Caleb and Kat celebrated their possible discovery of Caleb's father with a passionate night together. They were closer then they had ever been before. Their connection was so solid that with every kiss and every loving touch they could feel each other's soul. It was a love they never thought they'd rekindle after so many years apart, after all who would ever believe two high school sweet-hearts would last this long after a long break up. But Caleb and Kat had.
They lay in their large pillowy canape bed, still snuggled close, Caleb resting his chin on Kat's head, Kat laying her head on his chest. They were glowing with love, and excitement. They had planned to go later that day to Windcliff again and demand to see David, no matter what Joanna had to say about it.
As they rested, Kat got a call from her detective partner Loomis McGovern. She bristled at the ringing phone interrupting her quiet time with Caleb, but she hadn't been back to work in weeks since Leopold attacked her, and now she was getting back into swing of things. She carefully rolled over, the sheets twisting around her small body and picked up the cell phone next to her.
"Hey, Loomis what's up?" She said with a sleepy voice.
"Morning! Hope I didn't wake you but I really need to talk to you. I did the digging you asked for on that Asylum up in Bangor, and I found something you should know." Loomis said looking down at a report that was handed to him from another police officer.
"What is it?" Kat asked intrigued noting Loomis' serious tone of voice.
"Did you know your brother works there? He's the head of the nursing and orderly staff." Loomis asked.
"What? Sebastian? No. He told me works for this adverting agency or something, not Windcliff." Kat said in disbelief.
"Well, unless he's moonlighting, I don't know. But he's definitely in charge in a big way over there. He works under a Dr. Grayson." Loomis confirmed.
"We had the misfortune of meeting Dr. Grayson actually. Not the warmest bedside manner. So you're sure Sebastian works there?" Kat asked for confirmation.
"Absolutely." Loomis confirmed. "I'll call you back if I get any more info, but if I were you, I'd get Sebastian on the line ASAP." He added.
Kat hung up the phone and turned to Caleb who was laying next to her in bed, still glowing from their passionate night. Even though he was inches away from her, he hadn't been paying attention to the conversation and totally missed what was happening.
"Did you hear that?" Kat asked adjusting the blankets that were twisted up around her waist.
"The call? Sort of. Not really. What did he say?" Caleb asked kissing Kat's exposed knee.
"So I asked Loomis to check in on some of the employees at Windcliff to see if we could ask anyone else around there about your dad and he told me my brother Sebastian was on the list of employees. Not only that, but he's like the head of a department there. He's never ever mention this to me." Kat said still in shock over her own connection to Windcliff.
"That's good news though, right!? He won't lie to you. He'll be able to tell you why my father has been there and where he is!" Caleb said excited.
"I don't know. Don't you think it's weird that he never told me he worked there? Not just that he never told me, but that he told me he worked somewhere completely different." Kat noted.
"You know your brother Sebastian better than I do, do you think there's a reason for him hiding this from you?" Caleb asked as he got out bed and picked up a pair of thrown pants from the floor.
Kat wasn't really sure. All she could do was wonder just how much Sebastian knew and how much he was going to tell her about David. They were close growing up but there was a period in their lives that he seemed to distance himself from her, and it was around the time she starting dating Caleb. But that was years and years ago when they were all in high-school and before their first breakup.
Kat knew that if she was going to look into Windcliff, and her own brother was involved, that something much larger loomed on the horizon, not only for the Collins family, but for her own as well.
****
The misty woods outside of Bangor were only 2 hours from Collinsport. Deep within the thick trees was a small cottage where Maggie and David were hiding. Maggie sat still on a chair in the room still watching over David who was starting to wake up after a very long and deep sleep. He turned over and noticed the fire had gone out and then turned towards the window that had a blaring morning light beaming into the cottage.
David squinted his eyes and stared at a silhouette of a woman who was sitting in a chair just above him. He jumped up forgetting Maggie was with him, instantly taking in a deep sigh of relief when he realized it wasn't Joanna.
"Good morning!" Maggie said with a kind smile.
"Sorry. For a minute there I forgot where I was." David said, flattening out the wrinkles in the clothes he was wearing.
"It's ok. I know the feeling. Sometimes you can't figure out what's what and where's where. I have a lot of history with that sort of thing. It happens to the best of us." She said with a small grin, handing him some fruit.
"Where'd you get this?" David asked as he bit into a fat juicy apple.
"Just outside. There's some nice apple trees just over the fence. You'll need your strength to get to Collinwood. I'm sure the hospital has already alerted your family about you, they'll probably be expecting you very soon." Maggie said as she watched him eat.
"You're coming with me aren't you?" David asked.
"David, listen, my time at Collinwood and in Collinsport is long gone. I'm just here to make sure you get back to the place you're meant to be. I'll find my own way, don't worry." Maggie said standing up and giving David a hug.
David felt sad that she wouldn't come along with him, he was sure Carolyn would have loved to see her old friend Maggie after so many years. But he felt deep inside that this was not something he should push. Maggie, was always someone who was strong willed. He knew she wouldn't be persuaded.
"Where will you go?" David asked sadly.
"Don't worry about me. I'll find my way, I always have. Here....I've packed you a few things. It's mostly fruits from around the cottage, but I also found this old jug back in one of these rooms and I put some water in it for you. You'll need it. The walk to Collinsport is about two miles but if you stick to the main road just out in front and go east, you'll be just fine." Maggie explained.
David grabbed the bag Maggie set up for him and reached over and pulled Maggie in for another tight hug, he was so grateful for all she had done for him. Without her he might have not ever made it out of Windcliff. And now he was free, and hopefully about to be reconnected with his family. A family he knew needed answers to so many questions.
"David, it's time." Maggie said in a whisper-like voice. "Its time you return to home."
David and Maggie looked at each other one last time while Maggie waved goodbye at the door of the cottage and he set off. Back to Collinwood.
As soon as David disappeared into the distance Maggie grabbed whatever she could and left the cottage herself. Her own journey was not over, and she would return to a place where she felt most safe from all the darkness of her past. All of the terrors, all of the nightmares. Safe from Barnabas and his cold, twisted sense of love and infatuation he had for her. She hoped that her meeting with him in the cemetery resonated with him and that he took her advice, to end his own life by stepping into daylight and releasing the curse from Collinwood and the entire Collin's family.
****
The afternoon sun turned into an overcast evening, the clouds clustered around the coastline like a group of gray sheep scurrying down a rocky path. Claudia, too scurried to the home of an old friend, a Chinese mystic named Li Weyxi whom she often came to for potions and powerful elixirs when she had her powers. Now she needed something potent enough that would make sure Alexandra was no longer a threat to her relationship with Christopher.
Claudia carefully opened the door to the Weyxi's shop, the bell on the knob dinged a tiny alarm to let him know he had a guest. The shop was adorned with thousands of green plants hanging from the ceiling, and growing all around. Plants Weyxi used in his potions, plants that were so powerful they could slow the breathing of man so much he could look dead. It was true, Weyxi's knowledge was often times used to bewitch and betray and that's why Claudia knew he could help her.
"Is that really you?" Weyxi asked as he carefully peeked through strands of beads that covered the doorway into a private room in his shop.
"Hello old friend." Claudia said as she carefully cupped the petals of a water lily growing wildly in the shop.
"After all these years, I did not believe I would ever see you again. Yet here you are. And you look so different. What is different about you? As I look at you I cannot see that special glow of yours. The Glow of your mother. What has happened?" The mystic said as he slowly pulled back several strands of beads and walked though.
Weyxi was a small man in stature but he had thick hands and legs, a strong face with deep dark eyes. He was bald and always wore what seemed like the same tan clothes and small bowler cap on his head. His mustache was often trimmed and close to his porcelain perfect skin.
"You're right. That glow is long gone. I had to give up all my powers, which has cost me so much. More then I ever imagined it would." Claudia confessed.
"One never gives up their powers. It is also power that is in the eye of the beholder, not just beauty. Of which, you still have both." Weyxi said with a twinkle in his eye.
Claudia looked over Weyxi's shoulder through the beaded doorway and saw that he was working on something in his private room, a room that he only allowed someone into if he truly trusted them.
"I need your help. This time it's very serious." Claudia said releasing him from her hug.
"What is it?" Weyxi asked, seeing the deep concern in Claudia's face.
"Now that I've been rendered powerless, I have come under an attack of sorts. I have nothing to combat this, but with your help I may be able to. Is there anything you can give me that I can use against this new enemy?" Claudia asked referencing Alexandra as her new enemy.
"It is not good to have enemies, my friend. Dealing with them could be costly." He said leaning down and pruning one of the plants.
"I'll do anything. I'll give anything. Whatever you need, you know that I will repay. I always have." Claudia assured.
"But you are powerless now, how can you repay me. With your powers you once did so much, and now, there seems to be no currency." The mystic made note of.
"If you have something that can work for Me Wey..." Claudia asked before being interrupted.
"There is always something that can work, what I need to know is how would I be compensated."
"What do you want?"
Weyxi thought for a second as he watered plants and meandered around the shop then looked over at Claudia: "The bee buzzes around flowers all spring long but does not get to pollinate unless the flower is bloomed and ready. Once the flower is ready to give it's pollen, that is when the bee can take what he wants. I want Assurance that when the time comes for me to ask for this repayment, you will not close off.." He said still pruning the trees around him.
Claudia too thought for a split second but knew she had no choice. She had to agree to whatever terms Weyxi proposed.
"Fine. When the time comes, I will." Claudia agreed knowing that she had just struck a deal with one of the most powerful mystical men in all the world. A man who's natural and home elixirs could kill and bring back to life. Her heart was beating fast. Her mind raced. All she wanted was to be happy with Chrispher and now, she had made a deal that could do that, but at what cost? She wouldn't know until Weyxi came for his payment.
"Come. Sit. Have tea with me." Weyxi said pulling Claudia's arm into another room where had already set up a table for two people to share evening tea with.
Claudia removed her coat and sat down in the darkroom that had a dimmed light. Smoke from Weyxi's pip billowed and swirled around the room causing a thick fog to hover over their heads as Weyxi poured the tea into two tiny blue and white cups. He carefully pulled out leaves and dropped them into each glass and forced Claudia's hands to grab the warm glass on both sides.
"Think deep and profoundly of this enemy and close your eyes." he said as Claudia complied.
The leaves in the tea began to swirl and spin in the glass as if they were being stirred. Faster and faster the spun until they started to radiate a bright white light that beamed from Claudia's cup. Then the hot water began to boil in Claudia's hands but she felt no heat. Her eyes still tightly closed Weyxi leaned over and looked into the tea cup.
In the cup were the hopes, dreams, fears, and enemies of Claudia. And almost all of them ended with the face of Alexandra Thorne, the woman attempting to steal back Christopher from Claudia by crude manipulation.
Once Weyxi understood Claudia's plight he slammed a top onto the tea-cup, blackening out the light that came from inside. The noise startled Claudia and she snapped open her eyes to find Weyxi across the room in one of his many apothecary drawers pulling out little bags. He looked over all the bags and carefully chose one with thin red leaves in it and came back to the table.
"This is what you will need." He said handing Claudia the baggy of thin red leaves.
"What are they?" She said looking over the bag carefully.
"The leaves are from the withering tree of southern China. A tree that creates beauty within to create beautiful strong fruits that nourish the people who live on those lands, The exterior of these tress area bleak and grey, thin and frail. These leaves, given to the person you wish, will wither them into an age beyond their years. To the world they will look frail and old, gaunt and sickly. Inside they will be the same but outside never again." The mystic said.
"How long does it last?" Claudia asked.
"The spell can only be broken if the one she loves touches her bare skin. Any exposed skin can reverse the withering and aging. It is meant to teach those of vanity that only the inside matters." Weyxi said grazing Claudia's hand with his finger tips.
"Thank you." Claudia said as she placed the small bag of leaves into her pocket.
"Claudia...remember. They must never touch again. If they do, everything will return to normal, and you may lose what you have now." Weyxi warned.
Claudia understood, and had no intention of Alexandra and Christopher ever touching or seeing each other ever again once she drank the tea with the mystic's red leaves.
Claudia gathered her things and quickly left Li Weyxi's shop to find Alexandra and hopefully share a cup of tea with her. A cup of tea Alexandra would never forget.
****
As dusk turned into the night, Maggie Evans stepped her way into Windcliff Sanitarium and opened the door. She walked herself to the nurses station and shocked the three overweight nurses with her return. To Maggie this wasn't a surrender. Windcliff was the only place she felt safe from so much torment in her life; from her past.
Maggie didn't hear any sounds. She stood there strong and silent and allowed the movements of the world to spin around her. Two of the nurses came up to her and checked her over for possible injuries, the other frantically called Dr. Grayson who was in her office.
Joanna quickly came out to see if it was true. To her delight, it was.
"Welcome back Rose. We're so glad you're back." Joanna said calling Maggie by the name Rose. "We were so worried about you." She added with a faux bedside manner.
"Now, Mrs. Glassburg, why don't you sit down here in this wheelchair and let Sebastian take you back into your room." One of the nurses with a Boston accent said as Maggie sat down.
"I thought she was a goner." Another nurse said in a lowered voice so Maggie wouldn't hear.
"Tell me about it! That Collins is wicked crazy, I thought we'd get her back in a body bag before this!" Another not so subtle nurse said in another not so lowered tone of voice.
A third nurse replaced Maggie's hospital ID wrist band with the name Rose Glassburg in thick black print leaving Sebastian to wheel Maggie in her secret identity quietly down the hall back to her room. Maggie never once said a word.
"Mrs. Glassburg we are so glad you're back, we were worried David Collins had hurt you. You know he's very dangerous. That's why he was kept in that room all these years. You remember the outburst when David tried escape the first time, right? Of course you do. Poor Maggie Evans died that night. What a horrible night that was."
Indeed it was a horrible night the night when "Maggie Evans" died, except it wasn't Maggie Evans. The truth was, the very first time David tried to escape Windcliff was in the first few years he was there. The night was stormy and the rain pounded up on the windows like fists attempting to thrust their way through glass doors. Maggie remembered it well and her mind went straight there when Sebastian reminded her.
**WINDCLIFF SANITARIUM NOVEMBER, 1986***
The noise of the storm was so loud in the hospital wreck room it was making the patients rowdy and anxious. Maggie had already been in the hospital for several years working on her mental health due to the trauma she had faced at Barnabas' hands and she had never noticed David until that night.
That night in the wreck room during the storm, the thunder clapped loud and a bright light lit the room in several quick bright flashes awakening David from a strange medically induced numbness. His eyes and mind suddenly became clear and he knew where he was; a hospital against his will.
From the corner, Maggie Evans saw him stand up and she instantly recognized him, but in a terrified confusion thought that he had come to take her back to Collinwood. Instead of running to him she coward in the corner and watched him fight with several of the orderlies, each of them attempting to prick him with needles filled with more sedative, but failing.
Eventually David broke free from the several orderlies and ran down the hall bursting through a metal door where a mute patient - a woman around Maggie's age - was coming in on the other side. David pushed it open, plowing through like a bull in a china shop. The woman, frail and weak from her own years of torment at Windcliff, immediately fell backwards a few steps and tumbled into a large window that looked out into steep garden area.
The glass shattered, patients screamed and covered their ears. The thunder and broken glass piercing its way into the wreck room like a jumbo jet tearing through the building. Maggie watched the woman fall back and out of the window hitting her head on the hard ground, breaking her ribs, and snapping her neck. The woman died instantly.
But with that tragedy came an idea that Maggie knew would work due to the lack luster care they all received at the hospital. Maggie's ultimate escape plan.
Maggie sneaked through the chaotic wreck room and saw that all the on duty orderlies were pre-occupied and fighting with David to notice her at the end of the hall. This negligence left an open moment for Maggie to quickly make her getaway.
Maggie carefully stepped out of the broken window and slowly got her self down to the small garden embankment where the woman's body lay broken and contorted. In a swift, quick motion, as if she had been planning it for months, Maggie reached down and grabbed the woman's hand and switched ID bracelets with her, glancing one more time at the woman who now was Maggie Evans. Dead and alone.
Almost like a cat, sprinting to a higher place, Maggie dashed back into the hospital before ever being detected.
The hospital's care and interest in Maggie or Rose Glassburg was minuscule at best. No one ever even noticed. Dr. Grayson had always been much more interested in the events that David Collins brought to her life then any one else.
The scandal of a patient dying in the manner that she had would have shut down Windcliff Sanitarium due to any amount of Mal-Practice suits and would have exposed Joanna Grayson for the neglectful mental health professional that she was. "Maggie's" death would be fied as a suicide, and remain well guarded secret.
"Whatever happens, whom ever asks, this woman took her own life. Is that understood? Make sure you get everyone to sign on and be on board with this Sebastian." Joanna requested as looked out of the broken window as two orderlies carried the dead body of "Maggie Evans" back into the Asylum.
Later, Joanna signed the final, forged, death notice for the official papers with Maggie's name on the top and filed them away.
"Who do we call? We can't just not tell her family that she died." Sebastian said as Joanna handed him Maggie's file.
"She supposedly had ties to the Collins family. I'll have my contact at Collinwood notify who ever needs to know. Other than that we don't have to tell anyone else." Joanna said coldly as she closed the drawer of her filing cabinet.
On that day in 1986, Maggie Evans died, and Rose Glassburg lived. A perfect disguise, one that the real Maggie hoped would keep her safe from Barnabas and all her past demons...demons that haunted her every single day.
