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.
"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.
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.
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.
