Series 11/Chapter 10: ALL GOOD THINGS

BARNABAS COLLINS

The sea began to calm. The storm that had come to Collinsport had finally moved through the area but the chill of the autumn air still stunk the naked skin. With the passing storm came the thick fog that had been held back at sea waiting for it's own time to roll back in and encapsulate a town that had for so many years been this type of foggy enigma.

On the docks, beyond the clanging the buoys and the flashing lighthouse in Collinsport Harbor stood Barnabas Collins, his pea-coat tightly buttoned to protect him from the frosty foggy air that was filled with the sounds of a splashing sea, and ships blaring their fog horns out in the open Atlantic wind.

He looked out onto the sea and watched as a ship sailed away from port to some far off place. Where was it going? Who was aboard? He could only imagine, he could only dream that maybe by some act of fate he too could one day just sail away like that...but that was not to be.

He was on the docks that night awaiting the last person he needed to see before letting go of this world forever, he needed to let go, it was the only way to bring home Siobhan.

"Barnabas." A soft voice said from behind.

Barnabas turned, and standing there equally as bundled up in dark red cloak and hood, filtered through the misty fog of Collinsport was the woman who set Barnabas on this journey from hell almost 300 years ago, the woman who for so long was obsessed with him, and longed to be loved by him. And with the lack of his love, her madness turned to spite, vengeance and most of all revenge. Standing in the fog with baited breath, was Angelique Bouchard.

"Thank you for coming." Barnabas answered.

"I'm surprised you wanted to see me after everything I've done. I guess you know that I can't help bring Siobhan back." Angelique said, referencing her powerlessness.

"I've been told." He said with an eyebrow lifted. "But how much of that is true?" He added skeptically.

"All of it. I've given everything I ever had away to Alexandra. She's now the most powerful woman on this planet. And for that, I have Curtis. He loves me." Angelique replied with a grin.

"And truly that's all you ever wanted, isn't it? Love. Someone to love, and someone who'd love you in return no matter what. I supposed it's sort of fitting that you give up your powers because if I know anything, its that love is the most powerful thing in the world." Barnabas said looking back onto the dark sea as it lapped up against the wooden posts of the docks.

"Love certainly makes us do strange and awful things in the name of it. I tried to find it with you... and with all the other men in my past; Sky. Roger. But... I have never felt anything like I have with Curtis. Barnabas, he loves me no matter what. Its.... unconditional." the former witch noted.

"Yes." Barnabas answered in a quiet tone.

"So what is it? Why did you need to see me? What could I possibly do for you now that I'm mortal and have no way to get you what you need? I'm useless to you now." Angelique said.

"Not useless...and sorcery is not why I asked you here tonight. What I do need from you, is ..." Barnabas paused, then with a soft voice that came from his human and kind soul, that for decades had been hidden in the shadows he muttered "forgiveness."

Angelique's eyes widened. That was not a word she had ever expected to hear from Barnabas Collins.

"Forgiveness ...of what?" She wondered.

Barnabas took a deep breath. He knew that over the years, it was she that had hurt him the most. It was she that had destroyed anything they could have ever had together. But he also knew that he could not move forward with going into the next world without a form of calmness and peace. Angelique was the holder of those two things, only she could grant it to him, powers or not.

"There are things as humans we do to each other Angelique, that no matter how supernatural our  bodies become or how distorted the images we want to project on to others are we must at some point reach out and try to mend fences with the past. It's the only way to come to terms with our mistakes, our faults and the horrible things we do with and to each other. I'm doing this now because I want to. I want to most through and find the light and be where I've always been meant to be. I can no longer suffer this way. It's time." Barnabas explained.

Angelique teared up. She knew that for all the hurt Barnabas had caused his family over the years, it had not been of his own choosing or making. It was all because of her, the curse she placed on him that lasted up until this very moment, albeit it had changed frequently over the decades, the truth remained: Barnabas was trapped.

"It wouldn't be right for you to seek my forgiveness and me not seek it from you, Barnabas. What we had along time ago was something that I ..." She paused unsure of how to describe what they had one shared. Was it Passion? Obsession? Fury? All of it. " I don't know." She finished.

She turned away and pulled out a handkerchief from her inside of her cloak and dabbed her big blue eyes. He walked up from behind her and placed his big hand over her shoulder and squeezed slightly letting her know he felt what she felt. A truce.

"It's no longer worth fighting  each other because the war you and I waged could never end and it would just go on and on and on. And now it seems you have found your happiness...with Curtis. For me, I know what my purpose is... I know where I belong now. We should end it here and now and that way you can move on with your new life with Curtis and I can save my daughter. That's all we want, isn't it? To finally be free of all of the terrible darkness that has had a grip around our lives for centuries, like the choke hold of the devil." Barnabas said.

Angelique turned to face Barnabas, his eyes deep and dark stared into her big blue pools. The fog caressed their skin in cool whiffs of ocean air.

"Like the devil." She said in a whisper, knowing she was now free of hers. Finally free.

Angelique nodded in agreement.

"I hope you can forgive me too. For everything. All of it. For the beginning to the end. I hope you can find you peace and move on into the light." She said, her blond hair glistening in the light of the lighthouse the came every few seconds.

"It's what we both deserve."  Barnabas said.

Angelique agreed and flipped the white scarf around her neck and gave Barnabas one last look. As she started to walk away, filled with the strange feeling of closure he called her name. She turned and only saw his silhouette in the darkness and fog, he seemed to be drifting backwards into the murky air of the evening.

"Yes?" She said as she began to walk back to where he was standing, but once she reached where she thought she saw him his silhouette he was gone and only his wolf cane remained on the dock all by its self interlocked on one of the wooden beams.

Angelique reached down and picked up the cane. She moved her finger over the smooth surface of the wolf head handle and looked around for any other signs of Barnabas.

But there were none.

He was gone.

****

At Collinwood David was pacing back and forth in the drawing room. His mind going in several different directions. He only wanted one thing: to get Siobhan back. Andrew came down the stairs and saw David clearly in a terrible state.

"You're going to have to keep it together, David. We're going to get Siobhan back. Barnabas has told you that's what he wants too, so we should..." Andrew said before David interrupted.

"Trust him? I know you weren't going to say trust Barnabas Collins. I wouldn't trust him if he were the last man on earth and if he continues to come back to life, he just might end up being that." David said.

"Look, Siobhan is Barnabas' daughter, he wants what's best for her, and that's clearly having her here for John-Michael, and you." Andrew said attempting to talk David off of the proverbial ledge.

As David and Andrew spoke in the drawing room, the doorbell rang. David and Andrew suddenly paused and David ran towards the door thinking it might have something to do with Siobhan.

Andrew's wolf senses spiked again. He sniffed the air the smelled of something pure, rosewater, candles. Brightness. A feeling of calmness filtered into his body that he had not felt before.

When David opened the door, standing there was Gabriel do Arco and his niece India.

Instantly, India could feel the power in front of her. She could feel the electric fury that the Mansion of Collinwood, a conduit that was a bridge of two worlds, burn into her mind. She saw faces fly by her almost immediately. Faces of the dead, faces of the forgotten. Then, like a lightening strike she and Andrew made eye-contact as he walked towards the foyer. He paused, started by her presence and power and backed away, keeping his distance from the strange energy coming from the young woman at the door.

"Mr. Collins, good evening." Gabriel said.

"Good evening, DA do Arco, what....what can I do for you?" David asked, looking at India as if he had seen her face before.

"I know that this is a terrible time to come by especially so late in the evening, but I really needed to speak with you and introduce you to someone." Gabriel said.

"Come in." David offered, still staring and India.

"I supposed you're wondering who this young lady is?" The DA asked.

"Actually, I have a very good idea who she is." David smiled proudly. "Dominique came to see me."

Gabriel paused unsure if David knew that it was her spirit and not really his sister in body form.

"I ....well..." Gabriel began before being cut off.

"I know what she wanted and that she had to tell me something and I'm assuming it's because of you." David grinned looking at India. "Are you India?" He asked.

"I am." she replied softly, her mind still a drift with all the faces floating by from the decades of lives that lived in the house before.

"You're exactly as I pictured you from the photo." David said.

"Photo?" Gabriel asked.

David reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the photo of India Dominique had left on the veranda the night she came to see David.

"She left it for me to see. And don't worry, I know ...I know about her passing. It brought me great pain to know that she's gone and I'm glad that you and I could connect like this even though she can't physically see this." David added.

India held the photo her deceased mother left for David to see. She teared up thinking about everything her mother had done to try and reconnect her with her father. It was a journey that Dominique had to do for her to find her way to the other side.

"Well, that makes my job much easier." Gabriel added in a relieved tone of voice.

"India, I just hope that you know that your mother and I met under an incredibly complicated time in both of our lives. We ..." David paused unsure of how to explain their situation at Windcliff that resulted in India conception. "We cared for each other very much." He finished.

"I understand. I know that you had a whole life outside of the those hospitals and my mother did all she could to seem as if it were a normal thing, being in there, but it is what it is. This is how I came to be and I have no shame in it." India said in a matter of fact way.

"She was a very wonderful woman indeed." David added.

"She cared for you very much, I can vouch for that." Gabriel added.

"That doesn't excuse what she's done to my wife, nothing would." David added.

India looked at Gabriel who had no idea what David was talking about. Gabriel had been so busy with everything else he had not known of Dominique's involvement with Siobhan being pushed into the vortex that landed her in the world of the dead replacing Barnabas.

"She's responsible for my wife's sudden disappearance from Collinwood and we're now doing all we can do get her back. You see, this land has a very deep connection to..." David paused unsure of how to finish his next sentence. Unsure of how to explain the inexplicable, even though Gabriel would have totally understood.

"Connection to what?" India said, her eyes glowing with pride at her handsome long-lost father.

"Uhh... another world." David replied, straight forward. "The world where we all go after we die. These are connections that are like live-wires, open and frayed and so powerful that if you get too close you may as well fall in and never see the real world ever again. That's what happened, Siobhan got too close and Dominique, for one reason or another, pushed her in." David explained as Andrew brought in the photos from Lucas's camera's.

India  was horrified. She felt terrible for it all. Guilty even. But the truth was, it wasn't anyone's fault. These were the cards they were dealt and now they had to somehow get themselves out of it.

"We have a way to get her back but its a bit dicey." Andrew mentioned handing the photos to India and Gabriel to see clearly an imagine of the ghostly Dominique pushing Siobhan.

Gabriel, who's own powers were strong, felt his stomach fall. He had no control of such things as opening and close the portals to the other side. Those things he believed, and was always told, were not for him to touch. The energy these powerful opening could and would always bring was almost certainly negative and dark. This unnatural opening and closing of the portals, made Gabriel fear for India's safety.

Gabriel's discomfort showed all over his face.

"Are you ok?" Andrew asked as Gabriel was visibly shaken.

"I don't really know what to say, all I can do is hope that things work out for Dr. Collins and that she returns safely. India we should go." Gabriel answered, cutting the visit and David and India's reunion drastically short.

"Already?" She said. "But maybe we can help?" She added.

"Yes we should go, please." her uncle replied.

"Help? How can you help?" Andrew asked, knowing something strange about India was burning in his mind.

"We should go India." Gabriel said again, this time forcefully.

"What's the rush? I know that things are a bit complicated right now but I still would like to get to know my daughter. And if you could help...well..." David answered before getting cut off.

"Listen, Mr. Collins, I don't know how we could help. I don't know what India is talking about."  Gabriel said, again knowing full well his realm was not to mix with the realm of the dead.

"India?" David said, hoping for answers from his new daughter as Andrew looked on.

"I..." She replied, feeling trapped in between the two men, her father and her father-figure. "I can come back anytime." India finished, siding with Gabriel.

"Yes, we came at a very inopportune time when your family is dealing with something very serious we should have made arrangements." Gabriel said trying to leave quickly, his discomfort with the subject of the other side showing quite openly.

"Please stay!" David exclaimed again.

"India is in town to stay as long as she would like. Once everything dies down..." Gabriel said, the irony of the word "die" not being lost on him "we'll come back or you can come see her. It's all going to work out. India?" Gabriel said, astonishing India who was confused.

David let them go but not before securing another time for India to visit--alone, no matter what was happening. He wanted her to get to know the rest of the family and to be sure that she felt welcome. It didn't matter to David the terrible things that could occur, what he wanted for India to see was that the Collins family put on a united front despite their hardships.



Outside as they got into Gabriel's car India was furious.

"Why did you ask me to come? Why did you ask me to leave school and come all the way up here if you were going to just do that---just take me away after 10 minutes of talking to them? I thought you wanted me to meet my family because it was a promise you made to my mother?" She questioned.

"I did make that promise! I did! But what you don't understand India, is that your mother has committed a crime against the universe. This is very serious!! She's taken someone from this world and passed her off into the next without that person dying, without that person properly going through the channels that we all must go through to see the light. That opening, that vortex to the other side is going to open again, somehow some way, David is intent on it, and I want you no where near it when it does, do you understand me? The opening of that world is a dangerous place. Do not step foot on this land until Siobhan has returned home safely. And until then we have to finally make sure your mother finds her own way into the light---god help us." Gabriel explained.

"But we could help them! We could help her too!" India said.

"INDIA ENOUGH! We can't step in. There....there is too much at stake. I have to protect you. Right now we need to just back away and let it all play out on it's own and hopefully Dominique can find the light and fix what she has done on her own. That is the way of the spirit world, we cannot interfere. Not any more. For your protection, India, your mother must figure this one out on her own." Gabriel explained to his pouting niece India.

India sat in the car in silence as they drove off. She could not believe what she was hearing. She could not believe there was true danger here, but her uncle Gabriel was adamant she not come back until it was safe.

As they drove off, India looked back through the back window at Collinwood, the large mansion that seemed to glow in the dark through the fog. The energy still filled her mind as clear as day.

She knew in her heart of hearts that she'd be back. No matter what.

****

Carolyn, Alexandra, Barnabas, Vicky and Julia

Late that evening, as the storm continued it's way north into the distance over the sea and passing over the horizon, a cold front came in. It felt as if it froze everything it touched. The wind. The grass. The branches on the trees. As the night progressed, four women made their way to the old house. They had come at the request of Barnabas Collins, he needed to see them, he needed to talk to them. They had received messages to meet there. None of the women knew the others had received this message from Barnabas, but never the less they all came.

Carolyn, Vicky, Maggie and Julia all showed up at the front of the Old House, dressed in the warmest clothes they had, all at virtually at the same time. They looked at each other unsure of why they were called there, but the nervous energy in each of them slowly died down.

Strength in numbers.

"Well this doesn't feel at all dangerous or peculiar." Julia sarcastically as all four approached the front portico of the Old House.

"You all got the same message I did, I presume." Vicky added, reaching down and pulling out a note card she mysteriously received under her door earlier that evening.

Carolyn nodded that she did, Julia pulled out the same note from her coat and showed it to the group.

"Same note." Maggie added.

"I almost didn't come. But something inside of me told me I had to be here. I had to make sure I came to see Barnabas as he wished. I don't even know why, with everything that happened at Collinwood; with David and Siobhan, I should have stated home. But... here I am." Carolyn added, feeling foolish.

"What do you think this is all about?" Maggie asked as the four woman paused to knock on the front door of the Old house and as she carefully touched the 12 inch steak hidden in her purse...just in case.

No one had an answer, Barnabas' message was vague and only asked for a meeting at 11pm that night. Carolyn rolled up her coat's sleeve and pulled down the glove protecting her fair skin and looked at the clock.

"It's almost time." She said "He's probably waiting for us."

"Do you think...." Vicky said before she paused unsure if she really wanted to finish her sentence.

"No." Julia interrupted. "This doesn't feel like a trap. I wouldn't have come if it were. He's too distraught over Siobhan to plot anything evil. This is different."

"I agree." Carolyn said as she reached up to knock on the front door.

"Wait!" Vicky said grabbing her sister Carolyn's hand stopping it from knocking. "Maybe it is. We don't really know which Barnabas is in there, he hasn't been back long enough for us to really tell if he's the cruel version of him or the version we all loved at one time or another. Do we trust him?"

The woman looked at each  other. Trust? What was trust among friends disguised as enemies or enemies disguised as friends? They had all been to hell and back, sometimes literally, over the years and there was no way to tell what would happen once they entered into that house, there was no way to know for sure what Barnabas really wanted until they walked in and found out. What was worse is that neither of the woman Barnabas had summoned could know which personality the man inside would have this night. Would it be the sensitive, kind man who struggled with his identity? Or the blood thirsty monster hell bent on destroying everything he could set his fangs on?

"I don't know if I can do this." Vicky said. "What if..."

"Vicky, listen to me, I can't say which man is there. I can't tell you if I'll believe anything he has to say but for one reason or another we all decided to show up here We can't just all decide to leave and never know what he wants. So ...let's go in and see what he wants." Julia said.

Carolyn agreed and knocked on the door. As the woman waited for what seemed like eternity, the door finally opened and revealed Alexandra Thorne.

"Alex!" Carolyn said shocked.

"Come in." Alex said, as she stepped aside to allow the four women to walk in.

"What are you doing here?" Carolyn asked. "Did Barnabas send you a note too?"

"I sent you those notes...." Alex began to say before Barnabas interrupted.

"I asked her to." The vampire said standing up in the drawing room.

"Why?" Maggie asked.

"Alex is special. You all know that. You've all seen just how special and miraculous she is. Aside from needing you all here I needed her the most." Barnabas said referring to Alex's powers.

Carolyn walked in and like a mother lion quickly stepped between Alex and Barnabas. Her mind only reaching to the darkest corners unsure of what Barnabas had planned and what he had possibly already done to Alex when they were alone.

"Alright, we're here, what do you want?" Julia asked.

"Alexandra." Barnabas said, as Alex stepped out from behind her mother and stood next to Barnabas.

"Barnabas has asked me here because he needs my help in getting Siobhan back to us. There's no easy way of saying this but, to get her back someone needs to go into the void, into the world of the unknown. In essence, the new person will replaced Siobhan so that she can come back. I can help open this portal and get her back." Alexandra explained.

"You're not thinking of taking Siobhan's place are you?" Carolyn said worried.

"No." Barnabas answered. "Someone else."

"I want Siobhan back as much as you do, Barnabas, but there's no way any of us are going to take her place. It's dangerous. It'..." Victoria said.

"Enough!" Barnabas yelped. "I'm not asking any of you to go to this world and get Siobhan back, I would never do that. I've asked you all  here to watch me as I go into the void that Alex will open and replace Siobhan in the spirit world. Where I belong. I've asked you all here because I want to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?" Julia asked, confused as she had always thought him immortal.

"That's right. Once I go there is a good possibility that I will no longer be able to return, you see the one that gave me this curse, the one that virtually created me this way has lost all of her powers. The Angelique Bouchard that was.... is no more. The curse is very much something that is on it's last legs. Eventually, I would cease to exist. I would eventually dissolve into time. Just a ghost, a past fragment of what I was and what I could become. No one wants to live like that." Barnabas explained.

"Is this really what you want to do?" Maggie asked.

"It is. It's time for things to change and there's really no other way I can get Siobhan back to her husband and child. This is what I want." Barnabas said.

"Barnabas I don't know what to say." Julia said.

"I think you're doing the right thing Barnabas. I think it's time that you let this world go." Vicky said as Maggie nodded her head in agreement.

Barnabas turned to Vicky, a woman he had been so obsessed with for so many years. Although her words were true, they stung him none the less.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you Victoria. I can imagine this might be some sort of happy ending....for you." He added.

"It's a fitting ending. Happiness is for stories. Happiness is for fables. This is beyond that, and...Vicky is right. It's time for you to finally find your way to the place you should have been many years ago." Maggie added.

"The place I should have been?" Barnabas asked unsure of what Maggie meant.

"That's right, the one place you for so long have been unable to reach because of your returns to this place. Your final destination ....with Josette on the other side." Maggie added.

"That's right Barnabas, she waiting for you there. She's been there all these years, centuries really and now, you'll be there with her.  If anyone is getting a happy ending out of this it you." Vicky said.

Carolyn grabbed Vicky's hand and squeezed tightly. The glow of the fire in the fireplace and the candles cast shadows all over the room that made it look like more people were there than actually were. It was as if 10 people stood in front of Barnabas who's whole body was now casting a shadow over the women who were facing him.

"Josette." Barnabas said softy. It came to him that Vicky was right. Despite using Alex's powers for a selfless reason, getting his adopted daughter back to the real world where she belonged the truth was the realization of seeing Josette again, once and for all and forever was the icing on the cake.

Barnabas grabbed a glass and filled it with sherry. He quickly downed the drink and cleaned the small amount of residue on his lips with the edge of his jacket cuff.

"Let us begin." Barnabas said.

"Please get into a circle, hold hands and close your eyes." Alex ordered as the four woman complied.

Barnabas, who was in the center of the circle, extended his arms and closed his eyes.

Alex began to chant in Latin:

"Aperta, huc. Aperta, nunc. Ac tenebras resarare. Ab inferis! AB INFERIS!"

Her voice rang out loud and powerful, and suddenly the fire in the fireplace blew out. There was a strange wind blowing in the room, swirling around the women like a tornado, like a raving river of air that pulled at their clothes and pulled at their hair. Vicky clenched her jaw, she could feel the rush of energy pulling their bodies in all directions. Carolyn grabbed the two hands that she was holding and squeezed tightly feeling the gravitational yank that was opening in the center of the room.

"Aperta, huc. Aperta, nunc. Ac tenebras resarare. Ab inferis! AB INFERIS!" Alex said again.

Suddenly a light became visible in the center of the room. It looked like a crack in a class cup that was beginning to split, getting large and larger in the center of the room. This was the opening of the other world, this was where Barnabas had to walk into and save Siobhan.

Barnabas looked at Julia and smiled at her, then at Vicky, then at Maggie, then at Carolyn.
These four women were so much a part of his life for so many years. It was difficult for him to say goodbye. For good or bad, this was his family, they were the foundation of the only family he felt any real connection to for over 50 years.

It was all ending and he couldn't believe it, but there was no other way. He had to sacrifice himself, her to bring his beloved Siobhan home. For Siobhan to be saved and for her child, John-Michael, to have his mother again, there was no other choice. It wasn't the first time Barnabas gave his life for the people he loved, but it would most likely be the last.

He reached over to his right hand and removed the silver black onyx that he wore almost all his adult life.

"BARNABAS! YOU MUST GO NOW!" Alex said as the opening in the center of the room began to shrink in size.

Candles in the room were now lighting and extinguishing, then lighting again, then extinguishing. Over and over. Lightness, darkness, lightness darkness. It was like the flash-bulbs of cameras, much like those Lucas Granger had placed all around the room.

"If you ever see our daughter Claudia again. If she ever returns to Collinsport and asks for me, and wonders where I have gone or wonders if I thought of her before I go, tell I did and give her this ring. Keep it for her until she returns. It will be the last she has of me." Barnabas said handing his ring for safe keeping to Carolyn who agreed to give it to his daughter Claudia, the daughter he had with Angelique decades ago.

"NOW BARNABAS!" Alex ordered, as the powers inside of her were beginning to weaken with her hold. Her mind was strong but the vortex of power was even more powerful.

Barnabas turned and looked each woman in the eye one more time. He looked into the lights and could see the souls of the dead; sad, roaring and crying inside. He could feel their pain filtering through the crack in the dimensions. It was time. He had to go, he had to go now or there would be no more time to save Siobhan.

"Remember me." Barnabas said with one last look at the women who changed his life forever.

Barnabas then turned back and looked into the portal that Alex had opened into the other dimension. The warmth of energy caressed his faced and began to pull him in. He stepped into the light and allowed it to pull. After a few seconds, Barnabas was closed enough for the energy's power to yank him in, as if he were sucked into outer space.

Julia was crying. Carolyn was crying. Maggie and Vicky couldn't believe their eyes. It was really happening. The man they feared, the man they hated and yet loved with all their hearts was gone in seconds. And with his vanishing within the light a giant burst of energy shot from the opening throwing the body of Siobhan Morgan-Collins; spitting it out like someone spitting out the pit of a peach onto the ground and with her exit the portal quickly locked up and closed vanishing from the center of the room.

The fire in the fireplace ignited without anyone touching it. Julia rushed down to see if her daughter was ok. Siobhan coughed, her heart was pounding, her breaths were shallow. But she was alive. And finally home.

Carolyn placed Barnabas' ring in her pocket and rushed over to Alex who was panting in the corner from exhaustion.

"Darling! Are you ok?" Carolyn asked.

"Fine. Fine. How's Siobhan?" Alex asked.

Carolyn looked over and saw her in a tight embrace with Julia, while Maggie and Vicky hugged each other too, feeling the emotions of the end of a legacy and a rebirth, of sorts, for Siobhan.

"Thank god you're ok, thank god you're ok!" Julia said.

"Where's David? I want to see David." Siobhan managed to say in a faint voice.

"Can you walk love? Can you walk?" Julia asked.

Siobhan said she could. Maggie lifted Siobhan's right arm and Julia her left and they rushed her to Collinwood where she'd reunite with the man and baby she loved so much.


"Is he really gone..... for good?" Vicky asked Alex as the three remaining women stood in the foyer of the old house.

Alex looked back at the painting done by Sam Evans that hung over the fireplace. She didn't have an answer. She didn't know the truth, but she knew Vicky was hoping for a resounding "yes". Alex didn't have it in her to lie. All she could do was smile and say "For now......"

Carolyn smirked nervously, and grabbed on to Vicky's arm as the too headed back to Collinwood leaving the Old House dark again. Dark and alone.

****

The next day at a cemetery in Augusta, Maine Gabriel brought flowers to his sister's grave. He looked down at her grave stone and smiled. He wondered about her. He wondered if she would ever appear again. He placed a giant bouquet of  flowers, white lilies, on her grave and removed his sun glasses.

"I promise you. I'll keep her safe. You need to go now. Find your peace too. Do it for India. Do it for yourself." Gabriel said in private whisper to Dominique's spirit he was hoping was there.

Gabriel reached down and patted her tombstone, dusting off tiny bits of grass that had flown over the hard rock with Dominique's name etched in it. He thought about how his whole life had practically been to protect her, to be sure she would always be safe. It was in his soul to do so, she was his best friend. Now she could be gone forever, in life and in spirit. That had a calming effect on him.

 He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the fresh Maine air and replaced his sun glasses and walked back to his a car that was waiting for him. Quinn, bundled up in a warm yellow and black scarf with a black coat, got out of the backseat and met him outside. 

"You ok?" She asked as she gave him a big hug.

"Fine." he said as he kissed her on the lips.

They had grown close over the weeks, so close that she felt safer around Gabriel than she had ever felt around anyone else. He protected her and warned her and wanted the best for her and she felt as if she could be there for him and India when they needed her too. She was planning on moving in with him. Their connection felt natural, and organic. She was now who he wanted to protect.

"Come on. Let's go home." Quinn said, as she turned and walked back to the passenger side of his car.

Gabriel took one last look towards Dominique's grave and hoped that she knew that once she could finally find peace, she would be able to go to the light and leave the world of the living behind once and for all. Then just as fast as they came, Gabriel and Quinn drove off back to blustery Collinsport leaving Dominique's grave to sit in the warm autumn sun.

A small leaf loosened itself from high above a tree next to Dominique's grave. It swung back and fourth in the air, falling towards the surface, towards the browned Autumn grass. And just as it got close, a transparent hand reach out and grabbed it before it hit the ground.

Dominique's spirit stood above her own grave, the leaf in her hand, she smiled. Pleased with her brother.

She felt peace. Finally. Her spirit turned, and began to glow, happy with the feeling her daughter and David were finally together and would finally become a family. Gabriel had truly kept his promise. 

****

Three days had passed and Siobhan had re-acclimated herself to life in the real world. She had no memory of being in the void or in the underworld.

She sat with her baby John-Michael, David and Julia in the drawing room playing with the baby. She felt a lightness inside of her even though so much suffering had happened in such a short amount of time. Her heart was happy, but broken for her father who had sacrificed himself to save her. She was also dealing with the fact her husband had another child. Something David refused to keep from her. He told her the truth as soon as he could. No more secrets.

"Are you going to be ok, having India come over? I know that it may seem so fast but I think that it would be wonderful if we got to know her as soon as possible. So much time has passed." David said running his hands through Siobhan's dark hair.

"I won't tell you what I think you should or should do about your daughter, especially considering what her mother did to me but I won't put that on her either. I know what its like to be blamed for what your parents have done." Siobhan said, kissing her baby on the cheek.

"You're an extraordinary woman, Siobhan Collins. I love you so much." David whispered.

Julia looked on skeptically and quietly at David and Siobhan smiled a tight grin when suddenly a knock came on the front door. They both turned and David knew who it was.

"That'll be her." he said.

"Are you really ok with this?" Julia whispered to her adopted daughter as the fire crackled in the fireplace.

"There's not much I can do now, can I?" Siobhan said with a coldness in her voice. "I’m just going to let the cards fall where the fall. David’s a good man, he’ll do what’s right for all his children." Siobhan added with her usual trademark diplomacy.

Julia scowled, lifted an eye brow and crossed her arms unsatisfied.

David opened the door and standing there was his daughter India.

"Come in! Come in!" David said, rushing his bright smiled new daughter into the drawing room meet her half brother and Siobhan.

"Welcome." Siobhan smirked.

"This is Siobhan’s mother, Dr. Julia Hoffman. She’s been part of our family for ages too. Julia's a wealth of knowledge." David said making small talk in the glaze of awkward introductions.

"Oh?" India wondered.

"Back in the late 60s, before she came to live here, Julia planned on writing a biography on our family. She's done hours and hours of research on our family tree." David added.

"Oh really? Maybe I can read your research and catch up!" India said politely.

Julia smiled, she felt a slight resentment towards the new member of the family, and only nodded.

"Unmm...I'm so happy you’re ok Siobhan," India said, quickly changing the subject from Julia’s old research in the Collins family seeing as Julia wanted nothing to do with India. "it must have been a terrible ordeal what you experienced."

Siobhan seemed to glaze over, Julia noticed her blankness.

"Darling, India was saying something to you." Julia said.

"Hmm?... Oh... yes, well I don't really remember anything. It's as if I was asleep for weeks it all happened without me knowing. I can't explain it. but ....thank you for ...your concern." Siobhan said, smiling politely, but giving off frigid body language.

"You know, why don’t you and I chat in the foyer, while Julia and Siobhan give Johnny his bottle." David said feeling Siobhan and Julia’s equal discomfort around India.

"Did I do something wrong? Or say something wrong?" India asked as she looked around the foyer.

"No, no, not at all. It’s just that I recently told her about you and she’s having a hard time adjusting to all of this so suddenly especially after everything that happened with her father.. She's actually a very nice, she's just been through a lot in the last few days." David offered as an apology for Siobhan's coldness.

"No, absolutely. I can understand that she's readjusting, its totally fine." India replied as Siobhan started daggers at her from the foyer.

"Listen, why don't you give her a few days, come back and have dinner with us, or even stay with us for a few days. There's plenty of room here at Collinwood you'd be more than welcome. So... the reason why I asked you to come by was so that I could give you this." David said, pulling out a key from his pocket.

It sparkled silvery bright in India's eyes. She smiled and gripped the key in her hand. She could feel the coolness of the metal fresh in her palm.

"What is this?" India asked, unsure exactly where the key was for.

"This key is to the front door of this house. It's yours. You're more than welcome anytime. You're a Collins, India. Now and always." David said smiling.

"Thank you. I ....I'm so grateful."

"Come back in a few days ok? Use your key." David said, again grinning from ear to ear.:

"Ok, that would be wonderful. Just give me a call when you think it's best. I'm definitely staying put here in town. For a long, long time." India said.

David and India hugged and as she turned to leave she looked up at the wall near the door and saw a painting of a man with a black onyx ring, a cane and a frozen look on his face.

"That's an interesting portrait." India said, passing her fingers across the painted onyx ring.

"That's my father." Siobhan answered as she and Julia walked in from the drawing room into the foyer with her baby son in her arms.

"The famous Barnabas Collins! My uncle Gabriel mentioned him to me. He said he was a mysterious man, sort of an enigma. " India said in awe, her fingers going around the oval shaped ring on Barnabas' painted hand.

"Infamous perhaps is a better word to describe him, but...yes, an enigma." Julia mused.

"He's more than just a that. He's ....my hero." Siobhan answered standing next to India now staring up at her adopted father's portrait, Julia out her hands on Siobhan’s shoulders.

India looked over at Siobhan and grinned, Siobhan stood stone faced looking back and her new step-daughter, unsure of what to think or how to bring her into the fold of the family. The chill from Siobhan stung India like the icy cold wind of winter.

"Well for what he did for you, I think he's a hero too. I think we all do. And I hope that somehow, some way I get to know about this family....about my family. That's really important to me." India said to Siobhan

"Well, maybe one day you will. Maybe one day you will." Siobhan said cryptically as she took John-Michael up the stairs to his bed room.

Julia began to follow her daughter but paused and turned back to India and David still standing by Barnabas’ portrait.

"When you’re ready for tutorial on the Collins family......come find me." Julia said as she slowly made her way up the stairs. "I'm always around."

David took a deep breath and shook his head as Siobhan, Julia and the baby disappeared into the upper chambers of the house. He grabbed India by the shoulders and looked into her green eyes. He felt a sense of pride of his new daughter. He could see her mother Dominique all over India's face. A woman David truly did care for at one time.

"Just give them some time. It's been a very rough few weeks for all of us." David reminded.

"Not at all. I totally understand." India replied, unfazed by Siobhan's rudeness and Julia’s strangeness. The cold-hearted feelings towards India were something she could sense, she could feel the awkwardness but inside India knew it would not last. Siobhan's heart was purer than that. The faze would end eventually. The spirits would allow them to somehow flourish as a family.  One way or other. Just like they always had.

India reached for her jacket on the coat-hanger and wrapped it tightly around her body. She smiled at her father and opened the front door letting the a sudden ray of warm sun burn into the room. Then natural light hugged the foyer and brightened it almost as it light had never reached that area of the house ever before.

David reached over and hugged India right before she left.

"See you soon." She said as the closed the door behind her, leaving David alone in the foyer staring up at Barnabas' painting.

****

The crashing waves blasted against the black rocks below a ridge of land that hung out on a cliff side known as Widow's Hill. The sun was shining in a cloudy sky and Carolyn sat on a bench she had erected in honor of Barnabas weeks ago and thought about the events of the past few months. 

Her family was no stranger to difficult or horrible events, but they had always weathered those storms and they always came out a better family on the other side. This time was no different.

The wind blew in her hair, the ocean air surrounded her with a salty tartness that made Carolyn feel like home. Collinwood was her home, and at one time she hated that fact. She hated the world she came from, she feared it and wished it on someone else, but when she came home 4 years ago from her life in London, that had changed. She realized just how proud she was to live where she lived, to come from where she came from and to be who she was. She was a Collins. And nothing would change that.

Her heart was full now. 

Carolyn reached into  her coat pocket and pulled out a small box where she had placed the Onyx ring Barnabas had given her for safe keeping. It was going to be saved for Claudia, Barnabas' daughter with Angelique that had disappeared 2 years earlier. Barnabas had always felt guilty about the way Claudia's life had turned out as a result of her having them as parents. This ring, a ring that so connected him to his physical body as much as anything could, would be his final gift to her. A peace offering, a remembrance. Something from him to her that would last forever. Even if he wasn't there to give it to her himself.

The wild wind blew off the ocean a salty rush though Carolyn's blonde hair. She felt the kiss of the fall surround her in the shape of a chill from the sea. It caressed her body and floated all around her like a fog that would soon roll in all around the land she called home. She grasped the box that held the ring and opened it ....the ring was gone. The box was empty.

Panicked, Carolyn instantly looked around thinking maybe it had fallen to the grass below. She fell to her knees and shifted through the wet grass with her hands frantically searching for the very last thing Barnabas had given her to hold on to for him. But there was nothing on the grass. No ring.

She went back into her pocket, the dirt from her hands wiped onto her clean coat as she pushed her hands into the deepest corners of her coat. Carolyn thought perhaps the ring had fallen out of the box and into her pocket. 

It was not there either. 

Carolyn, felt a little strain in her heart. A sadness. Something deep within her soul for losing the ring. With tears in her eyes she looked back and saw in the far off distance at her family's mansion, Collinwood.

The fog rolled over the roof like a rushing river of clouds. She saw a small light in a window brighten up far off in a west wing window. She stared at the home that she loved and hated for so meany years, where so many bizarre, terrible things happened that to so many were unexplained, just like Barnabas' ring suddenly vanishing without a trace.

Carolyn shook her hear. She began to cry hysterically as her heart rate began to rush, faster and faster with her increasing frustration and uncertainty of what happened to Barnabas' cherished ring. A ring he entrusted to her in his very last act of life.

She was sobbing now. Carolyn fell down to her knees, her face and hands in the wet grass. She could feel the earth through her fingers, tiny grains of soil soft and cold mixing with the drops of her angry, frustrated, broken-heart.

"Carolyn.... Carolyn! Are you ok? We've been looking all over for you." David said rushing over to Carolyn and picking her up off the ground.

"I... I ...I lost Barnabas' ring David, it's gone. I can't find it!" Carolyn said, her voice shrill with despair and panic. Her eyes filling with tears, her body shaking.

David could see just how mortified she was. It was as if she had lost something priceless, something that could never be replaced. And indeed she had.

"Carolyn It's alright, it'll turn up, don't worry. Don't worry.." David said, tightly grabbing on to his cousin whom he saw more as an older sister. "Everything is going to be alright. Finally....with every once of my body I can feel that everything is going to be alright." He added as the two continued to hug each other in the swirling chill of Widow's Hill.

David wasn't sure if they would find the ring or that if everything in their lives would be alright. He had no idea of the future. He only knew of the past... and how so many times the past often came back to this place. Perhaps the ring would too, one day, return to this shadowy mansion known as Collinwood on a wind swept cliff of Widow's Hill.

--*EPILOGUE*--

As India do Arco, the latest and newest member of the Collins family, left Collinwood after her brief meeting with her father David and his wife Siobhan and her new half-brother John-Michael, she walked slowly down the front driveway of the mansion. She stood in the graven of the drive and looked back at the large mansion sitting in the dense fog of the afternoon crawl over the house like someone was pulling a blanket of clouds over the roof. The sound of the waves crashed in the distance...a feeling of melancholy came over her.

Without really understanding or knowing why, India could sense the sadness that spilled out from beyond those walls from decades and centuries before her time. As she turned back to walk towards an awaiting car that David had set up to bring her to and from her new apartment in the village, a chill came over her. It was like tiny little needles were pricking the palms of her gloved hands, and then something appeared right in front of her. A glow. A bright light of spinning, churning white energy just floating above the ground. It stopped her in her tracks.

The light had traveled from a lighthouse just off in the distance that made up the portion of land just below Widow's Hill.

India stared at it not understanding what she was looking at or how the light was coming from so far away as the lighthouse but burning so bright in front of  her. It was beautiful in a way. It radiated warmth like the sun, it poured out a warm flow of energy from the center like a window of spring just billowing out light and heat. She reached out her hand to touch it as the light slowly began to come closer and closer.The light fluctuated from white to yellow to orange and a bright blue as it got closer to India and suddenly it touched her.

Chills again ran up and down her skeleton, like the vibrations one feels standing next to a giant speaker. The powerful burning light from the lighthouse, miles away, had come with to India with a message, with a purpose, with a mission.

India's eyes suddenly changed. Their hazel hue changed to a sparkling turquoise, then flashing into a yellow glow. She felt a flow of energy all around her like a fog that started to seep into her body through every pour on her skin. 

India stood on the front lawn of Collinwood staring out into the ocean that crashed and broke the silence of the late afternoon sky. She blinked slowly and took a deep long breath, a breath so gasping in sound and profound of air it was as if she had been holding it for hours. The veins in her neck and temple began to bulge she began to feel weightless yet she stayed firmly on the ground.

India suddenly felt a tugging at her neck and reached into her blouse and pulled out a long chain that had latched around her neck with the missing onyx ring of Barnabas Collins hanging on it.

She grabbed on to the long silvery chain and slid her hand in the shape of a fist down the chain until it reached the end where Barnabas' ring, bequeathed to his daughter Claudia hung. She squeezed it tightly and suddenly, she felt a the lighthouse's powers fill her body.

As the ring warmed inside of India's fist, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath again. She felt another rush of energy come over her like a wave of ocean water taking over her whole body, then the light that floated in front of her from the lighthouse had entered her body began to warm and burn in her chest, it started to come out through her skin, and her eyes and suddenly a blast of white light exploded knocking India unconscious. She could feel her body spinning in the light, turning and twisting, round and round in the burning spinning glass of the lighthouse that reflected years and years of Collins family history.

Spinning and turning and twisting in the reflection of glass and light. Over and over again.

Suddenly, in India’s mind came the echoing voice of a man... it echoed in a whisper from inside the light from the lighthouse saying "THE BEGINNING ......go....go there"

**

When India came to, she found herself again on the front lawn of Collinwood, where she was when the bright light from the lighthouse first came to her.

 It was pitch black all around her. Had she been there all night? The waves were crashing in the distance, the cold autumn air danced across her face like little breaths of air kissing her.

Had no one seen her? Had no one seen what had happened to her?

She rolled over from her back to her stomach and looked over towards the mansion. It stood in silhouette of night under a covered moon. She saw a person, from her glazed over eyes; a woman walking up the path in a light colored trench coat carrying two suitcases. India squinted to see if she could tell who it was, perhaps Siobhan?

India managed to lift herself up from the ground, her head was still foggy from what she experienced from the light that came to her bringing Barnabas' ring and the message from the voice of the man. She couldn't make sense of what had happened, she couldn't understand what the voice had meant when it asked her to "go to the beginning".

She felt strange, tired, and uneasy. As she got closer to the house, she saw that she did not know who the woman. It wasn't Siobhan, it wasn't anyone she had met. Perhaps a new visitor to Collinwood.

India paused just before she got to the front door. Something inside her told her to stop walking; stop walking and to not be seen. India's instincts led her to hide in the bushes as the woman on at the front door of the mansion knocked.

No answer.

The unknown woman to India knocked again. India was expecting David to answer, even perhaps Julia. But no one did.

Then the woman, young, dark haired and beautiful, skin like fresh milk, eyes light hazel, knocked one more time as the wind fresh off the sea gushed over the grounds of Collinwood with a cold bite fluttering the woman's hair and rustling the bushes India was hiding in.

Then, almost out of no where, the great oak double doors opened revealing a beautiful woman in all black, dripping in diamonds and pearls.

"Mrs Stoddard? I'm Victoria Winters." The voice said.

"Come in Miss Winters." The woman replied stepping aside for the young dark haired woman in a pale trench coat to enter with her two suitcases.

India was confused. Who was this other Mrs. Stoddard, it wasn't Carolyn. It was someone completely different.

India stepped out of the bushes and on to the front steps of Collinwood, she reached over to knock on the doors too and as she did she noticed her foot was on a newspaper left on the door step.

India moved her foot and reached down to pick up the paper, and as she did, a howl of a great animal in the woods echoed loudly and then she saw something that sent a cold river of fear up her spine.

The date on the paper, in thick black ink read: 

JUNE 26th 1966 

India covered her mouth to muffle her scream at the sight of the date. Her mind was all over the place. How could she be where she was. How could she had traveled backwards in time? What was really happening?

How was it possible that she was transported to Collinwood 1966, the very day Victoria Winters arrived to begin her wild and strange journey with the Collins family, and now India was there, trapped 53 years into the past to experience first hand the strange, the bizarre, the dangerous and every single dark shadow to come.

India, too confused and terrified to knock, rushed back down the front path of the mansion. She had no where to go, no one to call...she stood in the center of the foggy front path of Collinwood, and icy wind blew over her peach toned skin. A wild wolf howled again in the distance at the moon chilling India to her bones. Her eyes teared up and she let out a helpless whimper of terror. Why was this happening to her? And the ring...Barnabas' ring, did he have something to do with it?

Then, like ghostly words floating in her mind, echoing like a ray of hope came to India . The voice were words spoken to her just moments before she was transported to this time, from a person who knew Barnabas and his motives better than anyone living or dead. These words were India's call to action, and perhaps her only chance and figuring out what was happening to her. 

The words of Julia Hoffman from 2019: "Come find me......"

Victoria's arrival at Collinwood in 1966, India observes in terror

India do Arco