The moon sang over a bed of clouds that floated above the town of Collinsport, Maine like a small ship in the sea sitting in a moody blue placid lake. Alone in solace shining it's light town below, the towns people, scurrying off in the misty air to their desired pubs and drinking holes.
Down by the docks at the legendary Blue Whale, the Collins' family newest governess had sipped her favorite spirits with the towns newest citizen, Curtis Winters. They made small talk, Curtis often commenting on how familiar Sasha was to him, not to the chagrin of Curtis' new employers, David and Caleb Collins. Especially for David who felt Curtis being the son of Victoria Winters, the late Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard's estranged daughter, might be a bit of a problem for the business and being that close to Sasha only added another tentacle into the Collins family inner circle.
In fact, both Sasha and Curtis were employed by the richest most powerful family in town, and having their employers so close in proximity made Sasha feel a bit uncomfortable. She looked at her watch then looked over at the table with the glaring eyes of the Collins men staring.
"I think I should go." She said as she reached for her coat on the back of her chair.
"So soon? It's only 10:30!" Curtis said grabbing her arm. "I'd like to talk to you some more. Maybe we have friends in common somewhere and that's how I recognize you."
"I doubt that, and I have to be up early tomorrow to get the baby ready for the day." Sasha explained. "His dad is right there....so..." She mentioned to an understanding Curtis.
"Can we meet up again?" He asked; she smiled and nodded.
Sasha placed her coat around her shoulders as she stepped out of the Blue Whale and noticed a taxi cab dropping off a young happy couple in front of the pub. As they paid their fair Sasha held the back door open and peeked in.
"Are you still on duty?" She asked the awaiting driver.
"Yes miss." The elderly taxi driver responded. "Where to?" He added refreshing the meter.
Sasha jumped in the back seat and closed the door behind her then smiled at the driver, but her destination wasn't something he'd be prepared to hear at such a late hour of the night from such a fresh faced young woman, in fact the moment she said where she needed to be taken a chill ran up his spine and settled in the back of his eyes like eating too much ice cream too fast.
He turned to her and asked her if she was sure she wanted to go to the place she had said, he even questioned her to make sure he had heard correctly. She simply smiled and repeated the same destination. He took a gulp of air and put his car into DRIVE and headed off to the gloomiest place in town.
Eagle Hill Cemetery.
*****
In the mist of the late night fog, Ezrabette walked along the woods in search of some kind of sign from her ancestors to help her through this dark period of her life. The spirit of her great-grandmother Marie Clotilde had been visiting her for over a month and had manipulated her into a vicious revenge plot against the Collins family and had convinced her to raise Jason McGuire from the dead to help in the deed. It was something Ezrabette had wished she had never done, but the fear of Marie Clotilde going after Ezrabette's best friend Maggie Evans and causing her more suffering forced Ezrabette to give in and become a cohort.
The town's mystic was caught between loyalty to a family member that had been murdered and sought revenge and the threat of something happening to living people she loved. As she walked along the wooden area she realized that she was in the woods that connected to the old side of Eagle Hill Cemetery. She could see the old iron gate with the welded sign to the entrance just in the distance between spaces of passing fog.
"There's only one person that can help me, and if I've raised Jason, maybe, I can find a way to get some help from him too..." Ezrabette said to herself referencing a mysterious second dead man she was willing to raise from the ground to help her end.
She quickly made her way through the outer layer of the forest and into the cemetery that swelled with old stone angels and crosses marked with names of the dead that were centuries old. She passed those names in a quick motion and made her way to the Collins mausoleum. As she got closer she see a little spark of a contained fire just out side the gate of the mausoleum and she could see activity around that fire.
"What in the..?" Ezrabette said to herself not knowing what she was about to come across at 11 o'clock at night at the cemetery. Closer and closer she got to the fire outside the Collins mausoleum.
She could smell the burning coals, she could hear the crackling flames, and she could see a person dancing in the black smoke. As Ezrabette came closer she could see that it was a woman chanting and dancing in the light of the flames.
She could smell the burning coals, she could hear the crackling flames, and she could see a person dancing in the black smoke. As Ezrabette came closer she could see that it was a woman chanting and dancing in the light of the flames.
"Breath in the flame. Breath in the flames. Call me the one of many names. Breath in the flames. Breath in the flames. Call me the one of many names." The woman chanted as the glow of fire shined all around her.
Ezrabette watched from a hidden thicket of bushes just feet away from the spectacle of the woman and the flames. Then the woman reached into a bag and pulled out a live rabbit. The creature was small and fit into the palm of the woman's left hand. With her right hand the woman grabbed it's neck and twisted it, killing the animal right there in seconds.
"This creature has been sacrificed for the cause of the return of my powers. She of many names has returned thanks to thee, mother nature. His little life goes back into the flames and returns to the earth. Circle of life. Twists and turns. Breath the flames. Woman of many names." She began to chant again.
Ezrabette saw that this woman was one of her mysitcal sisters. A woman that had powers beyond anything she had ever seen before. Ezrabette slowly came out from the thicket of bushes and walked up to the flames and saw the woman chanting there. It was the mysterious Sasha Beaufort, governess of the Collins family.
"Sister." Ezrabette said to the woman calling for a sisterly coven.
Sasha looked up at Ezrabette and stood tall. Instantly she saw the twinkle of power in Ezrabette's aura.
"Sister." Sasha said.
This was the first time Ezrabette had seen Sasha, this was the first time they had ever met, they were strangers but connected through their powers through nature and magic.
"I have come here for assistance, and perhaps our mother nature has shown me you. What are you called?" Ezrabette questioned.
Being that the women were connected through their powers of magic and in a coven birth by nature, Sasha revealed the biggest secret of her existance.
"Claudia. Claudia Bochard." Sasha said, revealing her true name, the body she was using was a proxy, a way to live in this world now that her physical body died in 1920.
Sasha was indeed the reincarnation, the rebirth of the daughter of Angelique and Barnabas. Claudia’s, body had died in 1920 as everyone had assumed; but her life force l was alive and had entered the body of Sasha Beaufort to live again
Now in Collinsport, Claudia was now Ezrabette's hopeful ally in the fight to rid Marie Clotidle and Jason McGuire's alter ego Jonathon Silva before it was too late.
****
It was morning now. The fresh air from the ocean sprayed across the lawn of the great mansion. It was a serine setting that played tricks on the mind, for inside the mansion, things were not so peaceful.David rushed down the staircase in a panic. He searched all the rooms on the first floor hoping Siobhan had gotten up earlier and was down stairs having breakfast. David had fallen asleep before her after his night out with Caleb at the Blue Whale and had fallen asleep before her. When he awoke, she was not there.
In the kitchen, the cook and Kat were chatting over coffee when David burst in looking for Siobhan.
"Has Siobhan been down yet?" David asked.
"No, I haven't seen her." Kat replied as the cook went back to her duties.
"She wasn't in bed when I got home last night and she wasn't there when I woke up. Her side of the bed wasn't touched at all." David explained.
"There has to be some explanation. Maybe she took off to Windcliff earlier than expected. She's done that before." Kat answered.
"She usually tells me if she's going early. I'm worried." David said starting to feel a tightness in his stomach.
"Ok, just relax, don't panic, I'll call Loomis at the station, he's usually there before me. We'll see if we can get someone sort of A.P.B on her to double check and make sure that everything is ok." Kat replied as she reached for her cell phone.
"That won't be necessary." A voice said from the kitchen entrance.
It was Kimberly. She had come down from her room and heard the commotion in the kitchen. She walked over to David with a concerned look on her face.
"David, I don't know how to tell you this...." Kimberly began before being interrupted.
"Tell me what?" David asked.
"Yesterday while you were dealing with Carolyn and her breakdown, Siobhan and I were talking. She had a lot of concerns about what was going on here." Kim said.
"Oh? What kind of concerns?" David asked skeptically.
"Well that maybe you needed time to devote to your family and not to a relationship. She was worried that having her here was a distraction and that you needed time to process everything with Carolyn and now that I'm here...well it was just too much for her." Kim said.
"You're lying." David said point blank. "She was fine with you here. She told you herself."
"She wasn't being sincere David. She was more concerned with you and how you were going to be able to balance everything going on. I think it was very courageous for her to do that and let you focus on your family: your son, your beloved cousin, your grandchild..." Kim said before being interrupted again by David.
"And you? Did she want me to devote time to you?" David said sharply.
"Maybe I should let you two talk things out. David, if you need me for anything, give me a call at the station, ok?" Kat said before she left the room feeling like fly on the wall.
David thanked Kat and shook his head at Kim. He could tell something wasn't right but couldn't put his finger on it. The way Kimberly was talking about Siobhan made her out to be someone who was self-conscious, insecure with her relationship and her position within the family, but that was not the Siobhan David knew and fell in love with, she was a strong willed woman who never let her doubts get in the way of her happiness. The Siobhan Kim was talking about, at least in David's opinion, didn't exist.
"So what else did you and Siobhan talk about?" David said crossing his arms.
"A lot of things, especially how much she loves you, but at this point she chose to let you go and help the family in their time of need. She's quite the catch." Kim said.
"I don't believe you. There's no way that Siobhan would ever just pick up and leave just like that. What about her job? What about her life? This is her home too." David said.
Kimberly shook her head and took a deep breath in. She knew that David would react this way, after all they were married at one time for many years. She knew him like the back of her hand and knew that if she wanted to pull this off she would need some sort of proof to make him believe.
"She asked me to give you this." Kim said extending her arm. She opened her fist to show what she was holding. It was Siobhan's engagement ring.
"Where did you get this?" David said grabbing the ring from his ex wife.
"I told you David, we talked about this all night last night after dinner and when you were off at the Blue Whale with Caleb. She grabbed a few things and took off, but before that she asked me to give this to you in the morning." Kim explained, her plot thickening.
David's eyes watered. He looked at his ex wife with disbelief but it was in fact Siobhan's ring. He took the ring, and without saying a word, left the kitchen with Kim hot on his tracks.
"Where are you going?" Kim asked.
"I want to see if she took her things. I want to see if she really, really left." David said rushing up to the room he shared with Siobhan to see if he had neglected to notice her things gone.
Kim followed.
David burst back into his bedroom and opened his closet. It was true, some of her clothes were gone. He rushed across to the other side of the room and opened up a dresser and again, some of her things were gone. But not everything.
"See...." Kim said as she slowly sat on his bed.
"Why? Why would she do this?" David said picking up one of Siobhan's shirts she had left behind.
"David, don't worry. Whatever you need, whatever you want, I'll be here. All you have to do is trust me." Kimberly said with an evil grin.
"Get out. GET OUT of here! I don't want to see you! I don't want to talk to you. Get the hell out of my room!!" David screamed at his ex.
Kimberly slowly got up from the bed and went to the door. She turned around and saw David's tears falling into his open hand where Siobhan's engagement ring was still glittering in the sun light.
"I'll be downstairs." Kim said softly.
Her plan was in full swing. After Kim had locked Siobhan in Barnabas' coffin in the old house she came back to see a quiet house. Carolyn and the baby were asleep Kat was still at the police station and David, Caleb and eventually Sasha were at the Blue Whale. She used that opportunity to grab a few of Siobhan's belongings and a suitcase to make her story seem more truthful.
All the while, Siobhan lay in the complete darkness in Barnabas's coffin locked away by Kim's evil trick. She was cold. She was hungry and she was in and out of consciousness. The air in the coffin was starting to thin.
"I have to get out of here. Please......please, someone......don't fall asleep. Don't fall asleep." The weak Siobhan said to herself. "Don't....fall........................aslee........"
Kat fiddled with her keys to get into her car, her sun glasses slightly slipping to the tip of her nose. She jumped in and turned on her car and started down the great drive way turning slowly down the large circle curve. As she went down the drive she looked in her review mirror and saw a figure dashing past through the lightly yellowed lawn still wet from the morning dew.
The woman was Kim, quickly making her way out of a side exit of the main mansion veering towards the direction of the old house where she was keeping Siobhan prisoner Barnabas Collins' coffin. Kat quickly stopped her car to watch with curiosity.
"The old house? What in the world?" Kat said, confused about her mother in law's sudden interest in the empty mansion on the grounds that made up the Collinwood estate.
****
Later on in that morning, David continued to reel over Siobhan's sudden disappearance. He sat in the foyer tossing back brandy after brandy when Caleb walked in ready to head in for a meeting at work with Curtis Winters.
"Starting a little early aren't you?" Caleb said with a snide joke.
"Don't start." David said in a hoarse voice.
"What's the matter?" Caleb questioned.
"Siobhan left. She's gone, I don't know why so don't ask me." David said angrily.
"What do you mean 'gone'? We just saw her last night at dinner." Caleb responded placing his briefcase on the sofa next to his father.
"While you and I were at the Blue Whale, she and your mother had some kind of talk and she took off before I got home. That's all I know. She didn't leave any other info. Just her ring." David explained.
"Did you try calling her?" Caleb asked.
"Straight to voice mail." David said tossing back another brandy. "Maybe she'll call your mom, all of a sudden they're confiding in each other." David added sarcastically.
"Dad, look, you don't really think mom had anything to do with her leaving do you?" Caleb glancing at his watch.
"Well I---" David said before being interrupted by the door bell.
Caleb and David looked at each other. David jumped to his feet and started to stammer over to the front door. He pulled the large wooden doors open and standing there was Jason McGuire, or as he was known under his mysterious guise, Carolyn's new doctor Dr. Jonathon Silva.
"Mr. Collins good morning." Jonathon said with Cheshire cat grin.
"Hello." David replied. "Does Carolyn have an appointment with you?" he added.
"Mr. Collins, may I come in? We really need to talk about Carolyn.
David stepped aside and Jonathon stepped into the foyer, he removed his overcoat and as David turned to close the door he saw two men dressed in all white were standing next to a white van. A van that David knew all too well. It was a van from Windcliff sanitarium.
"What's going on?" David questioned.
"There is really no easy way to say this to you." Jonathon said as Caleb entered the foyer. "But Carolyn's mental state has gone into a very dark place. I'm afraid there are safety concerns." Jonathon said.
"Safety concerns?" Caleb questioned.
"Yes, I'm afraid for the safety of this household--especially the baby--and of course for Carolyn's. Her mind takes her into some very violent places and one day I'm afraid she may snap and we don't know who will be around her when it happens, because the question is not a why it will happen, but a when. Carolyn needs to be in a safe place when that moment comes." Jonathon explained.
"She just having bad dreams." Caleb said unconvinced.
"They're more than bad dreams, son. She's actually seeing things now. She's getting out of bed. The first night we caught her almost falling off of Window's Hill." David explained to stunned Caleb.
"Precisely my point. You wouldn't want little Canan to be around her when she finally does snap, would you?" Jonathon added.
"Well what do you want us to do Doctor? We want to help Carolyn." David said, his mind still fuzzy from the many brandies in the drawing room.
Jonathon gave them both a second Cheshire cat smile and pulled out a stack of papers that were folded in his in the pocket of his suit jacket.
David grabbed the paperwork and unfolded it. He read it over and took a deep breath as he flicked through the pages. It was clear what they were.
"What is that? What is this?" Caleb said grabbing the forms from David. "No. Dad, no. You can't be serious." Caleb said reading over the paper work.
"Its for the best Caleb." Jonathon said.
"Dad, you can't sign this. What will Alex think? You remember what it was like in that place, you can't..." Caleb said as Jonathon interrupted.
"If you don't sign her over to Windcliff I will have the state notified that a mentally unstable person lives here and I can assure you, Caleb, they will remove your son from the home. This is the best for everyone." Jonathon said to a shocked Caleb.
Caleb and David looked at each other. Caleb flabbergasted that it had come to this. It was too unbelievable for him to even fathom.
"Give me back the forms, Caleb." David said extending his hand for the forms.
"Dad!!" Caleb responded.
"Carolyn needs to be in a safe place and Jonathon has been good to her. This is for the best." David said reaching over for Jonathon's pen and signing over Carolyn to the man that was really the monster Jason McGuire come back to life.
The men dressed in all white walked into the mansion and went up the stairs with Jonathon to Carolyn's room. She was still sleeping when they walked in. As Jonathon got close to Carolyn she could feel the presence of someone over her and woke up.
The light had been slightly obscured by the thick drapes drawn across the big windows in Carolyn's room. She squinted as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
"Who's there?" Carolyn said looking up at the grinning face of Jonathon Silva that quickly changed to the monstrous rotting face of Jason McGuire.
"Your worst nightmare." Jason said in his Scottish brogue.
Carolyn quickly recognized the face and began to hyperventilate and try to get out of her bed. But the two men in white grabbed hold of her as Jason's face quickly change back to Jonathon's.
Jonathon pulled out a syringe from his bag and quickly stuck it into Carolyn's arm to sedate her.
Carolyn was now in Jonathon's possession and the plan to destroy the Collins family was quickly on it's way to finally becoming reality one family member at a time.
