Series 11/Chapter 9: THE HUMAN STAIN

Barnabas Collins

An autumn storm rolled through the state of Maine with the the rumbling of a freight train. The grayness of the evening cast a mist all over the town of Collinsport. Down near the water-front at the Blue Whale pub, Victoria Winter's was meeting with two people she saw as insurers of a of safety. Two people who's power and strength combined made her feel safe from any future threats from Angelique, or worse. Victoria Winters knew, that for every dark creature that roamed the foggy streets of Collinsport, there was an even more dangerous monster just around the corner.

The Blue whale was busy even during this wild autumn storm. Friendly fisherman bellied up to the bar laughing and singing drunken songs together like they'd just started a holiday. Their happy sun-burned faces chugged beer after beer to drink away the aching in the muscles of their hands.

Victoria sat in a back booth cloaked in a fitted black trench-coat and dark scarf awaiting her guests. As she swirled her finger around the rim of a glass of white wine, they finally arrived, it was Alexandra and Andrew. Vicky smiled and waved them over to her booth in the back.

"Thank you so much for meeting me." Victoria said, as the lights from passing cars shined through the glazed over window of their booth.

"Of course. You sounded so worried over the phone, why couldn't we meet at Collinwood?" Alex said, as she removed her warm jacket revealing a light brown sweater peppered with tiny white polka-dots.

"It was better that I saw you here...alone." Vicky answered.

"What's going on?" Andrew questioned.

"It's Curtis. He's ....well, he's chosen to stay with Angelique despite everything she's done and I don't know what to do. He wants to marry her. He told me. He wants to marry that WITCH!" Vicky snapped.

"Do you  believe him?" Andrew asked, his voice low and growl like.

Vicky lifted an eye brow, her heart told her no, but her mind knew Curtis would indeed marry Angelique as soon as he could.

"I've told him that I won't interfere with his choice but as you can imagine, I'm terribly worried." Vicky mentioned. "I know that, Alex, you've had some sort of connection with Angelique. I know that you're sort of bound with her. Is it really over? Are her powers gone?" Vicky asked, referencing Alexandra's absorption of Angelique's powers.

"Well I'm not bound to her by choice, I just want to get that straight. Somehow, I've....well, I've inherited what she once was." Alex pointed out.

" Alex has had to deal with a lot of terrible things since that night in front of the Old House where she and Angelique became connected. From then on it's been a whirl-wind. She's taken a lot on her own too." Andrew added.

"No, I don't mean Alex is anything like Angelique because of her abilities, not at all. I just....Alex, I'm terrified what Angelique could do next. She says she's been rendered powerless but just a few weeks ago she was still able to trick me into thinking you were all dead and trick you all into thinking she was someone else. How can I know if she's really telling the truth? How can I trust her with my son?" Victoria pleaded.

"You're right not to trust her Aunt Vicky. I wouldn't either, and I don't! The things Angelique has done over the years has truly been horrifying at best. What she did to you and to Curtis put her malice past even the most dangerous of creatures I've ever seen but ...she won't be allowed to anymore, she won't be allowed to roam this town and pretend that nothing ever happened. I'll make sure of that." Alex added.

Andrew's faced expressed worry. He loved Alexandra with all his heart and to think she would now put herself square in Angelique's cross-hairs was not what he wanted to hear.

"If you say she's dangerous, I don't want you dealing with her at all. That would be .... it would be insane!" Andrew noted.

"Angelique needs to be watched. We have to protect ourselves from her. She's tried all she could to get rid of me but I won't let her....I won't let her do anything to me or to anyone I love. Not anymore. Just last night Something around the old house has made me feel...well, the only way I describe it as is sick...very sick ." Alexandra explained. “It could be her, it could be Angelique, and because of that I know to be safer and to make sure she's kept under control.” She added

“Sick?" Vicky questioned.

"I can't explain it. It came and went very fast. I could tell it was a form of energy and it was radiating from the old house." Alex explained, not knowing her sudden illness corresponded exactly when Barnabas Collins entered back into the world of the living.

Vicky didn't like what she was hearing and Andrew's face continued to show strains of worry. His werewolf heart not solely in protection mode for the woman he loved.

 "None of this makes me feel any better." Vicky added.

"You have to trust me." Alex pushed.

"But... how can you be sure? How can we be sure we're in the clear when it comes to Angelique when you're getting sick feelings from the Old House---a place Angelique lived for years.” Andrew asked, he had no idea about this incident with the old house making Alex feel ill.

“I’m still getting used to all of the powerful forces inside me. I really don’t know. All I can is is be sure go keep an eye out for Angelique and whatever is going on at the Old house.” Alex further explained.

"I appreciate that" Vicky said, not feeling a bit material for her niece "but I have to ask, Who will keep you safe?"

Alex thought for a second and just before she was going to answer that she wasn't afraid of Angelique, with or without powers, Andrew grabbed Alex's hand and squeezed tightly and answered.

"I will."

Alex looked over at him and grinned. She was an incredibly powerful sorceress now, she didn't need a man to come for her and protect her and guard her from anything, but it still felt good to see that he was there for her in all shapes and forms. They had been through so much together. They had bonded so tightly. They had found each other in the most dyer of circumstances. She had lost the one man she thought she would be with forever, and suddenly found Andrew, their love was something she never expected.  She grabbed his hand under the table and squeezed.

"Vicky, you have my word that Angelique won't have any opportunity to hurt anyone ever again.I promise you, Curtis will be safe. If she even think about trying anything, I'll be there, I will stop her. We both will." Alexandra said.

Vicky took a sip of her wine and shook her head. She had no choice but to believe them. She had no way around Angelique, regardless of her powerlessness. It had to be this way. Vicky had to allow Curtis to make his own choices as a grown man despite the fact she felt he was making a huge mistake. It was the way it was going to be.

"It'll probably be a lot of work and I know that you can't watch her every second of the day. But whatever you can do, whatever you are willing to do, Alexandra, it would mean so much to me." Vicky added.

"Angelique is powerless now. I'm more a danger to her than she is to me." Alex said.

"That's what I'm afraid of." Andrew replied.

"I promise, you both, Angelique is done. She has what she's always wanted: Love. She's searched for so long to get someone who loves her just as much as Curtis says he does and that seems to do the trick. No amount of supernatural power is stronger than that of love." Alex said.

Vicky could see that Alex was right. But none of that quenched her suspicions of whether or not Angelique had changed her tune. All she could do now was hope for the best and pray that Alex and Andrew could not only keep Curtis safe, but the whole of the Collins family. Angelique was as unpredictable as a Collinsport storm. One minute calm and relaxed the next raging and disastrous.

Vicky checked her watch. It was getting late so she thanked Alex and Andrew and left money on the table for  her wine. She tightened the belt around her black trech-coat and slowly made her way through the busy Blue Whale.

"Do you really think you can take care of Angelique the way you told Vicky?" Andrew asked.

"I don't have a choice." Alex said as the waitress came up to the table.

"Just two ales please. " Andrew ordered with the nod of the waitress. "How can you make sure? How can you know for sure that she's really not doing anything to hurt anyone like she told Vicky?"

Alex smirked. She knew she had her ways and wasn't sure if she was ready to tell Andrew the full extent of her new found powers. She grabbed his hands and placed them firmly in hers.

"Close your eyes." She requested, as they both did in unison.

As the two closed their eyes, They were suddenly transported to the front door of Curtis' apartment. Andrew was shocked. He looked around and couldn't believe where he was. He tried to reach out to see if where he was standing was real or imagined with the hand that Alex was holding but Alex tightened her grip.

"Don't let go. Once you do, we'll be back at the Blue Whale." Alex warned.

"Is this real?"

"Sort of. Andrew I can take us anywhere in the world with just my mind. I can watch. I can see. I can make sure Angelique is who she says she is now without her even knowing I'm there." Alex explained.

"You're that powerful. You're that strong?" Andrew asked astonished with her power.

 "I am." She said equally as astonished at just how strong her powers had become since Angelique's lost it all. "I won't let anything happen any more to anyone I love." she added as she let go of Andrew's hand.

When she did, they were instantly back at the Blue Whale pub where the waitress was dropping off their beers.

"Well, aren't you two the cutest things in Collinsport." She giggled.

Alex and Andrew smiled




Vicky began her slow walk through the slick wet and dark streets of Collinsport when she began to hear someone following her.

She turned around and there was no one there.

Vicky started to walk again. She could hear the wind from the storm above slash through the trees like sword through a curtain and with that the sound again came from behind her of foot steps.

Vicky turned.

Again No one.

Vicky began to pick up the pace, her heart now racing her mind started to jump to conclusions and all of her fears started to bubble up and choke her. Was this Angelique following her? Was this the supposed former witch coming to end her once and for all.

Vicky started to make her way up a street where her car was parked that was slightly up hill. The footsteps behind her grew closer and closer and each time she turned around there was no one there. Vicky began to think she was losing her mind, she began to worry that all her time at Windcliff had truly made her insane. She started to rush up the hill when her heel slipped on the slick ground and she fell.

"Need some help?" A voice said.

When Vicky opened her eyes, it was her old roommate at Windcliff, Dominique do Arco.

"My god! What are you doing here? You just took off the other night when we got to Collinwood! Where'd you go?" Vicky asked, not knowing Dominique was just a spirit sent to guide her home.

"I have had a lot of things to take care of since I've come back." Dominique explained helping Vicky to her feet.

"I never got to thank you for helping me back to my family. Were you able to reconnect with David after all? I know how much you wanted to see him." Vicky asked.

Dominique thought about those words, "reconnect with David". She felt almost silly for even trying and guilty for what she had done to Siobhan, but her heart, or what was left of it in her ghostly body had only wanted for David to know of their daughter. He had to. He had to meet her. David was practically all their daughter had in the world aside from Gabriel, and even his light would dim eventually.

"You know? I think that I still need to." Dominique said cryptically.

"Ok. Well, why don't I drive you up to Collinwood. I'm sure he'd love to see you and listen, I owe you that much!" Vicky offered.

"No!" Dominique shouted to Vicky's surprise. "I need to do it on my own and....in my own time. There's something he doesn't know that I need to tell him before I move on. Before I find my way."

"Well, I guess that makes more sense." Vicky said reaching into her purse for her keys. When she looked up again Dominique was gone.

Vicky looked around. Up the street, down the street. The wet fog had now covered the entire area so thick that only the street lamps lit up like starts floating in the sky.

Vicky tightened her coat. The chill the suddenly rushed over her body was not the kind that came from the elements of the autumn night she was standing in. It was the bone freezing sign she had felt many times before when she was around someone or something of the spirit world.

Vicky stood in the street for just a few moments longer as the realization of what Dominique could really be crept into her mind. A spirit. But how? It wasn't making any sense...but she quickly rushed off to her car and drove off back home.

Where she was safe. Where she was protected. Where she felt nothing could hurt her.
At least for a while.

*****

There was a glowing light burning in the cozy living room of the Rose cottage on the Collinwood ground. Julia sat in a chair with a glass of red wine looking through an old picture book of Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard's that had been left in one of the old trunks in her bedroom. Julia smirked at the pictures of baby Carolyn and in the later pages photos of little David and his mother Laura. All memories of a time gone by.

As the fire burned in the hearth, it projected the warmth in the storm like a spring afternoon, Quinn made her way in, with a stern look on her face and her hands behind her back.

"Hi." Julia said with a smile. "Look at this pictures. Carolyn was such a cute baby." 

Quinn didn't say a word but only stared at Julia sternly. 

"There's even some of David. I remember him as a boy. He was just all over the place and no one could tame him. You know, sometimes we'd find him at the Old House just going through things like a thief in the night. Roger had his hands full all the time." Julia reminisced but Quinn still did not respond.

Julia noticed Quinn's lack of response. She closed the picture book and stood up.

"Something the matter?" Julia asked of her grand-daughter.

Quinn said nothing but revealed what she was hiding behind her back in one hand. The broken syringe that Julia had planned on using on Quinn in an attempt to sedate her and remove her ideas of finding out about Julia's murderous past. 

Julia lifted an eye brown at Quinn's discovery. 

"Ins't it an odd thing for someone to go through the garbage? I find it odd." Julia said cynically. 

"It's not that odd when you feel like there's something someone isn't telling you and you live in a world full of secrets and betrayals. What was this for?" Quinn said.

"Quinn, I think you should know that..." Julia aid stalling before Quinn interrupted again.

"I'm going to ask you just one more time, what was this for?"

"You. It was for you." Julia replied point blankly. 

"And what would it have done to me?" Quinn replied equally direct. 

Julia sat back down and tossed the picture book over to the sofa across from her. She shook her head as the truth began to spill out of her mouth.

"It would have allowed me to enter your mind in a much less guarded way. It's as simple as that Quinn." Julia replied.

"And why would you want to do that?" Quinn asked sitting on the sofa next to the book.

"To block you. I planned on blocking you from finding out what I had done so many years ago. But you're relentless. I guess I can see where you get that from. But I didn't. As you can see, Quinn, I destroyed the needle because I began to feel as if I was losing control of myself and that loss of control is what got me here in the first place. I couldn't bring myself to do it....I couldn't do anymore damage and become more and more like the monsters I fought so hard against. I stopped myself Quinn, I stopped myself." Julia replied.

"You were going to ...what? Brain-wash me?" Quinn said, her stomach turning in knots.

"I was desperate. It was the only way I could ...I don't know....keep you away from the truth of what really happened." Julia confessed.

Quinn's eyes began to water. She began to see her grandmother for the woman that she was: a haunted and embattled human being that was constantly wrestling with the darkness in her past. A woman who's life was a never ending carousel of shame and secrets that finally caught up to her, and perhaps was on the verge of breaking her. 

"All I want, all I've ever wanted was to know where I came from and what happened to my father's family. He never knew. He died not knowing the truth, he died never seeing you again. Your own son left this world believing you never wanted him and ....I just can't understand how you can live with yourself, how you've been able to live with yourself all these years never reconciling what you did to him!" Quinn said as the tears began to flow from her green eyes.

"Quinn, you have to listen to me when I tell you this. My life has never ever been easy after what happened to my first husband, your grandfather. I made the choice that my son Michael be free of me because I was no good, not him. He was just a baby and ...what I did was too horrible, I couldn't ever face him again. He was better of without me." Julia confessed.

"What? What did you do that was so horrible that my father had to live his whole life in a home where the people that raised him weren't the people that brought him into the world?" Quinn questioned.

Julia had had enough. She was tired of the secret she had kept almost 70 years, through time and space that she had never even told another living soul before. She had never said it out loud, until:

"I KILLED HIS FATHER! I DID IT!"

Quinn sat back in shock. She sat there not knowing what to say as Julia sobbed in her chair. 

"It was a horrible mistake. An accident. I was trying to kill myself and ... and the gun went off and I killed my Lawrence, your grandfather Quinn. I did a horrible thing. I .... I wish I could change it, I wish I could be like Vicky and go back in time and take away all the pain and all the hurt and everything, but I can't. Instead I've just tried to cover it up with lie after lie and scheme after scheme. I tried to move on. I let work take over my life. I let Barnabas take over my life. I let everything at Collinwood take over my life. I just became ....void. I let my past die with Lawrence. I've been lucky in that sense I guess, I've had things to come into my world to take me away from that truth where I would never have to look in the eye again, but now you're here and, I can't run any longer. I just can't."

There was silence in the room except for Julia's sniffling. Quinn was in shock.

"Say something...." Julia begged. 

"It was an accident?" Quinn replied softly.

"It was."  Julia confirmed truthfully. "It was a horrible mistake. And Michael, your father, was better off without me. Having to look him in the eye each day after that would have killed me too. Instead I let him go. He was better of living with people who could protect him better, people who weren't monsters like I was." Julia said, still sobbing.

"He never knew. You should have told him. I think he would have understood with time." Quinn said, her voice still soft and calm contrasting Julia's terror.

"I should have killed myself too! I should have just ended it all that pain!" Julia said.

"STOP! That's...just stop! It's over now. It's over." 

Quinn had heard enough. She had been a lawyer long enough, too, to detect a lie when someone spoke it and she could see in her grand-mother's face that was un-altered by time, that she was telling the truth.

Quinn got up and placed the broken syringe on the table and knelt down at  her grandmother's feet and lay her head on Julia's lap.

The two women cried together in the glow of the fire place. 

Then a knock at the door that startled their two tear-stained faced. Quinn composed herself and rushed over to the door and opened it.

Carolyn walked in with a pale look on her face. 

Julia noticed immediately. 

"What is it? What's happened?" Julia said, wiping her face. 

"David just called me from the Old House." Carolyn answered.

"And?" Julia asked.

"It's Siobhan. She's ....I don't quite know how to explain it. But she's vanished." Carolyn answered. 

Julia stood up like a dart when the news of her daughter Siobhan's vanished came from Carolyn's mouth. Julia made her way over to Carolyn who never left the front doorway  to get more information.

"How? How is she gone?" Quinn asked.

"Carolyn tell me. I can tell you're not telling me everything." Julia asked, reading Carolyn's body language as the drips of rain on Carolyn's shoulders glistened in the dim light of the room.

"Siobhan's gone, but Barnabas has come back. Siobhan was trying to bring Barnabas home with the use of this paranormal scientist and in doing so she opened some sort of door, a portal where Barnabas could come out of. And He did, but she fell in, Julia. She’s gone to the other side."

Julia's heart sank. Her blood ran cold. And her own life flashed before her very eyes of the various trials and tribulations she had suffered with Barnabas and his travels through time space and other dark dimensions. 

****

The Evans family cottage was as quiet as a grave yard. Rife with anxiety and torment of what had happened at the old house and how Serena was some how a target of Siobhan's.

Serena sat on the sofa entombed in the warmth of a blanket staring at the wall her mind going back to the split second she almost fell into the opening between two worlds, but escaped disaster when Siobhan fell instead.

"Here drink this, it'll calm you." Maggie said coming in from the kitchen.

Serena looked into the mug and allowed the sweet aroma of chamomile tea to fill the air around her face calming her.

"I never want to go back to that place ever again. I never ever want to see another Collins family member for as long as I live." Serena said, tears in her eyes.

"I know its hard to fathom what happened, honey, but you're going to be ok. It's over." Maggie said as Sebastian came through the front door.

"David says there's no sign of Siobhan. She's really gone." Sebastian said sitting next to Serena and grabbing her hand.

"What about Barnabas? Is it true he really came back after Siobhan fall through that....that...opening?" Maggie wondered.

"I saw it with my own eyes." Serena replied blankly. "Hes back. In the flesh."

Maggie paused and took a deep breath. It was probably her worst nightmare come to life. The man that caused her decades of pain and terror. Half of her life was all about getting rid of that stain in her past, the dark stain that she could never seem to remove. It would fade at times, but always, one way or another the stain that was Barnabas Collins on the town and the people of Collinsport always made it's wack to the surface.

"He can't hurt you. I won't let him." Sebastian said to Serena who fell into his arms.

Maggie got up from her chair and patted Serena on the shoulder to help comfort her. She walked over down her hallway passed photos of her father and her mother, photos of her daughter Kat and Kat's family living happily in Paris. She smiled and felt good about their safety away from Collinsport, but worried for her son Sebastian and Serena.

Maggie walked into her room and sat on her bed. She opened a drawer to a side table and pulled out a large 12 inch stake, sharp and ready to stab anyone or anything that dared hurt her family. This time, she would not allow any more pain. If Barnabas Collins even dared to enter her house to continue any sort of torment of them....he would cease to exist, and Maggie would feel no guilt from it.

From now on, Maggie was going to protect her home and her family with all the vengeance and strength she could muster. Once and for all, she would be in control.

As she sat on her bed, clutching the weapon, her eyes flashed a bright yellow, a remnant of her controlled lycan ability. Maggie Evans would no longer live in fear of the shadow man.

****

The storm continued to pour rain down on Collinsport like a powerful waterfall that never stopped. The energy in the air was like a electrical transformer had exploded leaving the residual bursts of nervous energy in the air. It was palpable. Everyone in town could feel it.

At a small diner, sitting in a booth with bright red patent leather booth seats was District Attorney Gabriel do Arco. This was a man on a mission. A man who had come to Collinsport because he made a promise long, long ago, to his dead sister Dominique that he would always protect her in life and in death and with that promise her daughter. He raised India, Dominique and David's daughter while both her biological parents were absent.

Gabriel's powers were those of a being who was blessed, anointed by something otherworldly. He was a man who was a guardian, a protector, a person who's abilities were for the good of man-kind even when there was so much evil around him and those he promised to protect.

He was at this diner, under the bright orange light that hung above his head waiting. As the time passed, he finally saw a car pull up, and a woman jump out dressed in black, her face shaded by the shadow of the umbrella protecting her from the elements of the rain.

The car drove off, and the woman walked into the diner. She closed the umbrella allowing water to spill all over the floor and spotted Gabriel in the furthest booth in the diner. She walked over and sat down across from him and grabbed his hand.

Her eyes were a sparkling hazel, her hair a curly dark brown tied up in a small bun with a few wild curls that escaped and hovering over hear ears.

"It's so good to see you! I've missed you so much." The young woman said with a pouty lipped smile.

"India, you have no idea how much I've missed you too. How is New York?" Gabriel said to his Niece India.

"You know. Crazy. Busy. All over the place. Just like I like it." India smiled. "Your messages the last few days have had me worried. I know you said you started working here because of something that had to do with my mother, but I don't understand the connection." India said of her deceased mom and her connection to Collinsport.

"Yes, well it really has to do with a promise I made her before she died and when she was pregnant with you. When I came here, it was to not only work as the District Attorney but also to fulfill that promise."

"I don't understand." India said confused with her uncle's actions.

"India I promised your mother that when the right time came, when everything was where it needed to be, I would find a way to connect you to the family you belong to, to the father you've never met. Things have a strange way of coming together when you least expect them to, and here, in this town is where this family and your father are. They're here, India." Gabriel explained.

India was confused. Her whole 21 years of life had been such a strange existence. She knew of a man that lived on the east coast that was her father. Gabriel had always told her this as she grew up, but she never knew why she couldn't meet him. She never knew why it was so important for Gabriel to be able to control the when and how she reconnected with her biological father and his family. It was a constant secret that she lived with, and at times resented, but never the less accepted.

And now, after all these years, after all the time she had wasted worrying about how she would finally meet the man that she was half of, it was now time. And her stomach was in knots.

"I don't know if I'm ready. There's so much I can't explain to my father about myself and I don't know if...I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready!" India said in a panic.

"What would you have to explain of yourself? You're a beautiful, caring young woman who attends NYU and you're doing all you can to be the best person you're able to be. That's a wonderful thing, India, your father and his family will be thrilled to have you in their lives.

Gabriel and Dominique weren't the only two in this small family to be keeping secrets. India too knew that she could sense the world of the other side all around her. She knew all about her uncle Gabriel's abilities to see those that have come and gone, because she could too. She could sense them, see them, hear them, feel them. The world of the supernatural had terrified her all her life, so much so, she kept her gift a secret.

India looked out of the window in the blustery cold Collinsport night. The rain continued to pour down as if it would never stop. The thunder clapped and flashed in India's eyes, she knew that there was something about her that she had been keeping from her uncle that if he knew he could never, would never, understand. A secret that perhaps, only the members of the Collins family could really comprehend themselves.

"I just want to be sure I'm ready." India said, knowing full well that eventually things would all come out in to the open. When, this would happen, was another questioned.

"There's no time like the present" Gabriel said, his hand squeezing India's.

 Gabriel had to fulfill this promise to Dominique, that when the time was right David and India would meet. That time was now, the planets seemed to have aligned and now, this day, in this town, David Collins would meet his long-lost daughter, mothered by the woman he had an affair with 20 years before while they were both trapped at Windcliff.

India turned back from the thunderous window and smiled. She knew too, deep in her heart that it was time. All her questions, and all her worries about what this family, this family she never knew would finally be answered.



David, for his part, had a photo of her. A photo left by Dominique one night when her spirit came to him and left the photo out on the veranda while the fog of that night rolled past Collinwood. David too was wondering where this young woman was, David too had questions, David too was curious and scared and unsure about everything that was about to happen, even though he had no idea India was already in town.

But David had bigger fish to fry. He placed the photo of this mystery girl named India down on the coffee table in the drawing room and headed to the old house to see the man he hated more than anything in this world for all the pain and suffering he had caused over the decades, it was time David spoke to the returned Barnabas Collins.

****

David arrived quickly at the Old House despite being pelted by pouring wind and rain. He saw that the front parlor was lit by candelabras, hallmark of Barnabas Collins being home. David stepped up to the front door, the smell of the burning candles surrounded him even from the outside. He wasted no time and burst through the front door causing small puddles on the inner door stop where his soggy feet were standing.

Unfazed by the rough entrance, Barnabas stood up and walked over from his parlor to greet his cousin David.

"You should have knocked." Barnabas said with a twinge of sarcasm.

David was unmoved by Barnabas' lighthearted wit, he followed his vampire relative into the parlor leaving the front door open.

The sound of the pouring rain came in from the open door. It sounded much like the white noise machines that Lucas Granger used to contact Barnabas on the other side.

"Where's Granger's body?" David asked looking at the floor where Barnabas had bitten and killed the man responsible for him return.

"I've taken care of it, you don't have to worry." Barnabas said sitting in a chair dressed in purple smoking jacket. "Come, sit by the fire young David, warm yourself."

"What do you mean you've taken care of it?" David wondered.

"I mean just that. He won't bother anyone else. Ever again. Now, tell me, to what do I owe this sudden visit?"

David's angry was obvious. He was angry that Barnabas was back. He was angry that Siobhan had fallen into the opening of the two worlds which allowed for Barnabas' return, and he was angry that there was nothing he could do to bring her back in place of the man that had caused him so many decades of pain and suffering. All David wanted, was his wife back, all David wanted was for things to come how, once and for all be normal.

"David, there's no use in hiding your feelings from me, you know that I can tell and I can feel exactly what you feel. We've always been connected that way. We've always been two peas of the same pod, haven't we? We were close once and I know that my presence here makes you angry, anxious even." Barnabas said dropping the book in his hand to his lap.

"You're damn right it does." David replied as he sat across from Barnabas.

"What can I do to make it better? What do you need from me to make you feel more comfortable?" Barnabas asked.

"You just don't understand. You've never been able to understand. All you've done is come here and live here infecting us like a plague and we've all just sat back and allowed it to happen. Now my wife is GONE and in her place is you....and look at you? You're sitting here in an old smoking jacket acting like its fine that my wife--your daughter--is gone floating around some neither world. I mean, this is insanity!" David shouted as he got up from the chair and stared up at Barnabas' painting.

"You assume I'm not worried about Siobhan? That I haven't gone over a million times how to get her back here to you baby....and to you? I love Siobhan too David, she's my child, I helped raise her years ago. I would never wish what happened to her on anyone, least of all my own child." Barnabas calmly explained.

"You don't care." David said in a hushed tone.

Barnabas got up from his chair, his face calm and collected. Nothing seemed to bother him. David's accusations that Barnabas had only returned to suit some selfish need to constantly smother the Collins family, generation by generation, with pain and suffering was insulting but Barnabas knew it came from a place of hurt from David. David was angry, but mostly he was hurt.

"I have always cared. In my whole existence there was nothing I wanted more than to be apart of this family. A member that gave as much as he took from the privileged we all live in. But as you know David, as you all know, there are things beyond my control that I could not foresee. Being what I am...being......what I was turned into did not give for an easy life. I did what I could to keep my secret, I did what I could to protect you and Carolyn from everything that I was. The truth of the matter is, there was nothing I could do more to protect you all. I was what I was, and I am what I am. I can't apologize for that." Barnabas explained.

David took a deep breath. He knew deep down that there was truth in Barnabas' words. Barnabas too never asked for any of it. Barnabas too never truly wanted to be the monster, the thing, that he was, but nothing changed the fact that Siobhan was still gone.

"I just want to know how you're going to get my wife back." David said turning to Barnabas and looking him dead in his dark eyes.

Barnabas turned slowly and walked over to a small bar set up. He grabbed a two glasses and a bottle of his favorite Sherry and poured them both a glass to relax them before he responded.

"I'm not going to get her back." Barnabas said coldly.

David became enraged and swatted the glasses of Sherry out of Barnabas' hands into the fire causing the flames to burst into a loud roar lighting the whole room for a split second as the heat ate up the alcohol spilled on it's embers and lunged at Barnabas grabbing at his throat. The heat from the fire mimicking the hate inside David's boiling blood.

David's teeth gritted, his jaw tightened and his hand squeezed around Barnabas' throat.

"You're going to allow my wife, YOUR DAUGHTER, to languish in that ...hell forever?"

Barnabas grabbed at David's hand and tried to peel it off.

"That's not what I said." The vampire replied in a tight voice.

"DAVID STOP!" A voice said coming from the parlor entrance. It was Julia, arriving from the Rose Cottage after Carolyn's reveal that Barnabas, Julia's ex-husband had returned again.

"I should just kill this freak once and for all!" David said squeezing Barnabas' throat again.

"That wouldn't solve anything and you know it! Siobhan needs you to be strong, and you need to have a clear head." Julia said as Carolyn entered the room too gasping at the image of David choking Barnabas.

"David, please!" Carolyn replied.

"The four of us will figure it out, David. We'll get Siobhan back. I promise you, I will not leave my daughter to suffer in that place, I wont!" Julia shouted.

David released his grip from Barnabas' neck. The two stared at each other and David began pacing back and fourth. He turned to Barnabas and turned back to Julia.

"The two of you. Both of you. Figure this out. Get Siobhan back to her son, me and to our family or I will make sure that for the rest of your miserable lives you suffer just like Siobhan is right now. I promise you that." David said as he quickly made his angry exit from the old house.

"He still doesn't understand." Barnabas said softly.

Carolyn shook her head. "He's been through too much, Barnabas. You know that. How else can we expect him to react?"

"I can't believe you're really back." Julia said her eyes glowing with a strange glow of love and hate that for decades had plagued her whole life for a man she wanted to with, but could not control.

"For now." He replied.

"What do you mean?" Carolyn asked.

Barnabas stood up and walked over to Carolyn, he adjusted his collar, ruffled from David's attack. He smirked and gave her a kiss on each cheek. She stared up at him unsure of what he meant, what he wanted and what he planned to do.

"You'll understand in due time, my darling cousin, in due time." Barnabas answered as he made his way up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms of the old house leaving Julia and Carolyn in the parlor to wonder.

Where they safe having this man roaming their world again? What could Barnabas Collins possibly have planned this time around? Their ultimate fear was that all of this could be their undoing, that Barnabas' return, this time, could spell disaster for not only the Collins family and Collinwood but the whole town of Collinsport.

Barnabas Collins was a dangerous because of his unpredictability.

But that is where the family members were wrong. Despite it all there was a heart that did indeed beat underneath the dark facade of the vampire. He was desperate to get his daughter Siobhan back, he was in utter dismay to think that his kind beloved Siobhan was being tormented in the under-world that she did not belong to, usurped by a terrible incident because of Dominique's jealousy of her.

Barnabas was not ignoring this fact, he wasn't attempting to brush it under the rug and pretend it never happened and that he was happy living in the world of the living while Siobhan was suffering, which at one time in his life he might have done.

On the contrary.

 He was biding his time. He was plotting Siobhan's recovery one calculated step at a time because he could not bring her back without one final thing. He too needed to find peace. He too needed to finalize and recognize the pain that was caused not by his own doing but by the curse laid upon him centuries ago.

Before he could bring Siobhan back in to this world, he  needed to break free of his anger and resentment of the curse itself, and only Angelique Bouchard could do that with him.

He needed to speak to Angelique and end their feud once and for all, forever lifting the curse she placed on the Collins family that came in the form of Barnabas Collins.

He needed to find and speak to Angelique. One. Last. Time.