Series 5/Chapter 10: THE MIND GAMES OF WAR

In the late hours of the night, the house was finally still even with the excitement and confusion of what was happening. Christopher was still in his wolf form but sedated and locked in a large cage set up for him in the laboratory. David and Kimberly gathered together, not just to care for Christopher who would soon be rid of his curse, but also to see Caleb who David shockingly discovered outside during a fight with his werewolf half-brother.

The family who had assumed Caleb was dead and had mourned him was shocked yet relieved that he was alive. But there were so many unanswered questions to his return. Why was he secretly hiding in the house? Why was he dressed all in black and running around with a mask and weapons?

David and Kimberly reluctantly tied Caleb by his wrists and ankles to a table in the lab until they felt he was no longer a threat. They were concerned that when he finally became conscious he would turn violent and forceful. Tying their son up, they thought, was the only way they'd find out what was happening to him without anyone getting hurt.

As David and Kim toiled in the lab with their two sons, Barnabas suddenly entered the room. Carolyn told him about Caleb's capture after their encounter just hours before in the darkness of one of the sitting rooms on the first floor.

As Barnabas slowly entered, Caleb moaned and rolled his body from left to right. He slowly came to, and opened his eyes. David rushed over and patted his son on the chest to calm him.

"Caleb, can you tell us where you've been? Can you tell us what happened to you?" David asked of his fidgeting son.

"Let me go!!" Caleb yelled angrily.

"You have to tell us what's happened. Why were you hiding here? Where have you been?" David continued.

"It's simple, young David. This is none other then Victoria's doing. She must have understood the terribly irony of the family mourning Caleb's death then place him here hidden in the house this whole time doing --who-- knows what...she wanted to use him against us. His own family." Barnabas stated coldly.

"Oh for God's sake Barnabas!" David scoffed, frustrated with Barnabas' constant conspiracy theories. "None of that matters! Don't you see? My son is alive and that's what matters!" He continued.

"Of course it matters! Can't you see? This was a plot to assassinate us. David, Caleb was here to destroy us for Victoria, once and for all. Caleb, tell them!" Barnabas insisted.

"Son?" Caleb said confused as he looked up at David.

"Yes, I'm your father, and this is your mother. You're home son. You're safe." David said softly disregarding Barnabas and looking into David's eyes that seemed to suddenly soften.

"You doubt me again? After everything that I have said and everything that has happened, you still doubt that Victoria was involved?" Barnabas said matching David's earlier frustrations. "Tell him Kimberly. This is Vickie's doing isn't it!?" Barnabas asked to of Kim who was trying her best to stay out of the argent regarding her former employer Vickie.

"Barnabas, I don't know. I don't know what she's planned with anything. I've left all that behind. I've made that very clear." Kim said as she tended to Caleb's small wounds from Chris's sharp claws.

Barnabas took a frustrated deep breath and grabbed Caleb's face with both hands shoving his parents aside. He held on tightly and looked deep into Caleb's blue eyes while Caleb shifted his body from left to right and left to right, struggling to shake off Barnabas but the vampire was too strong.

"Barnabas what are you doing?!" Kimberly screamed as she watched David try and remove Barnabas from their son's face.

"Caleb, stare into my eyes and let me see deep into your mind. Let me see inside the world that you've been living in for the length of time you we thought you dead.... open up to me and let me in!" Barnabas said in a hypnotic tone.

Instantly Barnabas and Caleb fell into a cohesive deep trans. Their eyes turned to pitch black, and Caleb's memory of the last few weeks started to flow from the depths of his brain into Barnabas' mind. In Barnabas' head he could see everything that had happened since the plane crash; it played out in swift flashes like a film:

The plane crash.   The members of the organization rescuing him but leaving Carolyn.
Waking up a prisoner at Victoria's seaside Cottage.    Brainwashed by the terrible crime photos.
Arriving in Collinwood.     Hiding in the Walls.    Secretly listening to his family.
Fighting with Barnabas in the dark room.    Fighting with Christopher the wolf.

As Barnabas collected the memories from Caleb's brain into his, he reached over and grabbed David's hand but David refused and shoved Barnabas away. With the strength of a thousand men, Barnabas turned and grabbed David by the face and stared into his eyes.

David tried to look away but Barnabas' mind control was too powerful, he and David looked into each other's eyes and everything that poured out of Caleb and into Barnabas then streamed into David's mind like a waterfall of memories, situations and moments from Caleb's short time as Vickie's minion. 

The energy in the lab was electric and had began to fill the space of the room and move the objects of the laboratory. Glasses began to shake, utensils began to twitch, items on desks and tables started to move on their own, all with the power of Barnabas Collin's mind control.

Kim herself began to see the power of Barnabas for the first time since the night at Windcliff Sanitarium when he took her sister Joanna's life. Watching Barnabas remove Caleb's memories and plant them in David was something very familiar to Kim. It was the exact way he deleted her memories of the past.

The strange feeling she had that she had seen this before made her uncomfortable and it made her terrified. 

David stood in Barnabas' grasp for what seemed like forever. The flow of memories was all Barnabas needed to prove his case to David about Victoria and how she was behind it all.

As soon as the flow ended, David pushed Barnabas off of him and the two fell to the floor exhausted and drained of all of their own energy.

"My god Barnabas! Was that necessary?" Kimberly said helping David up from the ground.

"He had to see." Barnabas said stoically. 

"She .....she tortured him." David said in a concerned tone of voice as he rubbed his neck and walked over to Caleb who was still tied up on the table. 

"Who?" Kim asked confused.

"Victoria." Barnabas answered with a tight, angry jaw.

"But how? I don't understand." Kimberly responded again.

"She tied him up and showed him awful things. She tortured our son and then sent him here to kill us. How could she do this? We were like family; she was like family to us!" David said outraged after finally realizing the truth.

"She too has been lied to David, her whole life long. With the past so squarely placed in her present she has had no choice but to look at this family and use it as an excuse to do the things she done. In a way it isn't her fault. Everything she believes is based on a lie she was told. Our job now, is to reverse that. But we do not have much time." Barnabas explained.

"How can we find her? She could be anywhere. Even here, inside Collinwood. Just like Caleb; hiding in the various secret passages we have. You know as well as I do, Barnabas, this house can hide anyone...anywhere and Vickie knows this house better than any of us!" David concluded.

"When the time is right. Vickie will come and everything will change." Barnabas answered as the lights of the lab twinged and blinked off and on as the electricity in the room began to sway back and forth.

"What does that mean? Have you planned something?" Kimberly asked.

"Victoria has one last trick up her sleeve...and when she comes to Collinwood to get what she wants...we'll be ready for her." Barnabas said cryptically.

****

The clock continued it's ticking path towards 2 in the morning and Victoria still had not heard from Caleb, her brainwashed minion she dispatched to Collinwood to hide in the house and watch over the family. He was to report back as soon as Kat had given birth, an act that Vickie herself was responsible for when she ordered Sebastian to medically induce Kat's labor.

She saw that obtaining the new baby would be her crowning glory, saving it from a life of--what she thought--misery and horror withing the walls of Collinwood. A life she lived for years.

Vickie's car pulled up near the front of the main gates of Collinwood. She allowed some distance between herself and the actual entrance as to not been seen. She carefully walked up the small path to the front and looked up and the tall monogrammed gate with the letter C. The moon perfectly encircled by the rusted letter. Vickie walked over to the side of the gate and carefully squeezed her arm through the other side unlatching the emergency lever that opened the gate making it easy for her to slip her sleek body through and up the green hill to Collinwood; the house of horrors she once called home.

As she carefully sneaked through the yard, she remembered that when David was a boy he had found hundreds of secret passages that lead from inside the house to the outer courtyards that separated the main house from the old house--Barnabas' refuge. She was careful to keep herself out of the moon light and beneath the shadows of the thick foliage of the late summer trees as to not be seen.

She crept slowly and quietly to one of David's secret passages remembering how easy it would be to push the opening forward, then lift, then slide the door to the right. It was as if it were just yesterday she'd reluctantly follow David around these places exploring the many secrets of Collinwood.

On the other side, inside the home, Vickie emerged slightly dusty from the piles of ancient dust crowning the door from inside the house. She quietly slid the door closed and entered the main foyer of the house. Her eyes began to water. Everything was almost exactly the same as it once was when she lived there. The smell of the wood. The coolness of the foyer air.

She noticed Carolyn had taken up many of her mother's decorating queues, mixing the old with the new, Especially Elizabeth's favorite rule: always fresh lilies on the mahogany foyer table...which was now a like living monument to Elizabeth's legacy. Vickie cupped one of the lilies in her hand and smiled. She remembered just how much Elizabeth had always watched out for her. Like a best friend. Like a mother.

Time was wasting, and still Vickie had no idea if the baby had been born, but she knew she had to get her hands it, if it was the last thing she ever did; a last ditch effort to destroy the Collins family the way they did her. A revenge plot based on a lie by Father Joseph: Vickie's parents hadn't been killed by the shadowy members of the Collins family, in fact, they were the members of the Collins family!

Vickie's misguided anger and fear toward her birth family were memories she wished she could forget. She knew in her heart what she was doing was the right thing. The baby needed to be saved!

Vickie began her quiet walk towards the stairs that lead to the second floor bedrooms but staring back at her on the wall from in side the main drawing room was a portrait of pure evil. Barnabas!

"He's not real." Vickie whispered to herself noting it wasn't really Barnabas, but his painting.

She continued up the stairs, the house was quiet. She believed that everyone must have been asleep. The moon light bathing the hall way in a cool glow.

As Vickie turned down the hall, Alexandra came out of her bedroom at the opposite end. She was on her way to check on Kat when she noticed Vickie tip-toeing her way down the hall.

For a second Alex's stomach tied into a giant knot, she knew who it was, after all her mother Carolyn had warned that Vickie might try something - anything - including breaking and entering.

Alex had no idea what Vickie's true plan was, but she knew she had to try and stop her.

She had to think fast, and she could feel herself getting nervous and anxious. It was exactly what she needed. Alex's new ability of shape-shifting only worked when she felt like this, and the only way she could get to Vickie was to shape-shift into what Vickie hated most: Barnabas.

Alex closed her eyes and held her breath, her body began to twitch and squirm, she could feel her self quickly turning into what her mind's eyes focused on---then suddenly she opened her eyes and looked into the glass of a frame hanging on the wall to see her reflection.

It had worked. Staring back at her was Barnabas' face. Alex took a deep breath and stampeded down the hall towards Victoria who was slowly making her way to Kat's bedroom where the new baby was. Alex got close then tapped Vickie on the shoulder.

Vickie stopped dead in her tracks and slightly turned her head. In her peripheral vision she could see the dark coat and a shine coming from the golden ring with the black pearl on his hand.

"You survived your first sunrise." Vickie said as she slowly turned to see the fake Barnabas standing behind her.

But Alex kept quiet, she had no idea if her voice would be the same or if Barnabas' would be heard. Within seconds, Alex (as Barnabas) grabbed a hold of Vickie's leather jacked and began to pull her back down the hall toward the staircase, Vickie struggled and pulled back. The two of them pulling back and forth and back and forth knocking over tables and vases in the hall. The noise of the crashing glass startled the new baby and he began to cry.

Vickie heard the cry and instantly turned around towards the sound of the baby allowing a moment for Alex/Barnabas to hit Vickie in the shoulder knocking her to the floor.

"You bastard!" Vickie yelled from the ground.

Alex/Barnabas then leaned down and grabbed Vickie's foot and again began to drag her to the stairs, forcefully trying with all her might to remove her from the house. Further and further Vickie was dragged until they both got to the top of the stairs.

Vickie grabbed a hold of the bottom of the banister and held on as tight as she could, then with her free foot, Vickie pulled back and lodged it square in Alex/Barnabas' face and watched as Alex lost her balance on the top stair tumbled down the steps to the bottom of the foyer flat on her back.

When Vickie got up from the floor of the hallway she looked down and saw only Alexandra in a back in her normal form unconscious in her nightgown, not the immortal man of the undead Barnabas like she expected.

Vickie gasped and covered her mouth in shock at Seeing Alexandra and not Barnabas but her moment of guilt broke quickly when the baby's cry reminded her of what she had come to Collinwood to do in the first place.

Vickie knew now, that any moment the baby's mother would wake and come to care for him. She had no time to lose. She rushed down the hall and into the room where the baby was.

She opened the door and saw that Kat still had not come into the room. It was now or never. Vickie reached into the baby's bassinet and scooped him up in her arms where he instantly stopped crying.

"I'm going to save you from this place little one. No one is going to hurt you. No one is going to do to you what they did to me. I promise you ...the Collins will never corrupt another living soul so long as I live." Vickie said to the small baby that had yet to be named.

Victoria then turned and dashed down the hall and carefully stepped over Alexandra who was now moaning her way into consciousness.

"Vickie Stop!" A voice said from the top of the stairs.

Victoria looked up and standing there was her half-sister, Carolyn.

But it was no use, Victoria had her mind made up and Carolyn who was still nursing her legs from the plane crash could not make it down the stairs fast enough to catch her. Vickie smiled an evil grin and burst through the front door and back down the main knoll to her awaiting car leaving Carolyn and a now lucid Alexandra helpless.

"Are you ok?" Carolyn asked Alex who was rubbing her neck.

"Fine, Just a little bump here and there. She took the baby!" Alex answered.

"I know, quickly I'll call Loomis McGovern. Wake up Kat, and find David and Kimberly. They must still be in the east wing in the lab." Carolyn ordered.

"How did Kat sleep through all of this?" Alex asked in surprise after the loud noises from her fight with Vickie.

"Kim gave her something to help her sleep." Carolyn answered.

Carolyn quickly made her way into the drawing room to make her phone call to Detective Loomis McGoverm, Kat's partner at the police station. She didn't even stop to turn on the lights. She picked up the old fashioned phone and went to dial, but froze when she felt a chill crawl up her spine and a hand come from behind her that grabbed the phone and hung it up.

"I will handle Victoria." the voice said.

Startled, Carolyn quickly turned and squinted her eyes to see who was in the room with her.

It was Barnabas complete with his cane and coat ready to make his way back to where Victoria took the baby and stop this madness.

"Barnabas!" Carolyn exclaimed.

"The score will be settled cousin Carolyn. Just give me the rest of the night." Barnabas said calmly as he slowly made his way out of the room and out of Collinwood.

"What are going going to do?" Carolyn asked concerned for Vickie's life.

"Save our family. Past. Present and future." Barnabas said as he slowly made his way out into the foyer past Alex, Kat, David and Kim.

Carolyn stood alone in the drawing room as the other's came in to make sense of what just happened.

Kat's breathing shallowed, her mind raced. Her world felt like it had just blown up.

"Can we trust him?" Kat asked of the other family members who could only look at each other as if to wait for someone to say the right hing.

"At this point, we really have no choice." Carolyn said trying to comfort Kat's panic as she looked up at David.

Carolyn and David knew how Barnabas worked. They knew deep in their souls just how Barnabas settles his scores and it made them nervous because as much as he was a loyal to blood family members he was also cunning and unpredictable.