A cold winter wind blew across the icy parking lot of the Collsinport Inn. Things in Collinsprot were about to go bad for many of it's most prominent citizens, and this time it was because of the new face in town and her promise to repay an awful debt of 5 years ago.
Serena Bellmoore sat in her car rummaging through a large dark duffel bag putting together a gun that she had brought with her from Boston, it was filled with tranquilizer darts she had intended to use on Sebastian when the time came to transport his body over to Jeffery Shaw so that they could harvest Sebastian's body parts to use on Jefferey's comatose son. His plot to return his son back to the strong and capable man he was before a still mysterious accident caused by Serena was now in full effect, but now Serena saw an "out" for Sebastian in the form of the original lycan creature Christopher who was having dinner with Alex at the hotel.
The clock continued to click as Alex and Chris finished their dinner. Serena, now dressed in all black and sitting in the parking lot waiting for the right moment to strike, could see the loving couple having dinner through the windows. Finally, the waiter came and handed Christ the check. Serena's antennas shot up, they were about to leave.
Like a stealth tiger awaiting the precise moment to strike the jugular of it's prey she waited and waited and eventually saw Chris and Alex come out of the hotel restaurant and slowly make their way to their car in the parking lot.
The two lovers cuddled together in the cold. The wet and icy pavement echoed their footsteps into the frigid night air as they made small talk about their dinner. The walked slowly and towards their car and passed Serena's car that was parked a few spaces down.
As they continued down the quiet path of parked cars, Serena turned on her car, flicked the headlights and began a slow drive behind the couple in the wrong direction towards their car.
"What's this guy doing?" Chris said, noticing the odd behavior of the car that was slow closely following them down the path to their own car.
"Come on, let's move aside so they can pass. Maybe they're trying to get out." Alex observed.
"Yeah, but they're going the wrong way." Chris answered annoyed at the drive's mistake.
Serena slithered up the drive slowly as Chris and Alex stepped as side to let the her pass. But she did not pass. Her car stopped right next to the two who stopped in their tracks as the blacked out driver window slowly rolled down about an inch and a half.
Alex turned to Chris confused and she did the tip of a gun peeked out of the rolled down window. Chris gasped and covered Alex as Serena shot two darts into Chris arm and neck. Alex screamed as Chris' body fell to the floor. Alex looked down and saw the darts, her tear stained face looked up confused as Serena stepped out of her car that was still running. Alex looked up from the slick parking lot pavement and looked up, but the Serena was in silhouette, her faced obscured by the parking lot light behind her.
"Who are you? What are you doing?" Alex said to Serena's secret obscured face and as she tried to shake Chris awake.
Serena said nothing and pointed the gun at Alex too who then flinched as she her the pop of the gun. Instantaneously, Alex plopped over Chris' body, her own body now asleep from the tranquilizer dark that entered her arm.
Serena, carefully pushed Alex's body over on to the wet pavement and as quickly and carefully as she could grabbed Chris by the arms and struggled to get his sleeping body into the back seat. She fussed and hurried to make sure no one saw her. It felt like it was taking hours, but with her adrenaline pumping, it was over in just 2 minutes. As quickly as she could, Serena drove off with Chris' body leaving Alex passed out in the parking lot. Alone and asleep.
Jeffery Shaw would get what he wanted, tonight. And hopefully, this would save the life of Sebastian, who Serena was slowly growing more and more fond of.
****
At the old house, a howling wind filtered through a cracked open window in the drawing room that blew the coals on the fire in the hearth. Barnabas sat quietly in the room staring into the flames awaiting the return of Victoria Winters and who he hoped he brought with her: Julia Hoffman.
As he sat there in the frigid breeze of Collinsport there was a knock on the front door. Barnabas was startled. He looked at his watch and wondered to himself how could Vicky have already returned from the past she traveled back to, and why would she be knocking on the front door with Julia. He quickly got up from the chair near the fire and rushed over to welcome Julia home and as he quickly opened the door standing there in the shivering cold was Maggie Evans.
"Maggie!" Barnabas said in a surprised tone of voice. "What can I do for you?"
"Good evening Barnabas. Surprised to see me?" She said.
"I am actually." He answered.
"I came to see Vicky. I heard she was back in town and I wanted to say hello to her before I went over to see Carolyn at Collinwood. Is she here?" Maggie asked, her voice as stiff as her cold body.
"No. She isn't. She's gone out for the evening." Barnabas said, lying through this teeth.
Maggie didn't seem to believe him, she pursed her lips and peeked into the foyer of the room to see if she would get a glimpse of Vicky or some kind of sign that she had been there, never once motioning that she wanted to actually enter the Old House, the same house Barnabas had held her captive in over 50 years ago.
"You can come in and check if you'd like." Barnabas invited. "Victoria has gone on an errand."
Maggie squinted her eyes at the thought of setting foot in that house of horrors.
"Why is she staying here anyway? Why wouldn't she stay with the family at Collinwood?" Maggie asked in suspicion.
"Maggie your inquisitive mind has always been one of your most perfect attributes. The answer is I don't know. Victoria wanted to stay here, it's quieter, its more private and a lot of things are going on at Collinwood now. She perhaps wanted to stay out of everyone's way. I had no reason not to welcome her here." Barnabas said with a grin.
"And what brought her back to town so quickly? Jude didn't have a funeral and I wasn't aware she and Carolyn had become so close that she'd come and stay here, but not stay at Collinwood. It's not adding up Barnabas." She continued to probe.
"I can assure you Maggie, I have no idea what Vicky's ideas are. But she's home in Collinsport, and it's a wonderful thing. I would think you would think the same."
"I do. Of course. She's one of my oldest friends. I'm just surprised that after everything you have put her through that this is the place she would choose to stay." Maggie said.
"Things have changed." Barnabas assured.
"This is Collinsport, Barnabas. Nothing ever changes, not really."
"You've grown cynical over the years. I guess I can't fault you for being suspicious, not when it comes to me anyway. Again, Maggie, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to Victoria. When she returns, I will let her know you'd like to visit with her." Barnabas confirmed.
"When is she coming back?"
"I don't know the answer to that either." Barnabas again lies.
"Interesting. Well, when she comes back please let her know that I was here and that I'd like to see her." Maggie quipped back still unsure if Barnabas was telling the truth.
"Of course." He agreed.
Maggie adjusted her scarf and set off to visit with Carolyn leaving Barnabas as the front door of the Old House watching her every step down the steep hill to her car. Barnabas closed the door to the house as soon as Maggie got into her car.
A shiver ran up her spine. In the late 1980's Maggie had a mental break down, the result of all the years of trauma from Barnabas, her father's death, and the terrible marriage she had suffered abuse in. While hospitalized in a mental hospital she faked her death and assumed a fake name in hopes that she could escape all her demons and yet eventually coming clean and revealing herself to be alive just 3 years ago.
Now the scariest of her demons one of them all stood in front of her just a few moments ago, staring her down like a hungry lion.
As she pulled around back to the main Collinwood mansion she ran into David who was also just getting out of his own car that was also parked in the back garages of the home. He had worked late at The Cannery offices.
"Maggie! What brings you out to Collinwood so late!?" He said as she hugged and kissed her cheek, his briefcase still in hand.
"Well I came by to say hello to Vicky and Carolyn. I actually just came down from the Old House." She said with a slight pause in her voice.
"Oh. You heard Vicky was staying with Barnabas, did you?" David said with an eye roll, his patience and resistance to welcoming Barnabas back into the family fold had never left a good taste in his mouth.
"She wasn't there." Maggie said in a skeptical tone of voice. "So I just let it stay that way and came to see how Carolyn was, how is she holding up?" Maggie questioned.
"She's doing the best she can, I guess it's one of those things." David answered.
"Listen, David, honey, I hate to get off topic, and I know that I came up here to see Carolyn but I just need to know something, I need you to be very honest with me." Maggie began.
"Maggie, of course, what's the matter?" David questioned.
"I just need you to tell me that everyone is being extra careful having Barnabas around. I know he said he's changed and most of the time it seems so and for a while lately we've all been in a great kind of good luck streak, but something about this whole Vicky staying at the Old House thing hasn't sat well with me since I found out, and with Carolyn going through some awful things right now, I'm hoping that you'll be the one to make sure ..." Maggie paused to think but was interrupted by David.
"I absolutely understand what you're saying. I have a kid on the way...with his daughter no less. He's definitely more and more involved in my own little inner circle. Trust me Maggie, if he's around me I can keep an eye on him much better than anyone else." David explained.
"Not if you're working so late." Maggie shot back.
David began to open his mouth to reply and just as he did another car was pulling up down the circle drive. It was a car he did not recognize.
"Who could that be?" He wondered. David and Maggie looked at each other and made there way over to the mystery car pulling up into the drive way.
****
Inside the main house, Carolyn sat alone in the drawing room with its dark green ancient wall-paper and stoic hardwood floors lit in only the yellow light of the roaring fire place and the candles she had placed in front of her. Her steely eyes were hard and focused on the paper in front of her: the instructions written in her mother Elizabeth's hand for her own personal seance to contact Jude in hopes of answers to what caused his sudden death in London.
She unfolded the paper and held on to it's ragged margins and began to read from Elizabeth's writing.
"I seek your answers,
I seek your soul,
I seek the knowledge,
'tis my only goal.
Come to me, from over time and space,
Come to me, you left without a single trace
I speak your name, I do not hide
JUDE POWELL,
Come forth from where ever you reside"
But nothing happened. Carolyn took a deep breath and looked around the room. She noticed one of the grand golden framed mirrors on the wall was covered by the housekeeper; Carolyn's own demands when she returned to the house. She remembered hearing once that mirrors were the portals, the windows to the soul, between the realms of the living and the dead, covering a mirror would block them from reaching through and contacting.
Carolyn quickly got up rushed over to the mirror, seance poem in hand, and yanked the sheer black sheet that covered the mirror and as she did so, she read aloud the contact poem again that her mother had written and hidden away decades ago.
"I seek your answers,
I seek your soul,
I seek the knowledge,
'tis my only goal.
Come to me, from over time and space,
Come to me, you left without a single trace
I speak your name, I do not hide
JUDE POWELL,
Come forth from where ever you reside"
This time it worked. The glass in the mirror began to tremble. The fire began to exude much more heat that normal, her eyes began to water and then she began to hear voices that seemed like they were coming from somewhere far, far away. They echoed and circled around her like she was being surrounded by screaming people.
"Jude!? Please Come forward! Are you there Jude!!" Carolyn screamed as the voice continued to scream in their own horrible voices round and round Carolyn as she stood in front of the trembling glass of the mirror.
"JUDE PLEASE I NEED TO HEAR YOUR VOICE! TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!" Carolyn screamed into the mirror who's glass kept shaking like it was in an earth quake.
Then a deep, dark, profound voice found its way through the continuous screaming other voices that poured out of the trembling mirror and spoke to Carolyn directly.
"Leave It. Leave It. Leave It. LEAVE IT!" it said.
"Jude? Is that you? Please, darling, please tell me, what happened? Tell me what I need to know!?" She screamed back.
"LEAVE IT LEAVE IT LEAVE IT LEAVE IT ...LEAVE IT BE!!!!!!!!!!!" The voice said said from the glass and suddenly without notice, the mirror shattered into hundreds of pieces into Carolyn's face. She quickly turned away protecting her face from flying glass and as soon as the mirror shattered, every single voice stopped and the room was quiet again.
Carolyn, her breathing hard and deep, her hair tousled from the energy of the dead that had swirled around her, was trembling from with fear. She slowly walked over to the fire place and threw the instructions into the fire allowing it to burn, just then David, Maggie and the people in the mysterious car that was parking outside Collinwood came into the house.
Carolyn turned back to the mirror expecting to see glass all over the floor and an empty frame, but to her surprise and relief saw a completely reconstructed mirror on the wall as if nothing happened.
"Carolyn! Carolyn! Come quick!!" Maggie's voice said in the foyer.
Carolyn quickly composed herself and went into the foyer only to find David and Maggie with Collinsport Detective Loomis McGovern with a very shaken but unhurt Alexandra.
"My god! What's happened?" Carolyn said, rushing over to Alex who was terrified. "Come into the drawing room and warm up, everyone."
"Alex was found unconscious in the parking lot of The Collinsport Inn. She had a tranquilizer dark in her arm." Loomis explained.
"What? What are you talking about?" Carolyn said in disbelief. "Where's Christopher?"
The other's looked around not knowing how to answer.
"They took him. Someone took him." Alex answered, her voice trembling.
Carolyn turned from her daughter as she warmed her on the sofa and looked up at David for answers.
"Someone from the Inn's restaurant found Alex passed out in the parking lot, when the ambulance came they were able to revive her. When I got to there she told me they were being followed by a car in the parking lot and when the car pulled up beside them the person inside shot Chris with the same type of dart Alex was shot with. We're pretty sure Chris was taken by this person once Alex was out cold." Loomis explained.
"Why don't I go get Siobhan and get some tea made, huh?" Maggie said rushing out of the room.
"Honey, are you hurt? Talk to me?" Carolyn asked Alex, moving the hair out of Alex's face.
"I'm fine, I wasn't hurt. Who would do this? Why would someone take Christopher?" She asked in panic.
"I don't know my love. I don't know." Carolyn said hugging her sobbing daughter.
"I'm getting some plain clothed cops to come and stay up on on the property and I think I want to stay here and make sure I'm here if you get a ransom call." Loomis said to David as the two went off to talk away from Alex.
"I think that's best. Do you have any leads at all?" David questioned.
"Nothing. We have some tire tracks, but nothing solid on the car they belong to. Luckily for us, it was wet enough today that we have tire tracks at all." Loomis said.
"I need you to find my son Loomis. We can't lose anyone else in this family. Find him." David said his voice stern direct.
"We'll do everything we can. I'll be back with some phone recording devices just in case you get a call."
Loomis left quickly to retrieve equipment he was trained to use when someone was kidnapped to hopefully trace any calls from the kidnapper, which was usually the next step when someone as wealthy as member of the Collins family was when they were kidnapped.
What the family didn't know, was the Chris wasn't kidnapped for his family's money, he was kidnapped by two people who needed his body parts to revive another, and they never planned on returning him; not for money. Not for anything.
