Series 8/Chapter 13: ASHES TO ASHES

In the cold bedroom of Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne, two men who last saw each other in the basement of The Old House in the summer of 1967. Their white breath escaping their mouths in plumes of smoke encircled their faces while the snow battered the open window thrusting the sheer curtains into the air.

The yellow eyed monster, Jason McGuire, the man of the un-dead brought back to life by the manipulated witch Ezrabette, lunged at Barnabas putting both hands over his face and pushing the vampire back up against a wall.

Barnabas' fists banged on Jason's sides creating a pounding sound the echoed in the cold room like an bombs going off. Jason, just laughed and continued to push on Barnabas' face with his ice cold hands.

"You're powerless here Barnabas, can't you see?  The time when you reigned over Collinwood is over. It's my turn." Jason said releasing his hands from the vampire's face only to swing his fist and land a massive blow to Barnabas' right cheek.

Barnabas crocheted down holding his face, the heft of the blow causing a split second dizzy spell.

"You've always been one to count your chicks before they've hatched, time and death has never taken that from you." Barnabas said in a deep cold voice, his fangs slowly returning to their sharpened state.

Barnabas slowly walked towards Jason who's eyes continued to glow a deep yellow, they both swung and clawed at each other as they made circles in the center of the room. Who would be the next to strike?

Barnabas had had enough of the game and lunged at Jason with all his might landing on top of him. The two fell to the floor of the bedroom, The blow to Jason somehow knocked the control he had over Carolyn and released her from the possessed state. She rushed over to her bed and jumped on top terrified of what was witnessing.

The two men continued to throw powerful punches to their bodies, each one harder and more stronger than the last. Finally Barnabas saw an opening and bit down on the neck of Jason causing Jason to scream in pain. Barnabas latched on, his jaw clamping down like a bear-trap not releasing it's catch.

Jason, with all his might threw a new punch into Barnabas' jaw causing the vampire to release. Blood, the color of oil, seeped out of Jason's dead neck. It poured all over the his body and down his shirt pooling on the white carpet of Carolyn's room in a black puddle.

"You piece of garbage. Look what you've done to my carpet." Jason said, taking ownership of the bedroom he saw as his now that he was married to Carolyn.

"Get out of here." Barnabas said, his mouth completely covered in black blood.

"You've come back too late vampire. Everything I wanted for myself all those years ago has finally come true. I never needed the mother, all I needed was the daughter. I should have thought this 50 years ago." Jason joked about his attempted at marrying Elizabeth in a similar blackmail scheme in 1967.

Barnabas, furious at Jason's flippant attitude lunged once more, landing a second bite on Jason's forearm ripping a hole into it. More black blood poured out and splashed to the floor and all over the two men fighting. Jason fell to his knees, holding the open wound.

"You'll soon regret that." He said as he got up from the stained carpet.

With the speed and reflexes of a cat, Jason grabbed lit candles that were sitting on one of Carolyn's side tables. The flame flickered quickly with the gust of air that Jason's body made in the lunge. Jason, his evil eyes still a bright yellow, grabbed the candle and breathed air on it allowing the flame grow and begin to burn all of the black oil like blood that fell from Jason's mouth. The fire quickly caught on to the carpet and spread in a straight line at Barnabas who was standing in a puddle of black oil and covered in it himself.

The fire then engulfed him completley.

"NO!!!" Carolyn screamed while Jason laughed at the site of the famed Collins family vampire burning in Jason's own oil like black blood.

Carolyn jumped off  her bed and opened a desk drawer pulling out a sharp letter opener that she quickly plunged into Jason's chest. The letter opener went through Jason's body and sliced his dead  black heart in two pieces instantly breaking the spell Ezrabette had put on his dead body.

Carolyn backed away from Jason who was now choking on  his own black blood. He fell to the floor of the bedroom,  his hand in the flames he ignited. He chocked and grabbed the letter opener that was sticking out of  his chest, but it was too late. His heart, black as ash, had betrayed him. Within seconds, the body of Jason turned to ash and the fire disappeared as if it never had been lit at all.

Barnabas lay on the floor, smoke rising from his body. Carolyn rushed over to him and rolled him over. The smoke floated into her face from his body and when she fanned it away, she could see that Barnabas was unharmed. Everything Jason had done, was now undone.

Carolyn buried her race in her favorite cousins' chest as he came to.

"You've saved me." She whispered.

Barnabas pat her head and looked around for Jason. but only saw a pile of ashes.

*****

The front door of Collinwood burst open, David, Caleb, Kat and Curtis rushed through looking for any sign that Siobhan had come home, David the most concerned.

"Bring Kat into the drawing room." David said instructing Caleb and Curtis helping Kat into the room as she was recovering from the abuse Kimberly had inflicted on her when Kat caught her at the old house.

As the group walked into the adjoining drawing room, there she was, Siobhan, wrapped in Barnabas' large coat sitting by a roaring fire.

"Oh my god! You're here! You're ok!!" David said rushing over to her and pulling her in for a kiss. "I thought I lost you for good."


"I'm ok, I'm ok!" Siobhan said, a grin as wide as the Atlantic ocean across her beaming face.

"I don't know what I was going to do without you. When Kim handed me this," David said pulling the engagement ring he gave Siobhan from he had kept in his pocket, " I was sure everything we had worked for was gone."

Siobhan smiled and put the ring back on her finger then turned to David, his strong hands on her shoulders, she placed her own hands on his cold bearded face ad kissed him on the lips, long and passionately as the glow of the fire place warmed them.

"How did you escape?" Kat asked when they finished reconnecting.

"Someone saved me, you'll never believe who." She added.

"Who?" David asked as he touched her hair as if to see if she were really sitting in front of him.

"Barnabas. Barnabas saved me, he found me David, he came back." Siobhan explained.

"That can't be possible. He....Barnabas was destroyed when my mother explo---" David began before being interrupted by someone walking into the drawing room.

It was Barnabas with the exhausted Carolyn, arm in arm.

The room stood silent. It was a shock to everyone to see Barnabas standing there alive--in the physical sense of the word--as ever. David wrapped his arm around Siobhan tightly and looked over at his ancient cousin as if they were in a midnight showdown. Their eyes meeting and the years and years of horrible memories of their past flooding back. David shook his head, pushing those thoughts out of mind and smiled.

"I don't know how you did it this time, and maybe I don't need to know but you saved Siobhan and for that I am thankful." David said stoically.

"He saved me too. Jonathon is dead." Carolyn added.

"What do you mean? What happened to Jonathon?" David questioned in shock.

"He wasn't who you thought he was, David, he was a monster and was terrorizing me all these weeks. He was the reason I was having those nightmares and losing my mind." Carolyn said, still wrapped in a blanket and Barnabas' arms.

"I can't believe you married him." David said reaching for his cousin who was more like his sister.

"He forced me, but he's gone now..... and  it's over." Carolyn answered.

"Why don't we all just find our way into the dining room. I'll get some tear and coffee ready. It's been a very long night for everyone." Caleb said as everyone agreed and began to make their way to the dining room to relax but not before one more last bit of news was to be discussed.

"Wait, where is Kimberly?" Carolyn asked.

The others looked at each other not knowing how to explain what had happened.

"She's gone. There was an altercation and she fell from Widow's Hill." Caleb said as Carolyn and Barnabas gasped.

"I'm going to call Loomis shortly to report her death. I just want to check on Canan." Kat said sadly  as she went upstairs to check on the sleeping baby she still wished was her own.

The rest of the family went into the kitchen leaving Barnabas in the drawing room staring into the fire. His eyes were watering. His mind foggy with confusion. He felt different. He felt strange. He felt like something inside of him was not as it once was. Could it be all of the excitement and drama of the evening or was there really something different about him this time.

He took a deep breath and grabbed his coat that Siobhan had left on the sofa and passed a giant portrait of Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard that was placed in the drawing room and to his shock, in the glass was his reflection. A reflection he had not seen in over 250 years.

Barnabas was now mortal, his soul returned. His life renewed.

"You're free." A voice said from the open door of the drawing room.

Barnabas turned to see his daughter Claudia, the witch who had helped him return this time.

"How? How could you have done this?" He questioned.

"This body that you inhabit was meant to only be a vessel that I would enter and pretend to be you to destroy Jonathon, but with your actual life force entering inside this body you've become rejuvenated. Father, this is your second chance at a real life. The curse you suffer may still have some residual effects but it is true....you're free of the curse my mother placed on you. Once and for all." Claudia explained.

Barnabas felt elated. His heart, his real heart, pounded in his chest like a powerful drum.

"What effects will I still feel?" He questioned.

"Although you see your reflection, you may not walk in the day, and at times, you may still crave the taste of blood. But father, your urges may be curved. You may fight them better. You have a choice now." Claudia answered.

"And you? What does this mean for you?" Barnabas asked, knowing her secret was still locked away deep inside of her.

"We'll see. At this point I know there is so much that I cannot control." Claudia answered, knowing the time ticking on whether or not Curtis would keep the secret of her true identity.

"Curtis." Barnabas said to Claudia nodding.

"He knows only part of his story. Not everything." Claudia confirmed.

"Ive been in your situation before. Holding a secret about what you really are vs. what you want people to believe you are will only eat you up inside. The truth, my child, always finds its way to the surface, I hope that when it does become clear of who you are that you are in a better place than I was when my secret was revealed." Barnabas said to his daughter.

"I hope so too." Claudia said, as Barnabas kissed her cheek. "For now call me Sasha...let no one know my true identity until the time is right." Claudia asked.

Barnabas nodded his head in agreement.

*****

Kat sat on a rocking chair holding the baby she once thought was hers. She rocked back and forth humming a song Maggie used to hum to her when she was a baby. All she wanted was for that baby to truly be her's but she knew in her mind, and in her gut that Curtis was telling the truth. This baby was not hers, Curtis was her son, grown up in the past through a terrible twist of fate. 

"He's very beautiful." Curtis said from the doorway of the nursery. 

"He's not you though. How could I not know I didn't bring back the right baby from 1920? How could I not know??" Kat said beating herself up.

"I used to wonder the same thing when Victoria told me who I really was. I would sit up at night and curse you...scream at you and my father for not realizing the baby they had was not really the son they thought it was, but then I realized that how could you have known? All you wanted was to bring me back, no matter what. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the pressure of the situation made you do things that clouded your mind of reality. It's something I've had to come to terms with. You will too." Curtis said in a very understanding way.

"We all had to." Claudia said, now entering the nursery.

The two mother's stared at each other for a split second of silence. 

"I’ll leave you two alone to talk." Curtis said leaving the room.

"Claudia?" Kat said as Sasha waked in. Tears began to stream down Kay’s face. Claudia/Sasha nodded a yes, tears coming down her face as well. "How did this happen?" Kat questioned.

"When I left Collinsport, I was pregnant with Christopher's child. Somehow Victoria tracked me down and convinced me to time travel with her to 1920 and she would soon follow with another child she needed to protect, she said that the baby was in danger of being destroyed by the Collins family. She reminded me how a very long time ago my father did the same thing to me to protect me from my mother Angelique. I agreed and when she arrived in 1920 with your son I had already given birth to mine. The rest is history." Claudia explained.

"But when I arrived in 1920 there was only baby Elizabeth and this baby boy, the one I love as Canan. Your son." Kat said confused, unsure of where the third child was when she went back in time.

"Vicky had your son hidden away when you arrived, the little boy you saw in 1920 was always my child. She believed switching them would keep the curse at bay, by changing their time lines. We protected our boys Kat... it was the only and best thing we could do. Curtis doesn’t know the whole story. I think ... Vicky should be the one to tell him." Claudia as Sasha said.

"What do you mean?" Kat asked.

"He thinks all of this was ...planned. The kidnapping, that he was taken, he doesn’t understand yet that Vicky lied to him. Vicky has made sure he believes he was left with your understanding but that the time travel has made you forget. It’s ... complicated. Claudia explained. 

"He thinks I wanted this?" 

"Yes. Vicky has convinced him of this."  Claudia explained. "She raised him well despite that giant lie." 

"I would never have allowed her too..." Kat paused to think. "This is all just so confusing, when I went back in time with Barnabas we saw you die, we saw you get shot in the show and die in 1920..." Kat said crying.

"A witch never dies when she controls the time vortex. My body disappeared from the time line but re-appeared at the beginning of that timeline, as if it were starting all over again. In essence when I was shot my body returned to the very moment I had opened the time vortex---everything started over. Because my body had been destroyed in 1920 by the bullet I had to use a new body and name. That's where Sasha came from...I wanted to come here and help you raise my son with you, I couldn't do that as my real self. That body was no longer able to travel back." Claudia explained further.

"Curtis needs to know that I never wanted Vicky to take him. I never wanted any of this!" Kat said.

"I know. But she needs to tell him. It needs to come from her." Claudia replied.

The pieces were still scattered in Kat's brain when it came to the story. The time lines, the time travel, the baby switch. it was all so complicated and horrible. But What she did know, what she did understand was that another mother had only wanted to be close to her baby and Kat could not turn her down. Kat and Claudia both loved baby Canan, no matter what his real name was.

"Everything ok?" Curtis said walking back into the room, still unaware of the true nature of his kidnapping. Left to believe the lie Vicky had instilled him him all those years ago. 

"Come in." Kat said whipping her tears  and looking down at the baby in her arms. The baby she loved as her own, Claudia’s baby. "What did you name him?" Kat asked.

"His name is Leith."

"Leith Collins Reed. I like that." Kat said, as Curtis smiled.

"There's been enough switching and enough lying. Curtis was forced to live his whole life in a time period that he didn't belong to and a name that wasn't his, all I'm asking is to be here to help you raise Leith  as best I can. I don't want to hurt anyone anymore." Claudia said.

"What do we tell everyone now?" Curtis asked. 

"Nothing." Kat answered to Curtis and Claudia's surprise.

"What do you mean?" Curtis asked.

"This will kill Caleb if he finds out, and I just can't be the one to cause any more harm, so we'll leave it as it is. Claudia, we'll continue to call you Sasha, you'll continue to be your baby's governess for as long as you want. Curtis, you'll continue to be the son of Victoria as you were raised. It just has to be the same. Caleb lost his mother tonight, I don't want him to lose his son too. " Kat said paysing before saying one last thing: "For now."

"For now." Claudia said as Kat handed her baby Leith.

Kat walked over to Curtis and placed her hand on his face. "My beautiful boy." She said. "My beautiful boy." She repeated. 

*****

Ezrabette sat in her cottage waiting for the arrival of her ghostly relative Marie Clotilde. She knew that any moment the ghost would appear to her in anger that the plan she cooked up to destroy the family of Judith Collins-Trask, the woman that burned Marie Clotilde alive over 100 years ago in a jealous rage and started the chain of events that brought them to this very point.

Marie Clotilde was not late. Her ash-like corpse began to appear slowly like a fog in human form. First the legs, then the torso, then the arms, then the head and face. She ash body of a woman furious that her great-great granddaughter failed her. 

"I've been expecting you." Ezrabette said as the ghost appeared. 

"You've failed." Marie Clotilde said in a cold voice.

"No. I've succeded. I've stopped a terrible wrong from  happening to people who did not deserve what you had planned for them. And now it's time for you to go, go on to a different plane of the after life and leave this anger and vengeance behind." Ezrabette said grabbing a candle.

"You could have taken all of their lives, I deserved that! They took my life and took away my child! You could have made these wrongs right again, but you failed. And now ...now...the punishment." Marie Clotilde warned.

"ENOUGH! I've given you enough power over me, but no more. You no longer have power in his house, in my heart and over the people I love. Maggie Evans, my friend, will not be hurt by you or drawn into this. This ends ..NOW!" Ezrabette said as she lit a candle. 

"Ezrabette...." Marie Clotilde said, understanding what was about to happen, as Ezrabette looked into the candle's flickering flame and began to chant: 

"From the depths of despair, 

in the cold night air, 

I bind you from all,

Hear my call

Into the light I hold here

Into the light I hold near

From his place you go 

Away into the after life glow

I send you

I send you"

As the chant entered, the winds picked up, the sound of howling echoed throughout the forest where the cottage stood. The ghost of Marie Clotilde, made of ash and smoke began to swirl in circles and fill into the fire of the candle Ezrabette was holding. Ezrabette had called the ghost of Marie Clotilde back into the light of the after life and way from the darkness of death she had been placed for all these years where her soul could not escape. Her soul was trapped and festering with anger and madness but now she was free, free to go into the light and finally be at peace. 

Once every bit of Marie Clotilde's ash-ridden ghost was now safely in her the light of the candle Ezrabette blew it out, sealing it, and locking the soul of her great-great-grandmother away.

"Rest in peace now, Great-Grand-mother. Rest in peace." Ezrabette whispered as a single plume of tiny smoke curled away from the scorched candle's wick. 

She walked back into the den of her cottage to replace the candle in a cupboard. There was a particular smell in the air, it was of sulfur, or ash, soot.  Ezrabette shook her head thinking the smell was from the extinguished candled but as she turned back around, there sitting with his feet up on her dining room table was Jason McGuire, smiling with his crooked teeth.

Ezrabette gasped in terror and leaned back on the cherry-wood cupboard cracking the glass in it's doors.

"We need to talk, lassy." Jason said to Ezrabette in his Scottish brogue. The witch in the Collinsport forest was left in utter shock.

*****

In her room, Carolyn looked around. How could she sleep in this room ever again without having the terrible feeling that something terrible was going to happen. In life. In her dreams. How could she ever sleep again?

She sat on a white sofa across from her large white bed and stared at it. Sleep is what she needed but after everything she had gone through she feared to close her eyes. Then a knock on her door.

"Come in." She said softly. 

"I was hoping you were still awake." Her trusted driver Jude Powell said as he pushed the door open slowly.

"Powell what are you doing here so late, come in, come in!" Carolyn said ushering him in.

"Ive never left Collinwood since they took you away. When I found out you were back and you were better I had to come see you." Powell said, his grey beard shining in the soft light of her bedroom.

"Well I'm glad you did. I missed a friendly face." Carolyn said, her heart warmed by his visit. 

"Carolyn, I want you to know something." Powell said, surprising Carolyn when he used her first name.

"What is it?" She asked standing up next to him.

"For so many years I have loved you. So many. And all I want to do is take care of you, protect you. You've gone through so much and I want you to know that I just want to keep you safe. I will never let anyone do anything to hurt you again. I promise." Powell said resting his hands on her shoulders.

Carolyn could see the love in his eyes, it was genuine, it was pure. She hadn't felt that from someone since her husband Jack. It was calming, it was beautiful. It was love. 

She looked at Powell, deep into his green eyes and stood up on her tip-toes. Their lips touched. Their eyes closed and she felt safer in his arms then she had ever felt in all her life. 

****

The morning sun began to peek mover the hills that surrounded the small fishing village, it was a new day in Collinsport and after long night at Collinwood  Barnabas stood on the balcony of the old house and continued to look out on to the sea and dream about what was in his future now that he was, for lack of a better terms--half mortal. 

"Is it over?" A voice said from behind as Barnabas looked out into the distance as a salty wave of mist and cold winter air mixed in the sky, he turned around to see Carolyn up and around.

"Carolyn! I'm so glad to see you feeling better." He said, with a sparkle in his eye.

"Is it over?" She asked again, the tone of her voice demanding an answer.

"Is what over?" Barnabas asked stepping back into the room of blush tones and cream carpets from the balcony.

"Everything, all of this. Everything that we've known for all our lives. Is it done? You're mortal now, the curse is over." Carolyn said with a wish in her voice.

"Nothing is ever what it seems, dear cousin, and even thought I am what you say I am, I can feel it in my bones that something is on the horizon. Nothing is ever over. Not even life itself, I'm proof of that." Barnabas answered.

Carolyn looked around the room. This bedroom wasn't the one Barnabas loved the most, Josette's room, it was a more modernized freshly painted room that she had forgotten about over the years. It was the original room of Annabella Collins, the first mistress of Collinwood, her portrait still hung on the wall a beautiful reminder of what once was.

"You look like her." Barnabas said of his great-grandmother to Carolyn.

"Do you think when she and Issac started this family that they would ever dream it would come to this? How do you think she would feel knowing the nightmares we've all faced in these halls, on this land?" Carolyn thought aloud.

"Great-grandmother Annabella dreamed only the best for her small family, and I'm sure for those of us who came after her. Nothing more but the best." Barnabas answered now standing next to Carolyn as they looked up at the portrait of Annabella.

"Barnabas, I'm leaving here for a while. Powell and I have decide to visit Alexandra in London. I want to see my daughter..it's been too long. Will you be here when I return?" She asked as they came face to face.

Barnabas looked at his cousin Carolyn, a woman he grew to love over the years as his own daughter and he was to her like a surrogate father. They'd both been through so much over the course of 50 years and they both knew that anything, literally anything, could happen between  now and when Carolyn returned from London. If she returned.

Barnabas was more of a realist than his cousin, her blue eyes still sparkling like the Maine sea even at her 70-some years of age, he could sense that there was darkness afoot even in  his moment of bliss on the balcony, there was always going to be--no matter what.

"When will you return?" Barnabas asked avoiding her question.

Carolyn wrapped her arms around herself as the cold air swooped in from the open Balcony french doors, she too looked out on to the sea and thought of that hopefully, now that Jonathon was gone, now that Kimberly was gone, maybe, finally, good things would happen. But she wasn't sure if she would experience those good things in London or Collinwood.

"I don't know. We bought a one way ticket ...." Carolyn said, her sentence trailing off into nothing letting the news sink in.

Barnabas could understand her hesitation of returning to this place. It was her home, but it was also a place where she had so many terrible memories, her whole life, including the last 2 years. He politely smiled and kissed her cheek.

"I'll be here." Barnabas finally answered his sweet smile lingering a bit longer. Carolyn hugged him again and smiled, their hands slowly slipping out of lock with each other as she left his room to meet Powell who was waiting for her in the car to the airport.

Barnabas returned to the chilly balcony overlooking the sea from the old house and watched as Carolyn and Powell's car drove off into the distance.

"I'll be here......" Barnabas said again to himself. "And so will the shadows."

                   

Series 8/Chapter 12: WIDOW'S HILL

The ground was frozen solid. The ice had formed a hardened layer of crusted over dirt that had been mixed with moisture locking in Siobhan in her shallow grave. Kimberly, the grave digger, stood above ground smiling, pleased with her work.

"Kimberly!!! Kimberly Please! Help me!" Siobhan said from inside the coffin. Her hands pounding on the inside of the lid.

"My family is more important than anything, and I've made too many mistakes in the past to let you sweep in and take my place. Just relax, breath slowly and it will all be over soon." Kimberly said, her deranged mind forgetting that this too was just another one of her many mistakes that her family would turn their backs on her for.

Siobhan continued to scream. Her heart was pounding in her ears. She kept pushing on the coffin's lid but the dirt and mud were too heavy to budge. She was trapped; the smell the wet soil from inside her dark cold coffin filled her air space like water filling bucket,

"Say goodnight now Siobhan. See you on the other side." Kimberly said laughing as she placed her feet directly on top of where she buries Siobhan and began to jump up and down, the pressure of each of Kim's bounces pressing down on the coffin's lid shacking the inside side. Dirt fell in through  cracks of the old coffin around the sides of Siobhan's face.

Kim garbed her shovel and rushed off into the frosty forest back to Collinwood, her job was done.

Now alone, buried alive in the forest where no one knew she was, Siobhan began to weep. This was how she was going to die. Alone. Cold. Suffocated. She was  beginning to feel like there was no hope, and her panic began to turn into wishes that whatever was going to happen to her now, would happen fast and painless. Her mind began to wonder, her life began to flash before her, her memories of life in Singapore flushed back like warm wave of love.

Siobhan was born to two Americans living in Singapore in 1970. They arrived on a summer morning, the wife 8 months pregnant. The father, a doctor in a local hospital, became friends with another American doctor, Julia Hoffman-Collins who was living with her husband, they called Barney. The four of them, the Morgans and The Collins' were very close until a tragic boating accident took the life of Mr. Morgan.

Miranda Morgan, a new widow, found herself a broken woman without her husband. So much so that she began to lose grip on reality and fell into a deep dark depression. And after several suicide attempts little Siobhan was left in the hands of the Morgan's close friends Barney and Julia while Miranda disappeared into her depression along in a Singaporean mental hospital.

Barney, of course, was really Barnabas Collins who had traveled to Singapore and been cured of his blood thirst by Julia's friend and counterpart in Singapore Dr. Lo.

The Collins made sure that Siobhan's childhood was perfect. She learned Chinese and French. Her adopted mother Julie instilled in her the virtues of loyalty and strength while her adopted father Barnabas helped her appreciate the finer things in life like art, music and the beauty of the world around her. They loved her like she was their very own little girl and together Julia and Barnabas raised this two year old girl to become a beautiful and intelligent woman she was today.

Julia died suddenly in Singapore at the early age of 63 in 1985 leaving Barnabas, still fully cured, and a widower. He never married again, but continued to instill the very best traits in his teenage daughter Siobhan.

Back in her coffin Siobhan closed her eyes remembered her adopted mother Julia's smile and waited to see it one more time and as she was slowly drifting off into an unconscious state, she began to hear the rustling of soil above her.

The dirt began to sift, the pressure in the coffin began to lighten, everything above her was moving at a fast pace. She could even feel the air, fresh and cold, from the outside world starting to creep into her lowly coffin.

"David. David's discovered what Kim did. He's come to save me!" Siobhan thought to herself. "DAVID! DAVID! HURRY!" She screamed out loud.

As the dirt began to move faster and faster from above her, she could sense something, it was a feeling of safety and protection the same feeling she had when she was just a child.

Then, it happened. The person digging Siobhan out of the grave dusted the top off the coffin off. She heard the person's hands swish across the top of the lid two times, removing any excess dirt and snow. The person reached down and lifted the lid to the coffin, the fresh cold air spilled in, and Siobhan coughed as she breathed in it.

She covered her eyes as they slowly adjusted to even the most small amounts of light and when she looked up, she saw a person she had never expected to see ever again.

Her father. Barnabas Collins.

"I've come back, Siobhan. No one will ever hurt you again." Barnabas said as he extended his hand to her and helped her out of the grave.

She looked at him in amazement, and much confusion, but it was him. She could feel the bones in his arms, she could touch his skin and it was real. She allowed all of her questions to subside and dove into a giant tight hug.

"How can this be happening?" Siobhan asked, tears rolling down her face.

"It doesn't matter how I've returned, but I have. On my way to Collinwood I sensed your heart. I sensed your need of me. And I found you. I will never let anything like this happen again."

They continued to hug in the frosty, snow covered forest for a few more seconds. Then headed off to Collinwood, Barnabas' new return has yet another stop, the next one, Jason McGuire's front door.

****

Earlier that evening Kat had grown suspicious of Kim sneaking into the old house and walked in on her nailing Siobhan into the coffin. In short scuffle, Kim shot a nail gun into Kat's leg slicing through her flesh then tied her own daughter-in-law up to keep her from interfering with Kim's plan to get Siobhan out of the way for good.

But Curtis, the fully grown son of Caleb and Kat instinctively felt his mother's needed help and found her in the basement of the old house. Together they escaped from Kim's binds, Kat and her surprise rescuer Curtis rushed out of the Old House in a frantic race to save Siobhan from certain death by suffocation.  The two, putting aside the giant revelation that Curtis was really Kat's son held back in 1920 by Victoria, were met at the front door by yet another surprise.

Curtis, holding the limping Kat up, swung the front door of the old house open, standing on the other side was a shocked Kimberly. Kim's eyes saw the writing on the wall, she was caught. She dropped her belongings and dashed back down the front steps.

"We have to go after her!" Kat said, her leg still bleeding from the flesh wound she received from Kim shooting at nail gun at her.

"Are you sure you can make it?" Curtis asked worried about Kat's well-being.

"I don't have a choice, she's buried Siobhan somewhere and we have to follow her. Come on!" Kat said charging forward.

The two rushed after Kimberly who was going back into the forest to hide. Kimberly felt the noose of exposure slowly tightening around her neck, it was either fight or flight for her now. She quickly dashed across the great lawn of the Collinwood Mansion just as David and Caleb were leaving to look for Kat who had also gone missing.

"What the..." David said to himself of the scene as Kat and Curtis followed.

"It's Kat!" Caleb yelled as he and his father also began running after Kimberly.

Kimberly's quick motions through the cold and damp forest were smart, she could easily hide herself within the thick trees, but something was calling her eastward. She could feel the cool breeze of the ocean push her forward and bring her past the snow covered floors of the forests that surrounded the Collinwood land. It was the ocean. The sea, calling her name with every crash against the black rocks she heard:

KIMBERLY   KIMBERLY   KIMBERLY 

The other's soon caught up to each other. Caleb shocked to see the state of his wife Kat.

"What happened?" Caleb exclaimed putting Kat's other arm around his neck to help.

"Kim--she shot me with a nail gun." Kat said, winching in pain.

"What?! Why?" Caleb questioned.

"I caught her." Kat said again, keeping her words and breath's short as they continued through the snowy forest in pursuit of Kimberly.

"Dad, you and Curtis go on ahead, Kat isn't going to make it and we can't loose mom." Caleb requested.

David looked at his son, the thought of going forward with Curtis, a man he did not trust,  made  him uncomfortable  but he had no choice. Caleb and Kat stopped the cahse and rested and sat on a soggy ice covered log.

"I'm so glad you're safe. We were so worried about you. Loomis called the house and said you hadn't showed up at the station. Why did my mother do this?" Caleb questioned again, kneeling down on the cold ground looking over Kat's leg wound.

"I saw her going into the old house, it was odd to me so I followed. When I got there she was in the basement..... " she paused not knowing how to break the news of Kim's evil deed to Kim's son..."Caleb's she's done something horrible." Kat said not finishing the story.

"What has she done?" Caleb asked but Kat couldn't say it, she didn't believe it herself.  "Tell me!" Caleb demanded.

"I don't know why she's done this but...I saw it with my own eyes and when she saw that I caught her she lashed out and attacked me. I wasn't able to stop her. Caleb, she's locked Siobhan in one of Barnabas' old coffins and take her and I think she's buried her out here." Kat explained.

Caleb's face became as frozen as their frost bitten surroundings. It was proof of what his father David had feared all along, that Kim was responsible for Siobhan's disaperabce. But the truth was more hurtful than just the accusation.

"Where is Siobhan?" Caleb asked stoically.

"I don't know. She's buried her somewhere out here. We have to find her." Kat said, looking around the frozen forest.

"I'm glad you're ok. I can't imagine losing you. I was so worried." Caleb said kissing his beautiful wife on the forehead.

"If Curtis hand't of found me, I don't know what would have  happened to me, Kim might have done the same to me." Kat said.

"That's right, what was Curtis doing here? How did he know you were at the old house?" Caleb questioned.

The truth was, Kat had no idea either. All she knew was her son had never come home like she thought a year ago, and the 1 year old little boy she had been raising was someone else's child. Her real son, Curtis, had been kept secretly in 1920 and had returned through time travel as an adult man. How could Kat ever explain this to Caleb? When would she explain this to him? Or was it better left unsaid.

****

Kimberly, sweating, breathing heavily, cold and exhausted reached the edge of the cliffs of Window's Hill. The water crashed below creating an ice blue slush across the stony shore line. Her mind seemed to be in a trans like state, and she was trapped like a rat.

"Don't you make another move." A voice said from behind. Kim turned, it was David standing there with Curtis.

Kim smiled at her ex-husband, the man she still loved and had attempted to destroy his relationship all to get him back--but she had failed.

"What have you done with Siobhan?" David asked in a calm but stern voice.

"Of course she's what you're worried about first. The mother of your child is standing on the edge of a cliff and you ask her where your precious fiancee is." Kim said sarcastically.

"Kimberly, you're not well. You're a woman of science; you understand the importance of life, you made a vow when you became a doctor that you would protect life and somewhere along the way you've forgotten that. What you've done to me and Caleb and your son Christopher in the past went against all of your teachings, and now, you do the same to Siobhan, but there's still time. We can still save her! Just tell me where she is!" David said referring the horrors of Kim's past misdeeds. 

He began to step closer to Kim.

"Don't get any closer to me." She screamed, with one arm out holding him at bay.

"Kim please...." David said softy, allowing the crashing waves to overtake his voice.

"The lycan experiments I did on you and Christopher were wrong, I lost everything I ever loved because of those mistakes--I have paid the price long enough for doing what I did. And yet I still suffer alone....I just wanted to get my family back. I deserve my family!" Kimberly screamed the tears running down her face lifted from her skin and blew away in the wind.

"This was not how you should have gone about it. There were other ways." David explained.

Curtis looked on, he was trembling with the chill of the winter ocean air when he realized he was watching his own grandparents in one of the most terrible moments of their lives. Tears came to his own eyes.

"You need to tell me where Siobhan is, Kim, it's not too late to save her. Please." David pleaded again incing closer to the fragile Kimberly. 

"You really do love her don't you? You really do love her more than you ever loved me." Kim said, her mind starting to break.

"Kim, I..." David said as his ex wife's face began to change to grief stricken and loss.

"Everything I did, I did because I wanted to make us a family again. That's all. I never wanted us to be apart like we were for so many years. That's all I wanted. To be with my grandson and you, and Caleb." Kim said as her feet crept closer to the edge of widow's hill.

The ocean below still calling her by name, splashing and crashing. Kim turned slightly and listened to waves ...David and Curti's voice became far off white-noise and all she could gear was the watery voice of the sea call her: KIMBERLY. 

All around them, the icy air caused a blue, frigid sky that reflected the equally as icy ocean. Curtis' emotions were getting the best of him  as he watched his grandmother slowly inch her way closer to certain death. He blurted out:   "Don't do this!!!"

Curtis leap forward, frightening Kim, she backed up, and as if it were in slow motion, made two stumbles and fell off the ledge  vanishing behind the ledge in just seconds to David and Curtis' complete horror.

Curtis fell to the floor and crawled over to the edge and look out on to the water. 

"Jesus Christ! What have you done!!" David said, now looking over the edge too "Kim! KIM!!!" David called down below, the spray of ocean water glistening both their faces.

But as they looked, there was no body. 300 feet down, on the hard, cruel rocky shore below, there was no body. The surf had certainly washed her mangled corpse into it's dark blue depths.

Kim was gone.

"You scared her! You scared her and she fell!" David screamed at Curtis. 

"Where is she!?!" A voice said from behind David and Curtis. 

It was Caleb and Kat who had made their way through the forest at a slower pace, Kat still nestled under Caleb's helpful arm.

"She jumped." David said as he looked over at a pale and guilty faced Curtis.

Kat gasped and Caleb began to cry. They both slowly waked over to ledge, the wind pulling at Kat's black mane of hair.

"She's gone." Curtis said softy, as he put his hand on Caleb's shoulder. Caleb, still not knowing Curtis was his son rudely shrugged Curtis' hand away.

"Come on, we have to find Siobhan, before it's too late." David said quickly changing the subject. 

"We already did. On our way here we passed an open grave. Siobhan wasn't in it." Kat said.

"What? How can that  be?" David questioned.

"I don't know, but the coffin that was in the ground was the one I saw Kim put Siobhan into. She's not there. She must have escaped and maybe that's why Kim was so panicked." Kat wondered.

"Then she must be on her way back to the main house, come on." David said, as the group moved on back to Collinwood leaving Widow's Hill gaining one more victim to it's legendary roster. 

*****

The front door of the mansion creaked open. A flush of cold wind blew in breezing into the drawing room and blowing on the warm fire thawing the breeze. In walked Barnabas holding up his adopted daughter Siobhan who's body was weak from the amount of time she spent locked away in a coffin, at one point even underground.

Before Barnabas was presumed dead in the blast from the powerful energy of The Phoenix Laura Collins, his relationship with Siobhan had soured. When she discovered that he had become a creature of the night once more due to the vicious bite from Jacqueleen Walsh, she began to suspect him of murder, and it would become too late for forgiveness once Barnabas saved the family and used his own life to stop the powerful Phoenix before she absorbed them all in her hell-fire.

Now that he had returned, it was time for forgiveness. Barnabas at Siobhan down on the sofa allowing her to warm by the fire while he got her something to drink.

"I can't believe you're back." She said in a hushed voice.

"Shhh...keep your energy." Barnabas said, removing his coat and placing it around her shoulders.

"How? How did you return?" She said deciding not to heed his advice.

"Your sister, Claudia. She helped me find my way home." Barnabas said, surprising Siobhan who never knew of Claudia.

"Sister? I don't understand?" Siobhan answered, the confusion billowing in her mind.

"In due time, my sweet girl. Rest here, I need to find Carolyn. Something urgent needs to be corrected in regards to her." Barnabas said.

Barnabas helped Siobhan put her legs up on the sofa, he patter her head and told her to stay where she was, his mission was to find Jason McGuire, or the man Jason was posing as, Carolyn's psychiatrist Dr. Jonathon Silva and end his life and his control over the family. It was now or never.

Barnabas swooped up the front staircase and made his way through the familiar darkened halls of Collinwood. He opened ever door he could think of to find Jonathon. The study----empty. The Second floor garden room----empty, the library----empty. Room and room empty.

He opened bedroom doors and saw only empty beds. Where was Jonathon hiding, and where was he hiding Carolyn? For sure she was in his possession and in terrible danger. Jonathon was a creature of the supernatural too and there was no doubt in Barnabas' mind that Jonathon had sensed his arrival. If anything, the ghost Marie Clotilde; the mastermind of the entire operation, could have warned him.

As Barnabas walked through the main hallway there was no where else Jonathon could be but inside Carolyn's bedroom, a place Barnabas thought would have been too obvious to hide in.

Barnabas, his skin pale as the frost on the grass outside, slowly turned the doorknob to Carolyn's bedroom and opened it, and there she was, Carolyn standing still in her white silk pajamas with a terrified look on her face.

"Carolyn." Barnabas said as his beloved cousin slowly turned to face him.

Her eyes were different. The sparkling blue Barnabas once remembered was gone, it was now a dull and cold grey, like a ask. Her face looked tired and withered, her lips dry and cracked. This was not the sunny bright eyed spunky cousin he once knew.

"What has he done to you?"  Barnabas said walk up to his cousin.

"Stay back. Stay back!" Carolyn said, her voice not sounding like her own.

"Carolyn? Carolyn is that you?" Barnabas questioned, continuing to notice she wasn't herself.

Carolyn's eyes, still dark and distant fixated on Barnabas, her focus like a laser aiming directly at his neck. She opened her mouth revealing razor sharp fangs---in one sudden attack, Carolyn lunged at Barnabas mouth agape thirty for any kind of blood, even of a fellow vampire's.

Barnabas grabbed the hissing Carolyn by the shoulders and held her off, she reached for him, scratching his face her hissing constant and furious.

"Carolyn! Stop this! STOP!" Barnabas said throwing her to the floor.

"He's made you --- he's made you like me!" Barnabas said,  a deep sorrow filling his throat and coming out in his words.

"You." Carolyn said, her voice still not her own.

"You're not Carolyn. Who are you!? What have you done to her!?" Barnabas said falling to his knees and grabbing Carolyn and shaking her.

Carolyn, in her crazed state, only laughed her body hot to the touch. She writhed on the floor laughing hysterically as if possessed by a demon. This wasn't Carolyn. This wasn't the woman who lead this family since her mother Elizabeth's death. This wasn't the woman who was stronger than any man in the whole Collins Family tree, this was a woman on the verge of a mental and supernatural breakdown possessed by all the demons and secrets and horrors her family was cursed with brought on by the insanity of Jason McGuire and his human alter-ego Jonathon Silva.

"This is all your doing, can't you see? You've come back and you've made my wife a living, breathing, monster. Go away Barnabas. Go away forever." A seething voice said from behind.

Barnabas stood up and turned around to see two glowing yellow eyes standing in a blackened corner of Carolyn's bedroom floating 6 feet above the floor.

"Jason. We meet again." Barnabas said.

"But this time, you wont be the one with the tightest grip on the situation." Jason said, revealing himself in his actual form and not behind the fabricated face of Jonathon Silva referencing how Barnabas originally killed Jason in the bowels of the old house by strangulation.

Barnabas stepped closer to Jason, there eyes meeting, Barnabas' fangs pointed, sharp, ready for a battle. The monster zombie Jason at the ready.

This was their final battle. One of them would not survive.

                       

Series 8/Chapter 11: BODY, MIND, SOUL

At the old house on the Collinwood land, the walls seemed to ache with their ancient pain from all of the suffering and darkness they stood witness to for over 300 years. Down in the basement, more secrets were being revealed as Curtis Winters exposed himself to being the fully grown child of Kat and Caleb: Canan Collins.

Kat, was had been tied up for trying to free Siobhan from the coffin Kim had locked her in, was still in a confused daze. She felt that maybe she had heard the man standing above her wrong.

"What are you talking about? My son is a 1 year old child!" Kat said, jumping to her feet and quickly releasing Curtis' grip on her arm.

"That's what you've been led to believe, yes. But the baby you brought home with you from 1920 is not your child. He and I were switched before you even traveled back from the past. You had no idea who you were bringing home." Curtis quickly explained.

"That's insane! Who are you? What are you doing here anyway?" Kat questioned as she looked around the basement for answers to what was happening.

"Kat, listen..." Curtis began before being cut off by Kat again.

"Stop! I've seen and experienced some insane things since I've become a member of this family but this takes the cake. There is no way you are my child. We're practically the same age!" Kat complained.

"I can imagine that this is shocking, confusing, horrifying even. But the fact of the matter is, bending time to time travel causes break in the normal flow of how time passes. the time vortex to 1920, she bent that time fragment--it was bent again when you followed. I’ve actually grown up all these years in a different time dimension. Protected... from this family’s curse. Like you all wanted!" Curtis explained.

"Like we all wanted??? No, you have to be making this up, it's another one of Vicky's tricks. This cannot be true!" Kat said, her eyes filling with tears as what Curtis was saying seemed plausible. "Who was the other baby? Who did I bring home?" Kat questioned.

"Claudia Bochard's child. Before She left Collinsport in this time period, she had a relationship." Curtis said.

"Yes, with Christopher Reed." Kat confirmed.

"From that relationship she became pregnant. All these years Vicky has been raising me, keeping me safe from all the strange and horrible things in this time. But I’m back... and ... I am your son." Curtis continued.

"And Claudia? Did she know before she died." Kat said sadly.

"Claudia is not dead. She's alive, she survived the gunshot and secretly returned back to this time period. You know her as Sasha Beaufort." Curtis said adding to Kat's shock

"No....  no....this cannot be real. This cannot be real!" Kat said, her mind racing with the developments pouring into her head.

"It was a planned out since the day I was born. Curtis said.

"Vicky raised you?" Kat answered, trying to make sense of it all "away from the Collins family, and by switching you, and raising you herself, she succeeded... she kept you safe then?" Kat asked, the dots finally connecting.

"That's right. Vicky finally came clean to me and told me she wasn't my mother but that she was given the opportunity to raise me and keep me safe. She explained to me where I really came from and everything started to click for me. I never felt like I belonged where I lived." Curtis explained.

Kat was still in shock over what Curtis had just told her, so much so she never even noticed that Curtis believed that this was all a great plan they all had been in on, not that Vicky actually kidnapped him against Kat's own will.

 Kat's whole heart felt like it was burning inside of her chest. She loved the little boy at her home so much, like he really was her own, how could she not notice that that baby wasn't really her child and that in fact he was now standing in front of her a full grown man, the same age as her!

She slowly walked over to Curtis, his eyes sparkling blue like Caleb's. His smile bright and welcoming like her own. She looked into his face and saw the baby's face that she remembered before everything had happened. She touched him on the cheek and looked deep into his eyes. She could see it, this could very well be her child.

"How did you know I was down here? How did you find me?" Kat asked, tears running down her face.

"I just knew. I felt it, I guess. This whole place feels like home." Curtis answered.

"I don't know what to do now?" Kat said, looking off to the staircase that lead her to this very moment in the basement.

"Well, first we should find the person that tied you up here." Curtis said with a giggle.

"Kimberly! Oh my god you're right. She's taken Siobhan somewhere. I have to find them." Kat said grabbing all of her belongings that had fallen off of her in the scuffle with Kim.

"Where do you think they've gone? I can help you find them." Curtis said, as Kat turned around and looked again at her grown son.

"I don't know if that's a very good idea." Kat answered showing her discomfort. "I mean..." She began again as Curtis looked over at her with a hurt face.

"I just want to help you find Siobhan. Let's just let what I said go for now and find your friend. We don't have to tell anyone yet." Curtis replied.

Kat agreed and they both rushed up the basements steps, Kat trying to get Loomis on the phone with with no success, Curtis on his phone trying to get a hold of Caleb equally unsuccessful.

The rush of energy burning through them both, it looked like it would be up to them to find and save Siobhan's life, and even more secrets would be revealed.

*****

The evening shade began to creep over the town of Collinsport like a thick blanket, the purple twilight sky soon filled with the twinkles of tiny stars that dotted the heavens from millions of miles away. It was a cold and blistery early winter night, the town was covered in a fresh cold northern snow.

Inside the Collinwood mansion, David frantically tried to think of his next step now that Siobhan had left him. He stood in his bedroom staring down at the engagement ring he had bought for her that now lay in the palm of  his hand. He paced back and forth and. his leather shoes marking a clear line of path of where he was pacing. The unbearable thought of not being able to contact and hear Siobhan's voice explaining what had happened was eating him alive.

He rushed over to his jacket that was hanging on the back of a plush chaise and dug through the pockets for his cell phone to call Siobhan one last time. He dialed her number, suddenly a second phone in the room began to vibrate.

David looked around the room confused, then looked at his own phone screen thinking perhaps he had dialed the wrong phone number, but as the phone ran on his line, the other vibrating phone rang too.

David went through drawers, opened the closet, slid his hand down the corner sofa and chaise in the bedroom searching for the vibration sound. He then remembered that Siobhan would leave her cell phone on a charging cord that was strung around her bedside table over night. He rushed over to her side of their bed and there it was, her phone still attached to it's charger, the way she left it, on silent mode. David's suspicions lit up. There was no way Siobhan would have left her cell phone at home if she was going to leave Collinsport forever.

David quickly detached the phone and went downstairs to find Kimberly. If anyone knew what was going on, it was his ex-wife who was the bearer of bad news when she announced that Siohban had left David. As David opened his bedroom door, his son Caleb was standing on the other side with a serious look on his own face.

"Caleb?" David asked noting Caleb's emotion.  "What is it?"

"It's Kat, Loomis just called me, Kat didn't show up for work. She left hours ago." Caleb answered.

"Did you call her?" David questioned.

"I'm only getting her voice mail." Caleb responded.

David couldn't believe the thought that came into his head, but the similarities were starting to line up and become very obvious. Both Siobhan and Kat had disappeared without much of any notice and both were not answering their phones. It was a bizarre connection for both women who's jobs depended on the fact that they could be reached at any time via their cell phones. It was odd that Kat would have her's turned off, and the Siobhan would have left hers at home.

David was convinced Kim was behind Kat's disappearance as well, the reason still a mystery but it was all too clear. David opened his hand and showed Caleb Siobhan's phone.

"Who's is that?" Caleb asked, still standing with his father David at the bedroom door.

"It's Siobhan's. Your mother said she left town late last night while you and I were at the Blue Whale. Why would she have left her phone here? Why would she leave town without it? Why is Kat not answering her phone when she should be at work." David said attempting to connect the dots for Caleb.

"You think mom has something to do with Kat being missing?" Caleb said, his mind in disbelief.

"Are you going to tell me you don't think any of this seems odd? Why would they both go missing around the same time, why would they both leave their phones? And by the way, where is your mother?" David answered ready to accuse his ex-wife of something nefarious.

"There's got to be some kind of explanation for all of this." Caleb said, to a frustrated David who passed him by as the both began their way down to the main level of the house to find Kimberly.

The two men were in a rush to get to the bottom of everything. When yet another surprise hit them like a ton of bricks. When they got to the top of the stairs, Jonathon and Carolyn were in the foyer hanging their coats up. Jonathon was all smiles, while Carolyn looked like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in months.

"Carolyn?" David said, as he rushed down the staircase with Caleb right behind.

"Oh, Mr. Collins, so glad you're home." Jonathon answered for Carolyn.

"What are you two doing here? I thought you said Carolyn needed time to rest and that you'd be helping her at Windcliff. You said she was in such a state that she shouldn't be at Collinwood." David questioned in shock at their arrival.

"Yes, yes, you're right I did say that. But Carolyn and I have worked on a medical treatment to make sure that she starts to feel better and.....well, we actually have some other news as well." Jonathon replied.

"What news?" Caleb asked, the sour look of distrust on  his face in Jonathon's direction.

Jonathon smiled and lifted up Carolyn's hand. Her face still pale, her expression foggy but still connecting to the conversation.

"What the hell is this?" Caleb said, pulling Carolyn's hand closer to his face to see the ring.

"We're married." Carolyn said in a slow, monotone voice.

"MARRIED? What the hell are you talking about? You married your psychiatrist?" David yelled, his emotions boiling over from the entire day.

"We're in love." Carolyn answered, again in a monotone voice, one that wasn't very convincing.

"This is out of the question. Carolyn has been under your car for medical reasons, Dr. Silva, and you've taken that and twisted it for your own benefit. This is absolutely ridiculous." Caleb shot back.

"It's not at all, Mr. Collins, you see, Carolyn and I have had shared a lot with each other over the last few weeks and we've come the conclusion that we are best suited for each other in a romantic sense. But she's still not well, as you can see. Earlier today we had these papers drawn up as well for your family and the company's usage." Jonathon said pulling out the notarized files that now made him the soul controller of Collins Enterprises.

"Company?" David said pulling the forms over and quickly glancing at them, the horror flashing across his face.

Caleb then grabbed them from his father, an equal amount of horror showing to the idea that they were now demoted and that Jonathon was now the CEO with Carolyn signing off and the change.

It was a plan straight out of the deranged mind of Jason McGuire. All those years of attempting to manipulate and coerce his way into the family was finally paying off. It made being murdered by Barnabas and then risen from the dead by Ezrabette 50 years apart all worth while.

"This is what Carolyn wants, and I am happy to make my new bride happy, now if you'll excuse us, I'm going to take her upstairs." Jonathon said, to a fuming David and Caleb.

"This is insane. He can't do this. Carolyn is not well." Caleb told his father.

"I know, we'll have to deal with them later. There's no way our lawyers will allow this. In the mean time we have to find your mother. Something tells me she's behind Siobhan and Kat going missing. Come on." David said as he grabbed his coat and keys with his son following in pursuit. 

*****

On the other side of town, in a small secluded cottage, two witches began to take back control of the evils that had plagued the last two months in Collinsport. Ezrabette and Claudia had bound themselves in a coven and were ready to take on Jason McGuire, the monster who was full on his way to destroy the Collins family, and the only way Claudia saw that they could thwart him was if her father Barnabas put an end to him one more time.

But bringing back Barnabas wasn't going to be easy, so Claudia did the best thing she knew how to do. By using some of the most power witch craft Ezrabette had ever seen, Claudia created a man that looked exactly like the vampire himself. His mind was empty,  his soul gone, his eyes blank and vacant.

"I'm ready." Claudia said as she sat across the table from the impostor Barnabas. 

Maggie, who had walked in on everything the witches were doing, stood silently paralyzed with fear. She knew the dark forces that Barnabas could bring to people, but she had no idea he could do it without even being in the room. The plan, to Maggie's understanding, was that Claudia would subsequently transfer herself into the body of the impostor Barnabas, and as him would go to Collinwood and vanquish the evil Jason, as Jonathon, back to the world beyond the living.  

"Claudia breath in and closer your eyes." Ezrabette aid grabbing Claudia's hands in her's.  "Listen to my voice and let me guide you into the body, the vessel that you will need to end the madness of Jason McGuire, the plague that I so ignorantly set forth on this earth again." Ezrabette added.

Claudia closed her eyes and began to breath slowly, Maggie stepped backwards into the corner of the living room, the flicking candles shape shifting in silhouette along the form of her body.

"In this form you take a new, inside you'll see the world askew, body, mind, soul into....." Ezrabette said with her own eyes closed.

Soon the room began to shake. The candles began to react as if a large gust of wind had been swirling and turning and twisting right there inside of the living room. Maggie clutched on to the wall with every ounce of strength she could. Her nails scratching the paint, peeling it off like old skin from bones.

The two witches were now surrounded in an energy field that sparked above their heads like thunder, lifting their hair and other objects in the room in mid air breaking laws of gravity. Ezrabette continued to chant over and over again, the spell to push Claudia's soul into that of the impostor Barnabas. The light flickered. The room still shook.

Then in a sudden blast of energy it all stopped and there was silence.

Ezrabette opened her eyes, and she was still holding Claudia's hands.

"It didn't work." Ezrabette said confused.

Claudia opened her eyes, and saw impostor Barnabas stand up on his very own.

"Oh my god." Claudia said as Barnabas walked over.

"I'd rethink that if I were you Ms. Baptiste." Barnabas said, his trademark voice sweeping through his mouth like a poem from beyond the grave.

Maggie, still trembling in the corner gave one look at Barnabas, the man that was supposed to be just Claudia inhabiting a void body,  fell to the floor fainting at the sound of the man's voice that brought her so much torment over the years.


The real Barnabas Collins had returned, against all odds. The spell had broken through the veil of the living and the dead, the damned and the blessed. He had come back once more to stake his claim on Collinwood and save his family from disaster.

But would it be too late?

                         

Series 8/Chapter 10: BEHIND THE VEIL OF SHADOWS

In a small secluded cottage on the outskirts of Collinsport, just as the first snow of the winter began to fall, two witches had just conjured the creature of the night back to life to help them save the lives of the Collins family. It was a last ditch effort to insure that the pain and suffering of the family ended once and for all.

The man they knew as Barnabas Collins stood in the door way. His face blank, expressionless. His gaze seemed to lock on some far off distant item in the room. He stood there, like an empty shell without words, without movement. It was as if everything around him was invisible, just his breath pouring out in puffs of white smoke from his nose.

Ezrabette reached out to his body, her hand shaking in the cold icy air that pushed it's way into the room from the open door Barnabas was standing in.

"What's the matter with him, he doesn't speak?" Ezrabette said, the candle light flickering an orange light on her mocha skin.

Claudia came over to her coven sister and the man that looked like her father standing in the doorway, she pulled Ezrabette's arm down from Barnabas' shoulder and helped the man into the house and sat him down.

"This isn't really my father. He's only been created so that we could use his body. The only way Jason will let this family be is if he sees Barnabas again. There's no way to know where my father really is, the shroud that connects the world of the living and the dead is sometimes too thick to pass through.  At least we can use his body's image as a start." Claudia explained.

"It's believable enough." Ezrabette said with a shudder. "But it wont work if he doesn't speak." Ezrabette added, her voice frustrated with lack of real Barnabas.

"Don't worry. I have a plan for that. When the time comes, I'll infuse myself into this body and act as Barnabas. It's the only way to end Jason's hold on the family. From what I  know of him, and what you've said to me, his plan could have disastrous ramifications for years to come." Claudia explained.

"I'm afraid we might be too late. Acting as Jonathon, Jason has had a lot of influence over this family. He could have killed them all by now and we wouldn't know until it's too late." Ezrabette confessed.

As the two witches spoke in the living room with the mute and empty vessel that was Barnabas Collins, a car began to drive up to Ezrabette's cottage unnoticed by the people inside.

It was Maggie Evans coming to visit her old friend as she often did.

Maggie made her way out of the car and walked up to the front door. She noticed the door was slightly open, just a small one inch gap. Maggie swayed her head to see between the gap and noticed that inside was dark with only the flickering of a few candles. The voices inside were murmuring inaudibly. Maggie worried something nefarious was happening and quickly pushed the door open surprising the witches inside who jumped in fright at the sight of Maggie.

"Bette!?!" Maggie said calling out to her friend.

Ezrabette, who had grasped at her chest in the surprise entrance turned around towards the door that her friend lunged through and as she turned to greet Maggie, she stepped to the side revealing the man sitting on the sofa.

Maggie screamed and backed away at the sight of the man who was responsible for so many terrors and horrors in her life.

In seconds Maggie's life flashed before her eyes. Her kidnapping, her time locked in Barnabas' secret room at the old house, the vampire's teeth, paintings of Josette, little Sarah Collins ...a voice in from her memory began to sing London Bridge is Falling Down over and over.

Ezrabette and Claudia quickly went over to Maggie who was still on the floor of Ezrabette's cottage screaming in terror. They tried to calm her, but the face she saw, the man sitting in that very room no matter how real or imagined he was, no matter if he was made of flesh and bones or created through magic was like a dagger in her heart. The damage to her younger years could only come out in this dramatic screaming fit.

"Maggie, honey, shhhh! It's ok! It's ok!!!" Ezrabette said trying to calm her friend.

"What are you doing with  him? Why is he here! Why is he here!!!" Maggie screamed.

"He's not real! Maggie! Listen to me, he is not real! He is not real!"

"Carolyn was right! She's been dreaming of him! He's been in her head while she slept, she warned us! Why is he here!" Maggie continued.

"No! No, no, no! He isn't, Maggie, listen to me, that is not really Barnabas, Stop! Please!" Ezrabette said grabbing Maggie's face with two hands.

"She's telling you the truth Maggie." Claudia said.

As Claudia spoke, Maggie looked at her, now even more confused. It was the first time she noticed she was there, but seeing her as Sasha, Canan's governess.

"Sasha." Maggie said in a whisper.

"Listen to me, listen to me....We're going to need your help. Jonathon Silva is not who he says he is, Maggie. He's someone very evil and very cruel and we need to stop him. Carolyn, David, Canan...everyone at Collinwood is in danger with him around. We have to stop him!" Ezrabette explained.

"What do you mean? I don't understand." Maggie said, sitting up on the floor with Ezrabette's hands still tightly placed around her face.

"Jonathon Silva is really Jason McGuire. Jason McGuire is alive and pretending to be this Jonathon person to harm the family." Claudia explained.

"But you said you knew him?" Maggie said looking at Ezrabette.

"I lied Maggie. I had to, I've been blackmailed for weeks, I had to do what he told me to make sure you and Kat and baby Canan weren't hurt, but I realize that was wrong of me, he was going to hurt everyone no matter what." Ezrabette said helping Maggie up from the floor even though she was still terrified of the Barnabas sitting blankly on the sofa.

"Why is Barnabas here...how is he here?" Maggie questioned stepping back towards the front door again.

"He's not really Barnabas, and my name isn't really Sasha. Maggie I'm afraid there's a lot we need to catch you up on. Trust me, I'm here to help." Claudia said revealing herself to Maggie.

Maggie's eyes watered. She began to feel the coldness of terror reach into her heart and grab hold. She had no idea the story Ezrabette and Claudia were about to share was going to change everything forever.

What Maggie saw with her own eyes, has never, ever been as it seemed.

*****

Locked away in the white room at Windcliff, Carolyn began to fall asleep. She had no idea what time it was, she had no idea if it was night time or daytime. Her windowless room smelled fresh linen and bleach. Her eyes could not stay closed because of the brightness of the room. She began to feel herself break. Her mind slowly cracking under the pressure of everything.

As she lay there, her face buried in the soft padded floor, her arms tangled in a pure white straight jacket that squeezed her body like a canvas boa-constrictor she heard tapping at the small square window in the padded room's door. 

She looked up at the door, her blond hair tossed in her face obscuring her vision. Then the door unlocked and in walked an orderly, smiling at her with his crooked teeth.

"You hungry?" The orderly asked pushing a tray of some sort of porridge and bread out in front of Carolyn.

Carolyn quickly sat up and steadied herself up against the white padded wall, her tired body losing it's breath.

"Listen, listen to me. What's your name?" Carolyn questioned.

The orderly looked at her strangely but answered "Rick."

"Ok, Rick, do you know who I am? Have you heard of me before?" Carolyn continued. 

"You're Carolyn Stoddard." Rick, the orderly replied.

"Yes, that's right. Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne. Carolyn Collins Stoddard-Thorne." She said again, emphasizing on her middle name, the most powerful of them all. "My family is very, very wealthy. I can get you anything you want if you just get me out of here. Please. I'm begging you. I'm here under false pretenses, and I need help!" 

"Do you know how many times a day people say they shouldn't be in here? All day. And you're getting help, that's why you're in here. Now what you would like to start with? A bite of bread of a spoon full of this porridge." Rick said brushing off Carolyn's offer.

"No, no! Listen, I'm telling you the truth, I really am not supposed to be here. There's been a very big mistake and someone very bad has my family confused, or tricked, or under some spell, I don't know but I'm not supposed to be here and I have to get out --now! They need to know what this person has done!" Carolyn explained without mentioning any names.

"Mrs. Thorne, you're having delusions. Don't you see? You're in the right place, we're here to take care of you. Dr. Silva is the perfect person to help you." The orderly answered.

"He's not a doctor!!! Don't you see??? He is not who he says he is. Look, if you just help me get out of here I promise you won't lose your job, everything will make sense if you just get me out of this jacket and out of this room and out of this hospital. Rick, please, I can pay you. My family has lots of money and can pay you." Carolyn said, her voice sounding more and more desperate for freedom.

"That's enough Rick. Thank you. I'll take it from here." A voice from the open door said.

Carolyn looked up and past Rick, and standing at the door, smiling with his evil grin, was Jason McGuire still as his alter ego Dr. Jonathon Silva.

Rick looked at Carolyn with a small bit of compassion, but grabbed the tray of food and left anyway.

"I'll bring in her sleeping meds shortly." Rick said to Jonathon just before leaving the room.

Jonathon's face soured. He quickly closed the door and came over to Carolyn who was trying to move as far away him as possible. She scooted towards the back of the room and cornered herself between two walls.

"Leave me alone." she hissed at Jonathon.

"You're a clever little snake, aren't you? You thought he'd believe you? Carolyn you're a patient in a mental institution that's been having waking dreams of a man you say is a vampire. He was never going to believe you." Jonathon said slightly smiling at Carolyn's misery.

"You know what I saw! You've been purposefully triggering those memories while I slept all this time, haven't you? It's been you all this time!" Carolyn said connecting the dots.

"I promised you a way out of all this, Carolyn. There's always been a way for you to get yourself where you want to be: home with you family." Jonathon reminded her by pulling out the paperwork for their marriage certificate.

"I won't marry you, you monster!" Carolyn responded.

'Tsk tsk tsk....I was hoping you'd reconsider. What if I told you I could make sure that everyone you loved suffered a terrible and nightmarish death if you didn't do this? Because you know, my dear, I have nothing left to lose. When Barnabas took my life all those years ago, my soul went into the red hot flames of hell and I've never looked back." Jonathon said crudely.

Carolyn spat at Jonathon who was now kneeling next to her face. His eyes squinted in anger as he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his cheek.

"You know, nothing would stop be from going over to London and making sure Alexandra never saw the light of an English day again either. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Jason said referencing Carolyn's daughter Alex who was still in London living with her boyfriend Christopher.

"Don't you touch her, I swear to you Jason if you hurt her I will ...." Carolyn said using Jonathon's real name.

"You'll what? Kill me? I'm already dead!" Jonathon laughed. "And I've told you before, love, call me Jonathon. Now here. Sign it and I'll leave little Alexandra alone." He added pushing the marriage forms over to Carolyn.

Carolyn was caught between a rock and a hard place. Jason was brought back to life under the spell of Ezrabette to fulfill a revenge plot created by the ghost of Marie Clotilde. If she married him, he would gain access to the entire company by way of his dubious prenuptial agreement. If Carolyn didn't sign it, there was no way she could be sure he wouldn't harm her beloved Alexandra. If she did sign it, there was no way to trust that he would keep his word.

Carolyn sat up, her white clothes light as a feather, clean and crisp in the blazing florescent light of the padded room.  She scooted over to Jonathon still kneeling down and pulled off the cap of a pen.

"Untie me." Carolyn said.

Jonathon looked at Carolyn, her face had relaxed, her voice had calmed. There was something about her that seamed defeated. He unlatched one side of her straight jacket. She quickly turned around but Jonathon grabbed her by the throat.

"Don't you try anything funny." He said with a grown.

Carolyn's eyes began to water as he squeezed her throat. She reached down and grabbed the pen, for a split second she thought if she just jammed it into his neck she could incapacitate  him just long enough to escape, but she knew that Jonathon would catch her. She only had one arm free, and she needed to keep Alex safe.

With tears in her eyes, and her throat tightening, Carolyn signed the paper work officially making her Jonathon's wife and Jonathon officially becoming the soul owner and executive officer of Collins Enterprises.

He suddenly released his grasp around her neck and grabbed her arm and placed it back into the straight jacket. She struggled with  him but he was too strong. He then pulled out a syringe from his jacket pocket and stabbed it into her arm.

"What are you doing??? You said you'd release me!!!" Carolyn screamed but soon began to feel the sedative rushing through her veins.

"And I will! But not until this is notarized. If it isn't legal then how can we move on? Don't worry love, you'll be out by sundown. Just sit tight." Jonathon said as he bent down and kissed his new, disgusted wife, on the lips leaving her in the room again to dwell on what she had just done. 

*****

Deep in the forest grounds around Collinwood, Kimberly was digging a whole through dirt and snow fit for a coffin that she had dragged all the way from the Old House. Her arms were putty and numb from the frosty chill, her muscles ached, and her face and body were covered in the dirt and soil of the ancient land of Collinsport.

She could smell the years and centuries of earth and roots as she dug through the frozen ground. The minerals in the ground gave off the smell of hard mettle. With each shovel that pierced the ground Kim got closer and closer to feeling the freedom of having David back in her life, alone, without anyone to take her place.

Her simmering madness was now a full on boil, she was about to bury alive the one person that could have probably saved her from the voices in her head that made her do the evil things she did.

The coffin sat on the open ground with Siobhan laying inside; Kim kept digging and as she dug, Siobhan began to hear the sound of the dirt falling to the ground from Kim's digging.

"That's a shovel. She's taken me outside. She's shoveling." Siobhan said in the pitch black coffin. "Oh my god, she's not really .....she's going to bury me." She added as her foggy mind began to connect the dots.

Kim was exhausted. The amount of Adrenalin and fear of getting caught had slowly dissipated. Her body was screaming for rest. But the grave was still four feet too shallow. She had to make it deep enough that no one would ever find her buried secret.

"Kimberly, please! Please! Just open this casket and let me out. Whatever you're going through I can help you. Kim? Kimberly!! Please!!!" Siobhan screamed with all the strength she had.

Kim heard every word. She wiped her sweaty forehead and jumped out of the grave. Her clothes were clogged and bogged down with dirt and mud. Her finger nails caked in the brown clay from deep under the surface of the forest. She walked over and sat on top of Barnabas' old coffin and lit a cigarette.

"There's no turning back now. I've come this far, and I can't go backwards. Everything is riding on the fact that David thinks you've left him. Forever. I'm going to make sure that's a reality." Kim said puffing from her lit cigarette.

"By burring me alive? You'd leave that on your conscious? David will find out what you've done and he'll never, ever forgive you for it. I promise you, he will make sure you never see your sons or grandson again if he finds out, but he doesn't have to Kim, if you let me out....I'll..... I'll leave town. I'll go back to Singapore and never turn back, I swear! Just let me out...PLEASE!" Siobhan begged her eyes still searching for some kind of light from the outside, but she was in pitch black. The air getting thinner and thinner.

"You'd leave Collinsport on your own without fighting for David or telling him what I did?" Kim questioned, her cigarette smoke swirling around her like it came from a chimney.

"Yes! Kim please, you and I can work on this, and I won't tell anyone." Siobhan promised.

Kim grinned and stood up from the coffin and threw her cigarette on the floor. She stepped on it forcing into the dirt making sure that it's tiny spark was out. She dusted her hands on her pants and knelt down close to the coffin so that Siobhan could hear her clearly.

"You're clever, but not more than I am. The very second I freed you from here you'd be back at Collinwood so fast telling David what I did that I wouldn't know what hit me. No, you're not getting out of this coffin Siobhan, not now, not ever. Say good night." Kim said to Siobhan's panicked screams.

Kim went over to the coffin and grabbed on to the handles around the area closest to the feet. She grabbed and began to drag the coffin with Siobhan tossing around inside screaming bloody murder. The forest ached and twitched with the screams coming from the coffin, but it was too late for Siobhan, Kim's Adrenalin returned and she dragged the heavy coffin in to the grave she dug and plopped it down into the hole.

Siobhan's body was jolted and bounced inside causing her to bash her head on a small wooden corner of the inside of the coffin causing a gash and blood to rush down her face.

Siobhan screamed but no one but Kim could hear. Kim took a second and looked down at what she was doing. She began to think of how horrible it might be for Siobhan to be laying in a coffin awaiting her own death. But her mind was made up. It had to happen.

Kim picked up the shovel and began to pour the dirt over the casket. Siobhan heard shovel by shovel full of earth falling above her. Her screams were soon muffled by the amount of soil covering her up. She was now under a layer of mud that concealed her completely.

*****

Back at the old house Kat was laying on the floor. Kimberly had placed her unconscious and tied her up in the basement after Kat had caught her tormenting Siobhan. 

Kat began to moan as she felt two hands slowly unraveling the ropes around her wrists. She slowly came to and wriggled out of the ropes. Her eyes opened to a foggy figure standing above her. Her fear was that it was Kim back to finish the job she had started with Siobhan, but as Kat's eyes began to adjust to the dim light in the basement she saw that it was a man, a handsome man smiling back at her.

"Are you ok?" The man said looking down at her, his eyes crystal blue, his hair dark and clean cut. His skin a mocha color, tan and handsome. It was Curtis Winters. 

"Who are you?" Kat said, sitting up on the floor, rubbing the pain away from her wrists. 

"You don't recognize me? Of course you don't. I've aged." Curtis responded with a chuckle. 

"What?" Kat said confused, her breath freezing in mid air as she spoke in the damn and cold basement. 

"It's me. It's Canan. I'm your son." Curtis said to a shocked and confused Kat.