Series 11/Chapter 7: IN ROLLS THE FOG

Barnabas meets Gabriel in Julia's Mind

Often times we as people forget that our deepest darkest fears lie within us not because we fear the unknown, but because we fear what we already know. We know of the cruelty of humanity and what we are capable of doing to each other, but we don't always know just how far someone would go to keep themselves safe. Like a an animal cornered, the human rage can explode at any moment.

Quinn unknowingly dodged a bullet the night before when Julia decided not to use the serum to hypnotize her as a remedy at steering Quinn's unconscious mind in a different direction--away from the truth. Quinn's nerves were still on edge, however, when it came to her grandmother's secretive life and past that no one would tell her about.

Quinn's suspicions were getting the best of her, she could tell whatever Julia wasn't telling her was as explosive as a powder keg in a match store, begging to explode.

It was mid afternoon on an overcast gray Collinsport afternoon and Quinn sat in her office and stared down at paperwork. The words on the paper blurred in a mixture of black ink and white paper as her mind floated off into a distracted world of thoughts and "plan B's" ....what should she do next to look into Julia's secret? It was eating at Quinn from the inside out.

"Morning." A voice came from her office door.

Quinn lifted her emerald green eyes and saw her new boss Gabriel do Arco standing with a bright grin on his face.

"You ok?" He said, handing her a coffee from a cafe down the street.

"Sorry, I've just had a lot on my mind." Quinn said standing from her desk and removing a short jacket that matched the cream color of her office walls.

"Anything I can help with? I've been told I'm a very good listener and since I kind of already know there's some tension with Julia, I'm sure I can help." Gabriel answered.

"Listen, I know you're just trying to help but....it's just a really long story. My grandmother has gone through a lot and I'm really just trying to sort it all out." Quinn replied.

"Quinn, you can tell me anything." Gabriel said,  his eyes sparkling with fondness that peaked Quinn's interest.

Quinn grabbed the coffee from the table, her facial expression revealing a confused but intrigued look about Gabriel and his opinion of Julia.

"The other day in the car on the way to work, you said I needed to watch out for Julia. You were warning me of something. What was it? What do you know?" Quinn questioned.

"Sometimes we just have to watch out for ourselves and I could tell there was tension, or something going on with your grandmother. I'm very intuitive that way." Gabriel said, hiding the fact that he saw a vision of Julia attacking Quinn with a needed.

"I think maybe that's where I'm confused, Gabriel, there's no tension between my grandmother and myself." Quinn said trying to trap Gabriel figuring he knew more than he was leading on. "Where would you get that idea?"

Gabriel knew that Quinn was lying. He knew that there was something going on especially because his visions are never wrong. He looked at Quinn and could see that she was trying to find out the truth about something, something about Julia, but the truth would be hidden until Julia herself unlocked that secret.

 Gabriel sighed and decided that it was not his place to stir the secretive pot that Julia was burning.

"Whatever it is you're going through, I just want you to know that you don't have to be afraid. I would never let anything happen to you. Never." He said.

She looked over at the handsome man she knew as her boss and felt an ease wash over her entire body. There was something about him when he spoke. She believed every word. She, oddly, believed that he would protect her, she believed that he cared about her and when he told her to watch out for Julia, she believed that too. Which was the biggest reason for her anxiety.

Gabriel was a warm creature filled with some sort of light. He was there to protect people in a way that no one really knew and no one could understand if they knew. His mission was to shine light on all the darkest places and Collinsport was a breading ground for this type of place, it had been for decades.

His sister Dominique, who's life in the shadow world brought her back to finish what she started with David was only one of his many tasks...and now, protecting Quinn, beautiful auburn haired, emerald eyed Quinn, was on his radar.

"I think you know more than you're leading on Gabriel. I just wish people in this town told me the truth. Don't you feel it? Don't you feel the secrecy at every corner? I don't know how much more I can stand it. I just need the truth." Quinn complained as she sipped from her coffee.

"The truth is sometimes harder for people to understand than the reason for it being hidden. We can't always process the truth in a manner for all of us to comprehend, maybe that's why you're not getting it. Maybe that's why the people who love you are protecting you from it." Gabriel answered.

Quinn took this into consideration and allowed her mind to go into that thought process; would she really be better off not knowing the answer to her family's mystery?

 Gabriel's wise words burned inside of Quinn's ears as if he kept repeating them over and over again. But she knew herself better than Gabriel did. She needed the truth to move on.

"You're very wise Gabriel, but I think that keeping things locked away like I believe my grandmother is, is more destructive than just letting things be. I have to find out. I just have to know. This is my family too." Quinn replied.

Gabriel smiled, he understood, he knew that it was something incredibly important for her to connect and know everything there was to know about the family she was born into. Julia's murderous secret needed to come out. He reached over and grabbed her hand and as they touched and a flash of light shot into his mind instantly transporting him to the night before in Julia's bedroom.

He saw Julia in her room surrounded by darkness and the light of candles. He could tell she was scared, she was terrified. Gabriel could feel another energy. Something or Someone else was there with Julia.

Gabriel's heart was pounding. He could feel the electricity of that second being throbbing all around his own. It was horrible and he could sense that this malevolent spirit was from another dimension was there filling Julia with that paralyzing fear.

Then Gabriel saw it. The spirit. The energy that he was sensing, it materialized right before his very eyes: the face of Barnabas Collins. The vampire, the man lurking with the un-dead; staring back at Julia through the glass of the mirror. Gabriel stood in Julia's room, a recreation of the night through the touch of Quinn. It was all so real. Gabriel walked over to the bed where Barnabas was standing in the reflection, they were now both together in the in the mirror standing side by side.

The light, and the dark.

Barnabas turned to Gabriel and smiled.

"Well, you've bitten off more than you can chew, haven't you Mr. District Attorney."

"Who are....you?" Gabriel asked as the candle light floating around the room in an orange murky glow, Julia frozen in time as a memory.

"I am a lot of things, but this sensation you're having. A malevolence, a coldness. This ...dark figure I can see you are sensing. I'm not that. Yet I am. I'm like the moon...there is always a side in the shadow of the sun." Barnabas explained as he stared down Gabriel.

"The sun." Gabriel said softly, as he saw his own inner light glow like the candles all around him.

"That's right. We all carry both. Inner darkness. Inner light. I, perhaps, more than anyone one that has ever lived understand how each of us can fall prey to the pitfalls of living with both of them inside of us. Perhaps, you understand, being what you are." Barnabas continued.

"What do you know about me?" Gabriel growled.

"I can sense you too Gabriel. You are the sun, and perhaps I am the moon." Barnabas admitted.

Gabriel turned and looked at Julia frozen in time.

"Are you going to hurt her? Or Quinn?" Gabriel asked.

 "You fear me. I can sense it in you. I can taste it in your energy. Trust me, we're much more alike than we are different. Both of us from a type of world, created in the shadows of the supernatural.  Both of us fighting to keep our families together and both of us pushing for the truth to be born again. And no. I would never hurt Julia or Quinn. I care for them. I love them." Barnabas said turning from Gabriel and walking over to Julia who was sitting at her vanity, frozen as a figment of the vision Gabriel was having.

"We are not the same. I can't feel your heart beating...I can see the darkness within your mind. Are you the secret Julia is hiding from Quinn? Are you the reason she wants to take away Quinn's right to know her family history?" Gabriel questioned.

Barnabas laughed and looked at the image of Julia in the mirror. The vampire shook his head and looked back at Gabriel. He opened his mouth and hissed a cruel withering hiss with his fangs pointed and sharp, he needed the life force of blood to push him past his darkness but in the world of the un-dead, there was no such things as blood. Barnabas was thirsty, and the real world was calling him back. The sight of Barnabas' fangs scared Gabriel to his core.

"Unholy." Gabriel whispered.

"You have no idea." Barnabas answered with a grin.

"What do you want with this woman?" Gabriel asked referencing Julia.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. You see Mr. Do Arco, for centuries  I've been wanting various things. I've wanted love, I've wanted freedom, I've wanted life, I've wanted death. And now, I want nothing from no one. Its like a freedom I've never experienced before. But I feel the pull...I feel the power of ....of I dont know....something. It continues to pull me here, to this time. Its a tether I can't remove from my spirit." Barnabas explained.

"Something sinister in you...something..."Gabriel began before being interrupted by the vampire's ghost.

"I can see that my mere presence frightens you, it makes you tense and hardens your stance, but I can assure you, I finally want nothing from anyone. I'm only here to warn you about what you're stepping into." Barnabas explained.

"What?" Gabriel asked.

"A world of smoke and mirrors. Julia's truth will come out, but trust me it will be on her own terms. Quinn will not be harmed. You can rest assured." Barnabas explained.

Barnabas then began to walk back towards where Gabriel was standing near the bed in Julia's room. Her stepped up to Gabriel, the man of light, the man of hope, the complete and direct opposite of Barnabas, the man of darkness, the man of destitution and grabbed his hand and lifted it up to his mouth. Barnabas opened his mouth and revealed his fangs again and began to come down on Gabriel's wrist.

Gabriel jolted away and found himself back in Quinn's office jolting his hand away from Quinn's.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Quinn asked.

Gabriel didn't know what to say. He had had another vision, this one much more powerful than he ever felt. He looked down at his wrist and saw some abrasions, two small marks on his wrist, like imprints that did not break skin. He remembered what Barnabas said.

"Sorry, I was day dreaming." Gabriel said to a confused Quinn.

Gabriel got up from her desk and turned back around to see her beautiful glowing face in the mid-morning sun coming through her office window.

"I'm here for you Quinn. Whatever happens, whatever you need. I'm here for you." Gabriel told her.

She saw his glow, just slightly, spark from his eyes. It was strange and she thought she was seeing things, and as he left her office she felt a strange and wonderful sense of calmness fall upon her out of no where. It was as if a warm blanket covered her whole body. It was a sense of protection and safety, a feeling she had not felt in a very, very long time.

In that moment, she knew she could trust Gabriel with everything. Including her life.

*****

A fog rolled into town cover the slick streets like a wave slithering over wet sand. It blanketed Collinsport in a soupy white mist and cuddled every street lamp that lit the dusk sky. Walking along the wet path up to Curtis' apartment door was a cloaked figure, statuesque and lean.

The figure only stood in the street and stared at the front of Curtis door, wishing for things to be different. Wishing things had worked out better in their favor. But things were not so, and change had to come.

This was her goodbye. Angelique pulled down the hood of her cloak, a single tear rolled down her cheek and burst over the curvature of the heart shape of her lips, but as she turned to walk away one final time, Curtis emerged from inside the apartment and their eyes locked.

"I..." Angelique said, her voice uncharacteristically trembling with nerves.

"I thought I'd never see you again." Curtis said, stepping into the foggy street.

"I don't know why I came here. I just needed to be close to you one more time before I left." Angelique replied.

"You're leaving?"

"Of course! There's no way I can stay. Not after everything I've done. Not after everyone I hurt. Especially you." She said.

Curtis grabbed Angelique by the hand and held on.

"You almost destroyed my mother. You could have killed her. She's...she'll never ever be the same. But..." he paused. Unsure of what he was about to say and how Angelique would react. "I still love you. No matter who you are. I know the real you. I felt who you were inside. There is a person deep down in there that only wants to be loved just like anyone else. I don't know where any of this will go or how we'll all get through it, but I know we will. We've gotten through so much more. So much worse." Curtis explained.

Angelique looked at Curtis like he had three heads. She had never seen such kindness before. She had never see such selflessness and openness before. Her heart had always been trampled on by the men she loved and when she had her powers she'd always use them as a form of revenge, a way to pay the pain forward. It was a vicious cycle of lies, pain, destruction, exposure and repeat. But Curtis was trying to break that cycle and actually work through the damage.

"I don't see how any of that is realistic. No one would accept me. I don't even know how you could accept me." Angelique said pulling her hand away.

"You know I love my mother very much. She's done everything she could to raise me and love me and treat me just as her own. And I've had a wonderful up-bringing. But she's not perfect. She's done things to people she loves that are pretty shocking too. If we saw past her mistakes, how can she not see past other's?" Curtis replied referencing the fact that Vicky's own demons only a few years ago.

It was true, Vicky's return to Collinsport was wrought with scandal, including her attempts to seek revenge on the whole of the Collins family by killing them by means of the secret society that infiltrated their home and picked them off one by one and even kidnapping Curtis as a baby and taking him to a different time where she raised him as her own.

For all her misdeeds, Vicky was forgiven. For all her mistakes, Vicky returned to herself again. For all the hurt she caused and pain she inflicted 3 years ago on the family she loved, she was taken back in because if anyone in the world understood imperfections, it was the Collins family.

Curtis knew this, and what he knew more was that his mother was imperfect, but not a hypocrite.

"I just don't see it." Angelique whispered as she turned away looking towards the horizon. "There's nothing in this world that I want more than to be with you Curtis, but I can honestly say that I don't believe anyone--especially Victoria--will accept me. No one."

"I'm going to marry you Angelique, because I love you. And that's the truth. No one will stop me." Curtis said.

Angelique could not believe her ears. She could not understand how he could still feel this way about her even after everything she'd done. After all the deception. She was powerless, her curse had broken and he still felt love for her. Angelique could feel the bubbles of happiness float inside her stomach, she could feel the heat of passion filling the tips of her cold fingers and the warmth of Curtis' love go up her arm and into her heart and warm her whole body.

But was that enough? Was his love enough to show the world that she was deserving of it too?

And just as that happiness built inside of the former powerful witch, it was about to come crashing down. In Curtis' doorway stood an angry Victoria Winters.

"Get away! Get away from here!" Vicky screamed as she rushed down the front path of Curtis' apartment forcing Curtis jump in between the two women he loved as Vicky was close enough to Angelique to reach for another slap across the face.

"Mother! Mother! Calm down, please, calm down!" Curtis said, tying his arms into Vicky's.

"What is she doing here? You know how dangerous she is!" Vicky shouted.

Angelique, now mortal and powerless lifted the hood of her cloak and looked at Curtis. She whispered only "I told you."

"Mother listen to me. Stop. Stop." Curtis said, holding Vicky's flailing arms down and looking her dead in the eyes. "Listen to me. You have to stop this. Angelique has giving up her powers, they're gone. Forever....she can't hurt us like that anymore. I promise. Please....calm down. We have to stop all of this fighting back and fourth, the cruelty will never end if we don't forgive each other."

"Forgive?!? You must be under her spell still...that...I can't even believe you'd ask me that. She tried to kill us all, she tired to have me go insane she....she wanted us all dead." Vicky shouted.

"Doesn't that sound familiar?" Curtis shot back.

Angelique perked up.

"What?" Vicky asked, her body suddenly relaxing with the shock of Curtis' accusation.

"It wasn't that long ago that you tried to do the same thing. You programmed Caleb to kill his own family a few years ago. You used mind control tactics to brainwash him. You had Kimberly lock David up in Windcliff years  before that to make him go insane. It's because of you Christopher's parents altered his DNA with a lycan, it's because of you I was taken to a different time and raised by you. You caused pain too mother." Curtis said, listing all of Vicky's own past crimes.

"No, stop this, you don't understand I was....I was ...." Vicky was speechless. She was heartbroken her own son would use her own past mistakes and devious behavior against her in such a way.

"The only difference is mother is that we've all been able to put what you did  behind us because we love you and know that the real you, the you that was always deep inside that broken heart was doing this because of that broken heart. You were forgive, and because of that your bond with your family has strengthened. Why can't we do that for Angelique? Why isn't she worthy of forgiveness?"

Angelique couldn't hold back her tears anymore. She was seeing and feeling true love like she had never felt before. It was something she never thought she'd experience in all her life. No magic, no spell, no supernatural concoction could ever take the place of something as true as what Curtis was doing for her at that very moment on the pavement outside his apartment in the dense and cold fog of the evening.

Vicky looked around Curtis and saw Angelique standing there, her eyes bloodshot with tears, her face a pale pink from crying. She then looked into her son's eyes, the son she raised in secret that she loved so much and realized the monster this time was her.

Vicky knew that love would always triumph over evil. That love was what made the darkness in the world all around her always brighten up.

She knew there was nothing she could do. Love was love. And if Curtis was going to love Angelique, Vicky would have to swallow her pride and meet him half way or else lose him all together.

Vicky released herself from Curtis's grasp and slowly walked up to mortal Angelique who took one step backwards into the slick black street.

Their eyes met, Vicky's lip trembled. They were old foes, foes of 5 decades, and now they'd come at a cross road. Their mutual love of one man would again be their nexus.

"If you hurt anyone I love every again Angelique Bouchard, I swear to you, it will be the last thing you ever do. I love my son with all the power of this earth and I will protect him, so I ask you....protect him too, protect his heart, his love and protect his trust. He's choosing you...don't squander that choice, don't let him regret it."

Then, Victoria Winters, a beauty of a woman, who in her 70 years of life had seen so much pain and destruction had rebuilt her life with her adopted beloved son Curtis was now bowing to the pressure of giving someone a chance. But that was what mother's do. Vicky turned and walked passed her son and touched his face. She smiled and turned back to Angelique again, the smile vanished but a respect was born.

"Come inside, it's getting cold." Vicky said as she then walked into the apartment awaiting her son, and Angelique.

****

Collinwood, engulfed by the flood of fog pushing past the ocean's wild waves, sat on it's perch above Widow's Hill with it's lower level lights burning like the glow of stars in a muddy sky.

David stood alone in the courtyard just outside the drawing room still dressed in his sharp dark suite from his day at work sipping on a night cap of brandy. He look beyond small stone barriers adorned with leafy green ivy and small bushes. He could hear and smell the sea just over in the distance. It had been a very long few weeks.

Suddenly, as he began to feel the relaxing and warmth of the brandy swim though his veins and relax his muscles, he heard a rustling in the bushes. It sounded larger than an animal. It sounded as if someone was standing in the topiaries with their gargoyle pots breaking through the  bushes in the dark to make it to the edge of the veranda right where David was standing.

"Hello? Who's there?" David asked, squinting in the dark and foggy night.

And like the spirit she was, Dominique do Arco stepped forward, Her hair dark and wavy, her eyes bright almond brown, her skin fair and perfect like fresh milk. 

David couldn't believe his eyes. He had not seen Dominique since their time in Windcliff years before when she was transferred to the hospital in Augusta. She had been taken out of the hospital when their affair was discovered and he had not known of her death, David was in shocked to see her either way.

"What...it can't be....Dominique?" David said stepping slowly closer to the barrier. 

"Hello David." She said in a whisper, her gray dress flowing in the soft breeze.

"What are you doing here?" He asked quickly opening a small gate for her to enter the veranda.

"I came to see you. I've been waiting for this moment for so long." She said.

He grabbed her and held her tight, but quickly released her remembering his wife, Siobhan's face popping back into his mind. The woman he loved and the woman he once loved creating a mish/mash of emotions in him as the fog of the evening swirled around the two former lovers. 

"I just wish you had called, or written to me before you came to the house. What were you doing back here? How did you know to find me?" He asked.

"I have my ways I guess." Dominique said, unwilling to tell him she was just a spirit paying a visit. "I was hoping that I'd run into you alone, and seeing you here... has brought back a lot of memories. I really needed to see you David." the ghost added.

"Still I wish you've called. I could have ....we could have had a dinner or...I don't know," David stammering while he looked at the beautiful woman in front of him. "....my god, I can't believe you're standing in front of me, Dominique, you look amazing. You haven't aged a single day since the last time we saw each other. Are you....OK?" David asked, knowing her history of mental illness, his eyes seeing the face of a woman he had loved for a very long time in their time in the sanitarium. 

"I don't have a lot of time, David. We need to talk about what happened after they took me from Windcliff, we need to talk about us." She said getting to the point. 

David suddenly realized what kind of visit this was, one that would not blow over well if Siobhan knew his old flame was there to rekindle whatever they had 20 plus years ago. David quickly began to feel uncomfortable and back away from Dominique. 

"Listen, I'm so glad to see you and I'm so happy for you, now that you're out of the hospital but I have to let you know that I'm married now. There is no 'us.'" David replied.

Dominique furrowed her brow, she didn't know how to break it to him that there was so much more to their re-connection than a romantic entitlement that would never be, especially if they were beings of two different worlds. 

She shivered in the cold and shook her head trying to get him to listen.

"No, you don't understand. I've come back because---" She began before he interrupted her.

"You're cold, here, take this." David said, placing his coat around her shoulders.

"David listen to me." Her insistence made him more nervous, knowing her past mental past could be very dangerous if she were not fully well. 

"Dom, look, I think this is a big mistake, we need to...we have to stop this. We have a lot of history and I just need to be sure you understand where I am now in my life. Had I known you were coming here or even that you were out of the hospital we could have met up when my wife was free---" David began before the ghost interrupted. 

"David listen to me..." She said, as he interrupted back attempting to control of the uncomfortable conversation. 

"No, Dom I can't do this..." David replied turning from Dominique and not knowing the truth of her visit.

There was back and fourth and confusion; David believing Dominique was there to restart their past love affair, Dominique only there to tell him she needed closure from beyond the grave and to finally connect him with her daughter. Their whole conversation was as muddled as the fog all around them. The two sides not making any sense to each other and clouded with the past.

"Siobhan is my wife and I love her and I can't allow you to come here unannounced like this. It's ...I just can't. It just reminds me of the way my father treated my mother. Always doing things behind her back and always making her feel like she was less than the woman she should be." David said of his late father Roger.

"That's not why I'm here, David," Dominique finally made clear, her voice upset at his obvious annoyance at her being there. "and I'm sorry you feel that your wife would keep you from the truth you should truly know."

"Truth?" David said, his back still turned. "What are you talking about."

"I came to tell you something, something I should have told you years and years ago. I should have found away to tell you...but...I was sick David. I didn't really understand how ...how this would effect you. And I made sure no one reached out to you on my behalf. David....You and I have a daughter, a beautiful daughter. She was born after I left Windcliff and raised by my brother Gabriel. She knows who you are....and...I've asked for her to come and meet you. I wish I could have told you sooner before...I...." Dominique said before stopping herself from revealing her own death.

David was shocked. His heart sank into his stomach.

"Before you what?" David asked finally turning back around to face Dominique only to find his jacket on the floor and Dominique gone.

He looked around and saw nothing but fog. He had no idea Dominique was a spirit. To him she was as real as flesh and bone.

The moon shined down on the foggy Collinwood veranda as David stood there alone in the chill of the night. His head went back and forth across the back lawn searching for Dominique. He didn't hear her leave. He didn't hear her open the back gate to to leave. She just vanished.

 He picked up his coat that he had given Dominique to warm her and dusted off the autumn leaves from the sleeves. As he did this, something fell out of the lapel pocket.

David picked up the small scrap of paper, it was a photo. On the back in Dominique's handwriting the photo of the young woman read : "India Elizabeth do Arco-Collins"

He flipped the paper over revealing a photo of the most beautiful young lady.

His daughter. India.

In the distance, invisible to the human eye, the spirit of Dominique do Arco floated in a gauze of light. Her energy was that of a something lost, and forgotten. It pained her to see that the man she loved was blocking her from entering his heart again, all she wanted to do was to bring David and India together. But for some reason, David's fears of what Siobhan would do knowing the true nature of their relationship stopped him from opening his heart to her and stopped him from getting the full explanation of how India came to be and how her life was since her birth.

 It was all a strange mystery to him.

To Dominique, the spirit searching for closure, Siobhan was now an obstacle. Siobhan was a challenge. Siobhan needed to be dealt with. Dominique closed her ghostly beautiful eyes, her chest lifted as if she were taking a deep breath of the salty sea air around her and she disappeared into the night....in search of Siobhan, the one and most powerful final obstacle standing in the way of Dominique finding closure for herself, her daughter and the man she loved.

 She needed that peace to reach the other side.

Siobhan, in Dominique's ghostly mind, had to go.

David and Dominique in the foggy Courtyard of Collinwood