Pender Island

Chapter Eight: The Perfect Storm

Agatha opens the patio door of her house and inhales a deep breath of the fresh air that is on Pender Island. She is hoping that the air will clear her head as her mind is racing over what the dead Jake Matthews told her: Vix, Belinda's brother, visited Reagan. She can't exactly figure out why Vix would visit the young woman, but Agatha has this sinking feeling in her stomach that it wasn't a fun meet and greet. She knows that Vix was not happy with her while she was on Mayne Island; her treatment of Belinda left a bad taste in his mouth. Still, something has to give, she tells herself.

"But why would he visit Reagan?" she asks herself, wondering what his motives could possibly be. There's no way that he would reveal the fact that they are witches, would he? She shakes her head at the thought. "He wouldn't jeopardize us. Not after he just saw his sister die."

As she continues to rack her brain thinking of what Vix could have wanted with Reagan, the patio door opens and Ambrose moves outside. She looks at her mother for a moment and realizes that she's deep in thought. "Mom?" she finally says, causing Agatha to jump a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Agatha turns and looks at her daughter. "No, it's fine. I was just thinking," Agatha replies to her. "How are you feeling? Were you able to get some more sleep?"

Ambrose nods back to her. "Thank you for the tea you brought me earlier," she says back to her Mother. "I think it will be awhile until I am sleeping regularly, but I was able to close my eyes for a couple of hours."

"The experience you had on Mayne Island will stay with you forever Ambrose," Agatha tells her, knowing seeing a witch murder can be haunting for some time. "But let it be a lesson and a reminder of why we have to keep ourselves a secret. If we don't, we will all end up like Belinda."

Ambrose shakes her head in agreement with Agatha. "I know," she whispers. "What is on your mind that you're in such deep thought? There's not another problem is there?"

Agatha arches her eyebrow. "I'm not sure, exactly," she admits to Ambrose. "I learned that Vix visited Reagan Blackmore."

"Reagan Blackmore? Isn't she the girl that bought our old house?" Ambrose asks her mother, trying to place it all together.

Agatha nods back to her daughter. "The one and only," Agatha tells her. "She's investigating some of the murders on the Island for her thesis paper. She could expose us if she ever learned the truth."

Ambrose looks back at her mother in confusion. "But why would Vix visit Reagan? That doesn't make any sense," she says to her mother, as Ambrose suddenly feels sick to her stomach. She recalls how she ran after Vix immediately following Belinda's death. When she approached him outside, she overheard him vow revenge on Agatha for his belief that she killed Belinda. "Oh no, it can't be…"

"What?" Agatha asks her quickly, wondering what Ambrose could possibly know about Vix visiting Reagan.

"After Belinda died, I overheard Vix talking to himself outside," Ambrose reveals to her mother. "He blames you for her dying, Mom. And, he vowed that he would make you pay for hurting Belinda the way he believed that you hurt her."

Agatha turns around and closes her eyes as she feels the sun hit her face. How can this be happening? She asks herself, wondering if Vix told Reagan the truth about them. "So, Vix wants revenge on me?" she says out loud. "That doesn't mean that he told Reagan the truth. If he did that, he knows that he would be putting all of us in danger, not just me. He couldn't have, could he?"

"I don't know Mom," Ambrose replies to her. "Grief can make us do crazy things that we normally wouldn't dream of. Who knows where Vix's head is right now."

"I know exactly where it is," Axel announces to his mother and sister as he steps on the patio.

"Axel," Agatha says to her son, as she turns to face him. "I'm glad you're home, we have to finish the conversation that we were having about you and Reagan Blackmore."

"What's left to say?" he says slowly back to her, still feeling numb by everything that has happened. "There will never be anything more between Reagan and I."

"You broke up with her?" Agatha asks, trying to hide her excitement. She knows very well that if, in fact, Vix did tell Reagan the truth then the writing is on the wall for the woman; Agatha will have to kill her. "Axel, I know you said you loved her but you did the right thing. You are protecting all of us."

"I didn't break up with her!" he yells at his mother. "She knows the truth! Somehow, she figured out the truth that we are witches!"

Agatha and Ambrose look at each other. "Vix," Ambrose says. "He told Reagan the truth. He wanted to hurt you, so he told Reagan the truth."

"I can't believe this," Agatha whispers as she shuts her eyes again. "He has put us all at risk!" Agatha looks at Axel and can sense that he's upset by the turn of events between him and Reagan. "Where is Reagan now, Axel? Maybe it's not too late to do some kind of damage control."

"She's leaving Pender Island, she's catching the next flight back to Vancouver," Axel reveals to her mother, as her eyes open wider. "She said she has to see her parents."

She shakes her head in disbelief. "No," she yells to herself. "No, she can't go back to Vancouver and tell everyone the truth. I can't let that happen."

Agatha walks quickly to the patio door. "What are you going to do?" Axel asks her, causing her to stop and look back at her son, his stomach in knots as he thinks he already knows the answer to his question.

"The only thing I can do," she replies to him. "I have to kill Reagan Blackmore and I don't have any time to waste."

Axel is about to object when Agatha continues into the house. He looks back at Ambrose and moves over to hug his sister. "I can't believe this," he whispers into his sister's ear. "The first girl that I actually fall in love with and our Mother is going to kill her."

"Oh Axel," Ambrose replies to him as she holds him. "She's just trying to protect us. All of us…"

"I don't want or need her protection," he says back to her as they exit their hug. "Maybe I should try to stop Mom from doing this."

Ambrose shakes her head no. "You can't do that Axel," she tells him. "After everything I went through on Mayne Island, I understand why Mom does what she does. You can't stop her from killing Reagan; she has to die."

---

Reagan sits in Sirens, the restaurant at Poet's Cove resort having a glass of white wine while she waits for her float plane to arrive and take her back to the lower main land. She can't wait to get off the island; she can't believe that she fell for Axel Watkins, only to learn that he is a witch and that his mother is the one responsible for so many of the murders that have occurred on Pender Island. She has to get back home so she can feel safe from all of this craziness; and she knows that she has to tell someone that there are witches on the island. She doesn't know who Vix Lenox is either but she doesn't care. Everything he said made sense to her; it all added up.

She looks outside at the marina; the sun hits the ocean allowing it to sparkle. At least the day is beautiful, she thinks to herself. She hates flying in the float planes when it's stormy outside. The flights are already filled with more turbulence than a regular flight; in storms, it's downright scary.

She hears her telephone make a noise so she pulls it out of her purse. It's her parents sending a Facetime request. She sighs knowing that she has to pretend that everything is okay; she doesn't want to alarm them before she gets home as they will only worry and there's nothing they can do about the situation from Vancouver.

"Hi guys," she says as she accepts the call, only seeing her mother on the other end. "How are you, Mom?"

"We are good dear," Cassandra Blackmore says into screen. "I'm rather excited for you to come home today. I've missed you. Your father is in a meeting."

Reagan smiles back to her mother. "I've missed you guys too. I shouldn't be too long, my flight is in 30 minutes and then it's only a 30 minute flight back to Vancouver."

"Do you want me to meet you at the terminal?" Cassandra asks her. "I've officially started taping for the Real Housewives of Vancouver, so it could end up on the show!"

Reagan laughs a little. "Sure Mom, but make sure you bring the waiver for me to sign off so I can appear in these cameos."

"Deal. See you soon Reagan, I love you," Cassandra says to her daughter.

"I love you too Mom."

---

Agatha quickly flips through one of her spell books until she finds the spell that she wants to cast. She looks at the page and gets a wicked grin on her face, knowing that this spell will be the perfect one to cast to eliminate Reagan Blackmore once and for all. A part of her hates that she has to do this to the young woman but Vix has left her no other choice; no one can know the truth, not now, not ever. Her entire family's wellbeing is at stake here.

She sets her spell book down in the podium and moves over to her caldron. She reads the spell one more time before she grabs the sides of the caldron and starts to focus on her chant that she is about to do.

"The sky is blue," she begins to say in a calm, deep voice. "The sky is clear. Don't let up until it is steering black everyone is quivering in fear!"

She looks down as the smoke in the caldron turns black. She repeats her chant over and over again until she can hear thunder in the clouds outside. She starts to laugh a wicked chuckle as she stops chanting and realizes that her spell is working! She is creating a huge thunder storm that is overtaking the once beautiful day outside.

"You won't get off this island alive, Reagan," she says as her laughter calms down and her eyes narrow in on her caldron. "You will die."

---

"Where did this storm come from?" Reagan asks the pilot of the float plane, as he places her bag into the baggage area of the small plane. Reagan has always hated flying in stormy weather and this storm has seemingly come out of absolutely no whereas moments ago it was a beautiful sunny day outside.

"Hard to say," the pilot replies to her. "Sometimes, the rain just comes when it wants too. Don't worry, the flight will still be routine. It just might be a little bit choppier."

Reagan feels her heart race pick up. She takes a deep breath before she steps on board and she quickly fastens her seat belt. She's the only passenger on the plane, which isn't a big surprise. The flights are usually less than half full.

"Okay, Ms.," the pilot turns back and looks at her. "Here we go. Don't worry about anything, like I said, this will be an easy flight."

Reagan nods back to him with an uneasy smile. She holds on as the plane starts to move across the water and soon they are in the sky. Immediately she can feel some turbulence and she grabs a hold of her seat arm rests.

"Just breathe," she whispers to herself. "The pilot said everything will be fine. Everything is going to be okay…"

---

Agatha watches the plane take off from her caldron like a mini movie playing out in front of her. As she watches the plane in the sky, she moves her arms and thunder and lightning suddenly appear in the sky. She chuckles a little as she can see the plane move around in the windy conditions. Each time she moves her hand, more thunder and lightning appear in the blackened sky.

---

Reagan's stomach is in knots as she can hear the thunder in the sky. It's loud and booming as she's closer to it than ever before being in the plane. She tells herself not to look outside, but it's impossible not to. Lightning and rain is all she can see of the gulf islands now. She feels the plane shake in the storm.

"This was a bad idea," she says to herself. "We shouldn't have taken off."

Suddenly, the entire plane starts to shake terribly as another loud thunder crack can be heard outside. Reagan can see the pilot desperately try to keep control of the plane.

She feels the blood drain from her face when he turns around and faces her. "There's a life preserver under your seat, you best put it on. We are going to crash!"

Reagan doesn't have time to react. Her hands race to pull the life jacket out from the bottom of her seat. She struggles with it in her hands and before she can put it on her body, the plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean! Due to the impact, the plane goes directly under the water and stays there until it stops moving. Slowly, at that time, it starts to move back to the surface, but as more and more water fills the cabin, the pace of which is moves back to the surface slows down. Finally, a wing peaks out of the water; but there's no sign of life on the plane.

---

Agatha moves down the stairs of the house and sees her children sitting in the living room, having moved inside because of the storm. Axel's eyes move to his mother and he glares at her. "You did this, didn't you?" he asks her, knowing that he she cast a spell to create the storm so she could stop Reagan from telling the truth about them.

Agatha looks back at her son, shocked that he is still failing to understand why she is doing what she is doing. "I did what I had to do, Axel," she tells him coldly. "And for what it's worth, it's done. Reagan Blackmore is now dead. Her plane crashed into the ocean. There's no way she survived that."

Axel looks at her in disbelief and he rushes upstairs to his bedroom, slamming the door closed behind him. Agatha sighs and looks over at Ambrose. "He doesn't get it, does he?" she asks her daughter.

Ambrose stands up and moves closer to her mother. "No, he doesn't," she replies to him. "But give him time, he will come around. This is the first girl he has loved. It's a pity it had to come to this."

"It will always come to this if he continues to let himself be wooed by humans," Agatha tells her. "He needs to realize that they will never accept us for what we really are."

"I know and I agree."

Suddenly, Agatha can hear a siren coming from her spell room. She looks at Ambrose and arches her eyebrow. She rushes back upstairs and moves into her spell room. She looks at her caldron, which is smoking heavily with a thick black cloud. Agatha waves her hand to move the smoke away and she looks inside. She gasps at what she can see.

"What is it? What's wrong Mom?" Ambrose asks her, coming into the spell room behind Agatha.

"It's Vix," she announces to her daughter. "He is challenging me to a showdown. He's on the top of his house and he wants me to go to the lookout point on Mount Norman so we can settle this once and for all."

Ambrose comes up behind her mother and puts her hand on Agatha's shoulder. "You're not going to go, are you?" she asks her, fearing what this all could mean.

Agatha looks back at her daughter. "What choice do I have? I have to go and make sure Vix realizes that he can't hurt us like this. I have to make him realize I'm not responsible for Belinda's death."

"But…" Ambrose begins to say something back to her mother.

"No but's Ambrose," Agatha brushes her off. "I have to go. I'll be back soon."

Ambrose watches her mother leave the room. She sighs, wishing her mother would have let her finish her sentence. "If you guys aren't careful, you'll give us all away," she whispers to herself, realizing that she has to be the one to stop this.

---

Agatha reaches the top of Mount Norman and walks over to the lookout point. It's her new spot to see Maverick's house, because she moved after she killed the Matthews'. She looks across the water and can see Vix, standing on his lookout point from Maverick's house.

"Okay Vix," Agatha whispers to herself. "Let's settle this once and for all."