The supplies. Samantha had almost forgotten about the children on Eternity waiting for them. "You got everything on your own?" she asked.

"Mr. Pryde and Mrs. Schulman helped," Prudence said.

"We didn't tell them about the island," Wendell added. "They think we're taking everything somewhere up the coast."

Samantha couldn't believe it. In less than a month Prudence and Wendell had gone from knowing almost nothing about the world outside Eternity to being able to manage the entire resupply operation by themselves. Now that she looked closer, Prudence looked as though she'd lost at least ten pounds. Tears came to Samantha's eyes as she felt like a mother whose children leave home to go out on their own. Proud and yet with a sense of dismay that she would no longer be needed to kiss their boo-boos and tuck them in at night. "Are you going to be all right?" Prudence asked.

"I'll be fine. I'll see you two later." They walked out together and before the door closed, she saw Wendell take Prudence's hand. What had happened to them in her absence? She would have to ask Prudence later.

She lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. With everything that had gone on since arriving in Seabrooke she didn't know if she could go back to Eternity with Prudence and Wendell. She couldn't bear to hurt them again as she had under Joseph's spell. She'd been a fugitive before coming to Eternity; perhaps it was time to go back to that life. Better the beast within escaped around strangers than people she loved.

She heard a shy tap on her door. "Samantha? Can I come in?" Joseph asked through the door. His voice sounded higher and a little more nasal than she remembered.

"Of course," Samantha said. Two weeks of sleep had changed Joseph back into the boy she'd met that first night in his bedroom. He wore a set of blue pajamas and his hair stuck up from all angles, meaning he must not have woke up long before her. He pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat but didn't say anything. He paced around back and forth until she asked him to sit down, feeling dizzy from watching him.

"Sorry." He cleared his throat again and then said, "I wanted to apologize for what happened with us. I know I said some terrible things and did some terrible things."

"It's not your fault," she said. "It was the potion."

"I know, but that doesn't make me feel any better. I hurt you. On purpose. The worst part is I enjoyed doing it. I wanted to hurt you. At the end I wanted to kill you." He took off his glasses and pressed both hands to his face. "I can still see it when I close my eyes. I see myself doing these things and I want to stop, but I can't. It's like there's something else inside me. Something dark."




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