And then she's in a crib. She's a toddler now. Becky looms over her, only it's not Becky. Veronica! She's here! There's a party for Samantha. Prudence and Wendell are here, now four years old. And a little boy with messy brown hair and a runny nose. Joseph! Veronica has him. She's going to kill him. He's going to die. It's my fault. "Please take care of Joey." She didn't. She failed him again.
Samantha opened her eyes. The curse had struck again, claiming yet another person she loved, this time one she had sworn to protect. She had failed Joseph twice. Not yet, she thought. She raised her head and stared up at the ceiling.
She had another chance to save him and everyone else. Those twelve years on Eternity hadn't happened yet. She could keep them from happening. Tonight.
She reached for her pistol on the bed. Kill Reverend Crane and Pryde and none of it would happen. She wouldn't end up on Eternity. Joseph would never see her again. He would never fall in love with her. She could find a way to make sure Veronica never found Eternity. Kill Reverend Crane, then Pryde, and then his granddaughter.
She slipped the pistol into her jacket and then stomped out of the room. She found Miss Brigham sitting on the front step of the Seafarer, sobbing as she had last night. "I'm sorry about that," Samantha said. "I'm going to need your help now to make sure Reverend Crane doesn't hurt anyone else."
"Oh, what difference is it going to make?" She looked up at Samantha, her face red not with sadness but anger. "I'm such a fool. Were I to free those children from him it can't bring back the one most important to me." She put a hand to her stomach. "It can't return my baby to me."
"Your baby?" She nodded. "And the reverend is the father?" She nodded again. "My God. You had an abortion?"
"In a manner of speaking. When he found out he was so furious. He said such terrible things to me. He called me a whore and a vile temptress. He said he'd kill me before he let me have our baby. He offered me a choice: my life for my child's. What else could I do? I swallowed a teaspoon of the water and my baby disappeared. I'm such a coward." She sniffled and shook her head again. "I realized then what a monster he is. And I thought if I stopped him then it would make things right, but it won't. My baby will still be dead because of me."