Samantha trudged through the snow out to where Mr. Pryde's automobile still sat. With each step, she cursed her naïveté. How could she have been so blind? The signs had been right there in front of her. She had chosen to ignore them.
"The night you came here, you were not trying to help Miss Brigham. You were trying to attack her. Out there, in the heathen wilderness, you were a murderer and a thief. You were a blight upon God's creation," Reverend Crane had told her. At the time she thought he was lying, trying to distract her. Now she knew he had told her the truth.
Samantha climbed into Mr. Pryde's automobile. "How did it go?" he asked. She couldn't say anything; she was biting down on her lip to keep from crying.
"Is something wrong?" Prudence asked. Again Samantha didn't say anything. "Samantha-"
"Just drive," she growled to Mr. Pryde. He pulled out of the driveway and started back towards Seabrooke. Samantha closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see her reflection in any of the mirrors. She knew what she would see looking back at her now: a cold, heartless criminal who preyed on the weak.
Weak like Miss Brigham. In her mind's eye she could see Miss Brigham walking along the streets of Seabrooke in her homemade clothes, smiling and saying "Hello dear" to everyone she met. A woman as open and innocent as the child she was now on Eternity.
Samantha must have invited Miss Brigham to meet her at the Seafarer Bed and Breakfast. They had chatted over tea with all the usual pleasantries and then "Samantha Young" asked Miss Brigham to her room on some pretense. There, Samantha would drug Miss Brigham and rob her.
They went to the room, where Samantha offered Miss Brigham a drink-one laced with some kind of poison to knock her out. As Samantha waited for the drug to do its work, the door burst open. Pryde charged into the room, taking Samantha by surprise. She snarled like a wild animal, landing a kick that sent Pryde slamming into a wall, shattering the liquor bottle. From his jacket, he withdrew a vial of glowing liquid and hurled it at her. The vial broke over her face, splashing water onto her. She screamed as her body started to shrink within her clothes until she was a little girl staring up at Pryde in disbelief. "What did you do to me?" she squeaked.
"You'll make a nice addition to my collection," he said. He punched her in the face, knocking her against a wall. She sagged to the floor, the world going dark around her. From somewhere Pryde produced a sack. "This ought to hold her."