In a small cottage home just outside Collinsport surrounded by woods bloated with the dark fog of night, a spirit had come to reconnect with her living ancestor; a great-granddaughter who possessed the power to speak and deal with the dead. A 120 year curse had blocked this spirit from ever passing through the veil between the living and dead to contact her to seek her help. Now that curse was broken and the spirit was free to shed this deathly veil and reach out from beyond the grave.
The clouds that surrounded the dark spirit of Marie Clotilde filled Ezrabette's room like the fog from the sea creeping into the village from the salty shore. It was thick and mystical and engulfed Marie Clotilde like a misty cloak dripping with the dew of another time.
Ezrabette sat up in her bed, the smell of soot ash filled the space around her as if her own home had burned down. Her mouth agape with fear and eyes open wide she took in the sight of something forming in front of her. What was she seeing? What was she feeling? What was this translucent figure saying to her in the middle of the night, it was sure to be a dream...or a nightmare! As the smokey fog formed into a crude ash like person it spoke in a voice that came from the depths of an abyss.
"I have traveled over centuries and of time to find you and send you on this mission to avenge your family's most guarded secret." the ghost of Marie Clotilde, Gregory's murdered mistress said in an echoing voice.
"This is a dream." Ezrabette said to herself.
Ezrabette was a mystical woman herself but never had a spirit appeared to her in such a clear form. She had seen then in visions in her mind, she had heard their voices echo in her head with messages to their family members, but never, ever had they appeared to her in this manner.
"I am not a vision or part of your subconscious, believe what you see, believe what I say. Come....touch my hand." Marie Clotilde said extending her ghostly hand that was thin and grey almost alien like.
Ezrabette got out of her bed slowly and inched her way closer to the spirit in the corner of the room still swirling in a cloak of foggy mist. She stood there staring not knowing if she should get any closer, the fear was rushing through her veins like a river of anxiety.
"Touch my hand." The spirit requested again.
Ezrabette slowly lifted her own hand and reached for Marie Clotilde's. Slowly the two generations hands came closer and closer, Ezrabette's hand trembled with nerves at what she was about to touch, and as they came together Marie Clotilde's hand firmed and Ezrabette felt her as if she was there in the flesh, in person alive.
"How can ...how can this be happening??" Ezrabette questioned, still in disbelief of what was happening.
"Ezrabette Baptiste, I am your great-grandmother Marie Clotilde. 120 ago I was burned alive in my own home by a woman who discovered a secret I had shamefully carried." The spirit spoke.
"My god." Ezrabette whispered to herself still in disbelief of what was happening in her room.
"In life I made a terrible mistake, but what that mistake gave me was a child, your grandfather. The night I was killed, the woman who killed me took my child and gave him to the Baptiste family. This family became your family, and you became part of them the day you were born. But you are not part of them by blood. Ezrabette your ancestor was a man by the name of Gregory Trask, a man that I was cursed to have met and fallen in love with. I paid the price for that love, and now I need you to right the wrong of my murder of curse me to an eternity in purgatory." The spirit spoke.
"This can't be happening!" Ezrabette said, her eyes wide like two giant dark pools.
"Your humanity is blocking you from understanding the truth, Ezrabette, tap into the part of your mind that connects you to the dead, listen with that part of your mind and realize that I am REAL!" Marie Clotilde's voice thundered.
Ezrabette closed her eyes, the smell of a fire and smoke filled the air, but there wasn't a fire. In her mind, the ghost of Marie Clotilde took her back 120 years and showed her what happened. There were flames everywhere. Ezrabette gagged on the stench of smoke. There was thick blackness all round and the sound of a baby cry, then the neigh of a horse galloping away.
Ezrabette stood in the middle of a burning room, the walls filled with fire. She looked at the ground and saw a dead body steaming with heat and flames and suddenly from above her head the sound of cracking and cashing...it was a giant beam of fire falling to the ground from the ceiling.
Ezrabette screamed then opened her eyes and she was back in her own bedroom, the smell of the fire and singe still filling her bedroom.
"Who did this to you" Ezrabette asked holding herself close as the icy fog from her dead ancestor continued to chill her room, tears streaming down her face from her vision.
"Gregory's wife discovered our affair after it was already over. I had ended it. I could not raise my son, your grandfather, with a man like him. I discovered his cruelty and could no longer continue the sin I was committing." Marie Clotilde answered. "She was merciless. She was cold. And her anger and rage caused her to do the unthinkable to me. My death came in form of flames and heat. I burned alive on the floor of my own home. Then...she took my child!!!" Marie Clotilde added, the pain in her voice echoing in the air of the room and shaking Ezrabette's house so much so the pictures on the walls shook.
"I don't understand what you want me to do? This person, Gregory's wife is long dead, I'm sure! What could I do to help?" Ezrabette asked.
"She is dead. Her soul raising to heaven, and wrongly so. But her decedents live on Ezrabette, and until this wrong is made right, I too, cannot make my way to the other side. I have been trapped in this purgatory for 120 years, I finally found my way to you and I need you now!!" Marie Clotilde answered, her voice again echoing through the bedroom.
"Who are these descendants?" Ezrabette asked.
Marie Clotilde's eyes changed from the milky blue to a dark red in anger knowing she was about to speak the name of the family who's long lost ancestor had destroyed her life and put her in the twisting flames of purgatory until this very moment.
This 120 year old murder could finally be made right by opening the door between the living and the dead and allowing Marie Clotilde to speak her truth but her own salvation would only come to pass if the plot of revenge was successful; as Marie Clotilde's instrument among the living this was Ezrabette's plight.
"The name of the woman who took my life was Judith. Her cold and ill life was spent for many years after mine in a home on Widow's Hill, she belonged to the family Collins." Marie Clotilde explained.
Ezrabette gasped and covered her mouth in shook, her head hung in disbelief that she would have to involve herself with the Collins family again. The story of this damned family was not over and now the voodoo mystic of Collinsport would be again entangled with the Collins family drama.
"There's darkness that resides over them and this town like a storm cloud that never dissipates. I know them well. But they're innocent of what happened to you." Ezrabette asked.
"None of them are innocent. None of them do you understand me?" Marie Clotilde chastised.
"I don't know if I can help you...I don't know if I'm the right person to do ....." Ezrabette said pausing in mid-sentence before she realized that Maire Clotilde as someone in need, even though she was dead she was someone in need and Ezrabette had promised only to use her powers to help those in need. Was this a special circumstance? Possibly, but how could she turn her own family member away after a century of suffering. "What is it that I would have to do?" She finished.
"Go to the grave of a man who was once as close as humanly possible to destroying this family as anyone has ever been. He has contacted me on this side of the veil of the dead and has comforted me by saying if he is raised from his grave he will avenge this wrong and also fulfill his own murder. He too was taken by a member of this family too soon over 50 years ago. Promise me you'll fulfill this task." Marie Clotilde explained.
Ezrabette looked deep in to the ash filled dark eyes of the spirit that was lived in these very same woods and who murdered by the jealous Judith Collins for being the mistress of her husband Gregory. Ezrabette felt the only way to keep her friends safe was to do what this betrayed spirit asked of her and her powers. She closed her eyes and agreed to help.
"Who is this man? Who killed him?" Ezrabette asked confused.
"Find this man in an a centuries old mausoleum where the Collins family lies. He was buried there by one of the darkest figures...killed by one of the undead. He is there, laying in bones, but with your powers you can raise him from this grave." The spirit instructed.
"To call upon the dead I need his name. I cannot raise him, even if I tried, without it." Ezrabette informed her spirit relative.
The spirit of Marie Clotilde swirled around in her cloudy form, floating closer to her great-granddaughter, her smoky cape pulling Ezrabette in close for so that the name of this dead man soon to be raised from the ground from his unmarked grave to help avenge the the fiery death of this woman in ghost form. The woman got close enough for the spirit to whisper the name...
"Jason McGuire."
*****
It was a bright new day. The remnants of a summer green Collinwood lawn was was freshly cut, the aroma of fresh autumn gardenia's and the buzz of busy bees filled the crisp air around the glorious great mansion. A car was slowly making it's way up the long snake like drive way from the village. It was one of the Collins family's many black sedan's with blacked out windows they used to keep their distance from the ogling town's people as they drove along the sea side village's many cobble stone streets.
This car, driven by the family's personal drive Jude Powell, carried a new employee that had just arrived at the train station across town.
"You'll enjoy the family. They're a very gregarious bunch." Jude said, his white hair sparkling in the summer light that poured through the windshield.
The employee, a young woman from Bedford, Massachusetts looked up from her cell phone at Jude who was looking back at her from his review mirror. She smiled politely to the old man's small talk.
The employee, a young woman from Bedford, Massachusetts looked up from her cell phone at Jude who was looking back at her from his review mirror. She smiled politely to the old man's small talk.
"Have you been up this way before miss?" He asked, begging for a reply.
"I have. Maine is sort of like my home away from home...away from home." She said with a grin, her green eyes now locked with this.
"Is that so? When was the last time you were here?" Jude asked again.
She seemed flustered by his many questions. She was nervous and googling ways to impress you new bosses and didn't feel like entertaining the old drive's small talk. She looked out of the blacked-out car window as the gigantic front lawn continued it's rolling cascade upward toward the main house.
"It feels like centuries." She said softly.
"Well, like said miss, you'll love it here. The Collins family will do all they can to make sure you feel welcome and comfortable. I've been working for them off and on for years myself. Mostly with Miss Carolyn. I drive her around almost everywhere." He said continuing his story that trailed off into the new comer's mind as she closed her eyes and hoped everything would work out.
She was worried. Coming to Collinsport for the new job as Canan's nanny was her way out; out of some of the worst experiences of her life that was littered with terrible episodes that a very few select people could understand. This new life of hers, in Collinsport, would hopefully start her off fresh and free; free of her demons, her past, and all the curses she felt plagued her since the day she was born.
The car began to move around the circle drive way then stopped directly at the front door of the great mansion. The fountain in the center of the circle drive way sprinkled it's water out of a giant copper fish's mouth that had gone green with age.
The front door opened and out poured members of the family she would be working for. They had been anxious to meet their new governess. They all lined up in front of the house smiling and welcoming in the rocky drive way.
"Miss Sasha Bauxfort." Jude said picking up her bags and stepping aside for Sasha to see the family in all family.
"Welcome to Collinwood!" Caleb said extending his hand. "This is my wife, Detective Kathryn Collins, her mother Maggie Evans, my father David Collins and his fiance Dr. Siobhan Morgan and of course, our little baby. This is Canan." Caleb said introducing his relatives.
"It is very good to meet you all." Sasha replied, her light brown curls shining in the autumn sun. She extended her hand to shake Kat's who awkwardly had to juggle Canan in her arms to reach over and shake the new nanny's hand. They giggled and all walked inside.
"Powell, you can take Sasha's things to room 8, thank you." David requested as he placed his hand on the small of Siobhan's back and lead her inside..
Sasha smiled politely and looked up at the west wing. The windows reflected the light of the day but something shadow obscured one of the windows. It was a figure that loomed in the distance in silhouette, staring down at the family and at Sasha. Sasha kept staring, a chill ran up her spine, the house seemed dark and gloomy. And as soon as she blinked the shadowy figure in the west wing window disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Maggie said in a whisper to Sasha.
"I'm sorry?" Sasha asked not realizing Maggie had seen what she saw.
Maggie winked and followed the family inside with Sasha. David, and Siobhan went on there way and left Kat, Caleb and Maggie in the foyer with the resident.
"It's a very large house, with a very large household. We also have a staff that comes in and cooks and cleans on a certain schedule, but you wont have to worry about any of that. I'm just glad you're here! I feel so much better knowing I'll have live in help while I go back to work." Kat explained.
"Has it been hard being home on leave?" Sasha asked.
"Yes and no. The department has been a bit quiet lately. You know, Collinsport isn't New York City, the crime ..." Kat said with a pause remembering the bizarre string of crimes that began her career just a few years ago. "...the crime is here different. I'll just say that."
They all looked at each other as if hiding a secret from Sasha, who noticed.
"I hope you find everything you'll need in the house, Sasha. Carolyn has kept up this old mansion quite well. She's made a few renovations over the past few years to this house and the old house and I'm sure you'll love it here." Maggie said from behind.
"Yes! Especially after that fire." Sasha said looking around the room to the family's surprise.
"The fire? How did you know about the fire?" Caleb asked referencing the fire set by Alexandra under one of Claudia's evil spells.
Sasha stammered a bit and shook her head. She felt embarrassed for confusing the family who were so used to being in constant red alert that they questioned everything to the very last detail.
"I'm embarrassed to say but when I got the job, I....well, looked up the family history and information on the history of the house before I got here. I just wanted to know what I was getting into." Sasha answered to the group.
"Well these houses have been here since the 1700's in one form or another honey, there's so much more you'll learn as you go along, trust me." Maggie replied.
"Right, well, whatever I can do to make things easier for all of you, that's what I'm here for. In fact, if you wouldn't mind, why don't I start now. I can take the baby and let you all go on about your day. I would love to get acquainted with this little guy." Sasha said brushing Canan's light brown hair with her hand.
"Oh! Ok! That would be great!" Kat said handing off the baby surprised in the gesture.
Canan was all but 1 year old. He had already gotten used to being held by other people that weren't his family members, but being that this was his first nanny, the family was expecting him to cry and reach back for his parents who had never given him to anyone else. After Canan's kidnapping last winter they were exceptionally careful who their precious baby boy came in contact with. For Kat herself, it was almost impossible to pry her baby out of her hands. But she did, even if reluctantly.
The baby himself went into Sasha's arms and never made a single noise. He even smiled. He grabbed her golden brown hair and started to pull, he coo'ed and gaga'ed and put his tiny little hands on her porcelain face.
"It's like he knows you!" Laughed Maggie.
Sasha smiled.
"If you need anything just ...." Kat continued as Sasha began to walk up stairs. "Sasha, Caleb can show you were to go...." Kat added, noting Sasha would spend hours searching for the nursery in the giant house if she just went off alone.
"Oh, right." Sasha said stopping on the staircase.
Caleb looked over at Kat and furrowed his brow as if to signal a mutual confusion of Sasha's eagerness to start watching the baby so soon. But he shook it off and dashed up the stairs after her.
"Right this way!" He said with a friendly smile as the three went together.
"She was just going to walk around until she found Canan's room?" Kat said in a hushed voice to her mother Maggie.
"She's just nervous. I'm sure it's nothing. What did the agency say about her?" Maggie asked.
"I don't know. Carolyn handled all of that." Kat answered.
"She does seem a little...too eager," Maggie continued, "Just give her some time to get acquainted with how everything works around here. If the bumps in the night don't scare here off, you in mama-bear-mode will." Maggie joked.
"I guess, but you thought that was odd too right? How she knew about the fire Claudia set and then just going up the staircase like that?" Kat questioned.
"I can see the detective in you sure hasn't relaxed with maternity leave. Darling, go into the drawing room, drink some tea and relax. Your nanny is here and it's time for you to refresh yourself. You start work again tomorrow!" Maggie said to her daughter.
Kat agreed and went into the drawing room arm in arm with her mother Maggie.
The car began to move around the circle drive way then stopped directly at the front door of the great mansion. The fountain in the center of the circle drive way sprinkled it's water out of a giant copper fish's mouth that had gone green with age.
The front door opened and out poured members of the family she would be working for. They had been anxious to meet their new governess. They all lined up in front of the house smiling and welcoming in the rocky drive way.
"Miss Sasha Bauxfort." Jude said picking up her bags and stepping aside for Sasha to see the family in all family.
"Welcome to Collinwood!" Caleb said extending his hand. "This is my wife, Detective Kathryn Collins, her mother Maggie Evans, my father David Collins and his fiance Dr. Siobhan Morgan and of course, our little baby. This is Canan." Caleb said introducing his relatives.
"It is very good to meet you all." Sasha replied, her light brown curls shining in the autumn sun. She extended her hand to shake Kat's who awkwardly had to juggle Canan in her arms to reach over and shake the new nanny's hand. They giggled and all walked inside.
"Powell, you can take Sasha's things to room 8, thank you." David requested as he placed his hand on the small of Siobhan's back and lead her inside..
Sasha smiled politely and looked up at the west wing. The windows reflected the light of the day but something shadow obscured one of the windows. It was a figure that loomed in the distance in silhouette, staring down at the family and at Sasha. Sasha kept staring, a chill ran up her spine, the house seemed dark and gloomy. And as soon as she blinked the shadowy figure in the west wing window disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Maggie said in a whisper to Sasha.
"I'm sorry?" Sasha asked not realizing Maggie had seen what she saw.
Maggie winked and followed the family inside with Sasha. David, and Siobhan went on there way and left Kat, Caleb and Maggie in the foyer with the resident.
"It's a very large house, with a very large household. We also have a staff that comes in and cooks and cleans on a certain schedule, but you wont have to worry about any of that. I'm just glad you're here! I feel so much better knowing I'll have live in help while I go back to work." Kat explained.
"Has it been hard being home on leave?" Sasha asked.
"Yes and no. The department has been a bit quiet lately. You know, Collinsport isn't New York City, the crime ..." Kat said with a pause remembering the bizarre string of crimes that began her career just a few years ago. "...the crime is here different. I'll just say that."
They all looked at each other as if hiding a secret from Sasha, who noticed.
"I hope you find everything you'll need in the house, Sasha. Carolyn has kept up this old mansion quite well. She's made a few renovations over the past few years to this house and the old house and I'm sure you'll love it here." Maggie said from behind.
"Yes! Especially after that fire." Sasha said looking around the room to the family's surprise.
"The fire? How did you know about the fire?" Caleb asked referencing the fire set by Alexandra under one of Claudia's evil spells.
Sasha stammered a bit and shook her head. She felt embarrassed for confusing the family who were so used to being in constant red alert that they questioned everything to the very last detail.
"I'm embarrassed to say but when I got the job, I....well, looked up the family history and information on the history of the house before I got here. I just wanted to know what I was getting into." Sasha answered to the group.
"Well these houses have been here since the 1700's in one form or another honey, there's so much more you'll learn as you go along, trust me." Maggie replied.
"Right, well, whatever I can do to make things easier for all of you, that's what I'm here for. In fact, if you wouldn't mind, why don't I start now. I can take the baby and let you all go on about your day. I would love to get acquainted with this little guy." Sasha said brushing Canan's light brown hair with her hand.
"Oh! Ok! That would be great!" Kat said handing off the baby surprised in the gesture.
Canan was all but 1 year old. He had already gotten used to being held by other people that weren't his family members, but being that this was his first nanny, the family was expecting him to cry and reach back for his parents who had never given him to anyone else. After Canan's kidnapping last winter they were exceptionally careful who their precious baby boy came in contact with. For Kat herself, it was almost impossible to pry her baby out of her hands. But she did, even if reluctantly.
The baby himself went into Sasha's arms and never made a single noise. He even smiled. He grabbed her golden brown hair and started to pull, he coo'ed and gaga'ed and put his tiny little hands on her porcelain face.
"It's like he knows you!" Laughed Maggie.
Sasha smiled.
"If you need anything just ...." Kat continued as Sasha began to walk up stairs. "Sasha, Caleb can show you were to go...." Kat added, noting Sasha would spend hours searching for the nursery in the giant house if she just went off alone.
"Oh, right." Sasha said stopping on the staircase.
Caleb looked over at Kat and furrowed his brow as if to signal a mutual confusion of Sasha's eagerness to start watching the baby so soon. But he shook it off and dashed up the stairs after her.
"Right this way!" He said with a friendly smile as the three went together.
"She was just going to walk around until she found Canan's room?" Kat said in a hushed voice to her mother Maggie.
"She's just nervous. I'm sure it's nothing. What did the agency say about her?" Maggie asked.
"I don't know. Carolyn handled all of that." Kat answered.
"She does seem a little...too eager," Maggie continued, "Just give her some time to get acquainted with how everything works around here. If the bumps in the night don't scare here off, you in mama-bear-mode will." Maggie joked.
"I guess, but you thought that was odd too right? How she knew about the fire Claudia set and then just going up the staircase like that?" Kat questioned.
"I can see the detective in you sure hasn't relaxed with maternity leave. Darling, go into the drawing room, drink some tea and relax. Your nanny is here and it's time for you to refresh yourself. You start work again tomorrow!" Maggie said to her daughter.
Kat agreed and went into the drawing room arm in arm with her mother Maggie.
*****
In the evening of this autumn day, Carolyn was sitting in a green garden just outside of the main house. The garden stoop overlooked a long patch of lawn and trees and in the foreground stood the old house in it's newest renovated form. Carolyn sipped on a small minty drink and stared at the old house thinking of everything that had happened there, past and present. Her mind drifted into the chill of the air and fell into that dark space of her memory that lead her to the terrors from the past.
Murder. Lies. Mayhem.
All of family secrets she held inside of her for decades had eaten away at her. She and David were the last two alive from her immediate family, but Carolyn seemed to be the one with the lasting memories, David was lucky. He was younger than she, and in all the years he was trapped in Windcliff, he had somehow repressed most of his childhood nightmares and somehow survived unscathed.
Her eyes continued to be closed. The darkness around her now brightened like a candle in a dark hallway illuminating a red haze. In the blackness of her mind, with just the glowing of the red light around her and the room she was in that she recognized as being from The Old House. There in the red haze was a coffin engraved with the initials B.C. She could hear foots steps coming towards her, faster and faster they walked, harder and harder the sound came. Carolyn looked all around her but there was no one there, no one around her. Just her and the coffin.
Her mind pushed her towards the coffin like a magnet dragging her across the darkness. She could feel her throat tighten she could feel a pinch that burned and a heat that felt like scolding water. She grabbed her throat with one hand and when she pulled the had away, two wounds appeared perfectly spaced just below her jaw line linking to her jugular vein with two rivers of blood pouring out.
Her mind pushed her towards the coffin like a magnet dragging her across the darkness. She could feel her throat tighten she could feel a pinch that burned and a heat that felt like scolding water. She grabbed her throat with one hand and when she pulled the had away, two wounds appeared perfectly spaced just below her jaw line linking to her jugular vein with two rivers of blood pouring out.
The wounds continued to bleed down her neck and onto her chest dampening her white shirt. Her breathing shortened. Her mind foggy with this twisted memory, she opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out. Then out of the coffin a bubbling sound. She carefully walked over and opened the coffin's lid only to be slashed in the face with a fountain of red blood. it poured and poured like an over flowing pot, the crimson liquid flowed over her. The sound was like a rushing river but suddenly a voice from the outside came.
"Carolyn?" the man's voice said softly.
Carolyn's eyes flipped open and she was still sitting on her porch outside in the garden, her day dream had become so real she thought she had literally transported to the old house.
The voice belonged to her trusted driver Jude Powell.
"Are you alright?" He asked as he sat down next to her.
"Yes, fine, I must of nodded off for a second..." Carolyn answered looking around for the blood she could still smell, clearly still suffering from the decades of real life nightmares suffered at the hands of the supernatural.
"Not enough sleep?" Powell asked cordially.
"I guess." Carolyn answered keeping her secret nightmare to herself. "How are things inside? I was told the new nanny for Canan has arrived from Bedford." Carolyn said looking out past the law at the old house.
"Not enough sleep?" Powell asked cordially.
"I guess." Carolyn answered keeping her secret nightmare to herself. "How are things inside? I was told the new nanny for Canan has arrived from Bedford." Carolyn said looking out past the law at the old house.
"That's right, the young Miss Beaufort. She seems to have already take up with the boy. They're getting along quite well." Powell said.
Carolyn smiled politely.
"Are you sure that is all that's bothering you? Is there something I can do to help?" Powell asked still noticing Carolyn's mind wondering.
Powell and Carolyn had known each other for decades before she moved off to London and became married to her late husband Jack. He was her mother's driver while in his 20s; a small town Collinsport boy who then moved to Boston in the late 70's when Elizabeth died and Carolyn moved to London.
When he returned to his hometown in 1987, she was long gone, and married with an infant daughter. His fondness for her, however, never wavered all these years no matter how distant they were in proximity, or who they were married to. Powell was always thinking of her even during his own marriage of which he had been widowed for 20 years.
When Carolyn came back to Collinsport in the fall of 2015 in search of her missing husband, Powell had heard. Eventually, the following spring he was re-hired as her driver and has never left her side since. He loves her with the sense of a man who would do anything for someone no matter what they've done in the past. Carolyn, too, could feel this from him, and for a woman who had been through the things she had, it felt good.
Carolyn looked out onto the great thicket of trees that separated Collinwood and The Old house. Her mind was not at ease, her day dream of blood and neck wound still lingered it didn't matter who was talking to her.
Powell grabbed her hand and squeezed.
"Maybe you should go inside and lay down, you seem a little tired." Her kind driver said.
She looked at him and patted him on the hand and agreed. She stood up and they both walked back into Collinwood leaving the lush garden and Carolyn's awful daydream behind. Carolyn had been around long enough to know that just that nightmares had a very interesting way of becoming reality. She knew that they were a way to tell the future; they were omens.
Carolyn's daydream, of shadowy figures coffins and bleeding throats was telling her something was coming, something dark, something evil and something, perhaps familiar.
However, this evening Ezrabette's conscious was still recovering from the ghostly visits by her ancestor Marie Clotilde. The lack of sleep and stress was throwing Ezrabette off but she still remembered her promise to Marie Clotilde. The promise to find Jason McGuire's body and bring him back to life to ruin the Collins family and keep Maggie and her family safe from harm.
Maggie happily bounded up the wooden porch and knocked on the door. The screen door creaked open. Ezrabette let Maggie in and instantly noticed a change in demanor of her usually optimistic friend.
They sat down in the quaint living room. A black cat lay licking it's paws on the sofa like a lounging queen.
"Ssssss, Marigold." Ezrabette said to her cat, shooing her off the sofa so that she could sit with Maggie.
"You look tired, whats the matter?" Maggie asked taking a sip of tea Ezrabette had made.
"Long night. I didn't sleep much. So tell me, how are things going with Sebastian and Kat? You seem so much lighter. There's a glow about you." Ezrabette noticed of her old friend.
"Things couldn't be better. I never thought I'd be a mother again, much less a grandmother. It's wonderful being around my children, Bette, you just wouldn't believe how wonderful it is Kat is back to work, and Sebastian is doing great in Bangor. He decided to go back to his old place there." Maggie beamed.
"When are Caleb and Kat moving out of Collinwood?" Ezrabette asked.
"Moving out? They're not. Not that I know. Why do you ask?" Maggie questioned.
"They're staying in that house? How could they stay there after everything that's happened over the years. Maggie, you have to convince them to leave. Its not safe there." Ezrabette said, knowing full she herself had a plan to rid the town of the cursed Collins family. Her hopes were to at least keep Maggie's daughter and grandson out of the way of whatever was to come.
"It's their home, honey! I can't insist on them leaving where they want to live. Besides, what's this about anyway? You've never mentioned any concerns about being at Collinwood before." Maggie noted.
"Are you saying you're not worried that something else could happen? I don't think it's out of the question to worry." Ezrabette said.
Maggie paused before she responded. She had been best friends with Ezrabette for years and knew her every move, this was a sign that Ezrabette, the all knowing medium had possibly seen something, or knew something she wasn't telling Maggie. That secret, of course was, the pact Ezrabette entered with her murdered ancestor Marie Clotilde.
Maggie was cautious with her words.
"Is there something you're worried about specifically? Something in your cards?" Maggie asked nervously.
Ezrabette knew she had to play it safe, but it was hard to especially to her best friend who's own family was now so entangled with the family in her mystical cross-hairs.
"No, never mind, forget I said anything. I have't read my cards in a really long time so, don't worry about it. You know what I did read though, in the paper the other day. This summer marked the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of someone that used to live at that estate." Ezrabette said half lying.
Maggie giggled through her sip of tea.
"Bette, that could literally have been one of so many people; which I guess is sort of your point to why Caleb and Kat are still there...but anyway, who did you read about?" Maggie said with her classic sarcastic Evans wit.
"Jason McGuire." Ezrabette said clearly to a shocked Maggie.
"Oh my god!" Maggie hissed. "That monster. He was horrible. The things he did to Carolyn's mother, the lies---god---all those lies. You know he made Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard believe she was responsible for her own husbands death, and then made her believe she had buried him in their basement. He almost blackmailed her into marrying him. It was a whole thing, trust me no one missed him when he went missing." Maggie explained.
"What do you think happened to him?" Ezrabette asked.
"With Jason?" Maggie said pausing again to think of an answer. "There's not telling. Jason was involved with a really bad bunch of people. There's really no way of knowing where or what happened to him." She said sipping her tea.
But Ezrabette knew. Ezrebette knew he was killed by Barnabas Collin in 1967. She knew the man was a horrible human being, she knew the hell he placed on the Collins family especially the woman, Elizabeth and her daughter Carolyn. It was all explained to her by Marie Clotilde. But Ezarebette needed confirmation. She needed to hear it from someone she trusted.
The man that would play a huge part in Ezarabette's plot had been long buried and forgotten, but not for long.
She grabbed her beads and closed her eyes.
It was time.
"I come for you, from where ever you lay, in the depths of the darkness, or in the light of day. Come out from the deep or from where ever you reside, Jason McGuire, a command you to reveal where you hide!!" Ezrabette said to a thunderous lightening strike.
And as she stood there, the ground began to shake. The walls began to crack and move, the thunder outside got louder the wind got stronger and up from the ground, as the cement cracked and broke apart, a body slowly lifted up from the ground.
Ezrabette screamed and fell backwards on to the floor in total fear.
The body, green, molded, rotting from 5 decades of laying in a shallow cemented over grave was facing away from Ezrabette. It slowly turned in her direction, Ezrabette inched her way back on her backside until she was how sitting up against the chamber wall. The body's eyes were gone. It's skin was mostly gone just hanging on by the grace of time and strands of whatever ligaments and tendons remained.
"Who are you!! Speak your name!!" Ezrabette said in horror of what she say her face have obscured by her hand.
The decayed body tilted it's head. It lifted it's hand over its face and moved it down. As his hand began to pass his face, the flesh began to return. First the muscles and tendons. Then the cartilage and missing bone fragments, then the eyes, hair and cartilage of the nose finally creating the face of the man Ezrabette had come for.
The face of Jason McGuire.
"I'm the one you've been looking for lass. I've been waiting for you for 50 years, and 50 years has been a long, long time!" Jason said with his trademark Scottish accent.
Ezrabette got up from the floor, still unsure of what had just happened. She had spoken to spirits before but never brought one back from the dead. It was something she had no idea she could do, her powers were indeed stronger than she had ever believed them to be.
"What have I done?" Ezrabette said, the thunder clapping in the background.
"You? You've only opened the door, lovie, it was your sweet great-gran that set this all up, you were just the living conduit that we needed. It took a long time for us to get to you, you know. But don't you worry, when I get what's mine, and she get's what's hers, you'll be rewarded too. Everything your own sweet family has suffered will finally be set right. You'll be very grateful to be apart of it, I can assure you." Jason explained.
"No, no.... I have to reverse this! This goes beyond the rights of nature!" Ezrabette said starting to make her way out of the secret room hoping it would just all go away.
Jason, who's body was solid to the touch but his spirit was as supernatural as they came, jumped to the exit and blocked her like a flash of light passing over her in just mere seconds.
"Now, now, don't you go getting cold feet. This is a team effort, and I've been waiting 50 years to get my hands on what I'm owed by this Collins family." Jason hissed as his new lips slowly formed over this scull. "Don't go getting your knickers in a twist. You know what we have to do." Jason said moving Ezrabette's hair out of her face.
"And what's that?" She asked.
"Let's get out of here, huh? I'll explain over a good cup of coffee....I've been waiting 50 years for a good cup of coffee." Jason said putting his arm around Ezrabette as they left the darkened mausoleum.
As they left a coffin, that Ezrabette hadn't even noticed, was left again to a lonely slumber in it's murky secret room. Just as Ezrabette's car drove off from Eagle Hill Cemetery, the coffin inside the secret room began to shake and rattle and move around. Then suddenly it stopped.
There was silence again in the darkness of the secret tomb.
Perhaps Jason McGuire wasn't the only one awakened by Ezrabette's spell.
Powell grabbed her hand and squeezed.
"Maybe you should go inside and lay down, you seem a little tired." Her kind driver said.
She looked at him and patted him on the hand and agreed. She stood up and they both walked back into Collinwood leaving the lush garden and Carolyn's awful daydream behind. Carolyn had been around long enough to know that just that nightmares had a very interesting way of becoming reality. She knew that they were a way to tell the future; they were omens.
Carolyn's daydream, of shadowy figures coffins and bleeding throats was telling her something was coming, something dark, something evil and something, perhaps familiar.
*****
Later on that evening Maggie Evans took a drive out to see her friend Ezrabette Baptiste. Earlier that spring the two old friends had re-connected over old secrets and painful memories of Maggie's now decease former husband Thatcher Banning. It was a painful secret that Maggie had been holding for over 30 years, Ezrabette, who discovered the truth about Maggie faking her death in 1987 and the terrible abuse by Thatcher through her psychic abilities, had grown even closer to Maggie after the truth was revealed. Their friendship and bond was stronger than ever.However, this evening Ezrabette's conscious was still recovering from the ghostly visits by her ancestor Marie Clotilde. The lack of sleep and stress was throwing Ezrabette off but she still remembered her promise to Marie Clotilde. The promise to find Jason McGuire's body and bring him back to life to ruin the Collins family and keep Maggie and her family safe from harm.
Maggie happily bounded up the wooden porch and knocked on the door. The screen door creaked open. Ezrabette let Maggie in and instantly noticed a change in demanor of her usually optimistic friend.
They sat down in the quaint living room. A black cat lay licking it's paws on the sofa like a lounging queen.
"Ssssss, Marigold." Ezrabette said to her cat, shooing her off the sofa so that she could sit with Maggie.
"You look tired, whats the matter?" Maggie asked taking a sip of tea Ezrabette had made.
"Long night. I didn't sleep much. So tell me, how are things going with Sebastian and Kat? You seem so much lighter. There's a glow about you." Ezrabette noticed of her old friend.
"Things couldn't be better. I never thought I'd be a mother again, much less a grandmother. It's wonderful being around my children, Bette, you just wouldn't believe how wonderful it is Kat is back to work, and Sebastian is doing great in Bangor. He decided to go back to his old place there." Maggie beamed.
"When are Caleb and Kat moving out of Collinwood?" Ezrabette asked.
"Moving out? They're not. Not that I know. Why do you ask?" Maggie questioned.
"They're staying in that house? How could they stay there after everything that's happened over the years. Maggie, you have to convince them to leave. Its not safe there." Ezrabette said, knowing full she herself had a plan to rid the town of the cursed Collins family. Her hopes were to at least keep Maggie's daughter and grandson out of the way of whatever was to come.
"It's their home, honey! I can't insist on them leaving where they want to live. Besides, what's this about anyway? You've never mentioned any concerns about being at Collinwood before." Maggie noted.
"Are you saying you're not worried that something else could happen? I don't think it's out of the question to worry." Ezrabette said.
Maggie paused before she responded. She had been best friends with Ezrabette for years and knew her every move, this was a sign that Ezrabette, the all knowing medium had possibly seen something, or knew something she wasn't telling Maggie. That secret, of course was, the pact Ezrabette entered with her murdered ancestor Marie Clotilde.
Maggie was cautious with her words.
"Is there something you're worried about specifically? Something in your cards?" Maggie asked nervously.
Ezrabette knew she had to play it safe, but it was hard to especially to her best friend who's own family was now so entangled with the family in her mystical cross-hairs.
"No, never mind, forget I said anything. I have't read my cards in a really long time so, don't worry about it. You know what I did read though, in the paper the other day. This summer marked the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of someone that used to live at that estate." Ezrabette said half lying.
Maggie giggled through her sip of tea.
"Bette, that could literally have been one of so many people; which I guess is sort of your point to why Caleb and Kat are still there...but anyway, who did you read about?" Maggie said with her classic sarcastic Evans wit.
"Jason McGuire." Ezrabette said clearly to a shocked Maggie.
"Oh my god!" Maggie hissed. "That monster. He was horrible. The things he did to Carolyn's mother, the lies---god---all those lies. You know he made Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard believe she was responsible for her own husbands death, and then made her believe she had buried him in their basement. He almost blackmailed her into marrying him. It was a whole thing, trust me no one missed him when he went missing." Maggie explained.
"What do you think happened to him?" Ezrabette asked.
"With Jason?" Maggie said pausing again to think of an answer. "There's not telling. Jason was involved with a really bad bunch of people. There's really no way of knowing where or what happened to him." She said sipping her tea.
But Ezrabette knew. Ezrebette knew he was killed by Barnabas Collin in 1967. She knew the man was a horrible human being, she knew the hell he placed on the Collins family especially the woman, Elizabeth and her daughter Carolyn. It was all explained to her by Marie Clotilde. But Ezarebette needed confirmation. She needed to hear it from someone she trusted.
The man that would play a huge part in Ezarabette's plot had been long buried and forgotten, but not for long.
*****
Night had finally come to Collinsport. It was a regular autumn night, chilly air with the hint of the misty freshness of the see. Ezrabette had been left to herself after Maggie's visit for a few hours now, and the sun had set, but Ezrabette's night was just about to begin.
The town mystic was no stranger to bridging the gab between the living and the dead. In her practice she had often conjured spirits of patrons' dearly departed as to help them ease into the reality of their passing. It helped the living move on and it helped the dead go into the light. But her job this time was not just to conjure Jason's spirit, her task was to bring him back from the dead.
As the fog rolled into town, and the city's light sparkled in the distance a small grey car rolled around the snake like side streets that twisted around Eagle Hill Cemetary. Ezrabette could still hear Marie Clotilde's haunting voice in her mind say "Find the man you seek in the family's mausoleum."
Ezrabette got out of her car and clicked on her flashlight and carefully walked across the damp grass to the Collins Family mausoleum. Her light lit her way casually passing grave stones as she went.
The old graves looks like moss covered river-rocks that were perfectly carved into the scenic old oblong stones ancient grave yards are known for. Her long coat easily passed over the long uncut grass dampening the hem. She felt a chill cross her cheek and touch the exposed skin of her neck.
A storm brewed in the sky, lightening and thunder crashed int he clouds above striking bright light across the cemetery like flash bulbs snapping photographs every 10 seconds.
A storm brewed in the sky, lightening and thunder crashed int he clouds above striking bright light across the cemetery like flash bulbs snapping photographs every 10 seconds.
She tightened the sash around her long coat and pushed open the rusty iron gates of the old mausoleum.
From deep in her coat pocket Ezrabette pulled out wire-cutters and carefully squeezed around the lock of the mausoleum door. She squeezed and squeezed and just as the sweat beads began to crown her forehead the lock broke. She pushed open the now broken locked door and took a deep breath.
"One foot in front of the other." She said to herself as lightening flashed behind her.
Inside the mausoleum it was as peaceful as she had expected. The tombs had not been disturbed in years, and they had not been visited either.
"Where do I begin?" She wondered to herself as she flashed the flashlight around to look.
As she continued to inspect the inside of the mausoleum something kept telling her to look at the center panel on the walls. There were three lion's heads each on their own wall panel, but only the center one had a ring in it's mouth.
She walked over to it, slowly, the lightening striking in the sky illuminating the room within eclipsing her flashlight for a few seconds at a time. Ezrabette got to the center panel and grabbed hold of the ring inside the moth of lion and pulled.
Nothing happened.
She pulled again, this time harder, something in her mind kept telling her, the answer was behind this wall. Something in her body was making her believe that this ring in the lion's mouth was the key to discovering what this was all about and why she was told to come here. Something instinctively made her do this and as she struggled with the ring, it finally clicked; a sound that echoed in the chamber.
The center panel opened to complete darkness.
Ezrabette grabbed her prayer beads and flashlight and walked in slowly.
She was careful as not to disturb the dead that were not of her concern. Naomi. Joshua. Sarah. Elizabeth. Roger.
As the light from her small flashlight made it's way into the hidden chamber, she saw what was there. Her gasp echoed too inside at the site of a singular coffin sealed shut in the center of the chamber.
Was this the coffin of Jason McGuire?
With a hand over her mouth in shock, she Ezrabette carefully walked over to the coffin and looked down, it was carved with the letters BC. She shook her head confused, she did not understand what was going on. She was sent there to retrieve Jason McGuire but the coffin she found didn't seem to belong to him.
She grabbed her beads and closed her eyes.
It was time.
"I come for you, from where ever you lay, in the depths of the darkness, or in the light of day. Come out from the deep or from where ever you reside, Jason McGuire, a command you to reveal where you hide!!" Ezrabette said to a thunderous lightening strike.
And as she stood there, the ground began to shake. The walls began to crack and move, the thunder outside got louder the wind got stronger and up from the ground, as the cement cracked and broke apart, a body slowly lifted up from the ground.
Ezrabette screamed and fell backwards on to the floor in total fear.
The body, green, molded, rotting from 5 decades of laying in a shallow cemented over grave was facing away from Ezrabette. It slowly turned in her direction, Ezrabette inched her way back on her backside until she was how sitting up against the chamber wall. The body's eyes were gone. It's skin was mostly gone just hanging on by the grace of time and strands of whatever ligaments and tendons remained.
"Who are you!! Speak your name!!" Ezrabette said in horror of what she say her face have obscured by her hand.
The decayed body tilted it's head. It lifted it's hand over its face and moved it down. As his hand began to pass his face, the flesh began to return. First the muscles and tendons. Then the cartilage and missing bone fragments, then the eyes, hair and cartilage of the nose finally creating the face of the man Ezrabette had come for.
The face of Jason McGuire.
"I'm the one you've been looking for lass. I've been waiting for you for 50 years, and 50 years has been a long, long time!" Jason said with his trademark Scottish accent.
Ezrabette got up from the floor, still unsure of what had just happened. She had spoken to spirits before but never brought one back from the dead. It was something she had no idea she could do, her powers were indeed stronger than she had ever believed them to be.
"What have I done?" Ezrabette said, the thunder clapping in the background.
"You? You've only opened the door, lovie, it was your sweet great-gran that set this all up, you were just the living conduit that we needed. It took a long time for us to get to you, you know. But don't you worry, when I get what's mine, and she get's what's hers, you'll be rewarded too. Everything your own sweet family has suffered will finally be set right. You'll be very grateful to be apart of it, I can assure you." Jason explained.
"No, no.... I have to reverse this! This goes beyond the rights of nature!" Ezrabette said starting to make her way out of the secret room hoping it would just all go away.
Jason, who's body was solid to the touch but his spirit was as supernatural as they came, jumped to the exit and blocked her like a flash of light passing over her in just mere seconds.
"Now, now, don't you go getting cold feet. This is a team effort, and I've been waiting 50 years to get my hands on what I'm owed by this Collins family." Jason hissed as his new lips slowly formed over this scull. "Don't go getting your knickers in a twist. You know what we have to do." Jason said moving Ezrabette's hair out of her face.
"And what's that?" She asked.
"Let's get out of here, huh? I'll explain over a good cup of coffee....I've been waiting 50 years for a good cup of coffee." Jason said putting his arm around Ezrabette as they left the darkened mausoleum.
As they left a coffin, that Ezrabette hadn't even noticed, was left again to a lonely slumber in it's murky secret room. Just as Ezrabette's car drove off from Eagle Hill Cemetery, the coffin inside the secret room began to shake and rattle and move around. Then suddenly it stopped.
There was silence again in the darkness of the secret tomb.
Perhaps Jason McGuire wasn't the only one awakened by Ezrabette's spell.
