The witch Angelique had been passing herself off as a woman named Cassandra and had married Roger Collins, Carolyn's uncle. Only Barnabas, Angelque's former lover, knew her true identity. While married to Roger "Cassandra" and Nicholas Blair attempted a coup over the Collins family with various wicked spells and deceptions. All of them failure. Cassandra later disappeared, leaving Roger to believe she had left him...the truth was Cassandra had secretly became pregnant with a child and wanted to pass her off as Roger's, but the baby was really that of Barnabas Collins'...a truth no one would discover for years to come.
To save the baby girl Cassandra named Evangeline from a life of disaster Barnabas did the only thing he could do to save her from being raised by the wickedness inside of Angelique's heart. His connection to Angelique was powerful, more powerful than anything the world could ever created. In 1972 he learned of the baby's birth while Cassandra was in hiding. Barnabas went and searched for them. His connection to Angelique (Cassandra) was so strong that her energy was like a honing device which made it easy for him to find them.
There she was, a child so innocent and small asleep near her mother in a secret hideout just outside Collinsport. Barnabas reached in and grabbed the baby from her crib, kidnapping her to a place so far away, no one would ever find her.
In a desperate attempt to save the baby from years of torment by the secrets of her parents, Barnabas time traveled to Collinsport in the year 1850 and placed her in the safe keeping of an orphanage ..leaving Angelique alone, angry and bitter.
His plan to save the baby he too believed to be Roger's daughter backfired. Just before she died Angelique confessed that Evangeline was really Barnabas' child not Rogers. In his rage, Barnabas attacked and drank the blood of Angelique, a toxic bite of a vampire immediately turned Angelique to ash and left Barnabas gasping for air.
Witch's blood ...a vampire's ultimate poison.
Witch's blood ...a vampire's ultimate poison.
Just minutes after Angelique was turned to ash and Barnabas lay dying was the exact moment where Claudia's own time traveling spell brought her.
***COLLINWOOD, 1972***
A bright ball of light started to form at the edge of the room and expanded into the shape of a human figure. Barnabas, now close to death, opened his eyes with his last bits of strength and looked at the light. A small tear came to his eye when he began to think that possibly this was some how his way to a safe eternity away from all the darkness, but to his surprise the figure veiled in bright light was Evangeline, his long lost daughter now named Claudia.
Claudia emerged from the light and saw her father Barnabas laying on the floor covered in her mother's ashes. It angered her, but she knew that she could not undo that part of the past. A witch could not be brought back after the bite of a vampire. But her father, was a different story.
Barnabas coughed and reached out to the woman he saw come from the light not knowing she was his grown daughter Evangeline. He looked up and knew that his life was coming to an end and just needed a small dosage of blood. Perhaps, he thought, he could muster enough strength and take some from the mysterious stranger before him.
Claudia knelt down near her father and stroked his hair away from his forehead.
"I should leave you here to die. I should sit here and watch you take your final breaths and never think twice about it for all you did. But I guess I'm different then you. I don't react on impulse." Claudia said now standing up and walking to where the mound of her mother's ashes was.
She placed her hands in the ashes, and a single tear rolled down her cheek, the powerful image of the her mother's remains tore her to shreds. She got up again and walked around the blue room.
"It really hasn't changed much over the years, Barnabas. It's relatively the same. The family on the other hand, well, that's much different. You wouldn't recognize them if you saw them." She said continuing her small tour of the 1972 version of the Collinwood blue room.
Barnabas was now blacking out, and Claudia could feel his energy fading. It was now or never. Either she would bring him back to full life or allow him to lay there and die. The decision was hers, the power was hers, but instead of feeling relief of knowing that man who destroyed her life was dying there right in front of her...she started to feel sorrow.
She felt the fires of revenge eroding away inside of her. He was her father no matter what. But could she bring herself to replicate the exact spell her mother Angelique put on Barnabas that made him who he was and save his life one last time?
"What do you mean she's been inside of you?" Carolyn asked concerned.
"She was inside of me. We were like one person. I could see everything. Hear everything. But it's been Claudia all this time! She's the one who set the fire downstairs." Alex confessed.
"She's free Leopold. Christopher released her!" Burst Carolyn from the top of the stairs.
Leopold took a deep breath before answering:
"I know. I had an unfortunate encounter with her earlier," he said with distaste for his one time flame from another lifetime, "but she's disappeared again and I don't sense her presence. I can tell she's gone. Maybe for good."
"How can you be so sure?" Alex questioned.
"If she ever does return, we'll be ready for her. With every day that passes I'm more and more in tune with my new senses. There's no way she can get around me." Leopold said attempting to console Carolyn and Alex.
Alex was also getting used to the new senses she acquired as a result of being possessed by Claudia for some time. She feared if the rest of the family knew, they wouldn't understand. So for now, only Caleb would knew. And that's how Alex intended on keeping it.
The storm continued to come swiftly and swirled around Collinwood, thunder flashing a bright light into the house through the new windows in the main study. Leopold, Carolyn and Alex made their way into the room where Kat, Caleb and now Kimberly were all sitting hoping to hear from Christopher to tell him about his father. Leopold's eyes zeroed in on Kat who was on the phone in the corner of the room with her partner Detective Loomis McGovern going over the search for Christopher.
Kat, who's threatening questions about the dead man Leopold had passed off Jack, had not made eye contact with him yet but soon felt a cold chill brush the back of her neck that startled her. She quickly turned from mid conversation with Loomis to look directly into Leopold's eyes.
"Kat?.... Hey! Kat you still there?" Loomis said from his end of the phone.
"Yeah, yeah ....I'm here. Sorry. Listen, umm, we haven't heard from Chris Reed yet either, but as soon as we do I'll let you know, and if you hear from him first do the same. Ok?" Kat said hastily as she felt she was being watched.
"Detective, so kind of you to stop by." Leopold said now standing directly next to her.
"I was in the neighborhood." Kat said trying to break the uncomfortable feeling between she and Leopold, who did not know that Alex had placed Kat under a spell causing her to forget about the
dead man in the bay.
As Leopold stepped closer he could tell there was something different about Kat, she seemed less confident and more nervous around him. The negative vibrations he once received from her had softened. It was all due to Alex's spell, a spell that made her forget her mistrust of Leopold. But the vsmpire still had his misgivings about the good detective.
Outside, the storm raged and inside the Collinwood mansion the atmosphere was just as turbulent. Kat made her way away from Leopold. He made her feel like he was a tiger ready to pounce. She went over to Caleb and grabbed his hand. The fear she was now feeling was a common side effect of overstaying your welcome at Collinwod.
The energy in the room continued to match the electric weather outside thanks to the tumultuous events of the night before: Victor's death, Christopher's disappearance mixed with the dangers of Claudia escaping the sarcophagus and running around Collinsport.
The thunder clapped and everyone still awaitig news from Christopher jumped in their seats. Leopold knowing Chris was just a few feet away kept his mouth shut, he knew Chris' power might come of good use to him if he kept him for himself.
Kimberly looked over at Caleb and began to feel guilty about everything she had done. Not only to him but to her missing son Chris. The affair, the secrets, the lies, the experiments. Everything. She went over and sat next to Caleb.
Kimberly quaked and shivered with fear, and grabbed Caleb's hand, "who was this stranger?" She thought.
Alex buried her face in her mother's back, thinking it could be Claudia.
The thunder rolled again and flashed a bright white light for a split second illuminating the entire room.
****
COLLINWOOD, PRESENT TIME
****
COLLINWOOD, PRESENT TIME
****
Alex made her way to her mother's room. Carolyn, who had just had a spat with Kimberly, was on edge. So many of things that were happening were exactly the reasons she never wanted to come back to Collinwood in the first place and now it was as if she was re-living her childhood one tragedy after another.
Alex knocked and opened the door to Carolyn's bedroom where she found her mother looking out of the window draped with white lace curtains, curtains that had been there since the room belonged to her mother Elizabeth.
"Are you ok?" Alex asked as she walked in slowly.
"That was Christopher last night wasn't it." Carolyn asked bluntly
Alexandra felt she had to explain everything even though she really wasn't sure herself how exactly Christopher transformed into the beast.
Alex knocked and opened the door to Carolyn's bedroom where she found her mother looking out of the window draped with white lace curtains, curtains that had been there since the room belonged to her mother Elizabeth.
"Are you ok?" Alex asked as she walked in slowly.
"That was Christopher last night wasn't it." Carolyn asked bluntly
Alexandra felt she had to explain everything even though she really wasn't sure herself how exactly Christopher transformed into the beast.
"Mother, I don't know how to explain it. It must have been..... Claudia must be involved.
"Claudia." Carolyn said as it if to say she should have known Claudia was involved.
"She has had control over me too mother; for the last few weeks she's been inside of me. She has to be responsible for everything. I wanted to tell you last night, but when they found Victor I just couldn't." Alex said confessing her everything she could think of.
"What do you mean she's been inside of you?" Carolyn asked concerned.
"She was inside of me. We were like one person. I could see everything. Hear everything. But it's been Claudia all this time! She's the one who set the fire downstairs." Alex confessed.
Carolyn was shocked at the power Claudia had, she had never seen anything like it before.
"At every horrible turn Claudia has been there. She'll curse the day she ever set foot here."
Carolyn tensed up on the thought of Claudia now free to roam around Collinwood continuing her chaotic reign, and I terrified Alex who had seen first hand Claudia's powers.
"At every horrible turn Claudia has been there. She'll curse the day she ever set foot here."
Carolyn tensed up on the thought of Claudia now free to roam around Collinwood continuing her chaotic reign, and I terrified Alex who had seen first hand Claudia's powers.
"Have you told Leopold Claudia escaped?" Alex asked.
"No, but we have to. He'll come up with a way to stop her. Come with me!."
As the two made their way down the giant oak staircase that lead to the east wing that was still in the middle of fire damage repairs a sudden lightening bolt lit the stain class Windows above the staircase causing a kaleidoscope of colors rain down around Alex and Carolyn.
A storm was brewing above Collinsport.
Just then Leopold walked in from the old house brushing the fresh rain drops from his shoulders.
"She's free Leopold. Christopher released her!" Burst Carolyn from the top of the stairs.
Leopold took a deep breath before answering:
"I know. I had an unfortunate encounter with her earlier," he said with distaste for his one time flame from another lifetime, "but she's disappeared again and I don't sense her presence. I can tell she's gone. Maybe for good."
"How can you be so sure?" Alex questioned.
"If she ever does return, we'll be ready for her. With every day that passes I'm more and more in tune with my new senses. There's no way she can get around me." Leopold said attempting to console Carolyn and Alex.
Alex was also getting used to the new senses she acquired as a result of being possessed by Claudia for some time. She feared if the rest of the family knew, they wouldn't understand. So for now, only Caleb would knew. And that's how Alex intended on keeping it.
****
Christopher awoke inside a candle lit room on a makeshift bed alone in the old house. He was thirsty and his muscles and bones ached from top to bottom. He stretched and tried to ease the aches, he noticed that there were fresh clothes folded on a small chair next to the bed. He walked over to the chair, the hard cold wood of the floor poked at the bottoms of his bare feet like needles.
He sat back down as his head began to spin, like the morning after a long night of drinking. Flashes of the night before came rushing back. The shooting. Alexandra screaming. Seeing his father in the fog, then seeing his father scream for his life; screaming at him. He remembered.
He killed his own father.
"What have I done?" He thought to himself as he pounded the side of his head, the torment of a shaky memory was becoming too much.
"What have I done?" He thought to himself as he pounded the side of his head, the torment of a shaky memory was becoming too much.
Then in a fit of anger, Christopher flipped over the bed he was on and kicked and punched the walls in a hysterical and painful rage. He fell down and buried his face in the flipped mattress, knuckles swollen and bleeding. The guilt was eating at him like a paracite. What had he done? How could this have happened?
As he lay there devastated by his foggy memories a soft light came to him from the adjacent room.
Christopher lifted his head and got up from the bed stained with his tears. He made his way over to the doorway that faced the adjacent room and saw the woman he briefly met outside emerge from s ball of light with another silhouette, one he didn't recognize.
As the light started to dim around them Christopher could tell that the other person was a man he man. The man patted Claudia on the shoulder and left the old house right through the front door leaving Claudia alone with Christopher.
As the light started to dim around them Christopher could tell that the other person was a man he man. The man patted Claudia on the shoulder and left the old house right through the front door leaving Claudia alone with Christopher.
She turned to where Christopher was standing and looked in his direction. Chris, scared that she noticed him, backed into the room and hid behind the wall. Claudia made her way into the room dressed in her ruby red cloak. She turned the corner and saw Christopher standing next to the door shaking in fear with his eyes closed hoping it was all a dream.
"I'm not here to hurt you." She said stroking his face. "We are the same you know?" She said, referencing the fact that both of them had deep rooted pain from their parental betrayals.
Christopher opened his eyes and looked at Claudia. Claudia's anger and pain was gone. She looked at Christopher with kindness and sympathy. Without a spell chanted, or a magic potion poured, Christopher saw something beautiful looking back at him. They looked into each others eyes and his fears were instantly gone. He leaned close and instinctfuly kissed Claudia's lips.
Inside Collinwood Alexandra felt a kiss on her own lips. She touched her mouth confused... But then knew. It was Chris kissing Claudia.
Claudia found Christopher as somewhat of a kindred spirit. Both had been virtually used by their parents for their own causes. Both had been cursed with supernatural afflictions that neither actually wanted. Was it was love? A different kind of love that he didn't have with Alexandra?
****
The storm continued to come swiftly and swirled around Collinwood, thunder flashing a bright light into the house through the new windows in the main study. Leopold, Carolyn and Alex made their way into the room where Kat, Caleb and now Kimberly were all sitting hoping to hear from Christopher to tell him about his father. Leopold's eyes zeroed in on Kat who was on the phone in the corner of the room with her partner Detective Loomis McGovern going over the search for Christopher.
Kat, who's threatening questions about the dead man Leopold had passed off Jack, had not made eye contact with him yet but soon felt a cold chill brush the back of her neck that startled her. She quickly turned from mid conversation with Loomis to look directly into Leopold's eyes.
"Kat?.... Hey! Kat you still there?" Loomis said from his end of the phone.
"Yeah, yeah ....I'm here. Sorry. Listen, umm, we haven't heard from Chris Reed yet either, but as soon as we do I'll let you know, and if you hear from him first do the same. Ok?" Kat said hastily as she felt she was being watched.
"Detective, so kind of you to stop by." Leopold said now standing directly next to her.
"I was in the neighborhood." Kat said trying to break the uncomfortable feeling between she and Leopold, who did not know that Alex had placed Kat under a spell causing her to forget about the
dead man in the bay.
As Leopold stepped closer he could tell there was something different about Kat, she seemed less confident and more nervous around him. The negative vibrations he once received from her had softened. It was all due to Alex's spell, a spell that made her forget her mistrust of Leopold. But the vsmpire still had his misgivings about the good detective.
Outside, the storm raged and inside the Collinwood mansion the atmosphere was just as turbulent. Kat made her way away from Leopold. He made her feel like he was a tiger ready to pounce. She went over to Caleb and grabbed his hand. The fear she was now feeling was a common side effect of overstaying your welcome at Collinwod.
The energy in the room continued to match the electric weather outside thanks to the tumultuous events of the night before: Victor's death, Christopher's disappearance mixed with the dangers of Claudia escaping the sarcophagus and running around Collinsport.
Alexandra began to feel a twinge of anxiety at the possibility of Christopher and Claudia being together somewhere, the kiss she felt, seemed real.
The thunder clapped and everyone still awaitig news from Christopher jumped in their seats. Leopold knowing Chris was just a few feet away kept his mouth shut, he knew Chris' power might come of good use to him if he kept him for himself.
Kimberly looked over at Caleb and began to feel guilty about everything she had done. Not only to him but to her missing son Chris. The affair, the secrets, the lies, the experiments. Everything. She went over and sat next to Caleb.
"Don't worry. We'll find him." Caleb said calmly to his mother.
"I haven't really talked to him in so long, and now his father's dead. You know, We're all he has Caleb." Kimberly said as the realization that she allowed Victor to cloud her mind with conspiracy theories that took her away from her boys for so long.
"I'm willing to look past everything you did to dad and me, mom, I think it would be a good time to start fresh. Once we find Chris. We'll start fresh." Caleb said wiping a tear from Kimberly's face.
"I'd like that." Kimberly replied.
Seeing that things were getting calmer Kat decided it was time for her to make her way back to the police station.
"I'd better be get going. Caleb, please give me a call if you hear anything from Chris. We need to know if he's safe. If he's not, I'll officially mark him as a missing person and we'll start a search party." She said as she kissed Caleb on the cheek and excused herself.
As Detective Banning made her way to the door the thunder and lightening clapped loud shaking the house. The electricity went out and the family was left in the dark. Carolyn and Alexandra scattered to light candles all over the room when they all heard the front door swing open and hit the wall in a large bang.
"Claudia....?" Alex whispered to her mother in terrified voice.
But the footsteps that were coming closer and closer to the room were heavier then those a woman like Claudia would make. The sound of thick boots and a cane knocked up the foyer that was blanketed in darkness from the lack of lights.
Leopold began to sniff the air. A smell he found very, VERY familiar. The smell of the immortal. The smell of a man from another time, and another place. A man like him with the lust for blood.
The candle light was dim and flickered an orange glow around the room, but it was clear there was now a man standing in all blacked foyer just outside the room the family was in.
"I haven't really talked to him in so long, and now his father's dead. You know, We're all he has Caleb." Kimberly said as the realization that she allowed Victor to cloud her mind with conspiracy theories that took her away from her boys for so long.
"I'm willing to look past everything you did to dad and me, mom, I think it would be a good time to start fresh. Once we find Chris. We'll start fresh." Caleb said wiping a tear from Kimberly's face.
"I'd like that." Kimberly replied.
Seeing that things were getting calmer Kat decided it was time for her to make her way back to the police station.
"I'd better be get going. Caleb, please give me a call if you hear anything from Chris. We need to know if he's safe. If he's not, I'll officially mark him as a missing person and we'll start a search party." She said as she kissed Caleb on the cheek and excused herself.
As Detective Banning made her way to the door the thunder and lightening clapped loud shaking the house. The electricity went out and the family was left in the dark. Carolyn and Alexandra scattered to light candles all over the room when they all heard the front door swing open and hit the wall in a large bang.
"Claudia....?" Alex whispered to her mother in terrified voice.
But the footsteps that were coming closer and closer to the room were heavier then those a woman like Claudia would make. The sound of thick boots and a cane knocked up the foyer that was blanketed in darkness from the lack of lights.
Leopold began to sniff the air. A smell he found very, VERY familiar. The smell of the immortal. The smell of a man from another time, and another place. A man like him with the lust for blood.
The candle light was dim and flickered an orange glow around the room, but it was clear there was now a man standing in all blacked foyer just outside the room the family was in.
Kimberly quaked and shivered with fear, and grabbed Caleb's hand, "who was this stranger?" She thought.
Alex buried her face in her mother's back, thinking it could be Claudia.
The thunder rolled again and flashed a bright white light for a split second illuminating the entire room.
It was like the air was sucked out of the room, and in that split second of bright white light Carolyn squinted and gasped in shock at who she saw standing dead center in the doorway in a pool of rain water that had dripped from his coat and boots.
She whispered the name of a man very familiar to the walls of Collinwood, a name so infamous the entire town of Collinsport trembled. "Barnabas."
