Angelique Bouchard, the silent witness to the assassination attempt on Barnabas Collins, stood in the a room looking out onto the great ocean crashing against the black rocks of the Maine shoreline and recalled the moment she saw that person plunge a wooden stake into her Ex-lover's chest. it. She saw that person's face over and over again and it brought her much joy---the fact that she knew their identity and could lord it over Barnabas for all it was worth.
Angelique then walked down a hall following the smell of burning candles that filled the air. The smoke of melting wax and a burning wick circled her as she made her way into a study where Barnabas was staring into a giant antique globe, spinning it around and stopping it suddenly with his finger landing on an ancient Romanian city with a history of creatures like himself. He was fuming over his latest return after the staking...thanks again to Angelique's black magic.
"Penny for your thoughts." Angelique said, appearing in the aura of the room's dim candle light and late evening sunshine the peeked through the bare branches that hung outside of the large windows like stick fingers crisscrossing the glass.
Barnabas only sneered at his ex-wife. A woman he despised with all his might. She was the one who made him this way. She was the one who created the person, the thing, the creature he was today.
"Now, now, that's no way to look at someone who saved your life--again! What are you pouting about?"
Suddenly, and like a flash of light, Barnabas lunged at Angelique. He grabbed her by the throat and pushed her backwards towards wall. His hand slowly tightened around her neck. She grabbed at his hand but smiled as if to show him he had no power over her.
"Pathetic." She said through a strained voice.
Her face and body were untouched by time. She glared at him with her youthful beauty that screamed of pity and disappointment. She could see that the man she was obsessed with for centuries was not the same as he once was. He was now desperately clamoring for any kind of control of his life that was careening out away from his clutches. His survival was at steak.
Angelique cunningly knew this would be her way back into the fold.
"Who tried to kill me. You told me you would tell me! Now tell me!" Barnabas growled, his fangs thirsty for Angelique's poison witch blood.
Angelique, who was stronger than Barnabas remembered, squeezed her fingers in between Barnabas' hand and her neck and released his grip with a snap. She rubbed her now marked throat and giggled at what she saw was a vampire tantrum. Angelique held all the power now. She knew it. She could feel that Barnabas was in the palm of her hands. He had become a pariah within his own family, an island of his own making on the Collinwood compound. No one wanted anything to do with him. He was cursed, banished and someone tried to snuff him out --once and for all. Angelique knew who. She saw who did it, and she dangled that little twinge of untold bait over Barnabas like a carrot on strong.
"I didn't save your life for nothing, nothing in this world is free. You should know that by now. The information I have for you is incredibly valuable. I can tell." She answered as the redness around her throat faded.
"I would give you nothing. Everything you have ever done to me has always been about you, why would I ever give you anything?" He questioned.
"Because, you need me to tell you who tried to kill you. Who was it, you think, that staked you in the chest? Hmm? David? He's always had it in for you. Your beloved Julia? Maybe Carolyn? Who Barnabas? Everyone's a suspect." Angelique said grinning in Barnabas' face. "Without knowing who to go after, you're just ....lost..... aren't you?." Angelique added.
"Why do you do this to me!!" Barnabas growled, frustrated with Angelique's games.
"One sided secrets are always so....boring, aren't they Barnabas? How can you seek revenge without knowing who to seek it from? And I can give you all that you need. So I won't keep this secret for too long." She teased.
"You’re a viper, your very existence is a curse on us all. Always twisting things around so that every terrible thing that happens to someone else some how benefits you." Barnabas quipped back, his hatred for the witch that cursed him began to boil over.
His eyes seething with anger. How could he trust her after all that she had done. She was getting under his skin again, just like she always did, just like she knew she could.
"You have forgotten, I know you better than I know myself, don't I? Why don't you sit down, relax and let me tell you my terms." Angelique said as she poured Barnabas a brandy from a wet-bar near a desk in the study.
"Terms? What terms?" He asked as if he had just forgotten Angelique said nothing was for free.
"Did you think that there wouldn't be any?" Angelique laughed. "I've been trapped in a world of dead and angry spirits for over 50 years, and I've gotten a second chance at living the life I was always meant to live, and you're going to give me everything I want because I know something you want to know. It's a simple as that. Tit-for-Tat." The witch said as she handed Barnabas his drink.
He squinted his eyes in mistrust, and grabbed the brandy from her. He slowly made his way to a leather sofa and sat down. He took a sip from his brandy and waved away spoke from a candle next to him. He elegantly crossed his legs and felt the smooth brandy fill his veins with calm.
"What do you want?" Barnabas asked with a cold tone of voice.
"Now, see? Was that so hard?" She asked with a coy smile.
"What do you want Angelique?" He repeated.
"First....my daughter." She said in a sinister tone.
"Claudia! Impossible! She's disappeared. No one knows where she is and that may be a blessing for us all. When she's here, Collinwood is a place of chaos and utter panic." He said.
"So normal?" Angelique joked.
"The apple didn't fall far from the tree." He answered back, referring to Angelique’s past troubles at Collinwood.
"By the way, her name is Evangeline! Those nuns gave her that horrid saint name of Claudia." Angelique bristled. "Besides, added chaos to an already chaotic lifestyle is a risk I'm willing to take. Find her." Angelique said still in her cold tone.
"I already told you, I don't know where she is and I wouldn't know where to find her or to look for her. She's incapable of contact. And finding those who do not want to be found is not in my wheelhouse." Barnabas said, brushing off Angelique's request. "You'll have to find her yourself."
Angelique sighed, she did know Barnabas well, and even though he was the reason Claudia was taken from Angelique as a baby she knew that there was nothing he could do to really find her.
Claudia had left Collinsport a year ago to search for her son that Caleb and Kat were mistakenly raising as their own son --- and they were traveling the world, far away from the foggy banks of Collinsport harbor.
"My daughter is not the only thing I want returned that you took fro me Barnabas." Angelique informed her former lover. "Powers. I want more. And only can give them to me." She added.
"Powers??" Barnabas laughed. "You're mad!"
"Am I?!" Angelique exclaimed as she rushed up to him, and moved in close. "Imagine this Barnabas, the two of us together. As one unit. You have no idea what the two of us can do together if we really tired, do you? You have no idea the worlds we can create, the damage we can inflect. There's so much more out there Barnabas, so much more than you really know because you never allowed me ...allowed us...to fully connected. But we can now. If you let down your guard and let me in. Unite our powers, Barnabas." She added with a cold hush of a voice.
"Am I supposed to believe you? You're a sick woman who's only wish was to torment me and make me suffer --forever. You've done what you wanted. I don't see what else there is for you to take." He answered to her almost automatic scoff.
Angelique scoffed at his blame. She turned away and poured herself a drink. "Because of you, I lost everything. My child, my home. Before you destroyed me, I was fine living the life of ---" She began before Barnabas interrupted.
"As what?! Cassandra Collins, the dutiful second wife of Roger who just happened to be tormented by the devil himself. Please!" He said, mentioning Angelique's time in disguise as David's step-mother Cassandra before Barnabas discovered her and killed her.
Angelique was fuming. Everything she had ever worked for, everything she had ever wanted was constantly being taken from her. She was furious, but she had to continue to keep calm, or nothing would pan out. She did indeed know Barnabas better than anyone else, and she knew his thirst for revenge was stronger than his thirst for blood. There was no way around it.
"Face it Barnabas, you may want to pretend that the information I carry in my mind--who I saw try to kill you--isn't worth giving me what I want in return but I know its eating you alive to know that someone, very possibly someone you thought was a trusted member of your family stuck a steak into your chest and wished for you to die. I can solve that for you ....very quickly." Angelique again teased exposing Curtis as the attempted assassin for her own gain.
"All of this, this is all insane! I can find out who tried to kill me without your help, I don't know why I would waste my time with you. You've done nothing but betray, lie, and manipulate the world around you just to suit your vicious games. How could I even believe you if you told me anyway?" Barnabas said, frustrated with his interaction with Angelique.
"You've always been so impatient." She said in a hiss.
Barnabas got up from the sofa. He placed the empty glass of brandy on the side table and shook his head at Angelique who was standing in front of him. There were face to face again, scorned lover against scorned lover. He snarled at her and made his way towards the door of the study.
Angelique suddenly began to feel the same feelings she felt so many years ago. He was dismissing her. He was pretending she didn't matter and that the information she had wasn't important enough to even stay in the same room for. She was feeling the bits of anger starting to bubble up in the pit of her stomach. She turned quickly and lifted her hand, the might of her powers gripped the door that slammed in Barnabas' face keeping him in the study with her.
He quickly turned around and she was inches from him now, her eyes, cold icy blue. He looked deep into them and started to feel as if things were going in slow motion. He began to feel as if the walls of the study in the Old House were swaying and moving. He looked away from her, but she grabbed his face and made him stare directly into her eyes.
"No! NO!" He screamed.
"This won't hurt a bit...." She said, gazing deep into his own dark eyes. She needed him to listen. She needed him to hear what she had to say and the only way Barnabas would listen to her was to lock him in his place...by a spell.
"Look at me, look into my eyes Barnabas!" She said, her hands forming a firm grip around his face.
"So.....so blue..................." he said as he began to fade into a trans.
"Listen closely as I tell you well....You will do what I want you to do, Barnabas Collins, you owe this to me. You took our child from me when she was a baby, and you sent me to the world of the dead all those years ago. But I have risen, and I will do everything in my power to stay in this realm, now and forever. You will do everything I say." Angelique said slowly in a tone that flowed into Barnabas' mind like the smoke from the candles all around them.
Barnabas began to feel a warmth in his body, it was as if she had entered inside of him and switched on a light that was glowing from deep in his chest. He could feel the coldness of his body vanish and the warmth of something brew in his heart. She was controlling him, she was possessing his mind turning him into something that she wanted, something she could control something she could keep in her pocket for as long as she wanted. She had not aged, and neither had her ways of magically manipulating the people around her to get what she wanted.
"What is it that you want?" He said, his mind slow and passive and attentive.
"I want you to find my daughter , and...." She paused as he looked at her in a trans..."I want us to be married. Once and for all, I want to be the wife of Barnabas Collins and take my place among the family just as I should have all those years ago. You will do this for me. Together we are stronger. Together, as one, we could rule over this land like never before. Together, as husband and wife, we will be indestructible."
Angelique blinked her big blue eyes, releasing Barnabas from her magic hold that locked him in attention. He was back to himself again. He knew now that she was still very powerful and that rebuffing her could be disastrous for him. He reluctantly agreed to her terms, even though he had no idea where to find their daughter Claudia who had left Collinsport 2 years earlier to follow Caleb and Kat Collins who were touring the world with Claudia's son.
"You'll get what you deserve" Barnabas said cryptically, "now, tell me who tried to kill me." Barnabas added, his voice deep and angry again.
Angelique turned to pour herself more brandy form the same cup Barnabas drank then turned back around to face Barnabas, the light from outside shined in through the large second story windows and cast her in silhouette among the skeleton like bones of the shadows of the tree branches. The natural light of the sun spun around her like a halo and the candle lights flickered at her side.
Angelique thought for a second and grinned. The opportunity to turn the tables on all who had wronged her in the past, had come, and then... then she remembered who the moment the stake went into Barnabas' chest, she remembered the face. She remembered how that face made her feel:
---***---
In the Old House, in an upstairs bedroom, there was a deathly silence. A person stood over an open coffin with their hands lifted high in the air as they tightly gripped the end of a sharpened stake that at any second would be driven deep into the chest of the one and only Barnabas Collin. The person took a breath and drove the stake down into Barnabas’ chest and watched as Barnabas' body quickly reacted to the sudden deadly strike.
As the vampire squirmed in his coffin, clamoring for any chance at life, the person ran off, but not before turning to face the light of a window where the witch, Angelique, was standing, invisible to the naked eye.
There Angelique saw the face of Barnabas' would-be murderer.
The face of Curtis Winters, Vicky's adopted son who had come to the Old House to avenge his mother for all the decades of trauma, terror and manipulation. His was a face so handsome that it took Angelique's breath away at first glance. She was stunned at how beautiful he was. She was in awe, and torn. The man she once loved was being attacked by this suddenly new and fresh fascination of hers.
She stood there, invisible, and watched as Curtis dashed out of the Bedroom leaving Barnabas to die a painful and vanquishing death.
The face of Curtis Winters, Vicky's adopted son who had come to the Old House to avenge his mother for all the decades of trauma, terror and manipulation. His was a face so handsome that it took Angelique's breath away at first glance. She was stunned at how beautiful he was. She was in awe, and torn. The man she once loved was being attacked by this suddenly new and fresh fascination of hers.
She stood there, invisible, and watched as Curtis dashed out of the Bedroom leaving Barnabas to die a painful and vanquishing death.
---***---
As quick as the memory of that moment came to her mind, it went away again like a flash of white light...she stood there listening to the great ocean crashing against the black rocks of the shoreline. She saw Curtis' face, frozen in her mind as Barnabas's attempted murderer.
"Well?" Barnabas said in frustration.
Angelique turned, and paused. Then revealed the name of the would-be murderer.
"Julia. It was Julia Hoffman." Angelique said lying through her teeth.
Barnabas' eyes widened in shock. His breathing shallowed. His mind went wild at the thought of his beloved Julia attempting to kill him. How could she try and destroy him? How!?
"Julia?" he said in a whisper, shocked and gutted at the idea.
"That's right, the one one woman you risked everything over to bring back here to this time tried to take your life." Angelique said, continuing the lie that it was Julia and not Curtis who attempting to assassinate Barnabas as he lay in his coffin.
"No. That's a lie. You're lying. Surely." He whispered again, turning away from her as if to block out the truth of what she was saying.
"It's true. Julia Hoffman wanted you dead and gone. She's always wanted you dead and gone, to be honest. The thing about her Barnabas, is that you believed what she told you. You believed that she really did love you, didn't you?" Angelique continued.
"She did. We were happy once. In Singapore...we were together for so many years, we raised Siobhan there...happily...we loved each other." Barnabas said in a voice that showed Angelique he was painfully beginning to believe her.
Angelique only scoffed and sat down on a leather sofa in the center of the room. She sipped on her drink and rolled her eyes.
"What can I say? People change." She offered.
"But...to kill me?" He asked.
Angelique could see the old Barnabas, the angry, cruel side of him was finally surfacing again. She began to breath heavily and pace the room. There was something viscous in Barnabas that always made Angelique shake in her shoes, but this time she knew that the wild blood-thirsty creature everyone feared would return forever was focusing on someone else this time--not her.
"Get out." He growled never turning back to face her.
"You'll see....I have always had your best interest at heart, Barnabas, always. But sometimes it takes a stake to the chest to realize just who your real friends are. Don't forget---I brought you back...again! Once you do finally do understand, that everyone here at Collinwood only want you dead you'll give me what I want."
"I SAID GET OUT!" He growled again.
Angelique smiled evilly. The seed was planted, but she remained in his presence in the room.
Barnabas's face was changing. His eyes turned black, his anger raged inside. He screamed something...something loud, something animalistic. His fangs returned, he began to knock over the candles, pull down pictures frames, and he lifted the desk in the study and turned it over knocking things to the grown.
"She'll pay. She'll pay....she will PAY!" He said in a monstrous growl, then left the study, allowing Angelique to sit with her lie still burning on her tongue.
Angelique's web of lies was only beginning to be spun. With Julia out of the picture, Barnabas could devote himself to her; her return to Collinsport was about bring more chaos to the Collins family than any one could ever imagine. And perhaps a new found love with Curtis Winters in her dangerous eye.
