Series 7/Chapter 4: THREE SECRETS

On a spring like day, the sun and fresh sea air filled the village. The freshness often masked the macabre things that hid just as the sun went down, it was a welcome distraction to the world around the citizens of Collinsport, Maine.

Down in the village two old friends, Maggie Evans and Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne, caught up on a walk to the Evans family cottage. Maggie, in particular,  had a weighing secret she needed to express and Carolyn was the only person she could trust.

The two old friends slowly made their way through the village as the sun made its final decent behind the hills that bordered the western part of town. It was twilight now and the orange glow from the sky beamed down on Maggie and Carolyn's faces like candle light from the sky.

"I never thought I'd walk this way again." Maggie said interlocking her arm with Carolyn's.

"It is very good to have you back, even if its just for a while." Carolyn said.

"Well, I don't know about that. Something has come up I might have to say longer." Maggie explained.

"Oh? What's that?" Carolyn asked stopping Maggie on the sidewalk to talk close to the Evans' cottage.

"Carolyn there's a lot you don't know about the years you were gone. When you left to London 35 years ago, my life changed too. And I wish I could say it was for the best." Maggie said.

"I have to admit, I don't know much about what happened here in town when I finally left. It was just too much for me to keep tabs...after my mother died, I needed to get away from here, I thought I'd never look back. For that, for leaving like that, I'm sorry, I wish I could have been here to help you. What happened in those years Maggie?" Carolyn asked.

Maggie took a deep sigh and tightened her grip on Carolyn's arm.

"I was married at one time. To a man that did not treat me very well. He was cruel, Carolyn, beyond anything you might imagine. I suffered for a long while before things changed. I couldn't allow myself to go through another torment. Not again" Maggie explained, referencing her suffering at the hands of Barnabas Collins years before her marriage.

"Oh Maggie, I didn't know."

"We had two children together but his cruelty only extended to me. He loved his children." Maggie explained further.

"You have other children! Maggie, where are they? Do they know you're alive?" Carolyn questioned remembering that Maggie had been hiding under an amused name at Windcliff after she faked her death.

Maggie turned and looked off over into the sea. The waves crashed and splashed up against the rocks spewing salty sea spray all around them sprinkling on their skin and glistening little orange dots that reflected the setting sun. As Maggie paused in introspect she noticed a large ocean liner just off in the distance heading directly towards them. The seagulls floated above it circling around and around: the Collinsport welcome wagon.  Maggie smirked at the sight of the seagulls, and turned back to Carolyn.

"They don't know. I left them in the safety of a friend of mine, she took care of them while I hid away from their father at Windcliff. They assumed I went insane and died. But as you know it was an escape plan from everything that haunted my life; my children's father. Barnabas. Collinwood. To keep my children safe I thought I had to make sure their father believed I died." Maggie expalined.

"But why? Why would it matter if you were alive or dead?" Carolyn questioned.

"My ex-husband, Thatcher, made sure my life was a living hell. If thought I was gone, he would leave Collinsport, and let the children have as normal a life as possible. I know that for a fact. But if he finds out it was all a lie...he'll come after me and them." Maggie explained.

"And none of them know." Carolyn said as a way to connect the final dots.

"No." Maggie confirmed.

"After David and I found you and we took care of Nicholas we thought you'd move on. So what's changed now? Why have you decided to stay in Collinsport and come out of hiding? " Carolyn asked sensing the other shoe was about to drop.

"He's back, and he's looking for our son. I can't let him get to my children Carolyn. I can't. I've kept myself hidden long enough and now is the time for me to fight back." Maggie said as she grabbed Carolyn's hand and continued on their walk to the Evans' cottage.

They continued the short distance to the cottage that had been left in similar condition for many years after Maggie's father Sam died. Maggie had purposefully left it the way. It was a way to honor her father, a way to preserve his life and existence throughout decades. The cottage remained small, cozy and most of all a place of solace and beauty. It was filled with Sam's art.

Carolyn walked into the house and smiled. She saw all of Sam's paintings. Carolyn toured the front room and touched the beautiful canvas paintings feeling all of the bumps of dry paint that were so carefully painted with the perfect stroke of an artist.

"He was so good." Carolyn said marveling at one of Sam Evan's landscapes.

"He really was." Maggie agreed handing Carolyn a small black book.

"What is this?" Carolyn asked taking the book before opening it.

"Sit down Carolyn." Maggie said pulling Carolyn at her arms down to the sofa.

Carolyn looked confused and slowly opened the book, there were photos two beautiful children.
Maggie's children.

"These are my kids. My son Sebastian. My daughter Kathryn."

Carolyn looked up from the book with a smile at first then when the names of Maggie's children registered in her mind her facial expression changed.

"Your children. .... Kath...Kat? Kat your daughter? Caleb's Kat?" Carolyn asked.

"Yes. They're mine." Maggie confirmed proudly. "That's why I  need your help Carolyn. I need your help to protect them. Kat can  never know I'm her mother, she needs to always believe I died. Knowing that it was all a lie could destroy her." Maggie asked.

"But she's a police officer Maggie, she can help you if she only knew of whats happening." Carolyn pressed.

"No, Thatcher believes he's above the law. Whatever he does is beyond anyone's control. He's had that complex every since I met him. That should have been my first warning. Men who think they're above any kind of institutional control are always trouble." Maggie said with a whip like wit.

"So what do we do?" Carolyn asked.

"We need to find Thatcher before he finds us....and we need to kill him." Maggie answered coldly.

Carolyn was stunned into silence.

****

It was now early dusk. The setting sun had turned the sky a deep purple and the crows had now settled in the trees above Collinwood resting for another day, and keeping watch over the great mansion. These powerful black birds had lived in the branches above this land for generations.

And just as generations of crows fell to their sleep outside, three generations of Collins men met inside. Caleb joined David in the drawing room with baby Canan after a long nap and the strange occurrence with Anna Tate.

"Well, if it isn't my two boys. How's he doing?" David asked as he pinched Canan's plump little cheek.

"He's doing much better. Carolyn told me about what happened. How's Anna?" Caleb questioned.

"She's fine. Resting in her room, the poor thing. You know she's been here for three days and she hasn't had a good one yet." David said as he cooed with the baby.

"Do they know why she was calling your name when she passed out?" Caleb asked sitting down now with the baby by the hearth.

"What do you mean?"  David replied in confusion.

"Kat called me when she went back to work this afternoon after her visit that when Anna woke up from fainting she was calling your name. No one really understood why, I thought they would have told you." Caleb explained.

"No, no one said anything. I came in to help her up and take her to her bedroom but no one said anything. How odd." David said.

"What do you think about her? Ever since she's been here she's been sick but no one knows why?" Caleb said noting the odd behavior.

"I don't know. I feel sorry for the girl. She was supposed to be in town researching a roll for a film and so far all she's done is seen the inside of her bedroom. I myself have been feeling a little odd since she's come too. The damned headaches!" David said.

"You're getting headaches?" Caleb questioned with a bit of concern.

"Nothing to worry about really. There's a new doctor coming to Windcliff, I'll make an appointment with her and see what she can do." David explained.

"Windcliff? The mental hospital? Why would you go there for headaches?" Caleb asked in surprise.

"It's the last place I was that dealt with me medically. They have a file on me." David explained to Caleb's confusion. 

As the two men continued to talk, just beyond the two French doors where Caleb was sitting with the baby was a small court-yard thick and lush with blooming flowers, bristly green shrubs and ivy that attached itself to the building, growing all the way up the sides of the mansion's walls like an outer sheath of green leafy armor. Inside that thicket was Anna, listening intently, her hands tightly wound on a locked around her neck. 

Back inside, a knock on the door. David dashed over to answer it. 

"Well, well, well look what the cat dragged in." David said as he opened the door to Sebastian Banning, Kat's brother and Canan's uncle. 

"Mr. Collins, pleasure to see you again." Sebastian said as David stepped aside to let him in.

"I guess it's not a strange thing for me to ask where the hell you've been hiding all these months, now, is it? I mean what kind of person induces his sister's labor then literally vanishes of the face of the earth." David said, slugging Sebastian with a truth bomb right off the bat.

"I'm sure you all have many questions." Sebastian answered as he walked into the drawing room where Caleb was.

"You're damn right we do." David pounced.

"I honestly don't have any explanation. The night Canan was born is a blur to me. I honestly do not remember anything after running down here to get my car so that I could take my sister to the hospital. After that, it's just gone. My memory is gone." Sebastian answered. 

David sat silently as he let Sebastian explain his way through the hours after his disappearance. How he woke up in a hospital outside of down days later without any memory. How someone had found him miles away in total disarray, attacked, it seemed by some wild animal.

Though Sebastian's memory was bleak at best, David's was not. He remembered what he saw outside the night Kat went into labor. He remembered finding Christopher the werewolf snarling and foaming at the mouth only steps away from Sebastian's running car. He remembered also finding Caleb half alive himself under that werewolf.

David was connecting the dots. Had Christopher also attacked Sebastian, yet Sebastian survived? David knew what happened to those who survived a werewolf attack. He knew what it meant. But did Sebastian?

As Sebastian continued to tell his story to a sympathetic Caleb and a weary David, Anna continued to listen outside. She peeked around the corner from the window. The voice of the stranger, Sebastian, spiked her interest. She looked in and saw a tall, dark and handsome man. He was strong and rugged but had a kindness and sensitivity to his eyes.

Anna stepped a little closer to the glass to get a better look, still clutching the locket around her neck. She was enamored by him. She was struck by his aura. There was something about him, something that attracted her instantly to him. It wasn't just his good looks. There was something underlying that she couldn't put her finger on. What was this impulsive attraction to him? What did he poses that made her feel this way so quickly?

Whatever it was, it was evident, Sebastian had to be the one. He was the one that she felt would understand her, he was the one she felt would go where she needed him to go and do what she needed him to do. Sebastian was the chosen one.

Anna released the locket in her hand allowing it to dangle now on her neck. The locket, a pretty early turn of the century gold, had initials carved on the cover: LMC.

****

As the clock struck the dinner hour, Thatcher Banning inched his way closer to finding the truth about many things in his life. First, he still had no idea his son Sebastian had returned to Collinsport. Without hearing from his daughter Kat, the sincere worry crept into his heart and sat there like a stone.

But just before dark he decided to check Sebastian's last known place of employment: Windcliff Sanitarium.

Sebastian had worked there as Dr. Joanna Grayson's assistant for many years, he even kept this fact secret from Kat and Caleb so that David Collins could continue to be held there against his will. But those days were gone, Dr. Joanna Grayson was gone, and Sebastian was gone too.

A whole new era was beginning at the fledgling mental hospital, and a new chief of staff was on the horizon. Thatcher, however, only wanted one thing. Information.

"Excuse me." Thatcher said to one of the nurses standing with her back turned to him at the nurse's station.  

"What is it dear?" The nurse replied still with her back turned.

"I'm looking for someone. Do you think you can help me?" Thatcher replied, trying to get a look at the nurses face.

"Visiting hours end in about 20 minutes, hon, do you think it's worth it?" The nurse replied in her bristly Boston accent.

"Actually, I'm not here to visit anyone, I just need to know if someone still works here. My son. I haven't heard from him in a while and the last time I checked in with him, this is where he worked." Thatcher said. "Sebastian Banning." He continued.

"Oh!!! Yeah! I know him!" The nurse answered, happily.

"So he works here?" Thatcher asked again.

"No." The nurse answered abruptly to a frustrated Thatcher.

"But he did?" Asked the father.

"Yup--but he left a long time ago. He stopped working here when our old boss got  ..." The nurse said as she ran her finger across her throat and stuck her tongue out.

Thatcher was confused, he shook his head as if to shake out the nonsense the silly nurse was spewing. He looked around to see if there were any other people around and saw a man at the end of the hall sweeping.

"Do you think that guy would know where Sebastian went?" Thatcher asked the nurse.

"No. He's a patient, don't go over there. Listen, why don't you come back when we get our new chief of staff, she'll have much more leeway when it comes to opening up personnel files, ok? All I can tell you is that your kid worked here, and now he don't." The nurse said.

"Oh! Well good, I'd like to speak with her too...oh, actually one more thing before you go...." Thatcher said noticing the feisty nurse was getting ready to leave the nurses station for her nightly rounds. "I would also like to know about a former patient. My wife. She died here and I was wondering if any of her belongings were left behind."

"W wife. huh?....no patients have died here in a while, Who's she?" The nurse replied suspiciously.

As the two were talking, the male patient on sweeping duty at the end of the hall had reached the nurses station. He was strikingly handsome, thick black hair, hazel eyes. His skin a perfect tone of peach. He continued to sweep, even pretended to, just to get close and listen in on the conversation.

"This was a while ago, yes, you see I haven't been in town for years and..." Thatcher began before being interrupted.

"What's her name honey, I aint got all night ok?" The rudely quipped.

"Margaret. Margaret Banning, or maybe she was under her maiden name Evans." Thatcher answered as the nurse looked through a small filing cabinet next to the desk.

"Margaret 'Maggie' Evans"? The nurse replied.

When the name Maggie Evans was said out loud, the sweeping patient's head lift straight up. It was a name he was very familiar with. It was a name he had etched in his brain for many many months.

In fact, the sweeping patient strangely appeared passed out on the front steps of Windcliff one very stormy night, unconscious and burned on the palms of his hands and the bottom of his feet. These burns the patient strongly attributed to Maggie herself because the patient was Maggie's illegitimate child Nicholas Blair Jr, the same Nicholas Blair Jr that Maggie believed she had vanquished back to hell to his father Nicholas Sr.

Nick, as he was going by now, was left powerless after Maggie's vanquishing, and was returned directly to Windcliff by his father's powers never to see the light of day again. He was rendered insane and a danger to the outside world.

But now, now that Thatcher was here and asking for, by name, Maggie Evans he knew it was a sign. She slithered back into his life by coincidence and now he saw his chance to get revenge.

"Sorry pal, Mrs. Banning didn't leave any personal effects when she passed." The nurse said swiftly as she turned around quickly and walked down the hall passing Nick.

Thatcher rolled his eyes and went to reach for his car keys that were sitting on the counter top of the Nurse's station when Nick suddenly grabbed them first with the reflexes of a black cat.

"Hey now, give me those keys. I don't want any trouble." Thatcher said holding his hands up between Nick and himself.

"I know Maggie." Nick said holding the keys close to his chest. "I know her. I know who she is, and I know where she is." He added.

"What do you mean? You know where she's buried?" Thatcher asked confused.

"She's not dead. Maggie is alive. She lied to you." Nick said, his cold eyes looking deep into Thatcher's.

"What the hell are you talking about? Maggie died in this hospital years ago, I know she did. They told me she did." Thatcher countered.

"She lied. She faked her death. Get me out of here and I can take you to her." Nick said with an evil smirk.

Thatcher looked at the patient, the man with the broom, Nicholas Blair, Maggie's demented son born of an evil curse placed on her during The Black Mass, the same Nicholas that tried to take her back to hell for this father and kidnap Alexandra at the same time.  Alive and well, hungry for revenge on his mother and his father for abandoning him in this hospital he saw was a personal hell.

"Take me with you." Nick repeated.

****

The fog of the late evening rolled in, crossing over the Collinsport short and surrounding the entire village in one big soupy white mess. Only the lighthouse peeking through the mist ever so often could be seen.

In the harbor, a large ocean liner had docked. Curious passengers disembarked for a very happy relief from their long trip aboard. Most of them visitors who would catch some sleep at the Collinsport Inn for the night then head off on to tour buses that would shimmy across the small East Coast roads that showed off Maine's regal and majestic forests before heading off to Boston and then Philadelphia.

But one couple, an elderly gentle man and his adult daughter were here to stay. As they slowly made their way out of the ship, and their luggage and the large crate carrying Dr. Julia Hoffman's remains were carefully placed on a large truck, they stopped at a small booth at the end of the dock to register.

"Good evening, welcome to Collinsport. Passports please?" The man said.

The man looked at the passport of the woman and smiled. "Welcome Dr. Morgan."

He stamped her book. Then looked at the old man's British passport: "Mr. Barnabas Collins....." the man said as his face turned to white.

The citizens of Collinsport weren't green on the history of the Collins family. It was well known to all the dark side of their founding family's history. The rumors. The secrets. The murders.

"Uh, well, sir, I welcome you home." The man said as he stamped Barnabas' book, his eyes locked on Barnabas' aged face.

As the man looked on, still white as a ghost, Siobhan helped her father Barnabas carefully into a waiting black sedan driven by a man who flew in from Singapore before them named John Xander.
She buckled her 93 year old father's seat belt and jumped in the seat next to him, motioning to Xander to drive off.

"He seemed frightened." Siobhan said in a soft concerned voice.

Barnabas only turned his 93 year old head and looked out of the window towards the man in the booth and lifted an eye brow.

"He should be." Barnabas whispered to himself.

                               

Series 7/Chapter 3: THE FIGHT FOR MORTALITY

In a small white townhouse in the center of a busy district in Singapore an old man, with white hair and a cane topped with the head of a wold retired to his room just up a small winding staircase that creaked and cracked as he took each step. He slowly made his way to his bed where he pulled down the covers and sat down. He huffed a sigh of relief, resting his 93 year old body in a warm bed. He glanced over out his window and saw beautiful lights flickering off the ocean from the city below. Next to that window a small table crowned with a photo of he's beloved wife Julia Hoffman; a woman that had seen  him in the darkest moments of his life---and never shied away.

"It's been a long time coming, darling. Tomorrow we begin our journey home, home to Collinwood." The old man said to the photo as he lay back in his warm bed preparing to dream about the journey and the search that brought him to this  Far-East Asian city in 1972.

He looked around his room. It had been decorated the same way since they arrived in Singapore 45 years ago, a direct replication of his bedroom back at home in Collinsport. Minus one very different thing...the special sleeping chamber he once used was now gone. He hadn't needed it in decades.

The old man knew the time to return home was right. This moment in his life he had expected for years and years and years, and because of the several tears in the fabric of time that had been created through various expeditions of time travel, he had to stay away and allow things to progress to this very moment.

This very minute. This very second in time was the time he'd dreamed of for 45 years.

The clock had finally struck for the return, his return, and yet he knew not what he would find once he arrived on those very familiar and very historic shores.

As the old man turned away from the photo to fall asleep, another photo, the one on his nightstand, watched over him as he fell off to a dream world.

This photo too was of Julia Hoffman, but she wasn't alone in it. She stood happy and smiling a dock on the Singaporean shore holding the hand of her husband of  just a few years...her husband Barnabas Collins.

***SINGAPORE 1972***

In the last remaining hours of the the evening Julia made her way swiftly down to a darkened room that had been set up with a large crate that had been shipped here in the underbelly of a large sea liner that came from Boston. 

Julia walked over to the crate and noticed a shadowy figure standing in the corner, the shadow stood still and silent but Julia was not started by this person. She expected him to be there. 

"Their almost finished bringing in the rest of our things, we should be safe now." Julia said to the man standing in the dark. 

"I can't believe you talked me in to this Doc. I thought after all these years and everything that I went through I wouldn't have to deal with this anymore." The man said in the shadowy corner of the room.

"We offered you something you couldn't refuse. If everything goes as planned, you'll have your freedom. That's what you want, isn't it? It's what you've always wanted." Julia said stepping closer to the large crate that was delivered with her things from the Boston sea-port.  "Now open the box Willie." She added

From the shadowy corner, Willie Loomis stepped forward with a crow-bar and sneered at his friend from Collinsport, Maine. He took a deep breath as she lifted her head and looked down at him to watch him open the crate. 

As the crow-bar loudly became jabbed in the crease of the wooden top and the main portion of the box Willie huffed and puffed and pushed and snapped open the top. The wood cracked in half and a ball of saw-dust like powder expelled into the air around Julia and Willie. As the dust settled Julia eagerly  stepped forward and looked down.

It was there. Barnabas Collins' black lacquered coffin.

"Open it. Open it Willie!" She screamed.

Willie was almost in a tears. He had been here before. He had seen this before. It was a moment in his life that he regretted yet strangely was grateful for. All almost 10 years before he sneaked into the Collins Family crypt at Eagle Hill Cemetery and opened a Pandora's box that would change the lives of everyone in Collinsport forever. And now, in Singapore, Willie wondered would he do the same here.

"What are you waiting for, open it, Willie!" Julia barked again.

Willie snickered at her and reached down into the crate and opened the top of the coffin exposing the one they had all been waiting for. Barnabas Collins, the man who never died. The man who dwelled in the realm of the shadows.  

Barnabas opened his eyes and slowly levitated  out of the coffin. He was still as board, and without even bending a knee stood on his own. His body had  stood straight up in a locked position. His eyes were like two onyx jewels sparkling in the flicker of the candle light while Julia and Willie looked on in the shadowy room.

Their travels to Singapore where not for adventure or for leisure. They were here purposefully. A year after the Leviathans left Collinwood in 1971, word came through Julia's connections in the medical and mental health community that an old doctor in Singapore had created some sort of cure that could reverse the actions the body would take as it deteriorated in an older state. Mainly the blood therapy was for patients who were in the final stages of their lives, on their death beds, that would some how prolong their lives shortly and ease their pain into death.

The blood transfusions this doctor in Singapore created were panned by the medical community. Its use of a synthetic mutation of human blood could cause even further bodily harm and instant death. 

But what would it do to a body that should have been dead years ago, to a body that belonged to a person who was suspended in limbo between the veil of the living and the of the dead.

This synthetic blood mutation, Julia believed, would be the final answer, final cure for Barnabas' blood thirst.

Upstairs in the small drawing room, Julia switched on a small lamp exposing the several boxes of the belongings from Collinsport. In the room was a few chairs, a sofa and in the center a medical table.

The table was for Barnabas.

"Lay down here." Julia said making the table more conformable.

"We're going to do this now? Jeez Julia, he's just woken up." Willie said tossing himself on the sofa.

"Time is of the essence Willie. There's no time to waste." Barnabas said removing his ring and placing it carefully on the table next to one of the chairs.

"How do we even know if this is going to work? How many blood tests have you done back in Collinwood and none of them worked? What makes you so sure that---" Willie said in dissent. 

"Enough! This is the decision we made and this is what's going to happen. You'll get your payment as soon as it's all said and done, I honestly don't know what else you want from me Willie. Just sit there and be quiet. Dr. Lo will be here shortly to perform the procedure." Julia said scolding Willie.

"Now, Julia calm down. Everything will be fine." Barnabas said patting Julia on the shoulder. 

"It's just important that everything that happens here tonight works and that there is no one--NO ONE--standing in our way. Not this time. Not now." Julia said emphasizing her instance to Willie.

"Whatever." Willie said quietly. 

"And what happens after? I usually don't think of the future but this whole possibility makes me want to. The future may be very bright for me." Barnabas said looking Julia in the eye as he lay calmly on the table.

"Well, that's up to you. We could always go back home to Collinsport." Julia said leaning down close to Barnabas.

"Perhaps." Barnabas said knowing that his time in Collinsport was a repeat of what he had already lived. He was living in a cycle of time thanks to Jamison Collins and what he did to Barnabas back in his time travels to 1920.

Being locked back in his crypt awaiting Willie to re-open him coffin again in 1967 was a punishment he never through he'd suffer. Now, he had to wait for years to pass before he never set foot in Collinsport again, and his time in Singapore would be perfect to allow it all to happen.

"When it's safe...right now every eye is like a dagger waiting to strike." Barnabas added.

"Then we'll stay here. It's close to Dr. Lo. He can monitor you for as long as possible." Julia added.

"Would you stay with me here...so far from home. So far from all you've known?" Barnabas questioned.

"What's left for me in Collinsport if not you. Barnabas I don't know if you realize just how much of my own life I've given up to be by your side, through the horrible and through the disastrous, I've stayed loyal to you. I'm here to help you." Julia confirmed.

"We have been through many things, and I've learned to trust you Julia. You've become so much more than just a friend. Thank you." Barnabas said touching her face.

"And What about your family? she asked.

"They'll survive. I know for a fact that the future is bright for them. And I know that'll I'll see them again. Maybe not today, but some day." Barnabas cryptically. 

What Julia didn't know was that Barnabas had lived his life twice. His time traveling had switched the time lines in the past and in the year 1920 Jamison Collins and destroyed the Barnabas buried in the 1700s and switched him with the Barnabas that had traveled back in time from the year 2016, thus forcing the Barnabas from the future to relive his entire life all over again. He knew the future. He knew that Carolyn and David and Vickie would be fine in the 21st Century, because he had already lived a life in those days.

But being trapped in 1920, erased a timeline forcing him to relive again and again, trapped in a circle of his own life. The true punishment of being one of the undead and a true punishment of time travel. 

Once the Singaporean doctor named Lo, the doctor Julia and Willie and Barnabas had traveled by ship to find for help with a cure used his synthetic blood serum on Barnabas everything would change...and hopefully for the good. 

Willie, who had gone in to let in Dr. Lo, walked back into the dim makeshift examination room in the house in Singapore. 

"Dr. Hoffman, Dr. Lo is here." Willie said standing aside to let in the doctor.

Dr. Lo looked around and smiled, not really understanding why he was where he was but was eager to help the afflicted patient. 

"Thank you for coming so late. We just wanted to make sure we could get this done as soon as possible. This is my patient. Barnabas Collins." Julia said introducing Dr. Lo. 

"Hello Mr. Collins." Dr. Lo said looking down on his patient with a bit of confusion as he took  his pulse. "I don't understand." he said.

"It's a very long and confusing story, doctor. It's better that we just start the procedure. Could we please?" Julia said removing Dr. Lo's hand from Barnabas' wrist.

"Of course." Dr. Lo said with a bit of hesitation in his voice. 

Dr. Lo removed all of his tools and placed them on a side table next to Barnabas with Julia assisting. There were needles and tools to prick the skin and then there was the synthetic blood serum. It was as crimson as human blood, and the smell, the smell swept into Barnabas' nose like a spring flower blooming in a breeze. Even though it was synthetic, it was real enough to arouse his senses.

"I will need to find a vein." Dr. Lo said looking over Barnabas' arm.

"Let me." Julia, who was more accustomed to Barnabas' body offered.

The needle went into Barnabas' skin easily and he winced in a bit of discomfort. No  matter the status of his body he could feel even the slightest pinches of pain. His nerves were still intact, as were his emotions, which at this point were overflowing with nervousness and anxiety.

"I have to ask, why are we in such a darkened state?" Dr. Lo asked again as he prepared the drop line for the blood switch.

"Can't ya see doc? Maybe you need better glasses." Willie joked from the sofa.

Dr. Lo turned away from Willie and looked at Julia who was standing over him, his eyes gazing over the top of his glasses. "Dr. Hoffamn why is it so dark in here, don't you prefer to work in brighter conditions?" 

"With all due respect, Dr. Lo, it's better that you leave the questions in your mind and don't ask them. What we're doing here is trying to save this man's life. That's all that matters. I'm here to help guide so please, lets leave it to that." Julia said, still protecting Barnabas' secret.

Dr. Lo felt uncomfortable and only want to get the hell out of the house. Whatever was going on there he wanted nothing to do with, and if he hadn't been paid so much money, he would have been gone along time ago, from the moment he couldn't find a vein. 

The reluctant Doctor connected the drip-line to the IV stuck in Barnabas' arm and watched as the red synthetic liquid began to pump into his body, mimicking the real thing. 

As it slowly seeped into Barnabas' body, his veins began to expand and became long vines of blackness under his translucent skin. They became visible looking like road maps all overt his arms and face, like large leafless tree dark branches all over his face filling Barnabas body.

Barnabas' eyes opened and turned from their brown human like state to black onyx circular discs that spun around in his scull. He began to twitch and turn. His body began to shake, tremors shifted all over from his head to his feet.

"What are his vitals?" Dr. Lo asked frantically.

"He's fine." She responded.

"What's happening to him? Is this what's happened to your other patients Lo?" Willlie said rushing over to his master. "Say, this don't look right!!" He screamed.

"No, this has not happened before. Dr. Hoffman, pull the IV." Dr. Lo demanded.

"Stop! No! He's fine!" Julia said as Barnabas convulsed on the table.

"This is unethical Dr. Hoffman, something is going wrong! We have to stop it." Dr. Lo cried.

"Absolutely not!" Julia said, her body now standing between Barnabas and Dr. Lo.

"Julia! Look at him! You gotta stop this!" Willie said, but was pushed away by Julia.

Barnabas continued to convulse for a few more seconds as they argued then he suddenly stooped.

Julia, noticing the noise from Barnabas' bed behind her stopped turned slowly and Dr. Lo and Willie began to walk forward.

As they walked closer, Barnabas' head was turned away, and suddenly he snapped his head towards them, his mouth open wide with this piercing fangs searching for any soft flesh to attach to, but the restraints kept him from reaching.

Barnabas began to shake again, pulling angrily at the restraints, his eyes now yellow and glowing, he opened his mouth again hissing to everyone in the room reached out to Barnabas who snapped his mouth at his fingers nearly missing it by inches, shocking Dr. Lo who jumped back in terror knocking over a table full of his metal tools. 

"What is this! What is this!!!" He said screaming from the floor.

"Willie, take him upstairs." Julia demanded as she turned back to Barnabas.

"Don't touch me! I demand to know what the meaning of this Dr. Hoffman. I said Don't touch me!!" Dr. Lo screamed as he stood up with Willie's help.

Barnabas continued to hiss, his eyes glowing a fierce yellow. His fangs ready to piece the skin of any human that he so desired. But something was different this time, something had changed. His body had not broken from the restraints of the table. He writhed all over but could not break them. The super human strength granted to him by his vampire affliction was gone as Dr. Lo's blood continued to pour into his body.

And suddenly, his fangs began to retract. His skin became more peach toned. His veins that had turned an angry black as if filled by tar began to soften and turned to a nature color and go back into the his skin. The glowing evil yellow eyes turned back to black onyx then quickly back to a regular state. 

"Look." Julia said in a whisper with a smile.

Willie, shocked of what he was watching saw Barnabas pass out and then....out of no where, the monitor Dr. Lo brought to track the patient's heart beat began to move. It beeped. It beeped again.

"Is that what It think it is?" Willie said now standing next to an unconscious Barnabas.

"A heartbeat Willie. It's a heartbeat!!!!" Julia exclaimed as she oddly reached for Willie and hugged him.

Dr. Lo's experimental synthetic human blood mutation in the form of an IV serum had worked.

Barnabas was mortal again.

Julia shed a small tear as she watched as the color continued to flow throughout his skin. She walked over to the sleeping former vampire and touched his skin. It was warm.

"It's finally happened. It's finally happened." she said as Willie walked over to Julia and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Dr. Lo took off. Should I go after him? He knows." Willie said in a quiet voice.

"No. He wont tell anyone. He'll never tell anyone. His fears of even having a memory of this night will guard our secret forever." Julia explained.

Julia walked over to a window at the other end of the room. The sun  had just began to peek out from over the hills where their house was nestled safely in.  She drew the curtains, the rays of light poured through into the room and touched Barnabas' warm peach skin. His body squirmed a little, the warm light finally touching his skin after centuries of shadow dwelling.

"Now we can begin our lives Barnabas. Now we can create our own little world. It's finally happened." Julia said moving the hair from Barnabas' forehead.

"You're free." 

                               

Series 7/Chapter 2: RAVAGES OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND

It was a sunny pre-spring afternoon. The crisp salty sea air swirled around the hills on the land the great mansion of Collinwood stood on like the sprinkles of pixie dust. The child that lived at the mansion was just waking up from a mid-day nap when his mother Kat came home for a quick visit before returning back to work at the police station.

Kat, dressed in her gray slacks and tight leather jacket cradled baby Canan in a warm rocking chair in the corner of a nautical themed nursery. She looked down at his olive toned skin and his big brown eyes and hummed softy to him, soothing his fussy nature. 

"You're just a lazy guy today, aren't you? You just want to go right back to sleep don't you?" Kat said teasing. "Is auntie Carolyn letting you sleep all day?" She continued.

Kat hummed a song very familiar to her. It was the same song her own mother used to hum to lull her to sleep as a child. It was one of the few vivid memories she had of her mother who died when she and her brother Sebastian were very little. 

Kat hummed a soft renditon of London Bridge just like she remembered her mother singing it to her. She cuddled with Canan until his big brown eyes began to get heavier and heavier and until they were completely closed and he was fast asleep.

As Kat continued to rock her son, the new visitor to Collinwood, Anna Tate, was coming out of her room after taking a long rest herself, the trip to Collinsport took a lot out of her and caused her some great fatigue. As Anna turned the corner from her bedroom door she heard Kat's humming. The song called out to her like a siren in the sea. The soft sound floated in the air in the hallway and filled Anna's ears. She closed her eyes and took in the sweet humming and slowly made her way to the door of Canan's bedroom.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt. I just couldn't resist. I had to see who was humming so soothingly." Anna said in a whisper as to not awaken Canan. "I'm Anna. Carolyn's guest. You must be Detective Banning." She added.

"Oh...Anna, right right. Caleb mentioned Carolyn had someone visiting. Pleased to meet you." Kat in a similar whisper of a voice laying Canan back in his crib.

"He's an angel." Anna said looking down at the baby.

"He really is. He's never a bother." Kat said still glowing over her adorable baby.

Anna looked down at the child, a warm feeling began to grow inside of her like she had seen this crib before. Like she had been in this situation before, looking down at a happy baby boy with big brown eyes laying in a crib. She froze for a second and grabbed on to the rails of the crib with both hands.

Kat broke from her baby-ogling and noticed the sudden change in Anna's facial expression that changed from joy to instant pain.

"Anna? Are you ok? Anna? Anna?" Kat asked, her brow furrowed in concern trying to loosen Anna's fierce gaze on the baby's crib.  

"What? I....oh... uhh, yes, I'm fine. When I got to town I started to feel a little ill, maybe I'm still not 100%. It's nothing." Anna said brushing of her strange moment.

"Are you sure? You look a little flush?" Kat replayed.

"I guess I'm also having a little bit of deja vu. It's weird." Anna said with a slight smirk, but then noticed she may have said too much.

"Really? Do you have kids?" Kat questioned trying to figure out what Anna meant.

"No, No, I mean-- I just meant ...anyway. I'm just tired." Anna stammered. 

As the two women had their conversation the baby slowly opened his eyes and looked up at his mother and Anna talking above him. In his foggy haze of half asleep/half awake Canan broke in an instant tantrum, and for some reason Anna's presence made it much worse.

"Ohhh poor little cabbage. What's the matter?" Kat said reaching down to pick him up again.

The baby was screaming, his eyes were red and tears were streaming down his face like water from a stream but his eyes were fixated directly on Anna.

"He must be so tired." Anna said nervously, noticing the baby wouldn't take his eyes off of her.

"I don't understand, he's had a nap today, he shouldn't be this fussy! Shhh...shhhh it's ok cabbage, it's ok mommy's here." Kat said nuzzling Canan's soggy cheek. 

Anna began to feel uncomfortable. 

"Maybe I should go." Anna suggested.

"Oh it's ok, you don't have to, he's just cranky." Kat replied.

Canan's frustration started to burrow into Anna's mind, his cry was piercing, she started to feel dizzy as his screams got loud and louder echoing in her mind like a seagull circling the open sea, round and round the baby's cry went in her mind, a merry-go-round of sound spinning in her brain. 

"Canan, what's the matter? Shhh, shhhh quiet... its ok." Kat said again tried to console him. 

As Kat tried without success to quiet her baby Anna fell to the floor in a sweaty heap her mind floating off into a white space of memory.

In her unconscious state Anna saw herself in a long soft white coat and white dress walking in a white space, void of objects and physical items. It was just her, alone in the space with just the sound of a crying baby in the distance.

"Where are you?" Anna said looking all around her searching for the crying baby. "Where are you? Please, help me find you! Where can I find you?" Anna said as she began to run further into the white space. 

She ran and she ran and nothing appeared, but the baby's cry persisted. She turned left she turned right in the maze of white nothingness to find the crying child, but to no avail. She looked all around and finally at the end of a long stretch of what seemed like white fog and clouds was a baby's light blue crib.

Anna felt elation, she dashed across the white ground towards the crib, but just as she got close enough to touch the crib and the crying baby inside, it burst into flame. 

The flames began to engulf the crib within seconds. The flames were so hot, Anna could feel her skin blistering. The pain was like being skinned alive. She reached into the flames, and suddenly her whole body absorbed the fire from the crib leaving it as if nothing had ever happened, blue, perfect and un-burned

Anna became the fire and the fire became her. She felt it turn her blood to molten, her bones to red hot pokers. As her body burned with the flames from another time she reached into the crib to grab the baby that was crying but there was no baby.

It was gone.

"MY SON!!!!" Anna, The woman on fire, screamed at the top of her lungs.

"ANNA! ANNA!" Carolyn said slapping Anna's face in Canan's nursery.

"Is she ok?" Kat said walking back into the nursery after taking Canan to a safe place.

"What happened? I, don't feel well." Anna said in a sweaty pulp on the floor.

"Get David, we need him to carry her to her room." Carolyn ordered of Kat.

"David....." Anna said softly. "David." She repeated again with a proud smile then her head fell back and she fainted again.

****

In a wooded area just outside of Collinsport, the mystic Ezrabette Baptiste calmly stroked the fur of her black cat Calpurnia on the porch. Calpurnia's large yellow eyes gleamed up at her owner as she purred with comfort from Ezrabette's neck massage. She stretched herself long on Ezrabette's lap exposing her claws then curled back up into a cozy little black ball.

The warm Maine sun fell on Ezrabette's skin and in her small chair on her cottage's wrap around porch she fell asleep, but her mind would not be at peace for long. 

In her dream state Ezrabette could smell the potent stench of lilac and rose water mixed with the burning of incense. She turned around in an empty room filled with people dressed in black who had their backs turned to her. There were women in long black dresses with thick black veils hiding their faces. The men in long black coats, their faces too blurred by the lack of light in the room.

Ezrabette walked closer to where the people in black were turned to, she walked slowly noticing the dangling crucifix's between the leather gloved hand of one woman, it sparkled and glistened catching Ezrabette's eye. 

She wondered over and the white silk lined coffin open, a body inside, cold yet regal. This was an omen. This was a message. This was a sign. As Ezrabette's eyes moved from the edge of the coffin closer to the face of the person inside she suddenly heard what sounded like the engine of a car. She turned back around and all the people in black, the mourners, were gone just one man remained. 

She looked over at the man who's face was still hidden in the darkness of the room. 

"Who are you?" She said to the man.

All he did was point to the person in the coffin, and as Ezrabette turned back around to the look inside the coffin at the person lying inside the engine of the car got louder and woke her up ....she was back on her sunlit porch at her small cottage in the woods outside Collinsport and there was a car at the end of her long driveway. 

She looked up and saw a man coming down out of the car, a large strong built man. Dark hair, dressed in a dark pants and a white shirt. She stood up from her chair and opened her screen door shooing her cat Carlpurnia back inside. 

This was the moment she had been waiting for for a very long time. The man walking up her walk was Thatcher Banning, Sebastian and Kat's estranged father and Maggie's former abusive husband. A man who turned cruel and viscous during his marriage to Maggie in the late 80s.

Becoming the other dangerous man Maggie would run from forcing her to lock herself at Windcliff Sanitarium and fake her own death there in order to find peace.

Ezrabette swore she would protect Maggie's children from Thatcher, no matter what the cost and she had kept her promise all these years keeping the secret of Maggie being alive. 

"Hello old friend." Thatcher said leaning on Ezrabette's porch banister. 

"What do you want?" Ezrabette said coldly. 

"Is that anyway to great one of your own? It's been a very long time since we've seen each other, I was expecting one of your double cheeked kisses and a warm hug." Thatcher joked.

"I asked you what you wanted. Now tell me." Ezrabette responded even colder.

Thatcher saw that Ezrabette was in no mood for happy reunions, and relented to her demand.

"My son. I haven't heard from him in over three months. Kat isn't returning my phone calls. I'm pretty sure you can tell me where he is." Thatcher replied.

"I have not spoken to Sebastian. I can't speak for Kathryn. You'll do better finding her at work, at the police station." Ezrabette answered.

"Now, Bette, you know I don't do well in police stations. They don't really like me there." He joked.

"Leave those kids alone. They don't deserve a father like you." Ezrabette said.

"Now what does that mean? Do you think I haven't had any contact with them? At all? All this time? Come on now Bette. They're my kids. Of course I've reached out to them. And they're adults, they can call me if they want. Nothing you can do about that now either." Thatcher said.

"You've been gone all these years. Do really think you can call yourself a father?" Ezrabette asked.

"Maybe its too late for fatherhood. But I got a new grandson. Didn't think I knew that one huh? You're the psychic, doll, you should have know I knew of little Canan. I'm going to be there for my kids now...and my grandkid." Thatcher said to Ezrabette's anger.

"You're right, I can see things. And what I see for you is no good, mon cher. It's not good at all." Ezrabette warned.

Thather rolled his eyes and looked off into the distance with annoyance.

"I expected some of your voodoo hocous pocus but I was hoping it'd be better than that." He answered sarcastically.

"Don't tempt me." She hissed.

 "If you see my daughter, please ask her where my son is, won't you? I know you'd do that for me." Thatcher added turning back around towards his car. But there was something different about Ezrabette that he noticed. Something strange as if she wanted to tell him something but could not say it. He could sense it in her. He could sense that she was holding back. He squinted in suspicion and took a few steps up onto the porch and got close to her. 

"What is it Bette? Hmm? What's this feeling I'm getting from you, eh? There's something....something you're not saying isn't there?" He questioned.

"You should leave. Leave now." Ezrabette said stepping away from him.

Thatcher nodded, and stepped back down onto the walkway and began his short trip back to his car, but kept his head turned towards Ezrabette on the porch. 

"I'm back in town Bette....so I'll be around." He said with a sly grin as he started the car's engine and drove off.

Ezrabette had a sinking feeling her dream, the omen, was a warning that some sort of death was near and the fact that Thatcher appeared at her door steps moments after she received this message was no coincidence. Her heart began to beat in her chest like a drum, it thumped and pounded against her sternum. She had to get a hold of Maggie, Maggie had to know of Thatcher's return.

Thatcher's car was now just a spec, a dot in the distance and Ezrabette dashed inside in time with the beat of her own heart. She blasted through the screen door terrifying Calpurnia who was sleeping on top of the back of the sofa. She rushed past the cat and grabbed her phone and dialed a phone number that was written on a small slip of paper on her dining room table that read "new mobile". 

"Margaret? Margaret, it's Ezrabette. Where are you?" She asked Maggie frantically.  "Your father's old cottage, good. Stay there. Do not leave. Something has happened...... It's Thatcher.....he's returned." 

**SINGAPORE**

Dr. Siobhan Morgan looked over the costumes paper work Mr. Chow, the costumes agent, left at her desk. After seeing the exhumed remains of Dr. Hoffman, Siobhan's mother, Mr. Chow did not stick around to take the signed paper work with him. He left her a stamped envelope...and rushed away.

Later Siobhan sat at her desk filling out the rest of the form to take the coffin back to Collinsport where her mother would be layed to rest again at Eagle Hill Cemetery when there was a knock on her office door.

"Come in." She said to the caller. 

As the door opened, Siobhan's face lit up, a smile from ear to ear.

"Come in! Come in! Sit down." She said rushing over to help the person in to her office. "How are you feeling this evening?" she questioned.

The white haired man, old and frail walked in with a cane and puttered over to one of the fluffy chairs Siobhan had in her office. He looked around and noticed all the paperwork on her desk and shook his head.

"I know, you always tell me I work too much, but I have to make sure we have all this ready for the trip tomorrow morning. How are you feeling about going back to Collinsport?" She asked with a soft smile.

The old man smiled too and muttered out in a breathy small voice "nervous."

"I wouldn't be. You haven't been back in so many years, I think you'll be well received, after all it's your home too, you're whole family will be so excited to see you." Siobhan responded.

The old man had been in Singapore for over 40 years, he had made this place, in the far east his home and had been here ever since he left Collinsport. His departure from America was under great duress, however. It was almost a self imposed exile, but he didn't travel alone; no the man came here with the woman in the coffin. The woman who died in the late 80s, he came here with Dr. Julia Hoffman in the beginning of 1972 and had been here ever since.

"Have you made any contact with anyone back at home?" Siobhan wondered.

The man shook  his head.

"And why not? I'm sure they'd love to hear from you. It's been so long." She replied.

The old man, now in his 90s,  took a deep breath and spoke again. "Not so long." He whispered.

"What do you mean?" Dr. Siobhan Morgan asked.

The man just shook his head again, knowing the explanation he carried in his mind was too difficult and complex to speak out loud at this point. Siobhan, of course, only knew pieces of the old man's past, most of his life was shrouded in secrecy or was covered up. That's how he and Julia preferred to keep his past.

"Well dad," she said sitting on the arm of the chair he was in, "I can understand you're nerves but trust me. Whatever happens in the next few days will be worth it. Your family will love you no matter what and now that you're so advanced in your age, I'm sure they'll be thrilled to have you home. Where you've always belonged, and mom too." Siobhan said to the old man with white hair, her father.

The man with the white hair and cane looked up proudly at the daughter he fathered with Julia Hoffman, and patted her knee.

"I have cook bringing in some dinner for us before you're off to bed, so let me take this so that we can set up a nice little table for us to eat around you here." Siobhan said, kindly moving the old man's cane to make him more comfortable.

She walked directly across from the man in his chair and hung the cane from the small wooden arm the stuck out from the overstuffed sofa in her office. And there hanging in brilliantly in the evening light and hooked on to the arm of the sofa with it's silver wolf faced handle was the cane of Barnabas Collins.

Series 7/Chapter 1: GHOSTS FROM THE PAST

The warmth of the sun slipped into the drawing room through a crack in the drawn thick drapes around delicate french doors that lead to a thawing porch just off of a court yard of the great house on Widow's Hill. There was a quietness, a stillness in the home. A stillness that reached every member of the household in what was a well needed and seldom achieved peace. 

In the study, Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne wrote to her daughter Alexandra who had left in late January to her native London. Alex and Carolyn had been in Collinsport for over a year and with all the trials and tribulations that had occurred Alex felt she had to refresh herself  back in her home town, taking her boyfriend Christopher and his mother Kimberly along for the adventure. 

"Dear Alex,

The house has been oddly quiet for the most part. There are times where I can hear the waves from the sea crash up against the rocks and I think to myself something has to give, this peaceful feeling won't last. But it has! I'm grateful for that. Your young cousin Canan is doing very well, his three month birthday was yesterday. He's so precious, Kat and Caleb are wonderful parents.... he's growing so fast! I'll have to send you photos the next time I write. I miss you so much, darling. I hope to see you soon. Please give my love to Christopher.
Love always, Mummy"

Carolyn looked down at her letter and smiled, tilted her head slightly and wondered if she should mention Kimberly, even though they (almost) never got a long, they had been on better terms when she left. Carolyn digressed and folded the letter as it was and carefully slid it into a perfect white envelope already marked with Alex's London address. 

She did miss her daughter. They were closer than ever, but Carolyn herself understood the constrictions Collinwood could pose on a young woman. After all she was a young woman herself once, haunted by the curses her beloved home possessed, troubled by the lingering danger that always surrounded it's halls. But it was home none the less.

As Carolyn placed her letter to Alex on the desk a phone that sat at the edge of the table, black and sleek, a relic of decades past with a cord strangling it's receiver to the base, suddenly rang, braking the silence in the room and startling Carolyn in her seat. She grasped at her neck with the jolt and laughed at herself then answered the phone call.

"Hello?" Carolyn said in a whisper of a voice.

"Carolyn, Hi, Its Vickie." Victoria Winters said on the other end.

"Oh! Vickie!  How are you? Did you and Joseph make it to New York alright?" Carolyn asked with a smile on her face.

"We did! We've just gotten settled here. I just wanted to call and say that...well I wish things had gone a little differently. You and I have so much to catch up on and one day I hope we can." Vickie said waiting for Carolyn's response.

"Vickie, there's nothing I'd like more. My Mother....our mother," Carolyn said correcting herself. "would have liked that we did. So, when all is said and done, and you're all ready for visitors in the city, how about I come down and we just shop all day!" Carolyn continued, her voice eased and relaxed.

Vickie laughed in relief, the anticipated tension she carried on her shoulders felt like a weight on her shoulders lifted with simple phone call; a normal relationship with her half sister had bloomed. As they hung up, Vickie agreed to the future shopping excursion in New York.


Carolyn walked through the shiny black doors of the study and down a dimly lit hallway with the letter in hand for Alexandra. She stepped into the drawing room and opened one of the desk drawers searching for her stamps.

"A letter? Well, aren't we feeling very antiquated. Who's the letter for?" David said entering the drawing room with his signature bluster teasing Carolyn for her old style of communication.

"It's for Alex, I'd rather her get something handwritten then an impersonal email. David, a  handwritten letter from your mother is priceless." Carolyn said in a snooty tone back.

"Well, then I wouldn't know!" David said with a twinge of sarcastic sadness; for his own mother Laura Collins hadn't been seen or heard from in decades.

He managed to push out a smile and gave his older cousin Carolyn a tight morning hug. "How are things this morning?" He continued as he sat on the sofa flipping through a news paper someone had left on the side table.

"Fine. I'm expecting my Goddaughter Anna any minute now. Her train should have come in from Boston about 20 minutes ago. I sent Powell our to fetch her." Carolyn said mentioning the family driver Powell.

"How excited you must be. I haven't seen Anna since her baptism. Have you kept in touch much over the years?" David asked sincerely interested.

"Here and there: proms, graduations, birthdays....but she's an actress now and in town to see what it's like to live in a town like Collinsport; research for a role she's playing. I'm excited to have her." Carolyn said placing the stamp on Alex's letter.

"A town like Collinsport? What exactly is this role?" David joked, hinting at the strange occurrences the town has to offer.

"David, please. Whatever you do, don't go there with Anna. I have no idea what she knows and what she doesn't know but I can assure you, I do not what her to think we're town full of crazies and ...whatever else." Carolyn said stammering.

"Well every town has it's crazies, cousin, it's the 'whatever else' we should be worried about; particularly the Collinsport 'whatever else'. It's our biggest export." David said with a laugh.

"Oh!" Carolyn said tossing a throw pillow at him.

Just as the cousins, David and Carolyn, continued to chat in the drawing room the Collins family drive Powell opened the front door holding a large Louis Vuitton suitcases in each hand and a smaller tote bag tucked under his left arm. He placed them down on the floor and ushered Carolyn's goddaughter Anna in.

"Please come in Miss." Powell said in his deep baritone voice.

Powell, who stood six feet three inches, dapper in his looks even if he was an older man with a white hair and beard. He was the spitting image of the last Tsar of Russia Nicholas II.

As Powell, closed the door, a strikingly beautiful blond blue eyed woman of 25 walked in dressed in a long coat of all black wool. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, her eyes wide and curious.

"Thank you." Anna said quietly, removing one leather glove. She patted her forehead that was a glistening in the lights, the warmth of the room filling her body causing her to become flush and rosy cheeked.

"This way miss." Powell said bringing Anna to the closed double doors of the drawing room.

Powell turned the knobs and opened the doors announcing her:

"Miss Anna Tate." he recited.

"Oh!!" Carolyn laughed jumping from her seat. "So formal Powell, please Anna is family. Anna, darling come in come in!" Carolyn said ushering Anna over to the center of the room. "This is my cousin David, David, this is Anna Tate." Carolyn introduced.

"Anna it's a pleasure to meet you...again! You were just a baby the last time I saw you. We're very pleased to have you. Carolyn tells me you're here to research for a film role." David said politely as he reached for Anna's hand to shake.

Anna removed the other leather glove, took his hand and looked at David intensely. Her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest, pounding like a warrior's drum louder and louder. The heat from her body circulating around her like a storm.

David noticed her intense stare and hot hand too and quickly let go.

"Thank you, yes," She said shaking out of her mini trans  "that's right. It's a love story. A woman who's been lost for many years and she comes home to this small little village. I thought......" Anna explained but suddenly stopping mid sentence to pat her face with the back of her hand, her skin now pale and clammy.

"Anna, honey?" Carolyn asked noticing Anna's sudden change in speech. "Something wrong?"

"What? No...just felt a little warm I guess." Anna said removing her coat, tiny beads of perspiration now sparkling like tiny diamonds on her forehead.

David looked over at Carolyn with a glare that signaled to her something seemed off. Anna's bright and beautiful face had changed, now a veil of concern and discomfort.

"Anna, you've had a very long trip. The other members of the family won't be home until later, around dinner time, why don't I show you up to your room where you can rest and relax a bit before they all come home. You seem very tired. We've put you a few rooms away from the baby, so you won't have to worry about any baby ruckus." Carolyn joked.

"I am feeling a little off. Maybe a nap would do me some good. On the airplane I was feeling like a cold was coming on. So strange, I felt fine in Boston." Anna said folding her black coat over her arm.

Carolyn reached over and felt Anna's forehead and noticed her temperature, she was burning up. She then placed her and around Anna's jaw just below her ear to feel her temperature again. Even hotter.

"Oh sweetie, you must be coming down with something, you're a blaze. Come on, let's go upstairs, David, Powell, will you grab her things please? I'll have the cook make you some soup." Carolyn said quickly jumping into her mothering role.

The group took Anna and her belongings up to the staircase and down the long hall. Anna, like all new visitors, marveled at the paintings of all the past family members who had once walked the same halls. Naomi, Quinton, Abigail, Joshua, and of course Barnabas.

Anna took a deep breath and continued on her way and entered her room. It was one of the smaller suites, a canopy bed in the center of the room adorned with light blue fabric, right above the headboard a giant C in crown molding fixed to the wall; the centerpiece of quaint but elegant room in a grand house.

"This is beautiful." And said softly as she spun around in a small circle looking at her new room.

"If you need anything, please let us know. ....and welcome to Collinwood." David said with a bright smile, his handsome was striking, and brought a strange sense of pride to Anna.

She nodded back shyly and thanked him.

"Absolutely!" Carolyn agreed. "...And I'm glad you like the room, listen, I won't keep you any longer. Go ahead and get comfortable and rest. I'll come up in just a little while to check on you." Carolyn said as she made her exit with David and Powell.

Anna smiled and watched as the door closed behind Carolyn. She threw her black coat on the bed and took in a deep breath of air, feeling the muscles in her chest contract and twist relieving the stress of a long trip. She then took off her shoes and felt the fluffy white carpet between her toes as she slinked over to the window and slowly drew the curtains closed, but then opened them again changing her mind on more light in the room...the warmth of the sun seeped into her skin like water into a sponge.

Anna looked out into the foggy Collinwood yard and smiled.

"Collinwood." She said to her self in a sigh, shaking her head as if she found a strange irony to the house.

From the window she made her way to a small bathroom attached to her little bedroom. She turned on the faucet and splashed water on her face. The water seemed to bubble up on her skin  as if it were boiling. Each little drop popped and fizzled and instantly dried up. She wiped her face clean with a tender white towel with the family's double "C" crest embroidered in around the edge and  looked at herself deep into the mirror, her face cooling from the bubbled water and inside her eyes came a flicker.

A dazzling light in each of  her irises that turned them from ice  blue to a fire like orange and red burning and bright like there were actual flames in her eyes. Anna quickly blinked and rubbed her eyes gently and when she opened them again seconds later her eyes were back to their icy blue.

She took a deep breath again and turned off the light and left the bathroom for the comfort of the bed. She lay there for a minute and smiled to herself.

"I'm back." She whispered. 

****

Across town at The Blue Whale pub, Kat (who had returned to her detective work after her maternity leave) was having a small lunch with her partner Detective Loomis McGovern. It had been 3 months since Kat had returned to work and everything seemed to finally be fitting back into place. She was back to a normal routine, as was her husband Caleb who had gone back to work at the Collins Fishing Fleet with David. But as with all things in Collinsport, the steady pace in life never lasted longer then the thought of it. As Kat and Loomis talked and laughed over their lunch, the small wooden front door opened and in walked Kat's brother Sebastian who  had gone missing the night Kat gave birth, which he forcibly induced for the purposes of helping Victoria kidnap the child. 

The night of Kat's induced labor was also the night Christopher changed into his werewolf alter-ego stirring chaos in and around Collinwood. Sebastian...became Chris' third victim, a victim that strangely survived.

Kat had her back turned to the door of the pub when Sebastian walked in. 

As she carried on with her conversation with Loomis his reaction to what they were talking about suddenly changed. His eyes glazed over and looked beyond her straight at Sebastian. Loomis' face froze and he turned serious...it was as if he was seeing a ghost. But Sebastian was no ghost. Kat furrowed her brow confused at Loomis' abrupt change in demeanor and turned around to see what he was looking at so sternly.

"Oh my god, Bash!!" Kat said jumping out of her seat and grabbing Sebastian by the shoulders to pull him in for a great big hug. "Where the hell have you  been? What's happened??" She asked.

"I have a lot of explaining to do I guess." He smirked.

"You do, you really do!" Kat yelped.

"I've missed you so much sis!" Sebastian said, holding his younger sister close.

"We've been so worried about you. How could you just disappear like that without telling anyone? Especially me. What happened?" Kat pressed.

"I, I can't really explain it, I mean...." Sebastian started before his excited sister cut him off.

"Listen, forget it, I don't want to rehash what happened, Victoria is gone, my son is back and now you are too. But I hope you've changed your ways." Kat said in a serious voice as she had moved on from what Sebastian had done.

"Kat, I'm so sorry. I should have never helped Vickie take your baby. I wish I could take it---" Sebastian said before being interrupted again.

"Stop. It's over. It's been over. I'm just glad you're here and you are alive. Where have you been?" Kat asked again circling back to the real mystery of where Sebastian was this whole time. 

"It's really weird. After I went out to get the car to bring you to the  hospital....I just remember lots of fog and and feeling really uneasy. To be honest, I think Vickie slipped me something before I came by Collinwood that night, because I don't remember much after that. The next morning I woke up miles away at some hospital in Bangor. I must have been in a fight or fallen or something because I was pretty banged up. I don't remember anything at all. I blacked out for days." He explained.

"How'd you get from Collinsport to Bangor? Your car was left running in the driveway that night?" Kat asked, her detective instincts kicking in.

"I don't know. I really don't know." Sebastian answered honestly.

"Well...." Kat said taking it all in and dismissing any obvious holes in this story.

"And you know that Vickie's organization has been dissolved right?" Loomis asked from his seat at the table.

"Yeah, when I came out of my mess the other day I called up Vickie. I guess she's back in New York...she told me everything. Kat, sis, I'm really really sorry. Thank you for forgiving me." Sebastian said kissing his beloved sister on the forehead.

"Why don't you two catch up. I'll head back to the station. Meet you there?" Loomis asked standing up in his seat and dropping his white napkin down on the table with a $20 bill,  his towering body standing over everyone like a giant sycamore tree. 

"Ok." Kat said with a gleeful grin. "Are you hungry?" Kat asked turning back to her brother.

Sebastian smiled happily and nodded yes.

"I just have to wash my hands really quick." Sebastian said excusing himself to the bathroom before he had a meal.

Kat nodded back and walked over to the bar to order Sebastian a bite to eat while he washed his hands. They were always so close growing up and even in their adulthood despite Sebastian's many secrets. She knew just about everything there was to know about him, they were practically twins despite his 3 year age advantage. 

Sebastian pushed on the bathroom door slightly and peeked in to see if there was anyone else inside. He expected one of the many sailors and fishermen who stopped by The Blue Whale on their way out to see to be inside dressed in their thick wool sweaters smelling of the sea and sweat and sun. 

But the bathroom was empty. Just a dripping faucet and stained mirror await inside.

The relief flowed over Sebastian like a giant waterfall.

He let the door close behind him and went into one of the stalls. There was a sharp pain coming from his chest, a normal feeling since his attack from Christopher. He slowly unbutton his shirt and pealed it open exposing his mocha skin. His thick hands ran down  his chest carved with vicious scars.   

Remnants of the night his life changed for ever. Scrolled across his chest by claws.

The mark of a werewolf. 

***SINGAPORE***

Inside of a shaded office room with dark cherry wood furnishings a white ceiling fan with wooden blades resembling banana leaves turned slowly continuing its circular flow of the warm south-Asian breeze that crept in through the shuttered windows that cast striped shadows across the entire room.

The noise from the busy street below filled the room: a car honking, motorbikes zipping through the streets, the dinging of a street car. 

In the center of the room a large desk and leather bound chair. A woman sorted through papers while simultaneously packing suitcase with other files and paperwork she cherry-picked from the piles. She would open a folder, glance at the first page, turn the page, glance at the second and in a split second decide whether or not she needed to pack in the suitcase that was left gaping open on the floor beside her.

The woman, an American by birth, was a strikingly beautiful woman with bright blue eyes and dark hair. Her lips were like two pink pillows bunched together on a face like porcelain art. 

She stood up and fiddled through more files. She was looking for something very specific. She bit her lip in though as if she knew she was missing something. She stopped and looked around the misty room filled with large green potted tress hoping for some kind of mind break that would allow the memory of what she was looking for to finally come to light.

Then it came to her.

She rushed over to a filing cabinet that sat directly across from her on the other side of the room. She dashed past a old Chinese coffee table delicately crafted and made of the finest wood she had ever seen. She pulled open the filing cabinet and flicked through the first four or five rows of folders and picked one, then two, the a third thick folder of paper work out and slammed the drawer closed dashing back to her desk.

She opened the first file, then the second then the third. They were exactly what she was missing.

Then a knock at her door. 

"Yes?" She said loudly.

"Doctor, the customs agent is here to see you." A man's voice said in a thick Chinese accent from the other side of the door.

"Please see him to the den, I'll be with him very shortly." The Doctor replied.

She quickly gathered all her paperwork that was still yet to pack and stacked them neatly on the side of her desk for further review when she returned from her meeting with a customs agent.

As she turned and left the room, the light from outside trickled in through the shuttered windows casting more stripes all across her dark cherry wood desk.

The three files she had retrieved from the cabinet and left on the corner of the desk read:
EVANS, MARGARET 1967,1970;  EVANS MARGARET 1986;  COLLINS, DAVID 2000

"Ni Hao!" The woman said in her best Chinese to the customs agent.

"Ni Hao, Doctor." The agent said greeting her as she walked into the freshly painted white den with it's white wicker furniture and more potted green trees and more ceiling fans with wooden banana leaf shaped blades. 

"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I gather you received my note, and that everything is in order for my travels?" The woman questioned.

"Yes, I did receive your paperwork but there is one more question as to what exactly you are traveling with." The customs agent replied. "You may very well be able to leave Singapore but I doubt you will be able to enter the United States without declaring what is inside." he continued.

"Mr. Chow, if there's anyway we can keep this in the most private of factions I would greatly appreciate it. Can't we come up with some sort of resolution without going into the gritty details of ...well...my business." The Doctor stated.

"This day in age, Dr. Morgan, there's no way I can agree to that. You'll have to either tell me what is inside such a large crate or I'll have to look myself to fill out this paperwork. The United States government will not let you off the ship in Boston without the declaration." Mr. Chow asserted.

Dr. Morgan, irritated and defeated, smirked and stood up motioning for Mr. Chow to follow her into another room. He obliged and grabbed his belongings and followed her as she led him down a dark hallway the smelled of candles and fresh rose water. 

The heat of the South Asian afternoon had Mr. Chow drenched in sweat. He followed Dr. Morgan down the hallway, removing his blue sports coat and rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white button up then loosened the tie from around his neck that was beginning to feel like a noose in the humid house.

"This way." Dr. Morgan assured.

As they turned a slight corner, Dr. Morgan finally brought Mr. Chow to a room where he instantly discovered where the smell or candles and rosewater came from. Dr. Morgan pushed the door that was slightly left open further and entered the room where a large rectangular crate sat in the center of the room surrounded by candles.

The scene seemed odd and Mr. Chow felt an uneasieness in  his stomach. Something told him he would regret causing such a fuss over whatever was in that crate, but the law was the law. 

Mr. Chow looked over at Dr. Morgan as she stood to the side of him looking at the object in the center of the candle lit room. She lifted one eyebrow and extended her hand out towards the rectangular crate. "After you." She said in a hushed tone.

Mr. Chow pulled out his pen and the customs forms he needed to file for Dr. Morgan's travels and took two dragging steps forward to see what was inside. The sweat was now dripping down his back and puddling at the top of his pants just as he placed his hand on the lid of the crate.

Mr. Chow looked back at Dr. Morgan just before he opened the lid. 

"Go on." She said. 

He turned back around and licked his lips that had dried with  his anxiety, he gripped the lid and lifted it open, Inside the crate, a coffin holding the remains of a woman who died over 30 years ago: Dr. Morgan's American mother who had lived in this very house, in this very city since 1973, a woman that was known by many in her seaside hometown of Collinsport, Maine.

These were the 30 year old remains of Dr. Julia Hoffman.