Molly and Steed projected to the near future of George. He sat in the back of a dark restaurant with Monk.

Monk told George, “Have you heard that Sally’s boyfriend Duke is getting out of jail?”

“Why would I hear about that?  The last time I saw her was that day at the pool. I’ve tried to talk with her, but she avoids me.”

Monk said, “I visited him in jail.  I told him about her trips to Atlanta. I also kind of led him to believe that you are a pimp and she has been working for you.”

“Why?”

“You wouldn’t help me at the pool.  That kid is still a threat to me.  Help me get rid of him, and I will tell Sally’s boyfriend that I was mistaken.”

George stated, “Someday, someone is going to kill you.  I’m sure I will be able to straighten things out with Duke.”

Molly and Steed projected farther into George’s future.  They witnessed George and Sally being held at gunpoint next to a well.  They watched in horror as Sally’s boyfriend suddenly picked her up over his head.   Ignoring the gun being pointed at his own head by a punk called Punk, George turned to try to knock both of them away from the well.  All three of them fell to the ground as Monk and Punk holding the gun watched.  George and Sally’s boyfriend Duke grabbed and wrestled against one another, each trying to gain control of the situation. Punk fired one shot at George but missed and slightly grazed Duke.  Receiving barely more than a cut from the bullet, Duke started crying that he had been shot.  In a rage, Duke broke away from George and stood up.  He grabbed Punk who kept saying he was sorry.

“I was trying to shoot George.”

Duke grabbed hold of Punk and pushed him next to the well.  “You are going for a swim.”

“No, please don’t kill me Duke.  I am your friend.”

Holding Punk, Duke said, “Your not that bad of shot.  You were aiming at me.  I know you were aiming at me. You want Sally for yourself.  I’ve seen how you’ve looked at her.”

Sally screamed, “Punk is the one who had me working in Atlanta.  Said we could earn enough money to get you a good lawyer.  We were trying to help you.  Please don’t hurt him.”

“Trying to help me?  What a way to help!” With one swift motion, Duke shoved Punk into the well.  Then Duke turned his attention to Monk.  “You lied to me.  You said George is the one who has been pimping Sally.”

Duke took a few steps where he stood in front of Sally still sprawled on the ground.  Monk took running aim at Duke.  Monk forced Duke backwards toward Sally.  Sally, still on the ground, got on her hands and knees as she began trying to stand to get out of their way.  Tripping over her, Monk and Duke fell to where they straddled the well.  Both struggled not to fall the rest of the way in. Monk reached down and grabbed Sally’s hair.  Duke, with Monk on his back, reached to grab hold of the bucket dangling on a rope over the well.  In reaching, Duke made the precarious situation worse.  As he and Monk began to slide, Sally fought trying to get Monk to let go of her hair.  As George raced to try to help Sally free herself from Monk, it was too late.  All three of them fell into the well and George was left standing alone.  He screamed down into the well, but no one answered.  He figured they were all dead. In a daze, he walked away and pretended nothing had happened.  He did not report it to the Sheriff.

Steed and Molly projected farther into George’s near future.  They watched as the Sheriff, standing with a dirty and bruised Monk, knocked on the door.  Somehow, Monk had climbed out of the well and reported that George had tried to kill him and had killed Duke, Sally, and Punk.   Monk swore to George that he would hurt members of George’s family if he squealed, so George said very little to defend himself as he was tried and convicted.

Unable to help George, Steed and Molly watched in horror as George solemnly faced the men who willfully stood as Monk's unwitting accomplices in this murder he'd plotted.   As they witnessed George die in the electric chair they felt sad. A dark, gloomy shadow cast an evil reflection on all that watched the execution.  Then they heard a laugh that was peculiar and for a second they thought they saw Lucifer himself among the many watching the cold, calculated murder. 

Suddenly the soul of Sally joined Steed and Molly waiting for the soul of George to leave his body.  She whispered in thought to them, "I imagine witnessing this would make Lucifer happy.  As surely as evil attracts evil, and good men are repulsed by it, Monk's accomplices--the judge, the jury, and the executioners of the verdict--will all face the hard times that evil brings.  Perhaps the Lord was right to allow Lucifer to trick us and cause us to be removed from our Eden."

Molly asked, "You remember Eden?"

Sally frowned and told Molly, "Not really, but I felt what you felt and for a second it was almost like I .... What was I saying?  I am totally confused.  I'm still so rattled by my own death.  I go to places with a simple thought.  It is so weird and the thoughts I think are so confusing and the places I go are even more confusing."  

Steed said, "I wish we might change the past and save you and George."

"Change the past? Save us from what?  You think you might save us from the error of our ways so that we might be heaven bound.  I don't think so.  Regardless of what you do, I suspect we are destined to be trapped in purgatory between our lives of sin on earth."  Sally screamed in thought, "Yes, purgatory!"  And then her thoughts became almost a hushed whisper. Her thought became almost like a question. "That is where I am?"  Then she shook her head. "That would explain everything.  But then that would mean the nuns weren't so full of shit after all."

Molly whispered, "Purgatory?  I don't understand."

Sally studied the esoteric, angelic like faces of Molly and Steed.  "Angels that don't understand what Purgatory is.  Who are you two?"

Steed slightly understood the concept of purgatory for he'd heard members Lucifer's minion use it when he was being threatened with banishment from Eden.  Steed asked, "Where do you think you are being banished from?"

"From heaven."

"You mean the upper realms of Venus where the first of the creators dwell."

Sally repeated, "Who are you two?"

Steed smiled. "Just fellow travelers in this realm you call purgatory."

"I think you are angels.  I know you are angels.  Have you come to save me?  Oh, I want to be saved.  I want the pain, the confusion, to end.  I fear you are testing me but I don't know what the right answers are."

Steed said,  "We want to change the past so so you and George might live longer lives and not die the way you died."

Sally said, "There is not a soul born who does not die.  Is one way to die better than another way?  I am confused.  I know I am as confused as my poor senile grandmother when she took her last breath.  I not only lost my life that day at the well but I lost my sanity.  I know that.  But it is done.  You are angels and you may know better.  But I think it is best if it is left done.  Soon me and my George will be together.  As angels you probably know that George and I love one another.  We've shared many lives together.  Still, for some reason, it seems we are always closer in death than we can ever become in life.  Hell, we never even seem to be able to become intimate in the physical.  But still in this purgatory, this God awful purgatory, we make our existence bearable."

Molly said, "We just want to help you and George."

Sally embraced Molly in the spirit.  "You are such a sweet angel.  Can't you and your fellow angel show me and George the gateway to heaven.  If you could take us to the gateway, I do think George and I might be able to convince old St. Pete to let us in.  Oh, I do want to see heaven.  I am so tired and I imagine heaven is so peaceful and so beautiful.  I can just imagine.  I want to imagine.  Oh hell, I can't imagine at all.  Please, tell me what you see when you go there."

Steed and Molly looked at one another.  Carefully, they projected their thoughts so that Sally might not hear.  They hoped she or whoever couldn't hear.  Steed stated, "I thought I saw the reflection of Lucifer right before Sally appeared.  I think we are in trouble here."

Molly agreed that she also thought she had seen the reflection of Lucifer but unlike Steed she had felt Sally's embrace.  Molly told Steed, "Lucifer may be watching.  He may be manipulating.  He may be totally on to us.  But I am certain that Sally is who she is and I want to try to help her."

Sally screamed with glee.  "Look, George is leaving his body.  He is going to be with me and I am going to be with him.  He is my anchor.  He will end my confusion."

Steed and Molly watched as George joined Sally and they embraced.  Steed told George, "We want to try to change the past so that you and Sally do not die the way you died."

George questioned, "Change the past?"

Sally whispered, "I think they are angels."

George wasn't so sure what Steed and Molly were.  "Angels or not, I am sure you mean well.  But if you try to save us, someone else might get hurt. I know from experience that it is dangerous to try to save the damned."

Steed and Molly thought of the words Ellen had spoken to them, “Giving grace to the damned will only bring sorrow.”  

George added, "I know this sounds awful, but the only thing I would truly want changed is that day that Sally and I were on the way to the abandoned house to make love.  I wish we had gone up to the house.  I can imagine what it might would have been like, but the imagination is not like  a memory.  The memory of us together in the physical would be so sweet to savor."

Sally agreed, "It would be nice to have that memory.  We've had so many lifetimes together.  We've been friends.  We've been accomplices.  Hell, we've even been enemies and fought in mortal combat.  But we've never been lovers. I've lost count of how many times we have tried, but something always happens.  Something always goes wrong."

George said, “It would be nice, but I guess we shouldn’t complain.  Unlike some souls, we have managed to stay together.” Then with great love in their eyes, they thanked Steed and Molly for caring and they vanished into the ether.

Molly and Steed wished they could help.  They projected themselves back in time to the pool.  When they saw Monk going to interrupt Sally and George on their way to the vacant house, they noticed a football.  They projected thoughts toward two large, strong looking teenagers that caused the teenagers to decide to take the ball out of the pool area and go out to the field to toss it around.    It took very little effort to manipulate the teen’s aim a little bit so that he threw the football right into the back of Monk’s head.  Monk screamed in pain.  He then quickly picked up the football and ran to get in the teen’s face.  The teen apologized and assured him that it was an accident.  After realizing how big both teens were and they probably could beat the living daylights out of him, he accepted the apology and returned the football.  When he turned his attention back to Sally and George they were out of sight. He thought they had gone to the vacant house, but he decided he needed to return to the pool.  He didn’t want to miss his opportunity to drown Luke.  He figured he would just have to do it without George’s help.

Molly asked Steed, “Are you ready to see if we can return to the staircase?”

Steed said, “I wonder if somehow we changed time more than we intended by helping George and Sally get together. Do you want to project to the future to see?”

Suddenly a silver light, a seeming slender thread, flung out from the vacant house as though it were a fishing line that had been cast.  It quickly flew through the air and toward Molly and Steed.  Molly screamed, “If it touches one of us, we will be trapped.  We have got to get out of here.”

Steed said, “But even if we leave, we are about to come here.”

Then just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished.  Molly said, “Was there another soul around that it touched?”

“I don’t know.  What have we done? Will it be safe for us to go up to the vacant house to see if there is now a soul with Sally that will be her child.”

Molly and Steed projected themselves to the vacant house. They saw George and Sally naked and picking their swim suits up to get dressed. 

Sally laughed at George as he slipped on his trunks, “You give new meaning to the word quickie.”

George said, “I know.  Wish it could have been better. But at least I didn’t give anyone a chance to catch or interrupt us.”

“That is for sure.”

Steed and Molly saw Ellen standing next to Sally.  “I don’t guess either of you want to touch the line at a higher place to save me from this trap that snared me and soon enough will spit me into the physical world.  Damn this day and damn the impure thoughts, my carnal lust, that caused me to follow them.”

Molly said, “No, but we are so sorry.  This wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t changed time.”

Ellen said, “You can change time.  You are angels.  Then change time back. I don’t deserve this.  Well, maybe I do, but still I plead for you to help me.”

“Was your last life so bad? You don’t want to be born again?”

“Not to her.  I know eventually I will have to be born again, but this poor girls aura shows great grief and tragedy in her future. I don't want to share that grief.  I don't want to be part of that tragedy.”

Steed said, “Unless time is changed in a big way, Sally will not live to give birth to you.”

Ellen looked at Sally.  She then looked at Steed and Molly. “Oh, so thanks to you I’m going to suffer dying all over again without even being born.  You don't think I will share her pain.  What kind of angels are you?”

Molly and Steed projected themselves back to come face to face with their selves about to alter time.  They projected thoughts to themselves of what would happen if they altered time.  To end the duality they had created by going back in time to where they already were, both Mollies and both Steeds projected themselves into the near future to a point where they would have been if they had not projected themselves back to the point at the pool.  The manner in which they projected caused their duality to end. From there, they projected themselves farther into the near future.