Series 11/Chapter 3: THE SINKING FEELING

Alexandra's dream of drowning 

The moon filled the sky over Collinsport like a bright white disc, it's craters shaped a face showing a menacing white glowing grin to the earth below. It was as if the moon itself knew the dangers that were to come, the dangers that were ever present in town and the dangers that Maggie Evans was about to find herself in once again.

Maggie arrived at the Collinsport Inn just after midnight. She was still dressed in her flashy gown and jewels from Andrew’s dinner party at Collinwood. Her heart racing; what was she doing? Had she made a terrible mistake getting a man like Lucas Granger involved even if by some chance Barnabas Collins was attempting to make contact again from the other side?

This friend, the British paranormal investigator Lucas Granger, had come up from Boston at Maggie's request and she had no idea what would come next. But he too was eager, eager like a wolf lying in weight for this next meal for what his old friend had in store for him.

Lucas, a handsome man in his mid 60s with a thick mane of white hair, very trim and athletic build, sat in his hotel suite dressed in a blue suit and clean white shirt. He sipped on a late night cocktail awaiting Maggie's arrival tapping his finger tips on mahogany table top as he sorted through papers that he brought with him.

He walked over to a desk that had even more files and photos from decades of his investigations and work over the paranormal and of one family in particular that had stuck his interest decades before. The Collins family.

He had studied them. He had interviewed many people that knew them, that had heard of the bizarre nature of their home and town they lived in. Interviews with an eldery woman named Mrs. Johnson who died in the early 80s that had been the housekeeper in the 60s and 70. Interviews with different men of the fishing fleet, members of the family of the murdered Bill Malloy. Lucas even came to Collinwood many times, in secretly, but never gained access to the mansion.

Years before, Dr. Dave Woodward’s widow even gave Lucas his old secret journals hidden away in safe for him to study. Woodward was a man Lucas studied with, a man that was his mentor and who--decades before Lucas---learned of the true horrors that grew on the branches of the Collins family tree. Woodward knew the secret that would end up killing him.

Lucas was aware of this secret, and the one who bore it the most. He knew of Barnabas Collins and the blood thirsty nature of the man's existence, but had never seen him in the flesh.

Which made Lucas' obsession with the family that more potent.

Lucas' many attempts at contact Barnabas Collins himself over the years were disasters. He was constantly unsuccessful; these failures haunted Lucas' thoughts; he had no idea the reason Barnabas was so illusive was because Lucas was attempting to contact him on the other side, when Barnabas was actually walking the earth in his various reincarnations the whole time.

One cannot contact the dead, if they never really fully died.

Lucas' obsession with the Collins dynasty went so deep he even befriended Carolyn's late husband Jack Thorne back in London when Carolyn lived there. The friendship with Jack also led to a dead-end in the truth of this supernatural world that Lucas wanted so much access to.

At every turn, Lucas had failed his decades long attempts to reach the world on the other side. He often imagined himself finally being able to prove to the world that there was indeed those that lived between both worlds, he imagined how he would become the most famous man on the planet, the man, the scientist, known the world over for doing the unthinkable, and Barnabas Collins was his key to getting his fortune and his notoriety.

But the illusive vampire, was almost impossible to track.

When he finally met Maggie, shortly after Barnabas' vanishing in the early 70's, he hoped that one day this friendship would pay off as Maggie was now related to the Collins family herself via Maggie's daughter Kat's marriage to David's son Caleb.

With Maggie's urgent call for help the other day about the possibility of Barnabas reaching out via Serena and John-Michael, something in Lucas sparked. Something in him woke up. Something in this paranormal scientist finally felt like he was getting his dues....Maggie was his open door, not Woodward's journals, not the interviews, not his forgettable friendship with Jack.

Maggie Evans.

Lucas picked up a file from the table and opened it removing a back-log of research on the mysterious man named Barnabas. His many lives (and wives), his many incarnations, his various supposed victims and all the things reported about him in the past 50 years. As Lucas flicked through the paperwork Maggie knocked on his hotel room door.

Lucas quickly dropped his papers and rushed over to the door and opened it finding Maggie dazzling in her dress, glittering like one of chandeliers that hung in the old Rocco inspired lobby of the Collinsprot Inn, her face plastered with worry and concern.

"Come in, come in!" Lucas said in his English brogue.

"Thank you for getting here so quickly, I really didn't know who else to call. By chance I had heard you were back in the states giving lectures at Harvard and then this happened and I just knew...I knew it was meant to be, the timing was perfect." Maggie said quickly making her way into the hotel room.

"How did you hear I was at Harvard?" Lucas wondered.

Maggie didn't want to seem bizarre, but what could sound more strange than her following him on social media. It was a brand new world a world where even those we haven't seen in ages are much closer than we'd like to admit. She shyly muttered "Facebook."

"Well, I'm glad you called. Does anyone know you're here?" Lucas asked, his face flush with shyness himself.

"I've told no one. My son and Serena think they can figure all this out themselves, that maybe Barnabas isn't trying to come back but maybe sending a message. I know him better than any one....he's trying to come back. He's wants to live. That's all he's ever wanted. His life." Maggie asked.

"And anyone in the family? Do they know?"

Maggie shook her head no.

"Good, that perhaps is best. Maggie, I know that there are things you've seen in your life that are frightening and that have been traumatic for you." Lucas said sitting next to her on the plush sofa and grabbing her hand. "These are things that I wish I could take away from your memory but I can't and what I'm going to ask you now will probably trigger you back to those days. But its all apart of this process, a process that is not comfortable or quaint."

Maggie looked deep into Lucas' green eyes. She felt an easiness she had not felt in decades. His touch was comforting and calming in all the chaos that was all around her. What ever he wanted, she would give.

"I think that after what happened to all of us six months ago, the wolf transformations and the horrors that occurred just before Barnabas vanished was a God send, aside from a friend of mine going into a state of mania and being taken to a mental hospital, for the most part, we've been  happy. Barnabas cannot return. Under no circumstances can he return. Whatever you can do to stop him....I'll help." Maggie said squeezing Lucas' hand.

"Good. I was hoping you'd say that. Come here." Lucas said taking Maggie by the hand over to the table with all his decades of work.

The overhead light from above the table shined down on boxes and pages of information collected over the years by Lucas almost all by taken through undercover work. He had bio's and photos and background work of practically all the bizarre and frightening history of the family, even Maggie herself was there.

"What is all this?" Maggie asked, even thought it was as clear as day what she was looking at.

"History." Lucas replied.

"What are you going to do with it?" Maggie wondered.

"It's my files on everything I have been wanting to use to get into that house, to get into the mansion and find the truth of what makes that family the way they are. And now, Maggie, now that you have reached out to me I can finally complete my work. With your help, I can make sure Barnabas Collins does not return and never hurts another living soul again." Lucas replied.

Maggie's eyes lit up, she was sure she had made the right choice calling him for help.

"What do we do first?" Maggie asked.

"Get me over to Collinwood as soon as you can. I'll need to be in the place Barnabas tried to make contact. Where is that?" Lucas asked.

Maggie thought for a second. "The baby's room. Serena felt Barnabas's presence there."

Lucas' face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Get me into that baby's room and I can make sure whatever portal that beast is trying to break back through is closed and closed forever." Lucas quickly explained.

Maggie knew she had to do it in secret and that no one in the Collins family could know, they were fiercely private and protected their own even if their own were as dangerous (and as dead) as Barnabas Collins himself. Lucas entering the house under any kind of way other than innocent would surly rub the family members that Maggie loved and cared for the wrong way.

Letting in an outsider without their knowledge would been seen as a betrayal. The ultimate break of trust.

"I can do this." Maggie said out loud. "I can get you in but no one and I mean no one can know what you're really there to do."

Lucas grinned like the moon above, his eyes lit up with a light that felt as if it warmed Maggie's heart.

"Not a single soul will know."

There was no turning back now, Maggie's fight to keep whatever peace they had all gained after Barnabas' latest vanishing act needed to remain intact. For the sake of her her son and Serena and the whole town itself.

****

Alex couldn't sleep after all the guests had gone home. She stood on her second-floor terrace of her bedroom and watched as the sea in the horizon heaved up and down like giant lungs made of water under the moon light. Her sudden illness at dinner had made everyone at the party worried for her none more than her mother Carolyn.

Alex, drank from a cup of water and continued to stare out on to the sea from the terrace. Her flowing nightgown swayed in the cool ocean breeze and in Alex's blond hair as the fog horns of the ships in the Atlantic called out to each other as if they were greeting one another in the dense sea fog.

"THE WATER. GO TO THE WATER. FEEL THE SEA ON YOUR SKIN. FEEL THE SALT ENTER YOUR BODY ALEXANDRA GO TO THE SEA" A voice said in Alex’s mind.

Alex looked around. There was no one there accompanying the voice, just the crashing waves against the rocky coast.

"Who was that? Who's there?" Alex called out.

"JUMP!" The voice screamed, it was Angelique's voice telepathically distorting Alex's mind. Reaching into to her psyche like a mental tug of war, one side to sanity the other to the brink of madness.

As Angelique continued to telepathically manipulate Alexandra’s mind her voice grew louder,  so loud Alex lost her grip on the glass of water causing her to drop it to the terrace floor.
The glass burst shattering into large shards. The water from the cup caused a small river to flow on the terrace floor carving it’s way to Alexandra's bare foot and once the water touched Alex's skin she was suddenly transported, telepathically, to the depths of the ocean.

Alex was under the water, it was dark, she could not see she could not hear. She was floating and trying to swim towards the surface but she could not, she was trapped and suspended under the water unable to move. She was losing air. She was struggling to breath, and her arms began to become tangled in the floating wings of her nightgown giving her the strange appearance of a jellyfish underwater.

In the darkness of the water, a light came floating up to Alexandra who was gasping for air. The light came closer and closer. Soon it became clear it was a person, a face appeared, it was Angelique, the witch who's powers were weakened and absorbed significantly during a battle between the two six months earlier.

Telepathically, and underwater, Angelique spoke to her newest victim.

"You took from me, all that I had, and now I will take from you. This is your watery grave Alexandra, with your death, my power will rise."

Then the light, the image of Angelique, flowing white hair in under the sea vanished and Alex's body began to submerge deeper and deeper into the dark ocean below. Alex fought all she could, she struggled, she tried to swim up but she could not move, she continued to sink deeper and deeper in to the sea, deeper and deeper into the dark water of the Atlantic Ocean.

"ALEX WAKE UP!" A voice screamed, blaring as loud as the fog horns in the harbor.

It was Carolyn who found a sweaty, and gasping for air Alexandra in a trance on the terrace floor locked in telepathic spell by Angelique who’s lasting powers forced Alex to drown on the terrace as if she was under water.
Carolyn, knelt over her daughter and shook Alex's body over and over but could not wake her. Finally Carolyn panicked and slapped her daughter across the face instantly waking her.

Alex, soaking wet from her own sweat, dazed and confused, woke up and turned to the side and vomited sea water all over the her bedroom terrace floor.

"Oh My god! What happened?" Andrew said rushing in from the hallway in the room, his body flying through the room at lightning speed.

"She was unconscious, I found her on the floor, help me with her to the bed. Watch the broken glass." Carolyn said, Alex slowly regaining minimal strength.

Andrew looked down, and carefully stepped over the broken cup with his bare feet and picked up Alex from the floor. Her mind queezy and dazed from Angelique's mind control.

Alex was placed on the bed, breathing heavily, but she was now conscious.

"Honey, what happened? What happened?" Carolyn asked holding both of her daughters hands in hers.

Andrew's eyes flashed a sudden spark. Remnants from his mutated DNA filled with lycan blood. He sniffed the air. It was potent with a perfume that he knew was not Alex's or Carolyn's. He could feel his heart beat faster and faster. He could sense that evil was in the room. He growled, a low purr of suspicion.

"I was on the terrace and I suddenly felt ill again. Something .... something made me really sick. It was like I was under water. I felt it was. I really felt I was drowning." Alex said unsure of how to tell her mother and Andrew about Angelique's vision.

"Oh honey what... what is this? What is going on?" Carolyn questioned, her hear racing with fear.

"I... I dont know." Alex said pretending not to know, but she did know Angelique was behind it. She could feel it in her veins. In her body. She could feel Angelique tightening her mystical grip around her neck waiting for the right moment to squeeze the life out of her and gain all her powers back.

"I'm going to call a doctor." Carolyn said quickly making her way to the bedroom door.

"NO! Don't. I think I'm going to be fine, I'm going to be ok. Please, just let me rest and I'll be fine." Alex said.

Carolyn didn't know what to do. She saw that her daughter was fighting something, an illness or something else, but she couldn't tell what, but she agreed not to call the doctor.

"Your color is coming back. But if you start to feel sick again there is no way I am not going to call the doctor. Do you understand me?" The mother ordered.

"I'll  do it myself. Alex, if you're not feeling good we have to call someone." Andrew agreed.

"No, please. I'm fine. I'm feeling better. Really." Alex offered to a frustrated Carolyn.

"Alright, I'm going to be just down the hall, call me if you need anything. I don't care what time it is." Carolyn said as she reluctantly left the room in the care of Andrew.

Andrew had grown very close to Alex and knew her inside and out. He knew that there was obviously much more going on than she was leading everyone to believe. He lay down next to her in bed and grabbed her hand. His heart still beating fast. His hunger to sniff out the evil that made the woman his loved so distraught.

They cuddled and held each other tight. He could feel her body trembling with fear. His powerful senses could feel her energy mixed with that of something twisted and vial. Their connection was powerful, something that was almost other worldly. Supernatural love.

He combed her hair off of her face with his hand, and ran his fingers through to calm her. She took deep breaths, her mind wondering to the horrible feeling of drowning deep deep under the sea.


"It's her isn't it." Andrew said referencing Angelique. "I can smell her, I can almost taste her." Andrew said, remembering he bit Angelique in the fight that he thought took her life.

Alex looked up at Andrew. She didn't know how to answer, she didn't know what to say without scaring him. How could she explain that she somehow was transported to the deepest depths of the sea and was drowning but had never left the terrace. Even thinking about it made her feel insane.

"You can tell me anything, anything! I want to help you." Andrew whispered in a calming voice.

"I don't know what to do." Alex said.

"Is it her? Is it who I think it is?" Andrew asked again referring to Angelique, the witch Alex absorbed more powerful from after their intense battle 6 months earlier.

Alex paused before answering but she didn't want to hide it from him any longer. She took a deep breath and answered "yes."

"What does she want?" Andrew asked in a soft voice.

Alex paused before answering. "I don't know."

"Alex." Andrew replied, his tone of voice showing that he did not believe her.

Alex sighed again, terrified of what she was about to say. "Me. She wants me."

Alexandra was now one of the most powerful sorceresses on the planet. Her powers had only been matched by Angelique herself but the battle had left Angelique only left with just 20% of who she was, only able to shape-shift and communicate telepathically. Alex held all of the power now, and if Angelique could kill her, she'd regain her place as the most powerful witch in the world.

The only question left was, would Alexandra fall into any more of Angelique's traps?

Andrew lay back in the bed as Alex placed her head on his bare chest. She could hear his heart beating she could feel every cell in his body flow through  his veins. He was worried. He was unsure of how they could beat Angelique at a war of her creation. But he loved Alex, he loved her with his and Christopher's souls and he would do everything in his power to make sure Alex was safe.

Even risk his own life.

"I won't let her hurt you. I won't let her do anything to do any of us. I don't need a moon to make me what I know I am. I'll kill her. I'll kill her." Andrew said in his mind. He could not bear speak his anger out loud. He could see Alex was distressed, his life was now intermingled with hers. Nothing would ever come between them again.

****

The next morning time seemed to have come back to a normal place. The birds in the trees chirped as if nothing evil had ever placed its feet on Collinwood soil even though it was always present. It was always there. It was always real. The malevolence seeped out from the walls of the old mansion like a berry being squeezed of it's juice. No matter how beautiful the day was outside, danger always lurked.

Serena arrived to work in the morning to be with John-Michael and see Siobhan off just after breakfast. Alex and Andrew were still asleep, Carolyn had gone with David to the Cannery offices to meet with Curtis leaving Siobhan alone in the house with Serena and John-Michael.


In the drawing room, Serena was playing with the baby with the French doors open and the morning breeze filling the room with the smell of sea air. The old wall paper, dark green matched the feeling inside Serena's body: queasy.

Siobhan rushed into the drawing room putting on her earrings and in her freshly dry-cleaned suit.

"I'm so late!" Siobhan said grabbing her things and fussing with her last earring, Serena smiled nervously.

"Honey, are you ok? You've been so quiet since you got here." Siobhan noticed, ever the noticing psychologist.

"It's nothing, just ...it's nothing." Serena said bouncing the baby on her hip.

"Is everything ok at home? With Sebastian?"

"Of course! Yes!" Serena replied truthfully.

"Then what is it?" Siobhan asked, feeling the stress coming from the terrified nanny.

Serena began to feel uneasy telling Siobhan the truth, as she, Sebastian and Maggie had all agreed not to tell anyone about what she had seen in the baby's room. But Siobhan wasn't the average person. Much like her mother Julia, Siobhan could see when someone was hiding something, when someone was lying and when someone was showing signs of great distress. It was, after all, her job to connect with the human mind and feel what they were feeling. To help them heal.

"I know that being in this old house can be a bit jarring with all it's old paintings and the insane history of it all. It's overwhelming but honestly you have nothing to worry about. If anyone should be scared it should be me." Siobhan said.

"Why's that?" Serena wondered.

"I have to get to work and deal with all the mess about Victoria. Maggie and Carolyn are insisting I make sure Dr. Wolf is caring for her and that they see her. I have to come how convince Wolf that Vicky is able to get visitors or else...." Siobhan relied.

"Or else what?"

"Well, you know Maggie, and Carolyn is no better. The two of them together are like two pit bulls. They'll get what they want when they want no matter what." Siobhan finished

Siobhan kissed her baby goodbye and grabbed her medicine bag and coat and began to make her way out of the drawing room when all of a sudden the painting of Barnabas in the corner began to swing violently and fell to the floor shattering the old ornate gold frame.

Serena screamed and grabbed the baby close and stepped back. He was tying to reach out again.

Siobhan, stunned, stood in place and stared down at the painting of her father then looked back at the terrified Serena; she quickly put two-and-two together.

"It's him isn't it? My father. Serena are you nervous about my father?" Siobhan asked as she picked up the canvas painting from the floor.

"I....."

"Serena, tell me the truth, what is going on?" Siobhan asked, growing every close to Serena's secret.

Serena did not know how to answer. She could only hold on to the baby and say nothing. Siobhan frustrated with her silence sat her down and took the baby from Serena's arms. She knew something was going on, she could see it in her nanny's eyes she could feel it in the air now that the frame had frightening Serena so much.

"If something has happened and my father is involved you have to tell me, Serena, you have to tell me what's going on. My baby is in your care and I need to be able to trust you." Siobhan said.

"I don't even know how to explain it. I just sort of happened and I can't explain it." Serena said.

"What was it?"

Serena's mind went back to the day she saw Barnabas in the baby's nursery. She was feeling all the same feelings of that day. She could almost smell Barnabas' cologne, she could feel his heart beat in her own and she could feel his his presence in the house, ever minute. It was as if he was standing over her looking down pushing his way into her mind.

"It was as if I was being watched." Serena said.

"Watched by who?" Siobhan asked.

"I... it was Bar...." Serena was too scared to answer.

"Good morning ladies!" Maggie said, charging through the open doors of the drawing room unexpectedly.

Serena shot up from the sofa, saved by the bell.

"Maggie, what are doing here?" Siobhan replied noticing that Serena's body language quickly changed once Maggie walked in.

"How are we today?" Maggie said squeezing the baby's cheeks, avoiding Siobhan's question but sensing something was off by the energy in the room, especially Serena's discomfort.

"Serena was just about to tell me of something strange that happened to her the other day. She said she felt like she was being watched. And my father's frame mysteriously fell to the floor she panicked, she screamed. Look at her, she's a basket case, and I want to know why she's so terrified." Siobhan replied, her tone of voice signaling a frustration and that she found the two related.

"Oh! Serena is just a worry-wort, aren't you Serena? This old house has that effect on people, trust me after all the years I was here it can feel like the walls have eyes. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't!" Maggie joked. "Go on Siobhan, I know you must be late for work, I'll be here with Serena." Maggie said, sugar coating the truth.

Siobhan saw that she would not win this argument and reluctantly picked up her coat and made her way towards the front door from the drawing room but not before looking back at Serena and Maggie, now huddling together over Barnabas' portrait sprawled out on the sofa.  "If anything happens. Call me." She ordered to Maggie and Serena's agreement.

As soon as the front door closed Maggie rolled her eyes at Serena who almost broke their pact.

"We agreed Serena." Maggie said, her voice now much more stern.

"I didn't see a way out of it. She kept pushing me for answers and when I saw that picture fall it was as if he were trying to tell me to tell her! I didn't know what to do, I don't like keeping this secret from her." Serena explained as the baby in her arms played with her necklace.

"Funny, you had no problem keeping Jeffery's secrets." Maggie shot back with a snarl. "It doesn't matter. Things are about to change." Maggie said as she walked over to open French Windows.

Maggie held open the sheer curtains and in stepped Lucas Granger with equipment he was going to use to find the portal Barnabas was attempting to once again, return from the other side.

"What...who's this? What's going on?" Serena asked.

"Lucas, this is Serena Bellmoore, she's the conduit Barnabas is attempting to use to unlock the portal from the other side."

Lucas put down the back cases with his equipment and shook Serena's free hand.

"Pleasure. Now....let's get to work on locking this monster where he is. Forever."

Serena looked at Maggie who was pleased that finally, he was going to be apart of making sure no one else was hurt by Barnabas Collins and the supernatural disasters that followed him into the world of the living.

Maggie introduces Lucas to Serena

****

At Windcliff Sanitarium, the evening sun began to shine down on the grounds just outside the hospital. The nurses were rounding up the patients and bringing them into for dinner just before night fall and just before their medications were handed out and the sleep of the meds began to set in.

Vicky, still unable to speak  but able to see, sat with her new roommate Dominique in the garden as the nurses corralled patients and slowly took them back into the hospital small groups at a time.

Dominique, seeing her time talking to Vicky in an open fashion without the prying eyes and ears of the staff growing short, quickly asked what the plan of escape was.

Vicky wrote out on a sheet of paper that she would later flush down a toilet, that they needed to leave as soon as possible because her son Curtis was in great danger.

"And David, you'll still take me to David Collins?" Dominique questioned.

Vicky still believed her family dead but knew Dominique was her only way out still nodded yes. 

"Tonight when they bring you the pills to sleep, don't take them. Spit them out and from there we'll sneak through the halls and out of one of the staff entrances. Those entrances aren't as monitored as the public ones." Dominique said.

Vicky wrote out "HOW'D YOU KNOW THAT?"

"Trust me, in the 90s, before I left Windcliff from Augusta, I was here for a good long time and I memorized everything there was to know about this place. There were so many times I dreamed of David and me escaping. I guess he eventually did." The returned patient explained.

Just as the two women continued their plan, Nurse Cassandra Capwell, Angelique in disguise, walked over.

"Well what are we chatting about?" The shape-shifting nurse asked seeing how close the two had gotten.

Vicky recognized Cassie's voice and turned away.

"Just the day. It's been beautiful out here." Dominique said covering for the escape plan.

Cassandra looked at Dominique, there was something about her that Cassandra could feel. There was a light in her, something ethereal and bright. It made Cassandra feel uncomfortable and almost exposed as her true self: Angelique. It was like Dominique's light was shining through the sham that Cassandra was.

But Cassandra couldn't pin what that feeling meant down. She couldn't grasp what exactly it was about Dominique that bothered her so much. 

"Dominique, run along inside, you have a visitor." Cassie said shaking off her weird feelings about the new woman hovering over Vicky.

"Really!!!" Dominique squealed with delight. "I'll see you inside V." Dominique said rushing off.

Cassie waited for Dominique to disappear into the hospital and sat down with Vicky in the white wicker chairs on the browning fall grass on the grounds. She crossed her legs as Vicky held the ripped papers from her note book in a tight ball where Cassandra could not see.

Seeing no one around, Cassie transformed back into her real body of Angelique.

"What a wonderful friend you have there. She seems unhinged." Angelique hissed. "But you're used to the unhinged aren't you Victoria? This is a mental hospital after all. I hope she doesn't bother you too much." The witch said to Vicky's scowl of a reaction. "You know, despite what you may think of me I do want you to live a happy life here, whatever that may be." Angelique added with a bit of sarcasm.

Vicky could not respond out loud but knew Angelique could hear her thoughts, and replied in kind.

"I hate you." Vicky's voice said in Angelique's mind to the witch's amusement. 

"Seriously, Victoria, you need to make peace with what is going on. There's  no way you can escape this place. I've made sure of it. No one is going to save you. They're all dead." Angelique replied, repeating the lie that everyone at Collinwood was dead except for Curtis. 

"My son is my world. I lifted heaven and earth to make sure I was able to save him from the curses of this family and I will not let you corrupt him. The truth will come out." Vicky said.

"Oh, I know all about how you took Curtis as a baby and used your little gift of time travel and raised him as your own in the past for decades and I know that the whole family died not knowing Curtis is really Caleb and Kat's son. If they were alive, honey, how do you think they'd feel knowing just how you've been lying to them all these years, huh? Its a good thing I killed them then, you're in the clear I guess. Why don't you thank me? Your secret is safe forever!" Angelique said, using her most conning power of manipulation.

"Go to hell!" Vicky said telepathically as she angrily turned her face towards where she could hear Angelique's.

"I've been there. It's quite nice." Angelique said grinning like a cat ready to pounce on a mouse. 

Angelique could see that her message was loud and clear. Vicky knew she was trapped there forever. She seemed to know her place and that she was powerless against the witch, which was music to Angelique's ears. Keeping Vicky in Windcliff meant keeping Angelique happy and in love with Curtis. 

Angelique's face began to melt, transforming back into nurse Cassandra Capwell.

"Get up. We have to go in." Cassie said. 

One small tear fell from Vicky's eye as Cassie grabbed hold of the Vicky forcefully by the arm and took her back into the hospital.

Over in the visiting lounge, Dominique waited for her visitor. She looked around anxious to see who it was. She had no idea someone would be coming so soon since she had been there. She looked and looked and suddenly the door opened and in walked the District Attorney, Gabriel Do Arco.

Dominique squealed with joy and rushed up to hug Gabriel.

"Oh my god!! I'm so happy to see you! How did you know---" She said kissing him on the cheek before he interrupted her gleeful exchange. 

"I always know where to find you." He said, his eyes welling up with tears. "Are you ok?" He asked, as he arms reached around his neck.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Dominique said, ushering him to the seat at the table.

Gabriel looked around. It was if time had been suspended. He had been here years and years before when Dominique had first come to Windcliff, but then followed her to Augusta when she was moved to the other hospital. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. The room was so cold, and white. So sanitized and distant to anyone who walked in. He could almost see his own breath when he spoke.

"Is it better here since the last time you were here?" Gabriel asked as his eyes continued to flash cross the room searching it's conditions.

"It's fine. So far at least. I met a friend." Dominique said as she released herself from Gabriel's big arms.

"Oh boy, not another man I hope. You know what happened the last time you met a man in a mental hospital." Gabriel joked with Dominique who had been frighting her severe bi-polar and mania for decades.

"Not funny. And No, its a woman. We've become very good friends. And guess what?!" Dominique asked.

Gabriel sat across from Dominique and grabbed her hands in his, he knew this visit was different. He knew, so deep in his soul that something would come from this visit that he at the moment could not understand. It was all part of a greater plan, a puzzle, that he could not put together...Dominique's return was just one of the pieces of the mystery of why Gabriel felt so strongly about coming back to this area of the country. 

"What is it?" He said lovingly, to her, a woman he thought he'd never see again.

"She said she's going to get me to see David again. She's related to him! Can you believe that? Can you believe my luck? My one friend is exactly the person I was supposed to meet to get me back to David, to reconnect me. It's like...it was meant to be."

Gabriel's eyes turned from happy to concerned. Dominique was his older sister. She had suffered from mental illness for decades and he was always aware of her delusions and often times those delusions were brought on by her naivete, and he thought it had all ended on one fateful and tragic night 5 years ago while Dominique was at the mental hospital in Augusta, but clearly things were not as they seemed.

"Dom, you're my sister...and I love you, but you don't know if this person is telling you the truth. You know what happens when you count your chickens before they're hatched. Remember 5 years ago?" Gabriel said and began to add "Remember how you...." but was interrupted by Dominique angrily pulling away from his hands at the mention of the 5 year old incident. 

"Stop it. I don't want to talk about that. I don't even want to talk about what happened. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever!" She replied.

"Ok! Ok! It's ok. We don't have to. Not right now." Gabriel said rationally.

"NO! NEVER!" Dominique shot back. "Not. Ever. Not as long as I can get to David."

"One day you'll have to come to terms with it, sis. And David...David has probably moved on. You know that right?." Gabriel answered.

"No. My friend would have told me if he did. I can trust her." Dominique replied.

"Dom, I just don't know." Gabriel answered, feeling the worst for his sister who had so much to hold on to, so much to fix and no way out of where she was.

"Trust me. She's is a true friend. She'll get me where I need to go." Dominique said, to Gabriel's worried face.

"Hmmm." Gabriel replied, his tone of voice skeptical of the veracity of this new friend.

"No, no! Shes' real and she really will take me to David. She said she is related to him. I'm sure of it. I even heard the nurses talking about how she's part of this super rich family in Collinsport and that can only mean the Collins family, just like David! I promise, I believe it." Dominique replied.

The identity of Dominique's roommate stuck a strange cord in Gabriel. A member of the rich family from town? He had heard of the situation with Victoria Winters from paperwork when he took over the position at the DA's. He had read over the police reports that her son Curtis had filed and there might have been some legal situation pending if the rest of the family believed that she was placed at the hospital under false pretenses, but nothing ever came of it. Never the less Gabriel was interested.

"This friend of yours, how is she?" He wondered.

"She's fine...Sort of. She can barley see. And she can't talk at all. But once we're out of here she said she'll take me to David and finally he and I can be together." Dominique said.

Gabriel's eyes began to sparkle again in a gold bright light that shined down onto Dominique's hands. Perhaps Vicky meeting Dominique was yet another piece of the puzzle, the connecting dots of his reason for being in Collinsport, the reason that had yet to materialize.

 Dominique gasped and squeezed. This was not something she was unaware of. She had always known of her brother's special gift, a gift that had helped her all her life a gift that throughout her life had protected her because he was like a guardian angel that was there for her whenever she needed him.

She hadn't seen his eyes sparkle like this in years. She had been so displaced by the many transfers in hospitals over the years from her family the golden protective light that her brother used to protect their family hadn't shined on her in ages. She had missed his light, even after the incident 5 years before, an incident that made Dominique feel.....lost...It was a happy re-connection.

"Your eyes." she said as he quickly blinked to remove the light.

"Listen, I have to get going. But I want you to do something for me." Gabriel asked.

"What, I'll do anything." She replied.

"I want you to take care of yourself and I want you to take care of Victoria." Gabriel replied.

"Of course!" Dominique said. Gabriel winked at his sister and got up to leave, there was something he needed to do now that he knew Vicky was in the hospital with his sister. "WAIT!" Dominique shouted just before her brother left the visiting room.

"Yeah?" He said turning back around.

"How did you know her name? The woman I'm rooming with, how did you know her name was Victoria?" Dominique questioned. 

"I know about everyone who needs help Dommy...like you." Gabriel said as he winked at her once more and left the room leaving Dominique alone to wondering. 

As Gabriel passed the Nurses station he turned back around and looked into the visiting room as the door was closing and Dominique was already gone. She had vanished just like that. He took a deep breath and now knew, that of course, his sister was the one who needed him. His sister was the reason he was so drawn back to Collinsport. She was the light that was glowing so deep inside of him that made him come back and find her at Windcliff.

As Gabriel passed the nurse's station to leave, Cassie was standing behind the behind the desk flicking through patient files that she could care less about. As Gabriel passed Cassie they both, at the same time, suddenly got sharp pains in the temples. The pain was identical and felt knives stabbing them in the head.

Gabriel turned to look at the nurse in the station who had dropped the paper work and Cassie opened her eyes only to be staring directly into Gabriel's face.

Then, at the exact same time the two had a vision: Flames, dark flames, hot, twisting and burning, the smell of lava and flesh burning, screaming, it was like their two magnetic and supernatural frequencies had crossed and were now embedded with each other. Their powers crossing and locking horns. One good. One Evil.

Gabriel was shaking and quickly rushed out of the hospital leaving Cassie breathing hard at the Nurse's desk unsure of who or what she just saw.

"Are you ok?" Another nurse asked as she picked up the papers Cassie dropped.

"Who was that?" Cassie asked.

"Ummm... I don't know his name off the bat, but he was in the visiting room...here to see patient I guess." The nurse replied indifferently as she placed the papers on the table

"Dominique?" Cassie whispered to herself.

Angelique, inside of Cassie, was now in fear. Gabriel was not like her. He had powers too, but he was not of the darkness, he was not of the side of evil and hell that she was. He was not there to torment and to get what he wanted. He was just another threat that Angelique had to worry about. She knew that if he figured out her plot and joined forces with Alexandra, it would be her end....forever. 

Back in their room, Vicky and Dominique were given their sleeping pills. The two smiled coyly as an attending nurse waiting to see if they had swallowed. The two patients, true to their plan, hid the pills in a crevice of their mouths. Satisfied, the nurse left and Vicky and Dominique spit out the pills and put them down the toilet. 

"When? When do you take me to David?" Dominique asked impatiently. 

Vicky grabbed her pen and pat and with the small amount of vision she had read the clock as only 9:45 in the evening.

She scribbled out her plot: "11:30 pm... WE LEAVE"

Dominique grinned and lay back on her bed, closed her eyes and smiled dreaming that in the next three hours she'd be reunited with the man she loved. David Collins.