Series 8/Chapter 9: VIEWS TO DIE FOR

 In recent years the family had again renovated the house when Barnabas Collins had made his umpteenth return to the land of his birth and even though Barnabas was once again gone, this time perhaps forever, the family had decided to continue with its upkeep; no matter how vacant it's occupancy was.

In the glow of this late morning sun, the first mansion built on Widow's Hill the family affectionately called The Old House, could look sad and forlorn. There was a ghostly ooze to it that could warn off wayward burglars and thieves. To those who knew the house well, knew of it's infamy and deep lying secrets. Kat Banning, knew them too. But what she saw just moments ago sparked her interest.

Kat had seen Kimberly Collins rushing across the sprawling laws and brush between the two mansions, a strange sight considering Kat knew there was no one living in the old mansion. What she didn't know was Kim's desperate attempt at getting her ex-husband David back was to lock away her rival Siobhan deep in the mansions guts, nailed shut in one of Barnabas' old coffins.

Kat slowly made her way up the old front steps of the mansion and turned to see if anyone was watching her. When she felt the coast was clear, she slowly turned the unlocked door knob and stepped into the dimly lit foyer of the home Barnabas Collins so loved.

The room's walls were still painted in pastel pink, albeit when Jacqueleen moved in before her own untimely death, she redecorated with newer more modern furniture. Kat slowly walked into the main sitting room off to her left, a small fire had been lit in the fireplace that was still crowned with the painting Kat's own grandfather Sam Evans had painted of Barnabas over 50 years ago.

"Where is she?" Kat wondered of Kim to herself.

Kat turned back around and slowly made her way to the main staircase. As she placed her foot on the firs step towards the bedrooms a loud sound came from down the hall on the first floor. Kat quickly reached around her to her back and placed her hand in the read position to grab her gun if she needed it.

Kat wasn't sure what Kim was doing, but the fact that she was keeping something secret made Kat nervous. She could feel the tension in her neck, her heart was racing, her police woman's instincts were telling her to keep going down that hall, that something was definitely amiss with the situation, but another side of her wanted her to run away from whatever suspicious danger was making that noise.

Kat went with her police instincts and kept going down the hall, slowly, at a methodical pace as to not arouse Kim's ears. Slowly, slowly more, then to a large white door at the end of the hall that lead to the basement. The door was left open, just by a crack.

"Kim...what are you up to?" Kat thought to herself again, her suspicions now gaining more and more tread.

Kat slowly opened the door to the basement. She grabbed the gun from behind her back and cupped it in her hands pointing it out in front of her. She slowly, step by step, foot by foot made her way down the stone staircase into the dark basement. The noise from whomever was down there continued. It was like a loud metal hammering.

Kat finally made it to the bottom, and there, standing at the foot of a great oak coffin fastening metal locks to two ends of the coffin was Kimberly Collins. Alone, and mumbling something to herself about Siobhan.

"Kim...." Kat said softly  not to scare Kim. "What the hell are you doing?" The gun pointed at Kim's back.

Kim spun around to see her son's wife standing at the end of the staircase from above, a light from shinning down on her Kat's hair from the open door form the main floor, Kim hammer in hand.

"I should ask you the same thing. Why are you pointing that gun at me?" Kim said, her words slowly pouring out of her mouth.

Kat realized she was pointing a gun at Caleb's mother and lowered her weapon.

"I saw you come in here from outside. What's going on? What are you doing down here with that coffin?" Kat asked walking closer.

"Stay right there honey." Kim said with a grin. "I don't want you near this coffin." She added.

"Kim, I asked you a question. What are you doing?" Kat replied, her frustration building with Kim's deflecting.

"You don't  need to know anything, just go on your way and forget what you say here, do you understand me?" Kim questioned.

From inside the coffin, Siobhan was coming to for the 4th time that day. She had been in and out of consciousness due to lack of sleep, no water or food and very little air. She could hear the voices outside but couldn't make out who they were. The coffin was hot, it smelled of old moldy sheets and she could only see tiny glimmers of light breaking in from the coffin's lid.

"Someone else is here. Someone is here to save me." The weak Siobhan said moving her hands around, feeling for the top of the lid.

"If something is going on, I think you should tell me. It would be better for you in the long run. Whatever it is, whatever is going on I can help you. Caleb and I are here for you Kim." Kat said sensing something was very wrong with Kim's mental state.

"Kat I just need you to leave this house and not tell anyone what you've seen, do you understand? This is very important and really is my business and my business alone." Kim replied putting her hands over the coffin protective.

"Kat's here...." Siobhan whispered to herself when hearing Kim say Kat's name.

"What's in the coffin Kimberly." Kat asked, her voice now authoritative as she noticed Kim's nervous body language towards the coffin.

Kat stepped forward two steps.

"STAY BACK!" Kim said raising the nail gun in the air at Kat.

As Kim's words filtered into the overheating coffin, Siobhan knew that Kat was close, perhaps close enough to hear her. She reached up and began to hit the lid of the coffin with her hands, and with all the energy she could muster she kicked the bottom of the lid with her feet.

"My god, Kim what are you hiding!? Who's in there" Kat asked now lunging towards the coffin.

Without thinking, and without even a second to realize the impending ramifications Kim shot the nail gun right into Kat's arm.

Kat screamed in agony and fell to her knees.

"Oh god, Kat, I'm sorry, I really am. But you can't be here do you understand? You can't be here." Kim said, her guilt slowly building at what she had just done to her own son's wife.

"Kimberly you need to get me to a hospital." Kat said clutching her bleeding arm burning with pain from the nail that was shot into it.

"I can't do that honey. You know too much." Kim said as she reached into a doctor's bag she had brought with her. In the bag were several vials and syringes that she was planning to hide in the basement and later use on Siobhan when it was time to move Siobhan from the basement to a different and more final location. Kim grabbed a syringe and filled it with the liquid sedative from her bag then stabbed the needle into Kat's arm.

Kat's eyes filled with tears as she looked up at Kim in shock, then she fainted on the floor of the basement.

"You'll only be out for a little while love...." Kim said to the sleeping Kat.

Now a deeper dilemma. Kat had now discovered Kim was hiding someone in the basement locked in the casket, she had to think fast, she had to think clearly. What was she going to do. No one else could know of this.

"She has to be moved. I can't keep her here." Kim said, as she paced back and forth stepping over Kat's sleeping body.

"Kimberly, please.....don't do this. Please let me out!" Siobhan screamed in tears from inside the coffin.

"Let you out? So that all of this would be for  nothing? I can't do that. I can't let you out. Not now. Not ever. Siobhan, everything is riding on the fact that you've left town, and I'm going to see to it that you do leave town. Forever." Kim said cryptically.

"Kat knows I'm here. She's going to get me out of here." Siobhan screamed out again.

"Oh, honey, I'll take care of Kat. I'll need her help to make sure you never know see the light of day again." Kim said as she readied another syringe with the sedative she created using the plant from Brazil that would put people in a short type coma.

Kim upped the dosage and squeezed the needle's plunger secreting a fine test line of the sedative into the air. She quickly unlocked the top of the coffin and opened it raveling a malnourished, sweaty, terrified Siobhan.

Kim forcibly grabbed Siobhan's left arm and stabbed it with the needle filled with the powerful sedative that had almost an instant reaction to Siobhan's motor skills and mind rendering her in a complete coma.

Siobhan was, on the outside asleep,  but on the inside, she could hear and feel everything. It was as if she was trapped in two coffins, Barnabas' and her own body locking her away without a way to move or speak.

Kim smiled cruelly and slowly lowered the casket's lid again and locked it. Then she looked down at Kat sleeping on the floor.

"Once you're up my dear, we'll need to have a little heart to heart. We have some burring do to." Kim said kneeling down by Kat's body. 

*****

Carolyn lay unconscious on the floor of a white padded room. It was brightly lit from the inside by harsh florescent lights. When she came to, she opened her eyes to see that not only was the room entirely padded from floor to wall, but she was also dressed in all white wrapped in a tightly bound straitjacket that pinched the inside of her arms.

The night before she had been dragged kicking and screaming from Collinwood by Jason McGuire's alter-ego Dr. Jonathon Silva who had been taunting her and terrorizing by hypnosis to fall into her own darkest nightmares, manipulating her mental state and bringing her to the depths of insanity.

Carolyn lifted herself up by dragging her body up against the white padded wall. She sat there, bare foot in the cold white room. She screamed out a bloodcurdling scream hoping anyone would hear her. Someone had to hear her. She kept remembering, over and over again, what she saw when the orderlies locked her in the back of the van; that face grinning evilly at her through the van window!

The face of Jason McGuire that had morphed from the flesh and bone of Jonathon Silva.

"There's no use screaming, lovie, no one will come for her. They've already signed you away to me." A voice said from behind the padded door.

Carolyn struggled to pull herself up off the ground, her twisted and turned and finally got to her feet. She walked over across the fluffy padded floor and peered into the tiny doubled glassed window in the door and saw Jonathon standing on the other side.

"What do you want from me? Why are you doing this?" Carolyn questioned.

Jonathon turned to Carolyn in the window, the enchanted charm Ezrabette placed around his neck to disguise his true identity changed color, a light blazed from inside Jonathon's chest that flowed through his entire body and quickly flashing the face of Jason McGuire once more time to Carolyn's horror.

"Jason. It WAS you I saw!" Carolyn said stepping back just a few inches from the window.

"You miss me lass? It's been a long, long time! By the way I'd prefer you call me Dr. Silva now, but Jonathon will be fine too. We're old friends after all." Jonathon said as his face returned back to the one given to him by the Ezrabette's charm. "I've been waiting to come back for a long time." He added, a growl in his voice as he stepped closer to the window and looked in.

"How can this be? How can you be both Jason and Jonathon?" Carolyn said, the confusion burning her lips.

"Would you rather me be someone else? Like Barnabas Collins perhaps? I know you've been thinking of Barnabas quite often lately." Jonathon teased.

"Shut up." Carolyn said again stepping back from the door. "Get me out of here, you have to get me out of here." She added.

"No. You're not leaving this room Miss Carolyn, not until I get what I want." Jonathon hissed.

"There's no way this is happening, there just no way. Jason can't be still alive and living inside of Jonathon. That's INSANE! SOMEONE! HELP ME!!! THERE'S BEEN A MISTAKE!!!" Carolyn screamed again, realizing that her vision of Jason's face could have just been one of her delusions.

"Would you STOP screaming! No one is going to come save you. David has signed you over to me and this fasility and no one is coming for you. But, I can get you out of here Carolyn. I can save you from whatever horrors await you here at Windcliff." Jonathon explained.

"Windcliff. Siobhan. Siobhan runs Windcliff, she can get me out of here." Carolyn said to herself bypassing Jonathon's entire explanation.

"Wrong again, lassy. There is no more Siobhan. It seems she and David have had a falling out. She's left town, and well, the only available person qualified was me. Dr. Jonathon Silva." Jonathon said with an evil grin and Scottish brogue.

"This isn't happening. This isn't happening." Carolyn said over and over again.

"But it IS happening. Carolyn, I know you're going through something right now but it would be lovely if you could pay attention right now, listen to me and listen to me good....you can get out of this room and return to your life as long as I get what I want--no--what I've deserved for over 50 years as I rotted in that cement grave." Jonathon explained again with the added information of his demise.

Carolyn stopped for a second to think and began mumbling to herself incoherently. The stress and pressure of the situation was starting to ware on her, she had no idea what she was going to do, she had no idea what to believe. Nothing was making sense to her. What was real? What was her imagination? Carolyn's mind was starting to break. She fell to her knees in the white padded room and began to sob.

"That's enough!! Stop your blubbering! Give me what I want Carolyn and you'll be free to go. Free forever." Jonathon said.

Carolyn, who was on the floor of the padded room sobbing, turned over, her hair was stuck to her face attached to her skin by sticky tears. She rolled over and looked back at the small window in the puffy padded door of her cell.

"What do you want." She said in a horse timid voice, finally giving in to whatever, or whomever she was talking to: Dr. Jonathon or the ghost of Jason McGuire, Carolyn could no longer tell reality from farce.

"Marry me. Marry me and pass along your shares to Collins Enterprises and you'll be free to go. It's not very diffucult, really I've already had the paper work drawn up. All you need do it sign it. That's all I ask." Jonathon said with a cruel grin.

Carolyn sat  up, her face still stained with tears. Jonathon's argument sounded familiar. Indeed it was. Before Jason's murder by Barnabas, he was to have married Carolyn's late mother Elizabeth via a blackmailing scheme that went wrong. The truth later came out and Jason was banished from Collinwood. Jason's greedy desperation got him int he cross hairs of Barnabas Collins where he met his death by strangulation.

His revenge would be marrying Elizabeth's daughter in the same fashion. Carolyn was Elizabeth's soul hair, everything that belonged to the Collins name was Carolyn's to divvy up. In fact David and Caleb worked for Carolyn.

By marrying Carolyn, Jason--as Jonathon-- would gain access to everything that belonged to his new wife and eventually take over the Collins empire once and for all. Everything the Collins family touched would be his, including their entire estate and the billions of dollars they were worth.

All Carolyn had to do was say yes, yes she would marry Jonathon Silva...the living deranged manifestation of The evil Jason McGuire.

"What do you say?" Jonathon asked with an eye brow raised.

Carolyn scowled her face and spit back at Jonathon's hitting him square on the cheek.

He pulled out a soft white handkerchief and wiped his face. He grinned and walked back over to the door.

"I'll let you think about it......in the dark." Jonathon said closing the door behind him leaving Carolyn in the white padded room. Then he switched off all the lights, and the windowless room was left pitch black with only Carolyn's screams echoing in the chamber.

*****

At the offices of Collins Enterprises, David made his way down the main corridor to the executive offices for the first time in over 20 years. Employees in their cubicles stood up and noticed, they looked at each other and whispered his name as if they had seen a ghost. David wasn't there just visiting his son at the office, he was there to make sure that Caleb wasn't making a giant mistake by hiring Victoria Winters' son Curtis. After everything Vicki had done to the family last year, his suspicions were on high alert.

David, dressed in sharp blue suit, white shirt and matching blue and polka-dot tie, marched his way into Caleb's office, the same office David once occupied when  he worked there full time.

"Dad! What are you doing here?" Caleb said looking up from the paperwork he and one of the executives were reading during a meeting.

"We need to talk." David said looking the executive sitting in the chair across from Caleb.

"I can come back." The executive said as she stood up from her chair and grabbed her things. "Mr. Collins." She said greeting David on her way out.

"What's going on? You ok?" Caleb questioned knowing that his father was going through a tough time at home with his ex-wife back and his fiance leaving him.

"We need to discuss Curtis Winters employment here. I still don't think it's a good idea, what Vicki did to us last year was ---" David said before being interrupted by Caleb.

"Dad, listen, I understand you;r worry. You explained last night at the Blue Whale. I get it, I really do, but I think we're good on this whole situation. I thought about it last night and I we don't have anything to worry about when it comes to Curtis." Caleb explained.

"His mother brainwashed you when we thought you had died in a plane crash, Caleb. How can you just let that go? On top of that we didn't even know she had a son, then all of a sudden he shows up and wants to work here as soon as she finds out that may have a stake in the company? That doesn't alarm you?" David asked frustrated with his son.

"I know. I know. Under different circumstances, anyone else would stand to be a little ....well, for lack of a better word, freaked out, but we all agreed that Vicky wasn't in her right mind at the time. She's better, I think we should give Curtis a chance." Caleb said kindly.

"Well then I have no choice." David said looking around the office that was once his.

"What do you mean?" Caleb questioned.

"I'm demoting you. You're no longer CEO of this company." David said to Caleb's shock.

"What? You can't do that? Why would you do that?" Caleb shot back.

"Because you're making choices for this company that I believe go against our best interest. This is our family's business but I am the head of this family. I'm going to take my place back at this head of this company and ...." David said before someone entered the office.

"Curtis." Caleb said as Vicky's secret son walked in on the arguing father and son.

"Mr. Winters this is a private meeting, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." David said after turning around to see Curtis standing at the office door.

"Mr. Collins I hate to interrupt, but I could hear everything as I came to my office. I don't want you to think that whatever happened in the past will discredit how hard I'll work for you and this company. It would mean a lot to me if you gave me a chance. I promise, you'll be very happy with my work." Curtis said earnestly.

David turned to Caleb who was now standing at his desk with his arms crossed across his chest. The beautiful ocean view form the office windows crashing on the rocks behind him. David looked past his son and into the sea, it was calm and serene, the feeling of calm sea seemed to relax him and his emotions over the whole situation. David turned back around and looked at Curtis, his eyes were so blue, his hair was dark like a raven's feathers, so much of Curtis reminded him of Curtis' mother Vicki.

David took a few steps over in Curtis' direction and gave him a once over.

"Alright Mr. Winters, I'll give you a shot, but I'm not as easy going as my son Caleb here. You'll get once chance. If I'm not happy with the results your ships are bringing in by your management, I'll let you go. You'll get once month." David explained.

"Thank you, thank you both." Curtis said leaving the father and son in the executive office.

Curtis made his way over to his own office and closed the door and locked it. He rushed over to his desk and picked up the phone. Then he had a second thought and put the office phone down and pulled out the sell phone from his jacket pocked.

As the call went though he smiled.

"Hi........it's me." he said to the other person. "It was touch and go there for second, but I think I have them finally on my side. I have one month and that's it, so we have to do this fast."

Curtis turned his desk chair to face the window so that he could see the sprawling ocean views of Collinsport harbor. In the reflection in the glass his body began to dim then brighten again, then dim like a light bulb flickering just before it went out, it was as if Curtis was there in real life, then wasn't, then there again. The flickering went on and one but only in the reflection of the glass.

"Yes, you're right. I'll have to find a way to come clean before it's too late. I'll keep you posted." Curtis said as he hung up the phone.

*****

In the early evening, as the sun went down, a fire crackled and twitched in Ezrabette's fire place. She was standing over her a boiling pot of soup that she was making for two at lunch. The soup bubbled and fumed in a black cauldron like a witch's secret brew. She threw in onions and potatoes and watch them stew inside with the broth. 

From just over her shoulder in the background of Ezrabette's room was the witch Claudia Bouchard in her Sasha Beaufort disguise encircling the entire room with a ring of salt to protect them from any ghostly intrusions, specifically that of Ezrabette's manipulative and evil ancestor Marie Clotilde. 

"Its hard to believe the story you've told me. Last night after our encouter I came back to Collinwood and Caleb told me that Carolyn had been taken to Windcliff with David's authority. It seems your great grandmother's plot to use Jonathon is working." Claudia said dusting the salt from her hands.

"Oh no. Do we still have time?" Ezrabette said, her powers dwarfed by those of Claudia. 

"Make the soup sister." Claudia said as she walked over to Ezrabette and held her hand.

The two witches crouched down together around their witches brew still holding hands. The soup was more than just a hearty winter's feast. It was a symbol of their coven coming together, joining forces to combat en ever more malevolent force. 

"Cross the bones of foes that break
Let the earth below us shake
A window into the soul and mind

Our two souls, weird sisters combined"

The two witches said as they both took a spoon full of the broth that frothed in a boiling heat.

"Where do we begin?" Ezrabetta asked.

"We have to find a way to make sure Jonathon....or Jason...doesn't get any closer to the family as he already has. We also have to find a way to get Carolyn out of Windcliff." Claudia said.

"We could ask Siobhan to get her out." Ezrabette proposed.

"She's gone." Claudia answered.

"What do you mean gone?" Ezrabette questioned.

"She decided that no longer wanted to be with David and left, in the middle of the night, just like that." Claudia reported. "It was surprise to every one." she added.

"We have to find a way Claudia, if we don't Jonathon can take control of the family in ways we can only imagine, he's already started with Carolyn." Ezrabette answered. 

"There's only one person I can think of that could stop him. He stopped Jason before, he could stop him again." Claudia said.

"Who?" Ezrabette answered.

"My father. Barnabas Collins." Claudia replied. 

Ezrabette's eyes widened. She knew of the legend of Barnabas like any other Collinsport resident. His myth was as legendary as any of Mount Olympus, but Claudia knew that the myths and stories were all true and that her father was one of the un-dead. Jason and Barnabas had a run over 5 decades ago that left Jason dead, and with this help, the Collins family could possibly be saved again.

"But I saw him die Claudia, I saw him get pulled into the vortex of the phoenix and vaporize. He couldn't have survived that." Ezrabette replied.

"You cannot kill the undead, you should know that, my father may bot be in this realm, but I promise you he is somewhere. Waiting for that door to this side to open once again." Claudia shot back.

"Can we bring him  back like I did Jason?" Ezrabette questioned, to a now saddened Claudia.

"There's no magic in this world that can find the real Barnabas. But I do have an idea...what if we conjured something up to make Jason believe Barnabas is back?" Claudia added.

"An impostor?" Ezrabette said unconvinced.

"It could work, if one of us transfers ourselves into the impostor body as a proxy." Claudia said, the idea now sounding plausible. "Ive done it before." Claudia mentioning the time she possessed the body of Alexandra Thorne. 

Ezrabette stayed silent for a moment then turned to Claudia slightly more in tune with the idea:

"Is there a way Jason would know it wasn't really Barnabas?" Ezrabette asked. "Jason is one of the undead too...he could sense something off, couldn't he?" She added.

"We'll make sure that there's no different between the real Barnabas and the one we recreate. It'll be seamless. I know him like I've never known anyone else." Claudia replied.

"I don't know, this could all blow up in our faces. The minute Jason discovers he's been tricked he could lose it, and I can't afford for that to happen. People's live are at stake." Ezrabette explained.

"What do you mean?" Claudia questioned as she moved from the fire to the sofa with Ezrabette's cat Marigold.

"There's something I didn't tell you. Marie Clotilde and Jason have threatened the lives of Maggie, Kat, Caleb and Canan. They said that if I didn't complete what they wanted they would kill them." Ezrabette explained.

"Why them? Why would they choose them?" Claudia asked.

"Maggie and I are close friends and those are the people she loves the most. Whatever we do next Claudia, there's no way we can let Jason figure out the truth. It has to go as planned---no wrinkles." Ezrabette warned.

"I love Canan. I love him with all my heart and I'll protect him no matter what. Come....let us conjure." Claudia said as she grabbed Ezrabette's hands.

The two witches stood in Ezrabette's living room that was dimmed with candle light and encircled with the protection of salt. They closed their eyes and began to join their powers of the supernatural to create a man that would take the place, from death to life, of Barnabas Collins.

"Death to life and back again." Claudia said.

"Morte ad vitam, vita mors est." Ezrabette whispered back in Latin.

"From the bones of another, from the sins of another. We ask you back in spirit to skin." Claudia said again. 

"Morte ad vitam, vita mors est." Ezrabette whispered again.

"Let the man known as Barnabas Collins come to life in this world that is ours, let him come, let him see, let him into the gates of the free." Claudia responded.

"Morte ad vitam, vita mores est." Ezrabette whispered one more time.

The two witches stood in the room, the fire still burning in the fireplace. They took deep breathes and began to chant the Latin phrase over and over again. Then a wind suddenly began to swirl in the room. It swirled the two women like a whirlpool of cold air that shook the little cottage to it's frame. There was a loud gory moan from the wind that frightened Ezrabette's cat. It let out of scream and ran off into one of the back rooms of the cottage. 

The wind then blew out all the candles and swept into the fireplace and extinguished it immediately.  

Then without even a warning Ezrabette's door blew open and standing in silhouette was the man himself, a magical manifestation of the real thing.

He took a step forward but stopped short of stepping over the ring of salt. 

Ezrabette quickly lit a candle a candle and went to the door. 

The glow from the candle confirmed. 

Barnabas Collins had returned.