that would be the best thing to do for Elizabeth. Therefore, I went over to the bar and made a couple of enormous strawberry margaritas. Elizabeth downed the first one in no time and asked me to make a second, so I did, and it did not take her long to finish that one. It had to have been less than thirty minutes after she had finished her second margarita when Elizabeth finally passed out on the couch that we were sitting on in the library. I gently laid her down on the couch as I got up, put a soft feather pillow under her head, and then threw a blanket over her to keep her warm.

I decided that it would probably be a good idea to start a fire to keep the room warm because it was getting cool in the house. So I added a couple of the split logs that were stacked on the mantle, crumpled up some newspaper, stuck it in between the logs and started a fire to keep the room warm and cozy. I knew that she would have more self-control after some much-needed rest, and for poor Alexandrea, the delay would make little difference, as she had already passed on to another realm, the spiritual realm. I stayed with Elizabeth for a bit, and then went to the living room, where I sat down on the recliner, trying once more to look at things in an objective manor when it suddenly dawned on me as the grandfather clock chimed eleven o’clock. I knew that the only way to get anywhere here is to find the supernatural force that is responsible for transforming this house and everything inside it. The more I thought about it, the more logical it sounded, but how in the hell do I summons a super- natural entity when I do not have the faintest idea of what kind it is that I am dealing with. I had discovered that where no logic at all was observed, any answer seemed like a rational one at the time.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, I heard the sound of the grandfather clock chime. It just turned midnight, and was the starting of the Witching Hour. I quickly stood up and looked around at my surroundings. I was suddenly in an old dilapidated single story shack once again and no longer within the magnificent Blackwood Manor. Now wishing that I had not gotten Elizabeth drunk off those margaritas. Strangely, I surly felt as if I had abandoned her and myself, being alone and extremely vulnerable. I felt as if the evil eye of Horus himself was watching my every move, and that I would soon feel the wrath of his vengeance. 

The warmth and coziness suddenly vanished from the living room and a coldness, nothing like I have ever felt before consumed me, slowly creeping its way through my body and into my bones. I could sense a presence with me, one in which I was no way a match for, I could feel it as it stalked my being.

I shouted, “In God’s name, why have you transformed this magnificent manor into an old dilapidated single story shack, and aged anyone within it sixty plus years?

Why do you walk this earth amongst the living?”

The uncomfortable coldness that filled the room had vanished, leaving behind an awful smell that resembled that of a rotting carcass. I turned to my left and there lying on the end table was the Demon Ring. I knew that the supernatural force that had left it sure did not mean it as a token of friendship. This must be one of the fallen angels, knowing all too well that the Demon Ring could not harm them. It now occurred to me that our deliverance would be slow in coming, and the only thing I could do was be patient and wait.

I grabbed the Demon Ring and slipped it onto one of my fingers. However, I soon realized that it was draining my body of its energy. So quickly in fact, that I had just enough life left in me to sit down in the recliner before I had passed out from the loss of energy, totally unaware of the supernatural forces taking place within the walls of the Blackwood Manor.