Release me. Now. Or I will return in the night and tear your soul from your body while you sleep. Do not question my authority. You and your companion must leave immediately. There is no peace for you here." But there was more she didn't tell him. The woman's eyes, once so full of confidence, had started to lose that certain something. Not fear, no, perhaps a hint of it. But it wasn't that. She said nothing about the feeling but there was a certain resignation that had started to settle in. She had given up. She would take her punishment for the few things she had broken with her quick mind. But whatever the woman's true fate was, the fact was she was no longer a threat. The man sitting in the kitchen was the biggest threat she had ever faced. She had come so close to reaching her destiny. To seeing it, feeling it, tasting it. So close...she looked around the deserted farm. She seemed to have been transported in time, back in time. Just her and the man. Two strangers. And now, so close to the end. A voice came through the wood. An old woman. Who was it? Where was she? Why hadn't she said anything? But no, this was the last piece. The old woman was here. She had always been there. She was the past, the present, the future. She had been here since the beginning of time. She could see the girl and the man, she could see them from the future and the past. From one end of time to the other. And the girl's mind sputtered. "I cannot do it. I can't hurt him. I am sorry but I can't do it." But the old woman said nothing, motioned to the man with a nod of her head and he grabbed the woman by the hair and slammed her head into the rocking cradle. Then he pressed a knife to her throat and said to the woman. "You were never supposed to be a problem. Your role was to get into his head and get him to do what you wanted. But I never suspected you. What happened? What is it that has changed you, made you so sorry for yourself and that scum? You are not the innocent girl I remembered. She loved us. But you are a hypocrite. You know what needs to be done and you know what happens to those who don't do it. You must obey me. If you don't I will let the man kill you. He is a good man. He wants you, he deserves you and I will tell him he is allowed to do what he wants with you. I cannot change what is going to happen. But you can be the one to tell him that you wanted nothing more than him and the child. There is a path to the future. If you take it you will be protected. The man will protect you. But you must do it of your own will." And the girl's mind shook with confusion and fear. She wanted to cry but she was so confused. Who was the old woman talking about? Who was going to kill her? What had changed her from the girl who had walked away from this very house feeling so at home, to a woman who was unable to make her body move or control her heart. The woman had changed her. So they must be wrong. If it was what they said, if it was this man... It could not be. She was innocent. A girl. Not...not one of them. "Oh, sweet daughter, I have long dreamed of you. I have seen you grow up so full of life and beauty. I have watched you leave your house to come here. I have told you many times not to walk in the wood. Do you remember me? I am your mother and I have watched you grow old and die while my grandchild grows up with the man you love. Do not let your desire for this man steal your happiness. You have everything you want. He holds no special place in your heart. No man will ever hold that place. Do you love him? Love him for your beauty and smile. For the girl that loves you and for what you can offer this child. And remember what you once felt for the man who had made you a victim. You are not the girl I left to suffer with him. You are not the poor, misguided girl who walked away from her mother. You are the strong, wise woman who was raped and then had to leave this place. It was unfair what happened to you. But you must choose to live in your future and not let that future be destroyed by someone else's wrong choice. You are not meant to be part of this sorrowful life. I do not know why. Just look around you, in the sky and the trees and the hills. Look around you and understand that what you see...it is not forever." The girl turned around, stunned by what she had heard. Her face showing pain. For a moment she felt like she was being strangled by the voice and the man who held her. And then the man leaned down to her ear. "What do you want from me? You don't know what it is like to suffer. To have to choose between doing something horrible to yourself or to another and the thought that maybe the wrong choice would mean something worse than what you had. You just lived in your fear, your fear that if you did something wrong the man would never stop... And now you are the one with power. You have what I did not have. And it will destroy you." She couldn't answer. She didn't know what to say. She was not the woman they thought she was. She felt the man take her by the arm and lead her outside, outside to a clearing. When she got to the clearing, she heard a whistle and saw a car approaching. A man wearing a blue shirt. And then she was inside the car with the man and his wife. They were talking. "Have you made up your mind, Nurse?" The old man seemed to know her name. She nodded. He continued, "This is what we wanted. We wanted the woman with the boy to become a mother. And yet, we thought the girl must die because if she knew the truth she would fight against us. This is the only solution. The boy will grow up to be a good man. The mother will become a mother. And the girl will become a happy mother. She will not remember this pain. It will be forgotten when you make her love the man in your way. And she will forget the man that made her this. The girl will be a happy mother and the child will have a beautiful life. That is what we wanted." The boy felt an icy wind from behind him. But when he turned he saw the old woman. An old woman with long, white hair that danced in the wind. She was holding a large knife. A knife made of bone. A knife that could cut through anything. It had been used for thousands of years. To hunt animals. To kill people. That was all it had ever done. But in the boy's hands it was a weapon. A weapon the old woman's eyes could not see. A weapon that had become a part of him. He moved towards the old woman, his steps strong. His mind full of confidence. It had been full of confidence since he had walked away from the clearing to be with the woman in the house. He had taken the knife from the old woman's house and he had carried it with him all the way from Paris. His mind was confident because he had carried that knife with him ever since he had seen the man from the man's house