Series 2/Chapter 7: IT COMES WITH THE STORM

The witch Angelique had been passing herself off as a woman named Cassandra and had married Roger Collins, Carolyn's uncle. Only Barnabas, Angelque's former lover, knew her true identity. While married to Roger "Cassandra" and Nicholas Blair attempted a coup over the Collins family with various wicked spells and deceptions. All of them failure. Cassandra later disappeared, leaving Roger to believe she had left him...the truth was Cassandra had secretly became pregnant with a child and wanted to pass her off as Roger's, but the baby was really that of Barnabas Collins'...a truth no one would discover for years to come.

To save the baby girl Cassandra named Evangeline from a life of disaster Barnabas did the only thing he could do to save her from being raised by the wickedness inside of Angelique's heart. His connection to Angelique was powerful, more powerful than anything the world could ever created. In 1972 he learned of the baby's birth while Cassandra was in hiding. Barnabas went and searched for them. His connection to Angelique (Cassandra) was so strong that her energy was like a honing device which made it easy for him to find them.

There she was, a child so innocent and small asleep near her mother in a secret hideout just outside Collinsport. Barnabas reached in and grabbed the baby from her crib, kidnapping her to a place so far away, no one would ever find her.

In a desperate attempt to save the baby from years of torment by the secrets of her parents, Barnabas time traveled to Collinsport in the year 1850 and placed her in the safe keeping of an orphanage ..leaving Angelique alone, angry and bitter. 

His plan to save the baby he too believed to be Roger's daughter backfired. Just before she died Angelique confessed that Evangeline was really Barnabas' child not Rogers. In his rage, Barnabas attacked and drank the blood of Angelique, a toxic bite of a vampire immediately turned Angelique to ash and left Barnabas gasping for air.

Witch's blood ...a vampire's ultimate poison. 

 Just minutes after Angelique was turned to ash and Barnabas lay dying was the exact moment  where Claudia's own time traveling spell brought her.

                                                         ***COLLINWOOD, 1972***

A bright ball of light started to form at the edge of the room and expanded into the shape of a human figure. Barnabas, now close to death, opened his eyes with his last bits of strength and looked at the light. A small tear came to his eye when he began to think that possibly this was some how his way to a safe eternity away from all the darkness, but to his surprise the figure veiled in bright light was Evangeline, his long lost daughter now named Claudia.

Claudia emerged from the light and saw her father Barnabas laying on the floor covered in her mother's ashes. It angered her, but she knew that she could not undo that part of the past. A witch could not be brought back after the bite of a vampire. But her father, was a different story.

Barnabas coughed and reached out to the woman he saw come from the light not knowing she was his grown daughter Evangeline. He looked up and knew that his life was coming to an end and just needed a small dosage of blood. Perhaps, he thought, he could muster enough strength and take some from the mysterious stranger before him.

Claudia knelt down near her father and stroked his hair away from his forehead. 

"I should leave you here to die. I should sit here and watch you take your final breaths and never think twice about it for all you did. But I guess I'm different then you. I don't react on impulse." Claudia said now standing up and walking to where the mound of her mother's ashes was.

She placed her hands in the ashes, and a single tear rolled down her cheek, the powerful image of the her mother's remains tore her to shreds. She got up again and walked around the blue room.

"It really hasn't changed much over the years, Barnabas. It's  relatively the same. The family on the other hand, well, that's much different. You wouldn't recognize them if you saw them." She said continuing her small tour of the 1972 version of the Collinwood blue room.

Barnabas was now blacking out, and Claudia could feel his energy fading. It was now or never. Either she would bring him back to full life or allow him to lay there and die. The decision was hers, the power was hers, but instead of feeling relief of knowing that man who destroyed her life was dying there right in front of her...she started to feel sorrow.

She felt the fires of revenge eroding away inside of her. He was her father no matter what. But could she bring herself to replicate the exact spell her mother Angelique put on Barnabas that made him who he was and save his life one last time?

****
COLLINWOOD, PRESENT TIME
****

Alex made her way to her mother's room. Carolyn, who had just had a spat with Kimberly, was on edge. So many of things that were happening were exactly the reasons she never wanted to come back to Collinwood in the first place and now it was as if she was re-living her childhood one tragedy after another.

Alex knocked and opened the door to Carolyn's bedroom where she found her mother looking out of the window draped with white lace curtains, curtains that had been there since the room belonged to her mother Elizabeth.

"Are you ok?" Alex asked as she walked in slowly.

"That was Christopher last night wasn't it." Carolyn asked bluntly

Alexandra felt she had to explain everything even though she really wasn't sure herself how exactly Christopher transformed into the beast. 

"Mother, I don't know how to explain it. It must have been..... Claudia must be involved.

"Claudia." Carolyn said as it if to say she should have known Claudia was involved.

"She has had control over me too mother; for the last few weeks she's been inside of me. She has to be responsible for everything. I wanted to tell you last night, but when they found Victor I just couldn't." Alex said confessing her everything she could think of.

"What do you mean she's been inside of you?" Carolyn asked concerned.

"She was inside of me. We were like one person. I could see everything. Hear everything. But it's been Claudia all this time! She's the one who set the fire downstairs." Alex confessed.

Carolyn was shocked at the power Claudia had, she had never seen anything like it before.

"At every horrible turn Claudia has been there. She'll curse the day she ever set foot here."

Carolyn tensed up on the thought of  Claudia now free to roam around Collinwood continuing her chaotic reign, and I terrified Alex who had seen first hand Claudia's powers.

"Have you told Leopold Claudia escaped?" Alex asked.

"No, but we have to. He'll come up with a way to stop her. Come  with me!."

As the two made their way down the giant oak staircase that lead to the east wing that was still in the middle of fire damage repairs a sudden lightening bolt lit the stain class Windows above the staircase causing a kaleidoscope of colors rain down around Alex and Carolyn. 

A storm was brewing above Collinsport.

Just then Leopold walked in from the old house brushing the fresh rain drops from his shoulders. 

"She's free Leopold. Christopher released her!" Burst Carolyn from the top of the stairs.

Leopold took a deep breath before answering:

"I know. I had an unfortunate encounter with her earlier," he said with distaste for his one time flame from another lifetime, "but she's disappeared  again and I don't sense her presence. I can tell she's gone. Maybe for good."

"How can you be so sure?" Alex questioned.

"If she ever does return, we'll be ready for her. With every day that passes I'm more and more in tune with my new senses. There's no way she can get around me." Leopold said attempting to console Carolyn and Alex.

Alex was also getting used to the new senses she acquired as a result of being possessed by Claudia for some time. She feared if the rest of the family knew, they wouldn't understand. So for now, only Caleb would knew. And that's how Alex intended on keeping it.

****

Christopher awoke inside a candle lit room on a makeshift bed alone in the old house. He was thirsty and his muscles and bones ached from top to bottom. He stretched and tried to ease the aches, he noticed that there were fresh clothes folded on a small chair next to the bed. He walked over to the chair, the hard cold wood of the floor poked at the bottoms of his bare feet like needles. 

He sat back down as his head began to spin, like the morning after a long night of drinking. Flashes of the night before came rushing back. The shooting. Alexandra screaming. Seeing his father in the fog, then seeing his father scream for his life; screaming at him. He remembered. 

He killed his own father.

"What have I done?" He thought to himself as he pounded the side of his head, the torment of a shaky  memory was becoming too much. 

Then in a fit of anger, Christopher flipped over the bed he was on and kicked and punched the walls in a hysterical and painful rage. He fell down and buried his face in the flipped mattress, knuckles swollen and bleeding. The guilt was eating at him like a paracite. What had he done? How could this have happened? 

As he lay there devastated by his foggy memories a soft light came to him from the adjacent room.

Christopher lifted his head and got up from the bed stained with his tears. He made his way over to the doorway that faced the adjacent room and saw the woman he briefly met outside emerge from s ball of light with another silhouette, one he didn't recognize.

As the light started to dim around them Christopher could tell that the other person was a man he man. The man patted Claudia on the shoulder and left the old house right through the front door leaving Claudia alone with Christopher. 

She turned to where Christopher was standing and looked in his direction. Chris, scared that she noticed him, backed into the room and hid behind the wall. Claudia made her way into the room dressed in her ruby red cloak. She turned the corner and saw Christopher standing next to the door shaking in fear with his eyes closed hoping it was all a dream. 

"I'm not here to hurt you." She said stroking his face. "We are the same you know?" She said, referencing the fact that both of them had deep rooted pain from their parental betrayals.

Christopher opened his eyes and looked at Claudia. Claudia's anger and pain was gone. She looked at Christopher with kindness and sympathy. Without a spell chanted, or a magic potion poured, Christopher saw something beautiful looking back at him. They looked into each others eyes and his fears were instantly gone. He leaned close and instinctfuly kissed Claudia's lips. 

Inside Collinwood Alexandra felt a kiss on her own lips. She touched her mouth confused... But then knew. It was Chris kissing Claudia. 

Claudia found Christopher as somewhat of a kindred spirit. Both had been virtually used by their parents for their own causes. Both had been cursed with supernatural afflictions that neither actually wanted. Was it was love? A different kind of love that he didn't have with Alexandra?

****

The storm continued to come swiftly and swirled around Collinwood, thunder flashing a bright light into the house through the new windows in the main study. Leopold, Carolyn and Alex made their way into the room where Kat, Caleb and now Kimberly were all sitting hoping to hear from Christopher to tell him about his father. Leopold's eyes zeroed in on Kat who was on the phone in the corner of the room with her partner Detective Loomis McGovern going over the search for Christopher.

 Kat, who's threatening questions about the dead man Leopold had passed off Jack, had not made eye contact with him yet but soon felt a cold chill brush the back of her neck that startled her.  She quickly turned from mid conversation with Loomis to look directly into Leopold's eyes.

"Kat?.... Hey! Kat you still there?" Loomis said from his end of the phone.

"Yeah, yeah ....I'm here. Sorry. Listen, umm, we haven't heard from Chris Reed yet either, but as soon as we do I'll let you know, and if you hear from him first do the same. Ok?" Kat said hastily as she felt she was being watched.

"Detective, so kind of you to stop by." Leopold said now standing directly next to her.

"I was in the neighborhood." Kat said trying to break the uncomfortable feeling between she and Leopold, who did not know that Alex had placed Kat under a spell causing her to forget about the
dead man in the bay.

As Leopold stepped closer he could tell there was something different about Kat, she seemed less confident and more nervous around him. The negative vibrations he once received from her had softened. It was all due to Alex's spell, a spell that made her forget her mistrust of Leopold. But the vsmpire still had his misgivings about the good detective.

Outside, the storm raged and inside the Collinwood mansion the atmosphere was just as turbulent. Kat made her way away from Leopold. He  made her feel like he was a tiger ready to pounce. She  went over to Caleb and grabbed his hand. The fear she was now feeling was a common side effect of overstaying your welcome at Collinwod. 

The energy in the room continued to match the  electric weather outside thanks to the tumultuous events of the night before: Victor's death, Christopher's disappearance mixed with the dangers of Claudia escaping the sarcophagus and running around Collinsport. 

Alexandra began to feel a twinge of anxiety at the possibility of Christopher and Claudia being together somewhere, the kiss she felt, seemed real. 

The thunder clapped and everyone still awaitig news from Christopher jumped in their seats. Leopold knowing Chris was just a few feet away kept his mouth shut, he knew Chris' power might come of good use to him if he kept him for himself.

Kimberly looked over at Caleb and began to feel guilty about everything she had done. Not only to him but to her missing son Chris. The affair, the secrets, the lies, the experiments. Everything. She went over and sat next to Caleb.

"Don't worry. We'll find him." Caleb said calmly to his mother.

"I haven't really talked to him in so long, and now his father's dead. You know, We're all he has Caleb." Kimberly said as the realization that she allowed Victor to cloud her mind with conspiracy theories that took her away from her boys for so long.

"I'm willing to look past everything you did to dad and me, mom, I think it would be a good time to start fresh. Once we find Chris. We'll start fresh." Caleb said wiping a tear from Kimberly's face.

"I'd like that." Kimberly replied.

Seeing that things were getting calmer Kat decided it was time for her to make her way back to the police station.

"I'd better be get going. Caleb, please give me a call if you hear anything from Chris. We need to know if he's safe. If he's not, I'll officially mark him as a missing person and we'll start a search party." She said as she kissed Caleb on the cheek and excused herself.

As Detective Banning made her way to the door the thunder and lightening clapped loud shaking the house. The electricity went out and the family was left in the dark. Carolyn and Alexandra scattered to light candles all over the room when they all heard the front door swing open and hit the wall in a large bang.

"Claudia....?" Alex whispered to her mother in terrified voice.

But the footsteps that were coming closer and closer to the room were heavier then those a woman like Claudia would make. The sound of thick boots and a cane knocked up the foyer that was blanketed in darkness from the lack of lights.

Leopold began to sniff the air. A smell he found very, VERY familiar. The smell of the immortal. The smell of a man from another time, and another place. A man like him with the lust for blood.

The candle light was dim and flickered an orange glow around the room, but it was clear there was now a man standing in all blacked foyer just outside the room the family was in.

Kimberly quaked and shivered with fear, and grabbed Caleb's hand, "who was this stranger?" She thought.

Alex buried her face in her mother's back, thinking it could be Claudia.

The thunder rolled again and flashed a bright white light for a split second illuminating the entire room.

It was like the air was sucked out of the room, and in that split second of bright white light Carolyn squinted and gasped in shock at who she saw standing dead center in the doorway in a pool of rain water that had dripped from his coat and boots.

She whispered the name of a man very familiar to the walls of Collinwood, a name so infamous the entire town of Collinsport trembled.  "Barnabas."

Series 2/Chapter 6: TWO SPELLS

It was mid-morning now. The chaos had subsisted and Victor's body had been removed from the grounds at Collinwood in the very late hours by the Coroner's office. Kimberly was beside herself and in utter shock. The mission had failed and Victor was dead. She looked at herself in the mirror, dressed in all black thinking that things could have been different for everyone had she not listened to Victor all those years ago and experimented on Christopher.

Kim fastened the top button that her black blouse and made her way to her bedroom door, as she opened it, there stood Carolyn awaiting her.

"Carolyn?" Kimberly said surprised to see her.

Carolyn's hands were clasped in front of her, her blue eyes focused and her face was stone cold, she was still not pleased to be sharing her home with the woman who cheated on her cousin David and had caused him to leave to parts unknown. Carolyn had a very bad feeling about Kim, but despite it, knew she needed that keep her enemies close.

"What was he doing here last night?" She asked straight away.

"What?" Kimberly said stalling.

"Don't play this game with me. Why was Victor Reed here last night? And why do I have this sickening feeling you're behind all of this. Why do I feel you know more about that --that--thing that I saw at my door than you're leading on." Carolyn accused.

"That's really typical of you, Carolyn, pointing the finger at someone else. I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know what Victor was doing here! For all I know he was here looking for Chris who was with your daughter last night!" Kimberly said with a bold faced lie as she pushed Carolyn aside to let pass her.  

As Kimberly went past, Carolyn grabbed her arm and spun her back around to face her.

"If you have anything to do with any of this, I swear, you will regret the day you came back to Collinsport and set foot on Collinwood. I will make sure of it Kimberly, don't test me."

"You're so sure of yourself. What is it? What do you think I'm doing here? I have two sons who live here Carolyn, I'd do anything to be with them again. I've made mistakes... I get it. But I'm going to right them whether you like it or not." Kimberly said still caught in Carolyn's grasp.

"I feel sorry for Christopher, I really do. I don't know what kind of relationship he has with you, but I do know what you did to Caleb and how hurt he was when you left him as a child without even a goodbye. And then David left, Caleb's whole world was destroyed--because of you." Carolyn continued.

"You know, I have a feeling a lot of the things that have been happening around here lately didn't start when I came back to town. When did you come back again? When your husband disappeared?" Kimberly said with a veiled  insinuation.

"Jack's disappearance had nothing to do with me." Carolyn argued back.

"Not you. This whole family. This whole cursed place. Do you think I don't know of all the curious and strange secrets that the Collins family hold? Everyone knows Carolyn! There's no sense in pretending that none of this isn't normal to you." Kim shot back.

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Face it, no one is safe here. No one, and until we remove the darkness that haunts this place no one will ever be safe." Kim said.

"And just what exactly do you plan on doing?" Carolyn questioned.

Kimberly only looked at Carolyn with a fierce look in her eyes. She was determined to continue the cleansing of the horrible Collins curses no matter how hard Carolyn wanted to stop her. Their relationship was never good, but now it seemed that there was no turning back.

Carolyn huffed and released Kimberly from her grasp and marched down the hall to her own bedroom slamming the door behind her. Kimberly stood alone thinking of her next step now that she was working alone. Her only option was finding Christopher before anyone else did. By this time, he must already know what was going on and who was involved. She had to find him, and keep the secret.

*    *    *   *

Amid the chaos in the main house, there was an even more interesting exchange in a patch of land behind the old house where Leopold was living. Christopher lay naked and shivering in the grass, the effects of the serum shot in his blood stream to change him into a werewolf wearing off. He had survived the night his own father Victor turned him into a werewolf, but Victor did not.

"Poor little thing. They don't understand you do they? They don't really know what to do with you. I saw everything there was to see, and I can be the one to help you. I can be the one to save you! Just listen to my voice." said a breathy female voice that stood above Chris' naked body, now covered by the bottom of a thick red cloak. 

Chris opened his eyes slight and squinted, standing above him, in the same  blood red cloak he was wrapped in was the beautiful sorceress Claudia Bouchard, freshly released from her sarcophagus prison Leopold had subjected her to. 

"Who are you?" Chris said faintly, covering himself with with her cloak.

"I'm here to protect you." Claudia's voice said in a soothing tone.

"What---" Christopher said confused and cold as he was interrupted.

"I'm the only one who can protect you Christopher. I'm the only one who understands." Claudia cooed over Chris' body.

"What do you want from me?" Chris asked.

Claudia knelt down close to Chris. She combed his wet hair back as he shivered and shyly tried to cover his exposed body.

"Don't be scared. There's nothing to be scared of." She whispered. Her eyes meeting his.

There was a connection that she felt with him, a kinship. They both had mother's who at various times were up to no good. They both had father's who were trapped between good and evil. She felt like together they could be something, together they could take control of everything around them. The kiss they shared when she was in Alexandra's body was like a lightening bolt zooming through her body like nothing she had ever felt.

Claudia slowly bent down, closer and closer her lips got to his and just before they touched, a vocal interruption just outside their circle. 

"Enough Claudia!!!" Leopold exclaimed appearing out of thin air and walking up to the two.

Claudia quickly stood up and with wave of her mystical hand froze time all around them, only allowing Leopold and herself to move within it.

"Step away or I'll kill him." She hissed, her voice now menacing and evil.

"I should have known you'd some how figure your way out of that cemetery. Of all the years we were together, you could always connive your way out of anything." Leopold quipped, the memories of the real Leopold flowing into  his mind of his life with Claudia and her previous indiscretions.  

"Do you think you know me? Haven't you figured anything out by now?" Claudia said a sarcastic laugh. "I created you, you fool! Every memory you have belongs to my one time love Leopold. They're not yours! You're just a toy....a creation that I can destroy at anytime I want to, so don't start getting brave with me Leopold. You're not real. You're a twisted hybrid of two men meant to destroy Carolyn, that's all." Claudia said ripping into Leopold.

"What is your obsession with her? Why are you at Collinwood haunting this family?" Leopold questioned. 

Claudia paused to weigh her options: tell the truth of her Collins family connection which she had just discovered herself or keep it all a secret until the right moment?

"The unfinished business I have goes further then I actually knew, Leopold. And I have you to thank for that." Claudia said now circling Leopold like a shark sizing up its prey. 

"How?" He asked as she stepped over Christopher's frozen in time body.

"While you trapped me away, I was still able to release my soul and enter the body of your Alexandra Thorne." Claudia said condescendingly referring to Jack's beloved daughter knowing Leopold still had  a soft spot for her. "She's the most innocent soul I've seen in decades! Through her I discovered who I really was, and you'll be very pleased to know that Collinwood, just so happens to be the home where I was always meant to be. Barnabas Collins, in fact, is my father. This home, is mine!" 

And just as quick as Claudia dropped the bomb of her true paternity to a gobsmacked Leopold she snap of her fingers and flung her  blood red cloak wrapping it around her entire body. As the cloak covered and swirled around her body it caved into itself, and Claudia was gone.

Time then began again, the frosty air blew over Christopher's shivering body. Leopold picked him up and swung him over his shoulder and carried him into the old Collinwood home where he was staying away from the main house with the rest of the family.

With the revelation that Claudia was a Collins too, and not just any Collins, the daughter of the greatest vampire that had ever lived, Leopold felt deep in his dark soul that there would much more to come from the wicked witch Claudia Bouchard. And for The first time in a long time he felt a human emotion...fear.

*    *   *    *

Back inside the main house Caleb and Alexandra sat in the half re-constructed main sitting room, where the walls were painted a deep red. Alex was still unsure of where Christopher was and if he was even still alive. Her fear was that someone would notice he was missing and start to put two and two together and figure out he was the monster from the night before. 

Indeed, Alexandra had changed since her possession by Claudia. She saw things clearer, she felt things before they happened. She knew things before anyone else knew them. As she and Caleb spoke, it was as if she could hear their conversation in her head before it even  happened. She knew this must have been a residual effect left by Claudia. 

Her abilities seemed to be getting stronger by the day. She had a deep connection now to Claudia and could feel her. They were now tied together by a single mind, everything Claudia knew Alex now knew, and everything Alex knew, Claudia took possession of when she entered her body.

As Alex kept her new abilities secretly hidden she and Caleb made small talk about the night before and as they did, Kat walked in with the missing person's form she was given at the police station with the man who Leopold killed to cover up his transformation from Jack to his new identity. 

"You're hear early." Caleb said, pouring her a cup of coffee.

"I actually had something I needed to show you last night before everything happened and I feel like if I don't get to this now something even worse will happened and I never will." Kat explained going into her inside jacked pocket and pulling out the paper.

Alexandra, with her knew powers knew exactly what was on the paper before it was unfolded and stood up quickly to intercept it.

"Is this police business?" Alex said stalling Caleb from opening the paper to read it.

"In a way it is, yes." Kat said surprised at Alex's outburst.

"Don't you think then we should have some sort of representation?" Alex said now taking the paper away from Caleb's hand. 

Caleb looked at Alex confused. 

Alex's only objective was to stall Kat so that she could tell Caleb what Kat had with her. They needed time to come up with a different story as soon as they could.

"All I want is for you to look at this paper, that's all. And once you do, maybe you --or anyone--can shed some light on it." Kat said hinting that she knew more then they knew she did.

Caleb grabbed the paper back from Alex and suddenly, as if by instinct, Alex lifted her hand in front of Kat's face and closed her eyes and said out loud: 

"A window into the mind I go, 

Fazing out everything you know,

Let lies be truths within our walls

Listen to my voice as it calls"

Caleb looked over at Alex shocked, even Alex seemed surprised at her actions. Kat closed her eyes and shook her head. All of a sudden she felt dizzy and the room went into a haze. She opened her eyes and everything was different. Kat's mind seem to be blank. She had the feeling that she was forgetting her thought mid sentence.

"Are you ok?" Alex cautiously tested.

"Ummm...yeah, I just...that was weird. I got dizzy for a second." She replyed.

"Here! Why don't you have some water instead of coffee. Have a seat." Caleb said ushering Kat over to a sofa, totally confused of what had just happened.

Kat mentioned nothing other paper she had just handed him. She then went over and sat down on one of the new sofa's that had come in to replace the one's that burned in the fire.

"The room is coming along nicely isn't it?" Kat said sipping the water. "Anyway, the coroner looked at Victor's body, just before I came here I got a call from him. They're saying some sort of mountain lion must have got to him." 

Caleb stepped aside and opened the paper and saw the missing person's form with the face of the man Leopold killed and passed off as Jack. A sense of relief washed over him, and then he looked over at his cousin Alex, who herself felt a bit of relief her spell had worked. 

"What the hell is going on here?" Caleb whispered to Alex as Kat continued to sip her coffee and look over some of the repairs on the other side of the room. "Did you know what she was bringing here?" He continued carefully folding the missing persons and hiding in his pocket.

"I don't know exactly whats happening to me anymore, but Caleb, I've changed some how. I can see things, I can hear things. It was that woman, that Claudia being. She entered me and...I don't know she's changed me." She said in a similar hushed tone.

"But how did you make her forget what was on this paper?" He asked again making sure Kat still didnt hear him.

"All that matters is that it worked." Alex replied

Leopold true identity was safe; Alex had thwarted off Kat's continuous questioningfor now. But Alex, being a novice when it came to the strength of her newly found powers didn't know how just long any of it would last.

*    *     *     *

Inside the old Collinwood mansion where Leopold was living, sat a vampire and his mortal enemy the werewolf surrounded in darkness and only the light of candles was allowed to touch their faces. Leopold had no idea what he was going to do with Christopher but he knew he had to keep here there before anyone could find him. He had to know how he was created without a full moon.

Christopher however was knocked out cold from the night before and had only woken for a minute outside while with Claudia. 

Leopold paced back and fourth while Christopher slept trying to figure out what was happening around him and if the werewolf was really sent for him and not Victor.

As Leopold contemplated and Christopher slept, he suddenly sensed the same peculiar sensation he felt from Kat that he felt from the night at the Blue Wale pub. He leaned over and made sure Christopher was out cold then grabbed his jacket to make his way over to the main house...Kat and her constant prodding needed to be dealt with before she got too close.

As Leopold dashed off, Claudia watched from a darkened corner of the room where no one could see her. 

She knew that her life was at stake now that Leopold was aware that she had escaped the sarcophagus in the cemetery.

Her plot to seek revenge on the Collins family for Barnabas' sins was beginning to feel misguided. Barnabas was the one who killed her mother Angelique. Barnabas was the one who took Claudia away as a baby and placed her in an orphanage so far back in time that no one would find her even if they tried.

It was clear now that Barnabas was the one person who could pay for what he did, and not the rest of the family. He was the cause of all her suffering, so he would be the one to deal with. 

Claudia slid away unnoticed in the room where Leopold and Christopher sat by candle light. She made her way to an even darker, empty room where she removed her red cloak.

Claudia made a circle in the center of the room on the wooden floor and stood transfixed inside of it. 

She closed her eyes and whispered a spell:

"To another time I go forth and find

The man I call father: time rewind

For he is the one I seek answers of

Let me find him left, right, down, and above"

Claudia's body began to glow so bright it lit up the entire room. She started to feel herself lift and spin in the circle, faster and faster and faster until she was completely filled by the light. Then as the ball of light expanded and she went in, she was gone. Leaving only the red cloak on the floor.