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| Serena in John-Michael's nursery; Barnabas' reflection |
The autumn chill of the day seemed to evaporate in the early hours of the morning. At Collinwood, David and Siobhan's son John-Michael was setting in to his new routine with his new nanny, Serena Bellmoore amid the hustle and bustle of caterers and interior decorators that were dashing in and out of the mansion with handwritten notes from Carolyn of her plans for a fancy dinner for many of the Collins family's most beloved friends happening later that night.
This would be a dinner to formally welcome Andrew Shaw into the Collins family fold, into the sacred inner circle that would hold and secure every secret the walls of Collinwood hid away.
Everyone would be there.
But the business of the day, didn't hide the strangeness and mystique of Collinwood. Despite it's shining 17th and 18th century accouterments and facade of a stately and grand mansion, this shadowy halls and explainable noises in empty rooms still weighed heavily on Serena's mind.
Yet again the new Collins family nanny's world was about to change forever.
Serena walked into John-Michael's nursery carrying his diaper bag and a fresh pair of clothes. She was ready to take him on his first excursion out to Founder's Park that afternoon. She began folding some of his small shirts and little pants when he slowly stood up in his crib and began giggling. Serena turned to look at the happy baby thinking she would find him giggling at her, but he was staring directly into the corner of the room.
"Silly!" She said walking over to him. "What are you looking at?"
Serena stepped over to the crib as John-Michael pointed at the corner of his nursery and laughed some more. She picked him up and stared, cautiously, in the direction he was pointing.
"What is it?" She wondered, seeing nothing in the corner to her naked eye.
The baby kept laughing.
Serena kept staring at the corner, then looking back at the baby who was transfixed by something in that area. But there was nothing the new governess could see. She put the baby back down into his crib, unsure of what was happening and chocked-it-up to weird things babies do.
She slowly walked back to the changing table next to a large vanity. She began to pack the diaper bag for their afternoon picnic and heard the baby give a loud laugh. Serena looked up from the changing table into the mirror to see a large shadowy figure standing next to the crib reaching in for John-Michael!
Serena's heart sank, she quickly turned around to confront the intruder but as she did, there was no one there. No Shadow-man, no intruder. Nothing.
Her heart was beating a mile a minute. She could have sworn someone else was in there making the baby laugh. She was not seeing things. Serena slowly walked back over to the crib and John-Michael was sitting, giggle and pointing up at her.
"You are definitely happy today, aren't you? What was that, huh? What was just here?" Serena asked, as she slowly bend down to pick up the baby again.
The baby, now facing backwards as she bounced his plump little body in her arms, began to giggle again facing the mirror next to the changing table. Serena turned back around and in the reflection in the glass she saw herself holding baby John-Michael directly next to the shadow-person.
Serena screamed and turned to her left then her right but there was no one in sight. She looked back into the mirror, her breathing shallow, her eyes petrified with fear, the shadow-man was still there. Standing like a ghost in the glass but invisible in real life.
Serena, carrying the baby, walked over to the mirror, slowly, one foot in front of the other, slowly, pacing herself, getting closer and closer to the glass. She and the baby were now only 6 inches from the glass, the shadow-man still standing in the reflection next to the crib, she could make out a coat, thick and black, she could make out part of the person's face, clearly male.
She peered deeper into the cold glass and the shadow-man slowly stepped forward. The closer he got, the more and more of his featured were being revealed. Her breathing was now shallower and shallower, she could feel her chest tighten with fear as the shadowy figured got closer.
Her breath now fogging up the glass, and the intruder's ghostly body just inches from her, Serena could now see what this person was revealing, the ghostly figure of Barnabas Collins, John-Michael's material-adopted grandfather.
Serena screamed frightening the baby who began to cry. The glass in the mirror shattered causing a giant crack that went the length of the glass. Serena turned around to look Barnabas in the eye but there was one there, she turned back around to look in cracked mirror and Barnabas' reflection was now even closer to her than before reaching out for his grandson.
Serena screamed again and rushed out of the room with John-Michael screaming in her arms. She rushed down the hall, and burst open her bedroom door and plopped the baby safely on her bed then covered the two mirrors in her room with scarves. She then frantically searched in the pocket of her jacket hanging behind her bedroom door for her cell phone and dialed her boyfriend Sebastian.
"Babe? BABE!" She screamed.
"Serena? What is is? Are you ok?" Sebastian asked.
"I don't know if I can do this. I can't ...I .... I can't do this!" Serena's panicking voice shot back.
"What happened? Tell me what happened?" Sebastian said, as Maggie entered the living room of the Evans family cottage, her face covered in concern from Sebastian's tone.
"I was in the baby's room. I was just standing there and he was... I don't know. He was laughing at something, I turned, and I saw someone, but I didn't see anyone. I was alone but I wasn't!" Serena nervously explained.
"What do you mean you saw someone but you didn't?" Sebastian questioned as Maggie sat down next to him.
"I was there in the room Sebastian, just me and Johnny, and I couldn't believe what I saw. I ... was in there with Barnabas Collins! He was there too!" She said, her voice thin and panicked.
"Barnabas? No. That's impossible. We all know he's gone this time, for good!" Sebastian replied as Maggie gasped at hearing Barnabas' name.
"Are you kidding?? Do you know who we're talking about? Because I do!" Serena shot back, understanding that anything was possible with Barnabas and the entire Collins family.
"Look, honey, if you wan't I'll head over there and spend the day with you and Johnny. But you have to remember, Barnabas died, he's gone. There's no way he could come back this time. Everyone has said so." Sebastian answered trying to calm Serena.
Serena took a deep breath and went over and sat with the baby who was sniffling away his terrified tears. She picked him up and cuddle with his, his little hands attempting to reach for her cell phone while she talked. Serena began to calm down, and realized she was perhaps over-reacting. That whatever she saw was maybe her imagination. A work of her nerves from being in a house with a history of secrets and ghosts. In her mind, Barnabas had turned to dust six months earlier and could not possibly be in the baby's room with her.
"I know. Ok. You're right. This is crazy, I don't know what I really saw ...I saw him, I did see him. It was his face. Maybe it was just me imagining him?" She answered back with a question hoping Sebastian would agree.
"Exactly!" He answered as her hands shook with nerves.
Serena took a deep breath and went over to her mirrors and removed the scarves.
"Where's the baby?" Sebastian asked.
"Here. With me. In my room."
"Ok, just stay there, I'll head over and stay with you to make sure you're both ok." Sebastian said.
"Ok." Serena replied, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Is anyone else home?" Maggie asked, in a whisper.
"Is anyone there with you? At the house?" Sebastian questioned back, mimicking Maggie.
"Everyone except Siobhan." Serena replied.
Sebastian nodded yes to Maggie and Maggie mouthed back "don't tell them."
"Listen, sweetie, don't say anything to anyone Ok? For now, just keep it between the two of us and we'll figure it out because, well, we don't want to alarm anyone." Sebastian replied to Maggie's agreement. "I'm on my way."
Sebastian hung up the phone and Maggie stood up with him. She was nervous too. Her whole life had been trying to regain control of her life after Barnabas set it careening into chaos after he kidnapped her and allowed all of the shadows that followed him into her life.
If anyone knew the trials and tribulations and trauma caused by Barnabas, it was Maggie.
"Just make sure you don't tell anyone. No one...yet." Maggie said to Sebastian as he got his coat.
"Ok, but why? If Barnabas has made an appearance, shouldn't you tell the family?" Sebastian asked as he paused by the front door.
Maggie's eyes glazed over in thought. Her mind knew the logical answer to his question was yes, but her experience with everything involving the Collins family was to tell him that there was always much more under the surface than what first appears. They needed to wait and find out just what lied underneath before letting anyone else know.
"You have to trust me." Maggie said. "Don't tell a soul. Get Serena to calm down and we'll figure everything else out later."
Sebastian shook his head in disbelief at what was happening and reluctantly agreed, then dashed out of the cottage and headed for Collinwood.
Maggie walked back towards the sofa and sat down. Her mind racing, her hands clenching with worry. She was unsure if what Serena saw was real or some residual energy left behind by the many other spirits of Collinwood that could have manifested as Barnabas just to scare Serena.
But Maggie then shot to the other aspect...the possible truth: Could it be really Barnabas? Or someone else? Was it someone safe, or more dangerous? Or no one at all. The variables were endless.
There was no way to tell for sure, until the spirit Serena saw made more appearances. Maggie wondered to herself, how could she find out what was happening? How could she get more information about what Serena had experienced. To get in front of the danger before it happened was the only to thwart it. Then, in a sudden moment of clarity, Maggie was reminded of someone, someone she had once known, someone that helped her many years ago just before her divorce from Thatcher.
She rushed over to a desk and pulled open a drawer removing a small black leather bound address book with the initials M.E.B. on the front in gold---Maggie. Evans. Banning.
She quickly flicked through the pages and found the name L/GRANGER. A friend of Maggie's from London who had moved to Boston 30 years go. A man who's work in the paranormal helped her connect with Ezrabette Baptiste, the witch in the woods outside Collinsport that kept Maggie's children safe from harm when she went into hiding all those years ago.
If anyone could find out if Barnabas was tying to reach out from the other side, it was Lucas Granger.
Maggie, grabbed the phone. The dial tone rang loud in her ear. She dialed.
"Yes, hello, is this Lucas? Lucas. Granger?......Lucas....hi...it's Maggie. Maggie Evans. I know its been a while. A long while, hasn't it?....Listen, what if I told you that perhaps I had a job for you.....That's right....I think I need your help ...he made contact. Barnabas. Barnabas Collins."
****
Across town, in a large brick 5 story building first erected in in 1873, Quinn Devereaux dusted off a shelf in her new office as a new Assistant District Attorney in the county. She was just one of 2 new people arriving in the building today; the other the brand new District Attorney who had transferred to the area to clean up the various legal messes the last DA had created, especially with Jeffery Shaw's case. Miraculously, Quinn had got off clean for her involvement in the bizarre deal she made for her late client after his clear guilt in Christopher Reed's death.
Julia Hoffman was on hand to help her granddaughter Quinn get settled into her new office.
"It's not bad." Julia said reaching into a box and removing a plaque with Quinn's Law Degree. She stepped over to a blank wall and placed the frame in the center, tilting her head to one side unsure if she liked it there.
"You know, you don't really have to help me move all this stuff in. It's not that much, I'm sure you'd rather be doing anything else." Quinn set as she untangled cords for her computers.
Their relationship was still in it's infancy. Julia had returned via a twisted time travel plot by Victoria Winters to discover she had a granddaughter from a previous, unknown marriage in the 1940s. As they attempted to get closer, Quinn still had many unanswered questions, especially why Julia disappeared from her father Michael's life and never attempted to be with him again.
These thoughts and concerns about the truth of Julia's past were still a mystery to Quinn. But she wanted answers. All of them.
"It's fine! I want to help!" Julia replied, doing all she could to make up for lost time and perhaps making up for the guilt she had for what she had done to her first husband Lawrence, the secret Quinn still did not know. "Have you met your new boss?" Julia continued.
"Not yet." Quinn said, still feeling a bit awkward around Julia, but trying her hardest to be friendly. "He should be in this afternoon to meet everyone. I'm a bit nervous too, since I'm new to this side of it all. Being Jeffery's personal lawyer is a whole different ball-game than being on the side of the state. But I think this change was much needed. I'd rather dig out the bad guys then help them like I did with Jefferey." Quinn added.
"You did what you had to do. That's how we all are. We do what we need to do to survive and keep our heads above water. Sometimes it's not really what we saw for ourselves...but...it's human nature." Julia said cuddling the plaque in her arms as her words rang true for herself as well.
"You know, Julia...I was thinking about that, you know, about things we do in life that perhaps change the outcome of our futures, and maybe one day we can talk about my father, and your first husband and..." Quinn began oozing bravery from her words to ask about Julia's mysterious past just as Julia interrupted clearly bothered by her newly found granddaughter going to her dark place, a place Julia kept locked away in the back of her mind too afraid to peek in and let out the monsters that dwell there.
"I think this would go better on this wall." Julia said totally ignoring Quinn.
"Julia, did you hear what I was saying?"
"The light from the window shines brighter here in this corner and your degree would stand out here, what do you think?" Julia said, ignoring Quinn's request.
"Julia..." Quinn said again hoping Julia would budge.
"Quinn!" Julia said turning around in a snap. "I think right now we need to focus on you moving into your new office, ok?"
Quinn nodded in agreement feeling Julia's uncomfortable body language and her voice coming off irritated. It was obvious Julia was not willing to budge; her grandmother clearly not ready to discuss her murderous past.
The awkward silence was then suddenly broken.
"Ms. Devereaux?" A man's voice said from the door. It was the tall and handsome Gabriel Do Arco, the District Attorney & Quinn's new boss, standing at the door in his beautiful and perfect dark suit. His eyes a deep brown, like the wood paneled walls that surrounded Quinn's office.
"D.A, Do Arco! Hi! Welcome, welcome! Come in!" Quinn said rushing from around her new desk to shake his hand.
"Settling in?" he asked, also nervous on his first day.
"Trying. This is my grandmother, Dr. Julia Hoffman," She said to the DA, then turning to Julia and introducing her new boss "this is D.A. Do Arco."
"Pleasure Doctor."
"Likewise." Julia grinned. "Listen, darling, why don't I let you two talk and I'll run down and grab a coffee." She said, feeling the relief of being able to escape Quinn's questions.
Julia rushed off allowing the two new legal eagles to chat.
"I've heard a lot of great things about you Ms. Devereaux, it's going to be a pleasure working with you. I know that you were often under a lot of pressure with the previous firm you worked for and I will let you know that, even though a lot of what you did with them was unethical, I specifically requested that we hire you on. I think everyone deserves a second chance." Gabriel said.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it. I'm not proud of what I did for that old firm and for Jeffery Shaw, not in the slightest, and I really want to make it up to other victims of violent crimes. Christopher's death was unnecessary and I hope that some how I can make up for covering it up." Quinn confessed.
"I'm sure you will."
"So, I was told you moved down from up-state to be here?" Quinn wondered.
"Yes, Augusta actually. But I've been back in these parts for a while. Something always draws me back here." Gabriel confirmed.
"Family?" Quinn wondered.
Gabriel thought about how to answer his the new lawyer in the office. He wasn't sure on how clear he could be on why he returned so often to Collinsport and why he left. He just knew that he was there now and that's all that mattered. He seemed uncomfortable with her one word question and Quinn could sense it.
"I mean...you know we all have our reasons for coming and going." She said awkwardly.
"I guess we do." He answered. "But yes, I guess family is one big reason I'm here again." District Attorney do Arco answered to Quinn's sort of relief. "Anyway, it was great to meet you, I'm going to head off and try and get this day started for myself." Gabriel said with a wink, quickly cutting the conversation short to Quinn's even bigger relief.
He reached out his hand to shake Quinn's, she reciprocated and as they touched hands she noticed something about his eyes, a flash or a spark that turned his eyes from the dark brown to a bright hazel, almost like something from inside his body lit up and shined though his eyes, but only for a split second. He quickly blinked and the light vanished as quickly as Quinn saw it.
He smiled and grabbed his briefcase and set off to the meet the rest of the people on his team. Quinn stood in her room, confused at first, unsure of what she had seen. Was it in her imagination? Was she sure she actually saw light flicker from Gabriel's eyes. It was odd, it was very odd, but she had seen stranger things.
Quinn let it go, chalking it up to an illusion, perhaps something from outside that shined through the window. She dusted off her hands and decided to go back down into the Lobby of the building to meet up with Julia for a coffee.
Over in a corner office, Gabriel closed and locked the door places his briefcase on his desk and waked over to the glass windows that faces the cubicles filled with secretaries and other lawyers that worked in the office and shuttered the blinds.
He walked over back to his desk and opened the briefcase slowly. As he did, a bright light from inside the case shined, like powerful rays of sun beaming onto his handsome face. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, inhaling the light as if it were what gave him his life.
He closed the briefcase and opened his eyes, they were now a glowing brightly like the flickers Quinn had seen. He quickly blinked, and the light had gone, returning his eyes to normal. Gabriel was more than just the District Attorney. He was more than just a handsome face for Quinn to gawk at in the halls. He was something otherworldly and connected to a dimension and place that no one would understand if he even tried to explain it. He didn't understand it himself. It was as if he was chosen by some higher power to be there, back in this town--protecting. Like a moth to a flame, Collinsport had called him back for one reason or another.
Down in the lobby at a coffee machine Julia quickly sipped from the small cup of bitter black coffee. As she turned to the entrance of the building, Detective Loomis McGovern was walking in to deliver paperwork to the District Attorney's office on a case he had been working on. Julia's facial expression turned sour, and not from the coffee, but for the man who exposed her deepest darkest personal secret to David and Siobhan six months earlier.
"Here to ruin someone else's life?" Julia said, stopping Loomis dead in his tracks.
"Dr. Hoffman, what are you doing here?" Loomis asked, nervous at her confrontational stance.
"Well, if you really need to know: my granddaughter has been hired as one of the A.D.A.s and I'm here helping her fix up her new office. But I guess you know that, because you seem to enjoy knowing everything about my life." Julia hissed.
"Dr. Hoffman, if this is about what David asked me to investigate, I'm really sorry. I understand how uncomfortable it is for you to know that someone went looking into Quinn's past but David felt it was necessary, he was trying to find out what he could about her to see if he could gain some leverage over her...this was really about getting justice for Christopher." Loomis said, explaining Julia's secret was only exposed because of David's digging into Quinn's life.
Julia squinted her eyes as she realized she was only collateral damage, but damage none the less. She gave him a look as if she were trying to choke Loomis with just an icy glance but she knew he was right. There was nothing she could do, except make sure Quinn continued to be in the dark and didn't know the full truth.
Just then, the elevator doors opened, Quinn stepped out, coming down from her office to find Julia. She noticed Loomis' stiff body language with Julia and her gut told her something felt off. Quinn quickly hid behind a partial wall that allowed her to hear the conversation without being detected.
"Detective, do you know what would happen to me if what you discovered were to come out? Do you?" Julia badgered.
"Doctor Hoffman, I understand...."
"I'd be destroyed--again--Detective. I've worked too hard and come too far to allow anything from my past to ruin what I have worked so hard to maintain. My relationship with Quinn is fragile, its new. I cannot let anything, or anyone get in between the only remaining family I have on this earth. I mean that. You have no idea what I have been through." Julia said.
"I have an idea." Loomis commented, reminding her he's looked into her past...all of it.
"Then you also know what's at stake. My whole life. My daughter, grandson, granddaughter. Everything. No one, Loomis, no one can know what you discovered. And I will make sure that if any of it becomes public knowledge that your badge is ripped from you so fast you'd think you were in a hurricane, because I'm sure your superiors would be horrified to know you looked into the past of a current Assistant District Attorney for a private monetary transaction with David Collins." Julia threatened.
"I think that would be a mistake." Loomis countered.
Julia smirked, she knew Loomis thought he had the power of the Collins family behind him. But Julia was smarter than the average bear, no one, not even the powerful Collins family could ever stop her when she had made her mind to get what she wanted. She had 50 years a proof of that in her own background.
"David won't be able to help you once I get my hands on you. Just remember that." Julia shot back.
Loomis nodded that he understand and Julia lifted her head and let him pass her to the elevators and continue his business at the office leaving Quinn in complete shock from what she had just heard Julia say. What was the secret? What did Loomis discover for David?
Julia's past seemed to be buried again, but Quinn, who had so many questions about her father's family was barely cracking the surface of the bevy of secrets hidden behind Julia's walled off history. A wall that Quinn was determined to bring down and have it all out in the open, no matter what it would expose.
Quinn was done with secrets; once and for all.
****
The mansion on Widow's Hill had it's share of residents over the decades, but this set of housemates was a bout to expanded. Already living at Collinwood were Carolyn and her daughter Alexandra; David, his wife Siobhan and their baby John-Michael; and over in small house on the property in what the family called The Rose Cottage, Julia was staying with Quinn; Serena was in and out as John-Michael's nanny within the 8 hour window that she worked, yet a new resident was about to make an appearance.
On this day, the Collins family would welcome Andrew Shaw, Alexandra's new love. His father was dead, and he had no other family in the area. Given what he and the rest of the family had been through, the family welcomed him with open arm.
They gathered together for a formal welcoming dinner that night. Black tie. Jewels. Champagne. All the finest things the family could offer a man who's memories and DNA were now and forever a part of their own family thank's to the horrible things that had happened to him via his father's evil, and successful, plot of merging Christopher's DNA with Andrew's creating a super human that was finally able to control his lyken strength.
In a formal dining room servants carried dishes to serve a 12 person table that was set with giant candelabras and center pieces of short vases of white hydrangeas flown in from California's Pacific coast. Carolyn carefully and meticulously choose the fish and meat dishes with perfect precision to fulfill her enlarging family's appetite.
As the dining room decor was was being perfected by the staff, the clan gathered around gossiping and chatting in an adjoining smoking room awaiting Curtis and his date's arrival.
"Still waiting on Curtis?" Maggie asked as she sauntered over to David and Siobhan in their fancy clothes shipping on champagne, the dim candle light filtering a beautiful glow around the whole room.
David nodded yes.
"Has anyone been able to see Vicky since she's been up at Windcliff?" Maggie added looking directly at Siobhan who was the head of the hospital. Siobhan felt uncomfortable.
"I was just telling David about the doctor who took my place as I was out. He wants to continue his treatments on Vicky." Siobhan said to a surprised Maggie.
"You're going to allow that?" Maggie asked as Carolyn stepped in as she excused herself from a side conversation with Alex and Andrew.
"We're going to be able to see her, aren't we?" Carolyn asked.
"I assume so, it would all depend on Curtis who is her next of kin...and her doctor." Siobhan answered.
"And you? Right? Your chief of staff?" Maggie interjected.
"Maggie..." David said, his voice trying to tame what he could already see was a frustrated Maggie.
"I think we should really know what's happening to her David don't you?" Maggie asked.
"Siobhan is a professional. If she thinks that this doctor can be good for Victoria who are we to interject and say she's wrong. Listen, when I saw Vicky the night she was taken to Windcliff, she was in bad shape. Something really changed in her. I'd never seen her like that before...she was really ill." David said, pushing back on Carolyn and Maggie's obvious doubts of his wife.
"And if her doctor believes Vicky can receive visitors I wouldn't stop anyone from going." Siobhan added. "I have full confidence in Dr. Wolf, he did a wonderful job while I was on maternity leave but I can understand why he wouldn't want to change Vicky's routine now that I'm back. She's rather fragile as you can imagine with the trauma she's endured and I won't cause any more against her doctor's wishes." Siobhan said to Carolyn and Maggie's obvious dislike.
Maggie and Carolyn were concerned about their old friend, and sister. It was important to both of them that someone in the family make sure Vicky was OK, that she was being treated well and if Siobhan, who was not only a member of the family but also the doctor in charge of Vicky's overall care couldn't get them the info they needed things would have to change. No member of the Collins family's care would ever again be allowed to fall through the cracks of the mental health system.
David suffered, Maggie suffered, Carolyn suffered. There was a long history of issues with Windcliff and the family wanted to be sure Vicky was safe.
Julia, standing with Quinn over by a window overlooking the Collinsport night, gripped her champagne flute tightly as she noticed the tense conversation her daughter Siobhan was having with Maggie, Carolyn and David, and slowly began to make her way to bail her daughter out just before the energy of the room changed again. First with Quinn.
"You still have that motherly lion instinct, don’t you? To protect your child no matter what." Quinn said sipping her Champagne, her voice projecting a sense of irony for her own father being abandoned by Julia over 70 years prior, for reasons Quinn still did not know.
This struck Julia, it was like a right hook to the jaw. Unexpected. Painful. She knew what Quinn meant. She knew exactly what she meant.
"My mother is fine." Curtis said overhearing the main conversation about Vicky. He finally entered the room with his date Cassandra.
Everyone turned and noticed the beautiful brunette woman on his arm. She was stunning, with piercing ice blue eyes, perfect skin and a white dress so tailored to her body it seemed as if it were a second skin.
Cassandra of course, was the alias and disguise of Angelique Bouchard. Her clever shape-shift covered up her true identity and allowed her to move around town and mingle among the people that hated her most and believed her dead.
"You made it!" Carolyn said breaking the tension, as she rushed over and gave Curtis a kiss on each cheek. "We're so glad you made it, we can finally get Andrew's party started." She said looking at Curtis then squeezed her nephews hand, a sign to introduce him to Cassandra.
"Aunt Carolyn, everyone, this is my girlfriend, Cassandra Capwell. Cassie, my family." Curtis said with a loving grin.
Everyone smiled and said hello, except Alexandra who suddenly began to fill a strange tingle up her spine. She grabbed Andrew's hand and squeezed tightly.
"What is it?" He whispered.
Alex looked over at him and then over at Cassie who was staring directly at Alex. Their eyes meeting in the candle light like darts striking a bulls-eye.
"Alex?" Andrew asked again unsure of what was happening. He looked at her arms and saw the tiny little blond hairs standing up. "Are you ok? Are you cold?" He asked still unsure of what was happening to Alex.
Alex took a big gulp of air, she too wasn't sure what had made her feel that way. "I'm fine, I'm fine."
As the family continued to chat away, a servant entered the room and announced that dinner had been served in the luxurious and posh dining room next door.
The fancy dressed family all began their short walking into the adjoining room and made their way to their seats that were glamorously marked with their names.
It was the first time Andrew had seen the dining room. It's an ornate Gothic style was overwhelmingly beautiful to him. The two large chandeliers above glimmered with dim light that did not over take the candelabras in the center of the large table. The walls were all painted with wall-to-wall frescoes of scenes of Collins family history: Isaac arriving on the Maine shore, the people that built the Old House, waves and ships and the beautiful wife of Isaac, Annabella Collins, sitting in a rococo style swing in the massive Collinwood garden and courtyard with a painted fountain in the center.
"Its beautiful." Quinn said as she came around to Andrew's side, they had become best friends despite the terrible things that his father had done to both of them.
"Its a little unreal." Andrew whispered back as they both sat down with the rest of the clan.
Julia quickly made her way over to Siobhan and sat down.
"Are you ok?" She whispered to her daughter, a reference to the tension between Maggie and Carolyn and Vicky's care at Windcliff.
Siobhan smirked, and grabbed her mother Julia's hand. "It's fine."
"Don't let them steamroll you," Julia added, "Especially Maggie. She's got away of getting involved in other people's business that sometimes has very bad consequences."
Siobhan looked puzzled. "For who?" She asked
Julia lifted an eyebrow "For everyone."
"Well she is sort of intertwined with us, wouldn’t you say Julia? You would know exactly how Maggie's entanglements with our family went down. I’d say she has a right to voice her opinion."
David interjected referring to Julia’s use of Hypnosis on Julia decades ago to suppress her memories of Barnabas kidnapping her.
"David!" Siobhan said shocked his attitude.
"David just feels that perhaps I ..." Julia began before David interrupted.
"Not to exhume old corpses Julia, but you know exactly what you did for Barnabas and you know exactly why Our business is Maggie’s too. Barnabas made sure of that." David said cynically.
"David why do you always have to mention my father in such a cold way. He wasn’t all blood and guts you know? He loved me. He took care of me when Julia left us. He was a good father." Siobhan said defending her adopted father.
"Tell that to Claudia." David snapped back, his inhibitions lowered and fully feeling the buzz of his champagne.
"That’s enough!" Siobhan snarled
"Alright alright. Calm down. Both of you." Julia said trying to calm the always tense conversation between David and Siobhan any time Barnabas was involved. David never fully trusting him--ever.
As tensions between David and Siobhan spiked under a glistening chandelier and soft candle light of the family dinner, things were about to get even stranger on the other side of the room.
"Cassie, tell us about yourself." Carolyn said as the servants brought in the first course.
"Well, I'm a nurse at Windcliff, so it's a bit strange having a lovely dinner with my boss." Cassandra said referring to Siobhan as Chief of staff.
"How long have you worked there? Curtis didn't tell us you much about you and certainly not that he was dating a nurse at the hospital his mother was in." David added as he poured himself a brandy.
Cassandra, her love curse still firmly in place of Curtis, winked at her lover and smiled back at David.
"He was being careful, it might cause some trouble with people if they knew his mother's nurse was also his girlfriend but, we decided that if anyone had an issue, we could meet it head on." Cassie said as the family looked at each other unsure of what she meant.
"Well, if you have any information about my sister, I would assume you'd let us know how she was wouldn't you? Curtis hasn't been very forthcoming. You can imagine how worried we are. Its been 7 months since anyone has seen or heard from her." Carolyn shot back.
Of course Cassandra, Angelique, knew this already. She had made sure no one knew about Vicky. No one could ever see Vicky. If they did, if they knew the truth, her whole plan would be destroyed and she'd lose everything all over again. It was too much of risk to let anyone besides Curtis, who was under the spell, anywhere near Vicky.
Under the table, Cassandra squeezed her fist, twisting her powers around Curtis to respond.
Curtis felt a squeeze in his chest coughed, a trigger from the magic over his body.
"Aunt Carolyn, I told you. She's fine. I really would hope that the family would just allow her to heal from everything that has traumatized her over the years without interfering. It's important to me that she gets this time to herself....with no one coming to see her." He replied coldly
"I just think that..." Carolyn said as Cassie interrupted.
"This is really the decision of her doctor. Dr Wolf has made sure that Ms. Winters will be very well taken care of." Cassie said with a cold glace at Curtis.
"Dr. Wolf was supposed to keep Siobhan informed for us... and....he hasn't." Carolyn replied.
"I'm sure he will. After all it's just one patient. Siobhan knows what she's doing, I'm sure she can round Dr. Wolf up soon, right darling?" Julia interjected coming to the defense of her daughter.
"It's also my decision. I have to keep saying how much I really think this time apart from Collinwood is really changing my mother." Curtis added, his total lack of empathy from the family becoming a glaring change in his behavior to the rest of the Collins clan. Even David, who had come to take Curtis under his wing, seemed a bit put off by his cousin Curtis.
Carolyn's mind was unchanged, and her suspicions of Curtis deepened, but smiled back at Curtis. She was determined to figure out what was really happening with Vicky, but there was a time and place for everything. She allowed Curtis to win this battle as to not continue the uncomfortable talk at dinner. She stood up as the head of the table, her small stature now towering over everyone else seated and raised her champagne class.
"Right! Well, we're not here to talk about Victoria, although I wish she were here to enjoy this wonderful night along with us. What we are here for is to welcome you, Andrew, to our family. 6 months ago we lost our beloved Christopher but in a twist of fate he lives...in us...in this house... but really he lives in you. You are apart of him and so apart of us. Andrew, you're family now, and I welcome you into our wild and crazy fold and most of all Welcome to Collinwood. To Andrew!
"To Andrew!" Everyone else replied with raised glasses.
As the night progressed and the family ate through their first course and the second course was brought to the table, Sebastian and Serena talked about the frightening ordeal she had gone through earlier in the day with John-Michael and the visions she saw in his nursery.
"I'm so glad you came when you did, I don't know what would have happened to me if you didn't come. It was the most scared I felt in a really long time." Serena said in a hushed voice so that only Sebastian could hear.
"Are you sure you don't want to tell David and Siobhan what you saw up there?" Sebastian asked as he cut his steak.
"No. Absolutely not. They'll freak out. Especially David. Besides I don't even know if it was real. Maybe it wasn't, maybe I was just seeing things, I don't know." Serena said, although she knew full well what she saw and that it was real.
"I just don't want you to come to work every day scared for your life and for that baby's life. If you want, I can talk to Siobhan, she seems a little more understanding, especially when it comes to things in the 'Barnabas' category." Sebastian said, again only in a volume for Serena's ears at the table.
"Let's just see how things work out." She replied, her hands shaking from nerves as she grabbed her glass of water.
Alex, who was seated at Carolyn's left and facing Cassandra couldn't get her mind off of what she had felt when Cassie and Curtis walked in. Her mind felt clouded and she couldn't focus on any conversation that she and the rest of the party was having. It was as if she were in a room with a TV on blaring it's fuzzy white noise and she was trying to talk over it but unable to get the noise out of her head.
The noise, of course, was a powerful block of energy coming directly from Cassandra/Angelique. It was a magical fore-field the witch brought up around her so that Alex could not detect the shape-shift spell. This energy force-field was invisible to the naked eye and only effected Alex who's powers were growing more and more each day.
It was as if two live wires were touching, the adverse effect on Alex was a spark of power making insides and brain feel as if they were being turned inside out.
Nothing was making sense. Nothing was clear. Alex began to feel queasy, and the room began to spin. Cassie looked on with curiosity Alex began to spiral into flop-sweat.
"Are you ok darling, what is it?" Carolyn asked as she began to notice her daughter's face was not well.
"I ...." Alex said but nothing else came out.
"Alex?" Andrew asked.
"Is she ok? Alex? Alex are you ok?" David asked from across the table.
"I.... I think I need to lay down." Alex said, her face pale, cold, with beads of sweat at her brow.
"Maybe she had too much to drink." Cassie said in a wicked giggle to Curtis, knowing it was because of her Alex was ill.
"Come on, I'll take you upstairs." Andrew said as he helped Alex up.
Alex and Cassie's eyes met again, Cassie grinned at her rival sorceress and sipped from her champagne flute and poor Alex was taken away in a sweaty heap.
"Pity." Cassie said to the group. "I didn't really get to talk to her. I loved her dress!"
Carolyn looked at the strange nurse with an unforgiving glare.
"She'll be fine." Carolyn said as she excused herself and followed Andrew and Alex upstairs.
As the dinner began to wind down, and dessert was served. Carolyn walked back into the dinning room and said that Alex was beginning to feel better but would not return.
As they finished their meal, Maggie suddenly heard a ping from her purse. It was her cell phone. She slowly reached down near her feet and removed her phone and looked at the text message.
It was from her friend Lucas Granger, the text read:
"JUST GOT TO TOWN, AT INN.... GOT HERE AS FAST AS I COULD.
ROOM 242. COME BY WE NEED 2 TALK."
Maggie replaced her phone in her purse. And looked around the room. Carolyn was concerned about Alex and Vicky. Siobhan seemed distant from everyone, even David. Sebastian and Serena's nerves were on edge, Julia and Quinn had their own walls up, Curtis was not himself, and the new woman in the room seemed to be relishing in everyone's uneasiness.
Something inside of Maggie told her that there was danger, again, within the walls of Collinwood. There was danger all around her, she could feel it in her bones, in her blood, in her brain. All her senses were telling her that something was deathly wrong. Barnabas' appearance in the baby's room, the strange behavior everyone involved with Vicky's well-being at Windcliff, Alex's sudden illness....it was happening. She could feel the wind's of darkness flowing back in.
Maggie reached back down into her purse and pulled out her cell phone to reply to Lucas,.
"BE THERE IN ONE HOUR. WE HAVE LOTS OF WORK TO DO. NO ONE IS SAFE."
