Scene 3: The Ceremony

While Nathaniel looks around for the cat, Alexander approaches the tree awkwardly. He is not sure what happened before, or even if it actually ever happened, but under the questioning eyes of the women and his cousin, he walks up to the tree to challenge it.

"Youngling, something this empty is unnatural indeed." The raven haired woman tries to reassure Claire. "It's an emptiness like the void of ... Aieeeee" she shrieks looking over where Alexander stands.

The moment Alexander finishes "standing up" to the tree, the blond haired woman appears just outside his vision. A little too high to be held, she twitches as she lies hanged from a branch, a large raven standing on top of it, tilting its head as it looks at the dying woman.... "Dawn!"

The girl climbs up the tree and somehow does manage to make it all the way to where the blonde-haired witch is hanging. The raven watching the scene doesn't even seem to see her. She tears desperately at the vine wrapped around the witch's throat and after a moment actually manages to force it open. The witch falls limp to the ground, making the girl flinch but luckily, the fall wasn't from too high and her limp body lands in the dirt without sustaining any damage.
The girl then jumps off the tree and kneels by the blonde witch, feeling her pulse. "She's alive! Someone, do something. We have to help her!" she calls out before turning to the others gathered by the tree. "Dusk, Twilight, Alexander, Nathaniel! Please!"
Strange. The girl seems to know your names, but you don't know hers...

Dusk quickly runs to help Claire as she noticed her freeing Dawn. She turns to the teenager and hesitates for a moment. "... girl, thank you." she says visibly confused as she tries to remember who Claire is. However, Nathaniel joins them and identifies the girl as "cousin", one of the Rookwoods. The doctor checks the blond haired woman for signs for life and, though with difficulty, he can confirm she is still breathing.

"That tree! It it... took something from..." Twilight's words are interrupted by the rustling of leaves behind them.

As everyone is focused on Dawn, Alexander suddenly notices his own shadow walking into the tree's "mouth", revealing the stone stairs and the hidden rune that only Roderick has seen before. He feels dizzy and covers his eyes. It's so bright outside it hurts his eyes. Then, perhaps hallucinating from the pain, or from the remains of opium in his blood, he feels like all light around him is being drained by the rune. The rune... Wait! There is a passages there now! Alexander notices the open wall at the end of the concealed stairs. He turns around to tell the others and sees... Annabelle. It was her after all! Wait no. That is not her, it's a mockery of what Annabelle was!

The girl's eyes are wide as she stares at Alexander and the woman. "Come back, Alexander," she calls to him. "That is not Annabelle! It's... She's... She may be dangerous." The girl does not have the mental capacity to focus on all the other strangeness of this scene.

Twilight drags Dawn away from the tree with the help of Dusk. The new arrival steps closer to Nathaniel "Yes, listen to you cousin sweetheart" she tells Alexander calmly. Unaware her spell on him has been broken, she adds "Why don't you go ahead and take our guest to the ritual chamber?" pointing out the little girl whose name he can't remember. In fact, it takes him a few seconds to recognize "the guest" as his little cousin.

"Wait, ritual chamber?" the girl asks. She looks with confusion at Alexander, then turns her eyes to the witches, hoping for help from them before asking both Alexander and 'Annabelle', "What are you talking about?"