Series 6/Chapter 11 BLOOD IN THE SNOW

**COLLINWOOD, 1920**

Jamison's gun pressed cold and hard up against Barnabas' forehead as his hand shook and beads of sweat gathered on his upper lip and Barnabas remained still, frozen in his sleep awaiting dusk. As Jamison's finger began to squeeze the trigger for release a sudden rush of light and energy swooped from the behind enveloping Jamison's body and knocking him and and the coffin to the ground awaking Barnabas.

The two men slowly gathered their composure's on the floor of the basement of the old house. The light was dim, and Barnabas could not see just yet as his eyes adjusted. Jamison, his head scraped from the fall, quickly regrouped and looked down at Barnabas who was shaking his head from the bumpy fall.

Jamison's eyes began to water. He could feel the mounting anger and hatred in his body boiling up like lava in a volcano just before an eruption, but his gun, with the silver bullets fell out of his hand in the fall and had gone missing in the dark basement.

"What is the meaning of this?" Barnabas muttered as he got to his feet.

"Your demise. The clock has run out Barnabas Collins. I've finally realized just why you came here and I know what you've done. This curse, this...unholy life you live, is now over." Jamison said.

Barnabas stood up and dusted off his suite. He looked down at his turned over coffin and adjusted his thin black tie and looked over at his distant relative Jamison who sounded confidant but shook in his shoes. Barnabas could feel Jamison's heart beat faster and faster. The blood pumping through  his body was a rush of for both of the men, and not surprisingly for different reasons.

"There's nothing you can do that would destroy me more than I have already destroyed myself. Everything you've heard of me, is perhaps, truth, and I understand how disturbing it all might seem, however there's nothing I can do about any of it. It is what I have been dealt. What did you plan on doing here?" Barnabas said with a smirk.

Jamison glared at Barnabas intently but suddenly saw the silver from the gun shine from under a table. It was a stroke of luck and Jamison dove for the gun pushing Barnabas aside. Jamison spun around on his knees and with both hands pointed the gun at Barnabas once again.

"Here! This is what I planned on doing. Every silver bullet in this revolver has your hellish name on it, and I plan on making sure they enter your body with all the heat of hell you come from." Jamison said pulling the trigger over and over and over unloading the gun in Barnabas' direction.

As the bullets flew through the air a light, bright as the sun, appeared in between Barnabas and Jamison blocking the bullets mid air. The light held the bullets suspended in itself and slowly began to morph into a figure. The face and arms became apparent first then hair and a dress. It was the spirit of Josette DuPres-Collins, Barnabas first true love.

She was glowing a bright and heavenly light, in her mid section the bullets from Jamison's gun gathered in her mid section. She looked down and collected them in her hands and held them.

"Josette." Barnabas said in a stunned whisper at the sight of her.

"More sorcery!" Jamison said still on his knees with the gun pointed and without bullets.

Barnabas saw his chance and dashed through Josette's spirit on to Jamison as if he were jumping through a screen made of a white mist or fog distorting Josette's body before it reattached itself as he passed through.

Jamison and Barnabas scuffed on the floor as Josette stood in the center of the room in a flowing and glowing light with tears streaming down her pale face the bullets still in her hand.

Jamison lodged a blow to Barnabas' face as Barnabas reached for the gun, then Barnabas sent an equally powerful blow into Jamison's face in response. They continued to fight and eventually got up from the ground and separated. Jamison on one side of the  basement floor, Barnabas on the other, bleeding from the lip.

"This wasn't supposed to happen Jamison, we can move on from this if you just allow my plan to continue." Barnabas adjusting his tie and attempting to catch  his breath.

"You plan? And what would that be? Kill us all? You've come here to do that, I know you have,  but I can't let you." Jamison said stammering in place across from Barnabas.

"You say you know the truth, and what truth is that? What do you know?" Barnabas questioned as the light from Josette reflected on his face.

"This...this is what I knew. This is what I saw! You're a creature from the darkest places we know and I can't allow you to continue to infect this family. Look what you've brought upon us? This spirit that works in concert with you? A spirit! An actual spirit!" Jamison said, his mind starting to crack under the pressure of what he was seeing.

"There are spirits all around you. You know you've seen them. You've seen them all your life. You know where they dwell and you know the ones that are good and the ones that are bad, I know that of you. What does that make you? We are of the same blood, the same type of supernatural creation and we need to work together to get me back to where I came from. We can do that. We can do it together. But you must stop this madness." Barnabas stated as Josette continued to stand silently with the bullets in her hand.

"I don't trust you." Jamison responded.

"Then what can I do? I don't want to kill you.....but if you stand in my way, I will have no choice." Barnabas replied.

Jamison's eyes zeroed in on Barnabas and he screamed on awful scream and lunged forward towards Barnabas' side of the basement planting a punch to Barnabas' face, square in the jaw. Blood oozed from Barnabas mouth that he wiped with with his finger then licked it clean with his hand.

Jamison, incensed by what he saw through another punch that Barnabas caught with his hand allowing a breath moment for Barnabas to throw his own punch into Jamison's mid section taking the wind out of his lungs. Jamison rebounded and tried again to knock Barnabas in the chest but failed. Suddenly the glowing figure in the room, Josette closed her eyes and squeezed her hands crushing the silver bullets in her hand.

As the bullets crumbled to the floor she opened her mouth and let out the frightening loud, blood boiling scream of a banshee that shook the walls and floorboards of the basement knocking both Barnabas and Jamsion to the floor.

The room grew suddenly quiet. The candles were extinguished with Josette's scream. Barnabas slowly got up and looked over at Jamison who had hit his  head in the fall and was knocked unconscious.  Then as he collected himself the light began to trickle in again into the shape of Josette's spirit standing directly over Jamison and in front of Barnabas.

"This is the last time I help you Barnabas Collins. The future is in your hands. If you fail at getting the right people back to their rightful time there will be disastrous consequences for this family." The spirit said.

"Why have you  helped me?" Barnabas questioned as small tears began to gather in dark eyes.

"I know what you feel for this family and the things you've given up over the centuries. I know the sins you've committed but I feel that the good will always out weigh the bad. This is your last chance to redeem yourself in the eyes of your family. As I said, the consequences on your failure are grave." Josette said.

"I wish you could come back with me." Barnabas responded.

"Our time was centuries ago. What we had is trapped in a time that will never be again. No matter how many times you try and recreate it for yourself or anyone else. When you return to the future Barnabas, stay there. Live out whatever life you will lead there and no where else. That you must promise me." Josette responded.

"Is there really no way to convince you Josette to come back with me. We could find you a new life too...we could be together there." Barnabas said tears now streaming down his cheeks.

Josette only shook her head now and floated closer to Barnabas and put her hand on his cheek. She smiled and leaned in to kiss him. Her ghostly lips touched his battered and bruised lips and it almost felt like she were really there in a real body and real form.

"You must go back to the main house. Below in the lowest level you'll find Victoria, Claudia and Catherine. Take them with baby Canan to the site of where Jamison will eventually billed Sea View Cottage. If you make in in the next half hour the portal will open, only then can you and rest jump through to the correct time. Go! Go now!" Josette said as Barnabas wiped his tears and dashed up the basement stares of the old house to the main house.

****

Barnabas dashed across the snowy frozen front lawn of the main house of Collinwood and burst through it's thick double doors. The melting snow sloshed at the bottom of his shoes leaving scattered puddles on the hardwood floors. The house was silent except for the crackling fire in the fireplace inside the drawing room.

Barnabas stared at the fire in the drawing room from the foyer and then looked up at the clock, time was ticking away and he had to get the women that Jamison locked in the basement free and out to the site of where Sea Cliff cottage would soon be built. Barnabas quickly turned to  his left and ran down a small corridor that lead to the basement door. He pulled it open and could see from the stop of the stairs a faint light at the bottom.

"What do you think Jamison has done?" Kat, still in Catherine's body asked the others.

"There's no telling. He was like a made man." Vickie responded.

"If he kills Barnabas and we don't escape, that's it for  us. I'll never get Canan back to 2016 and we'll never...we'll never be a family again." Kat said with tears in her eyes.

Vickie's eyes too watered watching Kat as Catherine break down, Vickie felt horrible, she knew this was all her fault. Had she never interfered with their lives none of this would have ever happened.

Claudia stood in the corner of the cell shivering and silent.

And just as Kat's tears and sobs filled the basement room, Barnabas turned the corner from the back stairwell unbeknownst to Vickie and Kat who were in each other's arms still crying.

"Father!" Claudia said delighted as she walked up to and put her hands around the bars she was locked behind.

"We don't have much time." Barnabas said pulling on the cell door that was locked.

"Barnabas, what happened? Where's Jamison?" Vickie quickly questioned.

"We fought, he's unconscious at the old house but I don't know for how long. If I can't get you out of this cell now, we'll miss the time vortex opening at Sea View. Where are the keys?" Barnabas asked in a rushed voice.

"Jamison has them of course. He took them when he went after you." Claudia stated.

Barnabas looked around and only saw a old ax that had been left on a work table with several other tools. He reached for it and told the women to stand back. With all  his might Barnabas slammed the ax down on the lock that was holding the door closed. The two metal objects collided causing sparks to fly into the air. With every heave Barnabas could feel the vibrations ripping into his body. He felt more human than he had ever felt in his whole life. The electric sensation moving through him, the adrenaline, it was an exquisite sensation.

He continued to wack at the lock, blow after blow until finally the latch snapped bursting into the air with one last slice. The door was unlocked and the women were free.

"Hurry! You must grab Canan from upstairs so that we can make it in time. We have to go now!" Barnabas announced.

The women all ran up the stairs and into the main  house, Barnabas followed. Kat grabbed her baby and made sure baby Elizabeth was fast asleep and safe. She ran down the stairs and Vickie, Barnabas and Claudia were all waiting for her. Barnabas wrapped Kat in Catherine's coat and group quickly made their way out of the main house and into the snow.

As they all ran down the front frozen yard to the exit they heard a gun shot fly into the air. It was Jamison who was hot on their trail and shooting at them from behind.

"Stop!!!" Jamison screamed shooting another bullet again at the group.

The women screamed, Kat covered Canan to keep him safe as they made it to the road where the snow had been cleared. It was now just a long stretch of street before they got to the shoreline where on the side of Widow's Hill stood the grounds were the Collins family would eventually build a lovely cottage that Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard would leave to Victoria in her will.

They all ran down the street screaming Barnabas trailing behind to make sure all three women and the baby made it safely. The mud and the snow mixed to make a dark color slosh that stained the bottom of the women's fine dresses.

As they got closer to the edge of Widow's Hill another gun shot rang out from behind, hitting Claudia in the back.

"Don't stop! Keep running!" Barnabas said pushing his hand on to his daughter's back trying to block the blood from seeping out.

"It stings!!" Claudia said in tears.

"Don't Stop!" Barnabas said.

They finally reached the edge of the hill where the cottage would be build, and there just as Ezrabette promised, the time portal back to 2016 began to open. The same portal Vickie Opened with her Ouija board.

"Hurry! It'll close without you, you must jump through!" Barnabas ordered.

The first to jump in was Kat and as she did, her body separated from Catherine's like a butterfly escaping it's cocoon as she and the baby became one with the vortex sucking them back in, Catherine's body fell back, unconscious on the ground and deep in the snow.

Following Kat and the baby went Victoria but Claudia fell to the ground just before the portal, she had lost too much blood and was too weak to jump.

"Claudia!" Barnabas screamed as he watched the vortex close without his daughter and himself going through.


Barnabas fell in the snow near his daughter and scooped up her cold body, but just as he did, Jamison came up behind him and pulled him away by the neck and they fell to the ground in freezing snow in another scuffle. The mud and snow dripped from their faces and bodies as they looked up and saw that the vortex had fully closed off and vanished.

Jamison ran over to Catherine who was waking up and helped her up, Barnabas crawled over to Claudia who's blood had seeped out of her wounds creating a crimson pool in the snow.

Catherine was disoriented and had no idea how she gone outside in the snow. She looked over in a daze and saw Jamison still  pointing a gun at Barnabas who was mourning his daughter who was dying in his arms.

"Jamie, what....what's going on??" She said in a confused state.

"This monster killed your mother, he's one of the un-dead. I knew it all along, from the moment he came in to our home I could sense his evil and the horror he would bring to us." Jamison stated pointing the gun at Barnabas as snow began to slowly fall onto the frozen ground.

"Killed my mother?" Catherine said in shock. "Jamison what are you talking about?" She added.

"And you killed Claudia." Barnabas said, with a seething a sense of emotion curtailing out of his stony heart.

"Jamie!" Catherine cried as she was finally understanding what was happening and seeing Claudia's body.

Barnabas stood strong and stared directly into the barrel of Jamison's gun. He knew this could be the end. He closed his eyes and allowed the snow to fall on his face then sticking to his alabaster skin.

He began to have flashbacks of his time in Collinwood with his sister Sarah, Josette and cousin Quinton. He remembered the terrible traumas inflicted by Angelique, then the family in 1966. He recalled his fondness for Elizabeth and Maggie Evans, and his troubled past with Julia Hoffman. He stood there and allowed the memories of his time with Claudia who he took away as a baby to save her from Angelique's evil, he remembered saving Kimberly from Carolyn's bullet. His life was a mixed of good vs. evil, and now it could all be over with a single gunshot to the heart with a silver bullet.

"Do what you must." Barnabas said still with  his eyes closed and now his arms stretched out in the winter air.

 "I have two more bullets, silver in their making, and one to his heart will end this family curse once and for all." Jamison said.

"I can't look!" Catherine said hiding her face in her husbands chest.

Jamsion squeezed the trigger and the gun clicked, he squeezed again and the gun clicked. Nothing came out. He had miscounted his bullets. Jamison's anger was bursting through his eyes. He walked up to Barnabas and flipped the gun around in his hand and with the butt of the gun slammed it down on Barnabas' head.

Barnabas grabbed screamed in agony and fell face down in the bloody snow.

Then....darkness.