Series 7/Chapter 3: THE FIGHT FOR MORTALITY

In a small white townhouse in the center of a busy district in Singapore an old man, with white hair and a cane topped with the head of a wold retired to his room just up a small winding staircase that creaked and cracked as he took each step. He slowly made his way to his bed where he pulled down the covers and sat down. He huffed a sigh of relief, resting his 93 year old body in a warm bed. He glanced over out his window and saw beautiful lights flickering off the ocean from the city below. Next to that window a small table crowned with a photo of he's beloved wife Julia Hoffman; a woman that had seen  him in the darkest moments of his life---and never shied away.

"It's been a long time coming, darling. Tomorrow we begin our journey home, home to Collinwood." The old man said to the photo as he lay back in his warm bed preparing to dream about the journey and the search that brought him to this  Far-East Asian city in 1972.

He looked around his room. It had been decorated the same way since they arrived in Singapore 45 years ago, a direct replication of his bedroom back at home in Collinsport. Minus one very different thing...the special sleeping chamber he once used was now gone. He hadn't needed it in decades.

The old man knew the time to return home was right. This moment in his life he had expected for years and years and years, and because of the several tears in the fabric of time that had been created through various expeditions of time travel, he had to stay away and allow things to progress to this very moment.

This very minute. This very second in time was the time he'd dreamed of for 45 years.

The clock had finally struck for the return, his return, and yet he knew not what he would find once he arrived on those very familiar and very historic shores.

As the old man turned away from the photo to fall asleep, another photo, the one on his nightstand, watched over him as he fell off to a dream world.

This photo too was of Julia Hoffman, but she wasn't alone in it. She stood happy and smiling a dock on the Singaporean shore holding the hand of her husband of  just a few years...her husband Barnabas Collins.

***SINGAPORE 1972***

In the last remaining hours of the the evening Julia made her way swiftly down to a darkened room that had been set up with a large crate that had been shipped here in the underbelly of a large sea liner that came from Boston. 

Julia walked over to the crate and noticed a shadowy figure standing in the corner, the shadow stood still and silent but Julia was not started by this person. She expected him to be there. 

"Their almost finished bringing in the rest of our things, we should be safe now." Julia said to the man standing in the dark. 

"I can't believe you talked me in to this Doc. I thought after all these years and everything that I went through I wouldn't have to deal with this anymore." The man said in the shadowy corner of the room.

"We offered you something you couldn't refuse. If everything goes as planned, you'll have your freedom. That's what you want, isn't it? It's what you've always wanted." Julia said stepping closer to the large crate that was delivered with her things from the Boston sea-port.  "Now open the box Willie." She added

From the shadowy corner, Willie Loomis stepped forward with a crow-bar and sneered at his friend from Collinsport, Maine. He took a deep breath as she lifted her head and looked down at him to watch him open the crate. 

As the crow-bar loudly became jabbed in the crease of the wooden top and the main portion of the box Willie huffed and puffed and pushed and snapped open the top. The wood cracked in half and a ball of saw-dust like powder expelled into the air around Julia and Willie. As the dust settled Julia eagerly  stepped forward and looked down.

It was there. Barnabas Collins' black lacquered coffin.

"Open it. Open it Willie!" She screamed.

Willie was almost in a tears. He had been here before. He had seen this before. It was a moment in his life that he regretted yet strangely was grateful for. All almost 10 years before he sneaked into the Collins Family crypt at Eagle Hill Cemetery and opened a Pandora's box that would change the lives of everyone in Collinsport forever. And now, in Singapore, Willie wondered would he do the same here.

"What are you waiting for, open it, Willie!" Julia barked again.

Willie snickered at her and reached down into the crate and opened the top of the coffin exposing the one they had all been waiting for. Barnabas Collins, the man who never died. The man who dwelled in the realm of the shadows.  

Barnabas opened his eyes and slowly levitated  out of the coffin. He was still as board, and without even bending a knee stood on his own. His body had  stood straight up in a locked position. His eyes were like two onyx jewels sparkling in the flicker of the candle light while Julia and Willie looked on in the shadowy room.

Their travels to Singapore where not for adventure or for leisure. They were here purposefully. A year after the Leviathans left Collinwood in 1971, word came through Julia's connections in the medical and mental health community that an old doctor in Singapore had created some sort of cure that could reverse the actions the body would take as it deteriorated in an older state. Mainly the blood therapy was for patients who were in the final stages of their lives, on their death beds, that would some how prolong their lives shortly and ease their pain into death.

The blood transfusions this doctor in Singapore created were panned by the medical community. Its use of a synthetic mutation of human blood could cause even further bodily harm and instant death. 

But what would it do to a body that should have been dead years ago, to a body that belonged to a person who was suspended in limbo between the veil of the living and the of the dead.

This synthetic blood mutation, Julia believed, would be the final answer, final cure for Barnabas' blood thirst.

Upstairs in the small drawing room, Julia switched on a small lamp exposing the several boxes of the belongings from Collinsport. In the room was a few chairs, a sofa and in the center a medical table.

The table was for Barnabas.

"Lay down here." Julia said making the table more conformable.

"We're going to do this now? Jeez Julia, he's just woken up." Willie said tossing himself on the sofa.

"Time is of the essence Willie. There's no time to waste." Barnabas said removing his ring and placing it carefully on the table next to one of the chairs.

"How do we even know if this is going to work? How many blood tests have you done back in Collinwood and none of them worked? What makes you so sure that---" Willie said in dissent. 

"Enough! This is the decision we made and this is what's going to happen. You'll get your payment as soon as it's all said and done, I honestly don't know what else you want from me Willie. Just sit there and be quiet. Dr. Lo will be here shortly to perform the procedure." Julia said scolding Willie.

"Now, Julia calm down. Everything will be fine." Barnabas said patting Julia on the shoulder. 

"It's just important that everything that happens here tonight works and that there is no one--NO ONE--standing in our way. Not this time. Not now." Julia said emphasizing her instance to Willie.

"Whatever." Willie said quietly. 

"And what happens after? I usually don't think of the future but this whole possibility makes me want to. The future may be very bright for me." Barnabas said looking Julia in the eye as he lay calmly on the table.

"Well, that's up to you. We could always go back home to Collinsport." Julia said leaning down close to Barnabas.

"Perhaps." Barnabas said knowing that his time in Collinsport was a repeat of what he had already lived. He was living in a cycle of time thanks to Jamison Collins and what he did to Barnabas back in his time travels to 1920.

Being locked back in his crypt awaiting Willie to re-open him coffin again in 1967 was a punishment he never through he'd suffer. Now, he had to wait for years to pass before he never set foot in Collinsport again, and his time in Singapore would be perfect to allow it all to happen.

"When it's safe...right now every eye is like a dagger waiting to strike." Barnabas added.

"Then we'll stay here. It's close to Dr. Lo. He can monitor you for as long as possible." Julia added.

"Would you stay with me here...so far from home. So far from all you've known?" Barnabas questioned.

"What's left for me in Collinsport if not you. Barnabas I don't know if you realize just how much of my own life I've given up to be by your side, through the horrible and through the disastrous, I've stayed loyal to you. I'm here to help you." Julia confirmed.

"We have been through many things, and I've learned to trust you Julia. You've become so much more than just a friend. Thank you." Barnabas said touching her face.

"And What about your family? she asked.

"They'll survive. I know for a fact that the future is bright for them. And I know that'll I'll see them again. Maybe not today, but some day." Barnabas cryptically. 

What Julia didn't know was that Barnabas had lived his life twice. His time traveling had switched the time lines in the past and in the year 1920 Jamison Collins and destroyed the Barnabas buried in the 1700s and switched him with the Barnabas that had traveled back in time from the year 2016, thus forcing the Barnabas from the future to relive his entire life all over again. He knew the future. He knew that Carolyn and David and Vickie would be fine in the 21st Century, because he had already lived a life in those days.

But being trapped in 1920, erased a timeline forcing him to relive again and again, trapped in a circle of his own life. The true punishment of being one of the undead and a true punishment of time travel. 

Once the Singaporean doctor named Lo, the doctor Julia and Willie and Barnabas had traveled by ship to find for help with a cure used his synthetic blood serum on Barnabas everything would change...and hopefully for the good. 

Willie, who had gone in to let in Dr. Lo, walked back into the dim makeshift examination room in the house in Singapore. 

"Dr. Hoffman, Dr. Lo is here." Willie said standing aside to let in the doctor.

Dr. Lo looked around and smiled, not really understanding why he was where he was but was eager to help the afflicted patient. 

"Thank you for coming so late. We just wanted to make sure we could get this done as soon as possible. This is my patient. Barnabas Collins." Julia said introducing Dr. Lo. 

"Hello Mr. Collins." Dr. Lo said looking down on his patient with a bit of confusion as he took  his pulse. "I don't understand." he said.

"It's a very long and confusing story, doctor. It's better that we just start the procedure. Could we please?" Julia said removing Dr. Lo's hand from Barnabas' wrist.

"Of course." Dr. Lo said with a bit of hesitation in his voice. 

Dr. Lo removed all of his tools and placed them on a side table next to Barnabas with Julia assisting. There were needles and tools to prick the skin and then there was the synthetic blood serum. It was as crimson as human blood, and the smell, the smell swept into Barnabas' nose like a spring flower blooming in a breeze. Even though it was synthetic, it was real enough to arouse his senses.

"I will need to find a vein." Dr. Lo said looking over Barnabas' arm.

"Let me." Julia, who was more accustomed to Barnabas' body offered.

The needle went into Barnabas' skin easily and he winced in a bit of discomfort. No  matter the status of his body he could feel even the slightest pinches of pain. His nerves were still intact, as were his emotions, which at this point were overflowing with nervousness and anxiety.

"I have to ask, why are we in such a darkened state?" Dr. Lo asked again as he prepared the drop line for the blood switch.

"Can't ya see doc? Maybe you need better glasses." Willie joked from the sofa.

Dr. Lo turned away from Willie and looked at Julia who was standing over him, his eyes gazing over the top of his glasses. "Dr. Hoffamn why is it so dark in here, don't you prefer to work in brighter conditions?" 

"With all due respect, Dr. Lo, it's better that you leave the questions in your mind and don't ask them. What we're doing here is trying to save this man's life. That's all that matters. I'm here to help guide so please, lets leave it to that." Julia said, still protecting Barnabas' secret.

Dr. Lo felt uncomfortable and only want to get the hell out of the house. Whatever was going on there he wanted nothing to do with, and if he hadn't been paid so much money, he would have been gone along time ago, from the moment he couldn't find a vein. 

The reluctant Doctor connected the drip-line to the IV stuck in Barnabas' arm and watched as the red synthetic liquid began to pump into his body, mimicking the real thing. 

As it slowly seeped into Barnabas' body, his veins began to expand and became long vines of blackness under his translucent skin. They became visible looking like road maps all overt his arms and face, like large leafless tree dark branches all over his face filling Barnabas body.

Barnabas' eyes opened and turned from their brown human like state to black onyx circular discs that spun around in his scull. He began to twitch and turn. His body began to shake, tremors shifted all over from his head to his feet.

"What are his vitals?" Dr. Lo asked frantically.

"He's fine." She responded.

"What's happening to him? Is this what's happened to your other patients Lo?" Willlie said rushing over to his master. "Say, this don't look right!!" He screamed.

"No, this has not happened before. Dr. Hoffman, pull the IV." Dr. Lo demanded.

"Stop! No! He's fine!" Julia said as Barnabas convulsed on the table.

"This is unethical Dr. Hoffman, something is going wrong! We have to stop it." Dr. Lo cried.

"Absolutely not!" Julia said, her body now standing between Barnabas and Dr. Lo.

"Julia! Look at him! You gotta stop this!" Willie said, but was pushed away by Julia.

Barnabas continued to convulse for a few more seconds as they argued then he suddenly stooped.

Julia, noticing the noise from Barnabas' bed behind her stopped turned slowly and Dr. Lo and Willie began to walk forward.

As they walked closer, Barnabas' head was turned away, and suddenly he snapped his head towards them, his mouth open wide with this piercing fangs searching for any soft flesh to attach to, but the restraints kept him from reaching.

Barnabas began to shake again, pulling angrily at the restraints, his eyes now yellow and glowing, he opened his mouth again hissing to everyone in the room reached out to Barnabas who snapped his mouth at his fingers nearly missing it by inches, shocking Dr. Lo who jumped back in terror knocking over a table full of his metal tools. 

"What is this! What is this!!!" He said screaming from the floor.

"Willie, take him upstairs." Julia demanded as she turned back to Barnabas.

"Don't touch me! I demand to know what the meaning of this Dr. Hoffman. I said Don't touch me!!" Dr. Lo screamed as he stood up with Willie's help.

Barnabas continued to hiss, his eyes glowing a fierce yellow. His fangs ready to piece the skin of any human that he so desired. But something was different this time, something had changed. His body had not broken from the restraints of the table. He writhed all over but could not break them. The super human strength granted to him by his vampire affliction was gone as Dr. Lo's blood continued to pour into his body.

And suddenly, his fangs began to retract. His skin became more peach toned. His veins that had turned an angry black as if filled by tar began to soften and turned to a nature color and go back into the his skin. The glowing evil yellow eyes turned back to black onyx then quickly back to a regular state. 

"Look." Julia said in a whisper with a smile.

Willie, shocked of what he was watching saw Barnabas pass out and then....out of no where, the monitor Dr. Lo brought to track the patient's heart beat began to move. It beeped. It beeped again.

"Is that what It think it is?" Willie said now standing next to an unconscious Barnabas.

"A heartbeat Willie. It's a heartbeat!!!!" Julia exclaimed as she oddly reached for Willie and hugged him.

Dr. Lo's experimental synthetic human blood mutation in the form of an IV serum had worked.

Barnabas was mortal again.

Julia shed a small tear as she watched as the color continued to flow throughout his skin. She walked over to the sleeping former vampire and touched his skin. It was warm.

"It's finally happened. It's finally happened." she said as Willie walked over to Julia and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Dr. Lo took off. Should I go after him? He knows." Willie said in a quiet voice.

"No. He wont tell anyone. He'll never tell anyone. His fears of even having a memory of this night will guard our secret forever." Julia explained.

Julia walked over to a window at the other end of the room. The sun  had just began to peek out from over the hills where their house was nestled safely in.  She drew the curtains, the rays of light poured through into the room and touched Barnabas' warm peach skin. His body squirmed a little, the warm light finally touching his skin after centuries of shadow dwelling.

"Now we can begin our lives Barnabas. Now we can create our own little world. It's finally happened." Julia said moving the hair from Barnabas' forehead.

"You're free."