A night filled with with a full moon was always a sign that the fates were sending a diabolical rush of energy towards earth. The natural ebb and flow of the sea tethered to the moon's pull, too, woke the senses. Especially in the town of Collinsport, where things would soon turn upside when knowledge of deceit broke into the wilds of the imagination.
At the Old House Barnabas sat comfortably, if not impatiently, for his own house guest to arrive. Angelique had obtained her way around town without being noticed, and on her way home from her brief encounter with Curtis, she was feeling a bit freer than Barnabas felt comfortable with.
She opened the front door and slowly made her way into the foyer. Her youthful beauty was like a shimmering star in the gloom of the ambiance of the Old House that had updated it's look, but remained never the less antique.
Barnabas, like a father catching his rebellious daughter sneaking in past curfew, cleared his throat loud enough for Angelique to notice him awaiting her.
"Hmm..." She snickered as she walked into the drawing room. "Have you been waiting all day?" She asked sarcastically.
"Where were you?"
"Barnabas, really, you should learn to trust more." She joked.
"You shouldn't be away from Collinwood, someone might see you in town. That could be catastrophic." He scolded.
"For whom? Me or you? Because really Barnabas, I could care less what happens to you. As long as I get what I want---" She began to say erroneously neglecting the fact she actually needed him to get what she wanted.
Barnabas angrily stood up and grabbed her by the arm.
"NOW YOU LISTEN TO ME---!!" He shouted her arm firmly in place in his large hand. But just as their bodies touched, a jolt of energy rushed from Angelique's body into Barnabas'. He began to see her entire day and where she had been and what she had seen. It was like a movie playing in his mind. He could see her at the Blue Whale, he would almost taste the beer that she was drinking, and a man, she was with a man.
Just before Barnabas could see the man's face Angelique pulled away.
"Don't you ever touch me again." She growled, know their bodies worked like two exposed wires when they touched, the powerful energy between them was explosive at times.
"What have you done?" Barnabas questioned in an equally as viscous and suspicious growl as he stepped forward cornering her between a piece of furniture and the wall.
"Oh, get away from me." She said brushing him off fearlessly.
"Angelique, listen to me, there is too much at stake for you to be dizzying off into some other twisted tryst for all the town to see." He snarled with a twinge of jealously of the man she was with.
"Oh please, Barnabas, what year do you think this is? It's not 1869 anymore, it's not even 1969 anymore. This is a new millennium women of this age do as they please and need absolutely no permission to do it." Angelique stated matter of factly.
"Perhaps, but they don't run their lives under the guise of someone else with their own magical powers...that, my dear, very much only pertains to you. Whom, I might ad, has a pension to self-destruct. At any rate, Angelique, I have decided that I indeed need you too. Just as you need me." Barnabas told his witch ex wife.
"Oh? And what pray tell, brought you to this so obvious of a conclusion?" Angelique asked smugly as she moved away from her cornered position in the room.
"Something that I overheard at Collinwood. Julia and Carolyn talking privately." Barnabas informed to a suddenly worried Angelique who sat herself carefully by the hearth.
"Oh? What did they say?" She wondered, worried Julia had admitted no fault.
"Julia denied she had anything to do with the attempt on my life, which directly contradicts what you told me you saw. Isn't that interesting?" He replied as he followed her to the fireplace.
"Barnabas, really! Do you think she would just admit to Carolyn that she tried to kill you--and failed? They've clearly come to some sort of pact to make sure you're eliminated, and if one fails, how would that look to the other?" Angelique said attempting to continue to conceal that Curtis was the true attempted assassin.
Barnabas couldn't stand the site of Angelique, she was too much of a stain from his past. He leered at her with a cold look while she spoke as if his eyes could strangle her, but he had to admit, she gave him information that he needed, and with her powers and they could truly take over Collinwood. That was the truth, and Angelique wouldn't lie if it benefited her.
The truth was, she was lying to benefit her. Keeping Curtis, the true person who tried to kill the Barnabas out his cross-hairs meant she could finally find true love, with Curtis, but at the same time she needed Barnabas' powers to unite with her's so that the two of them could grow powerful. A deal that she would double cross with her continued lies about Julia.
As the fire in the hearth crackled on and lit the drawing room of the old house in an orange glow, Angelique couldn't help but think of how much she loved and obsessed over Barnabas for so many years. And now, all of that seemed to be gone, from her side now too. She needed him now more for the convenience of power than for love. But their connection still remained no matter how twisted it was.
"You look at me with such disdain." She said softly as he continued to stare and her mind continued to go back into those days that she loved him.
"I wish you had never come back here." He said suddenly standing up and walking towards the windows.
"Barnabas Collins you are truly one of the most ungrateful people I have ever met. I saved your life, remember? On several occasions! If it weren't for me you'd be laying in a wormy grave, the only thing left of you would be dust and bones!" She replied.
"And maybe that would have been better! Maybe Julia and Carolyn are right, maybe I should be dead. Maybe this world is better off with out me!" He said in a sudden emotional release that Angelique was not prepared for.
She took a second allowing him to compose himself and walked over to where he was standing. She put her hand on his shoulder.
"Then we would never have had our beautiful daughter, Evangeline." Angelique said using their daughter Claudia's true birth name.
"She's better off with out us." He said his tone now calmer, to Angelique's frustration.
"Listen to yourself Barnabas? What do you want? I can give you so much, more than you ever dreamed and for such a small price. All you have to do is work with me and we can make it happen, but these emotional flip-flops have to go. Do you understand? You're either in or out and trust me you do not want to miss out on this. Think of the powers we can obtain if we work together! Imagine it Barnabas! Imagine the strength you'd have? You could control everything your heart desires!" Angelique said again hoping Barnabas would come back from his emotional episode.
"I've agreed to work with you, but how can I trust you for sure, what will you give me to prove to me that we will be a team no matter what?" Barnabas asked his words becoming music to Angelique's ears despite his well earned hesitation.
"As soon as the other's are taken care of, as soon as they've become obsolete and you have all of those you love the most near you forever: Julia, Siobhan and baby John, I will disappear. Forever. Never to return again. With our powers united, I can do as I please, and you can do as you please." Angelique proposed.
Angelique's lies were now firmly placed in Barnabas' head. For him to take control of the minds of Julia, Siobhan and baby John, so that they could all live together forever, as one family unit, the others had to be destroyed, and the only way they could do this was if Barnabas and Angelique joined forces. No one could survive, this would give him his freedom with his beloved family members and Angelique would gain more powers though him and money....and she could secretly run off with Curtis.
Her plan seemed fool-proof.
But Barnabas knew better than to believe anything Angelique had to tell him at face value, but he was in no position to question things further, after all he did hear Julia and Carolyn himself decide that it would be better for all of them if he was no longer around. That in and of itself was proof enough that one of them was the culprit.
"What do we do first?" Barnabas questioned.
Angelique smiled, like the cat that ate the canary. She was practically salivating at the notion at just how powerful her magic would become once she and Barnabas fully joined forces.
"Tomorrow night will be the a new moon. At the stroke of midnight just before the day switches in time, we'll ceremoniously join together as one unit in spirit ---then the deaths can take place and you'll have your sweet family all to yourself, and I will have my freedom."
"Marry you?" He said disgusted.
"Symbolically, mon chere, just symbolically." she said again in a patronizing voice.
Barnabas wanted his family. He wanted it badly, its all he ever wanted. To feel like a family again. To feel normal. To feel himself. It was something he chased after for centuries. Could Angelique really give this to him?
Angelique's proposition was too good to pass up.
She turned and began to walk towards her the staircase to her room. But not before Barnabas too relayed his own perfect message.
"Oh, and Angelique..." he said as he turned to look out of the front windows into the dark night.
"Yes?"
Barnabas did not turn from the widows he was looking out of. He could see her in the reflection of the glass.
"If I discover you have double crossed me, I'll kill him." Barnabas said in a sudden cryptic voice that proved the darkness inside of him could always come out without warning.
"What? Kill who?" Angelique asked confused and nervously.
"Your new paramour.... Curtis Winters." Barnabas replied in an evil tone that shocked Angelique.
When she touched him again on the shoulder the face of the man she had drinks with finally appeared in his mind, the face was revealed and the vision of her night was completed.
Her secret was out, and Barnabas now had deadly leverage and Curtis was the bait he needed to keep Angelique in line.
Angelique's face scowled, her mind froze, she too knew that these were the dangerous games to be played. She nodded her head in agreeing to his final request and went up to her room leaving Barnabas at the windows gazing at the dark night alone.
****
In the morning, the sun drenched sky pushed all of the clouds away revealing a blinding sapphire sky. At the Collinsport Inn, Jeffery Shaw's lawyer Quinn Devereaux was standing under the canopy of the entrance to the building while her bags were being loaded into her car. She nervously paced back and fourth near the driver side of her car until she saw a familiar woman enter through the sliding glass doors of the lobby. It was Alexandra. Quinn had remembered her from the Police station weeks before when she went bail out Jeffery. Their first meeting did not go well, as Alex burned holes though Quinn for being the lawyer for the man that killed her boyfriend.
"Damn it." Quinn said knowing Alex being at the hotel where Jeffery was staying could on mean trouble for her client. "I'll be right back, can I just leave it here. I wont be two seconds!" Quinn asked of the Bellhop as she dashed into the lobby to stop Alex from entertaining a particular dangerous situation with how Andrew was strangely behaving just the night before.
"Wait! Wait! Miss!' Quinn shouted, as she entered the lobby in the attempted stall.
Alex turned around and saw Quinn, then she rolled her eyes.
"I remember you." Alex said with a twinge of snark.
"What are you doing here?" She asked as Alex slightly adjusted her body language as if to say she was staying put.
"What's it to you? My business is with Jeffery Shaw." Alex responded.
"Well, he's my business. He's my client." Quinn replied. "So maybe you should just tell me what you need from him and perhaps I can get it."
"Need? What I need from him is to leave this place. My cousin David called me a little while ago and told me that Jeffery wasn't going to be charged for my boyfriend's death. Not to mention no charges are going to be brought up for what he's done to his own son." Alex answered to Quinn's surprise as Alex mentioned Andrew.
"His son?" Quinn questioned, pretending she didn't see Andrew foaming at the mouth half wolf, half man the night before.
"Listen I don't have time for you to stall me." Alex said.
"Miss, wait... look, I'm just doing my job Ok? And besides what good does it do you to go up there and cause a scene. Jeffery isn't going to get taken in on any charges, it's a done deal." Quinn reassured Alex.
"Thanks to you I assume." Alex said, calling out Quinn's lawyer handy work. "Let me ask you, do you really think he shouldn't see some kind of repercussion for someone's death? Not to mention kidnapping and not giving his own son the right medical attention? How can you defend him?" Alex asked, her voice now raised.
Quinn looked around the transformed Collinsport Inn Lobby. It's walls had become so much more posh and pristine over the years with its foam green carpet and french moldings. The people there, workers and patrons, were now staring, unsure of what drama was unfolding in front of their very own eyes.
"I don't want to make a scene, and again, I'm sure that's the last thing you want to do. Especially since everyone here practically knows your whole family..." Quinn said as Alex interrupted.
"They do. They do know my family. They also know that even though you're a very good lawyer and seem to be able to get murderers off the hook that justice will be done, one way or another." Alex said in a strange warning.
"And what exactly does that mean?" Quinn replied stepping closer to Alex showing no fear of her threat.
"This is far from over. Jeffery Shaw will pay for what he's done to Chris and to Andrew." Alex finished.
"Miss Thorne, stay away from him. Ok? Just stay away from him!" Quinn blurted out. "You shouldn't get too close....he's.... dangerous."
Alex couldn't believe that Quinn was practically admitting Jeffery was dangerous, even after she got him off murder charges, but the lawyers warning were in a way two-fold. It may have seemed to Alexandra that Quinn was talking about Jeffery, but in reality Quinn was talking about Andrew.
Alex then pushed passed Quinn. As their shoulders brushed, the repressed magical powers Alex inherited from the witch Claudia during her possession came rushing back in one full swoop. When Alex was stressed or angry or sad, she was able to allow this magic to surface more--as her guard was down.
The flashes from Quinn's body filled Alex's mind--they were visions. Visions of what Quinn had seen just hours before in the hotel room. Andrew on the floor. Barley breathing. Jeffery over him trying to help. She saw more of Andrew, his wolf transition, then she saw Jeffery inject Andrew with the serum. It was all played in what seemed like a 2 second movie just for Alexandra to see.
Alex stood in the lobby just staring at Quinn, her own breathing now in panic mode.
Quinn stared back at Alex confused and awkward.
"Are ...you ok?" Quinn asked.
Alex stood there for another two seconds unable to speak in shock of what she saw in her vision.
"Andrew....Andrew...is he ok?" Alex asked.
Quinn paused unsure of how to answer, as she had no idea why Alex would suddenly ask about Andrew in that manner, a manner that was clearly formed out of concern.
"He's..... fine." Quinn said, lying through her teeth.
Alex, unsure of what to believe turned and made her way towards the main door of the hotel. Her mind still replying the horror scene she saw from touching Quinn's body. She looked back at Quinn suspiciously, but left.
In the end, Alex had had enough of Quinn and decided it wasn't worth getting into an even more heated shouting match in the middle of the hotel lobby. Especially if she wasn't even sure of what she had seen. Was it recent? Was it a memory of Quinn's from long ago? Alex may have wanted to get away from Quinn but she definitely wanted to get close to Andrew. She could feel that something wasn't right.
Quinn was now standing alone in the hotel lobby staring at the people looking back at her. She could feel the heat of their prodding eyes wondering what in the world was going on, but what she felt most was fear. Fear of what was really going to happen if Alex got too close to Andrew and that is when she knew. There was no way she could leave Collinsport.
"Excuse me." Quinn said at the front desk.
"Ma'am?" A kind woman who's name tag read Leigh.
"I want to check back in." Quinn stated.
The young Hotel desk clerk seemed surprised but began checking Quinn into the hotel again. Quinn's job wasn't over after all. She had to stay in town.
****
At the police station Detective Loomis McGovern carefully looked over paperwork he had ordered as a background check on Quinn Devereaux. It was all done in secret as his inquiry was purely on the basis that David had asked him to do it, not anything official with the police station.
The paper work went back over Quinn's time in law school, and who here parents were. It showed that she was an only child and that she had lived in the area for many years. In fact most of her family had come from in and around Maine over the years.
The paperwork went into great detail about the most benign of things, traffic tickets, parking tickets. The time Quinn went to court over a land dispute with a neighbor. Things that really didn't matter to Loomis and Loomis felt it wouldn't matter to David.
David was gunning for any kind of criminal activity that would explain how or why Quinn was able to get the DA to not charge Jeffery for Chris' death. But there was nothing that would even point to anything that connected Quinn with the DA.
"Find anything interesting?" A police office that was now sitting in Kat's old desk across from Loomis asked.
"Uhhhh..." Loomis said, unsure of how to answer as he hadn't told anyone he was looking into anyone's background. "Not sure yet."
"Need me to help? What are we looking for?" The office asked reaching for one of the many files but Loomis quickly grabbed his hand.
"Nah, its fine. Thanks. I can take care of it. I'm almost done anyway." Loomis answered.
The police office looked at Loomis with a strange look, and got up from the desk and went over to a coffee pot for more coffee. Loomis continued to look through the paper work.
"Ok let's see...." he said to himself, "mother----Jean Crenshaw-Devereaux...deceased. Father----Michael Devereaux----deceased. Maternal grandparents, Steven and Lilian Cranshaw, Paternal Grandparents Lawrence and Julia H. Devereaux...Julia H? Julia H...." Loomis thought. "Where have I heard that before? Julia H?"
Quinn's ties to a person in Collinsport was someone very familiar to town, someone who had been married and divorced many, many years ago, someone who buried herself into her work to cover-up her secret past. Someone who became so entrenched in another person's life her own past became just a ghost that occasionally haunted the very edgers of her mind but would always disappear with the birth of a new, more venomous drama that unfolded at her fingers tips.
Indeed, Quinn's grandmother, whom she had believed to have lived and died decades ago before her own birth was and is, the one and only, Julia Hoffman. Julia's secret past, was now ever present and living in the form of Quinn Devereaux.
****
At the Evans family cottage, Maggie carefully put together an easel. She, like her late father Sam, had taken up painting. It was a way for her to remove the tremendous amount of anxiety and post traumatic stress her life in Collinsport had handed her. It was a way to ease her psyche out of the trauma of all the years of terror and nightmares.
As Maggie painted away at a landscape she had imagined in her mind, a peaceful place where no one would ever bother her, there was a knock on the door. She carefully put down the paint brush and walked over to the lime green front door. She smirked to herself about how her peaceful landscape was taunting her now as the visitor kept knocking.
She looked through the peep-hole and saw someone she wasn't happy to see.
Serena Bellmoore.
Maggie opened the door and stood in front of the entrance like a statue made of iron. No one would pass her.
"Ms. Evans. Hi." Serena said softly, knowing Maggie still had massive reservations about her character.
"Serena." Maggie said in a cold greeting. "What can I do for you?"
"I came to see Sebastian." Serena answered, he was her boyfriend after all.
"He isn't here. David Collins called a few hours ago and said there was a job opening at the Fishing Fleet, he went down to see if perhaps it would be a job he liked." Maggie explained to Sebastian's girlfriend.
"Oh, he didn't tell me that." Serena answered in surprise. "So he's staying in town? He told me that we'd leave soon, back to Boston."
"I think he wants to stay here." Maggie said again in a cold tone.
"Look, Ms. Evans, I know that----" Serena began before begin interrupted by Maggie.
"Serena, listen, I don't know why you did what you did, and I certainly do not pretend understand it. I've been in many different terrible situations in my life, and trust me, I understand that everyone has a choice. You chose to do something very cruel, and it could have cost my own son his life like it did Christopher's." Maggie explained.
"But it didn't, I made sure Sebastian was safe!" Serena exclaimed.
"At Christopher's expense!" Maggie shot back.
"I love your son, I really do. Jeffery had me in a very bad place, he had complete control over everything once false move and I could have lost it all. And yes, you're right I made the worst decision of my life and I feel horrible that Christopher's life was taken. Horrible. I don't know how I'll ever live with myself." Serena lamented.
"Neither do I." Maggie responded with her trade mark snark to Serena's irritation.
"What do you want me to do? What can I do to show you that I want to be with Sebastian and that I would never hurt him? The only way I could keep Sebastian safe from Jeffery was..." Serena paused.
"Again...allowing someone else to die." Maggie repeated, she was grateful her son Sebastian was safe but at the expense of someone else's life, a person who was a member of a family she cared for was just too horrible to comprehend.
"I love Sebastian.That's all I can say, and I'm willing to do anything to prove it to you because I know how much he loves you." Serena said, her voice breaking up.
Maggie paused. She looked at Serena and saw that there was some sincerity in her eyes. She did believe that Serena loved Sebastian, but understood that love like this wasn't always healthy. Maggie's own relationship with her ex husband Thatcher was proof enough of this. But Maggie relented.
"It's going to take time, and obviously, there are things I hope to see from you as the months go by. Nothing is earned without work Serena. Not love and especially not trust." Maggie explained.
"I understand. I hope to gain it all back from you some day." Serena answered.
Maggie gave her a heartfelt smile then told her she would tell Sebastian to call her as soon as he got home. Serena smiled back and adjusted her coat and scarf and began to walk to her car. As she did, her cell phone rang. Serena dug through her purse and pulled the phone out and looked at the screen hoping to see Sebastian's name on it, unfortunately, it read JEFFERY SHAW.
Serena was unsure what to do. She just told Maggie she was going to do everything she could to prove herself, to show that she was trust worthy. Having any connection to Jeffery now would mean disaster for her, especially now that Maggie would be on her back day and night. Serena could tell that this was the type of woman Maggie was....strong, diligent and protective. Nothing would get passed her.
Serena took a deep breath and answered the call anyway.
"What do you want?" She said briskly.
"Miss Bellmoore, good evening. It's good to hear your voice." Jeffery said smugly.
"I asked what you wanted." Serena replied just as briskly as before.
"We're old friends Serena, there's no need for this kind of attitude, especially when you still owe me." Jeffery said.
"Owe you? I don't owe you anything! I did what you wanted. You have your son back." She replied as she sat in her car.
"He's back, you're right. But you still haven't repaid your balance in full. Something has happened, and I need your help to keep my son healthy." Jeffery mentioned.
"What?" Serena asked in total confusion.
"Get over to my hotel as soon as you can. If you're not here by tomorrow, I'll be sure to let the DA know that you too were involved with Christopher's kidnapping, and I'm sure they'd love to hear that mother Maggie and your new boyfriend covered for you too. My lawyer knows her way around a quick indictment. I'll take all three of you down. Do you understand me?" Jeffery said.
Serena was again caught up. Jeffery, now free from the clutches of the DA, would throw her under the bus for Christopher's kidnapping and Maggie and Sebastian under too for hiding the fact that she was involved. A felony.
Serena looked over at the Evans' family cottage door. She didn't know what to do, but was sure she couldn't allow Jeffery to take down both Maggie and Sebastian in anyway shape or form.
"Give me until tomorrow after noon...Ill help you." Serena said with frustrated tears in her eyes.
Jeffery hug up the phone and smiled evilly. He was about to get what he wanted and more.
