Series 9/Chapter 4: DEAL WITH THE DEVIL

"When you get called home by the likes of you Barnabas Collins, I guess it's sort of hard to resist the invitation." Victoria Winters said, her eyes a steely cool blue, her hair turned a light brown, but her face was the same beautiful face Barnabas was so obsessed with years ago.

He could see she was cold, her hands securely in place inside their leathery gloved home, warm and safe.

"Please come in." Barnabas said, stepping aside for Victoria to enter the old house.

As she stepped in, she could see that house was still the same, albeit slightly updated with more modern paint, carpeting and furnishing. Her eyes darted back an forth around this place, a place she knew so well, it was a house of shadows and horrors, some of her most darkest memories haunted every corner of this place yet she walked in and swallowed the fears rushing through her veins,

"How's Carolyn? Curtis called me the other day and said that Jude died. I hope she got my flowers." Victoria said of her half sister as she removed her leather gloves.

"She is managing to deal with her companion's death as best she can but it has hit her very hard. I assume you'll be going up to the main house to see your half sister?" Barnabas asked as he took Vicky's coat.

"I will. Later." Vicky said as she slowly made her way into the warm drawing room of the Old House. "Are we just going to make small talk or will you tell me what you've summoned me here from New York for?" She added, cutting right to the chase.

"Cherry?" Barnabas asked, sitting across from Vicky offering her a drink. She declined.

The fire was glowing and casting small dancing light across Vicky's beautiful face. Barnabas stared at her and marveled in his mind at just how beautiful she still was still, after all these years. Vicky could sense Barnabas was stalling for some reason, she was uncomfortable and wanted nothing to do with his day-dreams of decades ago, she wanted to know what he wanted and she wanted to know now.

"Barnabas?" Vicky said, her voice raised trying to snap Barnabas out what ever daydream he was having.

He took a breath and smirked.

"The last time you were here, we did not get on so well. You showed me a very different side of yourself, a side that no one in the family knew, or at least never cared to pay attention to, it was a cunning side, something darker behind a veneer of what we all thought was perfection." Barnabas said as the fire crackled beside him.

"I'm human Barnabas, we all have a side of ourselves that we hide, you of all people know that. No one is every who they really say they are. There is, of course, always some truth to what we present to the world, but at the end of the day that's all a mask, isnt it?" She replied.

"Indeed. That's actually why I've called you back, as I mentioned in my message to you I need someone to help me. There's only one person who can do what I need and that's you Ms. Winters, based on what you are capable of." Barnabas explained.

"What do you mean? What is it that I can do that you need? She asked.

"Your ability to travel the lengths of time, your ability to bend the ribbon that is time and space and lift yourself into that spectrum and move around as if it were walking into a different room of a house. You seem to walk through time and space like no one I have ever seen. That ability is a commodity that I am very interested in today." Barnabas explained further.

"That ability that I acquired no thanks to you and what you did to me over 50 years ago. But I don't do that anymore, 4 years ago when I traveled to 1920 with Canan to save him from the Collins curse, which I regret now, was the last time, I promised myself I would not do that ever again." Vicky explained.

"Pitty." Barnabas said with a raised eyebrow.

"Why? Why do you need to travel again? And why can't you do it yourself?" She wondered.

"My many incarnations and returns have left me with different amounts of abilities. This most recent time that I have come back, has left me without the abilities to move through time as I once had, its a side effect of curses and black magic that has sustained me over the years --alas it fades." Barnabas explained.

"That still doesn't explain what you need me for." She answered.

"You still have the ability." He said.

"I do, but what do you need me for, what is it you need to find in the past?" Vicky said, noting that she could only travel into the past not the future.

"Come with me." Barnabas said, as Vicky watched him stand up.

She hesitated. She wasn't sure she trusted Barnabas at all. She knew him too well to trust him, she knew that as kind and warm as he could see, he was still and forever the man who killed many, attempted to kill many others and was like a tiger lying in wait for his next victim. There was nothing Barnabas wouldn't do to satisfy his inhuman nature, no matter how hard he tries to suppress it. It was there, his animal lust for human blood, and she was well aware of it...so...should she take his hand anf follow?

She did, wearily, and perhaps stupidly, but she did.

They slowly made their way down the refurbished halls of the old house. She marveled at just how clean and new everything looked. Even the paintings of the family that hung on the walls of the old house seemed to glisten with new paint. At the end of the hall, there was the red door the led to the basement and just beside the door was a painting of Vicky's birth mother, Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard. Vicky's eyes watered.

"Please, after you." Barnabas said, opening the red door to the basement.

Vicky hesitated.

"Here's the key, and I'll leave the door open." Barnabas said to make Vicky feel more comfortable.

She took the key to the red door and began her decent into the basement. It was dimly lit, cool and damp, but smelled like roses, but there were no roses to be found.

She slowly made her way into the bottom of the Old House, her crept down the stairs and saw the many lit candelabras that surrounded the coffin in the center of the room.

"Barnabas, what is this? Why have you brought me down here?" Vicky asked thinking the coffin was for Barnabas.

"I need you to take me back to 1970. There someone I need back into my life, the one person who understood me, the one person who I need to be with me in my whole life. And you'll do this tonight." Barnabas said, as he lifted the lid to the coffin in the center of the room revealing the mummified, decrepit corpse of Julia Hoffman.

Vicky screamed when she recognized the body that had decayed over the years, the glow of the candles burning in the basement cast gloomy shadows over the bones and ancient flesh of the body but it was clearly Julia Hoffman. She saw the crystal necklace Julia often used to hypnotize patients still around her neck. It was Julia, mummified and dead, gray skinned and cold, but was her.

"How could you? How could you keep her here like this?" Vicky said disgusted, horrified and covering her face with shock.

"She and I were married in 1972. I fell in love with her very soon after we left Collinsport and traveled over-seas. I need her now, I need her back in my life and you're going to help me get here back." Barnabas said.

"I will not." Vicky said continuing to cover her mouth and nose and staring and the dead woman in the coffin.

"You will... because if you don't ill be sure to tell the whole family what you did in 1920, I'll be sure to tell the son you've raised as your own in secret just how you came to be his mother. I'll tell everyone that the son you raised is actually Caleb and Kat's child that you secretly hid away back in time and that the child they are raising is in fact my own grandchild: that child my daughter Claudia conceived Christopher. How do you think the family that you've so easily reintegrated back into will feel when they find out you switched these children and have kept this secret from all of them all this time? You have lied to them all, you have deceived them and taken away children from their parents, and lied all this time, how do you think they will feel Victoria? How do you think Curtis will feel when he finds out what you've done to his life?" Barnabas threatened.

"Curtis knows he is from a different time, he knows that Kat and Caleb are his parents. " Vicky said attempting to explain herself.

"Ahhh.. perhaps, but does he know that he was kidnapped by you? Does he know that you did this without Kat and Caleb’s approval? What lie did you tell him to convince him all of his life that it was such a normal world you brought him into? Does he know that you've lied to him all his life about who he really is and where he really came from?" Barnabas questioned,.

It was true, 4 years ago when Vicky kidnapped baby Canan and took him to 1920, she switched him with Claudia's baby Leith. Claudia & Kat knew the truth, but Curtis had not known the full story of his upbringing. He did know Kat was his birth mother but did not know the malicious way Vicky had become the woman that would raise him. And the other members of the family knew nothing at all of curtis’ true identity and paternity.

Curtis has always seen his adtopter mother as an innocent party not the actual purportor of a kidnapping. The details that left Vicky in a rightful negative light, were kept from him all this time as he was raised back in time.

 By the year 1957, things began to change. Curtis began to ask questions of who he was, and why she refused to allow him to visit New York City from their home in Lexington, Rhode Island. In that time period, Vicki told Curtis of her family, the Collins of Maine, she told him of her ability to time travel and that she kept him safe from their curse by raising him away from the family back in time and late proved it by bringing him to 2018 where he could meet his family in their truest form--all the while never revealing who his true parents were.

Claudia had confessed all this her father Barnabas a year ago just before she went off with Kat and Caleb on their trip around the world. 

"How will the family take it knowing that you too have been keeping this secret?" Vicky said trying to turn the tables on Barnabas who did not flinch.

"They expect me to lie to them, my dear. They expect me to somehow always keep secrets. It wouldn't be anything new. You on the other hand have become one of them again, you have everything to lose. I do not. But... if you help me bring Julia back, your secret is safe forever. Your son, the one you've raised and loved as your own remains loyal and loving and nothing changes. You refuse to help me and I expose you....you'll lose everything and everyone....it's up to you." Barnabas answered.

Vicky stood in the basement and stared down at Julia's dead body. She promised herself that when she brought Curtis from the past into the future to meet her real life family, when she told him of her secret time traveling ability that that would be the last time she did it, she promised herself she would never do again. But she could not lose the son she loved and had raised on her own in secret back in time. She could not lose the only family she had ever known.

"Give me one day." Vicky answered.

"You have 12 hours. Come back here at midnight with your decision. No more than that." Barnabas said coldly and Vicky threw the basement key at Barnabas and ran out of the basement in a furious storm of angry, terror and panic.

What would she decide? Make a deal with the devil and bring Julia Hoffman back from the past or tell her son and her family that she had secretly kidnapped one of their own and hidden him away back in time. The truth was painful, but was that pain worth exposing?? Was she ready to risk it all to help Barnabas?

****

That evening Carolyn sat in the large screen room of Collinwood at the back of the house towards that faced the sea. It was a large half circle-shaped patio that had it's entire curved walls were made of screens to protect from the people inside from the elements.

Out there, Carolyn sat in a giant white patio chair with her feet up, in her hand a book, she wasn't reading it, she was just sitting there with the book closed and the book mark sticking out that she nervously flicked with the tips of her fingers.

She sat there listening to the ocean crash up against the wickedly sharp rocks below. She watched as the sea spray floated to the top of the cliff where Collinwood so regally sat perched above.

"Can I come in?" David said, smiling and slowly making his way into the screen room.

"Of course." Carolyn said, her eyes, a silvery blue, welcoming him in.

"I ran into Chris just a few minutes ago and he mentioned what happened earlier today." David said, his heart sinking to the bottom of his stomach with concern for his beloved older cousin, a woman he thought of more like a sister.

Carolyn rolled her eyes in annoyance.

They were indeed more like brother and sister rather than cousins. Carolyn's mother Elizabeth and David''s father Roger had raised them so close together, that they even treated them as siblings. Elizabeth adored and doted on David all his life all the way up until they day she died, and Carolyn loved him so much, but hated the fact he was always in her business--which hasn't changed much now that they're older.

"David, please, I don't want to get into any of that, I already know what you're going to tell me and I just don't want to hear any of it." Carolyn scolded.

"I wasn't going to scold you." David answered. "I just want to know why Jude's death has changed you so much? We're all worried about you Carolyn, we love you and we want to make sure that you're ok. There's nothing more painful than watching someone you love go through something so horrible and not be able to help. You remember how hard it was for your mother when your father died." David further explained.

"She thought she murdered him." Carolyn reminded David.

"That's not what I mean." David replied, his voice filled with a twinge of irritability. "Aunt Elizabeth shut herself off from the world when Uncle Paul died, she did it for almost 20 years. She trapped herself in her grief and never left this compound. She stayed here hurting, and sad, and depressed for most of my young life---and yours! You struggled so much to get her to..."

"That's enough David, I remember very well those years, I don't want to go through it all again. And besides, I'm not my mother. Jude and I ...things were different between us. I loved him more than I ever thought I would love anyone again after Jack's death. He was taken from me and for no reason. He wasn't ill, David. Something happened to him, something that I can't explain. And I want answers, so if Christopher told you I'm planning a seance to get those answers, he's right. I am."

"I can't let you do that Carolyn." David said softly as he got up from the deck chair next to her.

"I'm not asking your permission. I'm not asking anyone's permission." She shot back.

"Why!? Why!? Why do you think you'll get answers by reaching into the--who knows where-- to find out what happened to Jude? I'll tell you what  happened, he died. He was in his 70s and he died, Carolyn. It happens. People die!" David said, his voice now raised.

"Well, I'm surprised." Carolyn said to a confused David. "You know just as well as I do what happens in our family and the cursed way we've always been, you should...."

"Stop. Just stop." David interjected. "We're not getting anywhere. You'll do what you want to do just as you always have just as you always will. All I ask is that you be careful and do whatever it is you're planning on doing with discretion for the rest of us. I don't want to see you hurt, Carolyn. None of us do. Just remember that we're your family and we're here right now. You don't have to chase ghosts to find someone that loves you. There are plenty of living breathing people just inside this house that love you right now."

David's words struck a cord with Carolyn as she watched him make his way back into the house from the screen room. She sat there, legs extended listening to the sea crash again and again then looked down at the book still in her lap. She pulled out the book mark from the warn yellow pages. It was the folded yellow paper with the instructions to the seance that she had hidden away.

She unfolded the paper and read them over to herself, then placed it back in the book and shook her head. David's words about her family loving her were true and powerful to hear but she had decided that there was no way she'd turn back. Tonight, when the clock struck midnight she would conjure up the spirit of Jude Powell, with or without her family's blessing.

****

At a small apartment on the north shore of Collinsport, in a small neighborhood of town that the locals call "the mists" because of how close it it is to the ocean and how often the air smells of the salt from the sea, and how much of that air swirls with the misty wetness of the ocean that feels so close one could touch it from their bedroom window.

Inside the apartment that was freshly painted and smelled of warmth and coziness, was Curtis Winters. Victoria's adopted son that she had raised in the 1920s and whom she brought back to 2018 just last year to know his real family--without his true knowledge. All he knew was that this family was that of his mother's who he knew as a time traveler, and he was in Collinsport to know them, to love them and to be in this time period.

Curtis was awaiting a visit from Vicky, who had called him on her way back from The Old House. He quickly rushed around the small flat cleaning up and moving things around to make sure everything looked perfect for Vicky's visit. And just as he moved picture frames from side to side for the 5th time, there was a knock at the door. Curtis rushed over and opened it.

"Mother! I'm so glad to see you!" Curtis said hugging Vicky as the door opened.

"Oh darling, it's so good to see you too. Can I come in?"

"Yeah! Of course! Come in, come in!" Curtis said ushering her into his little home.

"I love your apartment." Vicky said looking around.

"Thanks, its small but it does the job. David said he would help me find a larger place but I really don't need anything bigger than this. It's just me anyway." Curtis said.

"Honey, I want to talk to you about some things. Some very important things." Vicky said with a slight pause in between words.

"I don't really like this tone." Curtis said, noting his mother's apprehension in her sentences.

"Tell me, what has it been like living here in this time? Do you like being here? Working here? Being with my family in 2018?" Vicky asked.

"Well yes, there are so many more amazing things here than where we come from. I wish you had brought me here years ago, or at least I wish I were born in this time. Do you know that you can actually just pick up the telephone and call a number and food is delivered to you? It can  be dinner or lunch or even grocery stores. They just bring it to you after you pay with a something called a credit card. David gave me one for my expenses!" Curtis adorably and innocently informed his mother who smiled.

"And have the Collins family treated you well?" She wondered.

"Of course. They've made me feel very welcome. At first they thought maybe I was here as some spy for you or something but they warmed up very quickly." Curtis said.

"And you've never told them about...." Vicky said, her words stopping before she could say what she wanted.

"That you brought from a different time period and that Kat is my real mom? No. They all think I was born in 1981. Kat, Claudia and I agreed it was better for everyone not to know." Curtis said, with a silly grin on his face. "I mean I really don't blame you for having me tell them all this....I can't imagine it's something they'd understand right away."

Vicky smiled and stood up then went over to a large open bay window that faced the crashing sea. She wrapped herself up in her own arms, a protection from the chilly wind from outside. Curtis noticed there was something bothering her. He and Vicky were very close. They were all each other had. Vicky's entire lie about his life was still intact and she was all her had, his fabled father had died in a war at the end of World War I...another lie of his life that Vicky used to explain their situation and cover up his kidnapping.

"What's the matter mother?" Curtis asked standing behind Vicky. "I can tell something is bothering you."

"There is something bothering me, honey, I just don't know how to tell you." Vicky said. "It has to do with why I came home to Collinsport from New York."

"I thought you came to see Aunt Carolyn. You said you wanted to come see her and show you respects on the passing of Jude." Curtis said confused.

"There's that but there's something else. I actually came back because an old friend needed me to do something for him, and I don't quite now if I should do it." Vicky said.

"What do they need you to do?"

Vicky paused and turned back to her son allowing the cold wind blow her over her light brown hair and into her face. She carefully pulled the hair away from her face, he could see her eyes welling up with pain and sadness and the job that Barnabas needed her---was forcing her to do: Bring back Julia Hoffman.

"Mother?" Curtis said, bring Vicky back from her quick trans.

That word "mother". How she longed for someone to call her that, how she longed for a child of her own and now she had one, she had one for all these years, raised him as her own in secret and adored him and now if she didn't do what Barnabas wanted it could all go away. Curtis would hate her forever knowing what she did, knowing that she took her from his real parents all because she wanted to protect him from the so-called Collins curse. Curse or not, she would lose Curtis forever if she didn't help Barnabas and her lies exposed.

"You know what, its very important to my friend to help him with this project so I think I'm going to do it." Vicky said.

"What is it that he needs you to do?" Curtis wondered.

"I'm going to have to go away for a while to help him, maybe a week or so but I'm going to come back and then I'll never have to worry ever again." Vicky said.

"Mother this is getting a bit strange, why won't you tell what your friend needs you to do?" Curtis said, his voice now forceful.

"Just know that I'm doing it so that I can come back to you...my son." Vicky said as she put her hand on Curtis' beautiful face. His eyes were like pools of the arctic sea. She looked into his eyes and she knew that her decision would be worth it, to protect her life as Curtis' mother meant she had to do things that perhaps went against the laws of nature, including working with Barnabas Collins to bring back Julia Hoffman from the past to the future.

****

The night wore on and the gloomy mist over Collinsport continued to pour over the town like smoke from a wildfire; Cold air that swirled in various directions and came down like an invisible ice storm that strangled the sea port village with clutches of an Autumn touch.

In the lobby of The Collinsport Inn, Serena sat nervously waiting for Dr. Shaw to come down from his 6th floor suite. Her the heel from her left foot hung across her right let impatiently tapped the corner of the hotel coffee table, tap tap tap tap tap. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her time was running short.

"Honey, are you ok?" A woman who was checking in asked as she noticed Serena's nervous body language.

"Huh? Oh! Yes, I'm fine. Thank you." Serena said as she turned to look out of the giant hotel windows as car headlights reflected over the shiny wet streets.

"Ms. Bellmore." A voice said from behind the sofa's where Serena was sitting.

She slowly turned, and standing there before her was Dr. Jeffrey Shaw. The mastermind behind a very peculiar plan that involved Serena retrieving Sebastian and his body for experiments that involved a strange person named patient X. Sebastian's body was of profound interest to Jefferey for his ability in the past to change into a werewolf.

"Where are with the the patient?" Jeffrey asked on Serena's progress with delivarying Sebastian as he sat down on the plus yellow hotel sofas across from her.

"It's still on going doctor. You know that I have to make sure that the trust never weans."

"I've given you three days, of which one has expired. You have two days. What is the problem?" Jeffrey asked forcibly.

"It's clearly not so cut and dry, I have to make sure he doesn't suspect anything, in fact I had to lie to him to come here and see you, I shouldn't even be here. This could ruin everything I've worked for all this time. You're constant push could really---"Serena began, her frustration starting to show.

"You should watch your tone Ms. Bellmore." Jeffrey interrupted. "You're in this situation not because of anything I did, not because I asked you, and not because it's your job, this in fact, is all because of your stupidity and mistake you made a very long time ago. Did you already forget what you did to my son?" He further explained.

"No." Serena replied quietly.

"My son is encased in a vat of formaldehyde awaiting Sebastian's organs to live again. If you don't supply me with what I want to bring my son back to life and better than before, I will have to make sure you pay the ultimate price. Your life is not as important to me than my son's, keep that in mind." Jeffrey said.

"I have apologized profusely for what I did to your son on many occasions and I promised that I would find a way to bring him back to you and that's what I am doing but I still need your patience." Serena said, her tone rapidly changing. "Rushing me will only cause more problems for all of us."

Jefferey looked at Serena with total disgust. He hated her. He hated what she did to his son 5 years ago, he hated that he needed her to help him bring his son back to the state of the living and not in the state that he was in now, in a deep coma sleeping inside of a liquid that kept his body from deteriorating awaiting the harvested and strong and superhuman organs of Sebastian Banning.

"You're a waste of a person and I cannot believe my son once loved you, and when he wakes up, trust and believe he will want nothing to do with you. This whole experiment, should it work, is for his family to have him back, not for you." Jeffrey stated.

"I know." Serena said sadly.

"Two days. That's it, or I take matters into my own hands--you don't want me to take matters into my own hands." Jeffrey said as he stood up and walked back over to the elevators to his 6th floor suite.

Serena sat still, frozen almost, on the sofa just staring at the beautiful orchid sitting in the center of the coffee table. Her mind was racing her eyes, welling up with tears, and just as she sat there, a beautiful young couple walked in to the lobby heading for the hotel restaurant for a very late dinner.

The couple looked familiar, but she had no idea where she had seen them before. She looked over the couple checking in with the restaurant hostess, and finally it dawned on her.

She quickly reached down and opened her bag with files that Jeffrey have given her as research for the project. She furiously flipped through the forms and found the face of the man she had just seen in the lobby of The Collinsport Inn.

It Christopher Reed.

Almost 10 months earlier, while doing her research on Sebastian and how he became the werewolf and lycan creature she was given photos and bio's in this paperwork about the man who actually turned Sebastian this way, Christopher, three years earlier. Christopher had attacked Sebastian three years ago on a moonlit night. His bite spread the diseases, the curse, the mysterious and cruel effect of werewolf lycanism into Sebastian's blood stream.

And suddenly, Serena saw a way out, and a way to save Sebastian. She needed to to get Christopher in place of Sebastian and give his body over to Dr. Shaw to replenish his dying son with the superhuman body parts of Christopher and thus, save Sebastian from certain death.

This was her way out. This was Sebastian's way of survival. All she had to do was get Christopher.

Serena collected her things and walked out of the hotel lobby and got into  her car. Tonight, she would get Dr. Jeffrey Shaw what he needed, but it wouldn't be with Sebastian's body.

          

Series 9/Chapter 3: HIDDEN MESSAGES

An early morning cup of coffee sat glistening in beams of sunlight that cast bar like shadows from the Venetian blinds over an oak desk. This was Dr. Siobhan Morgan-Collins' office at Windcliff. She had taken over as chief of staff two years ago, and was in the office this morning preparing for her maternity leave that was just a few weeks away.

As she came back into her office from an adjoining lobby her assistant dropped off a manila envelope addressed to her but with no return address.

"What's this?" Siobhan asked sitting down at her desk, her large pregnant belly buoying her down into the green leather of the desk chair.

"I don't know doctor," her assistant Brett said. "it was at the door when I came in this morning. No one seems to know who dropped it off."

Siobhan looked at him strange, and shook her head. She felt the large envelope with her fingers trying to figure out what was inside, it was clearly paper work of some kind. She opened a drawer and pulled out a sterling silver envelope opener and sliced through the end ripping straight the the paper and narrowly missing the flesh on her other hand. She grimaced at the thought of almost cutting herself and reached down into the envelope. She pulled out the papers and began to sort and read through them.

"It's one of our applications for a new admittance of a patient." She told Brett. "A woman who's gone through some sort of traumatic brain injury and is having trouble remembering..." she read on "It looks like she doesn't remember anything about anything. The family is asking if I'd take her on as a patient."

"But you're not accepting new patients." Brett reminded her.

Siobhan again furrowed her brow, uncertain of what she needed to do. Inside she could feel the sadness the family must be going through at the thought of their loved one not remembering anything, and for them to reach out to a mental hospital knowing that this place could be their last resort, meant something very big in Siobhan's mind. They, in fact, were specifically asked for her to treat the patient based on her medical biography.

"Well, if I went on maternity leave, I could take on just one patient up until the baby comes. David wouldn't mind, especially knowing how much this family seems to really need me. They say in the request that they've exhausted all other options and found that my reports on memory and the mind were the closest thing they could see as some sort of help for their loved one." Siobhan explained.

"Is this a local family?" Brett asked taking notes.

"Their paper work only says that they've come from overseas."

"Ok." Brett scribbling down the info. "So are you sure you want to take this on? It seems like a lot of work, Doctor, especially since you really don't know what could this patient's needs really are." Brett informed.

"You're right. Well, they have a phone number listed here. Why don't you give them a call and have them come in for a consultation and then maybe I can decide if I can help." Siobhan digressed.

Brett smiled and took the paper work from Sioban and on his way began to glance over it in search of the phone number finding it as soon as he returned to his desk. He picked up his phone and dialed the number. It rang only once and went to voice mail, a voice mail that did not have an outgoing message.

"Hello, this is Dr. Siobhan Morgan-Collins' office calling in response to a new patient application that was left at the office door by someone at this phone number. A lot of the forms were left blank, we don't have too much information to go on, but Dr. Morgan would be very happy to meet with you and the patient as soon as possible to asses the patient's needs and to see if Dr. Morgan can actually be of service. The Doctor's earliest date for consultation is Friday at 6pm, if you would like to be considered please come by at that time and we can go from there. Thank you."

The phone number was not attached to a direct phone, only a crude old school answering machine that sat in a gloomy corridor with hard wooden floors and next to a large red door that lead to a basement.

The answering machine was purposely set up by the person that lived in this house to get this specific call from Siobhan's office. This house was the Old House, and the paperwork was filled out by Barnabas Collis himself, the mystery patient was the person he had in his coffin, the only way he could get this woman back, was with the help of Siobhan and one other person yet to arrive.

****

In the drawing room of Collinwood, Carolyn was going over old family photos from an album she found in her mother's belongings that was moved into the library a few years ago. The photos were of her mother Elizabeth and her father Paul, they were of Uncle Roger's wedding to Laura, and of David when he was little, and of Carolyn's first short lived marriage to Jeb Hawks.

She was remanicing all of the days of her life that were beginning to fade away as the years went back. From a side door that lead the drawing room into the kitchen, Alex and Christopher walked in fresh from the breakfast table. Alex had a fresh cup of tea for Carolyn who had yet to eat anything since they returned from London.

"Walk down memory lane?" Alex said grinning and placing the mug on the old cherry wood coffee table.

"It's amazing how much I left behind when I went to London the first time in 1982. I can't believe that I had forgotten all of these things." Carolyn said.

"I'm so sorry you have to go through this Carolyn, but please remember you're not alone. We're here with you to go through this with you." Chris comforted to Carolyn's half smile in response.

Carolyn stood up and walked over to the large window that look out onto the browning side lawn that was sprayed all day by the sea below it. She tied her arms around herself protecting herself from the morning chill and began to think back at her life some more.

"Mother?" Alex questioned from the sofa.

"You know, a long time ago, in this very room we did something extraordinary. Something that I don't think anyone believed would actually ....well we never knew it would happen, but it happened, and I saw it with my own eyes." Carolyn said turning back from the window to Alex and Chris who were confused at Carolyn's convention.

"What do you mean?" Alex calmly asked.

Carolyn smiled and meandered gracefully back to the sofa to sit next to her daughter.

"What if we did a seance?" Carolyn said to Alex's scoff. "No, listen to me. I've done it before when I was younger. You did one too, right here a few years back. Don't you remember? We could do one again and see if we could get to hear from Jude. It worked in those other times, why wouldn't work this time with Jude?"

"Yes, of course I remember, mother, but don't you remember the dangers that happen when we do seances here in this house? The amount of power this house has with spirit is beyond our control, conjuring them up again---I just can't help you with that. We all know the dangers mother and that's why we shouldn't do one. There's got to be a better way for you to come to terms with Jude's death." Alex said concerned.

"Alexandra, I'm surprised, for all the trials and tribulations you have been through I have done everything I could to help you no matter what, and..." Carolyn began before Alex tried to interrupt.

"I...."

"I can't believe you would just ... refuse to help me." Carolyn interjected before Alex could even say a work, her voice upset and frustrated.

"I just think maybe that just isn't the best thing for you to do right now. Mother we're all very worried about you and how you're taking Jude's death, a seance isn't really giving me any kind of comfort. I don't know where that's even coming from." Alex said, her eyes welling up with tears at her mother's obvious distorted view of reality.

"You're the only one I have left, Alex, and you're denying me trying to reach out to the man I loved. Think about that... think about how you're just closing me off to at least trying to find Jude so that I can say goodbye." Carolyn said.

"Carolyn, no one is trying to hurt you, we just want to help you get better and a seance would only rub salt in the wound." Chris interjected.

"Oh! And you'd know about salt in wounds, wouldn't you. You killed your own father on my front lawn! I saw the wounds you placed on him too... so yes, I guess you would know about wounds." Carolyn snapped uncharacteristically.

"Mother!!" Alex exclaimed.

"It's ok." Chris said to Alex understanding Carolyn was only lashing out due to her pain.

Carolyn huffed and grabbed her tea and sipped slowly, her anger as hot as the tea she was drinking.

"Why would you want to talk to Jude right now anyway Carolyn? We need to leave him and let him rest in peace. Seances only interrupt those on the other side from being at peace. You wouldn't want to do that would you?" Chris asked.

Carolyn seemed annoyed. She got up from her seat next to her daughter and returned to the window to listen to the sea slap against the sharp black rocks at the bottom Widow's Hill.

"Carolyn, I didn't mean to upset you." Chris said softly to Carolyn ignoring him.

"Mother, say something." Alex asked but Carolyn refused to speak.

Carolyn remained silent and stared out of the window with her back turned to Alex and Chris. The anger oozing out of her body like radiation from 3 Mile Island. Eventually Alex and Chris got the hint and decided to leave the drawing room and let Carolyn stew in her grief and anger.

"She's going to be fine. She just needs time." Chris said softly to a worried Alex as he helped her put on her coat in the foyer.

When Carolyn heard the giant front doors close from the drawing room she finally turned back from the window and ran back over to her mother Elizabeth's old photo album that was still on the coffee table. She flicked through the pages of old photos quickly, clearly looking for something specific and as she turned a page in a very quick motion a photo of her mother as a teenager flew out of the book and on to the floor. Carolyn reached down to pick up the photo and behind the photo was a piece of paper carefully taped to the back.

It was a piece of paper Carolyn had taped there years and years ago for safe keeping. Carolyn had taped this paper there for safe keeping so that no one would find and so that she could get to it if she ever needed it again.

It was instructions for a seance she had placed there in 1967, hidden away from anyone who might misuse it. Hidden there so no one could ever convene the dead like they did that one night in 1967 to disastrous effects.

"If they wont help me, I'll help my self. I don't need anyone to contact Jude. He'll come to me, and only me." Carolyn said to her self as she unfolded the decades old instructions and began to read them over to prepare for a seance she would do all on her own.

****

Over at the Evans cottage across town Maggie Evans was busy getting the house ready for her son Sebastian's visit with his new girlfriend. Sebastian had had a very rough couple of years and his new girlfriend Serena that he met in a book store in Boston had changed him for the good.

As she was finishing up the table settings for lunch the front door opened and in walk her strapping & handsome son, his smile seemed to light up the room entirely, Maggie could see him from her standing point in the dining room.

"Oh, Sebastian!!!" Maggie said rushing over from the kitchen table to the living room.

"Mom!!!" Sebastian said, his mother Maggie fully engulfed in his arms.

Once Maggie was back down off of cloud nine she noticed one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen standing in the doorway of the living room dropping her suitcase down. She was back-lit by the Collinsport sun, her hair was a chocolate brown, her skin was the color of cafe-au-lait, and her eyes were the color of sea-foam green.

"You must be Serena." Maggie said extending her hand.

"Serena Bellmore, hi." Serena said bashfully extending her hand.

"Oh come here, I'm a hugger!" Maggie said giggling and hugging a nervous Serena.

After a quick tour of the tiny 2 bedroom cottage, and a quick review of Maggie's father Sam's old paintings that were all over the house the three sat town for a small lunch that Maggie prepared.

Serena and Maggie were getting along, much to Sebastian's content. They were almost like old friends gossiping about the ins and outs of Collinsport than a woman meeting her son's new girlfriend. The nerves of the matter, so it seems, were slowly burning away like the morning fog.

As the three sat finishing their crisp wine over small leftovers on their plates over convestation that brought Sebastian up to speed on every that had happened since he was in Boston, Serena's cell phone rang.

"Oh my.. I'm sorry, you wont mind if I take is will you? It's ...it's work!" Serena said embarrassingly excusing herself from the table.

"Sure! Of course! Of course! There's a small little patio right out side that door there, you can take your call there for some privacy." Maggie reassured her as she pointed the way for Serena to have a private call.

"So what do you think?" Sebastian asked her mother as soon as the coast was clear.

"Bash, she's literally the most gorgeous lady I've ever seen and she's so polite and smart and funny and everything! I'm.... I'M IN LOVE!" Maggie said over-joyed.

"Get in line!" Sebastian said laughing at his mom's excited behavior.

"Have you told her anything about....well, you know." Maggie asked wondering if Sebastian had let Serena in on the his secret past as a werewolf that tormented the town of Collinsprot just two years before when Laura Collins bewitched him into falling in love with her and forcing him to kill people all over the city for her.

"Uhh. No." Sebastian said quickly. "Why would ever I ever tell her that?"

"Well, I can't imagine how it would ever come up, but I think that maybe if you tell her some form of that truth, you can still start out on an honest relationship honey. I wouldn't get into any of the sorted details." Maggie warned as she poured another glass of wine for Sebastian.

"I just think that I would rather leave old ghosts alone. I don't want to ever go there in my mind--not now, not ever again. What happened to me was so insane, it was so incredibly beyond imagination I just feel that she wouldn't understand and for that matter she'd for sure think I was ....god I don't know what she'd think of me. I have enough trouble trying to tell her that I worked for a Vampire chasing company before there whole lycan situation."

Maggie paused her next thought. She had forgotten that Sebastian worked with Victoria Winter's and The Organization of the True Hearted, a vampire hunting firm that Vicky used to infiltrate the Collins family to decimate them all only 3 years earlier.

"Mom?" Sebastian said noticing his mother was in another place.

In fact she was. All her life was surrounded by bizarre, and supernatural hardships that no one would ever understand if they had never lived through them themselves. It was a part of her, and so it was a part of her children's lives. How could she ever expect Sebastian to tell this new woman in his life the darkest secrets he possessed when she didn't understand them herself. She didn't understand why they happened, or how they happened, all she knew was that they did happen..from witch craft and mind control to blood thirsty creatures that 50 years ago locked her away in a secret room--where she almost died, birthing a trauma that she could never shake. Its why she stayed in Collinsport all this time, where else could she go? Where else would people understand.

The secret she hoped Sebastian could some how reveal--as easy as he could--to Serena were secrets Maggie too held close to her battered heart. She was wrong to expect him to tell her anything so easily.

"Listen, honey, I think that you have a really good opportunity right now to make things great in your life and Serena is this new wave of happiness that you deserve. You do whatever you think is best for you, and I'll support it. If you decide to tell her anything, or not--I'm here for you." Maggie explained.

Sebastian smiled and grabbed his mother's hand and squeezed it.

Outside on her phone call Serena could see Maggie and Sebastian talking through the sheer curtains. She smiled. It was a touching thing to see, a mother and a son who were so close.

"Are you there?" a voice said from over the phone.

"I'm sorry, yes Doctor. I'm here." Serena answered.

"I've arrived in Collinsport, when can I expect to meet up with you and when will you bring me my subject? I'm beginning to be impatient. I don't have a lot of time." Dr. Shaw demanded to know.

"Doctor, I'm doing everything I can to expedite what you need but I have to be sure not to arouse suspicion. If Sebastian begins to think something strange is going on with me or that I'm hiding something that could compromise everything I---" she paused "you, have worked for." She explained.

Dr. Shaw took a deep breath. He was sitting in an all white one bedroom suit in the Collinsport Hotel. The white chair matched the white carpet that matched the white wall paper with thin gray stripes that matched the white bedspread with thin gray stripes. He stood up from his chair and looked out of the window out on to the beautiful Atlantic sea from the 6th floor. He took another deep breath and digressed then began to play with the leaf of a potted palm that sat just by the window.

"Ill give you three days but after those three days, if you do not bring me the body--dead or alive--of that lycan creature Sebastian to harvest his organs so my experiments on patient X can begin, I will take matters into my own hands, do you understand me Miss Bellmore? You know what I am capable of, don't you?" Dr. Shaw explained.

"Of course. I understand." Serena said, as she hung up the call.

She stood out on the patio just for a few more seconds to compose herself and process what Dr. Shaw had told her. She did know exactly what he was capable of: cruelty, dishonesty, violence, manipulation, and murder.

After all it was how she got tied up in his web in the first place.

"Everything ok?" Maggie said, as Serena stepped back in from the small patio on the side of the cottage.

"Yes! All good." Serena said, her mind still on trying to figure out how to get Sebastian over to Dr.  Jeffrey Shaw for his experiments.

"Sebastian hasn't told me what do you do?" Maggie asked.

"I work in the medical field." Serena said shortly.

"Medical field? You said you worked at an office." Sebastian said confused.

"Office? Right, in a doctor's office. That's what I meant." Serena said, quickly back tracking which seemed to satisfy Sebastian.

Maggie suddenly felt her stomach clench. The tone in Serena's voice was odd. Something all of a sudden was different about her. Her stammering speech, her nervous behavior, and her seemingly dishonest answer about where she worked. Could this be a red flag that Maggie suddenly was seeing? Her motherly intuition was ringing an alarm loud and clear. Perhaps, there was something about Serena that she too was hiding. 

Serena seemed like a nice girl, she seemed like she enjoyed being with Sebastian; she was very attentive to him and looked at him like a woman who really cared, but the moment she walked back into the dining room from the patio, her voice, her disposition was different and Maggie instantly knew something wasn't right.

It was a feeling in the pit of Maggie's stomach, the feeling that she never, ever ignored, and this time was no different.

****

As the shortened days began to turn into dusk, and the clouds above began to lower themselves onto the small sea-side town of Collinsport, Maine, a woman in a black trench-coat and black boots made here way up a small broken path of stones. Every foot step in the freshly foggy evening clacked and echoed through the misty air as she slowly made her way up the path that lead to The Old House. 

She was wearing black leather gloves that matched her coat and boots, slick and shiny, her tiny waist cinched in by a black sash across it as she carefully looked around her surroundings. Her hair was a light shade of brown, her face clean and fresh like a winter peach. This was a path, and a place that she was not a stranger too, far from it. She had been to to this place and down this path many times over the decades. And the only reason she was here now was because the man in that house called her personally to come. He said he needed her. He said she was the only one that could help him. He said that she was the one that could do what he needed--her and only her. 

She knocked on the doors and waited for Barnabas to answer, a chilly breeze blew over the exposed skin of her face as a some kind of wild animal howled in the distance just as the clouds passed over the moon.

She shuttered in her skin just thinking of what might be out there watching her. 

All the old feelings started to come back to her, all the old feelings she thought she had escaped when she vanished from this place years ago, all the feelings she wanted to be rid of when she attempted to destroy this family years ago, but failed came back. Her stomach was in knots, her hands trembling, but she shook it off and composed herself just as the door knob began to turn.

"Don't show him fear. He can smell it on you." She whispered to herself.

The door opened and there, standing as she always knew him, dressed in fine suite, hair combed perfectly, his skin pristine and pale, his eyes large, wide and dark, was Barnabas Collins.

"Welcome home Miss Winters. I'm go glad you're back." Barnabas said to the beautiful face of Victoria Winters, the woman who's first arrival in Collinsport over 50 years ago changed the face of the Collins family forever. 

             

SERIES 9/Chapter 2: A CRUCIBLE OF LIES

This was a crisp evening. The autumn air settled on Collinsport with a cool blanket of fog encapsulating a chill like the Christmas scene of a snow-globe, silver and grey chilling to the bone. The Collins family had gathered together at Collinwood to welcome home Carolyn, Alexandra and Christopher who had flown back from London after the sudden death of Carolyn's companion Jude Powell.

In the drawing room, David, Siobhan, Curtis and Barnabas sat patiently for the other's to arrive; tired, terribly sad, and in an emotional upheaval that would be hard to reign in.

As the family sat making small talk, the front door finally opened and in walked Chris, Alex and Carolyn. Their faces flush and pink from the cold air outside, their eyes filled with happiness at finally being home. Everyone rushed into the foyer, except Barnabas who lagged behind in the drawing room alone.

"Oh Carolyn!" Siobhan said closing in on Carolyn with a big hug. "I'm so sorry."

"It's good you're home son." David said hugging his adopted son Christopher.

"I never thought we'd be back, but here we are." Chris said, his throat feeling tight with nerves. His time in Collinsport had been one filled with some of the most terrifying memories anyone could ever have. Chris was, after all, the child of an affair between Kimberly Collins (David's late ex-wife) and Victor Reed. Victor and Kimberly had genetically altered Chris' DNA so that any moment they'd choose, Chris' DNA would mutate into that of a werewolf. The experiment was created as a devilish plot of the Vampire Hunter organization Kim and Victor were members of to vanquish the Collins family. The memory of that plot, that distortion of Chris' life still warped his mind about his mother and father, and the memory of how their plan backfired still haunted him today.

Chris, in werewolf form killed  his own father on the front lawn Collinwood mansion, the same front lawn he had to pass to get into the house.

"Stop what you're doing." David said noticing Chris' panic and nerves begin to bubble up as the other's began to catch up and walk into the drawing room.

"What?" Chris asked, pretending nothing was bothering him.

"What happened in the past is the past. You're no longer the monster your mother and father made you. You're ok, Chris. You're safe  now." David confirmed to his 27 year old adopted son.

Chris nodded his head and smiled and followed David and the rest of the family into the drawing room where Barnabas was waiting.

"Welcome home." Barnabas said in a soft but striking voice.

"You kept your word." A mournful Carolyn responded, her black outfit striking a sad contrast to the variant colors of the room.

"I said I'd be here if and when you returned, and here I am. I would never leave this place, it's our home, and I'm glad you're back." Barnabas said pulling Carolyn close for a hug. "I'm glad you're back too, little one." He said grinning at Alexandra.

"It's nice to see you. It's nice to see all of you. Thank you so much for getting us back here so quickly." Alexandra said. "The last two days have been...." She paused.

"A nightmare." Carolyn said finishing Alexandra's thought.

"We're just glad you're all back here with the people that love you and support you in such a horrible time, we'll do anything for you. Anything you need just ask." David said.

"Caleb and Kat are on a trip in Asia, but send their love. They wish they could have been here to welcome you too. Maggie said she'd let you catch up with us then come by later on this week to see you." Siobhan continued.

"Well if there's anything else you'll need, I best be off." Curtis said.

"Thank you Curt, we'll talk soon." David answered as Curtis left the room.

"Who is that?" Alex questioned.

"Well, not that you need any more surprises, but that's Vicky's son. Well a son she adopted and never told us about. His name is Curtis, he came around last year and has been a huge help getting things together for the Fleet since Caleb has been gone. He's really pulling his own." David explained.

"Listen, thank you all for helping me and getting things straightened out here but I'd really just like to go up to my room and rest." Carolyn said cutting the welcome wagon chatter short.

"Why don't I help you take your things upstairs." Barnabas interjected as he linked arms with Carolyn and grabbed her bag.

As the others watched Carolyn slink back to her native room, they could finally speak freely. There was a worry on David's face at how depressed Carolyn seemed.

"She's taking this so hard." Alex noted.

"What can we do for her?" David asked.

"It's so soon after Jude's death, I don't know if we should do anything right now. We just need to let her mourn, we have to allow her to have some space and get out all of the pain for as long as it takes. The process after someone loses a loved one can take a very long time and for someone with Carolyn's history of loss, this may take a lot longer." Siobhan said, her psychiatrist hat firmly in place. 

"But, she's dressing so ....I mean I understand Jude was someone she saw as her partner, her lover, her maybe-someday-husband, but she's dressing like a widow. She's in all black. Her hair isn't done, she looks almost ill." David remarked.

"She barley says a word to us. For the last two days she's been incredibly quiet. Is that natural?" Christopher asked Siobhan.

"Of course it is. She's going through a lot of pain, it's something we all go through in times like these." Siobhan explained.

"No, I'm worried, this feels...something is different about this." Alex noted. "I know my mother better than I know anyone on earth, and she's reacting to Jude's death worse than how she reacted to my father's. She's gone so inside of her own mind that I'm frightened we'll never get her out again." Alex said.

"I see that too." David agreed. "The spark in her eyes never left her no matter what tragedy she was going through, but now....." he paused. "...the important thing, I guess, is that she's home with the rest of us. Alex we'll take care of everything. Carolyn will be back to her normal fiery self in a matter of months, I promise." David said, his voice seeming very sure of itself despite his facial reaction showing no sines of confidence.

****

"So you're not surprised to see me?" Carolyn said as she began to unpack.

"You said you'd be home again sometime, so no, I am not. But I am very sorry for what happened to Jude." Barnabas answered.

"Are you?" She questioned.

"I am." He said surprised by her reaction, sitting on a pure white love-seat in the dimly lit bedroom.

"Barnabas, Jude was healthy as a horse!" Carolyn said turning around to face Barnabas with swift motion. "There is no way something could have gone wrong inside of him that would have killed him, nothing. Something else happened, something that I can't explain. But maybe you can."

"What do you mean? What would I know of Jude's death?" Barnabas asked.

"I'll just ask you straight forward, and I want a straight forward answer Barnabas Collins, because I know what I felt the night Jude died, I have felt that feeling around you almost all my life. Did you have anything to do with his death? Did you do anything, ANYTHING, to cause Jude Powell to die?" Carolyn said in a fleeting moment of anger and mourning all mixed into one. Her mouth tight and her eyes centered on Barnabas' face.

He stood up and walked over to his grieving cousin who was now shaking with anger in the center of her bedroom. The white carpet a direct contrast to the black outfit she had on. Her eyes still laser focusing on her supernatural cousin's pale face.

"I would never, ever do that to you Carolyn. Never." He answered softly.

"Again, you'd never do that to me again. You did it to me before....Jeb, then Jack. They're all dead for reasons that you're directly or indirectly responsible for. Did you add Jude to that list too?" She questioned.

"No." Barnabas growled.

"I don't believe you." She said to his quick answer.

"Believe me Carolyn, I did nothing, absolutely nothing to Jude or to you or to anyone. I promise you that as I promised to be here once you returned." Barnabas said convincingly.

Carolyn scoffed in frustration.

"I think you should leave now, go back to the Old House or wherever you stay. Just...I just need some time alone." Carolyn said, turning back to her unpacking.

"You don't believe me?" He questioned.

"I don't believe that Jude is dead--not yet. I have so much on my mind, I don't know what's what, or who's who, or even what day it is." Carolyn said, her mind obviously overwrought with grief.

"Carolyn, listen to me, I've done many sinister things in my past and I don't blame you for looking at what happen to Jude suspiciously, but I would never do anything to hurt Jude. I would have no reason to, all of my other...." Barnabas paused to find the right word "...indiscretions...had good reasons." He explained.

Carolyn turned back to face Barnabas, he was standing closer to her this time, she looked deep into his dark eyes. She wanted to feel something from him she wanted to see the truth by just looking into his eyes, something there would surly tell her the truth. She wanted to trust him, she wanted to feel that he had her best interest at heart but deep down inside she knew that as much as she cared for her cousin Barnabas she knew that if she trusted too much he would ultimately disappoint her because he was, after all, a creature of darkness, a supernatural being who's existence was that of dwelling in the shadows, and nothing that lived in that realm could ever be fully trusted.

"Something is different about you." She said after a long pause staring into his eyes.

"What do you think is different?" he questioned.

"I don't know. But something is different. You've changed the year I've been away, haven't you?" Carolyn said, still looking deeper still into his eyes.

Barnabas felt that Carolyn was reaching into his soul, something in her could always read him like the pages of a novel, every sentence of his life she could see. It was as if she was carefully placing herself into his mind, slowly and meticulously creeping into his subconscious. Her stare, her deep powerful stare, was pulling into his mind.

"I must go." Barnabas quickly said, breaking Carolyn's gaze. "I'll return tomorrow to check on you and hopefully you'll be feeling better. Goodnight cousin Carolyn." Barnabas said, quickly making his way out of the room.

Carolyn was just moments away from seeing deep inside Barnabas. The two had a connection that was interlinked for over 50 years, more than anyone in the family. She could see him for what he was and he could see her for the same, and she was right again.

Barnabas was  hiding something, something new, something wicked. A secret he could not have spoiled anytime soon.

But it was already too late, Carolyn was already suspicious.

****

Across town at the Evans family cottage, Maggie Evans was putting together a larger wicker welcome home basket filled with Collinsport treats like Chocolates from the local chocolatier, two bottles of locally made wine, some sea-salted crackers Maggie backed herself and some Collins Fishing Fleet caviar for her good friend Carolyn when she was suddenly interrupted by a phone call. 

Maggie dashed over to the living room where the phone was ringing and quickly picked it up, small bits of shredded up newspaper she was using as filler in the basket still clutched in her free hand.

"Oh Kat! Honey! It's so good to hear your voice! Where are you?" Maggie said as she heard her daughter on the other end. "My goodness, Beijing! You're so far away honey, hows the baby?.....oh that's good, hon, that's good, I suppose you heard about Carolyn and Jude?.........no,  no, I haven't been over yet I wanted to give her some breathing room before I went by and said hello. Say, listen, your brother Sebastian is coming back to town!... That's right! .... Oh I know, I'm sure he'll be sad that he missed you too honey, he said he had some major news to tell.....whats that?.....what news? Ohhh...well I think its about the young lady he's been dating since he's been in Boston......mmmhmm, I've seen a photo too...he text messaged it to ---what?... OF COURSE I text message!!....anyway, her name is Serena, and she's gorgeous, I can't wait to meet her, he'll be here in a few days. .................ok honey, you guys have a wonderful trip, give my love to my baby grandson Canan and Caleb too, ok? ....Ok... Love you back!" 

And with that, Maggie went back to her basket, but in Boston, the new woman in Sebastian's life was sitting in the living room of his small apartment as he took a shower. She was indeed beautiful. Her skin was the color of mocha, and her eyes were a sea-foam green, with perfectly plump lips. 

Serena Bellmore, the new woman Sebastian Banning's life had made him happy, he was after all, a man who's life had been turned upside down when he too was afflicted with the werewolf serum, the same kind that Christopher was. He too had lived tormented the last few years, bearing the scorn of his own conscious knowing that, just like Chris, had  killed his own father Thatcher while under the werewolf transformation.

But Serena, who had met Sebastian in a book store on Boylston Street in Boston, had somehow Svengali'ed her way into his heart. She made him feel whole, real, and connected to life outside of his past and Collinsport...he was finally himself again, and he had Serena to thank for it.. 

As Sebastian showered, Serena nervously paced back and forth in the living room passing every two seconds by the hallway that ended at the doorway to the bathroom. She had her cell phone in her hand, then the call she was so nervous about finally came through.

"Doctor?" Serena answered anxiously. 

"Ms. Bellmore you've kept me waiting too long." a man's voice said on the other line. 

"I'm sorry, I know that I told you I'd have what you needed by the end of the week but something has come up, you'll have to give me more time." Serena said in a whisper as she continued to listen to the shower raging from the hallway.

"How much more? I've been very patient, and you've already been paid, if I give you more time I should start to feel as if you've abused my kindness of early payment. Wouldn't you think that if you were in my position?" the mysterious Doctor said as he sat in his dark office somewhere. 

"I completely understand, Dr. Shaw, but Sebastian wants to introduce me to his mother and if I have to keep this going I have to go, there's no way I can skip out on this meeting without making him suspicious. Things have been going so well this far, I can't risk ..." Serena suddenly heard the water in the shower stop. "Dr. Shaw I have to go, but I promise I'll get you what you need." She said trying to hurry the phone call before Sebastian came out of the bathroom.

"Wait!" Dr. Shaw yelped. "Where is this mother of his?" 

"She lives in Collinsport, Maine. We're going up to see her this weekend." Serena replied. 

"Fine. We'll do it there. I'll find my way to Collinsport later this week and we'll connect when you're there. Ms. Bellmore I will get what I need from you...no matter what, and make no mistake, if I have to follow you to Antarctica to get it, I will. Do you understand?" The Doctor said in a growling voice.

"I Understand." Serena replied, just seconds before Sebastian exited the bathroom wrapped only in white towel and his body still glistening from the water.

"You say something?" Sebastian said, the room light shining on his wet body from the entrance to the hall from the living room where Serena was standing.

"What? Oh! Ummm no, no, nothing. I was just on the phone." She stammered. 

"Oh! Who called?" He innocently questioned.

"Just a girlfriend of mine, she asked if we could meet her for drinks later this week but I was telling her how we had plans with your mom in Collinsport." Serena said, slowly making her way over to Sebastian's wet body. She curled up under his arm and kissed his lips easily getting him to think of something other than the phone call she just had.

Sebastian grinned slyly. He was in love, more than he had ever been before and he couldn't wait for his mom to finally meet the woman that had changed his life.

"You're going to love my mother. She's incredibly kind and so welcoming. And she's going to love you too. This is going to be one hell-of-a weekend." Sebastian said to his glowing girlfriend.

"You have no idea.." She replied in a hushed voice as Sebastian quickly dashed back down the hall to get into clothes. "You have no..... idea." 

****

In the dark corners of the night inside the basement of the Old House, Barnabas sat in a comfy purple velvet char staring at the back lit coffin in the center of the room. Inside that coffin was a secret that Barnabas had been hiding for most of the past year. A secret that he discovered while Carolyn was away in England and while David and Siobhan had been planning for their new baby, and while everyone ran around saying goodbye to Caleb and Kat just before they departed on their on exciting adventure in Asia. 

The secret inside the coffin was of a person Barnabas had long since thought gone from his life. A person that he thought he would never see again, someone that at one time was so important in his life that he almost gave up his life to safe on many occasions. In a way, this person, laying in the coffin that Barnabas had secretly delivered to him from a far, far away cemetery of long ago was his equal, his connection to the past, and the love of his life---beyond Josette. 

Barnabas, still sitting in the velvet chair stared at the coffin in silence and played with a small crystal medallion in his hand. He rolled it around over and over the palm of his hand allowing the small edges of the crystal to poke and scrape his skin like tiny little needles. 

He stood up and walked over to the coffin and slowly opened it's lid and looked inside. There she was...his equal. The one never thought he'd see again in this world. 

He grabbed the medallion of crystal and placed the necklace it was attached to around the woman's head. 

"This was yours." He whispered. "Soon, soon you'll come back to me when the time is right. When the planet's align and the time is right you'll come back and we can pick up exactly where we left off. We have much to discuss, and I promise you, we'll never be separated again." 

This promise, burned through his tongue like a raging fire, and nothing, not anyone dead or alive would stop him from getting what he wanted.