The driver, who had been recently employed with the family noted the late hour, but Carolyn insisted on going.
Carolyn carefully made her way down the staircase on crutches, no longer needing her wheelchair 24 hours a day. She slowly slipped herself into the back seat of one of the Collins' glamorous black sedans that her driver Powell parked out in front outside of the main entrance.
Powell lowered the glass patrician to check on his employer.
"Comfortable ma'am?" He asked politely.
Carolyn adjusted the collar on her white shirt that was devoured by a thick black coat protecting her from the chilly Collinsport elements. She nodded a simple 'yes', and Powell began their short journey down the winding road that lead from Collinwood to town.
As the car drove past the little seaport village on their way to Saint John's parish, Carolyn looked out of her tinted glass window referencing in her mind all the little shops she had been to, all the cute bistros she had eaten at a million times and most of all the places she never felt safe at when darkness crept into their lives 50 years ago.
Saint John's parish was a large white church with a bell tower in the center of the building that rang every hour from 7am to 10pm every day. It was a place Carolyn was very familiar with. She had come here all her life. Her mother Elizabeth's funeral had taken place here, in fact the Father Joseph, was very, very familiar with her family though he tended to steer clear from them. Even at Caleb's memorial Carolyn felt he was keeping his distance. It had been the first time Father Joseph had seen the family since Elizabeth's death, and his awkward behavior didn't sit well with Carolyn, and she knew why.
Carolyn's car pulled up to the front of the church and her driver Powell ran around the car to open the door for her but Carolyn was already standing with her crutch out. She had never been one to depend on people, a strength she inherited from all the many strong Collins family women.
"Thank you Powell. You won't mind waiting in the car would you? I wont be long." Carolyn said, to an agreeing Powell as he then handed her the manila envelope from her secret box at Collinwood.
Powell helped Carolyn up the main steps but she entered alone. She pushed the doors open and the entire church was lit from front to back with hundreds of candles. The wooden pews were shiny and clean each one with it's own private prayer book. Carolyn continued to walk down the main isle of the old church up to the alter and looked up at the many religious statues.
"Carolyn." the 90 year old Father Joseph with small blue eyes said from behind. "What are you doing here at this time of the night?" He asked walking over to her and handing her his hand helping to sit in a front row pew.
"I needed to speak to you Father." Carolyn answered as she placed her crutch on the seat.
"I see you're healing nicely after your plane crash. I'm glad to see that. I've been praying for you since I heard. So what is it that you wanted to talk about? Couldn't it wait until tomorrow morning?" Father Joseph asked sensing Carolyn's nervous energy but ignoring it.
"Unfortunately it couldn't. Its urgent. I know that many years ago, before I was born actually, something happened with my mother and she sought the council of the church. Do you remember that?" Carolyn inquired.
Father Joseph tensed up when Carolyn mentioned her mother Elizabeth. He looked around the church as if to make sure there was no one else around even in that late hour. He nodded to her that he remembered and again looked around the empty church.
"Your mother was a good person, and yes, she came here to seek help. I remember that." The priest answered adjusting his cleric's collar.
Carolyn handed the priest the envelope with Victoria's baby photos and a few bits of paper and asked him to open it.
"That child is my half sister Victoria. Many years ago she was found by a group of people that covertly planted her in our home as my cousin David's governess. Without going into detail she's been sending these people information on my family and we now believe she's returned to cause harm to us. Father, I don't think she knows that she's actually a part of my family too. She doesn't know that hurting us would be hurting her own blood. When my mother came to see you, I know it was about this baby. What did she say? Did she tell you who Vickie's father was?" Carolyn questioned.
"I'm sorry. I don't remember." Father Joseph answered in a short manner.
"But you said you did remember. Did you or my mother know anything about these people Vickie was working for?" Carolyn continued to probe.
"Carolyn, I don't recall any of the conversation, it was so many years ago. I'm sorry you came all this way tonight for nothing." The priest said dismissing Carolyn.
"Father, please! I know you know something." Carolyn pleaded.
"I'm not sure what you think you know Carolyn. But that was over 50 years ago, and your mother trusted me. and..." Father Joseph said before begin interrupted by Carolyn.
"So you do remember!" She said.
Father Joseph just shook his head and walked over to a table filled with candles under a statue of the Madonna and child and began to light them.
"Well, if you remember something--anything--please let me know as soon as you can. It's very important." Carolyn responded disappointingly. "I'll leave these photos here for you. Maybe it'll help you remember." She added, believing Father Joseph was hiding something himself.
Father Joseph never turned back to Carolyn, he only continued to light the candles and mouth silent prayers.
"You know, my mother Elizabeth was very fond of you. Helping us would mean the world to her...just keep that in mind." Carolyn added again.
A she picked up her crutch and made her way back down the main isle of the church and looked back at Father Joseph. She wasn't buying anything he was selling but hoped that some how he would come to terms with the truth she suspected.
Now alone with his thoughts under the gleaming lights of the church's stained-glass windows, Father Joseph looked through the papers Carolyn left him and the memories began to flood his mind of the night Elizabeth came to see him.
"What have I done?" He whispered.
**COLLINWOOD, ST. JOHN'S PARISH 1945**
A Young Elizabeth Collins burst into the church with tears streaming down her face. She was in distress and needed to see Joseph. She looked all around and could't find him. Her emotions were boiling over and he had to know what was happening. She went over to a private door near the alter and turned the nob, and there he was.
"Liz! My goodness what is the matter?" A young Joseph said pulling her over to sit in a chair, his eyes still tiny crystal blue dots.
Joseph and Elizabeth had known each other since grade school and had been very close before he left to become a priest. When he returned from the seminary in Boston, Elizabeth had become involved with Paul Stoddard, but something happened. Her affection for Joseph never wavered and one night in a fit of passion behind Paul's back and against all the rules of the seminary, Elizabeth and Joseph made love.
Elizabeth, now engaged to Paul, came to the church to tell Joseph the truth. She was carrying his child and didn't know what to do.
"It's ok. Stop crying. We'll figure something out. Have you told anyone?" Joseph asked.
"No. No one. What should we do?" Liz asked in a panic. "I can't lose Paul, I can't!" She added.
"Ok, ok ok...let's think. Is there anywhere you can go for a while?" Joseph asked.
"I think so, yes. I have a friend in New York City that I can stay with until the baby is born." Elizabeth answered.
"Good, New York City is good. I know a good orphanage there that our parish sends charitable donations to. Hammond House. Take the baby there. And when you do, let me know, and I'll take it from there. Understand?" Joseph explained.
"Yes." Elizabeth explained. "Joseph....will I ever see the baby again?" She asked dabbing her eyes.
Father Joseph thought for a second, he knew that he and Elizabeth could never be together now that he was a priest and she was going to be married to Paul Stoddard, but he could tell how much she cared for the child even if she couldn't actually keep it. A mother's love, no matter the time or circumstance is the strongest bond known to man.
"I promise you. I will figure out a way for you to see the baby again. It may take a few years, but I promise you." Joseph said taking Elizabeth in his arms and hugging her tightly.
Father Joseph remembered agreeing to Elizabeth's conditions and promised he'd find their daughter and help her assimilated into the family. The only question remained, how would he get this plan into motion?
The plan was specific and strange and quite detailed. Playing off the folklore that surrounded Elizabeth's family and was well known around Collinsport since the day the town was founded by the Collins family, Father Joseph and two of his fellow parishioners concocted a plan that had them disguised as three men who belonged to an Organization of hunters of Supernatural beings that the Collins family had rumors of harboring, one specifically from the late 1700's named Barnabas Collins. These rumors had never been proven, but the people in town kept their distance none the less.
The detailed plan had the three disguised priests bringing Vickie back to Collinwood as a governess to infiltrate the family and report back to them. It was all a ruse. But the problem was the plan worked way too well and it took on a life of its own.
Vickie, consumed by the belief she was actually helping a real organization recruited people in secret to join her. What began as a bizarre lie by her priest father to hide her identity and reunite Vickie with her birth mother became a monster all its own.
Throughout the years Vickie not only thrived at sending back information but her recruits began to spin off and create their own chapters of this fake organization. The Priest lost control over the lie he created decades ago and had hoped it died when they faked Vickie's death, his last ditch effort to end the lie once and for all. But it was a huge mistake, all the years Vickie played dead she plotted her return without Father Joseph's knowledge. In recent years he pretended the fake organization didn't exist, to keep his mind at peace. But now the truth had reared its ugly head.
Victoria, in essence, created what she was told was real and was just days away from murdering her own family. A family she still didn't know she actually belonged to.
Father Joseph sat down on a pew inside the church with the papers Carolyn gave him tossed all around him. He felt hopeless and devastated. He had let Elizabeth down. He sobbed uncontrollably.
His plan worked, but all too well.
"Liz! My goodness what is the matter?" A young Joseph said pulling her over to sit in a chair, his eyes still tiny crystal blue dots.
Joseph and Elizabeth had known each other since grade school and had been very close before he left to become a priest. When he returned from the seminary in Boston, Elizabeth had become involved with Paul Stoddard, but something happened. Her affection for Joseph never wavered and one night in a fit of passion behind Paul's back and against all the rules of the seminary, Elizabeth and Joseph made love.
Elizabeth, now engaged to Paul, came to the church to tell Joseph the truth. She was carrying his child and didn't know what to do.
"It's ok. Stop crying. We'll figure something out. Have you told anyone?" Joseph asked.
"No. No one. What should we do?" Liz asked in a panic. "I can't lose Paul, I can't!" She added.
"Ok, ok ok...let's think. Is there anywhere you can go for a while?" Joseph asked.
"I think so, yes. I have a friend in New York City that I can stay with until the baby is born." Elizabeth answered.
"Good, New York City is good. I know a good orphanage there that our parish sends charitable donations to. Hammond House. Take the baby there. And when you do, let me know, and I'll take it from there. Understand?" Joseph explained.
"Yes." Elizabeth explained. "Joseph....will I ever see the baby again?" She asked dabbing her eyes.
Father Joseph thought for a second, he knew that he and Elizabeth could never be together now that he was a priest and she was going to be married to Paul Stoddard, but he could tell how much she cared for the child even if she couldn't actually keep it. A mother's love, no matter the time or circumstance is the strongest bond known to man.
"I promise you. I will figure out a way for you to see the baby again. It may take a few years, but I promise you." Joseph said taking Elizabeth in his arms and hugging her tightly.
**COLLINSPORT, ST. JOHN'S PARISH PRESENT TIME**
As Father Joseph remembered the moment his affair with the engaged Elizabeth Collins resulted in the conception of a child, he could only feel guild and pain. He had always kept in touch with Elizabeth throughout the years but their connection was never the same after she married her husband Paul Stoddard. Their meetings were rare and kept mostly in secret during her visits to the confessional.
When Elizabeth's husband was presumed dead in late 1953, she went into a deep depression and never left the house, it was a dark time for the family. Only then did she often seek Father Joseph's council again openly, though no one really knew their true history.
Father Joseph could clearly remember visiting her at Collinwood one afternoon after Paul's presumed death and saw how devastated she was. On that day they spoke of the child they conceived and gave up to the orphanage in New York. He could see It was the only thing that returned the sparkle to Elizabeth's eyes.
When Elizabeth's husband was presumed dead in late 1953, she went into a deep depression and never left the house, it was a dark time for the family. Only then did she often seek Father Joseph's council again openly, though no one really knew their true history.
Father Joseph could clearly remember visiting her at Collinwood one afternoon after Paul's presumed death and saw how devastated she was. On that day they spoke of the child they conceived and gave up to the orphanage in New York. He could see It was the only thing that returned the sparkle to Elizabeth's eyes.
When he left that evening Father Joseph thought he needed do more: he could find a way to bring their daughter back! When he told Elizabeth of his idea, she agreed so long as the girl never knew the truth. Giving her up and the manner she was conceived was too shameful and painful for Elizabeth and she sought to keep that part of her life away in the shadows. In a way protecting Vickie from her own possible shame and scandal of being the daughter of love sick priest and a rich socialite.
Father Joseph remembered agreeing to Elizabeth's conditions and promised he'd find their daughter and help her assimilated into the family. The only question remained, how would he get this plan into motion?
The plan was specific and strange and quite detailed. Playing off the folklore that surrounded Elizabeth's family and was well known around Collinsport since the day the town was founded by the Collins family, Father Joseph and two of his fellow parishioners concocted a plan that had them disguised as three men who belonged to an Organization of hunters of Supernatural beings that the Collins family had rumors of harboring, one specifically from the late 1700's named Barnabas Collins. These rumors had never been proven, but the people in town kept their distance none the less.
The detailed plan had the three disguised priests bringing Vickie back to Collinwood as a governess to infiltrate the family and report back to them. It was all a ruse. But the problem was the plan worked way too well and it took on a life of its own.
Vickie, consumed by the belief she was actually helping a real organization recruited people in secret to join her. What began as a bizarre lie by her priest father to hide her identity and reunite Vickie with her birth mother became a monster all its own.
Throughout the years Vickie not only thrived at sending back information but her recruits began to spin off and create their own chapters of this fake organization. The Priest lost control over the lie he created decades ago and had hoped it died when they faked Vickie's death, his last ditch effort to end the lie once and for all. But it was a huge mistake, all the years Vickie played dead she plotted her return without Father Joseph's knowledge. In recent years he pretended the fake organization didn't exist, to keep his mind at peace. But now the truth had reared its ugly head.
Victoria, in essence, created what she was told was real and was just days away from murdering her own family. A family she still didn't know she actually belonged to.
Father Joseph sat down on a pew inside the church with the papers Carolyn gave him tossed all around him. He felt hopeless and devastated. He had let Elizabeth down. He sobbed uncontrollably.
His plan worked, but all too well.
****
In the dark of the night a masked man quietly crept through the overgrown shrubs just outside of the side entrance of Collinwood. It was the man Victoria and Sebastian had been treating at her secret hide-out. He was under strict order to get inside the mansion and stay hidden until further notice.
This new mercenary was stealth and precise. He carefully broke the lock off of the main front gate with the adorned with the C monogram. He swifty crept up the giant main lawn and entered the house by picking the lock of one of the side entrances.
The section of the house he entered was quiet and dark at the time. Victoria was very well versed in the secrets of Collinwood and gave the man very detailed description of how to get around without being seen. The man, masked and dressed in all black, from head to toe, quietly made his way passed a open door. It was the Library where Kat was still sitting with her brother Sebastian.
The man's eyes flashed scenes from his mind with Kat in them. They were quick and confusing. Just of Kat's face laughing. Kat's eyes. Kat's smile. He shook his head and sneaked down the hall and into a a the larger room the family called the "Blue Room" where he pulled a secret lever on a fireplace that opened a passage that lead into the walls of the house.
The masked man still shook his head trying to get the images of Kat out of his mind. As he crept through the walls of the house coldly passing room to room without emotion and only scouting his victims.
As he walked through he came to a portion of wall that had two same sizes slits that opened into a room in the east wing of the house. The east wing that was Kimberly's office, formerly Dr. Julia Hoffman's office. On the other side of the two slits in the wall were the eyes a painting of Quentin Collins, perfect sized holes for the masked man to sit and watch as Kim as she opened the door to let in David after they had a small skirmish in the drawing room about her role in Vickie's original plan.
"I'm sorry about earlier." David said as Kim let him in.
"It's fine. We're all under a lot of stress." She said handing him a glass of more brandy to drink.
"If you told me at our wedding day this is where we'd be I would have never believed you." David said casually skimming through a book on blood disorders Julia wrote in the 1990s.
"It has been a very incredible last few months, I'll admit that." Kim said sitting next to David.
"We were good together Kim. We really were. Why did you have to...I mean...Victor Reed? Of all people why did you have to cheat with Victor Reed?" David questioned out of no where.
In all the chaos of recent events, Kimberly and David had yet to reconnect and talk about their past together, mainly Kimberly's infidelity with the vampire hunter Victor Reed that resulted in their love child Christopher. David knew Victor very well. They used to be friends, and Victor at one time worked on the Collinwood land as a handy man.
"While I worked for Victoria in The Organization ...it was just something that happened David. It was all confusing, it was all about that damn woman and what she wanted us to do to this family." Kimberly lamented.
"What does she want with us?" David asked.
As Kimberly opened her mouth to speak she saw the reflection in the widows behind David of her sister again in a now familiar stance: putting her finger over her lips and trying to hush Kim.
"Are you ok?" David asked noticing Kim freeze in fear of the vision.
"I'm fine. ...yes... All I know I was here to do what Vickie did years ago. Just to come in and ...." Kim said as she noticed her sister's image in the glass growing angrier with every word Kim spoke.
In the reflection Joanna opened her mouth and appeared to scream but nothing came out. There was a vibration billowing out of her mouth that no one could see, but it was strong enough to ripple into the space around Kimberly and break the glass of brandy in her hand.
"Oh my god!" David said instantly grabbing Kim's cut hand.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Kim said terrified of her dead sister in the glass now smiling an evil grin.
Kim and David walked over to the small bar in the office, he wrapped her hand in a white cloth and looked deep into her eyes. After all these years and after all the betrayals and secrets, there was still something there, he still loved Kim.
The man in the walls began to have flashes of more memories. These were stranger. He began to see David in a fight. But the fight was with two other men dressed in all black. From the point of view of the memory the masked man was cowering in a corner watching. The flashes of memory came quick, almost like slides from a projector.
He shook his head, it must have been something he saw at Victoria's hide out. These memories weren't real, he thought, just things that were planted in his head.
The man in the mask left Kim and David in their room and came back to Library where Kat was. He could see through the cracks of a secret passage door that lead from the Library into the walls and into private passageways not many knew about. At first, the masked man thought the room was empty, but there in the corner stood Sebastian. Kat had retired for the night.
Sebastian drank the rest of the chocolate drink he had made for Kat while they talked small talk about her pregnancy but then, something happened.
From a darkened corner two piercing eyes floated out into the room. Then a shape in of a black mass started to form around the eyes that made a head then a neck and shoulders and then a torso and legs. The black mass transformed into Barnabas Collins.
Sebastian dropped his cup that spilled to the floor as the masked man watched in shock. The monster from the projections Victoria had been showing him was real and was just as viciously looking as he had been trained to believe.
"What do you want?" Sebastian said backing away from Barnabas.
"Listen to my voice Mr. Banning. Listen to it carefully and well...." Barnabas began as he lifted his arm up, his fingers all pointing Sebastian's way.
The masked man wasn't sure what to do, his orders were not to strike until Victoria instructed him, but now someone from his side was under attack. He had to do something.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT!" Sebastian yelled again as he backed into a large oak wooden table.
"Victoria Winters. Where is she?" Barnabas said in a solid cold voice.
Sebastian shook his and closed his eyes knowing exactly what Barnabas was trying to do, the hypnosis wouldn't work. It could'tn work! Sebastian had been sworn to secrecy.
"You know where she is, you know what she wants...send me there, Mr. Banning. Send me to her so that she and I can meet face to face. I am what she wants." Barnabas said lifting his hand directly into Sebastian's face.
As the masked man watched from behind the walls he struggled nervously to reach for his bag to pull out the cell phone Victoria had given him. He needed to tell her what he was seeing.
Sebastian turned his face, his body frozen in fear, and closed his eyes to avert himself from Barnabas and his hypnotic stare, but Barnabas' strength had centuries on Sebastian's restraint.
Barnabas grabbed Sebastian the neck and turned his head revealing the perfect vein for Barnabas to sink his teeth into. His' eyes turned to jet black his mouth opened wide, revealing the razor sharp fangs ready to pierce Sebastian's thick neck.
"Hesitance and restraint, Mr. Banning causes the heart to beat faster and makes me thirstier. Open your eyes and trust, that if the truth flows from your lips, blood will not flow from your beck." Barnabas said tightening his grip on Sebastian's pulsing neck.
"I can't!" Sebastian squirmed.
Barnabas tightened his grip again, "Where is Victoria Winters?!" He said this time in a vigorous grown.
Sebastian opened his eyes and turned to Barnabas, who's face was white and gaunt, teeth raging with thirst and eyes black as the night sky. And soon Sebastian succumb to the hypnosis of those eyes, the darkness enveloping his whole body, relaxing his muscles, calming his heart beat.
"Victoria...." Sebastian said in a sleepy voice.
"Yes....where is she Mr. Banning."
Sebastian took a deep breath, his eyes glazed and in a trance and said "Seaview. Victoria is at Seaview Cottage."
Barnabas instantly knew the name. Seaview Cottage was the two story home down on the sea-shore that the Collins family owned and had been Willed to Vickie after Elizabeth's death.
And just like that, the moment Sebastian released Victoria's location, the room returned to it's normal composure and Barnabas had disappeared as quickly as he had appeared leaving Sebastian on the floor coughing and grasping at his neck. He was only one of a few that had survived Barnabas Collins.
Inside the walls the masked man in the walls working with Sebastian and Victoria and had watched it all happen finally grabbed a hold of his cell phone to send a frantic message to her.
He typed:
"Sebastian is Compromised....Barnabas knows your loc."
He waited for a response...."Come on, Come on..." he whispered to himself through his black mask.
Then his phone vibrated, a message had come back from his boss Victoria:
"Let him come. I've been waiting many years for a reunion."
