Kat and Maggie slowly made their way to the front door of the apartment. Their hearts beating faster and faster as they approached. They had no idea what they'd find inside.
The apartment was trashed. It had been ransacked by Sebastian himself while he was in wolf form. Maggie and Kat walked carefully through the turned over furniture, the spilled garbage cans, the broken picture frames and shattered glass.
"My god...." Maggie said cringing at the horrible state of the apartment.
"How did no one in the other buildings call the police when he made this mess?" Kat asked in a similar quiet voice, to Maggie's shrug.
They continued into the apartment but didn't have to search long, in the very next room was Sebastian shivering on the floor.
Maggie rushed over and fell to her knees next to her suffering son. The guilt consumed her. This was all her fault, had she never faked her death to escape Thatcher's cruelty and had Kat and Sebastian move in with Ezrabette to be safe, none of this would have happened. Sebastian wouldn't have gone astray and been dealt the cards he was.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Maggie said cradling her son.
Kat stood close by letting Maggie and Sebastian have their moment.
As the family reunited some more inside, Loomis arrived after following Kat and Maggie. He slowly walked into the apartment, silent, so no one would hear. He pulled his gun and carefully stayed back behind a wall listening.
"Bash....it's Kat....can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?" Kat asked now kneeling next to her mother.
Sebastian moaned a slight painful moan and grabbed his side in pain.
"He must of hurt himself when he crashed through my window." Maggie said looking over Sebastian's body for injuries.
"He's all scratched up, look." Kat noted.
"From the glass in the window. Sebastian, if you can hear us, please open your eye. Please." Maggie continued.
Sebastian moan a little more but heard his mother's familiar voice. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Maggie, the mother he hadn't seen in over 20 years. He squinted, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
"It's alright. I'm here." Maggie said caressing his head.
"Is it really you?" Sebastian said in a quiet voice questioning his vision. "Am I dead?"
"No, no you're not. You're alive. And I'm alive. And we're together again. I'm so sorry this has happened to you, if I could just go back and change everything I would, but ....just know that I'm here now." Maggie answered.
"How do you feel?" Kat questioned and Loomis peeked around the corner from the other room, still gun in hand.
"My ribs..." Sebastian replied. "What happened?"
"You don't remember? You don't remember what you did?" Kat asked.
"I remember being here with Anna. I remember telling her I loved her and but she had to change me again. She had to make me do what Laura wanted so that she could be free of her." Sebastian explained.
"Laura? Who's Laura?" Kat asked.
"Laura Collins." Sebastian answered.
"Laura Collins is here? Laura is in Collinsport? Has she taken Anna?" Maggie asked knowing Laura's full history.
"No. Anna is Laura. Laura is Anna. They're the same....two different minds one body." Sebastian answered.
Maggie looked at Kat with fear in her eyes. She knew the power Laura Collin, the phoenix was capable of. She knew the strength and the pain she could submit on to so many people with just a blink of an eye. It was clear that she had taken over control of Sebastian when he committed his killings, it was unclear however, just how far Laura would go to get what she wanted: David.
"She's back for David. I know it." Maggie answered remembering the pain Laura caused David when he was a young boy and she took over as his governess when Vickie left town.
"Who is she?" Kat questioned as they helped Sebastian up.
"She's David's mother. She's incredibly powerful. And very dangerous. We have to warm him, we can't let her surprise him this way." Maggie said grabbing Sebastian's hand.
"We can't let them hurt Anna either. She's a victim too." Sebastian reminded them.
"No one is going anywhere!" Loomis said pointing his gun at Sebastian. "I'm gonna have to take you in Bash. You'll have to answer for the crimes you committed."
"Loo, please, we have to find Anna Tate. We have to." Kat asked of her partner. "We can fix this with Bash when we do find her. Locating Anna and stopping her from doing any more damage is paramount. You can put the gun down."
"You lied to me. You said you would't keep any secrets from me, we're partners Kat!" Loomis said angrily.
"Detective, you don't understand, we don't have time for this. We have to get to Collinwood as soon as possible. This is very urgent." Maggie pressed.
"No one is going to Collinwood! We're all going downtown to the police station where Sebastian is going to be arrested for the murders of Nick Blair, the three fishermen on the docks, and Thatcher Banning." Loomis said pulling out his handcuffs.
"What??? Thatcher Banning?" Sebastian exclaimed. "Kat, what's going on?" He added panicking of the realization he killed his own father.
"We were going to explain to you but..."Kat answered before Loomis' police radio strapped around his chest went off.
"Detective McGovern, we've got reports of a strange disturbance at the Collinwood estate. You asked we contact you if anything happened out there, proceed with instructions." The voice over the radio said.
"Anna." Sebastian said.
Maggie looked at everyone in the room and shook her head with worry. "No.....Laura."
Kat glanced over at Loomis, he was still pointing his gun. The look she gave him was one that expressed their need to get to Collinwood before it was too late, before Laura had a chance to destroy everyone, including Kat's baby Canan who was there.
"Loo, please." She mouthed.
"Ok. Let's go. Collinwood, everyone in my car. Come on!" Loomis said as he put down his gun.
The foursome dashed off through the apartment, Maggie leading then Sebastian. Kat grabbed Loomis' hand and mouthed 'thank you'.
"This is McGovern, make sure you keep all personnel away from the mansion until further notice." Loomis said into his police radio.
As he removed his hand from the radio button he found himself alone in the main room for a split second.
"I better not regret this." Loomis said to himself before quickly making his way through Sebastian's disheveled apartment and into his car.
****
There was a heat, a fire, a molten power pulling energy surrounding the entire mansion. It was like a vortex of wind sucking in everything in site. Barnabas and Jacqueleen burst through the front door covering their faces from the heat. As he peeked through his thick fingers he saw a bright light in the center of the drawing room exploding with the what seemed like flames from the sun pulling everything in it's orbit into it.
Grasping on to the walls and heavier furniture, the Collins Family: Caleb, David, Carolyn.
"Barnabas!!!!" Carolyn screamed from behind a sofa. The pulling power from Anna's body was beginning to singe the ends of her air and dry her lips.
The fury of the phoenix, Laura Collins had finally come to the Mansion, it had come and it had come to destroy what she could not have. A family. A real family.
Barnabas pushed Jacqueleen aside to keep her safe, she fell to the floor and hid under a large cherry wood table in the foyer. her mind raced with confusion. What was she seeing? What was happening around her? It felt like the apocalypse.
Barnabas charged forward dodging flying laps and floating picture frames and coached down next to Carolyn.
"What's happened? What is this?" He yelled over the loud noise of energy coming from Anna's body.
"It's Laura. She's .....she's come back to kill us all!" Carolyn said grabbing on to Barnabas jacket.
Barnabas didn't have much history with Laura, and what he did remember was that she was a creature who came back to life over and over again, and for that he did feel a strange kinship, but Laura was consumed by her anger and fury of her past, she wanted revenge and she wanted those that harmed her or those that did not bother with her to pay for their, in her mind, disloyalty.
And at the core of her, she was a mother, who felt like she was pushed aside by a powerful family and most of all the son she really loved, David.
Barnabas jumped over to a different part of the drawing room where David and Caleb where, holding on tight resisting the powerful suction of energy coming from Laura's necklace around Anna's neck. Anna, for her part, was compelled engulfed in white and yellow energy. A powerful bright light that was controlling her every move.
"You must get Carolyn and get her out of here before it's too late. Anna can't hold on much longer!" Barnabas yelled over the noise.
"What will happen?" Caleb asked.
"She'll self destruct. We have to move...now!" Barnabas yelled.
David nodded in agreement and pushed Caleb forward as the two went to where Carolyn was, the powerful energy still burning through the room yet nothing actually seemed physically burned.
As David and Caleb passed Anna from a distance, an arm like beam of light reached out and grabbed David and began to pull him in.
"DAVID!!!" A voice screamed from the entrance of the drawing room.
It was Siobhan who had stayed the night at Collinwood after her argument with Barnabas. She had heard the commotion down stairs and ran past Jacqueleen to see what was the matter.
"Stay Back!" Barnabas warned his daughter.
As Barnabas quickly grabbed David's free hand he began to pull David free. The powerful light of fire from Anna's body was unable to hold on, and was showing signs of weakening.
"She's beginning to slow down!" David said, now free from the fire, clutching Siobhan in his arms.
Outside, Loomis' car carrying Kat, Sebatian, Maggie pulled up into the Collinwood drive. They could see the light from Anna blinking and flashing in the windows of the entire house. It was a site of intense power that they were all worried about.
"It's Anna. She's beginning her purge." Sebastian said.
"What do you mean?" Kat asked as the car pulled up.
"She wants her son. I can feel her. Laura is coming out. She wants to come and take David...she wants to kill everyone and take David." Sebastian said as he got closer to the powerful Laura.
"Dear god." Maggie whispered to herself.
The foursome entered the house of flames. The wind was so powerful, it was pulling anything loose from their clothes into it's vortex. Maggie lost her footing, and held on to Sebastian.
"We have to stay back or we'll get sucked in!" Sebastian yelled as the other members of the Collins family turned to the front door as the other's walked in.
The group gathered together in the foyer, Anna's body now pulling things off the walls, the carpet from the floor, the chandeliers from the ceilings.
"How do we stop her?" Carolyn screamed over the noise.
"It looks like the center of this vortex is Anna's necklace we have to break the pull, the pull is the necklace!" David screamed too.
"But it's so hot!! The fire is so hot!!" Kat said as Caleb came around and grabbed her close.
The group had to keep moving back further and further as the phoenix came closer to absorb their lives and take David away. The wood panels on the walls began to crack and fly into Anna's powerful vortex of light.
"Get down!!!" Barnabas yelled as the group ducked the flying panels.
"We have to stop her ...she's going to destroy us all!" Maggie screamed.
"She doesn't want to hurt us!! Anna Doesn't want us to be hurt! We have to make sure we keep her safe too. She's innocent!" Sebastian said of his love.
"We can't allow her to continue. We can't." Barnabas said as he turned from his family to face the phoenix.
"Barnabas! What are you doing, stop!" Carolyn said as she quickly grabbed on to his hand."
"Carolyn, step back. step back!" Barnabas said to his beloved cousin.
"You'll be killed, what are you doing?" Carolyn responded.
"Stop! Barnabas! She's too powerful!" Jacqueleen said grabbing on to his other hand.
"Let go....we have to end this." Barnabas said as he flung Carolyn and Jacqueleen.
"Father no, listen to them. You can't do this!!!" Siobhan said going after her father. "You'll be killed." She added as she step in his way.
Barnabas grabbed her face, his beautiful daughter. Her bright blue eyes filling with tears. Her lip trembling to hold them back.
He smiled as debris began to fly past their heads missing them by inches and kissed her cheek.
"I'm already dead." Barnabas said. "I'm sorry." He added as he pushed his daughter backwards and into the safety of David's arms.
Barnabas leaped into the drawing room and began to close the sliding doosr but not before Jacqueleen jumped in.
"NO!" Carolyn screamed as the doors shut on Jacqueleen.
Jacqueleen felt the swirls of Anna/Laura's gaining anger and powers. The fire's beating down on her skin. The hot air of evil and destruction.
"What have you done?" Barnabas scolded Jacquleen.
"I won't be here without you." She said to Barnabas' dismay.
The doors began to shake on their hinges. The fire grew closer.
The phoenix was getting larger. Getting hotter. Getting angrier. Laura wanted her freedom from Anna's body, but still needed two more souls, she needed the final pieces of her puzzle to finally free her and she saw that Jacqueleen and Barnabas as those last two final pieces.
The powerful energy of the phoenix sprouted two large arms of light and flames and latched on to Barnabas and Jacqueleen, pulling them both into the vortex of flames.
Their skin began to peel back exposing bones. Their hair began to turn to fire and burn off. Their clothes ignited like kerosene soaked rags.
And as the two vampires got closer to the end of their drag into the flames, Barnabas saw the glowing locket around Anna's neck. He was the full power source of energy, it was the eye of the storm.
He reached for it, the flames batting at his burning flesh, he pulled his body out from the arm that was holding him, grabbed the locket from around Anna's neck and pulled it off.
He had it in his hands.
The Phoenix's two large red eyes made of fire and burning sulfur looked down on Barnabas who held the locket that carried her life force within.
He squeezed the locket in the palm of his hands and broke it. The vortex then exploded, Laura's voice could be heard escaping and screaming a painful burning scream that tore through in the doors of the drawing room in a a giant ball of light where the rest of the family was waiting knocking them to the ground with it's burst of vibrations.
Carolyn. David. Caleb. Kat. Sebastian. Maggie. Loomis. Siobhan all lay on the floor unconscious from the Anna's explosion.
There was a stillness in the foyer where they lay, the stillness of a crypt.
And nothing more.
