On this day, the Collins family invited only their closest friends to the mansion for a memorial service for Christopher. His life gone, but his memory never far away. Vicky and Curtis arrived to the mansion filled with nervous energy. Both dressed in mourners black, they both mustered the nerve to visit the family, Curtis the most nervous as he now knew he was directly related to them ad David's long lost Grandson.
Just before they entered, Vicky grabbed Curtis' arm.
"Are you going to be ok?" She asked.
"I think I'm just going to go in and remember that whatever happened in the past is gone now and I can't change it. I'll deal with the fall out later." He answered his mother.
"And you're not going to tell them you know that you're really Canan?" She asked, frightened of what might happen.
"I think that doing that would put us both in a difficult position. I might as well let things be as they are. David doesn't need any more stress that he's dealing with right now. His adopted son just died. He doesn't need to know anything more---your secret is safe." Curtis said, and Vicky smiled.
They entered the mansion and a housekeeper took their coats. Vicky then lead Curtis into the drawing room where Siobhan, David, Carolyn, Alex, Maggie and Loomis were all dressed in black were sitting around an enlarged photo of Chris.
Carolyn was the first to get up and greet Vicky--her half sister, they kissed each other, a double cheek kiss and hugged.
"Why didn't you tell me you were back in town?" Carolyn said as Curtis went over to greet the others.
"I didn't know how to tell you. Barnabas needed my help, I know how you feel about him sometimes. How could I explain that?" Vicky said.
"Vicky, I need you to tell me the truth. Julia....is that really her? Did you really bring back the real Julia Hoffman?" Carolyn asked to Vicky's surprise.
"You talked to David." Vicky said as Carolyn nodded. "It is her. It's really her. I don't know much more than you do about what Barnabas wants from her but it's her. She says she's lost her memory, It could be some kind of side effect from traveling back, I don't know, but yes, its really her." Vicky explained.
Carolyn shook her head in disbelief. She looked around and as the other's were chatting quietly she pulled Vicky aside so that no one could hear.
"I wish you had told me. I wish you had told me what was going on and that Barnabas was trying to get you to help him. I would have done everything to make sure you were safe. Barnabas doesn't pull one over when it comes to me. I would have helped you. What does he have over you honey?" Carolyn said rightly knowing that Barnabas must have blackmailed her.
"It doesn't matter now. He has no more power over me, trust me, he can't hurt me anymore." Vicky said noting that Curtis knew the truth, Barnabas' blackmail would no longer work against her.
Vicky gave Carolyn a quick smile of thanks and walked over to Maggie to greet her old friend They made small talk and Maggie explained the whole situation to Vicky about Christopher's death. It was a shocking story but Maggie left one major detail out. She oddly protected Serena's part in the story.
"So this Dr. Shaw person, he wanted Christopher's DNA to help his son live?" David questioned. "Why Christopher?" he added.
"Well, he had some idea that Chris' DNA was special, he knew of the experiments that were performed on him by Kimberly and Victor." Maggie stated, which made Victoria feel awkward.
Vicky was the reason Kim and Victor made Christopher a werewolf in the first place all those years ago. Vicky's Origination of the True Hearted was responsible for paying Victor and Kim to hunt the vampires of the Collins family by using Chris' body as a werewolf.
"Never-mind all that. We're here not to go back to the past but to the remember our sweet Christopher. He was kind and darling to us all no matter what his past was and no matter how it all came about that he should that way." Carolyn interjected attempting to break the awkwardness.
Alexandra smiled softly and snuggled up to her mother Carolyn for comfort.
"Here! Here!" Loomis said, raising his glass in a toast to Christopher.
"To Christopher!" Siobhan said, raising her water
After a few hours of talking and mingling, Maggie excused herself and said her goodbyes. She had to meet Serena and Sebastian at the hospital. They were there watching over Andrew Shaw. After the police came, Jeffery was taken to jail, and Andrew to the hospital. Andrews condition was still uncertain as the transfer of DNA had yet to fully bring him back to his 100% self.
"How are you holding up?" Siobhan asked Alex who was standing near the large French door that look out onto a courtyard that was kissed by the snow that fell earlier that day.
"I don't know what to think, Siobhan. Chris and I were together for almost 5 years and I just feel like things went too fast. How can he be gone? How can this be really happening?" Alex wondered.
"I understand. Life can throw us for a loop and as morbid as it sounds we have to sometimes be prepared for the worst of what life can offer us, no matter how hard it is to do, we have to. You’re not alone, that is the most important part for you to always remember." Siobhan answered in her psychologist hat firmly in place.
"Do you think he blames me for what happened?" Alex asked innocently.
"First of all, do you blame yourself? Because honey, there was nothing you could do? This Dr. Shaw person came out of no where, none of us would have ever know what he was planning, certainly not you or Chris." Siobhan confirmed.
"I just feel that maybe ...I just..." Alex couldn't bring herself to speak.
"Nothing was your fault, Alexandra. Nothing. Ok?" Siobhan said this time her motherly instinct pulling Alex in close for a tight hug as the sun from the outside shined in through the window making their hair glow and glisten like spun gold and amber.
Curtis, who wasn't far off had heard the two chatting. He was sad that Alex had been hurting so much. He was sad that his own mother Vicky had been hurt so much too. Everywhere he looked he felt the pain of people in one room not only because of their own had died, but because of the past traumas that still haunted them every single day of their lives. Nothing could do could keep the terrors of their past from coming back and wreaking havoc on their present lives. He knew that deep down inside there must have been a good reason for this, there must be a catalyst that always brought the darkness back into the their lives.
There was only one answer. Barnabas.
Curtis' heart started pumping he could feel his anger at the man that caused all these kind people so much distress building up inside of him. He needed to take a break, he needed to catch his breath and move away from the anger.
He set down his glass and excused himself. He went up the stairs and walked around the second then the third floor of the mansion that lead him to a study. He opened the door and pulled the dark beige draped allowing the natural sun light in. He looked around the old study. Above the fireplace was a painting of Roger Collins, David's father, and in reality, Curtis' great-grandfather. He stared up at the painting and wondered what Roger would do to help his family. But the answers did not come. He went over to the large oak desk that sat just in front of the bright windows and causally opened the drawers, not looking for anything specific and just as he did this, he found a large grey and black painted box engraved with fancy molding and a crucifix.
Curious, Curtis pulled the box out of the drawer and placed it on top of the desk. He looked at it for a moment, the shiny black corners sparkled in the sunlight. He thought about opening it, something inside of him told him he needed to open it. Something inside of him also told he he shouldn't go to that side of him. And just then, the winter clouds blew across the sky and draped Collinwood in a the shadow of a winter storm.
Curtis took this as a sign--he quickly opened the box revealing a beautiful white oak stake that was engraved with a "C" monogram on the handle.
Curtis wasted no time in his thought process. The time had come. He knew it. He knew it deep in his heart that the world he was living in now, the time he was living in now was meant for him to take a stand against all the evils that brought him to the this point in time.
He grabbed the stake.
Curtis shut the lid of the box and dashed out of the third floor study and headed for The Old House.
He was going to end his family's suffering at the hands--and fangs--of the one who brought the darkness in time after time. One way or another.
****
At Collinsport Hospital, Serena and Sebastian sat vigil at Andrews hospital room. They were pacing back and forth in the hall way as doctors and nurses checked in on him, hoping that whatever Shaw had done wasn't going to kill him, and that maybe the DNA and stem-cells that were taken from Christopher worked.
"I'm really sorry all of this happened, I really am." Serena said stopping Sebastian as they passed each other in one of their pacing episodes outside the hospital room.
Sebastian smiled sweetly but said nothing.
"Do you hate me?" Serena asked in a devastatingly said voice.
"I just wish you had said something to me so that I could have helped you. We could have worked something out together to take down Shaw before anyone one died. Now Chris is gone." Sebastian explained.
"I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't know how to tell you that because of a mistake I made years ago Andrew was in a coma and that his father was using it against me to help him bring him out of it. I did everything I could to make sure that you weren't the one he used, and when I saw Chris I saw a way out, I knew he would be good for the DNA too... and I NEVER thought he'd die." Serena said in a half truth.
"How did you not expect he'd die?" Sebastian asked confused.
"Shaw is cold, but he's also a doctor. Deep down I know that he would never have allowed anyone to die on purpose." Serena said naively.
"Shaw has no regard for human life unless it directly has something to do with him. I can see that and I don't even know that man. You can't actually believe that he would have let Chris--or me--live." Sebastian answered.
Serena understood, she understood that what she had done was allow a man into madness and now a young and innocent man was dead. All because she did not stand up for herself and refuse to help Shaw.
"Thank you for not turning me in." Serena said after a brief moment of silence between them.
"Well if it were up to me you'd be rotting in jail next to Shaw." A voice said from behind Sebastian and Serena.
It was Maggie, she had arrived from Collinwood and was there to make sure Serena didn't sink her hooks deeper into Sebastian as she already had.
"Mom." Sebastian said, placing himself between the two women.
"Ms. Evans, I don't know what to say." Serena said.
"How about you start from the beginning? How about you tell us what in the world really happened?" Maggie questioned.
"Everything I told you is the truth. A long time ago I made a huge mistake and drove my car while I was under the influence. While driving my car hit another car and that was Andrew who was pulling out of his father's house. Jeffery Shaw took pitting on me and allowed me to leave but then I found out Andrew was injured and Shaw came after me and made me promise to help him find a way to cure his son because they weren't sure he'd walk again. Eventually we found out about Sebastian and even Chris and we started to find away to take their DNA and stems cells to bring Andrew back. I never ever expected anyone to die."
"Well you were wrong. You should see how terrible this has hit the Collins family. You should see how your actions have ruined so many lives." Maggie blasted.
"Ok that's enough. We all know that Serena would have done things differently had she the opportunity and we can't forget that none of us are that innocent of making mistakes." Sebastian said noting that he and Maggie too have a history of misleading others to protect themselves and their secrets. With this reminder, Maggie backed off but was sure to keep her eye one Serena none the less.
Just the one of the doctor's came out of the room where Andrew was in.
"Are you the family?" the doctor asked.
"No, there is no family. But we're going to take care of him. His father is the reason he is in this situation." Sebastian said.
"Well Christopher is doing very well after what he's been through. He's awake and talking." the Doctor said in tone of voice that showed his relief.
"What? His name is Andrew." Maggie quipped back.
"Andrew?" the Doctor asked, looking down at his paperwork. "Oh that's very odd." He said again after realizing the name was Andrew. "When we asked him basic questions he said his name was Christopher."
Maggie looked at Sebastian then he looked at Serena. They didn't know what to think.
"Can we go in and see him?" Serena asked.
"Can we go in and see him?" Serena asked.
"Of course." The doctor said, motioning the other medical officials to leave the room.
Maggie, Sebastian and Serena all slowly made their way into the hospital room where Andrew was laying in. He was looking healthy and alert. His eyes were clear and fresh but he looked nervous and uncertain of what was going on.
"Hi. Andrew" Serena said, hoping she had chosen the right name.
"How are you feeling." Sebastian asked.
"How are you feeling." Sebastian asked.
"Strange." Andrew replied after a few seconds of thought. "Where am I?" He asked.
"You're in the hospital. You've been in a coma for a long, long time. What is the last thing you remember?" "Maggie asked.
"I remember a crash. A car crash? I remember being in a car, bright lights. I don't know. My father's house? I think that's what I remember last." Andrew said, clearly with the correct memories.
"The doctor said you told him your name is Christopher. Why would you say that?" Serena asked.
Andrew shook his head. He wasn't sure. He wasn't sure why he would say that. He just looked up at them and couldn't answer.
"Where's my father? Who are all of you" Andrew asked.
"Your father is the reason why you're here. He did some very terrible things to get you here, and he's been taken away because someone died as a cause of what he did. We're the ones that found you." Maggie tried to explain.
"I ....don't understand." Andrew answered confused.
"That's ok, honey, we'll explain more later. Why don't you lay back and relax for now. Get some rest and we'll explain later." Maggie said.
Andrew smiled and followed Maggie's advice. He closed his eyes and almost instantly fell back a sleep. His mind began to flicker into dreams and flashes of things that had been seen and had not been seen. His car accident. The car. The lights. Then more flashes. Then the accident again. Then, a beautiful face---a face that was kind and fresh. A young blond. Her eyes blue like the ocean in the summer. Her hair like spun gold.
It was Alexandra. Alex was somehow in Andrews dreams. She was smiling and laughing. He was seeing her in a townhouse, like the one in London. He was seeing her looking at him with love in her eyes as she giggled at a picnic in Hyde Park in London, then he saw her laughing with wind in her hair as they rode the London Eye Ferris wheel.
Then a new flash of light a change in memory. He saw running in the woods. Fog, dust blowing in this air. Growling, cold. Blood. He heard a wolf howl. He saw the moon high in the sky. Then he saw the young woman again Alexandra, standing in a doorway. Then the moon again. Then another flash of light that woke him up still in his hospital bed.
Andrew woke up breathing hard. It was night time now and he was alone in his hospital room with only the sound of his heart monitor bleeping away at his side. He was confused. Who was this blond he was remembering? Who was this beautiful girl that he was seeing all around London? Had he been in London? What was the wolf about? The moon?
Andrew was experiencing Christopher's life. Christopher's memories and Christopher's love. Andrew's mind was now filling and replacing all the years that he had missed while in a coma with the memories and life of the man who's DNA was now running through his body.
Andrew stared at himself in the reflection of the hospital window. He had an odd sensation as the moon light beamed into his hospital room. Who was he really?
****
As the day rolled along, the moon began to sway over the silver Collinsport sky like a silver dollar in the middle of a black sparkly see. The ice cold air from the Atlantic sea sprayed across the landscape of Collinwood causing small little droplets of water sprinkle down on the land and turn to little bits of snow just before they hit the grown.
Christopher's memorial was over. David and Siobhan were up in their room getting ready for the evening. Exhausted Alexandra tried to fall asleep in her room hoping the nightmare of losing Chris would go away in the morning. Vicky had gone to look for Curtis at his house after he had seemingly gone missing from the memorial service and Carolyn was determined to confront Barnabas on what he had done to Vicky and Julia.
She bundled herself up and made her way through the frosty air across the long patch of land that separated the Old House from Collinwood. No element of weather would stop her. She needed this man to know how she felt and to know that what had done had no place around her or her family. In her mind, Barnabas had finally gone too far, but she wasn't going unnoticed. From a fourth floor window at Collinswood, Angelique grinned evilly as she watched Carolyn make her way out into the snow covered Collinwood grounds. Then Angelique vanished into thin air.
Carolyn arrived at the old house, her feet felt as if they were frozen solid. Determined to confront her wicked cousin, she forced the door open and made her way into the foyer.
"Barnabas?" Carolyn called. But no one answered.
She made her way up the stairs. The hallway was dark, only a bit of light coming from the tiny candles that hung on the walls with small burning flames the burned upwards only moved when the breeze Carolyn's body made as she passed them by.
"Barnabas?" She said, her voice now timid as she opened the door to a room.
Empty.
She continued on.
The house was eerily quiet. Too quiet. She opened another room, this one not as dark as the rest. She entered, it had two small candelabras in either end of a large table that had several open books. Carolyn slowly walked in and looked around for any sign of her centuries old cousin. But he was no where to be found.
She stepped up to the table and looked down at the books. She was confused. Some of the words were not in any language she understood. She flicked through a different book, this one was in a different language but still one she did not understand.
Then suddenly a shuffling sound came from the door that sounded like someone passing the door way. Carolyn quickly turned around.
"Who's there?!" She called to the darkened hall.
But no one answered.
In the dark hall enveloped in the shadows of the night Curtis stood. His hands firmly gripping David's engraved stake. He too was on the hunt for Barnabas Collins.
Carolyn was getting nervous. She knew that the Old House was not her domain, but Barnabas. He could be anywhere he wanted to be and she would never know it. But just before she turned around to leave she saw that the very last book was in English. It had writing on it. Barnabas' writing. She picked it up and ready from it.
"TRANSFERENCE---the act of sending one's spirit to another and causing that other harm, good or neither. This transference can be used to optimize the hold one has on another's well being and to cause a state of events to come in thine own favor."
Then in Barnabas's handwriting the name Carolyn did not expect to see. Jude Powell (London)
Carolyn's mind began to spin: "Could it be? Could Barnabas have sent his own soul to London to kill Jude forcing us all to come back home to Collinwood? Did Barnabas cause Jude's death by transference?"
All these thoughts were running through Carolyn's mind. She couldn't believe it and yet she could. Why would he do it? Why would he need them all to come home? Why would he want Carolyn to suffer this way? Her mind began to fall into a tailspin. She began to feel her heart pound in her chest.
"BARNABAS!!" She screamed. "WHERE ARE YOU!"
She threw the book down, the thud of the thick book make a loud crash on the table that startled Julia who was locked in a back room on the second floor. Just above where Carolyn was.
"Help! HELP! I'm up here!!" Julia called to the stranger in the house that made the noise.
"What the?" Carolyn said, the nervous fear clinching her stomach like a vice around a bear's claw.
Carolyn wasn't sure what was going on. She was running on Adrenalin and fear and anger, Carolyn grabbed a letter opener and slowly made her way to where the voice was calling from. She slowly, step by step, made her way up the back staircase. She could feel the stress in her body begin to bump her blood even fast.
"HELP! I'M UP HERE!" Julia's muffled voice called from the room. It was getting louder and louder which meant to Carolyn she was getting closer and closer. But the long hall down to the room wasn't getting any brighter or bright.
"Who's there!?" Carolyn called, her hand firmly gripping the letter opener.
"Please, come to the last room down this hall. Please help me!" Julia called.
Carolyn reached the room and cautiously unlocked and the and lifted her arm up into the air with the letter opener sharply in place to plunge down on anyone or anything that were to attack her.
The door opened and standing there, looking like she had the last time Carolyn saw her alive was Julia Hoffman.
"My god! It's true!" Carolyn said as the dimly lit Julia stepped forward into the hall.
"Oh thank you. Thank you. He's gone mad! We have to stop him. We have to stop him!!" Julia said. Then she looked at the woman in front of her and was astonished. "Carolyn?"
"Julia." Carolyn said.
Julia rushed up to her and hugged her. It was an odd reunion. In the past the two often didn't get along but to see Carolyn again, and they were now practically the same age, didn't strike Julia as odd. She was happy to see someone she felt safe with.
Still she knew they had to get to Barnabas -- before he got to them.
"We have to go, Barnabas has lost his mind Carolyn. I don't know what's gotten into him. It’s as if he has lost all his moral compass. The man we knew is gone, this man is cold and more calculating than I've ever seen." Julia said.
"When I came back to Collinsport I sensed something was off about him, like something had changed in him but I couldn’t pin it down." Carolyn confirmed.
"I’m afraid he’ll put so many people in danger, more than ever, if he isn’t stopped there not telling what he is capable of. He's trying to recreate a time where we were all here together...he's trying to make us all live in a world that isn't realistic, as if we're all part of his fantasy. " Julia said, her mind fully aware what that meant.
"I won’t leave this house until I find him." Carolyn explained.
"He's not the same something is different." Julia kept repeating. "His eyes are colder. He... I think he means to kill me If I don’t do what he wants. "Julia warned.
"What does he want?" Carolyn asked cautiously.
"His family..." Julia answered cryptically. "...But he’s willing to eliminate anyone who gets in the way of having us all together again. It’s almost as if he’s trying to replicate what he had all those years ago." Julia said to Carolyn’s stoic image.
"He can’t control us anymore Julia. He can’t take what he wants all because he has the power to. Come on, we'll go down stairs and split up to look for him. Once one of us finds him we'll both confront him. I have a lot I need to get off my chest." Carolyn said.
"He's too dangerous!" Julia again warned, pulling away from Carolyn's grasp.
"No," Carolyn said confidently. "Not anymore."
Julia looked at Carolyn's face that the candle light from the hall flickered an orange glow on. Julia saw just how confident and strong of a woman Carolyn had become.
"Your mother would be very proud of you." Julia said, her eyebrow lifted in observance. And with that, she agreed and followed Carolyn down stairs in their search for the illusive Vampire they both had such contrasting emotions for. They loved him but they hated him, they feared him but they trusted him. They knew him but all together he was a stranger. But thing was fore sure, Barnabas Collins plagued their lives. And it needed to end.
Just before her search, Julia grabbed the leg of an old chair that had thin wooden legs. She tipped it over so that the leg of the chair was at a right angle, and with all her might and the force of Adrenalin, she dropped her foot down on the leg of the chair breaking it off, then she did it to a second leg breaking a second leg creating two long pointy and sharp stakes.
She handed one to Carolyn.
"Be careful." Carolyn said.
"You too." Julia replied as they both set out the old house in search for Barnabas just as Curtis continued to search as well, the three of them looking for the man that caused so much pain in their lives.
****
While Carolyn, Julia and Curtis searched for Barnabas in the darkness of the Old House, Siobhan was in her bathroom brushing her hair. She had two scented candles lit. A tiny bit of black smoke circled around each of the burning wicks. Angelique coyly peeked around the corner from the door and saw Siobhan's big bell. Angelique stared at it intently. She remembered being pregnant with Claudia and how happy she was going to be when the baby was born, Siobhan's pregnancy brought back those happy memories.
Angelique extended her arm and closed her open hand into a fist. Tighter and tighter her fist became and just as she did this Siobhan's water broke. Siobhan looked down and wasn't sure what to do. She put down her hair brush and felt her stomach. She felt pressure. She felt a tightness around her stomach.
"David. David!!" She screamed.
The tightness was Angelique's fist mystically putting pressure on Siobhan's baby. It was so much pressure that it felt like the baby was going to be born right there in the bathroom of her bedroom. Siobhan fell to her knees in pain.
"DAVID! COME QUICK! THE BABY!!" She screamed.
And just as David entered, Angelique vanished into thin air unnoticed by anyone.
"What's wrong? Siobhan are you ok?" David said, rushing to Siobhan's side.
"We have to go to the hospital. It's the baby! Something isn't right." She said, her voice trembling in pain.
"Ok, ok, ok, come on. Ill help you up. Slowly Slowly." David said as the two made their way down stairs.
This night would be another night to remember for the Collins family. There would be a life lost and life saved. But who would die and who would live? Only the stars in the sky sparkling like tiny specs of winter ice knew for sure.
