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.
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!
"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.
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.