Series 2/Chapter 2: THE BLUE ROOM

The tension in Kimberly's hospital room was thick. Victor and Kimberly felt like Caleb trapped them  like rats, but in a way this was what keeping the secret of their connection had come to, exposure at the most inopportune time; it was meant to come out. 

"There are a lot of things you don't understand Caleb!" Kimberly said from her hospital bed. 

"I can see that! What is this guy talking about?" Caleb questioned, placing a bouquet of flowers he has brought his mother on a side table.

Victor knew Kimberly and Caleb needed room to breath, he felt out of place, like a stranger caught in the middle.

"Maybe I should let you two talk." Victor said awkwardly, brushing Kim's blond hair from her forehead before kissing it. "For what it's worth, I'm happy you're safe Caleb. I really am." Victor added as he passed Caleb on his way out. The truth was, he was happy the fire didn't kill Caleb because it would ruin all the plans he had.

"Are you going to tell me what Victor Reed is talking about and why he is even here?" Caleb said sternly. 

"Victor and I .... " Kimberly said trying to ease into the truth but then deciding to just rip off the band-aid. "Caleb, Victor and I were together for a time after your father and I divorced. It was right before I left Collinsport. It didn't work out between us but we remained friends."  

"What?? When were you going to tell me? When were you going to mention you had a second child. I know his son, I know Chris! All this time my own half-brother walked around the same town as me and you never thought it would be a good idea to tell me?" Caleb said infuriated.

"I'm sorry." Kim said, her voice breaking. 

"Is that why dad divorced you? Did you have an affair with Victor?" Caleb said starting to put the pieces together. "That's what Carolyn meant by 'everything you did' to dad. I cant believe this is happening. Why are you here now? WHY DID YOU COME BACK?" 

Kimberly couldn't to answer because there was so much more to her return than just reconnecting with Victor, Caleb and Christopher. The truth was darker and much more convoluted. All she could do was tear up. Caleb picked up the bouquet and handed it to Kimberly. He shook his head and walked out of the hospital room.

"Caleb! Wait! Caleb!" Kimberly yelled but Caleb kept going. 

****

After the fire department had cleared the family to return to the home, Carolyn quickly rounded up a team  at Collinwood that filled the mansion with a flurry of contractors, painters, decorators and builders all busy working on repairing the fire damage in the east wing.

Like her mother Elizabeth, Carolyn wasted no time. If she and her family were going to remain at Collinwood, it was going to be restored with the best money could buy. She and her daughter Alexandra sat at table in a s they called the Blue Room, named after the songbird blue wallpaper panels that adorned the walls.

The room, decorated by Collinwood's first mistress Naomi Collins, was filled with 18th century art and Collins family heirlooms and was located on the western part of the house. Carolyn and Alex sat inside bathed in mid afternoon light enjoying tea as they skimmed through decor and design magazines.

Alexandra went over to the portrait of Barnabas Collins and lifted it up to get a good look at it. The real Alexandra had no feelings about Barnabas, but Claudia, who's soul was still locked deep inside Alex did. Claudia's hate for her father Barnabas was stronger then ever.

"Mother what ever happened to him." Claudia asked motioning towards the portrait in Alex's voice. 

"Barnabas?" Carolyn asked. She paused for a brief moment searching for an explanation of her mysterious relative. "Didn't I tell you? He was involved with this woman, Cassandra, who had at one time been married to Caleb's grandfather and my uncle Roger. They even had a baby girl named Evangeline. It was all very peculiar to be honest because the baby went missing. and Everyone blamed Cassandra who vanished right after that. Barnabas too left Collinsport and from what I heard he died soon after." Carolyn explained as she continued to skim through a design magazine. She had no idea that she was actually talking to Evangeline who was renamed Claudia by the nuns herself, now possessing Alexandra.

Alex's eyes began to water with Claudia's tears..."Evangeline", she whispered to herself. 

"Yes," Carolyn explained. "Barnabas was a complicated man. I adored him, but..."

"But what?" Claudia asked?

"He was complicated. Troubled." Carolyn said, leaving it at that. 

Claudia dabbed her eyes and asked "Can you tell me more?"  With  Alex's voice as she sat back down next to Carolyn and putting Carolyn's hand in hers. "Tell me. Tell me everything about Evangeline's mother." Alex's voice said in a whispery voice that circled Carolyn like smoke.

Carolyn looked up from the design  magazine and took a deep breath, filling her head with Alex's whispery mystical voice that put her in a strange hypnotic trans. The memories of Barnabas' last days came flooding back like the sea that crashed up against Widow's Hill. 

 "Her name was Cassandra but some say her real name was Angelique. I didn't know much about her but she was very beautiful and very mysterious. Like she was hiding something." Carolyn said as her eyes started to blink slowly right before they closed in a hypnotic sleep.

Carolyn opened her mind and Claudia crept in telepathically  and was taken to another time. 

****

COLLINWOOD, December 1971

****

Angelique Bouchard walked into Collinwood. But no one saw. The Collins family had assumed her missing after they believed she was involved with an evil man named Nicholas Blair who schemed to destroy the family. Their assumptions were right. 

The family sat silently in their activity, frozen in a spell of time that made it easy for Angelique to search Collinwood undetected for her baby girl, a baby girl that in reality had been taken from her in at her hideout the middle of the night.  

She searched high and low, but the baby was no where to be found in Collinwood. It was then she confronted him....the one man she believed to be the kidnapper. The one time love of her life: Barnabas Collins. She knew deep down Barnabas he had taken the baby. But taken her where?

As Angelique appeared to Barnabas who was in the Blue Room of Collinwood smoking, she released the time spell and slapped Barnabas across the face. 

"How dare you!" She hissed.

"Get out of here." Barnabas returned stunned at the intruder. "Get out of this house and never come back." 

"What have you done with my child!!?" Angelique demanded desperately. 

"I've saved her from you. She's in a place you and my foolish cousin Roger will never be able to find. She is Safe. And loved." Barnabas said.

"I'll kill you Barnabas. I will kill you for doing this!" Angelique screamed crying and pounding on Barnabas' chest. 

"You know as well as I that that baby's life is better off away from you, away from here. She shouldn't live the kind of life you'd give her. Maybe if her Roger was rid of you sooner and raised her in his own, but not with you here." Barnabas said grabbing Angelique's wrists. 

"You're a fool. Do you really think Roger Collins is my child's father?" Angelique said pulling her wrists out of Barnabas' grip.

Angelique had recently tricked Barnabas' cousin Roger into marrying her all so that she could sink her hands on the family and get closer to her true love Barnabas. The family hated Angelique, or as they knew her by her pseudonym "Cassandra". 

"What are you talking about?" Barnabas growled as he put out his cigarette. 

"You! You're that baby's father Barnabas!" Angelique confessed. "You must remember the night we shared just before I married Roger. It was just you and I...it was passion, it was love. And we made Evangeline. She is yours." 

Barnabas' eyes became enraged. This whole time Angelique had told everyone her new husband Roger Collins was the baby's father, but it was all a lie. 

Like a lightening bolt in a storm he shot over to Angelique knocking over the rococo style chairs, and Dagwood table, his fangs piercing from out of his mouth, his eyes red like two balls of fire. 

"Bite me! Go on! Bite me!" Angelique dared knowing the dangers to both she and Barnabas if he drank witches blood. "Take us both away from here, take us away with one single taste Barnabas and everything will be over." 

Barnabas for a split second thought of the downfall but it was too late, his rage had overcome him and he wanted Angelique, the lying, manipulative, evil witch's games to end. He plunged his fangs into her neck, blood seeped down his throat like molten rock. Her scream echoing from the Blue room  throughout Collinwood as she began to turn to dust in Barnabas' hands.

Barnabas, his hands filled with the Angelique's ashes, his mouth covered in her blood fell to the ground. 

There was silence all around him. The room started to turn dark and then, the sound of a baby's cry. His daughter. A daughter he had not known was his. The cry came and then suddenly silence.

****

COLLINWOOD, PRESENT TIME 

****

"Honey? Honey you're crying." Carolyn said coming out of the trans noticing Alex still holding Barnabas' painting in her hand with tears streaming down her face. 

Those were Claudia's tears. The Blue Room and it's memories that flooded back into her mind from Carolyn's memory was like she was there watching it all unfold in front of her. 

"I was just thinking of Daddy." Alex's voice said as she smiled and gave Carolyn a welcomed hug, while Claudia's reflection, hidden from Carolyn's view, was revealed in a the adjacent window. 

****

Now reaching early evening, Victor arrived home, and there waiting for him was Christopher. Christopher got up and came over to his father and punched him in the face. 

"What have you done to me!?" Christopher asked with tears in his eyes. 

"Chris, you don't understand. Let me explain." Victor said wiping the blood from his lip.

"I found all of these photos and records in your room. I found the basement too, is this me? Am I this.... this thing?" Christopher said showing Victor photos he found of his werewolf alter ego. 

Victor couldn't lie. He knew that someday Christopher would eventually figure it all out. There wasn't any reason now for Victor  to keep it from Chris. It was finally time.

"Yes , it is. But trust me, there is a plan for all of this. You're the soul protector of this town. When the time is right you'll be there to keep us safe. I've been wiating for this this moment for so many years." Victor explained as he rubbed his sore jaw. "Son, your mother's back." 

"She's back? Why? Whats going on and what are you talking about? Protect Collinsport from who?" Chris asked still looking at the photos of himself that he found.

Victor and Kimberly's plans for their son were now time sensitive with every growing day Collinsport was more and more in danger with the Collins family now fully embedded back into the community. Something they knew would get worse if they didn't act now. And Chris was their secret weapon.  

Victor went over to a locked cabinet on the other side of the room then took a key from his key ring and unlocked it. He pulled out a small cedar box that has a slide off top and handed it to Chris.

"Open it." Victor said. 

Christopher opened the box and pulled out syringes with serums and medicines marked CR-1984.   There were also photos of the members of the Collins family, past and present. Every single one.

The very top photo, was Alexandra.

"Son, we have so much work to do, and it's just starting to come together. I need you." Victor said placing his hands on Christopher's shoulders.

Christopher looked through the photos then back at his father,  confused and angry.

"What is this?" Chris asked.

Victor took the photo of Alexandra off the top of the pile and said "Your enemy."