Series 6/Chapter 5: BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

COLLINSPORT, PRESENT TIME

Evening was coming swiftly, and as the chilly fall air swished across the brittle waves of the Atlantic sea, two half-brothers met just a few blocks away from the seaside docs where the Collins family had a large 8 story  building belonging to Collins Fishing Industries and where Caleb had an office. He had recently gone back to work and knew that no one else would be there to listen in on their emergency meeting.

After Caleb left The Blue Whale pub where he had an altercation with his father David over the role Barnabas was playing in retrieving baby Canan, Caleb could tell his father was having some sort of mental break. He needed to tell Chris, who was recently adopted by David, so that they could hatch a plan to stop David from doing anything to sabotage Barnabas in returning the baby safely. 

Christopher arrived at the office building, a modest looking glass and steel structure that over looked the cannery on the docs and the beautiful Collinsport Bay and rode the elevator to the family's personal office space on the 8th floor. It was the first time Chris had been in the building, but had always seen and known about it, it was the tallest building in town, in fact it was the only building over 5 stories high. Chris was impressed and slightly nervous.

As the elevator doors opened, he walked over to a sectary sitting inside a half moon shaped desk feverishly answering phones while filing away the day's paperwork. The secretary, slowly turned to see Christopher.

She looked annoyed.

"Can I help you sir?" She asked in a monotone voice.

"I'm here to see my brother. Caleb." Chris answered nonchalantly. 

"Oh! Uhhh...right right, Mr. Collins mentioned you'd be...um, his brother, would be in to see him. Just down the hall there, and turn to the left. He's waiting for you." The annoyed secretary answered once she knew she was talking to a family member.

Chris made his way down the freshly painted white hall adorned with photos of Collins Fishing Industries former CEOs leading back all the way to Jeremiah Collins, the first man to place a Collins Fishing liner into the Atlantic. He was the man who created the dynasty and the town they all called home.

"Chris! Come in, come in!" Caleb said motioning from the large glass window over looking the bay.

"What's going on? Why did we have to meet here and not at home?" Chris asked.

"I needed a place where we could talk alone, and much of the family stays away from here now at days. I'm usually the only one that comes up to the offices, I knew no one would be here. but anyway, listen, I just met with my dad and we were talking about everything that's going on. He's not himself at all, in fact, I don't really know what's going on with him. Have you noticed anything different?" Caleb questioned.

"No, I don't know what you mean.  I haven't really had a lot of time with him but he's under a lot of stress. Could be the stress you know, of being back around mom, and having me around more. I mean ...I'm the product of an affair mom had, that can't exactly make him feel good." Chris said taking the bullet for David's behavior.

"No, no, I don't think it's you at all. I think he's really fond of you. Especially when he sees how much Alex loves you. He loves Alex. I think it's something else. Every since he came back from the Sanitarium he just hasn't been the same. Something has been off. He's definitely not the father I remember." Caleb answered.

"Oh?" Chris said, with a facial expression that led Caleb to believe he was intrigued.

"I'll just be honest. He's not a big fan of Barnabas, and now that Barnabas is back for good, I don't think its sitting well with my dad and a lot of these childhood memories are messing with  him. I think he really needs help." Caleb explained.

"Like what kind of help? From who?" Chris responded.

"The kind of help he was getting at Windcliff. I think we need to find out what they were really doing to him there and see if we can...I don't know...start that again. Maybe refresh his mind. Sort of like a restart button." Caleb answered.

"I guess I can talk to mom about it. Maybe she can ask around. Aunt Joanna was your dad's doctor at Windcliff, and since mom was left her belongs when Joanna died, there might be something in her notes about his treatment." Chris said.

"I just don't want him to regress and go back into the person he was when mom left him for your dad. When he was taken to Windcliff, right before he left I just remember him going into these violent rages. Rages I never saw before. They were very unlike him. I actually believed that's why mom left him. Before I even knew of you or your the affair she had." Caleb responded.

Caleb was right. 20 years ago David was behaving in a strange manner. Late at night he would often become furiously angry and fight with his then wife Kimberly who was secretly having an affair with Christopher's late father Victor. The problem was, and what a young Caleb did not see, was the real reason behind David's mood swings.

Kimberly had been secretly injecting David for years with the same serum she had infused into Christopher's DNA. It was a serum she and Victor had worked on in the name of "The Organization". The same Organization Vickie believed she was the leader of that was meant destroy every member of the Collins family: Kim's job back then? To destroy David.

The truth was dark and twisted, and Caleb and Chris had only scratched the surface, especially considering "The Organization" Vickie believed she ruled was all made up by Father Joseph and the experiments Victor, Kimberly and later Joanna were doing on Christopher when he was a baby and later David were all for nothing. 

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the consequences of Father Joseph's lie reached far and wide and were starting to bubble up in the most hideous of fashions.

"Do you think you can get mom to get you files from Windcliff so that we can ...I don't know, see whats going on with him and maybe get him help?" Caleb asked.

"How far do you want to take this Caleb? I mean what if he's really sick, are you willing to lock him away again? Is that what we're really saying?" Christopher asked.

Caleb paused and look out of his big office building window and watched the boats creep out of the  bay and into the wider Atlantic set to fish for the cannery. He turned back around and looked at his brother with a solumn face.

"I think so. If he's going to sabotage the return of my child because Barnabas is the one bringing him back, then he's lost his mind again. Windcliff would be the best place for him." Caleb answered.

"Mom will never give me the files, you know. She's a doctor, she knows how important keeping a client's privacy is." Chris explained.

"Can you get them on your own?" Caleb asked sternly. 

Christopher looked at his half brother and could see the seriousness in his eyes. Whatever he thought his father was going through was troubling him, and Christopher, who only wanted to be part of this family and be accepted by his brother knew what he had to do: he had to steal the files of Dr. Joanna Grayson that Kimberly was in possession of. 

But what Chris and Caleb didn't know was that whatever was in those files would unlock the truth to many, many things. A truth that perhaps, the family may not be prepared for. 

"I'll do it. I'll get you the files." Christopher said in an equally stern voice.

****

As the day progresses, Alexandra sat alone in the courtyard between the old house and the new house thinking of the the events that had occurred in the last few months. It had been a whirl-wind and she had been through so much. Even though there were still issues plaguing the family, she felt that things were starting to look up. Including her relationship with Christopher.

She thought about how the magical powers she had inherited from Claudia when she possessed her had finally subsided, and the remnants of those powers, her shape-shifting ability, seemed to also go away. She hand't had an occurrence since the scuffle with Vickie over the baby.

The truth was, this was the calm before the storm. Alex's confidence in the direction her life was leading was about to receive a new test.

Just beyond the courtyard, in a shaded area closest to the Old House, Nicholas watched Alex as she sat alone lost in her thoughts. He watched how the late afternoon sun glistened in her golden hair. He watched how bright and beautiful her eyes were and how beautiful she looked when the reflection from the water in the fountain shined over her heart-shaped face. His fascination for her was swiftly turning into obsession. Much like the obsession his own father, Nicholas Blair SR. had for Maggie Evans.

Nicholas slowly crept into the court yard from behind Alex. As she looked of into the distance he continued to marvel at how beautiful she was. He reached out and touched the ends of her long flowing blond hair and closed his eyes. Alex walked forward, her hair slowly slipping from his fingers breaking Nicholas from his trans.

"Good afternoon." He said startling Alex in her quiet moment.

"Oh my god! You scared me. What on earth are you doing here?" Alex said grabbing at her heart that seemed to be beating out of her chest.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that. Are you ok?" Nicholas asked with real concern.

"I'm fine, " Alex responded still weary of the stranger. "What are you doing here? How did you even..." she continued trying to piece together what was happening.

 "I know this must seem bizarre, and a bit forward,  but I couldn't stop thinking of you since we met at the shop earlier, and as soon as I got the courage I went back to the shop, but you were already gone. I asked the woman working there and she told me who you were and where you lived." Nicholas said, lying through his teeth.

Alex's face switched from confusion to flattered, this handsome worldly man had come all that way from town just to see her. What kind of young lady would she be if she didn't feel a little flattered by it. Nicholas looked like a Renaissance painting come to life. His flawless alabaster skin and dark features we welcoming to her eye.

"I was hoping I could ask you to dinner. Or maybe, for a walk." Nicholas continued.

"Oh, uh, Mr. Blair, thank you but I have to politely decline, you see I am seeing someone already. But thank you!" Alex responded awkwardly when she noticed Nicholas' face deflate.

"I would hate to impose on that of course." Nicholas replied disappointed but undeterred to get what he wanted. "It was very nice seeing you again Miss Thorne." He said reaching for her hand to shake.

Alex smiled politely and extended her hand to shake Nicholas' and once they touched a sudden burst of energy swirled through Alex's hand from Nicholas'. It twisted and turned up her arm and spilled into her heart and up into her brain. The energy Nicholas produced allowed him into her mind, opening doors that no one could do without the power of magic, a power Nicholas inherited from his warlock father. The same type of magic his father used to bewitch and control Maggie Evans.

Nicholas' eyes turned to white. He wanted to know, to see, to feel every thing Alexandra was feeling. He saw deep into her thoughts and dreams and pulled them like files from a cabinet, absorbing every piece of personality he could.  He saw the fears she had, the sorrow she felt for her father's death, he saw the loved she had for her mother and for Christopher. He even saw that she harbored a secret: the power to shape-shift.

As Nicholas began to release his grip, his spell had temporarily hypnotized Alex, and quickly, Nicholas pulled out a medallion on a chain from his jacket pocket and placed it in front of Alex's closed eyes.

"Alexandra. Sweet Alexandra. You're power is something I did not expect, an added intensive." Nicholas said as he swung the medallion back and forth in front of Alex. "When I snap my fingers, you will open your eyes and realize that your love shall be for me and only me. We will connect together, and bridge the alliance between the living and the beyond as it should have been many years ago between my father and my mother. We, together, You and I, will finally finish the path my father once started." He added.

Alex slowly swayed back and fourth, her eyes still closed, the sun still beaming its glow upon her golden hair. Nicholas looked at his watch and slowly counted backwards from 10, enough time for his trans to take effect.

" three, two..." He counted.

"Alex!! Are you out here?" A voice came from just beyond the courtyard.

It was Carolyn searching for her daughter.

Nicholas in a panic swiftly replaced the hypnotic medallion back into his jacket pocked and sat Alexandra carefully on a stone bench facing the fountain in the center of the garden. Her eyes remained closed. But time was of the essence, and Nicholas had to think quick and abort his plan until he could get Alex totally alone.

"Alexandra, listen to me here, when I snap my fingers, you'll awaken and remember nothing of this. You'll only remember the minute we touched hands and believe that I left. Nothing more. Nothing less." And as soon as Nicholas snapped his fingers he disappeared into a bright light that dimmed once Alex's eyes were open. She looked around and felt somewhat confused, she hadn't remembered sitting down after Nicholas left.

"There you are, honey, I was looking for you. Would you like to have some tea? Kat went out and Kim is working late in the lab so I don't really have any company." Carolyn asked before noticing Alex seemed strange. "Darling? Are you ok?"

"I just had the strangest visit." Alex said remembering only the Nicholas came to ask her on a date.

"Really? From who?" Carolyn asked.

"That man we met at the shop, the one you felt like you recognized. Nicholas something....he was just here. And now he's gone." Alex said confused.

Carolyn's discomfort from the shop quickly returned. The man's name felt oddly familiar to her and not in a good way.

"Darling, what did he want?" Carolyn asked sitting down next to Alex on the stone bench with deep concern.

"Oddly enough, a date. He literally asked me for a date. Of course, I declined, but it was so strange. I don't even know where he came from. Just appeared and now he's gone, like magic." Alex answered.

"Magic." Carolyn whispered as if it were the key to unlocked a mysterious box, finally she had remembered where she heard the name Nicholas Blair before.

Nicholas Blair SR. was the brother of Roger Collins' ex wife Cassandra, who just happened to be the witch Angelique in disguise. Nicholas and Cassandra attempted to destroy the family through witch craft, mind games and curses.  The two had been the devil's apprentices and used every trick at their disposal to cause havoc in the household. Nicholas SR. had a distorted sense of love himself, and became obsessed with Maggie Evans, using mind control to kidnap her and  place her in direct danger with the darkest of all forces:  The Devil himself.

"Alexandra, I want you to listen to me, if that man ever comes back here again, run from him, do you understand. You need to never talk to him again." Carolyn pleaded.

"Why? Who is he?" Alex questioned, seeing the terror on Carolyn's face and in her voice.

Carolyn took a moment to think of what to say. How could she explain who this man was, or who he belonged to. There was no easy way, the only way to make sure Alex knew just how dangerous this man could be and to warn her of his possible connections she just blurted out the answer.

"He's the devil!"

****

A small blue car drove slowly around winding streets in a rural part of Collinsport. The roads that led this small car into the area were all covered by canapes of large trees shading the path. The leaves were all orange and yellow and falling to the ground creating a carpet of foliage that the car trampled over.

Inside the car was Detective Kat Banning. She was on her way to visit her late mother's old friend and her godmother, Ezrabette Baptiste who lived in a solitary house just outside of Collinsport.

Kat hadn't seen her godmother Ezrabette since her mother died 15 years ago, but she always had fond memories of her. Ezrabette, a statuesque woman with deep dark eyes moved to America from Haiti in the late 80s and became good friends with Kat's mother. The main thing Kat remembered about the relationship her mother had with Ezrabette was how often she would seek Ezrabette's advice and council...but there was a different more mystical level to Ezrabette's words.

And Kat needed that more than ever.

As Kat's car pulled up in front of the small gray house in the wooded area, Ezrabette came to the screen door and looked out. She opened the door and saw the girl she had loved as her godchild, a girl she had not seen in almost 20 years.

"God is good!" Ezrabette said, recognizing Kat and running down the porch steps as Kat got out of the car. "Kat! Ma petite! You've finally come. It's so good to see you child! Come in! Come in!" She added as if she had been expecting Kat all along.

Ezrabette, bundled up in a thick gray shall and a rust red dress grabbed Kat's hand and pulled her inside to hide from the chill of the New England Autumn air. Inside the dimly lit house, a warming fire in the fire roared. The main room was decorated in a rustic and old fashioned way with old wooden chairs and tweed upholstered couches surrounding what seemed like hundreds of family photos covering the various oak-wood tables around the front room. 

"I've been thinking about you all day today. I should have figured you'd come to me sooner or later. Sit down, rest yourself. I have tea brewing." Ezrabette said to a compliant Kat.

"I'm sorry I haven't kept in touch. After my mother died, all I wanted to do was get back on my feet and start my life over. I hope you're not too angry at me." Kat said as she nervously looked around the dim room.

"Not at all child! You and your brother Sebastian are like my own. We're family. And your mama's death ...well, I know how horrible it was for you. No person alive today could be the same after what happened to your mama. I know you have a lot on your mind. Where would you like to begin?" Ezrabette asked as she sat across from Kat and pulled a bundle of tarot cards from her waist band.

"How did you know I needed a reading?" Kat asked as she sat across from Ezrabette at a table covered in a lace.

"Oh, now, come....you know I see the world through a different set of eyes. Nothing gets past me amour, nothing. There are a lot of things that I know." Ezrabette explained.

"What do you know?" Kat asked as Ezrabette started to shuffle and place the cards on the table face down.

"I know your brother has gone... and no one knows whats become of him. I know you've become a mama yourself. I know a lot of things my sweet. But I'm not one to interfere with someone's life until they need me to. And since you're here. I can say...you need me to." 

"I do. I don't even know where to begin." Kat answered.

"The darkness that surrounds you, love, is darkness you've brought upon yourself. But it is fixable. The child you seek, your baby, is alive. I can sense his life upon the world. But strangely I don't feel him in this time. How can that be?" Ezrabette asked.

"If I told you, I don't know if you'd believe me. It's all so ....incomprehensible to be honest. When I'm at work I deal with facts. Proof, tangible things that I can see and feel and right now, Ezrabette, I'm living in a world that is...it feels invisible to me." Kat explained.

"Sometimes the things we cannot see are the things that are the most real." Ezrabette explained as she looked down at the Tarot cards in front of her placed on the table between Kat and herself in two rows, three cards in each row. Ezrabette flipped over the first card.

"What does it mean?" Kat said looking down at the first flipped card.

"Le Roi...." Ezrabette said in her Haitian creole French. "The King. He is lost. He is lost inside a dark place and no one seems to know how to get him back from where he is. He was taken there without his consent. Sebastian." Ezrabette said tapping her finger on the card. "C'est Sebastian." She whispered to herself again in French.

She flipped a second card, the last card on the far right.

"The 8 daggers." the mystic spoke. "You've been betrayed by a person you may not even know. They've taken something from you, and you cannot seem to get it back. But there is a way. There is a way!" Ezrabette said.

"How? How can I get it back? It's my child!" Kat explained. "Did Sebastian help?" Kat continued as she sought more information from on her missing child and brother.

Ezrabette flipped another card.

"Non." She replied in French. "Sebastian has another lot in life he must crawl out from under. He  has nothing to with your missing boy. This third card, The three sisters, represents Past-Present-Future. Where you'll find all the answers is to see go from one to another." Ezrabette said.

"The past, yes, how can I get to the past. That is where my child is. He was taken from me and taken to a different place and time. But I can't get to him, how do I get to him?" Kat asked desperately.

Ezrabette flipped another card.

"The Queen." She said.

"What does she mean?" Kat questioned.

"The answer, Ma petite, is through the queen." Ezrabette grabbed Kat by the hands from across the table and closed her eyes. She began to hum loudly over and over again. A slight chill filled the room and crossed over the room extinguishing the candles that were lit on large crystal candelabras. Kat looked around her heart began to race, her mind started to go into wild thoughts of what Ezrabette meant by the queen as the humming continued.

Then Ezrabette's humming suddenly stopped and the temperature of the room warmed. The candles reignited on their own. 

"Catherine." Ezrabette said in a soft voice.

"Kathryn. Me?" Kat asked.

"No. Another Catherine. She is the queen. We must get you to Catherine Collins. Come back tomorrow around midnight. We will unlock time and space together and I will get your son back. Catherine, She holds the key to your child, ma petite. You must trust me." Ezrabette asked.

Kat's nerves were on edge but this was the first sense of real news about where her baby was. She had no choice but to trust Ezrabette, in fact, Kat's mother always did.

"Why can't we do this now? Why do I have to come back at midnight?" Kat asked as she still held hands with Ezrabette.

"Go home child, and come back, I must prepare for what we have ahead of us. At midnight the half moon will appear in the sky opening all chains of time. That is when we can connect you. That is when we can move you to the closet place. Inside Catherine." Ezrabette explained in a confusing way.

Kat had no choice, she had to do what Ezrabette said. She grabbed her purse and gave Ezrabette a quick hug and dashed out of the small gray house in the woods just outside of Collinsport.

As Kat got back into her car and drove off another car had been outside hidden from her view waiting. Inside this car was Kat's partner at the Police Department: Loomis McGovern who had been trailing Kat all day. His suspicions that she knew more about the kidnapping of baby Canan and the disappearance of Sebastian were growing especially now that Kat was seen leaving the house of the known mystic and VooDoo priestess: Ezrabette Baptiste.

Loomis started his car and drove off after Kat...he was going to have to confront her. The deal her made with her, on waiting to see if anything would turn up  was off. She now would have to answer for the secrets She and the Collins family were hiding.

Series 6/Chapter 4: A FAMILIAR ANXIETY

COLLINSPORT 1920

It was late morning and Claudia was in the kitchen with baby Elizabeth feeding her a healthy fruit breakfast. Claudia had grown very fond of the baby over the last month and a half that she had been her new governess. They were distantly related and Claudia could feel the connection when Little Elizabeth looked at with those bright eyes and big smile lighting up any room she was in. 

As the baby played with her food, Vickie waked in dressed in her 1920's out fit, a mid-length blue dress with her hair straightened and slick. Pearls dangled from her neck all the way down to her waste. In her hands another darling baby that belonged to Caleb and Kat from 2016.

"Has he a name?" Claudia asked as she noticed the two walk in from behind.

"No, not yet. I'm not sure if I should name him." Vickie said as she sat him in a sold wood high-chair.

Claudia looked over at the boy who was now mashing his own banana in his high-chair with his hands. He had big blue eyes that seemed to look right through her, his olive skin was perfect and soft. He was beautiful.

"Everyone deserves a strong name. Even if it's just for a while." Claudia said noting that perhaps Caleb and Kat already had a name picked out for him in 2016, and anything they'd pick could be temporary.

"What do you think he looks like?" Vickie said smiling as she played with the baby boy and his food.

"Canan. I think we should call him Canan." Claudia said with a smile.

"Canan Collins..." Vickie replayed. "That's lovely. Does it have a meaning?"

"It means beloved, something we've all wanted, something we've all desired to be to someone else: " Claudia responded.

Vickie smiled and looked at the baby boy, then turned her attention to the little baby girl sitting across from her. Baby Elizabeth, who in 25 years would become her mother. Vickie was overcome with emotion at looking at her mother in her most innocent form. Knowing what she knew now, Vickie would never have done all the things she did. 

"I can't believe what I'm looking at." Vickie said as she walked over to baby Elizabeth after acknowledging Claudia's name choice . "All the years Elizabeth and I were together and I didn't even know she was my mother. Such a waist of time. I could have become so much closer to her had I know."

"Then why don't you stay Victoria. You can get close to your mother another way and watch her grow. You can help me be here and raise her and at least try and fix the things that went wrong in her life. From an outside perspective." Claudia said.

"But don't you see? One of her biggest things that went wrong was me, my conception...whatever we do here can alter the future; I never thought of that before we came. This whole situation was a mistake." Vickie said noting that her own existence could become null if she altered anything Elizabeth did throughout her life. 

Claudia digressed and sat back down with baby Elizabeth to feed her when in walked Catherine Collins, the lady of the house.

"Good morning! I can't believe how late I slept. It's almost 10:30...oh!  Hello!" The beautiful Catherine said noting Vickie and baby Canan in the room.

"Mrs. Collins, this is my mother Victoria, and my baby. This is my son Canan. I hope you don't mind, they arrived earlier then expected late last night and I put them up in the guest quarters in the south/east wing." Claudia said as reciting the story they all devised as a cover.

"Of course not! Welcome Victoria, its so nice to finally have you here. Claudia has told us so much about you and the baby. Oh....He's just such an angel! And what an interesting name. Canan." Catherine said with a wide smile. "Tell me, how was your trip?" 

"It went well, thank you for asking." A nervous Victoria said sitting down and turning back around to feed baby Canan.

"Busy morning in the kitchen, isn't it! Good morning ladies." Catherine's dashing husband Jamison said as he walked into the kitchen for his morning tea.

"Oh darling! Good morning, this is..." Catherine said before being interrupted by Jamison.

"Victoria and Claudia's son, yes, yes, I overheard as I was walking in. How do you do, Victoria?" Jamison said extending his hand.

"How do you do?" Victoria responded, still nervous they'd some how be discovered. 

"Victoria and the baby had a lovely trip to Collinsport, I for one am just very happy to have more people in this big house. It's such a beautiful property and now there's so much more life in it, don't you think Jamie?" The glowing Catherine said as she handed Jamison his tea.

"Yes, I do. Tell me, Mrs....?" He asked Vickie.

"Uhhh, Winters. Victoria Winters." Vickie responded.

"Winters? That's odd, that's not what Claudia said your last name was." Catherine interjected.

"It's her maiden name, she goes by that now that she's widowed." Claudia covered.

"Well, Mrs. Winters, how is that you came to Collinsport? We didn't hear you come up the drive last night. I usually wake quiet easily but not last night. Not a sound." Jamison suddenly questioned.

"Well we..." Vickie stammered as she looked over at Claudia.

They both felt a the adrenaline quickly rise, they hadn't expected any of the Collins members to ask such detailed questions, time travel isn't something on the daily agenda in 1920s Collinsport.

"Darling, it does't really matter, if anything I'm just glad you didn't wake up. He's such a sour puss when he's been up too late, you know how big boys can be. Come on now, Jamie you'll be late. I have the driver just out front waiting for you to get to the office, come on, come on!" Catherine said ushering Jamison out of the kitchen leaving Vickie and Claudia to take a deep sigh of relief. 

Out by the front entrance, Catherine gathered Jamison's large black jacket and placed it around his shoulders. She then went around him and dusted off the shoulders and tightened his bow tie.

"Smashing." She said of her handsome husband.

"Something seems off, don't you think?" Jamison asked Catherine.

"Off? What do you mean?" She questioned.

"Claudia's mother and that boy. She just told us about them a week ago, and out of no where they arrive, and in the middle of the night no less. Doesn't that strike you as odd?" Jamison questioned.

"Well I don't know. I haven't exactly read up on the speed of which one travels now at days, now darling, besides what does it matter? Claudia now has her own family here and we can feel comfortable that our baby will have a governess who feels more at home. And we have plenty of room." Catherine said as she kissed her husband on the lips. "Now, go on, go on, the office awaits!" She followed up with Jamison as he smiled at his wife who dashed back into the kitchen.

As Jamison made his way through the front foyer he passed the portrait of Barnabas Collins that clung to the wall as it always had. A strange chill sprung up his spine, like an icy wind from the arctic curling up inch by inch and bone by bone.

 He instantly turned to the painting that hung on the wall and stared at the face looking back at him. The face of his ancestral cousin Barnabas Collins. This feeling made Jamison extremely uneasy. There was suddenly something very strange in the air but he couldn't quite pin point it.

The hairs on the back of his neck lifted, Jamison shuttered as if to knock the strange vibe he was getting from the painting on the wall from his body. What ever he was sensing he could not pin point, but the threat of something great, something very big was afoot. He could feel it in his veins.

The familiar Collinwood fog crept over the front steps and the feeling of instant dread continued to wash all over Jamison.  He took another deep breath and wrapped his jacket around his shoulders a little tighter right before leaving the house and off to Collins Fishing Industries.

****

COLLINSPORT PRESENT TIME

At the Blue Whale, David met his son Caleb for an afternoon drink to unwind after a long morning. They kept to themselves in a corner booth and sipped on some local brewed ale. Caleb seemed jittery and nervous, and kept staring at the clock above David's head as if he were counting the seconds until they would be home again. After his ordeal with Victoria brain washing him, Caleb's nerves were constantly on edge.

"Take it easy son, just take it easy." David said as  he took a drink.

"I just feel the longer we're out here the less I know about whats happening with the baby. What if Barnabas comes back? I want to be there as soon as he does." Caleb answered.

"Son, we don't know if Barnabas is coming back. From what Joseph told us, if he actually did dip into some time vortex, anything can happen. We just don't know." David explained.

"But he has to come back Dad, he has to. If he doesn't come back then that means our baby wont come back. I don't know how Kat will go on without the baby. We've got to find a way. I'll do anything." Caleb replied.

"You know  how I feel about this kind of stuff. Dabbling in anything supernatural has gotten our family in some very deep waters. Whatever you have in mind, think again. I don't want you or Kat getting close to that." David ordered.

"So you just want us to sit back and do nothing? Dad, that doesn't sound like you. You would do anything to get to the bottom of situations like this, I know you would. What's going on?" David said taking a sip of his ale.

"All I want is for us to have some kind of normalcy. All throughout my childhood and adolescence, there was always something...some kind of attack or danger or whatever, and to be honest it had a lot to do with Barnabas. Caleb, I don't trust him. And I hope he never comes back." David said out right. 

"If he doesn't come back, then our  baby doesn't come back. Your grandchild--is that what you want to?" David questioned.

"Son, that's a risk I unfortunately am willing to take." David said in a huff as drank his ale.

"Well I don't think we're willing to take that risk. I'll do anything to find my kid, anything. If I have to go to Seaview House where Vickie was staying and try and re-create this time vortex I'll do it. I'll do anything." Caleb exclaimed.

"You're not listening to me at all." David said frustratingly.

"I'm listening, and frankly I can't believe what I'm hearing. What if this was you? Would you just leave me out there not know where I was? This is your flesh and blood we're talking about here Dad." Caleb reiterated.

"The dangers that Barnabas brings with him are beyond your comprehension. Trust me, from you haven't seen what Barnabas is capable. What he did to Vickie and our friend Maggie...God! What he did to me? I can't trust him! You shouldn't either. None of us should. This is what you need to understand." David said trying to keep his voice down in the bar.

"All of that was in the past---" Caleb responded as David interrupted

"Enough! Listen, son, I love you. You can do what you want. But I'm just going to warn you, whatever you get involved in, whatever happens count me out. I won't help you. " David said as he got up from the table leaving his drink half empty and his son in shock.

Caleb got up quickly too and followed his father out side of the bar as he walked back to his car. 

"Wait! Dad! Stop!" Caleb called as David turned around. "What's going on with you?" the son questioned.

David looked at Caleb, his son was standing there pleading with him to have some kind of empathy for the situation he was going through. His child was missing and in another dimension, but David couldn't feel anything. He was just blank and void, cold and hollow; and harboring the secret message Barnabas sent in the book, a message that could put the family at ease if they knew Barnabas had reached out.

"Look, I think it's better if we just let this go. We don't even know if Barnabas and Vickie made it to where ever they were going. If you just let it go, so many doors will open Son. You can start anew with Kat...you can!" David said in an oddly.

"You want us to just forget that we have a son somewhere out there? Dad we can't do that!" Caleb said, closing his jacket around his tight body as the autumn wind swam by rustling the leaves around their feet. 

"Just remember what I said, will you? Leave all the supernatural stuff out of your lives. Or else..." David said cryptically as he got into his car closed the door and drove off back to Collinwood leaving a shocked Caleb on the side of the street just out side of The Blue Whale. 

Caleb grabbed his phone and quickly dialed a number and sent a message:

"We need to talk. Now." The message read. 

****

As the day wore on, the members of the Collins family tried to live their daily lives as normal as they could as they awaited for news from Barnabas. Alex and Carolyn for their parts, took the day to relax with each other and take time to be together in town shopping.

They walked along the quaint streets of Collinsport, Carolyn dressed elegantly in a full length black coat and Alex in a peach pea-coat and matching peach beret. They laughed and giggled, allowing all the nightmarish moments of the past few months to fade away like the morning fog drifting further and further into the distance.

As the mother daughter duo window shopped in the town square, the felt like they were the only two women in the world. Mother and daughter, reconnecting it was a lovely moment for both, and as they entered a shop just off Main Street, it would become clear that that was all just a fantasy.

Following close behind was the stranger in town who broke into the old house. He had seen Carolyn and Alexandra leave that afternoon, and they sparked an interest in him. Especially the beautiful Alexandra.

The stranger followed most of the day, easily mixing in with the regular town's people, with this chiseled good looks and thick head of dark hair. He was sure to keep an eye on the Collins women all the while keeping a safe distance, but as they got to Main street and went into the latest shop, he wanted to get closer. He wanted to see just how close he could get. He wanted to be able to feel their energy and sense their life force, so he entered the shop just seconds after they did.

Carolyn and Alex were too busy enjoying their day together to even notice the shop girl much less the stranger following them. As they bounced around the various wracks of fine clothes and teased each other to buy silly top after silly top, the stranger was able to get close enough to actually say a few words, it was a risk he was taking, to open himself up to them so soon, but it was a risk he was willing to take just to hear Alex's voice for the very first time.

"Turquoise is not your color mother, I don't care what anyone tells you!" Alex laughed as she vetoed Carolyn's choice of blouse.

"Oh fine! But if you think anyone will take you seriously in florescent green, you're kidding yourself." Carolyn joked back.

"I think it looks quite nice on you." The stranger responded as he pretended to browse on a men's clothing wrack directly across from Alex and Carolyn.

Alex turned to her mother surprised at the stranger's take on the shirt and blushed.

"Thank you. But really it's  not something I would ware....well...ware out of the house at least." Alex joked.

"I can't imagine anything looking bad on you at all." the stranger said as he walked over to Alexandra. "I apologize, I don't mean to be so forward, I just feel like I haven't spoken a word to anyone in days. I'm new to town, so..." he added.

"Oh! Well, welcome to Collinsport. Where are you from?" Carolyn interjected walking close to Alex as the stranger also got close.

"Berlin. I worked there for many many years, and someone told me that there was a wonderful town I needed to visit, a town that was quite interesting. Historical too. I'm very interested in history and the back stories of towns like this. Anyway, Collinsport, seems just perfect for that sort of thing." The stranger responded.

"Berlin, but you don't have an accent. You sound American." Carolyn questioned.

"Mother." Alex said, embarrassed that her mother was giving a strange man the third degree.

"No,  no, she's right. I'm American, yes, but as I said I was in Berlin working. Have you two ladies lived in here all your lives?" The stranger asked, even though he was somewhat aware of who he was talking to.

"I was born and raised here, my daughter, Alexandra, was born in England. We just returned about a year ago. There was a death in the family." Carolyn explained.

"I'm very sorry to hear that. Who died?" The stranger continued.

"My husband, Jack. He was back in town on business and ....well, he passed on." Carolyn said skipping over the "whole turned into a vampire by a witch detail".

"Well, I am very sorry for your loss." The stranger said, grabbing Carolyn by the hand and kissing it. "I should be off. It was very nice to meet you both. I should hope this ins't our last interaction. He added.

"Surly." Carolyn said in a sort of daze.

Carolyn felt a bit stranger after he kissed her hand. There was something about the stranger's eyes that she felt was familiar. There was something about his smile, like she had seen it before. Was he someone that she had met, was he someone she had seen before somewhere. She couldn't tell for sure, but there familiarity was strong, it was bubbling up in her.

As he walked towards the door of the shop, Carolyn leaned into the clothing isle and called out to him.

"What did you say your name was?" Carolyn asked right before the stranger turned.

"I didn't. Nicholas. My name is Nicholas Blair." he said just before walking out the door.

Carolyn stood in the shop stiff as a board. Her eyes seemed to gloss over. That name, why did it make her feel this way? Why did is give her such anxiety so suddenly. Were had she heard that name before?

"Mother? Mother, are you ok?" What is is?" Alex said noting her mother's quick change in demeanor after Nicholas said his name.

"That man. There's something about that him. You haven't seen him before have you? I mean, does he seem familiar to you at all?" Carolyn asked in a confused state.

"Not at all, no. Do you recognize him?" Alex said, strumming through the wrack of clothes.

"I ....I don't know." Carolyn said in a whisper, still feeling a strange sensation from her interaction with Nicholas.

Across the street, Nicholas turned back and looked at the store, he lit a cigarette and smiled and evil grin. The smoke from the cigarette swirled around him and billowed into the chilly autumn air and disappeared after each puff. Now he knew exactly what he was meant to do back in Collinsport.

"Alexandra. How exquisite." Nicholas whispered to himself. "She will do just fine, just fine indeed." Nicholas added as he puffed away in the chill of the Collinsport air and continued to walk down Main street and dispersing into the distance.

Series 6/Chapter 3: THE BATTLE WITHIN DAVID

COLLINWOOD PRESENT TIME

The new stranger to Collinsport crept through the quiet back garden of the old house. He noticed how fresh all the fall white roses looked. He slowly cupped one in his had by the bud and smelled it's fresh autumn fragrance. The freshness burrowed into him, an osmosis of scent and spender that made the stranger smile.

He looked across the long garden path and lead to the main mansion. That place had been mentioned to him for years and years by his father. A man that the Collins family knew very well. They had a connection to his father that perhaps they wished never existed.

But the stranger knew of the connection, and came to Collinsport to make sure he finished what his father started many, many years ago.

The stranger began  his slow walk up the side of the old house then quietly up the main front steps to the main entrance. The door of the old house, with it's chipped paint and 100 year old door knob shaped like two ancient Greek goddesses holding a scepter in the center of them, was locked. He smiled to himself knowing there wasn't a lock on earth that could keep him out. He grasped on to the scepter knob and closed his eyes.

Soon his hand began to glow brighter and brighter in white light and the door knob too began to turn hot like the sun. The burst of energy from his hands spun around the door knob for just seconds, but was powerful enough to snap the lock open without any damage.

"Success." The handsome stranger smirked wickedly as he pulled the door open and walked into the old house that had been left empty since Barnabas' disappearance into the unknown.

"This seems to be the place I was told to visit first. It's as quiet as they said it would be, and I don't sense Barnabas Collins here at all....this will do fine, this will do just fine for now." The stranger thought to himself as he slowly made his way around the front rooms of the old house.

The stranger continued to survey the now vacant old house, from top to bottom. He saw the lovely rooms that had been renovated year after year to it's original greatness. All the furniture had been hand picked by it's owner to match it's antiquated old style.

He took himself into the last bedroom of the upstairs area and opened the door. In the dark room there stood a beautiful black lacquered coffin with purple lining open, like a fresh grave.

He walked over to the coffin and ran his hand on the purple lining feeling every soft valley of fabric and took a deep breath heeding his father's warning of the one who slept in this coffin.  He took a deep breath, a rage began to build inside of him and with that rage the strange screamed an angry vial scream and kicked the coffin over.

"Breathe. Breathe." He said to himself in a husky cold voice.

 Finally the stranger came back down to the main drawing room with the large painting of Barnabas still hanging over the fireplace. A painting that  had been painted almost 50 years ago. The stranger's eyes burned again with anger as he walked up to the painting and stared at it intently noticing the care and patience the artist took in recreating the image.

The colors were mute and subtle but strong. Then the stranger noticed signature of the artist below in the very far right hand corner.

"Sam Evans." He read out loud. "Grandfather."

****

David sat alone in the library inside the main house with all the drapes drawn. His mind felt clouded and confused with everything that had been happening. All he needed was some time alone to clear his thoughts. It had only been just a few months since he'd returned from his time locked away at Windcliff Sanitarium. It was becoming clear to David that he had not yet recovered from all the trauma Dr. Joanna Grayson had put him through psychologically during his time trapped there.

When David returned and was made aware that Barnabas was still alive it brought back all the terrible memories of his childhood and what Barnabas had done. Not to mention Caleb's supposed death and resurrection and the kidnapping was peeling away at David's calm veneer.

He was afraid that soon he'd crack.

He laid back on the giant overstuffed brown leather couches and closes his eyes, just hoping for a few moments to himself so that he could sort things out, but then Kimberly, his ex-wife, came in.

"Are you ok?" She asked quietly.

"I was just trying to get some kind of rest, it's been such a crazy 24 hours." David replied as he sat up on the sofa.

"I know, but things are going to work out fine, I can feel it. As soon as we get news from Barnabas everything will be Ok. Has he called?" Kimberly asked as she sat down next to David.

"Called? No. Hasn't anyone told you? God, I don't even know where to begin with this one." David said scratching his head. "Barnabas and Vickie aren't here anymore. They some how managed to open up a time portal of some sort and ....well, they're gone. Vanished."

"But how? How did they ..." Kimberly asked in a complete confused state.

"It's better not to try and ask the "how" Kim. This isn't the first time they've done this and honestly trying to piece it together will only drive you mad. Believe me." David said with a grin.

"What do we do now?" She asked.

"We wait." David countered.

"Do you trust Barnabas to bring the baby back safely? I don't know him well enough to judge." Kim asked.

David thought for a second on how to answer. In his mind he has always been trained to reply quickly that anyone in the Collins family would always stand up for another family member in trouble. But  he had his reservations about Barnabas. David knew there was good in Barnabas, but he also knew the evil side, the side that could snap at any moment and release terrible things to anyone who tried to cross him. At times, those two sides were difficult to separate. Barnabas was a two face coin that David, for all he his life, tried to figure out.

"I don't know anymore. I want to trust him, I really do, but at the same time I don't know if any of us can. He did some terrible things to members of this family, and our friends. How can I forget that? How can I just pretend it never happened?" David said out loud.

"You've forgiven me haven't you? For all that I did? It would be like that." Kimberly responded.

"I didn't say anything about forgiveness Kimberly, I said forgetting. Nothing in this world will ever let me forget what was done to us at Barnabas' hands. You know, maybe it's better that he's gone. Maybe he should never come back and stay where he is now so that maybe, just maybe...all of us here in this world can try and have a better life! Finally!" David exclaimed.

Kim's face turned to concern. She knew that her sister Joanna had done some very rigorous experiments on David's mind when she had a hold of him and she knew how fragile he was. All she could do was expect him to break at any moment. And when he did, what would she do with him?

"You don't really mean that. If Barnabas doesn't come back, he won't bring back Caleb's baby. We need him to come back." Kimberly responded.

David nodded his head in a somewhat agreeing manor and leaned himself back on the over stuffed sofas taking a deep breath.

Kim noticed his strained reaction to their conversation and got up from the sofa and looked down at David who's eyes were now closed.

"Why don't I let you take a nap or rest or something. I'll come back and check in on you in a while." Kim said leaving David alone in the library with his thoughts.

As Kimberly closed the library door behind her leaving David to rest, she came into the hall and in the reflection of the glass covering a giant portrait of Carolyn directly in front of her was the same vision Kimberly had been haunted with for so many weeks. The vision of her dead sister Dr. Joanna Grayson, this time.

Kimberly was startled to see her sister, who was killed by Barnabas at Windcliff when he discovered Maggie Evans had been hiding there.

"What do you want...." Kimberly whispered to her dead sister's ghost.

"Things are changing sister. David's mind is beginning to collapse. And if you want do take over this family like we had always planned, now is the time to start. Go down to your laboratory. I will meet you there.....and we will begin the next faze of our journey."

Kimberly's terror reached a boiling point. Was she losing her own mind? Was she too beginning crack? Kimberly is a scientist, everything that she was seeing and feeling couldn't be real. She knew it deep inside, but her sister Joanna was always the stronger minded of the two. Even in death. So Kim did what she always did: She followed Joanna's orders and went down to her lab to await the spirit again.

****
COLLINWOOD, 1920

Claudia had disappeared from the present time shortly after it was discovered that she had poisoned Alexandra in a jealous rage with mystical herbs that changed Alex into a woman in her 90s.

Barnabas turned around to see his adult daughter Claudia Bouchard dressed in a white dress with her hair tied pulled back by a golden hair pin.

"Claudia." Barnabas said in a whisper.

"You've found us father. Seems like just yesterday I saw you last." Claudia said walking over to Barnabas and giving him a soft kiss on each cheek.

"What is this? Why are you here with Victoria?" He questioned as he looked back at Vickie and the baby.

"Vickie and I share a common thread in our lifetime. And when I discovered this thread I sought her out and we connected. I devised this plan to save this child from whatever disastrous future it may have within this family." Claudia explained.

"What common thread is that?" Barnabas questioned.

"We were given away as infants. We were two Collins family cast offs, just given away by their parents, hoping no one would ever notice. Isn't that right? Isn't that why you took me from my own mother and and hid me away in a convent?" Claudia said coldly trying to get under her father Barnabas' skin.

"Claudia, stay calm." Vickie said as she rocked the sleeping baby in her arms.

"That's not true at all Claudia. Victoria's situation had many detailed facets that were never explained to her until today, and with you....I took you from Angelique to save you from her. It was the least I could do...you were a baby, and she would have corrupted you beyond all imagination." Barnabas explained.

Claudia seemed to take it to heart for a split second, it was the first time Barnabas had explained himself to her in such a sincere way. But she was relentless in her pain. All she wanted to do was seek revenge and make sure the pain she felt as an abandoned child was felt throughout the family that she believed abandoned her.

"Claudia, I believe him now. I can't explain it, but I do. For me, this anger and the hate that I've felt all these years not knowing where I came from has eaten away at me. I'm tired. I want to move on with my life now, and whatever time I have left, I want to fix what I have done. I should have never come here with this baby." Vickie said, still holding the baby.

"We have to get back, staying here, in the past and disturbing events could have a terrible effect on the future." Barnabas pleaded.

"Vickie you can't mean that! We've come so far! We can do this! You brought this baby here for me to raise, and I can do it, I can be this baby's mother and make sure the Collins family never hurt him like they hurt us!" Claudia said rushing over to Vickie's side, desperately trying to make her stick to their plan.

"No. It's over. We're here in this time period but ...we shouldn't be. We shouldn't have done this Claudia. This was all a mistake. We need to go back and Caleb and Kat need to have their son  back." Vickie said softly.

"How can you just give up like this? This was supposed to be our revenge!" Claudia gasped.

"It's over. We cannot go on like this, doing the things we've done. We just can't." Victoria said regretfully.  "We have to go back."

Claudia felt defeated. For years she had plotted some kind of revenge against her father's family for what he did, and she was so sure the plan to take their newest baby away would be a justfinable punishment for her own exhile from teh family when she was just a baby. But without her powers, Claudia could not fight back, she had to give in. She had to let go of it all too.

"Go back." Claudia scoffed.  "We can't go back." Claudia answered.

"Well, you have  to have a way, I know that I can't use the same method to travel back the way we came, but you have to have some way, don't you? You did't plan this all out before knowing how to fix it if something went wrong right?" Victoria asked fearfully.

"There's no way back. I'm sure of it." Claudia said sternly.

"What do you mean? You came and took me from my time and brought me to 2016, you can do the same for us now!" Barnabas said loudly.

"I was much more powerful then Barnabas. I had all my powers at my disposal, I'm different now. When Carolyn was trapped inside my mother's spell behind the mirror I used the last once of power I had to save her. Since then, I was able to regain some but I've used all again when I traveled to this time. I'm sorry...but there's nothing left in me to get us back to our time period." Claudia replied.

Vickie and Barnabas looked at each other, a panic began to set in deep inside of Vickie's bones. Barnabas too, for all  his tough exterior started to feel distant emotions that he had not felt in generations...the feeling that he was no longer in control.

As Barnabas' worries began to creep into his mind and become reality, that he, Victoria, the baby and now even Claudia might be trapped in the year 1920 for good.

Claudia sat Barnabas down to fill him in on who the current batch of Collins family members believed she was.

Claudia explained her plot thoroughly: She was living at Collinwood as the governess to Jamison and Catherine's new baby Elizabeth. Vickie was to come to Collinsport pretending to be Claudia's mother along with Caleb and Kat's baby who would be concealed as Claudia's baby.  They would all live at Collinwood with Jamison and Catherine along with Catherine's recently widowed mother Jacqueleen.

As cover, Barnabas would have to pull a trick from one of his old hats and pretend, much like he did in 1966, that he was  his own long lost descendant who just happened to come to town around the same time as Claudia's "mother" Victoria until they found a way back home. It was the only way the three future visitors could cohabitate with the 1920's members of the family without the truth being detected and the future being altered.

"Do you think that will work? We'll need to make sure the current family believes every word of this so that we have enough time to figure out how to get back." Victoria asked as Claudia handed her a suitcase of clothes for her and the baby to wear.

"Of course. They've been expecting you for weeks now. However, Barnabas we'll just have to wait to introduce you tomorrow evening. The family has all gone to bed now, so I can sneak you in. Barnabas you can stay in one of the basement rooms until tomorrow night." Claudia explained as she took the baby from Vickie's tired arms.

As the three future visitors quietly made their way into the house following Claudia, Barnabas quickly grabbed Vickie by the arm and took her aside.

"We'll have to keep an extra eye out on my daughter. She often behaves like a corned animal...lashing out at anyone who tries to change things around her. It's something I feel I am directly responsible for. There is a lot of fight in her, and we'll have to try and help her find her way." He warned.

"What do you propose?" Vickie asked.

"She may or may not be telling us the whole truth about the amount of power she contains. We'll need her to take us back...there doesn't seem to be another way. In the coming days we'll need to watch her. I have a feeling something just might crack and we'll know her true intentions soon." Barnabas shot back.

"Tell me Barnabas, why does any of this even matter to you? You can live in any time period and live on forever. I know, and you know it. Go on, tell me, what's in it for you." Vickie questioned.

"I never...ever...go back on my word." Barnabas said cryptically.

"Come on you two." Claudia whispered to them as she turned back around to Barnabas and Vickie as they began to follow her inside.

As they entered the main entrance, Barnabas and Vickie were awestruck with how the home looked inside. It had never looked this way at any time they were in the mansion.

1920's Collinwood  was beautiful. The crystal chandelier's sparkled like diamonds, the wood paneled walls were freshly varnished. The draperies and carpets were in predestine condition. Everything had an air of opulence and wealth...the room reeked of new money. Barnabas and Vickie had not known, that this era of the Collins family history was marked by a boom in their business. The wealth the family had so enjoyed throughout the late 20th century was due much in part to the family of the 1920s.

Claudia showed Vickie and the baby up to their guest rooms leaving Barnabas to roam around the house alone before going down to hide in the dark basement until the next night.

He was consumed with frustration. All he wanted to do was keep his promise to the family in 2016 and get the baby back, but with Claudia's confession that that may not be reality all he could feel was defeated.

Barnabas lurked around the downstairs hallways that lead to the basement, slowly making his way down to a silent crypt where he could be held from the sun when he suddenly passed the library. Then, like a lightening bolt, Barnabas had an idea. He dashed into the library and picked up a book he knew Carolyn often read. It was one of the oldest books in the entire house's history, a book on the family's history, a favorite too of Elizabeth. He had no idea when Carolyn would read it again but he knew that all he had was time, and hopefully if by chance, she picked up the book and opened it she would find a letter in the book from 1920, and a clue would reach the family in the future.

Barnabas tore out a sheet of stationary paper that lay in a silver tray on the wooden table in the library and frantically searched for something to write with. He opened the drawers to the table and found a fountain pen and pad. He dipped the pin in the ink and test it, creating a massive in blotch on top of the pad, he then wrote his note, and only hope to the future:

"To the family in 2016, 

This is Barnabas Collins. The child and I are safe in the year 1920. Things have yet to materialize on how I will return with him, but trust in the fact that I will do all I can.

May this letter find you all safe.

BC."

 Barnabas blew on the letter to dry the ink and folded the paper carefully and rushed over to one of the very large shelves filled with books and searched for the book he hoped Carolyn would pick up. It was a bet he knew may not work. There was a chance someone would never ever pick up this book in 2016, but Barnabas knew, he had to try something, anything, to get word back to 2016.

He opened the book and placed the letter directly in the center of its creases. Closed it and went to replace the book back on the shelf. And as he did so, from the corner of the library a shadow grew large and black, curling like smoke from a fire.

The shadow soon began to take human form, first a head, and arms, then hands, then a face. Below the black mist of the shadow was Josette, Barnabas, first true love. She more than anyone knew how much pride and love Barnabas had for this family, she knew just how much it destroyed him when she died, and when Angelique bewitched him forever so that they'd never be together on the other side.

She could see in him all the good in the world, and she decided to help his cause. With one small puff of air, she blew the book directly out of Barnabas hands and it fell to the floor.

Startled by the burst of air, Barnabas quickly picked up the book and looked back to where the the chill came from, but Josette's ghost was gone.

****

Just as the book in the library fell to the ground in 1920, a book on one of the top shelves in the library in 2016 fell to the ground behind one of the over stuffed brown leather sofa's breaking David out of his much needed and restful nap. He got up and looked around the room thinking there was someone there. But the Library was empty, except for him.

He looked behind the sofa and saw the book on the floor open at the center, and there it was was; poking up from the center just as Barnabas had placed in 1920 ...the letter from the past.

David jumped around the sofa and quickly picked up the book removing the letter from the center. He carefully pulled at the edges and unfolded the tightly packed paper to read Barnabas' letter to the family.

David was unsure how to feel. He felt happy that his grandchild, who Victoria kidnapped, was safe and alive but a twinge of discouragement washed over him as the letter also revealed that Barnabas too had survived the time travel. For all his good deeds, David still felt Barnabas could not be trusted. There was just too much bad blood between them.

David took the letter and walked over to a candle and lit it. As the candle slowly burned through it's wick David placed the letter above the candle and watched it burn away to small smoldering ashes.

No one would know Barnabas tried to reach out. No would know they made it to 1920, and David wanted it to stay that.

No matter what.

Series 6/Chapter 2: MOTH TO A FLAME

COLLINWOOD MANOR, NOVEMBER 1920

The night seemed to last forever. The starts peeked through an overcast night sky like tiny diamonds hidden behind a woolen curtain of clouds, sparkling and twinkling their way in the peripheral. Barnabas carefully made his way up to the mansion, his family's mansion, but this time in a century he was very unfamiliar with.

As he walked up closer and closer, he came to the courtyard that stood between the old house and the main mansion. Sitting on a stone bench, just beyond a flowing fountain and holding a bundled baby was Victoria Winters. The woman who's world had been turned upside down due to information on her past that was secretly held from her, and now the consequences of that secret brought her to the year 1920 for all the wrong reasons.

Vickie looked down at Caleb and Kat's baby boy, and smiled at him. Even with all the drama that surrounded her she could still recognize the sweet innocence of new life. The baby was bright eyed and sweet. His lips were pink and perfect. His large brown eyes looked up at Vickie with wonder and unconditional affection. To this baby, Vickie was the only person he had ever known in his one day of life.

"What have you done?" Barnabas asked growled from a safe distance at Victoria.

Vickie looked up from the baby who was bundled up to keep warm from the early autumn night chill. She smiled and shook her head from side to side, almost as if in she couldn't believe what she had done herself.

"I should have known you would some how find your way to me. You're like a moth to a flame, constantly attracted to everything you shouldn't be. You know, those moths often die when they get too close." Vickie said as she moved the baby boy closer to her chest and rocked him,

"Why are we here?  Do you know the damage you have caused everyone?" Barnabas continued.

"Barnabas please! Do you think that I just decided to do this on a whim? I was trying to save this child from you and from everything you represent. I know the pain you can cause, I know it all too well... don't forget I've witnessed it first hand; I've always had a front row seat to your deeds. Maybe more then anyone on this earth. This baby needed to be saved." Vickie answered.

"Can't you see? You're done what was done to you: you've taken a child away from it's family under false pretenses. What you believed for so many years, it was all a lie. The priest confessed it! He told you the truth, and yet you continued with your plan. That is not the Victoria I know and loved. That Victoria was righteous and believed in the truth and all it represented, if the truth is what you were looking for, Victoria, then what you have done is opposite." Barnabas eloquently explained.

"How can I believe Joseph? I've been lied to for half my life Barnabas, how can I believe him now?Do you believe him? Do you believe Elizabeth and he are my real parents? That would make me a Collins. That would make me part of this family, a family I tried to destroy. How can I live with myself knowing that? Everything seems so uncertain now Barnabas, and I was so certain I was doing the right thing. I just wanted ...I just wanted to make things right." Vickie asked as the the guilt started to seep in.

"Victoria, you have always been apart of this family whether you knew it or not, and this blood relation now only solidifies it. We can no longer pretend that the truth doesn't matter because it does. Elizabeth is your mother, Joseph is your father. The most important part is that we have to go back and fix this, the baby needs to be with his parents. You can start anew." Barnabas said.

"We can't." Vickie relented as she began to take Barnabas' words to heart.

"But we can!" Barnabas said sternly.

"No, you don't understand, I only figured out how to take myself one way into the past. I never expected to back. This was going to be forever Barnabas. I was never going back." Vickie said looking around the small courtyard then down at the sleeping baby.

"What year are we in?" Barnabas asked as the grim truth of their situation began to sink in.

"It's 1920. We're in Collinsport 1920." Vickie said sitting back town with the baby.

"What were you going to do when you got here?" Barnabas asked.

"There's someone here at Collinwood that contacted me before I returned. She had her own grievances with the family. She and I share the same sort of loss and sadness of our parents, and working together made complete sense...at the time of course." Vickie responded now seeing the error of her ways.

"Someone here? In the past? I don't understand. Who were you going to come for?" Barnabas asked in a confused state.

"She was going to come for me. I've been here waiting." A voice said from behind Barnabas and beyond the courtyard at the small servants entrance to the main house.

Barnabas's facial expression turned grim when  he saw who was standing before him. All he could do was whisper something quietly under his breath, a gasp of air mixed with words of pure and utter shock.

"Claudia."

****

Inside the mansion in 1920, a beautiful woman walked through the dim hallway marking her way to one of the many bedrooms. Her hair was a beautiful auburn color pinned up with small pins dotted with real pearls on the end.

Her white floor length lace dress dragged lightly on the blood red carpet as she walked up to the small bedroom and peeked through the door. Inside the bedroom was a sleeping baby girl.

The woman quietly made her way into the room, the moon light lit a small walk way for her to take as she got closer and closer to the baby girl's crib.

"Ohh...my little Elizabeth, sleeping like an angel." The woman said as she softly stroked the baby's head.

"Catherine, you'll wake her!" An older woman whispered from the bedroom door.

"Shhh mother." Catherine whispered and walked back to the door. "I just can't stop looking at her mother, my Elizabeth is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." She added.

"Babies are a gift, aren't they?" Catherine's mother answered in a hushed tone.

As the two woman quietly made their way back down the hallway and down the stairs to another part of the house, inside baby Elizabeth's room seemed quiet and calm. But soon four shadows stretched from each corner of the bedroom directly to the center and began to grow in a large black mass.

The shadows connected and started to rise inside the room into a pillar of blackness that spun and swirled like a tornado of self contained black mist. The darkness flooded the room and spilled to each corner eventually breaking up into three separate pillars of the same dark mist.

From this, three entities began to emerge in human form. They seemed female in stature, dressed in period clothes from centuries past. The three entities came together and grasped hands as the slowly walked over to the crib, then carefully looked in. They were the spirits of Collins family members of the past who came to bare witness to the new baby of the family: Naomi Collins, Josette DuPres-Collins and Abigail Collins.

"Another Collins girl. May her life be filled with joy and fortune." Naomi said as her face became more and more clear in the dark room.

"Ha! Oh sister-in-law, thou knows as well as I that her life be fraught with the strange and twisted. She is a Collins after all." Naomi's sister-in-law Abigail scoffed.

"She is the most precious thing, is she not?" Josettte, Naomi's daughter-in-law whispered.

"Aye, precious." Naomi whispered back.

"She'll suffer. Is that humane? For us to watch the child grow in such a sorrow filled world?" Abigail question.

"What does thou suggest?" Josette questioned, her big brown eyes sincere and sweet.

"How canst we keep the child safe through life knowing what we know is true? The family is cursed! We take her life now to spare her!" Abigail coldly responded to the other two spirits.

"Abigail! Thou shouldn't speak such wickedness. Baby Elizabeth has much life to lead and as she grows....we shall guide her through, and thanks be to god, we know the best ways to maneuver through the darkest moments." Naomi responded sternly.

"Our guidance can only go so far. If she leaves this place now we spare her." Abigail responded with a wicked eye.

"She's of our stock, indeed she'll need our guidance throughout her life, knowing or unknowing, but I can see that the fire of a thousand braves burns inside her little heart as hot as the rays of the sun. Her life must be spared." Josette replied touching the baby's soft hair.

"By the grace of god may she never fear the darkness that will come. I pray thee is right Josette. I pray thee is right." Abigail relented.

"Then, let us go. May the soul of baby Elizabeth Collins forever be protected with our spirits in her heart for we know all that is coming, and all that shall test her and this family." Naomi said, as she grabbed the hands of her sister-in-law Abigail and daughter-in-law Josette.

"Wait! Shan't we leave her with a gift?" Josette questioned just before the spirits dissipated into thin air.

"What does thou suggest?" Naomi questioned.

Josette closed her eyes and took a breath. Her chest heaved large deep sounds of air that billowed underneath the transparent frost colored gown she wore. And when she opened her eyes again, they were no longer deep brown. Josette's eyes were an icy blue that were glowing and circling around within her eye-socket and when she spoke, her voice was deeper, darker and came like an echo from a cave.

"May the child of our daughters daughters bare the fruits of the pain and sorrow we've suffered here. This child shall have the power to link the future to the past and past to the future on her very first words, once uttered, she shall be the bridge and close the gap. Elizabeth shall see things for what they are: good and evil, dead and alive, truth and a lie. The power shall be hers." Josette said as her eyes slowly returned to brown from the icy blue.

"The power shall be hers." Replied the two spirits of Naomi and Abigail.

Once the three dead spirits of the Collins women agreed with Josette's wish, they bowed their heads in unison and disappeared into the shadows of baby Elizabeth's dark room as quickly as they appeared leaving nothing but the sleeping baby alone in her crib, safe and sound.


Down in the study, Catherine and her mother Jacqueleen sipped on their night caps when Catherine's husband Jamison walked in.

He was a handsome, strapping man with a thick head of black hair. Jamison's eyes were so deep and dark they would seem to go right into your soul once he looked at you. He was, in fact, one of the most handsome Collins men of them all. Catherine fell in love very easily.

"Are we having a pleasant evening?" Jamison said with a sideways grin as he leaned down kissed his sitting wife on the lips.

"Claudia got the baby to sleep earlier then I expected. Mother and I just left her bedroom. She's so adorable when she sleeps."

"Where is Claudia?" Jamison asked as the two women continued their night caps of a sweet sherry.

"I think she's preparing for her family's visit. Her mother and child are supposed to get here soon from New York." Catherine said.

"How do you feel about her having her mother and child here darling? Will it interfere with her work with Elizabeth?" Jacqueleen interjected.

"I'm sure it'll work out fine." Catherine said optimistically as Jacqueleen looked at Jamison with a twinge of skepticism.

"Well, whatever Catherine thinks will make this a happy home, I'll believe in. Its about time happiness swells in the walls of Collinwood rather then everything this family has suffered over the generations, and if that means having Claudia's family join us here, then so be it." Jamison said countering Jacqueleen's snobbish vibe.

****

COLLINWOOD-PRESENT TIME

Kat circled Father Joseph as if she were trying to see if he were real or fake. She could't believe what she was hearing. How could Barnabas and Victoria take her child into some sort of vortex and just disappear? To Kat, who's work as a detective involved hard evidence; see to believe attitude; could not begin to fathom the story she was hearing.

"None of that make sense! This isn't some science fiction drama you're watching Father Joseph, this is real life.' Kat yelped forgetting where she was.

"Kat, calm down please." Carolyn consoled.

"Do you believe this Carolyn?" Kat questioned.

"She has to. It's not exactly the first time it's happened. The problem is, we're not sure how we can get them back here.' David explained in a calm voice.

"What do you mean it's not the first time? David, you believe this?" Kat scoffed.

"Kathryn, I know how it sounds. It sound insane, it sounds absolutely insane! But I saw it with my own to eyes. I can't explain how she did it, or where it came from but it happened. You have to believe me." Father Joseph said grabbing hold of Kat's hands.

"Joseph, why don't I take you to one of our guest rooms where you can rest. David can explain it further to Kat. Come along." Carolyn said grabbing hold of Father Joseph and taking him out of the room and up to rest.

David walked over to the mini bar, and started to pour himself a drink. He shook his head and smiled, even laughed a little, to Kat's dismay.

"It's not even 10 in the morning and you're having a drink? I don't see how any of this is funny." She said angrily as she walked out of the room.

David could only shake his head. For all he knew everything that was happening around him a dream. It was like the worst of his childhood was happening again and again and all he could do was shake his head and laugh. He knew the outcome of these situations. He knew how they would play out. All he could do was wait, and see.

"What's going on?" Christopher asked as he and Alex walked into the room, noticing Kat storm out.

"Well it's another fine mess the Collins family has gotten themselves into of course. It seems Kat's baby..." David said before Alex interrupted.

"The baby! Did they find him?"

"Not yet. They're still looking, however there was one witness to where the baby went." David said with a smirk.

"Whats so funny?" Chris asked of David.

"The witness is a priest, who happens to be the man my late aunt Elizabeth had an affair with, by which she became pregnant." David said hysterically, as if not believing the words coming out of his own mouth.

"Wait what?" Chris asked confused.

Alex rolled her eyes and grabbed Chris' hand to take his attention off of David. "I'll explain later." She said.

Chris looked at Alex confused, and saw that the pressure of the night had started to get to everyone it seemed.

****

Kat opened the door to her bedroom where Caleb was finally waking up. He moaned a little, then rolled over in the big bed and looked up at Kat who was standing at the foot of the bed. A bitter/sweet happiness lingered over her face. She was elated that Caleb was back, but broken-hearted that the baby was missing.

She walked over to the bed side and quietly opened the top drawer to a side table and pulled out an old address book. The book had belonged to Kat and Sebastian's mother who died years ago and left them orphans as children. It was one of the only thing Kat had been able to keep when she and her brother were taken to live with their aunt.

Kat skimmed through the front pages and stopped on the B's section and circled a name and an address. 

"Good morning." Caleb said in a sleepy voice as Kat stood next to the bed with the address book in her hand.

"Caleb! Good morning, how do you feel?" Kat asked quietly as she placed the address book down and sat on the bed Indian style next to him. 

"A little foggy but things are coming back to me. I kind of feels like a big crazy dream." He said as he leaned over and kissed her on the knee.

"I just wish things under better circumstances. I feel like everything is so out of control all the time and I can't get ahead of it!" Kat said slumping down in the bed next to Caleb and burring her face in his chest.

"Vickie took the baby didn't see?" Caleb said softly.

"Yes." Kat sniffled, as she looked up at him. "How did you know?"

"When I was under her control I heard her plans. I heard her plot this whole thing. I didn't really understand what was happening or that she wanted our child. I could have stopped it! But Sebastian...." Caleb said before Kat interrupted.

"Sebastian, what did he do? Did he have something to do with this?" Kat questioned.

Caleb just nodded 'yes' with a regretful look on his face as he saw Kat's heart break even more knowing her brother was working for Vickie too.

"Well, it doesn't matter. He's gone now and no one can find him. Caleb, how is Barnabas going to get our son  back?" Kat cried.

"Barnabas?" Caleb asked, in stunned voice.

"He went after Victoria, and where ever they are, he is." She answered.

Caleb thought for a moment and remembered all the horrible photos and film clips from the 1960's that Vickie used to brainwash him against Barnabas,  but he also had the memories of the calm, mysterious man that came to his rescue when Leopold tried to frame him for attacking Kat in a dark ally in town.

These were conflicting imagines in Caleb's healing mind, but deep down in his soul he could feel that Barnabas would not let them down. They were Collins, and the family always stuck together no matter what.

 Caleb thought before answering his beautiful girlfriend.

"Don't worry. Barnabas won't let us down. He knows better than anyone just how precious life is and how quickly and viciously it can be taken away from us. He'll bring our baby back." He consoled.

Kat smiled, still with tears in her eyes and buried her face again in Caleb's bare chest. They held each other for what seemed like hours, hoping and praying Barnabas would pull through. But in the mean time Kat had another plan, a plan that would get her as close as possible to find their child.

 She turned her head and looked over at the side table where she placed the the address book opened to the B's, where there was one name circled. The person Kat believed would help her.

"I hope so." Kat responded to Caleb as she looked at the open page with the name Ezrabette Baptiste circled in red ink.