**COLLINWOOD 1920**
The morning frost crowned the trees and gray grass across the wet and marshy front lawn of the great house of Collinwood. Inside two women shared one body one from this time, and one from the future, her purpose to find her kidnapped child and bring him back to 2016.
Claudia carefully walked up the main staircase with a tray of small dishes that had little breakfast treats for the two babies in the house: Catherine and Jamison's infant daughter Elizabeth, and Kat and Caleb's son from the future, Canan. In her ankle length brown skirt and striped cotton button-up shirt, Claudia made her way up to the nursery to start the day.
Claudia carefully turned the corner at the top of the stairs and quietly made her way down the hallway to the shared nurseries of Elizabeth and Canan. She turned around and pushed the slightly opened door wider with her backside. Claudia turned around, and there was Kat, in Catherine's body holding Canan.
"Mrs. Collins? Good morning, What are you doing in here?" Claudia asked as she put down the small breakfast tray not realized the body possession.
"I needed to see him. He's so beautiful." Kat said, in Catherine's voice and tears in her eyes.
"Here let me take him for you." Claudia said as she reached for the baby.
"NO! Stay back!!" Kat yelled to Claudia's surprise. "I'm sorry, I just heard him crying and I came in to help." Kat followed up trying to continue not to blow her cover or act suspicious.
Catherine's demeanor had obviously changed, and Claudia being the conniver and body invader she was, once possessing Alexandra's body in 2016, could tell something was a miss
"Good morning." Vickie said as she too entered the room.
"You." Kat growled in Catherine's voice towards Vickie, the woman who kidnapped her child to 1920.
"Good morning." Vickie said again, this time in a more confused tone to Catherine.
"You." Kat growled in Catherine's voice towards Vickie, the woman who kidnapped her child to 1920.
"Good morning." Vickie said again, this time in a more confused tone to Catherine.
"Good mornign mother." Claudia responded to Vickie who was still under the guise as Claudia's wayward widowed mother. "Mrs. Collins has kindly taken Canan up, he was crying and she heard him. Wasn't that nice of her mother?" Claudia continued in a strange manner as if to warn her that something odd was going on.
"Oh! How very nice, yes, thank you Mrs Coll--" Vickie began before being interrupted by Kat.
"Alright, enough!" Kat said putting baby Canan down in the crib in a fed up tone. "We don't have to play these games anymore. I know who you are. I know you're not mother and daughter and I know this child doesn't belong here. Where's Barnabas?" Kat said in Catherine's voice to the shocked pair.
"What are you talking about?" Claudia hissed as she walked closer to Catherine.
Catherine pushed Claudia aside and walked over to a large white vanity mirror in the nursery and stood in front of it, to the surprise and shock of Claudia and Vickie, the angry, seething reflection looking back was Canan's real mother, Kat Banning of 2016.
Catherine pushed Claudia aside and walked over to a large white vanity mirror in the nursery and stood in front of it, to the surprise and shock of Claudia and Vickie, the angry, seething reflection looking back was Canan's real mother, Kat Banning of 2016.
"Kat! How ...how can you be here?" Gasped Vickie with her hand over her mouth.
"It doesn't matter now, all that matters is that we get my child home, just like Barnabas said he would, now where is he?" Kat asked through the reflection.
Vickie took a deep breath. She knew she couldn't hold in what she and Barnabas did the night before. Someone had to know, and if she was turning a new leaf, Vickie new she could no longer be the barer of Barnabas' secrets.
Vickie began to tell Claudia and Kat that the night before Barnabas had killed Jacqueleen and that she had helped him bury her body in the woods. Now they had to cover it up and tell Jamison that Barnabas and Jacqueleen had eloped together so that no one would go looking for Jacqueleen. It was a plan that Barnabas came up with, a plan that no one knew would hold water especially if people started to snoop around--mainly Jamison who seemed a bit off his rocker.
Kat wasn't having any of it. She was fed up with the way Barnabas and now Vickie were handling the situation. Everone in 2016 had been waiting and now that she was in 1920 with them all, Kat felt their priorities were mixed up. Little did she know it was a lot harder to get back to the future as it looked.
"We have to get my child to the site of Sea View Cottage where this all started, and we have to do it as soon as possible. I won't be in Catherine's body for long." Kat said as she walked over in Catherine's body back to the crib where her son lay.
Vickie began to tell Claudia and Kat that the night before Barnabas had killed Jacqueleen and that she had helped him bury her body in the woods. Now they had to cover it up and tell Jamison that Barnabas and Jacqueleen had eloped together so that no one would go looking for Jacqueleen. It was a plan that Barnabas came up with, a plan that no one knew would hold water especially if people started to snoop around--mainly Jamison who seemed a bit off his rocker.
Kat wasn't having any of it. She was fed up with the way Barnabas and now Vickie were handling the situation. Everone in 2016 had been waiting and now that she was in 1920 with them all, Kat felt their priorities were mixed up. Little did she know it was a lot harder to get back to the future as it looked.
"We have to get my child to the site of Sea View Cottage where this all started, and we have to do it as soon as possible. I won't be in Catherine's body for long." Kat said as she walked over in Catherine's body back to the crib where her son lay.
"What do we do about Barnabas? Do we bring him along?" Vickie asked as she picked up a crying Elizabeth.
"What do you mean 'we'? I don't think I want to see your face in Collinwood every again Victoria, as far as I'm concerned, you can stay here and live out the rest of your life. You kidnapped my child and took brought him into danger....What you've done is ..." Kat scolded before Vickie interrupted.
"Kat, listen to me! I'm sorry for everything I've done, if I could take it back I would. I realize now what a horrible thing it was and how much of what I was doing was based on a lie. I should never have hurt you and Caleb this way. I'll do whatever I can to get Canan back to 2016, and to his family. I was wrong." Vickie confused.
Kat took a breath, her detective instict to tell a lie from the truth kicked in. She could sense Vickie was telling her the truth. Whatever had transpired in 1920 over the past few weeks had cleared Vickie's head and she now saw the truth of her actions. And to Kat, that had to be worth something.
"So? What about Barnabas?" Claudia asked.
"If Barnabas can somehow escape what he's done to Jacqueleen unscathed he'll certainly have to figure it out himself, I won't beg him to come along, that's for sure. At this point his sins are his to bare and the three of us need to figure out a way out of this ourselves. Murder was never a part of the deal. I just want my son back." Kat said.
As the three women talked in the nursery Jamison stood in the hallway listening to the entire thing. His eyes watered. His mind raced. He knew, his premonitions were true, and Barnabas and the rest of these women had to die for what they'd done.
"So? What about Barnabas?" Claudia asked.
"If Barnabas can somehow escape what he's done to Jacqueleen unscathed he'll certainly have to figure it out himself, I won't beg him to come along, that's for sure. At this point his sins are his to bare and the three of us need to figure out a way out of this ourselves. Murder was never a part of the deal. I just want my son back." Kat said.
As the three women talked in the nursery Jamison stood in the hallway listening to the entire thing. His eyes watered. His mind raced. He knew, his premonitions were true, and Barnabas and the rest of these women had to die for what they'd done.
****
COLLINWOOD, PRESENT TIME
****
"Joanna? What are you talking about? She's dead." Caleb responded.
"That's who I saw in your office last night, wasn't it? That's who grabbed my lighter. Is Joanna still here...is she still ...around?" Christopher said now stepping into the conversation.
The wall of a quiet parlor inside the great mansion slid open revealing a secret passage into the house from the outside. A cool breeze filled the room and from that secret passage within the walls stood the sorcerer Nicholas Blair. His obsession with finding his mother and taking Alexandra back to the underworld just as his father Nicholas Sr. tried with Maggie Evans had reached a fever pitch. Nicholas was on a mission and finding Maggie and Alexandra was the main objective.
Nicholas slid the secret door in the wall behind him and walked through the quiet parlor that lead into a darkened office room with big leather chairs and books adorning the walls and a dark pine desk at the end of the room in front of an over sized window that looked out on to the side pasture near the house.
"Looking for something?" A voice said from the chair that behind the desk that was facing the window.
Nicholas turned, startled that someone was in the room with him, and looked at the chair that slowly turned around to face him revealing Maggie Evans sitting proudly, like a queen staring directly at the son she never knew had been created using her body. She had returned at the request of Carolyn and David to end Nicholas' plot to finish the evil work his father once started years ago.
Nicholas's eyes zeroed in on Maggie, he had an almost euphoric feeling rush over his body at the site of her. It was as if part of his plan had just fallen into his lap, like a gift from the devil himself. He was now face to face with the mother he always knew he had.
Maggie had been taken by David and Carolyn from the safety of Windcliff Sanitarium the night before. She knew her old friends needed her now more than ever and if anyone was going to stop whatever Nicholas was plotting for Alexandra, it was going to be Maggie. She stood up from the chair, stoic and regal and walked over to her bastard son with an icy look on her face. She was not going to allow anyone else to take whatever years she had left from her. Even if they were blood related.
The terrorizing of Maggie Evans was going to end-- today!
"You shouldn't be here. You should have never come here. Whatever you've planned, whatever you want to do....don't. Just stop and go on with your own life whatever that may be, but the people here at Collinwood want nothing to do with you. Go." Maggie stated sternly.
"I have a mission, something that has been engraved in me until I reached this age. You don't know how long I've been searching for you and for someone like Alexandra to fulfill that mission. The two of you are the key to a salvation that will bring a new world order...you can be like a queen, father made you his queen. Don't you remember?" Nicholas asked as he stepped closer to his mother Maggie.
"Your father Nicholas Sr, only wanted to control people and their lives for his own pleasure. There was nothing good in that...only for himself. Don't make that same mistake. You're half human Nicky. You can rise above all of that if you just give it up. I can help you do that if you want." Maggie said stepping back away from Nicholas and offering an olive branch.
"Why would I want to that? Father has promised me everything if I brought you back to him and a bride back for myself. It's perfect." Nicholas answered.
"No, Nicky, it's not. Your soul was stolen from my body, that is not perfect. Your life-force was taken from me and given to someone else to birth and raise in an evil, dark, twisted way to believe the that forces of evil are more important than those of love and good. Had I raised you myself, as my son, I would have shown you that though there is darkness all around us, the forces of good always prevail. This is what you should know. This is what you should feel inside you." Maggie explained thoughtfully.
"You aren't swayed by what father can offer you?" Nicholas asked with an eyebrow raised. "You aren't at all curious at all of the things you can have if you just come with me back to him? You and Alexandra can have anything you want, just give yourselves to me and father and you'll see." He added.
"Nicky...that is not the way of the world. You must go. You must never come back here." Maggie said.
Nicholas' eyes felt a twinge of sorrow, his birth mother was in a way dismissing him, pushing him away and something in him started to break.
"That will be impossible." He said in a darker and angry tone of voice. "I cannot go back to father without you and without a bride for myself. You know what lay ahead for me if I do so and do not comply with father. There's no question, mother, you must come with me." Nicholas said as he reached for Maggie's arm and grabbed it.
Nicholas grabbed her arm forcefully and began to pull at her, she screamed and Nicholas became more forceful and pulled her in close and turned her around then covered her mouth.
"Maggie Evans you will come with me!" He said with a dark look in his eyes.
Just as Nicholas began to drag her to the secret passage a light started to filter out of Maggie, a light that scattered all round her body like in small electrical pulses that began to twist and turn around her arms and legs, neck and face and as they got brighter and brighter they became hotter and hotter scolding Nicholas's skin burning his hands so much that he released Maggie from his clutches, only to see that Maggie was slowly turning into Alexandra who was used her power of shape-shifting. She had turned herself into Maggie.
"Trickery!" Nickolas said as Alex stood in front of him catching her breath.
Nicholas lunged at the terrified Alex but she quickly moved out of the way, and Nicholas fell to the floor empty handed.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" A voice said from an adjoining door just off the side.
Nicholas and Alex turned their heads and standing there walking into the room was the real Maggie Evans, with Carolyn and David behind her.
Carolyn rushed over and pulled Alex away from Nicholas as David pulled a gun up from his side and pointed it at Nicholas.
"What is this? Mother....sweet kind Maggie Evans has a bit of mischief inside of her. You know that all I want is for us to be a family. You and father, me and Alex. That's all this is." Nicholas loosely explained.
"Everything you heard that came from Alex's mouth was my actual voice Nicholas. Everything that was said is the truth. You cannot stay here and believe you will survive. This place, this time, is not yours. You are not of this earth." Maggie continued to explain. "I BANISH YOU BACK!" Maggie screamed as she lifted her arm towards Nicholas and closed her eyes.
"You can't do that!" Nicholas said just before the house began to shake.
Nicholas' dark veneer began to crack, the powers of darkness began to lose their grip over his presence. The room began to shake, the wind began to spill in from the outside in causing Alex, David, and Carolyn to fall to the floor and cover themselves from all the flying objects in the room. As the wind of evil became more and more intense it began to rip at Maggie's clothes and blow her hair back as if she were standing in a powerful hurricane. She knew this was her time to make sure the grip the devil had over Nicholas and her was once and for all removed.
"This is your chance, Nicky, this is where you get to release yourself from everything that has you chained in evil and find your own way, no one, not even your father has that much control over you. Renounce him!" Maggie screamed over the blowing of the evil winds.
Nicholas closed his eyes, his mind became clouded with demons and darkness flooding his brain like they were raised from the depths of hell to come back for him because of his failure to take Maggie and Alex back with him. Nicholas fell screaming to the ground covering his eyes. The horrors of the visions of evil were coming for him like hungry wolves for their prey, and Nicholas screamed trying everything in his power to not be taken in by the demons set to retrieve him.
"Fight back Nicky, you're half human. You can have a life too, a real one with love and laughter. You have to rid yourself of the spell the devil has placed upon you. You can do this!!" Maggie screamed over the wild wind.
Nicholas screamed louder and louder, a pain that was ripping as his mind and body and when he could not scream any more a loud burst of energy exploded from his chest blowing Maggie to the ground and causing the wind to suddenly stop.
Maggie, David, Alex and Carolyn were knocked out leaving them on the floor of the study covered in the room's debris. As they came to Nicholas was gone.
"What happened?" Carolyn asked as she helped her daughter Alexandra up from the floor.
"Is he gone?" David asked still pointing the gun around.
"He's gone." Maggie said solemnly.
"Maggie, are you ok?" Carolyn asked noticing her friend seemed sad and suddenly withdrawn.
"He's gone." Maggie said softly. "I can't help but feel like something in me too was taken." Maggie answered, a single tear falling from her warm eyes.
"What you did has saved us all Maggie. It was courageous and strong. What you did was something 50 years in the making. You've taken your power back. You have no need to hide anymore." David said as he hugged his friend.
Maggie smiled a half smile and hugged David back. Carolyn reached over and hugged Alexandra too. For now, the house was quiet. The world seemed half adjusted, but the world never stands still for a second and what was coming would test them all one more time.
****
Kimberly sat calmly in the study while a roaring fire lit the room just before the afternoon sun broke through an overcast sky. She flicked through pages of a novel of a far off land where nothing ever ended badly. It was her only escape from what was happening in her real life: Her dead sister haunting her and constantly forcing her to do unspeakable medical experiments on a David Collins, the man she once loved, without his knowledge. The constant betrayal was eating at Kim alive.
David's DNA had been altered and mixed with that of a liken, or werewolf, just like Christopher's had yet David's experiments had not been as successful. He had never once turned into the wolf that Joanna and Kim plotted to use against the Collins family to kill them. It was a plan Kim and Joanna had planned behind "The Organization's" back when they worked for Vickie in the great take-down of the Collins family. The take down that never materialized.
Vickie's motive was revenge on the family that she felt had abandoned her, Joanna and Kim wanted Collins money and Collins power.
Throughout both Chris' and David's trials of DNA tampering, only Chris' had been successful, but Joanna was just as determined in death as she was alive and Kim's guilt over Joanna's murder by the hands of Barnabas was what drove her to oblige the evil spirit.
As she read quietly Christopher and Caleb came into the room, armed with the files on David that Chris found in the lab ready to expose their mother for what she was doing, and hope that she would stop whatever treatments on David and end the insanity forever, both men believing the secret DNA tests were the culprit for David's angry outbursts and terrible behavior.
Caleb walked in ahead of Christopher and slapped the files Chris found on the coffee table in front of Kimberly.
"Missing anything?" Caleb said smugly as Kim calmly lifted her eyes from her book to the coffee table.
"I can't say I haven't been expecting this." Kim signed in reply pulling out Chris' lighter that she found on the floor of her office. "When you're sneaking into someone's office it's probably best not to leave any evidence behind that you were there."
"You're upset that someone went behind your back to find out the truth? It doesn't feel very good, does it? After everything we've all been through, mother, how could you do this to dad? All along you've been the one behind it all haven't you? You're the reason he was taken to Windcliff, and for what? These treatments? Why? Why did you do this?" Caleb demanded to know.
"You have to understand where I'm coming from, both of you do. There's something....someone who won't let me stop. It's Joanna." Kim answered putting down her book and grabbing the files.
"Joanna? What are you talking about? She's dead." Caleb responded.
"That's who I saw in your office last night, wasn't it? That's who grabbed my lighter. Is Joanna still here...is she still ...around?" Christopher said now stepping into the conversation.
"She's been controlling me all my life and now even though she's gone she feels more powerful than ever. It's almost like I can't say no to her." Kim explained.
"You have to. You cannot allow her to control you anymore, for the sake of our family you have to understand and stop all of this. I need you right now mother, I need you be there for me more than ever. My child is missing, Kat has been depressed and she didn't even stay at home last night. I need my mom to be there for me and not out trying to sabotage what normal relationship we have. Can you do that?" Caleb asked as Chris sat down next their mother and put his hand on her shoulder.
"There has to be a way that you can fix this mom! You don't have to be a slave to Joanna any longer. She's gone....let her go." Chris said sympathetically.
"If Dad doesnt start coming back to normal, I feel he can jeopardize the baby's return. He's already said to me that he thinks it's better Barnabas doesn't come back --which means my baby wont come back. It's so unlike him! I need him back to normal! I need you back to normal! I need my family!" Caleb said with tears in his eyes begging for his mother, the doctor, the scientist, to understand.
"It's now or never." Chris added.
Kim took a breath and looked at both her sons. She remembered how hard it was leaving Caleb when he was a young boy and the guild she never let go of, she remembered being manipulated by Vickie, Joanna and Chris' father Victor Reed under the organization to do terrible things to the Collins family including having David kidnapped and imprisoned at Windcliff 20 years ago and how she agreed to change Chris' DNA. The guilt, the pain, it all had to end.
A tear feel from her eye and rolled down her cheek staining the page of the book she was reading. Her boys still loved her no matter the terrible things she had done to them and David.
"I'll give your father the serum to dissolve the liken DNA inside of him to end it. I will.... It's the same serum that we gave Chris that ended his transformations too. I'll do it!" Kim promised as Chris scooped her up and hugged her tightly.
Caleb smiled and felt a confidence inside himself, something her not felt in over 20 years. Kim had been an absentee mom to him the divorced from David and disappeared to work in other territories for the Organization, his trust towards her had always been shaky, unit this very moment.
"You have to. You cannot allow her to control you anymore, for the sake of our family you have to understand and stop all of this. I need you right now mother, I need you be there for me more than ever. My child is missing, Kat has been depressed and she didn't even stay at home last night. I need my mom to be there for me and not out trying to sabotage what normal relationship we have. Can you do that?" Caleb asked as Chris sat down next their mother and put his hand on her shoulder.
"There has to be a way that you can fix this mom! You don't have to be a slave to Joanna any longer. She's gone....let her go." Chris said sympathetically.
"If Dad doesnt start coming back to normal, I feel he can jeopardize the baby's return. He's already said to me that he thinks it's better Barnabas doesn't come back --which means my baby wont come back. It's so unlike him! I need him back to normal! I need you back to normal! I need my family!" Caleb said with tears in his eyes begging for his mother, the doctor, the scientist, to understand.
"It's now or never." Chris added.
Kim took a breath and looked at both her sons. She remembered how hard it was leaving Caleb when he was a young boy and the guild she never let go of, she remembered being manipulated by Vickie, Joanna and Chris' father Victor Reed under the organization to do terrible things to the Collins family including having David kidnapped and imprisoned at Windcliff 20 years ago and how she agreed to change Chris' DNA. The guilt, the pain, it all had to end.
A tear feel from her eye and rolled down her cheek staining the page of the book she was reading. Her boys still loved her no matter the terrible things she had done to them and David.
"I'll give your father the serum to dissolve the liken DNA inside of him to end it. I will.... It's the same serum that we gave Chris that ended his transformations too. I'll do it!" Kim promised as Chris scooped her up and hugged her tightly.
Caleb smiled and felt a confidence inside himself, something her not felt in over 20 years. Kim had been an absentee mom to him the divorced from David and disappeared to work in other territories for the Organization, his trust towards her had always been shaky, unit this very moment.
****
The wall of a quiet parlor inside the great mansion slid open revealing a secret passage into the house from the outside. A cool breeze filled the room and from that secret passage within the walls stood the sorcerer Nicholas Blair. His obsession with finding his mother and taking Alexandra back to the underworld just as his father Nicholas Sr. tried with Maggie Evans had reached a fever pitch. Nicholas was on a mission and finding Maggie and Alexandra was the main objective.
Nicholas slid the secret door in the wall behind him and walked through the quiet parlor that lead into a darkened office room with big leather chairs and books adorning the walls and a dark pine desk at the end of the room in front of an over sized window that looked out on to the side pasture near the house.
"Looking for something?" A voice said from the chair that behind the desk that was facing the window.
Nicholas turned, startled that someone was in the room with him, and looked at the chair that slowly turned around to face him revealing Maggie Evans sitting proudly, like a queen staring directly at the son she never knew had been created using her body. She had returned at the request of Carolyn and David to end Nicholas' plot to finish the evil work his father once started years ago.
Nicholas's eyes zeroed in on Maggie, he had an almost euphoric feeling rush over his body at the site of her. It was as if part of his plan had just fallen into his lap, like a gift from the devil himself. He was now face to face with the mother he always knew he had.
Maggie had been taken by David and Carolyn from the safety of Windcliff Sanitarium the night before. She knew her old friends needed her now more than ever and if anyone was going to stop whatever Nicholas was plotting for Alexandra, it was going to be Maggie. She stood up from the chair, stoic and regal and walked over to her bastard son with an icy look on her face. She was not going to allow anyone else to take whatever years she had left from her. Even if they were blood related.
The terrorizing of Maggie Evans was going to end-- today!
"You shouldn't be here. You should have never come here. Whatever you've planned, whatever you want to do....don't. Just stop and go on with your own life whatever that may be, but the people here at Collinwood want nothing to do with you. Go." Maggie stated sternly.
"I have a mission, something that has been engraved in me until I reached this age. You don't know how long I've been searching for you and for someone like Alexandra to fulfill that mission. The two of you are the key to a salvation that will bring a new world order...you can be like a queen, father made you his queen. Don't you remember?" Nicholas asked as he stepped closer to his mother Maggie.
"Your father Nicholas Sr, only wanted to control people and their lives for his own pleasure. There was nothing good in that...only for himself. Don't make that same mistake. You're half human Nicky. You can rise above all of that if you just give it up. I can help you do that if you want." Maggie said stepping back away from Nicholas and offering an olive branch.
"Why would I want to that? Father has promised me everything if I brought you back to him and a bride back for myself. It's perfect." Nicholas answered.
"No, Nicky, it's not. Your soul was stolen from my body, that is not perfect. Your life-force was taken from me and given to someone else to birth and raise in an evil, dark, twisted way to believe the that forces of evil are more important than those of love and good. Had I raised you myself, as my son, I would have shown you that though there is darkness all around us, the forces of good always prevail. This is what you should know. This is what you should feel inside you." Maggie explained thoughtfully.
"You aren't swayed by what father can offer you?" Nicholas asked with an eyebrow raised. "You aren't at all curious at all of the things you can have if you just come with me back to him? You and Alexandra can have anything you want, just give yourselves to me and father and you'll see." He added.
"Nicky...that is not the way of the world. You must go. You must never come back here." Maggie said.
Nicholas' eyes felt a twinge of sorrow, his birth mother was in a way dismissing him, pushing him away and something in him started to break.
"That will be impossible." He said in a darker and angry tone of voice. "I cannot go back to father without you and without a bride for myself. You know what lay ahead for me if I do so and do not comply with father. There's no question, mother, you must come with me." Nicholas said as he reached for Maggie's arm and grabbed it.
Nicholas grabbed her arm forcefully and began to pull at her, she screamed and Nicholas became more forceful and pulled her in close and turned her around then covered her mouth.
"Maggie Evans you will come with me!" He said with a dark look in his eyes.
Just as Nicholas began to drag her to the secret passage a light started to filter out of Maggie, a light that scattered all round her body like in small electrical pulses that began to twist and turn around her arms and legs, neck and face and as they got brighter and brighter they became hotter and hotter scolding Nicholas's skin burning his hands so much that he released Maggie from his clutches, only to see that Maggie was slowly turning into Alexandra who was used her power of shape-shifting. She had turned herself into Maggie.
"Trickery!" Nickolas said as Alex stood in front of him catching her breath.
Nicholas lunged at the terrified Alex but she quickly moved out of the way, and Nicholas fell to the floor empty handed.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" A voice said from an adjoining door just off the side.
Nicholas and Alex turned their heads and standing there walking into the room was the real Maggie Evans, with Carolyn and David behind her.
Carolyn rushed over and pulled Alex away from Nicholas as David pulled a gun up from his side and pointed it at Nicholas.
"What is this? Mother....sweet kind Maggie Evans has a bit of mischief inside of her. You know that all I want is for us to be a family. You and father, me and Alex. That's all this is." Nicholas loosely explained.
"Everything you heard that came from Alex's mouth was my actual voice Nicholas. Everything that was said is the truth. You cannot stay here and believe you will survive. This place, this time, is not yours. You are not of this earth." Maggie continued to explain. "I BANISH YOU BACK!" Maggie screamed as she lifted her arm towards Nicholas and closed her eyes.
"You can't do that!" Nicholas said just before the house began to shake.
Nicholas' dark veneer began to crack, the powers of darkness began to lose their grip over his presence. The room began to shake, the wind began to spill in from the outside in causing Alex, David, and Carolyn to fall to the floor and cover themselves from all the flying objects in the room. As the wind of evil became more and more intense it began to rip at Maggie's clothes and blow her hair back as if she were standing in a powerful hurricane. She knew this was her time to make sure the grip the devil had over Nicholas and her was once and for all removed.
"This is your chance, Nicky, this is where you get to release yourself from everything that has you chained in evil and find your own way, no one, not even your father has that much control over you. Renounce him!" Maggie screamed over the blowing of the evil winds.
Nicholas closed his eyes, his mind became clouded with demons and darkness flooding his brain like they were raised from the depths of hell to come back for him because of his failure to take Maggie and Alex back with him. Nicholas fell screaming to the ground covering his eyes. The horrors of the visions of evil were coming for him like hungry wolves for their prey, and Nicholas screamed trying everything in his power to not be taken in by the demons set to retrieve him.
"Fight back Nicky, you're half human. You can have a life too, a real one with love and laughter. You have to rid yourself of the spell the devil has placed upon you. You can do this!!" Maggie screamed over the wild wind.
Nicholas screamed louder and louder, a pain that was ripping as his mind and body and when he could not scream any more a loud burst of energy exploded from his chest blowing Maggie to the ground and causing the wind to suddenly stop.
Maggie, David, Alex and Carolyn were knocked out leaving them on the floor of the study covered in the room's debris. As they came to Nicholas was gone.
"What happened?" Carolyn asked as she helped her daughter Alexandra up from the floor.
"Is he gone?" David asked still pointing the gun around.
"He's gone." Maggie said solemnly.
"Maggie, are you ok?" Carolyn asked noticing her friend seemed sad and suddenly withdrawn.
"He's gone." Maggie said softly. "I can't help but feel like something in me too was taken." Maggie answered, a single tear falling from her warm eyes.
"What you did has saved us all Maggie. It was courageous and strong. What you did was something 50 years in the making. You've taken your power back. You have no need to hide anymore." David said as he hugged his friend.
Maggie smiled a half smile and hugged David back. Carolyn reached over and hugged Alexandra too. For now, the house was quiet. The world seemed half adjusted, but the world never stands still for a second and what was coming would test them all one more time.