Sidestepping, it knew where its first destination would be as it knew that once it went through with what it was planning, that there would be no coming back. Appearing on the patio behind the Joice residence, the Stranger tucked away the amulet it had taken from the order and started toward the patio doors. Sliding them open, the lock holding the door closed unlocking itself the moment the Stranger touched the door, it let itself into the house and for a moment, breathed in the air that hinted that nobody had lived in this house for some time now.
Moving quickly through the house, knowing that if events surely played out as they normally did, it would have to retrieve the Amulet of Zulo. And from there, once again, arrange for it to be placed in Nick's path, creating a loop that the Stranger saw no sign of ever being broken.
But when it reached the bedroom, the Stranger paused as it saw only Nick and not Heather. Peering at the sleeping child for a moment, knowing that if things happened as they had in the past, that the sleeping girl would completely become Heather, the Stranger took a step closer to the bed and paused. After a couple seconds of watching the child sleep, the Stranger turned away from the bed and headed for the closet and the entrance to the attic.
When it became clear that Heather wasn't there, the Stranger searched the house, but found that except for Nick, the former Joice residence was empty. Unsure as to what this could mean, knowing that it was not how everything had played out the last time, the Stranger found itself at a loss to explain what was happening. Thinking about returning to the order, and facing the consequences for taking the medallion, the Stranger wondered how it would explain that Nick had indeed become Heather, but that Heather had vanished and it did not look like she was going to become her own mother, as she had done on countless other occasions in the past.
Exiting the house, the Stranger thought for a moment, trying to sort out what it should do. When it finally figured out what was the most important of tasks it was facing, the Stranger thought of Heather and sidestepping, it moved toward what it hoped was wherever Heather currently was.
Around it, a shape began to quickly form and within moments, the Stranger found itself standing in what was clearly a department store. Unable to understand why Heather had come here, the Stranger began to move, searching the store from one end to the other, looking for either Heather or her mother. When it became obvious that neither was here and that only thing the Stranger could find was a confused and lost child, it stopped and pondered over why it had felt drawn here when neither Heather nor Ms Joice was here. Sidestepping again, tuning in on Heather, the Stranger found itself back in the department store.
Confused, it did another search of the store, but in the end decided that there was either something interfering in its magick or that it really did not want to find Heather or her mother. Reaching to where it had the Amulet of Zulo hidden, the Stranger thought for a moment of either pursuing after Heather, just to see what had happened to her, or returning to the order for directions and guidance as to what it should do.
Torn, the Stranger left the store and stepping out into the parking lot, it looked up at the sky and whispered, "What am I to do?"
When no answer came, which confused it even more because it knew that the order must be in some way watching and listening to it, the Stranger looked back at the department store and sidestepping, not caring where it went, the Stranger found itself back in the field where it had watched the child disappear.
Approaching the spot that the rift existed at, noting that it had grown considerably smaller, the Stranger again touched the Amulet of Zulo. Knowing that if it went through the portal that its chance of coming back where so slim that they were practically nonexistent, the Stranger pondered over whether it could go through with what it was thinking of doing. Thinking of Heather and how she was supposed to have become her own mother and how her boyfriend was supposed to have become her, the Stranger wondered what had changed to make the outcome turn out different, pondering over the idea that maybe it was something it had done.
"Perhaps it was the very act of taking another Amulet of Zulo and acting in a manner that suggested a dereliction of duty," the Stranger mused.
Seeing that everything was spiraling out of control, unable to figure out why and how the correct it, the Stranger looked at the rift that had allowed Marcus' passage from this dimension into another, and still touching the medallion, the stranger made up its mind on what to do. Taking a step forward, it passed beyond the rift, out of this world and into the next, deciding that what it wanted to do was to help the child that had wandered where he had not been supposed to be.
As the Stranger stepped through the rift, another figure appeared a couple seconds after the departure of the Stranger. Knowing where the minion had gone and that nothing could bring it back, the Dapper Man stared for a couple seconds at the rift. Raising one his hands, he made a twisting gesture and watched as the rift finished sealing itself.
Hoping that the one called the Stranger had made an appropriate choice, the Dapper Man decided to figure what it was that caused things to turn out the way they had and why Heather hadn't become Ms Joice and sidestepping, the Dapper Man vanished.