Series 8/Chapter 7: ANOTHER NAIL IN THE COFFIN

It was early evening in Collinsport. The docks were beginning to see just the first signs of a misty fog creeping up from the sea. The sound of distant seagulls crying in the distance mixed with the dinging buoys in the ocean were the calling card of this fishing village's mystique and acted as an alarm call to all docked fisherman to head into their favorite local pubs for the night.

As the sun was in it's last moments now, slowly dipping below the far off hills, Carolyn decided to skip yet another session with her new therapist Dr. Jonathon Silva, the alias of Jason McGuire brought back to life by Collinsport's resident witch Ezrabette Baptiste, and head off to bed. Jonathon was brought back as the one major key in a  revenge plot set off by the ghost of Ezrabette's great-grandmother Marie Clotilde, who was burned to death by a jealous Judith Collins-Trask. Carolyn was a large piece of Jonathon's plan to ruin the Collins family for himself and for Marie Clotilde, and as long as he could infiltrate her mind his plot was on track.

As Maggie's car slowly turned into the drive way at Collinwood, her passenger Jonathon began to feel a telepathic pull in his mind and then felt a hand grabbing at his throat and tightening. His breathing got shallower and he violently grabbed the arm to his car-seat in a gasp for air while Maggie continued to make small talk as she parked the car without noticing anything.

Then deep in his mind, the voice of the dead Marie Clotilde burned. She had a message for him, a message that needed to be heard quickly.

"You're late! You're late!" Marie Clotide's voice raged.

"Let--me--go!" Jonathon thought in his mind in a gasping induced voice to Marie Clotilde.

"Carolyn is falling asleep. You must get into her room and begin the next faze of this plan before she falls into a deep sleep. You won't  be able to reach her mind once the sleep has taken over her subconscious. Hurry! Get to Carolyn!" Marie Clotilde ordered as his throat was suddenly released.

Jonathon let out a gasp of air startling Maggie who was finally putting her car in park.

"Are you ok?" She said turning to her passenger concerned with this deep exhale.

"Sorry. Yes! I was holding my breath." Jonathon replied.

"Why?" Maggie darted back with a confused look on her face.

Jonathon stammered for a response but could only muster a half baked "Hiccups!" excuse that seemed to satisfy Maggie, even though she began to feel he was a bit odd.

"Why don't we go inside, I'm sure Carolyn really would like to get her sessions started." Maggie said with a strange look on her face at Jonathon. She quickly got out of her car and rushed inside letting Jonathon to tag along behind her.

As they entered the mansion Maggie and Jonathon went their separate ways. Maggie to the drawing room where she was hoping to run into Kat but found it empty, and Jonathon ran up the stairs and down the dimly lit hallways to Carolyn's bedroom where he was hoping to catch her before she fell into deep REM sleep.

David was closing Carolyn's door queitly just as Jonathon got there.

"Oh, doctor you're here." David said sounding surprised. "Carolyn just got into bed."

"I'm sorry I'm late, how is she?" Jonathon questioned.

"She seems fine. She's getting better but I don't know if tonight would be a good night for a sessions. I think she needs rest." David replied.

"I would actually like to monitor her sleep patters. I can sometimes get more information on what happens while she sleeps then when she's awake. We're more open minded when we're unconscious believe it or not." Jonathon said to a confused David.

"Well whatever you think is best, doctor, I'll be down stairs if you need me." David answered releasing his hand from Carolyn's bedroom door knob.

As David left his cousin alone with Jonathon, somewhat reluctantly, Jonathon placed his hand on the door knob being sure to wait for David to make it all the way down the hall and away from view before he entered.

When the coast was clear, he entered a bedroom that was quiet, serene and feminine. Carolyn's sheer curtains swayed in a cool breeze that blew up from the shore just below Widow's Hill as she lay in her bed in a sweet sleep that would soon turn to horror.

"Carolyn. Carolyn." Jonathon whispered as he stood over her sleeping body.

She moaned a response, her eyes twitched slightly, a message to Jonathon that she had not yet entered deep sleep and that exterior stimulation was still possible.

He sat down in a plush chair  and pulled it closer to her bedside, crossed his legs and began to use his words to enter her mind.

"Carolyn, I want you to hear my voice. I want you to hear what I have to say. Go into that place that is all dark, filled with shadows. Listen to the ticking clock in your room and let it take you where to that place where you fear the most." Jonathon instructed.

Carolyn winced, her unconscious state fighting the voice from the outside forcing her to into a place she feared.

"Carolyn, listen to me, follow the darkness. Follow the ticking sound from the clock and let take you to that place, Carolyn, let yourself go there....." Jonathon's voice said as it trailed off in Carolyn's mind echoing further and further away from reality leaving Carolyn alone in her dark place.


In a place where there was no sound, a place where there was no light Carolyn stood alone and cold and afraid. She looked around for any sign of life or light but again found nothing.

"Why am I here?" Carolyn said out-loud in her dark place, her voice echoing into nothing. "Where am I?" She added.

She began to walk slowly, she shivered in her pajamas, the same close she was wearing in real life. She walked and walked but felt as if she had been walking in place. Nothing had changed. But then the sound of fabric rustling behind her. Carolyn quickly turned to see what it was, but there was nothing.

She heard the sound again from behind and quickly turned to see where it was coming from, but again nothing.

"Who are you!??!? What do you want from me!?" Carolyn screamed, her voice again echoing into the voice of the darkness.

As she began to feel the panic bubble up in her body, a warm breath began to wash on the side of her neck. Carolyn was frozen in fear, she could not move. She could not stop shaking. The breath was hot on her neck now, like a stream of warm water falling from above he head. Carolyn's body was now shaking, her hands cold as ice, her face in a panic gaze.

"What do you want." She managed to say just before being violently turned around to face the being that was breathing on her neck. It was a large figured cloaked in a black silhouette. She could make out that the being was taller than her and seemed to be a man. The man grabbed her by around her upper arms but his face was still black, no eyes, no face, just a black mass, but she could tell it was staring at her.

"WHAT ARE YOU?!" She screamed as the grip of this man's hands tightened on her shoulders.

Without saying a word the man pulled Carolyn by her upper arms in a forceful motion towards him. Carolyn held her breath and tried to lift her hands between herself and the person pulling her but then Carolyn got the shock of her life, as she got closer to the man pulling her in, she saw his face, a face that was void of emotion, void of warmth and so vile she almost did not recognize it.

It was the face of Barnabas Collins with his mouth wide open grinning a wide open vampire grin pulling her in for a bloody bite.

Carolyn screamed so loud it woke her up in the safety of her bed and the welcome gaze of Dr. Jonathon Silva who was hoping for this very result.

"Carolyn.....tell me....what did you see?" Jonathon questioned.

"I don't.....I don't....." Carolyn said before Maggie and David ran into the room.

"What the hell is going on?!" David yelled.

"Honey are you alright?" Maggie said rushing to Carolyn's bedside.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." Carolyn reassured.

"Doctor, what happened? I thought you were just going to observe her?" David questioned using the doctor's own words.

"Mr. Collins, please--please, we can talk about this later, right now I want to make sure my patient is ok." Jonathon said brushing off David's inquiry.

"No, right now I think you should leave. I think Carolyn needs to rest." David said to a visible frustrated Jonathon. "I can have Powell drive you back to your hotel room." David added.

Maggie looked over at Jonathon with a scowl still hugging Carolyn in her bed.

"Please, everyone calm down, I just had a bad dream. There's no need for any of this." Carolyn said.

"Honey you've been having these dream for a while now. What are you dreaming about?" Maggie questioned.

"You won't believe me if I told you." Carolyn answered.

"You're forgetting who you're talking to We've all been there at one point of our lives or another There's noting you can't tell us. Go on you can trust us." Maggie asked.

"Well............" Carolyn began before starting the feeling of embarrassment started to swell in her throat.  "it's silly really." She said.

"Carolyn you need to vocalize whats happening to you so that you can break free of what is holding you back. It's really the only way you can exercise what's hurting you." Jonathon said with an eyebrow raised.

Carolyn looked around, and she had no reason not to trust anyone in the room, no one would surly feel she was strange or silly for the words that were going to come out of her mouth.

"I've been....." Carolyn began before pausing.

"What is it?" David asked.

"I've been dreaming about Barnabas. Barnabas has been coming to me in my dreams." Carolyn said once and for all. "He's come to me in very strange ways. Violent. I feel like he's trying to tell me something. I feel like it's some sort of message." She added.

"Carolyn, Barnabas is gone. He's been gone for a very long time, you were there and I was there....we were all there. There's no way he's coming back this time. You have to let this go." David said.

"David's right hun." Maggie replied.

"Mr. Collins, Ms. Evans, let's leave Carolyn to rest alone while we step outside. Shall we?" Jonathon said as they all left Carolyn in her room drinking a glass of water Maggie had gotten her.

As Jonathon, David and Maggie filed out Carolyn's room and into an adjoining study that smelled of old books, leather couches and candle wax. Jonathon finally felt comfortable to lay down the next step in his plan to ruin the Collins family starting with their matriarch Carolyn.

"What is it?" David asked crossing his arms.

"It seems to me that Carolyn is suffering from a very powerful case of post traumatic stress. It's affecting her in obvious negative ways where she can't even sleep peacefully..." Jonathon said before being interrupted by David,

"Well I know that tone of voice, but tell me, what are you getting at Jonathon?" David questioned forcefully.

Jonathon looked around, the dim room's gloomy light illuminated Jonathon from below casting shadows on his face in a wicked way. His eye brow lifted once more.

"I think it's time we commit Carolyn for her own safety. Commit Carolyn and make sure that we nip these terrors in the bud before they get any worse and before someone gets worse. I can set it up as soon as you sign off on it David. I think it's for the best." Jonathon instructed placing the next part of his plan into motion.

David and Maggie looked at each other, their concerned eyes locked. They both knew the horrible things that could happen to someone who was locked away at Windcliff, both of them being patients there themselves for over two decades.

"We'll need to think about this with the family, I'll have to call Alexandra too." David said softly. "Maggie will take you downstairs Dr. Silva, Powell will drive you home." He added in the soft tone.

Jonathon agreed and smiled and left the room. Maggie lagged behind and looked at David straight in the face.

"Don't you dare make any decisions about this before I get back." Maggie demanded.

 If Jonathon's wishes to have Carolyn committed were granted by David, his next step in totally destroying the family would be set on course. What David and Maggie didn't know is that Jonathon had no intention of really putting Carolyn at Windcliff, no, Carolyn would suffer a much more dire fate, but a fate that would only be revealed once David signed papers.

 *****

The awkward Collins family dinner had ended hours ago and Kimberly eagerly awaited the effects of the medication she placed in Siobhan's wine. The potent pain medication was created using a particular Brazilian plant that the University of Maine had commissioned Kimberly and her medical expertise to test to later use as alternative pain medication for cancer patients. Kimberly's plan, however, was to use enough was to use the plant extract in a sinister way. She placed enough of it in Siobhan's wine at dinner to knock her cold...all Kim had to do now was wait, and the distraction with Carolyn was a welcomed one. 

For her part, Siobhan kept to herself while the other's dealt with Carolyn. She went up to her room after the dinner to look over her own work, now that she was head of Windcliff Sanitarium. Kimberly scurried behind her rival close enough to monitor her but far enough away that she went un-noticed. 

Siobhan sorted through the paperwork at her desk in her bedroom by a dim light. She read through the papers but suddenly began to feel light-headed. She shook her head thinking that the reason was the reading by poor light but as she got up to turn on a brighter lamp she stumbled to the floor. 

On all fours in her bedroom now, she began to feel a strange weakness. Her arms were barely holding her up. She began to feel as if she was losing the ability to speak. She was on the floor of her bedroom staring at the door, her mouth open to scream for David but only drool came out, spilling to the floor in a puddle of clear liquid.

Her eyes began to water. She had no idea what was happening to her. She was fine just minutes ago. She was literally paralyzed in the all-fours position on the floor. Siobhan's eyes were moving but nothing else. Finally, her arms gave way and she fell face and chest first to the floor. Her breathing a slow and timid. 

As she lay there not knowing what in the world was happening to her she heard the door to her bedroom open, she struggled to look but all she could see were a pair of white high-heeled shoes coming across to the carpet. The person knelt down and rolled Siobhan over on her back, the ceiling light blinded her for a second but then, Kimberly's face appeared over her, looking down like a surgeon on a patient.

"I never meant for any of this to happen, but......this is my family we're talking about." Kimberly said as Siobhan looked up at her fiance's ex-wife confused.

Siobhan tried to speak but only spit and mumbles came out.

"Shh... don't talk. It's useless. First of all, no one will hear you and second of all, I put enough of that plant extract in your wine that you'll be out cold in just a few minutes. Oh--don't look at me like that Siobhan! What was I supposed to do? Everything I had hoped for vanished the moment you walked in to the room the other day, you can't really expect me to just let it all go, can you? David and I belong together--we have two beautiful sons, and now a grandson. You just don't fit in that picture." Kimberly said to Siobhan who was beginning to feel like the lights were all going out. 

Kimberly waited for a few more moments until Siobhan was finally fully asleep. Kim grabbed her rival by the wrists and began to drag her out of the room going backwards into the hallway but turning slightly to the right where there was a small servants corridor that lead to a back passage outside of the mansion away from all the commotion on the other side of the main hall where David, Maggie and Jonathon had been dealing with Carolyn. 

Kimberly dragged Siobhan, step by step, down this servants corridor until they were both finally outside in the chilly Collinsport air where she saw Powell putting Jonathon Silva in the back of the Collins family car. 

Kimberly quickly dragged the sleeping Siobhan behind some bushes until Powell and Jonathon drove off, and when the coast was finally clear she continued to drag Siobhan across the wet lawn all the way until they finally arrived at the Old House. 

Kimberly pushed the doors open and dragged the tatted Siobhan into the Old House that had no been in use since last Spring when Barnabas and Jacqueleen were living in it. Kimberly quickly searched the house for a hiding spot for Siobhan while she lay out cold on the living room floor. Upstairs, downstairs, all over the Old House. 

Finally she came across a door that lead to a staircase. The staircase went down into a dark and musty belly of the Old House. Slowly going down the staircase, Kimberly made sure to keep her hands on the sides of the walls. She could only see by the light from the doorway from which she came.

The steps got steeper, the smell became more musty and the temperature became much more cold. In the basement now, Kimberly could see old furniture, several boxes of nick-knacks and what seemed to be a large trunk sitting in the center of the room. As Kimberly walked over to, the closer and closer she got she began to realize the large trunk was actually a coffin.

Hours later Siobhan awoke. She opened her eyes but still only saw darkness. Was she blind? What had happened to her? What was happening now? She lifted her hands but they hit something above her. She felt around more and she could feel there was clearly something above her. She moved her feet around and they were tightly wedged into something. Siobhan pushed up with her hands but she was locked. She was inside of something. She was inside of something dark and cold.

"There's no use Siobhan." A voice came from outside of wherever she was laying in. "No one will hear you, not now, not ever." 

It was Kimberly's voice. Kimberly had locked Siobhan inside of Barnabas Collins coffin. 

****

 After a stressful ordeal with Carolyn, Caleb decided to take his father out for a night cap at the Blue Whale. There they'd find the company of town's folk chatting away the day into a night of blurry happy drunkenness that would allow them to make it through their work week. 

David and Caleb at at their regular table over-looking the foggy docks. A seagull curiously paced back and forth along the windowsill hoping for a snack of beer peanuts that would never get to him.

"Why didn't Siobhan want to come?" Caleb said popping a peanut into his mouth.

"I think she turned in early for the night, and with everything going on with your mother coming back and Carolyn's situation I don't really blame her. It's exhausting." David explained.

"You'd think being Barnabas' adopted daughter she'd be used to so much going on." Caleb joked.

"She grew up in Singapore with him, and in those days he wasn't the same Barnabas we know here in town--and you know what, let's not mention his name around anyone at Collinwood right now, especially Carolyn." David requested.

"Why do you think she keeps seeing him everywhere?" Caleb asked.

"I don't know son, but what I can tell is that it's not good. She's losing it, I mean really losing it! I've never seen her this way before. You're too young to remember but, Carolyn has been through a lot in her life. Both of us have, and we survived. That's what makes us so close, we've survived some of the most traumatic situations you can imagine." David answered.

"Are you saying you don't think Carolyn's gonna make it out of this one?" Caleb asked concerned for the woman that practically raised him as a child when his mother Kimberly ran off with another man. 

"I don't know what's going to happen;" David replied sipping from his beer while a loud group of young men laughed when placing quarters in the old-school jukebox. "she's a tough lady, so I'm not counting her out just yet. It's just going to be a lot of work." he continued.

"Plus she has that Doctor Silva on her side too. I'm sure he's really helping out." Caleb said.

"Right." David answered careful not to reveal to his son that Jonathon Silva wanted to put Carolyn away at a mental hospital. 

As the father and son duo chatted away about the goings-on at Collinwood, the Collins Enterprises newest employee Curtis Winters, quietly made his weary way into The Blue Whale. His dark hair and bright blue eyes causing all the ladies to do a double take on his handsome chiseled face. Curtis carefully hung his coat on the coat wrack and walked over to the bar. 

"That's him! That's Curtis!" Caleb said to his father. "Hey!! Curtis come on over!" Caleb called to a shy Curtis.

"Mr. Collins, good evening." Curtis said to his new bosses.

"Please! We're not at work, sit down. This is my father David, Dad this is Curtis Winters." Caleb introduced as the two shook hands.

"Mr. Winters very good to meet you. So my son says that you've just joined our company. Welcome aboard!" David said with a grin and sip of his beer.

"Thank you, I'm really eager to get going with the Northern fleet. I met them earlier today down at the docks, they seem like a great bunch of guys." Curtis answered. 

"You're going to do great. They're a smaller group so I thought it would better for you to start off small and manage them first before we move you on to a larger fleet. The central Atlantic fleet is our largest group, about 5 fishing ships to manage. Their orders are a lot larger too and ship to mostly southern states." Caleb explained to a nodding and still nervous Curtis.

"This might be me just calling out the elephant in the room here Curtis, but your last name. Any relation to a Victoria Winters of New York City?" David questioned to a surprised Caleb.

"Actually yes." Caleb answered to a surprised David.

"What do you mean yes? You are related to Vickie?" David said looking at his son, then looking at Curtis.

Curtis was unsure of how to answer based on David's reaction to Caleb. He looked at them both and saw two very different attitudes so he chose his words carefully. 

"We are related ... yes." Curtis said hoping he didn't just ruin his entire career.

"Caleb...." David said before being interrupted by his son.

"Dad, listen, I know you still have your hang ups about Vickie especially after everything she did to us last year but we've all gotten past that and I think you should too." Caleb said.

"It's not just this past year, she was responsible for everything that happened to us for over 20 years and we only found out about last year." David said angrily.

"We all agreed to move on. This is the first step." Caleb said in a sort of hushed tone while a very uncomfortable Curtis looked on.

As the two Collins men discussed this new information another patron to the bar walked in, this time the lovely Sasha Beaufort, Canan's new governess and the first friend Curtis met in Founder's Park. Curtis, who had a drawn intensely to Sasha in their first meeting instantly lit up. His bright blue eyes sparkled at her as she walked in.

"Excuse me." Curtis said getting up from the table with the Collins men. 

Curtis walked over to Sasha and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned back around and their eyes met. She smiled politely but at the same time felt awkward.

"Well, well, well, fancy meeting you here." Sasha said.

"I'm actually really happy you're here." Curtis said.

"And why's that?" Sasha asked annoyed.

"I don't know, after our first meeting in the park...there's just something very familiar about you. I feel like we've met before. Does that sound strange?" Curtis replied as the music in the jukebox began to play an old Elvis song.

"People say it's my face. I have a very familiar face." Sasha replied moving over to a table."

"I thought about going up to Collinwood but..."

"No. Don't ever go up to Collinwood." 

"Why not?" Curtis questioned. He noticed how quickly she answered. Something about the idea of setting foot on the Collinwood land didn't sit right with him just yet, but it seemed like Sasha felt the same way. 

She had her reasons, after all she knew of just how cursed the mansion was, from experience, and she also could tell that there was something very peculiar about Curtis that she couldn't out her finger on. Collinwood, in Sasha's mind, was a place that when given the opportunity would drain even the most experienced of beings no matter who they were, and even as hard as people tried, they still left there with a coldness that could not be warmed. 

"Um...it's not just a house, or a place I live in, it's where I work." Sasha said covering for her real reason.

"You're right, I would never want to interrupt your normal day-to-day life. I just feel like we could be fast friends." Curtis replied. 

Sasha smiled at Curtis, there it was right in front of her seemed to be a kind sweet gentle being that when he smiled it was as if she had seen that smile before. It was warm and kind, and made her feel calm and normal, a feeling she had missed much of her life away in the shadows and secrets.

Back at David and Caleb's table things were a little more tense. David was insisting to know about about Curtis Winters.

"Dad, you don't have to worry, I knew Curtis was coming for a job interview and I knew everything about him before hand. It's going to be fine, trust me." Caleb reassured his father who still wasn't convinced.

"Carolyn allowed you to take over her spot as CEO because I was still locked up at Windcliff, and so far I've let you keep your position so right now without interfering, but I think it's time that I come back and take up my rightful spot along side you. Decisions need to be made by both of us, especially something like this." David said to an annoyed Caleb.

"Dad I've hired hundreds of people over the last decade, you never made any decisions before or even cared to question me since you've been back from Windcliff, what's the big difference now?" Caleb wondered as he popped another peanut into his mouth.

"Vicki Winters, that's what. Caleb, she's Elizabeth's daughter, we all know that now. That means she has stake in Collins Enterprises. So far she's been out of our hair but all of a sudden Curtis shows up and wants a job? That doesn't feel strange to you?" David said clearly explaining his concern about the Winters connection. "Just how is he related to her anyway?" he added.

Finally understanding his father's point, Caleb started to feel a bit nervous himself and looked over at Curtis chatting away with Sasha. Then words that came out of his mouth made David even more concerned.

"He's her son."