That Friday evening, Sarah and Duncan arrived at the farm around eight pm. The sky was dark and overcast by the time Duncan's Mercedes pulled up outside Sarah's home. The older couple from the bookshop had kept them busy with idle chatter and passing memories, easing Sarah back to normality.

Parking his car behind the well-worn carcass of Luke's jeep, which already sat in the driveway, Duncan turned in his seat to face Sarah.

"I could always back out the drive and take us back to Norwich if you'd prefer?"

Sarah smoothed back her wayward hair and smiled gratefully, staring out of the windscreen at her family home.

"It's okay, Duncs, really. I think it's best if we just get on with it. Luke knows what happened at the cemetery all those years ago, but he must trust you by now. And me."

Duncan and Sarah climbed out of the low vehicle and hesitated at the door while Sarah ground her key into the lock. Both of the guys were in possession of a key for the back door, but only Sarah held one for the front. Finally scraping the lock into action, Sarah flung the door back with impatience.

The kitchen light guided them in. Duncan closed the door gently behind him and whispered to Sarah.

"Should I lock it?"

Sarah shook her head, kicked off her boots and threw her jacket across the bannisters.
"No." She matched his whisper, "leave it open just in case."

As she walked to the kitchen, she asked herself, what had made her say that - just in case?

Shrugging off this strange feeling, Sarah almost bolted through into the kitchen, hoping to find Luke there standing strong with open arms for her to run into.

She stepped into a vacant room. Two empty cans of beer and a takeaway pizza box lay strewn along the otherwise pristine kitchen counter tops.

A tiny fizz of a red ember caught Sarah's eye from the garden beyond the window. Luke sat in one of the garden chairs, smoking. Sarah let out a breath of relief and slapped Duncan's arm. Nothing had happened to Luke, but that underlying sensation of something building, a pressure of foreboding, wouldn't let her go. She lept through the utility room door and outside to greet her lover.

The hasty approach of his girlfriend shocked Luke into action. He jumped from his seat and threw the cigarette on the patio, grinding it out with the heel of his cowboy boot.
"Jesus, Sarah!" He exclaimed as he passed a hand over his beard. "Where the hell have you been?"

Duncan stepped out of the back door. In what sounded like an almost apologetic voice he called out to Luke, stopping Sarah in her tracks. She hesitated in front of Luke, unsure of how to express her hellos with Duncan watching.

"I know, okay, I know all about you and Loopy Laker, alright. So don't go thinking that you can keep me out of this, Buddy. I know exactly what's been going on. So why don't you give me a break, give her a kiss and fetch me a beer for fuck's sake!"

Sarah wondered if Luke had told Duncan anyway, even though she'd asked him not to. He put on quite a show of his 'new found knowledge'.

Luke and Sarah held each other at arms length and grinned happily. Sarah really wanted to believe that Duncan had made his peace with the situation, but she wasn't quite sure yet.

Luke broke away and passed Duncan with a friendly smack on the arm as he went back into the building, to do as his friend had asked.

Sarah turned to give Duncan her best, winning grin, but a harrowing screech from a barn owl overhead startled her instead.

"Something's not right." Sarah raced over to Duncan and grasped his hand. The pressure she'd noticed before had intensified, her pulse raced, anxiety gripping her breath. Her expression must have frightened him and he kept hold of her hand, leading her back into the house.

Surprised to see them coming back in so soon, Luke's face drained in colour with one look at Sarah.
"What is it?"

Her hands shaking, Sarah caught the scent of lavender.
"There's an energy here tonight, something strong."

Duncan took his beer from Luke and let out a snort of sarcasm.
"Oh great, that'll be a first then, Loops."

Luke gave his friend an angry glance.
"Don't say it like that, she's right. Can't you feel it, Duncs? Look!"

Rolling up the sleeves on his grey jumper, he showed the others goosebumps and hairs standing on end along his arms.

Duncan visibly shivered, rubbing his neck.
"Fuck me! You're not wrong, big guy. What the hell is that? And what's that smell? You been trying on her perfume again you great tart?"

Luke shook his head. He seemed too worried to laugh at the joke and he stared down at his red socks.
"Is it just me or are you both getting that static through your feet?"

Now, feeling physically sick, Sarah stretched out a hand for Luke to steady her. Duncan quickly stepped in between them before they could touch.

He stood still, his expression void of emotion, his eyes unusually large and dark. Almost black. With his back towards Luke, he fixed an unnerving stare on Sarah. Her skin crawled as she tried to find evidence of her friend in the face before her.

Duncan's gone.

Whoever this was it wasn't him. His eyes, his expression, the way he held his body, even his smell. Oh my God. That smell. The lavender was coming from him.

She tore her gaze from Duncan's black eyes to shoot a warning look at Luke, but he wasn't right either. Frozen in time, his mouth half open to speak, Luke's life had been put on pause. He stared wide eyed at the utility door behind Sarah. As if to accentuate his friend's gaze, Duncan's black eyes switched from Sarah's to look in the same direction as Luke's.

Sarah shuddered, her breathing rapid, sweat dampening her black velvet shirt. She swallowed hard, could she muster up enough courage to turn from those black eyes? Was she brave enough to turn around and face whatever it was behind her?

Before she was given the opportunity to do so, an intense heat pushed at her back from the doorway. Bending its way into a circle like a living being around the three of them.

She gasped in shock at the rise in temperature, the skin on her face tightened and her scorched lips split. Her eyes hazed over, the soft flesh of her nostrils burned. She opened her mouth to suck in more air, any air, her tongue shrivelled up in the surrounding furnace. A steady stream of sweat flowed down the sides of her face, more ran in torrents, following the rippled column of her spine. Her clothes clung to her as her whole body dripped with perspiration. She couldn't maintain a steady rhythm to her heartbeat. Duncan opened his mouth. He stood there with it gaping wide, tears beginning to collect and fall from his black eyes. When he spoke his lips didn't move to form the words and his voice had changed. The voice of a woman rose in a raspy, singsong tone to speak to Sarah from somewhere inside his body.
"Sarah!"

Chills of familiarity crept their way into Sarah's memory. She listened spellbound watching more tears gather and roll down Duncan's cheeks.

"My daughter, my beautiful girl. There isn't enough time, I need you to understand and do exactly as I ask you. Our ancestor the Witch Finder General was cursed by the coven, and every generation after, three are taken to replace the three innocent he ordered to die!"

An immense sense of loss bulldozed Sarah into submission. The enormity of all the love she'd lost, her mother, her grandfather, it all cascaded over her in a monumental tsunami. It wasn't fair. She'd never had enough time with her mother.

Pinned to the spot, Sarah watched in amazement.
Is this actually happening?
Have I reached the point of no return? Have I finally followed my father and completely lost my mind?
Torn between the horror of the moment and the love that overwhelmed her at the sound of her mother's voice, Sarah struggling to concentrate on her words.

"They are coming for you three. One will be taken tonight, the others have two decades to live in ignorance of their fate before collection. I was the one Sarah, your father and grandfather the two."

Sarah's voice trembled as she spoke to the spirit of her dead mother.

How could this be real?
I must be dreaming.
That's it, it's all a terrible nightmare, a horrible, nasty dream.

"But Grandad died a while ago."

"Life can choose its own collection my love. Listen to me, you have your life to live, a family to give life to, you must stay. The men both want to save you, let one. Elizabeth found the manuscripts of the Witch trials, she wanted to save you from the Three. She proved weak, the men are stronger. Take Luke for your future, let Duncan go. Promise me."

Stunned, Sarah opened and closed her mouth, a puppet on a string. She stared and started to cry. Then she noticed the tears from Duncan's black eyes were turning a deep ruby colour. As his eyes gradually returned to their gorgeous greyish blue, the tears of blood remained on his skin.

"I love you Sarah, I tried to save you, I've held on for so long for this chance to tell you, but I'm too weak to fight them anymore. You, my darling daughter, you have the strength... I'm so sorry, promise me -"

Duncan's expression came back to life and Sarah knew that her mother had gone. She flew into Duncan's arms and wept. While she sobbed, releasing her emotions, he held her closer and buried his face in her hair. He was back. The perfume of lavender faded away.

"What's going on?"

Luke! Sarah pulled away from Duncan's embrace to see Luke's terrified expression, sweat pouring down his face from the surrounding heat. Letting go of Duncan, she turned and grabbed him, hugging him tight. His voice resonated through his chest under her face, the vibration comforting her far more than any words could have done.
"Dunc? What the hell is this? Shit, you're bleeding!"

Sarah looked across at Duncan as he touched his bloody face and stared in disbelief at the result on his fingertips.
"I, I'm not cut."

Luke brushed his jumper sleeves across his friend's face, clearing the blood. He studied Duncan's skin for injury but there was none to be found.

Sarah's eyes followed Luke's motions. He really did love Duncan as a brother. A wave of jealousy threatened to engulf her as she thought back to the love she'd shared with Clara. These two harboured the same kind of bond and they still had each other.

The deep grey, smoky swirls of heat around them began to rotate in a circular motion, elongating behind Luke and moving closer towards Duncan. It was herding them like cattle, forcing them to move down the dining room. Still contorting its shape, the hot pressure shuffled them into the living room, gradually coming alive with a more vibrant colour.

Once they stood, shaking with fear and heat fatigue in the middle of the room, the swirls of mist backed up allowing them to breathe easier. A whisper of singing voices started coming from the open fireplace. Sarah immediately recognised the chant. The three voices she'd heard during that terrible nightmare she'd had of her parents. Its volume slowly increased, along with the density of the warm air around them. The chant continued.

When there is one there is three
Three become one
If blood there need be
Give one to be free
Or be bereft of all three.

Duncan took Sarah's hand, his palm felt cold even in the heat of the circle. Sarah reached out her other hand to hold Luke's. She thought that the guys must be as dumbstruck by fear as she was, unable to speak, unable to think. All that ran through her head was the infectious chant, one voice high, one low, one riding through the middle.

Luke's hand weakly gripped hers, limp and hot. His fingers flicked with a nervous twitch, she wondered how much worse it could get. This was as far as she remembered from the dream.

As if to answer her question, Sarah was suddenly set free from the torment of the circling heat. The chanting abruptly stopped and the relief of cooler air washed over her body, caressing her face. She took a deep breath and began to think that somehow they'd made it through. Until she looked at the men.

Duncan's face froze in a portrait of pain, his breath still, inanimate and in another world. Luke was the same. His gaze stuck looking directly into hers. His deep brown eyes dull and lifeless. Marbles of no consequence. He was lost somewhere else just like Duncan.

The hands of the clock above the fireplace, moved in a jerky motion. Backwards. A scream of terror from the room above her snapped her out of her trance. It was Clara! She felt it through her body, her friend was here and needed her help, she had no doubt.

Clara's haunting scream echoed through the house again sending shivers up her spine. She didn't want to leave the men as they were, but she was compelled to go upstairs to her friend's cry.

Feeling like she was being pushed out of the room, Sarah raced out of the kitchen and ran up the stairs. As she reached the last few top stairs, unbelievable weight wrapped around her legs. Every muscle protested at the extreme effort it took to lift her feet up the last two steps. She crumbled to her knees and clawed at the thick carpet, grabbing handfuls of it and tugging herself up onto the landing.

When she finally made it, another of Clara's screams ripped through the air. The door of her parent's locked bedroom flew open, releasing a stench of burning wood. Sarah jumped as the bathroom door to her right slammed shut. Pulling herself along the landing, Sarah inched her way to the bedroom.