Series 5/Chapter 5: FLASHES OF THE PAST

A projector flashed images of viscous crime scene photos from the mid 1960s inside a small smokey screening room at a private residence hidden behind a thick layer fog on a beach just outside of Collinsport. The videos were of people and animals mutilated by an unknown assailant and as the projector flicked through the photos quicker and quicker they became more violent the next. There were photos of humans, drained of their blood, and their bodies carefully placed on the floors of their rooms, left their to bleed out whatever was left in them with two tiny puncture wounds on their necks.

The film, taken illegally from the Collinsport Police Department cold case files, was being shown to a man taken against his will. He was tied to a chair with his eyes forcefully held open by tiny mettle hands while Sebastian maintained the moisture of his eyes with eye drops and read his brain activity to Victoria who sat patiently in the corner of the room as the video clip continued to play on a loop for the man.

The man had been in Vickie and Sebastian custody since he was found unconscious by a few of  The Organization's goons after an accident he had. Vickie was set on making this man in the chair the final nail in the  Collins family coffin.

The man twisted and turned in the chair and tried with all his might to move his face away from the horrible photos, for the longer he looked at them, the more real they became. It was almost as if he could smell the rooms the bodies were in. His imagination and mind were starting to control him.

"His vitals are beginning to show sines of breaking, Miss Winters. Shall we continue?" Sebastian asked as he looked at the clock. 2 hours had past.

Victoria stood up and walked over to the man they were testing, he looked up at her and tried to speak but was unable to. All he could do was cry. Tears of despair ran down his face and pooled at the base of his neck and inside the grooves of his clavicle bone.

Victoria stroked the man's cheeks. Then they looked directly into each other's eyes:
 "No. Twenty more minutes." Victoria said rigidly.

Sebastian, started to feel a tad uncomfortable with this, but swallowed his thoughts and grabbed a different reel of film while the man huffed and puffed. His eyes still wide open. The new film, wouldn't be a relief, if anything the new photos were even more vial. All setting the stage to create a state of mind in the man to understand his mission and his enemy: The prince of the un-dead, the Vampire known as Barnabas Collins.

The photos had all been unsolved crimes within the city of Collinwood from the mid 1960's that the police had failed to link to Barnabas. But Victoria knew the truth. She knew Barnabas' kind and now that "The Organization" had lost Joanna, Kimberly and even David in their mission this was the only way; creating a new weapon to destroy Barnabas and his family. Wiping them clean from the world.

Victoria sat back down and watched as Sebastian continued the videos for the man in the chair.

"Whats the end game for him?" Sebastian asked.

"This is our best weapon against everything "The Organization" has taught us. The Collins will be taken care of, and once they are, we'll dispose of him too. Collateral damage Sebastian." Victoria said coldly as she gathered her things and began to leave the room.

"Is this really what you want?" Sebastian asked.

"There's only one way our friend here can learn and know what he's up against. He has to see for himself the chaos and brutality that can happen with those of Barnabas' kind floating around us. There is no other way Sebastian." Victoria said with her voice slightly breaking.

"So brain-swashing..." Sebastian said as he shook his head in disbelief. "Is this what you plan on doing with Kat's baby once it's born? Because I can't allow that. Kat's baby is my family too." He added.

"Don't worry about that now. The  baby is innocent. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Vickie said staring down Sebastian in his moment of outburst as she saw a small crack in  his allegiance to her.

Victoria's cold demeanor came from years and years of terror brought on by Barnabas and his family, however indirectly they were responsible for all the events that happened to her in her past. She felt in her heart that this was the only way she could overcome all the pain and sorrow she felt as an orphaned child due to, what she was coerced int believing by the men who visited her all those years ago that the family had everything to do with her real parents' death.

After a short while, the man's groans became too much. Vickie gracefully got up and walked over to the him in the chair on her way out of the room and looked again into his watery eyes. Suddenly a moment of regret washed over her as he tearfully looked away from the videos of the murder scenes./ Was she just as bad as those she believed killed her parents? The flashes on the screen burned bright on Vickie's beautiful face...had it really come to this? She thought.

The man looked at Victoria from his tortuous chair hoping she'd stop what he was seeing. But it was no use. Victoria quickly turned away and left Sebastian to his job.

As she closed the door behind her, all the grief and stress boiled over and she broke down. 50 years of secrets, lies, mystery and misery had taken it's toll on the new leader of "the Organization". Victoria dropped her things to the floor and collapsed in a heap of tears on to a leathery green sofa from the 70s. It was all too much...but it was her destiny, she could not stop now.

****

Strolling along the foggy docks in Collinsport, Christopher and Alexandra felt as if they had a new lease on life now that the curse placed on Alex was broken. In Addition, Barnabas' daughter, the witch Claudia who had tormented the couple for so long, had left town and with her departure they could finally be together again. It was a feeling of euphoria and re-connection. They were back where they started. In love and stronger than ever.

They walked along the docks cuddled in each other's arms, listening to ship's horns blaring in the fog making their way through the soupy air; most of them Collins Fishing fleet out on their nightly path into the big blue unknown as they had for generations before them.

Alex could not believe how happy she felt. It was a feeling she had missed. There had been nothing but sadness and danger lurking around every corner since  the day she arrived in Collinsport with her mother Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne.

"I'm so glad your mom is back at home getting better after that awful crash. It's where she belongs." Chris said making small talk as they walked.

"Me too. I just with Caleb was here too. I miss him every day. We all do. But as time passes hopefully things will get better with out him, you know? And he has a new baby on the way! It's like I can actually feel that things are finally changing. Can't you?" Alex asked with her returned optimism.

"Well...." Chris said pausing.

"What is it?" Alex wondered as she stopped their stroll noting his reaction.

"...everything is back to normal until there's another full moon and I transition again. Then what? I don't know if I'll be able to control myself once it happens." Chris answered.

"Kimberly hasn't been able to create another cure?" Alex asked.

"No. And I don't know if I should keep pushing her. She's so overwhelmed right now with David coming home, Carolyn's getting better and most of all my brother dying. It's just one more thing you know?" Chris explained.

Alexandra could tell Christopher was deeply worried, and he had reason to be. Every time there had been a full moon, Chris' transition into the werewolf his mother Kimberly created through various genetic alteration when Chris was  baby had left people dead. There was no controlling him when he was in that state. And Alex knew it, and her guilt for destroying the last of the antidotes in a jealous rage didn't help her cause either.

"You still have access to your father's house don't you?" Alex asked curiously.

"Yeah I do, he left it to me in his Will. I haven't decided what to do with it yet. It's too hard to let that house go." Chris answered.

"Perfect. Why don't we go there and search as hard as we can for a any kind of clues for a serum to cure you. There's got to be something there Chris. We have to find it!" Alex said with a smile.

Christopher pulled out his cell phone and opened the calendar app and scrolled through the dates.

"What are looking for?" Alex asked looking down at his phone.

"The next full moon." he said. "There....we have four more days to find my mother's notes and the antidote to cure me before the moon is full again. If you really think we can pull this off, I say we do it." he added.

Alex nodded in agreement and they kissed a sweet kiss, like they hadn't ever kissed before. The twinkling lights from the village around them was like stars in the sky illuminating them in a romantic light like never before. Alex and Christopher were officially back together. And together they would find a cure for him. But it all had to be before the next full moon.

"Let's go there now. It's still early in the evening." Chris said, to an agreeing Alex.

As Chris pulled out his car keys and ran off to pull his car around, Alex stayed on the dock. She was smiling ear to ear. Her life was back to normal. She no longer had to worry about the powers she had inadvertently absorbed from Claudia, the aging curse was broken, her mother was healing nicely from the plane crash and her relationship with Christopher was back on track.

She sighed, letting in a huge gulp of salty Collinsport sea air, that filled her lungs and allowed the air to flow through her whole body. Her life force had returned.

She opened her eyes and looked out on to the splashing bay in front of her that looked like a shimmering black diamond in the night then looked down at her hands when she felt a strange sensation. They were changing. Changing rapidly from old to young then old to young again.

Startled she looked at her reflection in the water darken by the night sky and it was doing the same. Her face and hair was switching from the old lady she was turned into then back to her youthful self again in quick split second flashes. Then...it stopped. She was back to her youthful self.

She stood there for a second paralyzed with fear. What had just happened. Was the aging curse not actually broken? Before she could think Chris came up from behind.

"Hey, I brought the car around...you ok?" Chris asked noticing Alex's mood seemed a little strained.

"Fine! Yeah! I'm ready." She said avoiding the subject of what she just in the water.

Alex started to walk to the awaiting car, she looked back at the bay behind her where she saw her reflection switch back and forth from the real her and the older her...she flashed a nervous smile to Chris as they both got in to his car then drove off. Alex never once mentioned what she saw.

****

The mood at Collinwood was a somber one. Carolyn and Kimberly, still in a gloom after Caleb's memorial service, sat in the main drawing room; Carolyn still in her wheel chair recovering from the accident that battered her body, and took Caleb's life. The two women had always had a strained relationship at best, but Caleb's death brought them a tiny bit closer. After all Kim was his mother, but Carolyn raised him.

David entered the room, still a  bit frazzled by his confrontation at the cemetery with Kim. Kim too, was still shaken by his overt reaction. Her nerves as he entered were on edge.

Carolyn, noticing the tension between the two ex's, welcomed David in and asked him to sit down and have a drink with them to hopefully quash the matter between them.

"We're going over stories of Caleb when he was little." Carolyn said beaming from her wheel chair about her late young cousin to David.

"What does Kim know about Caleb when he was young? She was off with her lover running around joining this organization or cult or something. She was definitely not being a mother." David said coldly.

"David!" Carolyn exclaimed, her attempts at peace suddenly vanishing.

"No. It's ok. He's venting out his anger. Caleb's gone now and it's painful. He probably blames me, and maybe in some capacity I did have something to do with his death. I don't know! But none of that changes the fact that I loved our son David, I did with all my heart." Kimberly responded to both Carolyn's exclamation and David's outburst.

"Enough you two.: Carolyn announced silencing them both. "This isn't the time. We all loved Caleb very much and in our heart's he will never be gone. In fact, now that Kat is having his child, he'll live on through that baby, we should be feeling grateful and joy for that." Carolyn pointed out.

David, felt a twinge of guilt for his outburst and sat down next to Carolyn. His whole demeanor was filled with anxiety and stress and it was written all over his face, but the realty was it had very little to do with Caleb's death and everything to do with what Barnabas had told him just the night before about Victoria Winters returning to Collinsport and planning on destroying the family with the heavy hand of "The Organization".

"Carolyn I need to ask you something, but I want you to keep an open mind. It's something Barnabas told me last night." David said, surprising Kimberly.

"What did he say?" Carolyn asked as she took a deep breath preparing for the worst.

"The other night, Barnabas told me that Vickie was back. He said that she was apart of this organization that has had it out for our family for 50 years and she's returned to finish what she started." David explained. "I know it sounds insane, especially since we thought Vickie died years ago, but.....Carolyn, Barnabas was adamant."

Carolyn's face had confusion all over it. She shook her head in disbelief.

"None of that makes any sense. Vickie--" Carolyn said before David interrupted her.

"Died...I know. That's what I said. But Barnabas said he overheard it himself. Isn't that right Kim?" David said reeling in Kimberly's part in the whole scheme. "Tell Carolyn how you were also employed by this so called origination and only married me so that he could keep tabs on us for them." He continued.

Kimberly didn't say a word. All she could do was stand there and stare at Carolyn and David with tears bubbling up in her crystal blue eyes.

"Is this true?" Carolyn asked concerned.

"It is true. But that's besides the point  now, our new concern isn't Kimberly. It's whatever Victoria has planned for us. Kim, if you know anything. You have to tell us. Please." David said now in a concerned panicked voice.

"Well, no wait. If Kim was involved somehow, then I would hope she would tell us. Kimberly...what's going on?" Carolyn asked wheeling herself over to Kimberly who was pouring herself a drink.

"I don't know the whole truth, so I can't speak about what Victoria Winter's true plans are. I don't know even know she's come back to Collinsport. It is true that I was used by this organization to keep tabs on your family by marrying David all those years ago, but that's all over Carolyn. I promise you. I've left all that in the past. I swear." Kimberly responded as she took a sip of her brandy.

"But why? What do they want wish us?" David asked.

"I ....I don't know. I don't remember everything." Kimberly said sounding overwhelmed.

"That doesn't add up Kim." David said frustrated with Kim's memory loss.

"It's true David, they hired me, but their reasons and interest in your family, at the time, was kept confidential." Kim responded.

"But you still did it!" David explainmed turning away from Kim and towards the open window that allowed the cool night air in.

Kimberly was starting to feel cornered. She took another sip of her brandy and looked up over the fireplace at the painting of Barnabas Collins: the myth. The legend. He was the real reason "The Organization" was so interested in the family, the real reason they had done so many things to infiltrate the family dating all the way back to the late 1800s; but most notably when Victoria Winters came to Collinwood---at least that is what Kimberly had been told, and what had been wiped clean from her memory.

"David, Just calm down. Everyone calm down. Kimberly why don't you go upstairs and rest. It's been a long day for all us. This isn't the way we should be spending the evening of Caleb's memorial." Carolyn said patting Kim on the hand.

Kimberly agreed and wiped her eyes. She placed her glass of brandy on a table and collected her things and made her way up the main staircase and into the hallway to her room. As she walked, she passed a large ornate mirror. In her peripheral vision she thought she saw another person.

She quickly turned but there was no one behind her in the dark hallway. She slowly turned back around and there in the mirror was her sister Joanna again, still covered in her own blood, still wounded by Barnabas' viscous bite, and still placing her finger up to her lips.

"Shhhhh. Keep the secret." She whispered.

Kimberly blinked hoping it was all a dream but it wasn't. Joanna still glared at her in bloody clothes from beyond the glass.

"What do you want from me?" Kim whispered at the reflection. "I won't tell anyone." She added

Joanna's eyes turned to drops of red blood and the image leapt from the mirror, her grey cold hand slowly coming out of the mirror and barley grabbing at Kim's hair.

Startled at the malevolence in Joanna's eyes, Kim dashed down the hall to her office and locked herself in. It was as if the sins of her past were beginning to manifest themselves into ghosts, haunting her from the other side. She could only think this was some kind of punishment.


Back in the drawing room, Carolyn rolled her wheel chair back to where she was before, nearest the fireplace. She took a deep breath.

"There's so much more to this than you actually know David." Carolyn said.

"What do you mean?" David asked sitting back down next to his cousin.

"I don't know if Vickie is back or not. I don't know if what Barnabas told you is true or not. What I do know is that stranger things have happened here, and I've learned not to doubt things before I see them. That's something every Collins should have engraved in their psyche." Carolyn explained.

"But you know she's lying right? She has to know more than what she's telling us." David asked.

"Like said, there's always more than meets the eye. And with that, we also have to point out that whatever Barnabas told you, he probably thought was true. He may be a lot of things, but he's never been someone to create a situation out of thin air." Carolyn pointed out.

"So what do we do? Barnabas came to me basically asking for help to find Vickie and stop her before she did anything to any of us. Should we go along with it?" David asked his older cousin Carolyn.

"I don't know exactly what Vickie's motives are working with this organization against us, especially because..." Carolyn said pausing.

"...because what?" David asked.

"If Vickie did fake her death, and she was working here as your governess under false pretenses, it might have more to do with the fact that she was in search of something for much more than just information on her employers." Carolyn said cryptically.

"She was here searching for answers to questions about her family. I remember. But I also rememebr she didn't find anything." David concluded..

Carolyn wheeled her wheelchair over to a table that had a small chest underneath it. The chest, no larger then a bread box, carried inside of it what Carolyn thought was the real motive of Vickie's plot against the Collins. A plot that was two fold: One for the organization and one for Vickie.

Carolyn pulled a necklace from around her neck that had a small silver key dangling from it. She placed the key inside the box's lock and turned it. Inside were papers in a manila folder just like the one Vickie was given before moving to Collinwood and photos of a baby girl that she then handed to David.

"I believe this is her motive. This is her reason for spying on us 50 years ago. They paid  her and she could get close to her real family. David, that baby girl is my mother's oldest daughter. That baby girl, is Victoria Winters."

Series 5/Chapter 4: MOURNING IN COLLINSPORT

The late morning brought a slow drizzle to the green pastures that surrounded the grounds of the great Collinwood mansion. Inside, a family beginning their day of mourning; a day of grief and goodbye to one of their own. It was the day of Caleb's memorial, a day that was never meant to come the way it had.

Kat was in the bedroom she shared with Caleb. She looked at herself in the mirror. The elegant black dress she chose for the service clung to her body tightly, tighter then she had expected. Her pregnant stomach was starting to show, and this surprised her. She was only a little over 4 weeks along, yet she was showing like she was in the middle of her fourth month.

She turned to the side and ran her hand over her baby bump smoothing out the dress that curled up at the top of her stomach. Suddenly she felt a little kick from inside her womb. But that was impossible! There could be no way her baby was already kicking. As she smoothed out another wrinkle in her dress with her hand she stopped hand over the baby bump to see if she could feel it again...this time, nothing. Kat closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Crazy." She thought, thinking the stress of the day was getting to her.

"You decent?" A voice said from the door way.

Kat turned to the sound of the voiced, it was her partner from the police department Loomis McGovern.

"Loo!" Kat said, jumping over to give him a hug. "Thank you for coming." She added.

"I'm so sorry Kat, I wish--I'm just so sorry about everything." Loomis said sadly.

"Thank you. I'm just glad you're here. I really appreciate it." Kat replied.

"Have you thought about what you're going to do after?" Loomis asked.

"After?" Kat answered with her own question as she sat in side chair rubbing her stomach.

"After today. You're not staying here, are you?" Loomis asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Kat asked again.

"Kat, you can't be serious. You and your baby aren't really safe here. Everything that's happened, everything from years go...I mean...when Caleb was here with you I felt more comfortable, but now you're alone with a baby. Things are different." Loomis explained.

"This is Caleb's home Loomis, I would never leave. Not now at least. Why would you think it wasn't safe here?" Kat asked, neglecting the past events and also the fact Loomis had brought up the sorted past of the Collins family before.

"You know all I want is the best for you, right?" Loomis said sitting down next to Kat on her bed.

Kat nodded her head yes.

"And you know we're more then just partners at work right? We're like family." Loomis continued.

"I'm  not going to leave Loo. The Collins family has been really good to me, I don't see what the problem is!" Kat said standing up and heading to jewelry box to put on her earrings.

"Remember all those things I read about...all those weird situations that happened here for years and years. That's what I'm afraid of. Having you here with a new baby, god knows what could happen." Loomis lamented.

"What exactly do you think is going to happen Loomis? This family is very tight knit, and they loved Caleb, and they'll love his baby. Nothing will happen to me. Trust me." Kat said walking over to Loomis and putting her hand on his shoulder.

"I know I'm not going to persuade you, I've never been good at changing your mind, so I guess on days you're not at work, you won't mind if I just keep tabs on you here until I feel comfortable enough to just let it go." Loomis stated.

"If you really want to drive all the way up here for that, I won't stop you." She smiled. "Caleb would really appreciate how you're looking out for me, you know? I think he would really love that." She added now getting emotional.

"You have a lot of people looking out for you. Me, the Collins family apparently. Your brother!" Loomis said.

Kat took a moment to wipe her eyes. The tears had started to slowly tear away at the make up she put on. She carefully cleaned up her mascara and sniffled a bit before answering.

"Not my brother." She said softly, with a sniffle. 

"No? Why not?" Loomis asked.

Earlier in the week Kat and her brother Sebastian had a small talk about his secret keeping. The fact that he never told her he was working at Windcliff Sanitarium while David was locked away bothered her. They had always been so close, and this entire time he had been keeping something away from her, something that actually involved her. David was Caleb's father, and Sebastian knew the family ever since she and Caleb dated back in High School. The secret keeping was something Kat pushed aside at first, but in the coming days had started to eat at her.

"I just feel like there's something going on with him right now. I don't know if I can actually count on him." She said, side-stepping the family drama.

"Well you can count on me, alright? No matter what!" Loomis said walking over and hugging her.

As they embraced, Kat began to feel her anxiety over the memorial service start to fade. Loomis was like a big brother to her and great comfort.

As the storms continued to drop more and more rain outside, a sudden thunderclap broke the friendly embrace, and with it another jolt from inside Kat's womb. Feeling the push from within, Loomis yelled and jumped back. He looked at Kat who was standing there in shock at his bizarre out burst not knowing he felt it too.

"Loomis what is it?" She said walking over to him now cornered by the door.

"Your stomach....the baby. I felt it kick. But----How? You just found out you were pregnant?!" Loomis said startled at what he felt.

Kat didn't know what to say, she knew she felt a kick earlier too, but wasn't sure if it was what she thought it was. Now, if Loomis felt it too, she had confirmation.

"I might be further along then I thought I was. With everything going on I don't think I calculated correctly." Kat answered hoping Loomis would leave it at that.

Kat turned and looked into a full length mirror and slowly caressed her stomach, she smiled as she started to now feel the baby move around at a shockingly early stage.

"I guess Collins babies are just more active then others." She said staring deep into the mirror at her reflection.

Loomis for his part, stared too, silently. He was paralyzed with shock.

****

The rain clouds began to dissipate and dissolve into the distance over the Atlantic, finally allowing for the family and a few random friends to join together at the Collins family plots at Eagle Hill Cemetery.

Carolyn, who had just returned that morning from a Boston hospital was still nursing injuries from the airplane crash that took Caleb's life, was brought by wheelchair to the front of the gathering.

Alexandra, dressed in a dark dress, and large black hat sat next to her mother and held her hand tightly. Alex had just been through a turbulent moment of her life herself, living through a terrible curse placed on her by Claudia. Alex's emotions where all over the place, she just wanted things to get back to normal, and seeing her mother in the state she was in and knowing her closest relative Caleb was gone forever, was tearing her apart. She clung to her mother like a small child would.

"Its ok." Carolyn whispered as Alex wiped away tears from under her dark glasses.

David and Kimberly sat stoically at the end of a row of seats, Christopher directly behind them.

Kat slowly walked up the wet path to the memorial site. Everyone waited on her. As she made her way up, she could feel the blades of wet cemetery grass brush up against her exposed ankles, the lasting evidence of the storm that had just blown through.

Loomis helped her sit next to the family, while Sebastian quietly sat behind his sister.

Soon other friends came in and took their seats, and a priest calmly made his way to the front.

Father Joseph Helsing, a 90 year old white haired man with tiny blue eyes and happy grin, was a very well known priest in Collinwood. He had been at the perish of St. John for over 70 years, and with all those years and history under his belt, he was no stranger to the mysterious family that lived on the Collinwood land. They kept their distance, and he kept his. But Carolyn specifically asked for Father Joseph. Kimberly and David agreed on the choice.

Being the kind priest he was, Father Joseph obliged the grieving Collins family no matter his hesitation.

"In the name of the father, son and holy spirit." Father Joseph said in his old shaky voice as the audience followed. "We are gathered here today to remember our brother Caleb who left this earth too soon. He....." The priest said before pausing and looking down the row of family members as if he were searching for someone specific.

"Father?" Carolyn whispered seeing the priest freeze mid speech.

"Yes!....uh... we are gathered here today to remember our brother Caleb who left this earth too soon. Life is and should always been lived to its fullest especially if we are in the prime of life like Caleb was." Father Joseph said as he continued to look down the row of Collins family members peculiarly. The local folklore on the family had never been lost on him throughout the years, but there was something more to his stare.

As Father Joseph lead the crowd in a quick prayer, the waves over the cliff side sent a wet spray over the mourners and one by one Caleb's friends came up to say good things about him. There were tears, there were laughs and there were many memories shared through out the hour long service.

Soon each one came to say goodbye and their condolences to the family, shaking hands, hugging and sharing tears. It was a quiet and peaceful movement the Collins family rarely shared with outsiders.

Seeing an out, Father Joseph made quick retreated back to his parish.

Sebastian came over to Kat who was still sitting in her chair staring off into the distance with a glazed off look, her eyes puffy and full from crying.

"You ok sis?" Sebastian said patting her back.

"What? Oh! Yeah. I'm ok. Just thinking." Kat said never breaking stare into the foreground.

"That baby is getting big huh! Do you know your due date?" Sebastian asked carefully digging out information for Victoria who's interest in the baby depended on the date of it's birth.

"No, actually, I've gotta go see a doctor soon. Listen, Bash, thank you for coming. I think Carolyn said she was having some refreshments for the family back at Collinwood, please come." Kat said cutting her conversation short with Sebastian as she got up and went off with Loomis who looked over at Sebastian with a suspicious eye.

They then joined Carolyn, Chris and Alex heading back to Collinwood.

As Kimberly got into her own car to head back to the main house, David grabbed her arm pulling her towards him.

"David!" She yelled almost falling over in the gravel.

"I want you to tell me everything you know about "The Organization", and I want it all to be the truth. No lies. Do you hear me Kimberly?" David said sternly his frustration over his ex-wife's involvement in so many terrible things in his past was boiling over.

Kim took a deep breath, looking around fearing someone was listening, but all she could see was a strange imagine hidden in the shade of some trees of the cemetery.  It was her sister Joanna's spirit still keeping watch over Kimberly. Joanna was covered in her own blood, and looked forlorn just staring at Kimberly from across the green grass.

Kim was swore secrecy to the Organization and to Vickie. Even in death Joanna came to make sure Kim hept her promise to Vickie and rest of the organization even though she had officially defected.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Kim said starting to shake at the sight of her dead sister in the foreground.

"Barnabas told me everything. He told me about Joanna, he told me about Vickie, and he told me why I was taken to Windcliff all those years ago, he told me everything." David said hoping that would jog Kim's memory.

Unfortunately for David Kim was telling somewhat of a true story. She truly wasn't sure about events in her life in the past few weeks. The night Barnabas went searching for Maggie Evans at the Sanitarium where he killed Joanna he also wiped Kim's memory clean. Kim's only memories of working for The Organization were foggy at best.

Kim, still seeing Joanna lurking under the shady willows with her bloody index finger up to her lips once more, kept her composure as best she could but she knew her ex-husband David wouldn't let it go.

"I can honestly tell you, I don't remember everything." Kim said as David tightened his grasp of her arm and scoffed with disbelief. "It's true, I swear David. I don't know whats happened to me, but I really have no memory of anything involving you at Windcliff." she added in a hushed tone.

"It would't be like you to tell the truth if you did remember, so this is pointless." David lamented as he let Kimberly out of his grasp. "You know, after everything that's happened with our kid I hope you've finally learned your lesson. This isn't a game anymore. So listen to me, and listen to me well, you're only still living at Collinwood because Caleb was your son too so consider yourself lucky and on notice. I'm watching you Kimberly." David warned.

"I swear, David, I had nothing to do---" She said as David interrupted.

"I know you did. Barnabas wouldn't have gone to all the trouble he did to tell me about everything if it wasn't for a reason. You're out of this organization now...fine, but if you have any contact with any of them at all...you tell them that I'm back and so is Barnabas. They'll have a hell of a hard time pulling the wool over our eyes again. This time, its we wont be taken so easily." David said as he left Kim standing in the cemetery parking lot shaken and confused as Sebastian carefully watched it all unfold.

Kim only wanted to get back into the good graces of the Collins family, the truth was, she was still in love with David...she loved him with all heart and now that Caleb was gone, that love of family and togetherness was inside her and it was stronger then ever.

Kim's mind since Barnabas' memory swipe was scattered and confused at best, but there was one last dark secret that lay inside Kim's mind, one she knew could uproot her whole life should anyone discover it. One that spirit of Kim's late sister, the diabolical Dr. Joanna Grayson wanted to make sure stayed hidden even from beyond the grave.

****

In a darkened office hidden somewhere within the small sea side town of Collinsport, Victoria Winters pored over old photos, old papers and old memories of her past, from her childhood in a New York orphanage and then her days as a governess for David Collins when he was just a little boy 50 years ago. Being back in Collinsport was certainly stirring a lot of emotional energy. Especially of the day that changed her life. The day the Origination came to the Orphanage to see her.

When she was only 6 years old, checks came into the orphanage in her name. For decades she believed it was from her biological parents. For decades she believed that perhaps someone out there knew where she was and was trying to help her along. But it wasn't until 1966, when Vicky was in her mid 20s,

The Organization came to see her and told her they were her benefactors, and that they had a very important job for her to do; a job that need that required the utmost secrecy. And with that new job, they were going to make it so that she wouldn't have to live in the orphanage any longer. They were going to change her life forever. The place she was to go to was called Collinsport, MN and the wealthy East Coast family she would be surveying for them, was not your typical family.

**HAMMOND FOUNDLING HOME, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 1966**

A young Victoria sat in the mess room with the men in suits. They were dashing and clean cut and had fresh hair cuts. She could smell the expensive cologne on their skin, it was enticing and every word that came out of their mouths was exciting and a bit strange. But they had promises, they had something she was never aware she could have before: A future.

"We'll need you to be very discrete. This is a job that we wouldn't just ask any young woman. At time it could be dangerous." A man with tiny blue eyes The Organization said to a gobsmacked Vicky.

"What is it about this family...why are you so interested in them?" Vicky shyly asked.

The men looked at each other then, one of the men, heavier set, bald but strikingly handsome took his own seat and sighed: "Vicky do you believe in the supernatural? Do you believe in things that can't exactly be explained by what you see and what you hear?" He asked. 

"Like ghosts?" Vicky asked again.

"Yes, like ghosts and spirits...and other things. We believe this family has, some how, for decades really, been hiding a very deep and dark secret. A connection to something other worldly. And we believe they carry this familial connection in their blood. Its something they've inherited. We believe this family, the Collins, are hiding a dangerous vampire." The bald man said point blank.

At first, Victoria smiled, she thought it was all a joke. She looked around and even giggled a little. How could three grown men come to her with such none sense of vampires and secrets. It was all like something out of Mary Shelley novel. It couldn't be real.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. A Vampire?" Vicky said with another laugh.

"It's true Miss Winters. We believe they've had something like that hidden for centuries. We're unsure if the current family members know the truth, which is why we need you. The lady of the house, Mrs. Collins-Stoddard, is currently searching for a governess for her young nephew. His widowed father is often off working in the family business and she needs someone to look after the boy. What we're proposing is that our people will send you a letter posing as Mrs. Collins-Stoddard specifically requesting your assistance. Once you get the job, you'll be our informant on the family; reporting back to us all you see, hear and know. You must keep that you know the truth away from your headmistress Mrs. Hopewell. Any leaks could cause irreversible damage." The man with tiny blue eyes said.

"This is an amazing opportunity Miss Winters. As our informant in the house we could find this being and make sure it never ever hurts a living soul. Ever." A third man said who had been quiet the whole time.

"But why me?" Vicky asked now noting the men were quiet serious.

Them men looked at each other, one of them men pulled out another manila envelope marked with Vicky's name on it and slid it across the table. 

"Open it." the first man said.

Vicky opened the envelope and pulled out papers and carefully read them over. Their contents shocked her to her core.

"This ....this can't be true!" Vickie said looking down at the paperwork.

"We believe it is." The bald man responded.

"I can't do this! I just can't! You're asking me to risk my life and do things that you don't even know are accurate? You're asking me to..." Vickie responded before she was interrupted by the bald man again.

"We're asking you to take charge of this investigation in a very important role. This is what made you an orphan, Miss Winters. This is what killed your parents." The man said pulling out a photo of an old painting of man with a stoic expression in a black coat, a cane with the head of a horse on the end and a black ring.

**COLLINSPORT, PRESENT TIME, VICKY'S SECRET OFFICE***

50 years later, Vicky kept this meeting a secret. She took the job and worked for The Organization gathering evidence for them for years through the harshest and most bizarre of circumstances. It turned out those men were right. The Collins family vampire was real and she knew him well.

Vicky then went into the small room where she was keeping the unconscious man she knew would be the key to finishing the job she started so many years ago. The same man that Sebastian found unconscious and brought in for treatments to become the knew weapon against the forces of evil, the forces The Organization believed were growing within the walls of Collinwood and in Kat's womb.

She looked down at the man and smiled. After 50 years, she would finally finish what she started and he was the key, if the Collins family had anything to do with the death of her parents like the papers she was given said, it was time they paid the price.

Vickie went back into her office and found the old manila envelope she was given many years ago by the men from "The Organization". She she scattered the papers on her desk. The Organization had successfully given Victoria her marching orders, they had successfully planted in her brain that the  real reason her parents were gone leaving her an orphan all her life was because the Collins family and the secret monster they were harboring was directly responsible.

She picked up one of the forms, her eyes moved across each and every word, then she pulled out the photo of the old painting...the painting of Barnabas.

"When we meet again....it will be for the last time." She whispered.

Series 5/Chapter 3: SHADOWS OF THE MIND

A cold air swirled around the main house of Collinwood, and the sleepy fog swept across the great lawn, kissing the tips of every blade of grass like humming birds searching for nectar.

Inside Barnabas wanted to keep a watchful eye on Kat Banning's ever growing womb. He knew the dangers that lurked around the news of this baby's life, especially knowing that Victoria Winters had plans on decimating the family from the inside out with Sebastian as her mole. Barnabas had to think and think fast. The very existence of his family depended on it, and now that Carolyn was in Boston recuperating from the plane crash, only David could be the one to help him. He had to find David, who hadn't yet encountered Barnabas since his return from Windcliff.

For his part, David was just arriving home from Boston late in the night, after visiting Carolyn. He was still in a rather dazed state of mind at the news that Barnabas had not died all those years ago, but was alive--again! It was the nightmare of his childhood all over again.

David closed the door to the main house behind him and walked slowly into the drawing room where a roaring fire had been set in the fireplace. He took a deep breath and grabbed himself a small brandy from the bar and sat on the velvety green sofas so carefully designed by his late aunt Elizabeth over 60 years go. The sofas, a neo-Victorian style, had become lumpy with age, but that is exactly how David remembered them. When he was a child, he'd always sit in the most random of places for comfort: tops of tables, kitchen counters, steps on the stairwells. The old furniture, he remembered, felt too "fancy" for him.

David sipped on his brandy and felt the warmth of the drink seep into his body relaxing him, calming his nerves. He went for another sip, only this time the cold ice touching his lips was all he got. He stood up, turned towards the bar and standing there pouring himself his own brandy was Barnabas Collins. Barnabas turned to David and reached for David's empty glass.

"Top you off young David?" Barnabas said with a small grin.

"Well think of the devil." David said handing his glass calmly to his other worldly cousin. "Thinking of you used to give me creeps, now all it does is make me thirsty.... for brandy." David said sarcastically.

"How is Carolyn?" Barnabas asked ignoring the slight insult, as he handed David his glass now half way full with the drink. "Kimberly told me about the accident. I am also very sorry to hear about Caleb. He was loyal to this family, you should be proud of that." Barnabas added.

"Thank you." David answered sadly. "Carolyn was resting well after I left, but it's going to be an up hill battle for her. But it's nothing she can't get around. Carolyn is beyond resilient. She's been through more then most of us. She's her mother's daughter." David answered.

"Yes! The women of this family have always been a true source of strength in the past." Barnabas said as they both moved to the sofas near the fire. "David what do you remember about your former governess....Victoria Winters?" Barnabas asked.

"What do you mean? I remember many things. I remember how good she was to me. How devoted she was to this family. And how you terrorized her for years." David said snickering.

"What if I were to tell you I've heard news of her." Barnabas probed.

"What do you mean? We're talking about the same woman that died years ago right?" David bantered back.

"There is danger David. The other night at Windcliff, I over heard Kimberly and her sister Dr. Joanna Grayson talking about her. They said she was the leader of an organization that had been placed here at Collinwood to destroy this family 50 years ago. It was her mission to, but she failed. Now she's back to finish what she started." Barnabas explained.

David looked at Barnabas like he had three heads. The fire in the fireplace burned a hot orange hue illuminating all that was around them in the drawing room. David could only shake his head in disbelief.

"I knew this would happen, I knew it the moment Carolyn told me you had returned that you'd start this all over again. The insanity never ends with you does it? Victoria? My governess from when I was like 9 years old? Vickie died Barnabas! She killed herself on Widow's Hill." David scoffed.

"NO! Listen to me, it was all a lie. This organization faked her death in order to regroup their plans. They're also responsible for your time away at Windlcliff....it was Kimberly...she was sent here to infiltrate us just like Victoria did 50 years ago. Kimberly allowed you to be taken. Don't you see?? This has all been an elaborate plot to take over this family and destroy us one by one!" Barnabas exclaimed.

"Is it now? And just what would this organization want with this family? Could it have anything to do with the absolutely insane amount of evil that --oh, I don't know-- YOU have brought here to this town and to these people?" David said feeling his frustrations boiling over.

Barnabas's eyes began to darken and he could feel his own anger start to rise as David pointed blame, and suddenly both were standing and in each other's faces, eye to eye. Collins to Collins.

"This is no time for divination, cousin, we are under attack and I need your help." Barnabas said in a slow growl trying to keep his calm.

"You're insane." David snapped back. "And even if you're right, wouldn't that be exactly what you deserve after all the hell you've put this entire family and town through for the last 5 decades? It would seem rather kismet, wouldn't you say?  Cousin?" David continued as he mocked Barnabas.

"Listen to me, and listen to me well....I was able to change Kimberly's allegiance last night through slow mind control, and trust me, from the things I saw deep in the trenches of her mind, this organization she once belonged to, and that Victoria now leads, is setting us up for disaster. We must put aside our past......we must band together. For Caleb. For his child." Barnabas said slowly backing away from the David who's frustration was bubbling up.

"What did you say?" David asked in a sudden change of tone.

"Detective Banning is with child. Caleb's baby. Your grandchild. And Victoria wants it." Barnabas said to a shocked David.

"What are you talking about? Why would Victoria want....forget it! This is crazy. This is exactly what you do and what you've always done. You create these fantastic stories and draw the family into danger and its always all for nothing. My son is dead, and if Kat is having his child I will protect them. Which is more than you can say about your own spawn." David said walking over for more brandy.

"My own?" Barnabas questioned as he watched David pour a drink. "Claudia? What's happened with Claudia?"

"It seems the poisoned apple doesn't fall far from the poisoned tree. And I use poisoned literally. She did some kind of, thing, I don't know, to Alexandra and locked her up in the far reaches of this house. For a good three or four days it seems. All to protect her fledgling relationship with Christopher. Go see for yourself, Alex is upstairs now, totally unrecognizable." David explained, with a crooked smile feeling the brandy seeping into his veins.

"But how? She gave up her powers." Barnabas asked confused.

"Yeah? Tell that to Alex's 90 year old face." David said with a slurry laugh that his brandy intake encouraged.

"Where is my daughter?" Barnabas asked sternly.

"She took off. She's gone. No one's seen her since. By the way....she's the reason Caleb and Carolyn got on that plane in that storm to London. It was her lie that did it. You must be so proud." David again said, now standing back up in Barnabas' face.

Barnabas felt the fervor inside of him, but knew that David was now feeling the rich brandy in his body all too well, and the taunting was only a product of it all. He calmly stepped back and grabbed his cane to leave.

"If Claudia has done what you say she has done, then I have no choice but to disown her, if she returns. Collins do not attack other family members. That I stand true to, David. I always have. I want you to think about what I have said here...I want you to know, that this is a family that now has to band together to make sure Victoria does not succeed in any thing she does. Think of Caleb's baby, it's future is at stake." Barnabas continued as the light from the fire place flickered and danced across his pale white face and in his dark eyes.

****

Under the cover of darkness, cloaked in fog and mist from the sea, Alexandra and Christopher made their way to the old house hoping Barnabas was not home. They needed to find Angelique's book of spells to, hopefully, reverse the aging Alexandra was experiencing due to the poisoning by Claudia.

They carefully walked up the main steps, Christopher, peered inside a window in the main parlor that had it's drapes slightly drawn. The house was dark and completely alone. They were in luck, they hadn't seen Barnabas in the main house and were able to go in a search.

Alex was still covered in her black veils, her body aching with the rapid aging processes she was enduring. Time was precious, Alex and Chris had no idea just how long Alex's body would continue to age without reaching its final point.

They made their way up the main staircase of the old house. It had been renovated again in the 1980s but Carolyn before she moved to London. The white carpeted steps seemed snow covered and elegant. The light pink walls recalled a rococo French style Barnabas loved so much, and of course, the halls smelled of sweet lavender. Josette DuPre's favorite sent.

"Where do you think it is?" Chris asked Alex as they both looked around upstairs hallway.

"Just follow me." Alex said confidently.

The two walked hand in hand, Alex's black veils twisting like the tail of a flag behind her and as the smell of lavender became more intense Alex began to slow her pace and finally came to a small room.

"It's in here." She said putting her hand on the door.

Christopher then grabbed the door knob and began to turn it.

"No, wait." Alex said. "The book is like a living creature. When I dealt with it before it knew how to control me, I need to make sure that I know what I'm getting into before I enter." She continued.

"How can you do that?" Chris asked.

Alex put her arm across his chest and pushed him back away from the door as she stepped forward the stretched both arms across and lifted her head towards the ceiling of the old house and began to chant a sort of announcement to the book of her presence:

"I enter here
For use of you
Unlock this curse
With powers true

I enter here
A place you dwell
For the keys to
Unlock this spell"

The door of the room slowly opened, a soft yellow glow came from inside the room. Alex and Chris slowly walked in, carefully inching their way towards the corner of the room where a large chest was sitting...a chest where the yellow light was beaming from.

Alex motioned for Chris to say back as she went over to the chest and opened it's lid. Inside, glowing like thousands of shiny pieces of gold, was Angelique's book of spells. The book where Angelique learned the curses for all her enemies from the past, the book where Angelique hid in the Collinwood attack and lured Alex into using it against Carolyn and Barnabas to trap them in a mirror she used as a portal to hell...a book so powerful it terrified the very witch who brought it to Collinsport in the first place.

Alex picked it up, the golden light bursting through its pages became stronger and stronger. Soon a wind blew blowing the book open in Alex's own hands, the pages flipping faster and faster and faster to where she needed it to go. Christopher looked on in wonder and fear.

As the air in the room became more and more dense, it also began to spin like a small tornado, twisting and turning and pulling the curtains and the  bed sheets like sails from a great pirate ship. Alex's veils too began to pull, they pulled so hard the flew from her head revealing her grotesque aged and disfigured face.

Her cheek bones where gnarled like twisted old knobs on a tree. Her blue eyes now milky white, sunken in and dark. Her hair grey and wispy, long and ravaged by the aging process. Chris couldn't believe what he was seeing, the beautiful blond blue eyed girl he had loved, was completely gone.

The energy from the book filled the room like it had a gravity of its own. The pages still glowing bright yellow, Alex closed her eyes and slowly ran her finger along the lines of Latin text and hoped those words would save her from curse's ultimate fate: death.

She then read aloud:

"Revertatur ad faciem, 

et non faciem, 

faciem tuam ego præscivi, 

puer faciem!!!"

The book blasted the brightest light of all directly into Alex's body. She screamed and covered her face with her hands, dropping the book the floor. Christopher ran to her side and kicked the book over to the other side of the room. The powers were strong, he could feel them all around him like the current of the ocean filling up all the empty space around them.

Angelique's spell book, in the corner of the room, bounced and shook on the floor, flipping open again, its pages beginning to fly. Suddenly the book closed and it began to fold in on itself, smaller and smaller and smaller until it dissipated from the floor completely. The book had destroyed itself leaving only the powerful energy it expelled flashing around the room.

Chris ran over and reached for Alex, but the book's energy physically pulled Chris away from her tossing him like a rag doll to the other side of the room and slamming him up against the wall.  Alex lay writhing in pain surrounded in yellow light. 

All Chris could do was watch as she moved and squirmed on the floor screaming in agony, balls of light entering and leaving her body like magic bullets each one more painful than the next.

"ALEX!" Chris screamed trying to move from the floor. The book's powers were too great, he was stuck to the ground as if being held down by a magnate. 

Alex, now fetal position on floor, twitched and shook as the bright yellow light from the book began to dwindle. The veils around her slowly falling down from above re-covering her face. Chris, too, was able to move again, and jumped up and went over to Alex who was turned face down into the floor.. He pulled her around to see her face, her hair, covering her completely. He brushed it aside and saw that it had worked.

"Alex! Alex! Are you ok? Say something?" Chris said shaking her body.

Alexandra opened her eyes and looked at Chris' face. She felt like no time had past since the first day she met him. She felt like something was different, something dark had been lifted from her.

Chris helped her up as she pulled away the veils that had become tangled around her neck and body.

"Are you ok?" Chris asked again.

Alexandra smiled and walked over to a mirror. Her reflection seemed the same but Alex knew it was different. Her powers were gone. All the powers she had inherited from Claudia when Claudia possessed her had been eaten away by the energy of Angelique's book.

Alexandra was free!

****

The night was turning to dawn and the hospital in Boston where Carolyn was recuperating from the plane crash was beginning to see the signs of it's business day.

Kimberly had driven all the way from Collinsport to visit Carolyn. Although they weren't the best of friends, Kim knew she had to do what was right. They did after all, both love Caleb.

Kimberly quietly walking into the room, but always the early bird, Carolyn was already awake and ready the morning paper.

"Oh, I didn't want to wake you. You're up before the sun!" Kimberly said in a calm morning voice.

"What are you doing here?" Carolyn asked in a surprised voice.

"I came to see you. David and I agreed on doing shifts...he went home so I'm here now." Kim said sitting down on a chair at the side of Carolyn's bed.

"Thank you for coming. Listen, Kimberly, I'm very sorry about Caleb. He....he was the best!" Carolyn said dropping her paper to her lap and wiping away a tear.

"He really was!" Kimberly said equally as devastated. "I just want you to know that I really appreciate all you did for him while David and I were away. I know it couldn't have been easy and it was just all a horrible mess. I was a horrible mess. Caleb really lucked out with you as his cousin. You were there when his parents weren't." Kimberly confused.

"Have you and David decided on funeral arrangements?" Carolyn asked.

"I'd really like it if you and I could arrange a memorial for him. They weren't able to locate his remains so maybe we can just have some sort of memorial at the family  mausoleum." Kim responded.

Carolyn only nodded with a half smile. "Did you hear about this?" She said changing the subject and handing Kim the news paper.

Kim took the paper from Carolyn's hand and splashed on the front page was the headline: PATIENT MURDERS DOC AT WINDCLIFF SANITARIUM. 

"I wonder if David knows this doctor that the patients apparently killed." Carolyn asked.

The news article was about the discovery of Dr. Joanna Grayson's body from the night before. Dr. Grayson, Kim's sister, who Barnabas attacked and killed. Somehow the story got twisted and confused through the media, which became a perfect cover for the real event.

Kimberly's face changed. The story didn't sit well with her. She knew something was wrong, but could not place it. She rubbed her head, a shooting pain suddenly crisscrossed her brain. It was her memory trying to pierce through the block Barnabas created.

"Are you ok? What is it?" Carolyn asked noticing Kim's demeanor.

"Fine, I'm fine. Just got a sudden headache, that's all. Maybe I need some coffee. Why don't I go get some and you can rest a little more." Kim said rubbing her now aching neck.

"Should I call and ask David about this?" Carolyn asked as Kim left the room.

The logical answer would have been "yes", why wouldn't they call David to ask about it, perhaps he knew details on the doctor that died, but something in Kim, something deep in her mind told her to have Carolyn drop it. The hair stood up on the back of Kim's neck, it was a sign, and a warning, that whatever her psyche was holding deep within her mind should never be spoken aloud.

"It's probably better we don't ask him. I don't think drudging up memories from his time there is a good idea." Kim said nervously as she left the hospital room for coffee.

Kim walked carefully down the hospital hall way now filling with white coats and teal blue medical scrubs of doctors and nurses beginning their morning rounds. Everything seemed so blurry, her mind was in a strange dizzying state. All she could hear were the clacking sounds of her high heeled shoes echoing against the walls of the hospital hall way.

Kimberly pushed open the door to a hospital bathroom, the senor driven lights didn't switch on. She stood there in the dark with only the green glow of the EXIT sign illuminating her reflection in the mirror.

She splashed water on her face, and when her she closed her eyes she saw flashes of the night before. Blood splatters. Joanna screaming, Barnabas' bloody mouth. She could feel it like she was there again, cowering in the corner screaming but no sounds would come out.

Kim opened her eyes to dry her face and when she looked in the mirror, there standing directly behind her in the green light of the EXIT sign was her late sister Dr. Joanna Grayson, holding his finger to his lips, blood pouring from her neck and mouth.

"Shhhhhhh. Keep the secret."

Kimberly gasped at the sight in the mirror and turned around quickly, but when she did, Joanna was gone. There was no one else in the room. The green light from the EXIT sign was her only companion. It blinked and buzzed but that was the only movement in the bathroom.

But she knew she was there. She could smell his the blood, and hear her still whispering for Kimberly to keep the secrets of "The Organization" locked away.

Then a nurse pushed the bathroom door open from the outside, allowing more light to creep in.

"Oh!! I'm sorry, the lights didn't turn on for you huh??" The innocent nurse said switching on the main bathroom lights. "Ma'am? Are you ok?" She asked noting Kimberly's terrified expression.

Kimberly didn't say a word. She grabbed her things and burst out of the bathroom, darting for the door.  The fear and terror was beginning to swallow her whole.

Series 5/Chapter 2: THE LIVING, THE DEAD THE UNBORN

The afternoon sun set low behind the hillsides of the western part of Collinsport, casting a murky shadow across the town. The great house known as Collinwood stood atop it's perch, basking in the darkness of the evening that followed.

Alexandra rested up in her room after her rescue from the secret room. Alone, she worried about her mother, and awaited news from David in Boston on her recovery. She also mourned the loss of her cousin Caleb, someone she looked up to and thought of as her brother.

As she sat at her window, veiled in all black to cover the horror that she had become due to Claudia's poisoned tea leaves, a knock came at her door. Alex, as quickly as she could, jumped from the chair at the her window and grabbed a pair of leather cloves that were on her dresser to cover her aged hands. She carefully walked over to the door and opened it. It was Christopher.

"Hi." He said softly. "I wanted to come and see if you needed anything."

"I'm fine thank you." Alex said in a muffled voice, dressed in all black, the veil set perfectly over her face like the bride at a funeral rather than a wedding.

"You know you don't have to wear that thing around me. I doesn't matter what ---" Chris said just before being interrupted.

"It does matter! You have no idea what she did to me Christopher. Every day it gets worse too. Whatever she did, whatever was in that tea is aging me at a rapid pace........ I don't know how far it will go." Alex said walking herself back to the window that over looked over the front of Collinwood manor.

"What should we do? Why You can't reverse this?" Chris asked.

"I don't know. I'm too scared to try. What if I can't? What if I will never be the same again?" Alex worried.

"We'll find away Alex." He responded.

"So much has happened, and my mother has been so strong through it all. I don't know how she'll react to whats been done to me. It might just push her over the edge. Maybe I shouldn't stay here...maybe I should go!" Alex wondered out loud.

"This is your home Alex, nothing would make anyone in your family abandon you, especially not this. We'll figure something out." Chris said rushing over and kneeling next to Alex at her chair.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it, then looked deep into the dark mass of blackness that was the veils surrounding Alex's ravaged face. He saw just the outline of her face but could not make anything else out. It chilled him to the bone. But he knew somewhere in there was the real Alexandra. The one he fell in love with, the one who had been bewitched by the calculating Claudia Bouchard.

He released her hand and carefully grabbed the edges of the veil and began to lift, but Alex grabbed his wrists and stopped him doing so.

"No." She whispered.

"Alex you've seen me at my worst, I'm pretty sure there's nothing that can be as bad as that." he responded noting how he too has a tendency to morph into an ungodly thing every full moon, a transformation Alex herself witnessed on the door step of Collinwood.

Chris then continued to slowly lift the various dark veils Alex had over her face. One by one like sheer layers of a black onion, revealing a face withered by a curse that mimicked the hands of time. Alex had become a woman in her 90s in only a matter of days, but it wasn't the fact that she seemed aged that was so horrifying, it was the fact that someone had done this to her out of spite, out of malice. A last ditch effort of jealousy to keep two people who might mean something to each other apart.

Chris was indeed shocked at Alex's sate. The young beautiful woman he knew with the sparkling blue eyes and the golden hair was gone, what remained was a woman he didn't recognize. She was grey and pale. Old and haggard. Although his shock was real, he did not show that to Alex. He kept his composure and smiled a soft kind smile, because even though everything around her had changed, he could still see the same Alex deep in her eyes, just like she could see the same Chris during his moon lit transformations.

"See, that wasn't so hard was it?" He said sweetly.

"How am I going to explain this to my mother? I can't let her see me like this Chris, I don't know how she'll take it. First my father and Leopold, and now this? Not to mention everything that's happened in between. She just won't be able to handle it, I know it." Alex lamented as Chris paused to think.

"Well....there might be away...." Chris suggested.

"How?" Alex questioned.

"What about that book, the one you found in the attic a while back remember?" Christopher proposed.

"The spell book? I couldn't! I mean, I could, but....it was so powerful." Alex said also pausing to think. "I'm afraid of it's power. Opening that book brings in so much energy to this house. I don't know if I would be able to control it." Alex confessed..

"Alex, at this point I don't see what we have to lose. If it has anything in there that can help you reverse this and get you back to normal I think it's worth it. I'll be right here with you. You won't be alone. What do you say?" Chris said grabbing hold of Alex's gloved hands.

"Why are you being so kind to me? After all I did to you." Alex asked as she looked into Chris' deep dark eyes.

Chris took a moment to think before speaking. Alex was right. She didn't necessarily deserve his kindness, especially after she destroyed the last vials of antidote that would have killed off the mutated werewolf DNA his body carried months ago, but they had something in common. But the fact of the matter was they had both been played by Claudia.

"Claudia took advantage of us, she used us. She took whatever good that was in us for herself. This whole time I believed she loved me but the truth is she used me to get to a part of her that she never had...she wanted to live life in a more human way, no matter what the cost was." Chris explained.

Alexandra then took a second to compose her own thoughts, then caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror and noticed how her face was now even older than she remembered. Her eyes began to water ... all because of Claudia's jealously. She made her choice.

 "Let's find  Angelique's spell book one last time." Alex said confidently.

"Sounds like a plan!" Chris said with a grin. "Where is it?"

Alexandra paused when she suddenly remembered who took the book when they last used it at the seance. Chris, wouldn't be too happy when he found out.

She turned to Christopher and took a breath before divulging the books whereabouts:

"At the old house. With Barnabas Collins."

Chris, the werewolf, stood silent realizing they had to trek into the layer of one of the most formidable vampires ever known, a man who manipulated him into using his transformation to kill Leopold in a forceful power grab that changed the landscape of Collinwood in one bloody battle.

 A man that was capable of anything.

****

A small clock on the large fire place in the library ticked away the minutes of the night. Kat, who was using the library to send an email, had planned on going back to work the following week at the Collinsport Police Department after a long break, but just sent a painful message saying that she would have to stay off the force until further notice to due to the death of her boyfriend and now pregnancy. It was all so tragic. The life she held in her body appeared just as the life in Caleb's was vanquished. As she clicked SEND on her email, she couldn't help but feel hopeless. Everything, now, was so uncertain. 

She slowly lifted herself over to a large window and peered out onto the sea. Her glazed look was a result of a flood of memories of Caleb. How she missed him. Her tear stained face glistened with the light of candles fluttering near her. She couldn't bare to turn on the actual lights. The darkness suited her mood now that Caleb was dead. Her emotions and pain were dark and gloomy, why should any part of her come into the light?

"Kat?....." A voice said from behind.

Kat turned and it was Kimberly, still without a single memory of the night before thanks to Barnabas' mind control at Windcliff.

She was dressed in mourners black, her face white as a ghost. The grief of a mother over her child was written all over her face and in her voice.

"..there's someone here to see you." Kimberly continued softy as she opened the door letting in the guest.

Kat wiped her face, clearing away any sign of tears as her brother Sebastian walked into the library, causally avoiding Kim who he knew to have recently defected The Origination they both secretly worked for. Their eyes met as they passed each other but, there was only a blankness in Kim's head.

Sebastian's tall frame and perfect smile brought a bit of light into the room, but Kat was still understandably upset.

"How are you holding up?" Sebastian asked as he gave his sister a hug.

"I'm not even sure how to answer that, it doesn't even feel real yet. You know when someone dies people always say they keep expecting their loved one to walk in? It's true. I keep waiting for him to walk right through the door to be with me, to be with our baby."

Sebastian's face froze with the news of the new baby. He knew that Caleb and Kat were getting more serious but had no idea a baby was in the cards. And he knew what that would mean for The Organization...a baby Collins was a big, big turn of events.

"Wait .... Baby?" Sebastian said shaking his head as if there water in his ears.

"I'm pregnant Bash. Caleb and I are having a baby and I never got a chance to tell him." Kat said with more tears in her eyes. 

"Oh my god, Kat! Congratulations." He said pulling his mourning sister in a bittersweet hug. 

"Bash wait.... Wait wait!" Kat said to Sebastian pulling him off. "You have a lot of explaining to do. Just before David came back I found out something about you. Why were you working at Windcliff Sanitarium... David was there this whole time and you never mentioned him." Kat continued as her composure returned. 

Sebastian was caught off guard. He came to Collinwood to comfort his mourning sister and had no idea she had discovered his secret job, now there was the question how much did she know and what was he going to have to do to his own sister to continue to protect The Organization? Especially the biggest secret of them all: Victoria Winters' plans.

"I had to keep it low, it's in my contract. The patients at Windcliff need everyone who works there to keep their discretion I was obligated to. I'm sorry. I know it seems shady. But really there's ntohing to it." Sebastian said lying through his perfect teeth.

Kat squinted at her brother noting something was off but she couldn't tell what. They were at time so close that the could read each other's minds, but something was definitely different about him.

"So you had to lie and say you worked somewhere totally different? How does that make any sense?" She answered.

"You know how all this legal stuff is, sis, it's just...look it's a good job, it pays well and I didn't want to mess anything up. If I had known David was there, I would have said something, but I wasn't that close to know patients by their last names. I had to keep my distance." Sebastian said keeping up the lie, knowing full well he knew the whole time who and why David Collins was locked away for so long.

Kat was too tired to continue questioning. She sighed and turned to the over-sized brown leather sofa and landed like a ton of bricks, snuggling up in a warm blanket as a frigid breeze strolled through the room, a constant reminder that the house itself seemed to breath.

Sebastian walked over and sat next to his sister and placed his hand on her head comfortingly. 

"Are you mad?" He asked flashing his irresistible mega watt smile again at his emotionally vulnerable sister.

Kat was in no mood to mull things over with her brother. All the hurt and sadness were all too much for her. All she wanted to do was sleep and say nothing. 

"At this point Bash all I want is Carolyn to come home, and everything at this house to go back to normal. So no... I'm not mad, I don't know what I am. Just .... From now on, no secrets between us ok?" Kat smiled and playfully gave her brother a little smack on the forehead. 

"Ok ok! How about I run over to the kitchen grab us some hot chocolate and cookies and we start thinking of names for that new Baby Banning growing that stomach!" Sebastian said smiling as he went towards the library door. 

"Collins.... Baby Collins." Kat corrected.

"Oh.       Right." Sebastian answered uncomfortably. 

Sebastian quietly and quickly made his way to a small side room just off the hallway from the library. He carefully pushed the door open, and noticed the lights were on. He pushed the door fully and looked around in the room but no one was inside. He pulled out his cell phone and frantically died Victoria. 

"Vicky, it's Sebastian. .... Yes I'm at Collinwood and I have some news." Sebastian said. "You're not going to believe this. It's my sister. She's having Caleb's baby........That's right a new blood born Collins." He added coldly of his sister's unborn. 

What Sebastian had yet to learn about Collinwood was that every empty room was never really empty. There were eyes and ears located in every corner. Some are painted on portraits, some are deep within the spiritual realm that roam the halls, but others, others are a live and well dwelling in the shadows waiting for their moment to strike.

In the edges of the room, in darkened corner listening to it all was Barnabas hidden from view doing what he did best: plotting his next move with this new  bit of information. What he would do with it proved wold be the biggest coup of them all, and essential to protecting a future Collinwood and the Collins family--every member: alive, dead and unborn.

As Sebastian dashed back out into the hallway and towards the massive kitchen Barnabas slithered his way too out of his shadowy corner and into the hallway. He slowly crept his way through the hall and saw that Sebastian had left the library door slightly open. Barnabas took a peek through the open door and saw Kat standing in the room reading over various books as she awaited Sebastian's return. Barnabas had to find out for himself if it was true. Was Kat really pregnant?

"Time goes on and ticks away like the hands of a clock. Time goes on until I tell it to stop...sleep now, sleep away this night. Sleep now and keep my out of sight." Barnabas said whispering a hypnotic chant.

Barnabas' whisper then left his lips and flowed into the room like smoke from a freshly lit cigarette. It crept in stealthily and curled around Kat, without her even noticing then stopping her dead in her tracks. Her eyes began to blink slowly and become heavy. She dropped the book to the floor. The drowsiness from the Barnabas' smoke like whisper caused her to drift into a quick sleep. Kat curled up on the large leather sofa and nodded off.

The perfect moment for Barnabas to slip in undetected.

The moment he  noticed her asleep he walked in, quiet as a mouse, and stood over the beautiful sleeping Kat. He could feel the power of two heartbeats beating stronger and stronger. It was true, she was indeed carrying a child, and the baby was very strong.

"A new generation to carry on our history feels so solid and secure yet in these times feels so fragile and delicate." Barnabas thought as the beating of Kat and her baby's hearts ran deep in his ears.

For a few moments he watched her sleep peacefully. A beautiful specimen of a woman that he would have found himself enamored with had this been a different time. Her dark raven hair strewn across the sofa like waves of mocha. Her perfect skin was almost glowing in the candle light.

 Caleb had chosen a gorgeous partner to carry on the Collins legacy.

The truth at hand however, was staring him dead in the face: Sebastian's phone call. Just what did Vickie want with the baby? And how was she going to use it in her revenge plot? It was a dangerous mystery that had to be unraveled by Barnabas himself.

Barnabas knelt down next to Kat's sleeping body and hovered his hand above her stomach. His oval ring sparkled in the candle light. He felt a sense of pride almost, that finally a new Collins family member would be born and in the wake of Caleb's death. The family would continue on stronger.

"There's nothing alive or dead that would keep me from protecting you, young Collins. Victoria will not succeed with her devious plan, so long as their is life in my own body. I will not allow it. Mark my words. May you grown strong and fast. A child of exceptional beauty and power to reach your destiny here in this world of mortals." Barnabas whispered over the sleeping Kat.

He then got to his feet, and fastened his coat around his neck and slithered off through a secret passage in the Library walls leaving Kat alone. As soon as Barnabas was gone she suddenly awakened.

Kat sat up in on the sofa and looked around. She couldn't remember going over to the sofa and laying down. She looked around again, feeling an odd sense that she was being watched when Sebastian came in bursting through the door startling Kat.

"Are you ok?" Sebastian asked with his hands tied up in two mugs of hot chocolate.

"I'm fine, just a little woozy. It's nothing." Kat said feeling something grumble in her stomach. She smiled a nervous smile then motioned for Sebastian to bring over the hot chocolate.

The feeling never left her that night. She constantly felt eyes on her no matter where she was in the entire house. And she wasn't wrong. Undetected, dwelling among the shadows two piercing eyes continued to float in the darkness watching over Kat. It was Barnabas acting like a guard at her side without her even ever seeing his face.

Series 5/Chapter 1: ENTER VICTORIA

The light from the morning sun still peaked through a gap in the heavily draped windows. Barnabas could feel the rays burn into his flesh as he chocked and gasped for air. His fist tightly clenched around the stake Victoria plunged into his chest piercing his heart while a crimson circle began to expand around his wound through his shirt.

Victoria stood there watching in silence as his eyes began to bulge from his scull and black veins surfaced around his neck as he still lay in his coffin. The one place he felt the safest turned out to be the one place he was most vulnerable.

"You'll never be able to hurt anyone ever again." Victoria said in a whisper from the shadowy corner of the room. "All the evil you brought to this place...will fade away. And you will be forgotten. The time has finally come --and you---will end."

Barnabas' gasps for air became more and more shallow, he could feel the tight noose of mortality squeezing the life out of him slower and slower and tighter and tighter.

"Life wasn't meant to be experienced in the darkness of shadows Barnabas, it was meant to be lived in the fullest of light." Victoria continued as she walked over to one of closed off windows, and with the swoop of her hands she opened the drapes allowing the full brightness of the light in and scortching his skin into an ashy pulp.

It was a final blow.

Barnabas writhed in pain, the sun blistering and burning in his skin. He screamed an awful scream as Victoria watched with a mixture of fulfillment and sadness. For in her mind, this was the true end of Barnabas Collins.

As he lay back down in his coffin, his skin a ravaged waist-land, his body slowly withering into a gray pulp he closed his eyes and began to sleep.          


Then darkness.



The darkness remained and hung over Barnabas like a black cloud above his head. He blinked and waited, thinking there was something else. There had to be. His finger twitched nudging up against the seam of his black pants. He had feeling. But how? He slowly lifted his hands and felt the lid of his purple velvet lined coffin, and he slowly slid it open. He was alive, Victoria's assassination was all a dream. Or was it more of a premonition of things to come?

From the conversation he over heard while searching for Maggie at Windcliff between Joanna and Kimberly, he knew that Victoria had been involved in The Organization and had now become it's leader. This caused great concern, not only for himself, but for his whole family who kept his secret. A secret that the people of modern Collinsport could not possibly understand.

Victoria knew the ins and outs of Collinwood, 50 years ago she had become one of them. They mourned her supposed death. The betrayal, the vengeance, the coldness crept into Barnabas' mind like the slow fill of high tide.

Barnabas took a deep breath and gracefully lifted himself out of his coffin. He looked down at his chest and felt it. No scars. No stake. No Victoria, lurking in the corner.

He then noticed that it was night and there was much to do and much to prepare for.

His focus, now that Maggie had gone into hiding indefinitely, was to locate Victoria and make sure her mission to destroy the Collins family would never becomes a reality.

****

The sound of a heart monitor beeping echoed in a large hospital room off the coast of Boston. The smell of floor cleaner and fresh linens swam through the room like sanitized hospital soup. David sat in a chair, his head bobbing up and down as he slept uncomfortably at Carolyn's bedside. She was the soul survivor of  plane crash that killed the two pilots of the Collins' private jet and David's own son Caleb.

In her sleep Carolyn began to have flash-backs of the crash: the sudden drop in altitude, the sudden change in pressure within the cabin. Items flying all over the place hitting her in the head, hitting Caleb in the face. Then the sounds of the fuselage cracking and breaking off while the plan went into rapid decent into the ocean just outside of Boston.

She tossed and turned as she heard her own screams screeching within her mind. Her fingernails broken off from digging into the arms of her seat. Her dream felt so real, it was as if she were right there next to Caleb again as the plane went down. She felt it all over again, the water bursting into the plane from the ocean, the smell of the salty liquid was so real, she could feel it rising, she could feel herself being grabbed and pulled under the water then dragged out of the plane then.......

She woke in a terrifying panting heave.

"Carolyn?" David asked in a hazy voice waking from his sleep leaping to her side.

"Where am I? What's happened? Where's Alexandra?" She said in a panic, remembering why she had got on that plane in the first place...to find Alex.

"Calm down, calm down. It's ok. You're in a hospital room in Boston. There was an accident and the plane you were in crashed in a storm." David said trying to calm a frightened Carolyn.

Carolyn reached for her head that was bandaged from a wound, it throbbed and stung as if it were fresh. She looked up at David and suddenly remembered Caleb. Where was Caleb? She looked around to see if he was possibly in a bed beside her but it was empty. As she turned the cords and IV tubes stretched and pulled bringing her back to David'd warm face.

"Caleb." Carolyn whispered as a solemn tear dripped from her big blue eyes. She was slowly realizing the horrible truth.

David grabbed his cousin's hand and sat back down on the chair, he squeezed it tight and shook his head. "He didn't make it. They say as soon as the plane crashed, the water rushed in and filled it up and pulled it out to sea. You were found floating on some of the debris. Caleb and the pilots were lost."

"No, no, David, Caleb saved me. He pulled me out of the plane, I remember that." Carolyn said squeezing David's hand back.

"Carolyn the water filled the cabin and pulled you out, not Caleb. The impact into the ocean knocked everyone unconscious, it would have been impossible." David explained.

"Listen to me, I know what I saw and what I felt. I was there." she snapped.

"I know, I'm sorry. Listen, why don't you just lay back and rest, ok? It's really late." David said noticing the the bright red lights numbers of the room's digital clock.

Carolyn, too exhausted to disagree, accept defeat and released her grip on David's hand and sat back on the hospital bed. She looked up at the ceiling and listened as David quietly began to update her on her status: a broken leg, lacerations to the face, bruised ribs. But all Carolyn could do was think about Caleb and how he saved her, then lost his own life.

"I'm sorry David. Caleb should have never come with me. This is all my fault. If I hadn't decided to leave for London in that storm none of this would have happened. " She whispered in grief.

"He wanted to help. He loved Alex too, he wanted to find her. He thought of her as his sister, and you as a second mother. He wanted to support you." David comforted.


That seemed to help Carolyn in her grief slightly. But another question still remained: "Has anyone heard from Alex? Does she know yet?" She whispered again as David continued to talk.

Pausing, David replied: "Alex......She's home. She's safe, but she's not exactly well." David said trying to ease Carolyn in on the status of Alex, who had been locked away in a secret room by Claudia after being poised by a mystical tea that changed her appearance.

"What do you mean? What's happened?" Carolyn said again worrying.

"That woman you say is Barnabas' daughter, Claudia, she had Alex locked up in one of the rooms at Collinwood the whole time. Alex was never in London. Chris and I found her, and she's fine now. Claudia, though,  has disappeared. Good riddance too...Anything connected to Barnabas ...well I don't have to tell you about that." David said,  purposefully sparing Carolyn the full and awful details of Alex's poisoning fearing it would just be too much for her.

Carolyn then realized that David had yet to discover that Claudia had gone back in time to the late 1970s when her powers were potent and saved Barnabas from certain death. David had no idea Barnabas was back living in the old house.

"David, I have to tell you something." She said again in a hushed voice, knowing she had to tell David.

"Just rest, you need to stay rested." David answered  now sitting partly on her bed.

"No, listen to me. I didn't have time to tell you before Caleb and I left......but....its about Barnabas. David, he's been back for a while now. Claudia, she brought him back again. He's in the old house." Carolyn confessed.

David's face quickly turned from calm to concerned. His nightmares and all that had haunted him his entire adult life and the traumas he suffered from his distant cousin Barnabas Collins felt so far away until that very moment.

When everyone believed Barnabas to be dead, it was a relief, it was a freedom the whole family felt. Like a curse had been lifted. Hearing of his revival was a devastating blow....the nightmare  had returned.

David was speechless. He lifted himself from Carolyn's bed and stepped over to a window that peered out into the dark Boston night. The city lights sparkled in the distance like a sky filled with stars. He didn't say a word. His mind went right back to his childhood, to the evening he met Barnabas.

David was 12 years old, running around and exploring the old house, his favorite past-time. As he played on the old dusty staircase, a stranger walked in dressed in all black. This was a stranger with a familiar face.

He called himself Barnabas Collins, posing as a "descendant" of the original Barnabas, the man who's portrait hung in the main house foyer. The first lie of many.

The face from the painting was alive and well. David was young and trusted Barnabas. He even looked up to him in the first few years. In their first meeting they talked about the love they had for the old house. How could young David know that the man who was so captivated by a silly conversation about the views of the sunrise and of the sea from an old house balcony would bring such horror and terror to his family? How could he know the terrible things that were about to happen to him and the many years it would take to undo it all?

The hauntings. The Ghosts. The lies. The secrets. They were all flooding back. They were all reaching into his mind and exposing themselves again like a painful nerve pinching and throbbing with pain.

"David....." Carolyn's voice said from the bed breaking David's tense state.

David turned to her and smiled. He glossed over his memories and the fact his biggest fear had become a reality and sat back down again next to Carolyn on her bed.

"You need to rest cuz." he said with a strained smile. "Don't worry about me. Don't worry about that old Barnabas either. He can't hurt me anymore, he wont hurt anyone...now that I'm back, things at Collinwood are going to change." David said as he carefully moved a strand of hair from Carolyn's face.

"You'll protect us?" She said with a small tear in her eye.

But David did not respond verbally. He just smiled again, and nodded and let Carolyn drift off to sleep.

****

Sebastian Banning sat in a dimly lit office in a large private home looking over paper work. The room was filled with books covering the all four walls. A single large window, draped with thick green curtains overlooked a garden area with a stone bench under a large maple tree.

The room was filled with a dusty tense air. Sebastian frantically put together the paper work on the desk for his arriving boss to look over, on the outside of the manila folder he paper-clipped a photo of Dr. Joanna Grayson, who Barnabas killed just the night before in a tense altercation at Windcliff Sanitarium.

Sebastian looked down at the photo and shook his head.

"She got too close." He said to himself of Joanna.

"The only way to get what you need is to get in close, take, and try to survive. Maybe Joanna's problem was that she didn't get close enough. She had no idea who she was dealing with." A voice said from the open office door.

Sebastian looked up and saw his boss, the leader of The Organization, Victoria Winters. She was dressed elegantly in all black. Her leather jacket was tight around her lean trim body. Her hair in dark trusses cascaded down her shoulders. The dark colors of her jacket mimicking the darkness of her beautiful hair.

"Miss Winters. Very good to see you. I've organized the personnel reports on Joanna and Kimberly for you." Sebastian said obediently as he handed Victoria the folders on the sisters.

"Kimberly? I was told Joanna was the only one from the Organization that was eliminated last night." Victoria questioned.

"That's true, Dr. Grayson was killed, but her sister Kimberly has defected. She has abandoned her post with us and will no longer return our calls. For the sake of the Organization, the committee has decided to remove her." Sebastian explained.

"You know, when I was in the Collins' inner circle, I fought the powers that came over me, and I fought them hard. It was a battle every day to fight any urges and manipulations of the heart. That's how Kimberly lost. She fell in love." Victoria said with a sigh as she sat down on a leather sofa reading over the files.

"You believe she's still in love with David Collins?" Sebastian questioned as he sat on the edge of the large desk.

"Possibly. But that's beyond the point at this stage." Victorai said.

As she continued to read, the nature of how Joanna died was a topic of interest to her. The manner of injuries to the body were typical of only one being: Barnabas.

"No one told me Barnabas Collins had returned, Sebastian. That's a problem. Barnabas is the key to all of this. His life very existence is what has brought this organization here to Collinsport. It's what made me come here in the first place 50 years go. Now that he's killed Joanna, I can tell you he'll be back for more of us. He knows." Victoria further explained.

"I understand. We should have told you once our intel on him was confirmed." Sebastian conceded.

"Too little too late." Victoria said with a lifted eye brow.

"To be fair we only just---" Sebastian said before Victoria cut him off.

"You've failed Sebastian. All of you have. The whole point of having Kimberly infiltrate the family was so that she could keep tabs on them. The whole point of keeping David hidden away at the sanitarium was to make sure he gave us inside information. None of it happened. It was all for nothing." Victoria scolded as Sebastian sat at his post in embarrassment."But it doesn't matter now. I'm here...and I can take care of all of this." She added.

"There's more." Sebastian said as he reached over for more paper work and handed it to Victoria.

Victoria read it over carefully. She looked up and Sebastian and smiled.

"Is this true?" She questioned with a grin.

"It is." Sebastian confirmed.

"How do you know??" Victoria probed.

"Because, I was told first hand after he was sent to us." Sebastian said.

"Sent to us? Where is he?" Victoria said with excitement.

"He's down the hall, he's been sedated. He's ready to begin the treatments once you're ready to start." Sebastian answered.

"I want to see him. I want to see him ...NOW." Victoria said quickly standing up rushing out of the room with Sebastian at her side.

The two walked in a quick pace down a narrow hallway in the house. The carpet was a queasy red and orange mixture that had been hand picked by the very first leader of The Organization over 100 years ago. The walls were painted an off white and were adorned by leaders past....the very last photograph was of Victoria herself, the current leader.

Then they came to a door, Victoria took a breath and carefully turned the door knob and entered the room that was just as dim as the office they had just left. But this room had a metal table, and on that table was the sleeping body of a man, bruised and battered, but alive.

"How long as he been out?" Victoria said quietly as she looked down at her new prize.

"Hours. I'm not sure. Some of our men were keeping tabs on him, then we discovered where he was and when it was safe to, they brought him in. Undetected of course. He wasn't alone however." Sebastian said.

"What do you mean?" Vicky questioned with concern.

"He was with someone else but...." Sebastian responded.

"...And the other one? Is it possible we could get two?" Victoria asked peculiarly.

"The other's condition is uncertain. Our people didn't wait to find out the outcome, it was too risky." Sebastian said again before Victoria interrupted.

"How soon can we begin trials?" Victoria asked reading over the man's medical report hanging from the edge of the metal table.

"As soon as his vitals are bit stronger, we can start. His brain activity is quite strong. It's probably due to his age. It shouldn't take too many days." Sebastian confirmed.

"The sooner we can use him against the Collins the better. He's so peaceful sleeping there isn't he? Just quiet and calm." Vicky said sweetly combing the man's hair.

"Is there anything else Miss Winters?" Sebastian asked in his dutiful new role as Vicky's right hand man.

"Yes, I want you to find out about the other person with him, I'd like to know everything." Victoria said, then turned back to the man on the table and caressed is hair again. "And I want you to take care of him. As soon as his body is well enough to begin our trials, I want to be notified. Keep him warm. Keep him healthy....and most of all Mr. Banning keep him alive, I have very, very big plans for our friend here. We may just save this mission to take down the Collins after all." Victoria added with a mischievous grin.

Vicky was back, but this time, the Collins family had more then just a sweet governess on their hands. They had a woman hell bent on getting revenge for something no one saw coming.