A vision of “Ian” tells Mariah that she needs to open her eyes and see what’s in front of her.

Mariah says he’s not here and he’s not real. He’s in hell where he belongs!

Ian scoffs. She’s hiding behind predictable arguments; he’s here with her.

Mariah asks why he’s there… He’s connected to every painful moment she’s had in her life. Victor Newman shot him, and he died.

Ian says he’ll always be here for her, and the world is full of miracles. He asks if she’d like to feel his beating heart and asks for her hand.

Mariah tells him not to touch her. She asks him to leave. Now!

Ian says Tessa left her, and he’s the only one in this world that she can count on. This isn’t the first time she’s shut herself off from the world. Is she trying to keep the world out, or is she trying to keep others safe from her? He figures his name must have been mentioned in her therapy sessions. He’s the guiding force behind her entire existence!

Mariah covers her ears and closes her eyes. “You’re nothing. You’re not even real!”

Ian covers his eyes and looks at her. “Peek-a-boo!” He leans over and picks up the Queen of Hearts card. It’s not torn in half.

Mariah says he’s a cheap con.

Ian says she can’t shut him off like she has shut off everyone else… Not when he’s a part of her; he’s known her longer than anyone.

Mariah scoffs. He never knew her.

Ian says he knew her since she learned to speak. He’s touched that she brought him back.

Mariah says he stalked her and terrorized her. She can’t get rid of him no matter what she does! She’s done terrible things to try to get him out of her life and she can’t wash him away.

Ian says she keeps him close to her and it’s because she knows he adores her darkness. He reminds her that she haunted Sharon. She keeps trying to be the “good girl,” but evil is in her!

Mariah screams that she will never believe that.

Ian laughs. “I think you already do!” She’s fire, rage, and darkness! He says it was good how she shut her wife and child out of her life. That’ll give her a chance to live the life she wants!

Mariah gestures around the clinic. “Is this the life I want to live?” She asks what she should do with her “darkness.” How should she live with the worst parts of herself?

Ian thinks she should let the “boring mortals” see her in all her glory… What will she do with the fire inside her, and how will she unleash it on the world? Has she already taken action? He wants to know everything.

Mariah laughs ironically. He doesn’t exist! This is all about him; the monster who came back with his monstrous bride, Jordan. Even though he’s dead, she still can’t get rid of him! She couldn’t drink him away, and ever since he took her from her mother, the sickness inside her has grown.

She says she ran into someone at a club months ago and he was an echo of Ian… She wanted to be able to get rid of him for good, so she smiled back at this man and laughed at his jokes. She let him buy her drinks and let him kiss her. He invited her back to his room, and she went because deep down, she knew that she could be rid of Ian by killing this man who stood in for him!

Ian asks how killing that man made her feel… Did she feel his spirit escape his body?

Mariah says she stopped before she killed him. She realized that killing this man wouldn’t get rid of Ian. She’d only be giving Ian power!

Ian laughs. “The devil made me do it!” He knows why she couldn’t kill that poor man… It’s because she couldn’t kill him, and the darkness he awakened in her lives on!

Mariah says she’s not a lost cause or a psychopath like him. She didn’t take his life because she has compassion. She’s in therapy because she’s in pain and needs to find a way to move on with her life.

Ian asks what she’s learned.

Mariah says she learned that Ian tried to make her like him when he was alive because evil spreads like cancer, but she’ll never be like he was.

Ian grins. “Never say never!”

Mariah says she didn’t need to take a life to get rid of him. He didn’t break her before, and he won’t break her now. He’s nobody; he’s nothing, and she wants him gone.

Ian disappears suddenly, and Mariah picks up the untorn Queen of Hearts card. She looks around, wondering where it came from.