The night grew late. The clock ticked away the final minutes before the sun began to rise and spread it's golden light on all that it touched. Carolyn sat in the comfort of her own room contemplating her discovery in the Old House: Barnabas, alive and well and his new wife with the familiar face, Jacqueleen.
Barnabas' explanation of what happened in 1920, that Jamison trapped him again in his coffin and forced him to live out his life all over again, his escape to Singapore with Julia Hoffman in 1972 to successfully cure him of his curse, the birth of their daughter Siobhan and later Julia's death in 1986. He had lived a whole life time in Singapore and she had no idea.
It was all for a purpose. Barnabas' time traveling experiences taught him that overlapping time lines and entering a time frame before the right time could be catastrophic to the future. He had to wait until this very moment to see Carolyn again...but even so, it felt painful.
"Carolyn, can I come in?" Kat said from the open bedroom door.
"Of course, come in." Carolyn answered as she broke her deep thoughts of Barnabas' explanation.
"The coroner has removed Nick's body and Loomis is on his way. Do you have any idea what Nick was doing here? Why he would have come to Collinwood?" Kat asked.
"I have no idea. I was out in town and as I was coming up the drive way Powell and I saw him, So I don't know. I just don't know." Carolyn answered.
"Ok. We'll get to the bottom of this don't worry. How do you know Nick anyway?" Kat asked.
How could Carolyn answer? How could she tell Kat that Nick was actually Kat's own half brother, son of her mother Maggie and Nicholas Blair. Maggie had sworn Carolyn to secrecy, she couldn't tell her the whole truth even if she wanted to.
"We met him when you were in 1920. He was a little obsessed with Alexandra and there was some trouble." Carolyn said, using only half the story.
"Obsessed? Did you report him to the police?" Kat asked.
"No, he disappeared suddenly and we never saw him again until tonight." Carolyn answered in another half truth.
Kat nodded and was about to excuse herself when she realized she had her own half truth to tell.
"Oh! I forgot to mention, my father is back in town, he's been to Collinwood. I really don't have a good relationship with him, so if I'm at the police station at work, and he comes to see Canan or looking for Sebastian, please give me a call, I'll have a squad car come and take off the premises." Kat explained.
"Your father?" Carolyn asked concerned, remembering again her conversation with Maggie. "He was here?"
"Yes. I'll warn the staff for you....Why don't you rest." Kat said as she left Carolyn in her room alone.
Once Kat closed her door, Carolyn dashed over her nightstand and picked up her phone and dialed the Evans' cottage.
"Maggie, it's Carolyn. I'm sorry for calling so early in the morning. But it's urgent." Carolyn said frantically. "A lot has happened....Nick was found dead on the lawn at Collinwood tonight, and Thatcher...he was here too, he came to see Kat....but I think he was looking for you. I don't think it was a coincidence Maggie, they must have been working together. What do we do?"
On the other side of the line, Maggie, who was standing at the phone, sat down in shock. Her mind began to race. He blood began to pump faster and faster as her heart pounded in terror in her chest. The second most terrifying man in her life had returned and her plot to kill him had to come faster than she realized.
"Nick? But how was Nick ....I don't understand. Are you sure Nick is dead?" Maggie asked.
"He's dead Maggie."
Maggie's eyes teared up a little bit. Even though Nick was the spawn of dark forces, he still was part of her. But she knew his life was never meant for good...his death was a blessing to the world.
"We have to find out where Thatcher is Carolyn before its too late. We have to find him and kill him; he can destroy everything in my children's lives forever, and I won't let that happen." Maggie answered.
****
In the early morning down stairs, Kat and Loomis had returned to Collinwood to tell the family about the body found on the grounds. It was the second this had happened in two years under similar circumstances. The first being Victor Reed who was killed by his own son Christopher who was under his own werewolf curse. Loomis, of course, was not blind to the odd coincides of both deaths.
"Thank you both for coming back. We're absolutely shocked at what happened last night. Why do you think Nick was on the grounds?" David asked as they all sat or stood in the drawing room.
"We're not sure. He had a few things with him in a duffel bag but to know exactly what he was doing here is still unknown. He could have been back for Alex but again that's speculation." Loomis explained.
"Did anyone else other than Carolyn see anything?" Kat asked the group.
"Well I was with you, and we both heard nothing. Carolyn must of come home when it was all over." Caleb said answering Kat.
"Anna?" Kat asked of the new house guest.
"No, no. I didn't see or hear anything either. I went to bed early." Anna said lying through her teeth. Anna know exactly what happened. She is the one who transformed Sebastian into the beast the murdered Nick and left him on the grass for all to see while Nick's soul stay trapped inside the locket around Anna's neck, awaiting Laura's release.
"I have to say it's a very odd coincidence that two people died on your lawn in almost the exact same way in the span of two years. And again, no one heard a thing. Don't you all think it's a bit odd?" Loomis asked of the family.
"These walls are over 200 years old Detective McGovern. They're made of thick stone that traveled all the way from England. If we say we didn't hear a thing, we're telling you the truth. Your own partner was home at the time and she didn't hear anything either." David said standing up to Loomis.
"All I'm saying Mr. Collins, and I'm sure my partner would agree, is that something doesn't add up. Our job is to connect the dots make sense of what happened and find the killer...or killers." Loomis replied.
"There are a lot of wild animals out in the forest that surrounds the house, Loo, if Nick was trampling through some kind of bear's habitat he could have been followed up through the grounds." Kat added to her partner's retort.
"So you think it was a bear?" Loomis asked of his partner Kat.
"It could have been." David said answering for her.
"Listen, once the corner's report comes back we'll know exactly what killed him. There were contusions and abrasions to the body that suggest an animal attack, I saw it with my own eyes." Kat explained.
"We can always have a team of wild life experts go out into the woods and find out what exactly is out there." Caleb offered.
"No!" Anna shouted to everyone's surprise.
"Why not?" Loomis asked.
Anna blurted her response knowing that Sebastian was the culprit, and if anyone went looking for hi, her whole plan to steal 7 souls from the citizens of Collinsport to release Laura Collins from inside Anna's body could be thwarted. She now felt trapped by her own mistake.
"Because....." Anna said trying to cover her tracks. "I'm sure the forest doesn't belong to the Collins family. You can't just go out there and hunt down innocent animals can you?" she added.
"Innocent?" David asked before a sudden spike of pain in his head.
"Dad? You ok?" Caleb said noting David reach for his left temple.
"Sorry, I've just been getting these awful headaches lately. Don't mind me. Anyway, whatever it was that killed Nick is hardly innocent." David added.
"We've got to get back to the station. As soon as we hear anything or have any more questions we'll let you know." Kat said as she and Loomis headed for the front door.
Loomis had suspicions of the Collins family and the goings-on of the Collinwood estate all his life. Anyone and everyone in Collinsport did. It was a fact of life that the family that owned half the town and employed half it's citizens kept secrets up in the drafty mansion. But no one had every successfully connected any of the family members to the strange occurrences.
Loomis and Kat stopped in the foyer to put on their jackets and as Anna excused herself to go check on Carolyn upstairs.
At the top of the staircase she hid herself around the corner of the hall way and listen in on the detectives conversation.
"A bear huh?" Loomis said jokingly.
"She could be right. We don't know." Kat said thrusting her left arm into her jacket.
"I don't know. Just doesn't make sense, you know? This one's going to be a doozey to explain to the D.A. Of course, anytime the Collins family is involved it's a doozey." Loomis said.
Anna didn't like what she was hearing and realized that Loomis was going to be an obstacle for her plan to release Laura, but perhaps there was a way to get him off the trail. She did need another soul after all.
She grabbed the locket around her neck and closed her eyes. In her mind she reached far back into the depths her psyche to the place where she connected with Sebastian. She held on tight to the locket and whispered to herself the name of her next victim, the next soul Sebastian would take for her.
"Loomis McGovern. Loomis McGovern. Loomis McGovern."
****
Later that afternoon, Maggie Evans carefully her way over to Ezrabette Baptiste's cottage just outside of town. Ezrabette was the woman who raised Sebastian and Kat when Thatcher abandoned them when Maggie was placed at Windcliff in the mid 80's where she later faked her death. All those years past and Maggie and Ezrabette never lost touch. They had a secret connection throughout and Maggie had always kept tabs on her kids.
This visit however, was still in under a storm cloud of murder and Maggie would do anything to make sure her grown children and new grandson were kept safe from the mad man she once loved. It seemed to be Maggie's lot in life, constantly surrounded by men who were evil, twisted and only wanted to hurt her. All except for her beloved father, Sam.
"Where have you been girl, I've been waiting to hear from you for days, but you shouldn't be here. Thatcher could come at any moment. He knows where I live." Ezrabette said rushing Maggie into her home.
"I've come up with an idea. There won't be danger for much longer." Maggie said removing her jacket. in the warm house.
"I don't understand. What's changed?" Ezrabette said pouring Maggie some tea.
"Carolyn and I have devised a plan. We're going to make sure Thatcher stays way from the kids and me forever. I can't let them be hurt by him, you and I both know what he's capable of." Maggie asked.
"Margaret, think about what you're saying." Ezrabette said noticing how out of character it was for Maggie to plot someone's demise.
"He needs to be stopped before he does more damage." Maggie responded tears billowing down her rosy cheeks.
"Tell me what he did to you, once and for all...remove that weight from your heart. What could this man have done that has made you this terrified." Ezrabette asked tears too flowing from her soft brown eyes.
Maggie couldn't bare to tell Ezrabette the truth. She just sat there and shook her head.... It was too difficult. It was too painful.
"If you can't say it, show me." Ezrabette said as she leaned in and grabbed Maggie's hands. "Close your eyes and think back, think back to this time and remember how you felt, what you saw and where you were."
"I can't." Maggie said sobbing. "I can't go there."
"Release this hurt Maggie. Let it go." Ezrabette said caressing her hand.
Maggie closed her eyes, the tears puddling at her long eyelashes. She let her mind go blank, it was a like being in space, floating in a void. The flow of life swirling around her, yet she was stagnant while the memories filled her mind...Ezrabette saw her entrance and slowly closed her eyes too following the trail of sorrow and sadness that lead Maggie to this very moment in her life where she would feel that there was no way out but to murder another human being, no matter how despicable he was.
Suddenly Ezrabette opened her eyes and she was somewhere else. In a small apartment somewhere. The yellow light of the sun beamed through the window blinds casting stripped shadows on her face and the wall behind her. She could hear two children in a room just next to her, what were they doing? What were they saying?
Ezrabette slowly walked through the apartment that looked to be from a not so distant past, perhaps, 30 to 35 years ago. She walked through the small hallway and opened the door to the room. There she saw to little children, a boy and a girl hiding behind a toy chest.
The brother, clearly older, held his little sister down to make sure she did not get up. They were safe as long as they were behind the toy chest.
She walked over to them, they did not Ezrabette. Then she realized, the little boy and girl were Sebastian and Kat.
A loud thud came from another room.
Ezrabette turned and followed the noise. She turned a corner and came to another bedroom with it's door closed. She turned the nob and there was Thatcher standing over Maggie who was laying on a bed and had been hit across the face. She was crying. He was angry.
"You're crazy! Everything you've ever done....I don't know why I married your crazy...." Thatcher said before he was interrupted by little Sebastian who had run into the room.
"Leave mama alone!" The little boy screamed.
"Bash! Go back to your sister. Mama's ok." Maggie said lifting herself up from the bed.
"Leave mama alone!" Sebastian said again.
Thatcher lunged at the boy grabbing him and lifting him up by the shoulders screaming at him to mind his own business. Maggie jumped up from the bed, grabbed a side lamp and swung it at Thatcher who saw this in the reflection of a mirror on the wall and quickly turned using little Sebastian as a shield.
The lamp shattered on the little boy's back, Thatcher dropped the boy in shock.
"Look what you've done!" Thatcher screamed.
"NO! NO! Sebastian, mama's sorry. Mama's so sorry." Maggie screamed holding the little boy in her arms on the bedroom floor as the 5 year old sobbed in pain.
"You're insane. You're a piece of garbage." Thatcher screamed at his wife.
"I HATE YOU!" Maggie screamed back.
It was all too much for Ezrabette to handle she stood in that room from the past, sobbing right along with Maggie and little Sebastian and as the cries got louder and the police sirens began to ring closer Ezrabette jumped back to the present time with her friend on the sofa in her own home.
Maggie and Ezrabette opened their eyes and looked at each other.
"So that's why he brought them to me." Ezrabette said.
"Thatcher had me committed. He said that I was a danger to my kids. Maybe I was...I don't know. But I couldn't let them continue to see what he was doing to me." Maggie explained.
"And you think killing him will fix it all?" Ezrabette asked.
Maggie got up and looked outside. The bright spring day was turning to a cool fresh evening. The remnants of sun light peeked through the tree-tops posting small pockets of light and shadows on Maggie's face.
"We don't know what he's capable of Bette. For my children, and especially for my grandchild, Thatcher needs to die. It's the only way." Maggie said as Ezrabette looked down at her tarot cards.
This visit however, was still in under a storm cloud of murder and Maggie would do anything to make sure her grown children and new grandson were kept safe from the mad man she once loved. It seemed to be Maggie's lot in life, constantly surrounded by men who were evil, twisted and only wanted to hurt her. All except for her beloved father, Sam.
"Where have you been girl, I've been waiting to hear from you for days, but you shouldn't be here. Thatcher could come at any moment. He knows where I live." Ezrabette said rushing Maggie into her home.
"I've come up with an idea. There won't be danger for much longer." Maggie said removing her jacket. in the warm house.
"I don't understand. What's changed?" Ezrabette said pouring Maggie some tea.
"Carolyn and I have devised a plan. We're going to make sure Thatcher stays way from the kids and me forever. I can't let them be hurt by him, you and I both know what he's capable of." Maggie asked.
"Margaret, think about what you're saying." Ezrabette said noticing how out of character it was for Maggie to plot someone's demise.
"He needs to be stopped before he does more damage." Maggie responded tears billowing down her rosy cheeks.
"Tell me what he did to you, once and for all...remove that weight from your heart. What could this man have done that has made you this terrified." Ezrabette asked tears too flowing from her soft brown eyes.
Maggie couldn't bare to tell Ezrabette the truth. She just sat there and shook her head.... It was too difficult. It was too painful.
"If you can't say it, show me." Ezrabette said as she leaned in and grabbed Maggie's hands. "Close your eyes and think back, think back to this time and remember how you felt, what you saw and where you were."
"I can't." Maggie said sobbing. "I can't go there."
"Release this hurt Maggie. Let it go." Ezrabette said caressing her hand.
Maggie closed her eyes, the tears puddling at her long eyelashes. She let her mind go blank, it was a like being in space, floating in a void. The flow of life swirling around her, yet she was stagnant while the memories filled her mind...Ezrabette saw her entrance and slowly closed her eyes too following the trail of sorrow and sadness that lead Maggie to this very moment in her life where she would feel that there was no way out but to murder another human being, no matter how despicable he was.
Suddenly Ezrabette opened her eyes and she was somewhere else. In a small apartment somewhere. The yellow light of the sun beamed through the window blinds casting stripped shadows on her face and the wall behind her. She could hear two children in a room just next to her, what were they doing? What were they saying?
Ezrabette slowly walked through the apartment that looked to be from a not so distant past, perhaps, 30 to 35 years ago. She walked through the small hallway and opened the door to the room. There she saw to little children, a boy and a girl hiding behind a toy chest.
The brother, clearly older, held his little sister down to make sure she did not get up. They were safe as long as they were behind the toy chest.
She walked over to them, they did not Ezrabette. Then she realized, the little boy and girl were Sebastian and Kat.
A loud thud came from another room.
Ezrabette turned and followed the noise. She turned a corner and came to another bedroom with it's door closed. She turned the nob and there was Thatcher standing over Maggie who was laying on a bed and had been hit across the face. She was crying. He was angry.
"You're crazy! Everything you've ever done....I don't know why I married your crazy...." Thatcher said before he was interrupted by little Sebastian who had run into the room.
"Leave mama alone!" The little boy screamed.
"Bash! Go back to your sister. Mama's ok." Maggie said lifting herself up from the bed.
"Leave mama alone!" Sebastian said again.
Thatcher lunged at the boy grabbing him and lifting him up by the shoulders screaming at him to mind his own business. Maggie jumped up from the bed, grabbed a side lamp and swung it at Thatcher who saw this in the reflection of a mirror on the wall and quickly turned using little Sebastian as a shield.
The lamp shattered on the little boy's back, Thatcher dropped the boy in shock.
"Look what you've done!" Thatcher screamed.
"NO! NO! Sebastian, mama's sorry. Mama's so sorry." Maggie screamed holding the little boy in her arms on the bedroom floor as the 5 year old sobbed in pain.
"You're insane. You're a piece of garbage." Thatcher screamed at his wife.
"I HATE YOU!" Maggie screamed back.
It was all too much for Ezrabette to handle she stood in that room from the past, sobbing right along with Maggie and little Sebastian and as the cries got louder and the police sirens began to ring closer Ezrabette jumped back to the present time with her friend on the sofa in her own home.
Maggie and Ezrabette opened their eyes and looked at each other.
"So that's why he brought them to me." Ezrabette said.
"Thatcher had me committed. He said that I was a danger to my kids. Maybe I was...I don't know. But I couldn't let them continue to see what he was doing to me." Maggie explained.
"And you think killing him will fix it all?" Ezrabette asked.
Maggie got up and looked outside. The bright spring day was turning to a cool fresh evening. The remnants of sun light peeked through the tree-tops posting small pockets of light and shadows on Maggie's face.
"We don't know what he's capable of Bette. For my children, and especially for my grandchild, Thatcher needs to die. It's the only way." Maggie said as Ezrabette looked down at her tarot cards.
Ezrabette knew what was in store. She knew Thatcher would die, but the cards were only cryptic message from behind the veil of the dead. What Ezrabette wouldn't say is just how he was going to die.
****
That night, in a small cafe that sat on the docks of Collinsport, a waiter carefully placed a fresh plate of crab cakes and a light salad on a table lit by a small candle inside painted red jar. The light reflected the color of the jar up on the faces of David Collins and his date Dr. Siobhan Morgan who was feeling a bit awkward in the moment.
"What's the matter? Would you rather have my crab cakes?" David asked noticing Siobhan's quiet behavior.
"What?" She answered clearly preoccupied with something.
"You've hardly said a word to me since we've started our first date, and I'm starting to get the feeling you'd rather be anywhere else but here, am I warm?" David said reading Siobhan's reactions.
"David I'm sorry. But, you're right, I do have my mind on something else." She answered honestly.
"If this is about being my doctor, that's done remember? I won't see you anymore. Besides, this is just dinner, you know, just crab cakes and a salad." David said in jest to relax her a bit.
"Actually, since I've come to town and since I've met you I've really felt that I needed to tell you something. It's actually very important, and I don't know how you'll take the news." Siobhan answered.
"Well, damn, talk about scaring a guy to the point of no apatite. What's going on?" David questioned.
"Well as you know I came to town with my elderly father who was bringing back my mother's remains so that she could be buried here with the rest of his family. What I didn't tell you is who my parents are." The Doctor explained and paused for David's reaction.
David sat at the table across from her in the cafe staring at her for what seemed like forever to Siobhan.
"Well, who are your parents?" David said expecting her to finish her story.
"David, when I tell you this, I just want you to stay calm." Siobhan replied.
"You're making me nervous." David said as the waiter came up to the table.
"More wine?" the waiter asked holding the bottle open.
"No, we're fine." David replied to the waiter.
"My mother was Julia Hoffman, and my father was your ancestor. Barnabas Collins." Siobhan explained.
"Waiter! Actually, yes, more wine!" David said yelling across to the waiter who had walked away.
As the waiter poured more red wine into his glass, David shook his head in disbelief.
"How can that even be? How can you even know who Barnabas was? This is insane. Barnabas left Collinsport, and ....now it's your turn to believe me when I tell you....went to another time. Literally another time. We haven't heard back from him since. This was months ago!" David answered.
"I know it's hard to understand, but the truth is, when Barnabas got trapped in 1920, he was forced to live his whole life from the point on again--virtually--living his life twice. In the early 70s, he and Julia took off to Singapore and were married. That's were I was born." Siobhan explained.
"So does that make us relatives?" David wondered.
"Very, very very distantly, yes. But the blood line is so detached because how long ago Barnabas was actually born, the connecting DNA between us is almost undetectable." She answered.
"This is a lot to take in. So Barnabas is back? He's here in Collinsport?" David asked.
"He is. My mother and Willie Loomis cured him when they first got to Singapore using a technique from a colleague of my mother's who lived there. He's actually aged in real time ever since." Siobhan said not knowing that Jacqueleen had changed Barnabas back to his vampire self just hours earlier.
"That's incredible. I guess I'd like to see him." David said softly. After all the years of terrible history between them, he and Carolyn had loved Barnabas like a second father. It was always very difficult for David to see what evil things Barnabas was capable of no matter how reluctant he was to do them.
"I'm sure he'd like that. I've always heard so much about you and Carolyn, and your family. It's good to finally connect this way." Siobhan said.
"So what about us? Would it be weird for us to continue seeing each other?" David asked.
Siobhan grinned and stabbed her fork into one of David's crab cakes. Even though she and David were distantly related, she knew that their family connection was centuries disconnected. For her, the worst had past. She told him the truth of her identity and now it was safe to pursue a relationship.
"I take it that's a yes!" David laughed.
As the two love birds became more comfortable a strange scene was unfolding outside the small cafe. A woman was walking down the dock, slowly and methodically. The wind was blowing through her blond hair, her face was like a statue and she held on tight to her necklace.
It was Anna, wondering around the docks.
"What in the world?" David said as he saw her walking slowly past the cafe.
Anna continued to walk down the dock and past the cafe where David and Siobhan were eating. They watched her pass them almost as if she were in trans and as she passed their table in the window, her face and body changed in David's eyes, for a split second as Anna walked by she became Laura Collins and instantly David doubled over with painful piercing headache that caused him to knock over his glass of wine on the white table cloth.
"David! David, Are you ok?" Siobhan screamed as she jumped up from her side of the table to help David.
"It's one of my headaches again. Something is not right, what is she doing here!" David said holding his temple.
"Who was that that passed just now? Do you know her?" Siobhan asked.
"My mother...it was my mother." David strained to speak through his pain.
"Your mother? David that was a young lady. She couldn't have been more than 25 years old."
David looked up at Siobhan and realized she was right, he had seen Anna too but she changed just as the locked around her neck glowed a bright light and as she walked close their spot in the cafe.
"Is everything ok?" The waiter asked rushing over.
David leaped into action. He pulled out money from his wallet and threw it on the table then grabbed Siobhan's hand.
"Come on, we have to get back to Collinwood before she does." He said as they both dashed through the cafe door to get ahead of Anna's return home.
David was now 100% sure was his reincarnated mother Laura.
