The overcast sky covered Collinsport was like a grey blanket that shielded the town below from the rays of a golden sun. The cool breeze from the ocean just blocks away from Founder's Park filled the chilly autumn air with the smell of saltwater.
Sasha and Canan were enjoying a little break from the mansion in the park looking at the ducks in the small man-made lake Annabella, named after Collinsport's founder Issac's wife. As the new governess gave the baby little bits of bread to throw at the ducks, a handsome stranger walked up behind them.
"Your baby is quite handsome." He said squatting down next to Sasha and Canan.
"Oh, he's not mine. I'm his governess." Sasha answered. "But he is handsome, isn't he?" She added squeezing the baby's cheek.
"Governess? That's such an old term." The man answered.
"Yes, well, I work for an old family, The Collins family." Sasha replied.
The man's ears perked up as soon as he heard the name Collins. It was like finding the right key to open a mysterious door.
"Is that so? That's very coincidental. I was just talking about this family not too long ago." The man said to a confused looking Sasha. "See, I'm new to town. Just came in last night and it seems like they're a very popular family here, everything seems to be named after them." He joked.
"Well they practically own everything here and founded the town themselves, it makes sense to me." Sasha said, starting to feel annoyed by the stranger's lingering.
"I'd like to meet them. One of them. Any of them!" The man said.
"Really!?" Sasha said still annoyed. "Why are you so interested in them?" Sasha asked suspiciously.
"Well, you said it yourself, they own practically everything here, it's rare to come into a town these days and still have one family rule it like a monarch." The man said, hiding the fact that there was a more interesting connection to the family than he was leading on.
"What are you doing in Collinsport anyway? You said that you were knew." Sasha said digging deeper.
"Connecting with some old family members. You know how that goes. There are a lot of loose ends that I just discovered and I'd love to finally connect those dots." The handsome man said his blue eyes looking grey reflecting the cloudy sky.
Sasha began to feel strange with the man's non-answers and he continued to make odd small talk that didn't interest her. His vibe was something from an 80s movie, self-centered and craving attention from her, attention she didn't care to give him. As he went on and on at nauseam about what he had come to learn about Collinsport, she started to pack up the baby's things and go towards the awaiting car where the Collins family driver Powell was waiting, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Wait! What's the matter? You're leaving already?" The man questioned.
"Listen mister, I've been around long enough to know that when a man avoids directly answering a question and only talk about themselves that they could be up to no good. What made you come over here and talk to me? How did you know that I was working for the family?" Sasha demanded to know.
"I didn't know. Look, I don't mean to upset you...why don't we start over. My name is Curtis." The man said extending his hand.
"Goodbye Curtis." Sasha replied not believing Curtis had ulterior motives to introducing himself and he began pushing Canan in his stroller across the thick green grass.
"Wait! Miss! Wait! I didn't catch your name!" Curtis said running behind her in a small jog.
"That's because I did't give it to you. Something about you just doesn't sit right with me, now we really have to go." Sasha said flipper her thick curls at Curtis.
"Oh come on! I really didn't do anything wrong, and I was just curious about the town. I really had no idea you were working for this Collins group at all. I promise. Please, can we start fresh? A handshake at least?" Curtis said as they reached the chauffeured car and Powell opened the back door for the baby and Sasha.
"Is there a problem?" Powell said sternly.
Sasha turned to Powell then back at Curtis, his eyes blue and bright, he smiled at her waiting for her answer to both his question and Powell's.
"No, everything is fine Powell." She said to the Collins family driver. "Sasha Beaufort." She then said turning to Curtis and shaking his extended hand.
She jumped in the back seat and tightened Canan in his car seat. She rolled up her window and Powell started the car and began to drive off. She looked back out of her tinted glass window and watched Curtis get smaller and smaller still sanding on the law of Founder's Park with his hands on his hips.
As he stood their his cell phone rang. He stumbled and reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone still grinning at his encounter with the beautiful governess.
"Yeah?" Curtis said answering the phone call. "Great, great I'll be right down, thanks." Curtis to the unnamed caller.
He continued to smile as he watched the tiny black spec of Sasha's kept getting smaller as it drove off into the gloomy day back to Collinwood.
"Sasha Beaufort huh?" Curtis replied softy to himself.
****
The Collinsport Police Department was a buzz with the return of one of their most popular detectives, Kat Collins, since she gave birth to her first child with her husband Caleb. She was returning to a busy office at that. There had been a string of cat burglaries in town that her partner Loomis McGovern had been investigating alone, but now that Kat was back, her eager to have her input and hopefully catch the thief. This wasn't big city crime, but it was something, and the police department was happy to investigate these types of easy crimes rather than the murders and missing person's situation they were dealing with only months earlier.Kat sat at her desk after a hefty "welcome back" party complete with donuts and coffee. She seemed a bit distracted, staring at a photograph she had framed of Caleb and the baby. She smiled and touched the baby's face through the frame's cool glass.
"You know it's really normal to miss your kid on the first day, it's ok to call home." Loomis said coming back from his second helping of donuts and coffee. "When my kids were young and I was back from paternity leave, I called at least a dozen times. My wife got so annoyed." He added trying to make her feel better.
"Well at least your wife was home, what kind of mom am? I left him with a nanny!" Kat said feeling guilty.
"Oh come on! Moms now at days want to go back to work, its totally natural to be a working mom. Stop beating yourself up. We have a lot to cover about these cases. Check it out!" Loomis said tossing Kat the file over the partition between their facing desks.
Kat opened the file and flicked through the pages. Her mind still on her domestic situation.
"I just... there's something I can put my finger on about Sasha, know what I mean? I'm getting that weird nervous feeling in my stomach about her." Kat added while she read the case file on the burglaries.
"Whos' that? The nanny?" Loomis questioned.
Kat nodded yes. "She's young and pretty and ..."
"Oh if this is going to be some kind of conversation about putting in a Nanny-cam because you think Caleb's going to be all over her...." Loomis began before Kat interrupted.
"No, no, nothing like that. She's just really mysterious about herself. Like, get this, I could never get a straight answer about her background. All I know is that she came up from Boston through a nanny service, or Governess service that Carolyn recommended." Kat said.
"So she's from a service. That's good, then they've done background checks. None of those types of services hire nannies without doing one." Loomis confirmed.
"But I never saw it." Kat replied.
"We can look it up. That's easy. What's her full name?" Loomis said opening up his laptop to look up Sasha's history.
"Sasha Beaufort. She's from Boston, that's literally all I know. I'd say she's about 25, 26 years old." Kat added.
"Ok, let's see....S-A-S-H-A.......Beaufort......Beau---fort......Ok...." Loomis said while the information processed.
The computer continued to search through records of registered New England domestic help agencies. Loomis narrowed down the services to 3 in Boston and found the one where Sasha was hired through. He clicked on the records that were available to all law enforcement and saw a list of all their registered nannies.
Sasha's name was not on the list.
"I don't understand. How can that be? Caleb has talked to this agency, Carolyn has talked to them...how can her name not be on this register?" Kat questioned.
"Maybe I spelled her name wrong." Loomis said checking the information he typed in.
"No, you got it, look." Kat confirmed pointing to the name at the top of the form of his search. "This doesn't make any sense. We have forms that were sent up from Boston from this place. She's clearly registered. How can she not be online for us to do a check on her?" Kat said, her voice starting to worry.
"This is super easy to fix, let's just call down to Boston to this agency and ask them ourselves. Maybe they have a good explanation as to why her records aren't available for us to read online. Could be a simple mistake." Loomis reassured Kat.
Kat walked back over to her desk and pulled a business card out of her purse. She sat down and dialed the agency in Boston but never left the gaze of Loomis. They kept their eyes on each other, she a worried mother, him secretly suspicious too but never leading on as to not worry Kat further.
"Good morning, this is Detective Kathryn Collins of the Collinsport Police Department in Collinsport, Maine. I was calling you to confirm some information on a Governess that was hired from your agency. Is there a way I could speak to someone in your records department about this young woman?" Kat questioned the person on the phone who placed her on hold for the records people. "Yes, hello, the young woman's name is Sasha Beaufort." Kat added when the records keeper came on the line.
"Well that can't be." Kat said after a few minutes. "She's at my home right now with my child and she came with paperwork that is from your agency, I mean, how else would she have that if she's not employed with you?" Kat questioned, anger and panic now setting in slowly.
"Nothing?" Loomis mouthed, Kat shook her head "No."
"Thank you, yes, thank you. I'll be sure to do that." Kat said hanging up the phone.
"I don't get it." Loomis said, sipping his coffee.
"I have to go home, I got to call Caleb. I have to call my mother!" Kat said grabbing her jacket and dropping paper work all over the floor in her panicked state.
"Calm down, calm down, do one thing at a time. Don't call anyone until we know exactly what's going on. No need to worry anyone, all of this could be very easily explained." Loomis said.
"Really? Nothing with t his family is every 'easily explained.'" Kat joked.
"Why don't you go home and check on Canan. She's not alone with the boy is she?" Loomis questioned.
"No, there should be people home." Kat said.
"Alright, I'll go with you and we'll figure this all out. Come on." Loomis said grabbing his jacket.
The two detectives quickly left the police department to make their way up to Collinwood, Sasha Beaufort had a lot of explaining to do.
****
Then she felt a stinging feeling at her neck, it was like a needles pricking her over and over again. Then a warmth flowing down from her throat onto her chest. Carolyn looked down at her shirt and blood was now spreading in a large circle in the center of her chest. She touched her neck then looked at her hand it was full of her own blood.
"He left just before lunch time. He said you were sleeping." Siobhan answered.
The morning sun soon soared to it's midday perch. The rays of autumn light baked the browning grass of Collinwood warming the earth that held each blade down at their roots. Inside the great mansion the man brought back to life by the black magic of Ezrabette Baptiste and was now using the assumed name of Dr. Jonathon Silva instead of his former more familiar Jason McGuire, sat in the corner of Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne's bedroom suite. He was there under the guise of a physiologist to help ease her mind after a tormented night before.
The truth was Jonathon was there to fulfill an act of revenge on the descendants of Judith Collins-Trask for the murder of her husband's mistress Marie Clotilde by burning her alive in her own home. Jonathon's history with the Collins family as Jason McGuire was an added bonus, not only would he fulfill Marie Clotilde's revenge but his own, as he too was murdered by a Collins, Jonathon's first life met a very violent and bloody end.
"Tell me, why do you think you say Barnabas the other night standing in the rain outside the old house?" Jonathon asked as Carolyn sat at her vanity mirror combing her hair.
"I don't know. I don't know why I saw Barnabas, and I don't think I saw him, I did see him." She replied assertively.
"You're right. You did see him. By why do you think no one else did?" Jonathon questioned further.
"Jonathon, do you know who Barnabas was? Do you know his story? Because if you don't you probably should. But I should warn you it isnt for the faint of heart or for someone who's not open minded." Carolyn said getting up from her mirror.
"What does Barnabas' story have to do with why you saw him and no one else did? What's the relevance?" Jonathon questioned.
"So you don't know his story." Carolyn joked noting that Jonathon had no idea what she was talking, even though Barnabas was the cause of Jonathon's death in his first life as Jason.
"Carolyn, I want you to lay down here on your bed, and I want you to think back to the last time you saw Barnabas, before you saw him outside in the rain." Jonathon requested.
"With all do respect, Jonathon, I don't see how any of this is going to help me, I do not need a psychiatrist. What I needed was rest and I got that, now I just want to be out and about with everyone else." Carolyn complained.
"I promised your family I would try and get to the bottom of what you saw. It's not like you just randomly saw someone from your window and let it be, you went out in the middle of a storm and chased after some phantom!" Jonathon said still hiding the fact that he was the person Carolyn saw confusing him with Barnabas.
Carolyn huffed breath of frustration from her nose and she reluctantly complied with the fake psychiatrist. She lay her head on her pillow and she closed her eyes and began to let Jonathon's voice guide her mind into a place where she felt distant and far away. She kept her eyes closed tight and tried to picture the last time she saw Barnabas, it was the only way she could make sense of the reason why she thought she was seeing him. Was he trying to tell her something?
"Let my voice be just an echo in your mind....let your mind go blank and follow your thoughts to anyplace it wants to...do not force yourself to go anywhere or see anything, just let yourself go....now what do you see?" Jonathon asked.
Carolyn's eyes began to twitch as her mind began to clear and lead her into a what seemed like a white light. As she continued to follow the sound of Jonathon's voice Jonathon's charm around his neck began to glow a dark purple color. He held in in his hand and got up from his chair and walked over to Carolyn who was laying with her eyes closes.
He held the charm over her body and the light from the charm began to seep out like a thick fog and swirled into both of Carolyn's closed eyes making the white light in her mind start to change color. It went from white to grey to purple then black, still in her sleep like mode Carolyn gasped at the sight of the darkness in her head.
"Don't open you eyes, continue on this journey and follow it. See where it takes you." Jonathon's voice from outside Carolyn's dream state ordered.
In her mind, Carolyn began to figured, human shapes standing in the distance in the dark emptiness. There were three. The three figures began to float forward and come closer and as they came closer she could start to make out the figures faces. She could see noses, and eyes, she could see the shape of their jaw lines and their hair color but only until they got as close as possible could she see their faces.
Two of the three figures soon materialized into the faces of her deceased husband Jack Thorne and her daughter Alexandra. The center figure stayed in silhouette.
"Jack.... Alex...." Carolyn whispered as Jonathon continued to watch over her.
"What are they doing?" He asked her to describe.
In her dream like state Carolyn began to reach out to her husband and daughter. They were still far enough away that she could not touch them but she close enough that she could see their faces. They were smiling, but showing no teeth. There was also something strange about their eyes. Carolyn could not get them to focus on her, Jack and Alex would look at Carolyn and smile but then look away and back at the center figure who was still all in black.
"Come to me." Carolyn said to her family.
Jack and Alex slowly floated over in Carolyn's direction, they got closer and closer and still smiled without showing teeth. But then as soon as they got close Carolyn reached and touched Jack's face, a bright light then lit his face and showed that Jack's eyes were just empty sockets and his lips were sewn shut. Jack tried to speak but his mouth could not open. Carolyn screamed and reached over to her daughter who's eyes were also empty and hollowed and her lips were also sewn shut, and her neck had two tiny circular wounds at her jugular where blood began to pour out and stain the clothes she was wearing.
Both Jack and Alexandra continued to make mumbling noises that Carolyn, who was screaming in her dream state and in real life, could not make out. Suddenly the black figure pushed through from behind and Jack and Alex fell into the darkness all around them. The the light that had lit Jack and Alex's faces lit the person in black, it was Barnabas Collins, his mouth full of blood, his fangs stained with Alex's blood. Hi hissed at Carolyn and lunged at her causing Carolyn to jolt out of her dream state and sat up in bed.
When she became more alert, she looked around her room and saw that she was alone. Jonathon was no where to be found. She got up and quickly searched her room. She was there, alone. No one else. Carolyn began to feel uneasy, her mind was racing, her blood was pumping. Why was she seeing this terrible sight of her daughter and husband. Why was Barnabas doing what he was doing? She began to feel ill, she began to feel panicked. Where was Jonathon!?
Carolyn quickly opened her bedroom suite door and ran down the hallway towards the staircase. As she passed the library she heard voices. She opened the library and it was dark, she stood at the door, her heart racing, her breathing becoming more and more shallow.
"Hello?" She asked to the empty room where she heard voices. "Is someone in here?" She questioned the empty library.
Then she felt a stinging feeling at her neck, it was like a needles pricking her over and over again. Then a warmth flowing down from her throat onto her chest. Carolyn looked down at her shirt and blood was now spreading in a large circle in the center of her chest. She touched her neck then looked at her hand it was full of her own blood.
She began to feel herself fall to the ground but she was caught. When she opened her eyes to see what caught her from hitting the ground and into a pool of her own blood she saw the hungry jaws of Barnabas Collins returning to her beck for another drink of her blood.
She screamed again ---and again she woke up in her bed. In her room. In her house. Alone. Jonathon was gone. She was not bleeding. She was not in the library.
"Carolyn! Honey! What's that matter!" Siobhan exclaimed bursting through Carolyn's bedroom door.
"Where's Jonathon. Where is he? Where is he!??" Carolyn screaming at the top of her lungs.
"He left just before lunch time. He said you were sleeping." Siobhan answered.
"NO. He was just here. He was just here!" Carolyn replied as David walked into the room.
"Calm down, calm down." David grabbing a hold of Carolyn's flailing hands.
Siobhan and David looked at each other with deep concern. Carolyn seemed lost, she seemed confused. She seemed as though she was on t he brink of a nervous breakdown. Whatever was happening to her now much more serious than they had ever expected.