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| The Stoddards: Carolyn, Paul & Arabella |
The gloom of a late winter fog settled over the great house like a curtain of clouds slowly coming down on a dark stage at the end of a play. On this night, several players have already seen the twists and turns their lives can take, much like a story set for the stage. Tonight, the Collins family has already seen the pressures their new governess seems to be feeling, but a second guest is about to arrive and turn the mansion on Widow’s Hill upside down once again.
A black sedan quietly made it's way around the half circle drive way in front of the mansion, rolling slowly and meticulously over the gravel path as to not arouse any attention from the occupants inside. In the sedan, Carolyn Stoddard, and the mysterious person she met on the docks just hours before; a person that promised her all the answers to Carolyn's most damning questions.
As the black car finally stopped, Carolyn stepped out and reached back for the hand of the person that sat next to her in the back seat.
"I can't wait to see everyone's faces when they see you." She said, as a black gloved hand tightened around Carolyn's.
The two made their way up the walk way and to the front door of the mansion. It was late, the house was already locked for the night and Carolyn had forgotten her key. She grumbled to herself about this and sent a sideways smirk to her guest, a sort of apology for the wait as she reached down under a potted plant and found the extra hide-a-key.
"Sorry." She said, as the person smiled back.
Carolyn unlocked the door and entered into the foyer with her guest, the two took off their coats and hung them up just as Elizabeth made her way from one of the back rooms into the foyer meeting her daughter and the guest.
"Mother, look who I found!" Carolyn announced with a wicked grin.
Elizabeth stood in shock as she gazed upon the one person she had not seen in years. A person who she had hoped would never come to Collinwood, a person who's will and fortitude had always matched her own and a person who, perhaps, would bring much strife to the family in days when they already had plenty to worry about.
This was something out of Elizabeth's control, and being out of control made her very uneasy.
"What--what ---what are you doing here??" Elizabeth said walking over to the person, a woman, and hugging her tightly then they kissed each other once on each cheek.
"Aunt Arabella came to stay with us for a while from San Francisco, she's leaving on a trip to Europe next month and she came to surprise us on her way over. Isn't that wonderful?" Carolyn said, revealing the name of her mystery guest.
"Liz, it's been so long. So very long. I have wanted to see my family for years and, well I thought this would be the perfect time." Arabella replied.
Arabella Stoddard was Paul Stoddard's younger sister, an inner circle socialite from the posh quarters of San Francisco's Nob Hill neighborhood. She was pail skinned with dark red hair that looked as if it was spun with threads of fire when the sun touched it. Arabella, 15 years younger than her brother Paul, was a serious woman who had married three times, and widowed three times. She had been the apple of her brother's eye before Carolyn's birth, a testament to their closeness, but his marriage to Elizabeth almost 20 years before left her relationship with her brother in tatters. There was animosity and hostility between sister and wife, and all this animosity boiled over when Paul suddenly went missing when Carolyn was only a baby. It had been especially aggravated by Elizabeth's unwillingness to help the investigation and assume that Paul had just decided to leave her and the young Carolyn--something Arabella vehemently disagreed with.
"I just wish that you had called, you see we've hired a new governess for Roger’s son Davis and she's fallen ill. We're trying to get her better." Elizabeth said making an excuse for why she didn't want Arabella as a guest. Liz's discomfort with Arabella's presence was palpable to all in it's orbit.
"Darling, I would't dare be a bother. Not at all, in fact I can be out of your way the whole time I’m in town. Carolyn, my lovely niece and I can take all the time together outside of the house. I promise I won't be a bother at all, besides I've booked a room at the Inn." Arabella said in a patronizing voice.
"I'm sorry that's not what I mean, of course you're welcome here, of course! Please come in, Ill have some tea made for us to warm you up." Elizabeth replied, back-tracking her statement from before in an attempt to smooth things over with her sister-in-law.
As the women went into the drawing room Elizabeth scurried away into the kitchen to have tea made, a welcome break from the 5 minutes of awkwardness Arabella had already consumed since she her arrival.
"She seems uncomfortable." Arabella noted to Carolyn.
"See what I mean? She's like that when I mention daddy too. I wish she could just tell me what happened, Aunt Bella. I've been asking for years about my father and every time I bring it up she---she pushes it aside as if it's not a big deal. Well it is a big deal. He's my father, and I want to know where he is." Carolyn explained.
"I know honey, I know. I've been wondering about this myself for a very long time. He wouldn't have just up and left that way and I can tell you for sure, he would have at least told me where he was going. I've tried to get it out of her myself over the years, but she would never return my calls or my letters. I'm glad you invited me here---otherwise, she never would have." Arabella added.
"What do you think you can do? What can you change being here than in San Francisco?" Carolyn asked, mentioning Arabella's home city.
"Well, I've already been in contact with a private investigator here in Collinsport and he's got a lot of information for me that I'll pick up at a meeting I'm having with him. But darling, you have to be very careful and not mention anything to your uncle Roger, or anyone; discretion is at the upmost importance, I hope you can understand." Arabella instructed.
"Of course, of course!" Carolyn replied, grinning at the prospect of finally getting answers to her father's mysterious vanishing.
"Well! Look what the cat dragged in!" Roger said from the drawing room doorway. “I swear it’s like a parade of my least favorite people showing up at my door step. First I hear of Burke Devlin’s return and now you.” He added with an eye roll in Arabella’s direction.
Carolyn gasped at Roger’s rudeness.
"Oh Roger, lovely to see you again. How's the wife?" Arabella replied, digging at Roger's estrangement from his wife Laura.
"What brings you here? Business or pleasure? And by pleasure I mean tormenting my sister?" He replied equally is cutting.
"Uncle Roger!" Carolyn shouted.
"No, it's fine. I know there is no love-loss between us Roger, dear, but I'm here to spend time with our mutual niece. You can't hog her all to yourself, no matter how much of a pig you are." Arabella shot back
"Speaking of pigs, you piece of...." Roger began before Elizabeth interrupted.
"That'll do Roger." The matriarch said sternly as she dropped a silver tray filled with silver and pristine China with hot tea for the guest.
"That's alright Liz, we're just having a little family fun. Nothing new for us two, right Roge?" Arabella said, her eyebrow lifted with a hint of sarcasm.
Roger went into his smoking jacket pocket and pulled out a match book and cigar and rolled his eyes again at Arabella who was already sipping on the hot tea.
"I'll be in the smoking room. David is going to check on Vicky for us and let us know how she's doing." Roger said quickly exiting from the drawing room.
"Vicky?" Arabella asked in a surprised voice.
"Our new governess, I mentioned her when you came in. She's fallen ill." Elizabeth explained.
"Uhh Liz ...I know this seems quite sudden but may I use your phone, I promised to call someone to let them know I made it to Maine safely and it's completely slipped my mind. I wouldn't want them to worry." Arabella asked as she put down her tea and got up from the sofa.
"Someone?" Liz teased insinuating a new love for Arabella.
"Nothing like that. Just the house keeper in San Francisco." Arabella said covering for herself.
"Well, Yes, of course, there's a line just around the corner in the foyer. You can use that phone for privacy." Elizabeth said smiling, yet suspicious of Arabella's abruptness to make the call.
"Change that face mother." Carolyn said as soon as Arabella was out of sight.
"I wish you had told me you were bringing her. This is very out of line, even for you Carolyn, really! And what’s this I hear of you causing trouble at The Blue Whale earlier this evening?” The mother scolded, referring to an earlier altercation at the local Tavern that Carolyn was mixed up in.
“Well...it seems a girl can’t do her own thing in this town without being found out. What, did Did Joe Haskell call you to rat on me?” Carolyn said snobbishly about Joe, the man Carolyn was supposed to be out with earlier that night and the man Elizabeth highly approved of for Carolyn’s husband.
“I just wish you’d stop and think sometimes. Whatever happened at The Blue Whale could have been much worse had Joe not intervened ” Elizabeth said in a worried tone.
“Oh Mother I can take care of myself. I don’t need to be out with Joe or any man acting as a body guard. And I really wish you’d stop trying to make us a pair. It’s over between us anyway.” Carolyn announced.
“Oh Carolyn!” Elizabeth replied unhappily.
Carolyn rolled her eyes again and turned from her mother. She was tired of the way her mother’s life infringed in her own independence. She was tired of the secrets, those same secrets involving her father’s disappearance. Which was why she called for Arabella’s help in the first place without her family’s knowledge.
“What’s the matter mother? Are you worried I’ll ruin my life? Are you worried I’ll just turn into some old maid living the rest of my life out here in this ... in this.... mausoleum the rest of my days? Well don’t worry. I wouldn’t dare take that distinction away from you.” Carolyn shot back With cruel intentions. Her feelings of frustration and anger finally showing their full power to Elizabeth for the first time.
With her hurtful words, it was clear to Elizabeth that Carolyn has purposefully brought Arabella to town to hurt her, to cause her pain, to make her life more complicated than it already was. This realization cut Elizabeth even deeper.
“Carolyn, I know your acting out this way is because of ... well many things. Specifically about the truth about your father. I know it angers you that ... well that I can answer your questions but did you call Arabella here just to ...hurt me?” Elizabeth wondered.
“Why mother?” Carolyn said suspiciously. “Do you think having Aunt Bella in town will cause trouble for us? You know she only wants what’s best for her brother’s daughter.” Carolyn added, her words poking Elizabeth like a carnival barker poking a bear.
Elizabeth turned her back to Carolyn and took a breath, her blood seemed to be boiling. She could feel the contention between herself and her daughter reaching a high point and nothing she was doing or could do would turn Carolyn’s behavior around.
Elizabeth then turned back around quickly to her daughter again and hissed. “Arabella should have called.”
Carolyn smirked wickedly, she felt a twinge of joy watching her mother squirm in Arabella's presence. She had begged her mother for years to give her clues about what had happened to her father to no avail, and finally, for once, she was seeing something crack in her mother's veneer. Carolyn had always know that her mother, perhaps, knew more about Paul Stoddard's vanishing than she led on, and now, with Arabella's arrival perhaps she'd finally get to the bottom of it all.
In the foyer Arabella closed the drawing room doors then checked every corner of the room to be sure she was alone. She pulled out a slip of white paper from her black patent leather hand bag and read the phone number on it. She was not calling her housekeeper. She was calling her investigator.
"Hello? Hi...yes, Detective Cielvert? Darling, hello, yes, I'm at Collinwood---finally! It was a dreadful flight to Maine and then the train ride into Collinsport was ---well let's just say this was not the Orient Express. Anyway, do you have what you told me about over the phone two days ago with you? Oh good---good, you mentioned a name---Victoria. Well guess what, I think your Victoria is now the new governess here. It can't be a coincidence, no.... can't believe it either, I'm dying to read the rest of what you found. So next Tuesday at 4? Fine....That's fine. Ok, goodnight, I'll see you then."
Arabella was in Collinsport for only 4 hours and she was already making head-way into the mystery of her brother's disappearance and what, if anything, did this Victoria have to do with it. Why was Elizabeth connected to her.
The web of secrets was beginning to unravel.
****
Later that night, the foggy sky loomed on as the clock struck late into the hours. At the coffee shop attached to the Collinsport Inn, Maggie Evans was finishing up one of her last patrons when Justin Patterson burst through the door fresh off his car accident up in the hills above town startling everyone.
"Jesus Justin! What happened?" Maggie said, rushing over to him and looking over his banged up forehead.
"Where's India, have you seen her? Where is she? She was with me one minute and then the next she wasn't! There was a bright light and ...the lighthouse, and it....something....it came....then, I don't understand what the hell happened, Maggie. India is GONE!" Justin screeched, as the panic of witnessing his new friend suddenly vanish into thin air.
"Ok, hon, sit down, sit, down, you're not making any sense. Who is India?" Maggie said, as two patrons quietly and uncomfortably made their exit from the cafe.
"India...the girl I met earlier tonight. The one I brought in here and she told us she was supposed to work up at Collinwood but the job was already taken." Justin explained, confused by Maggie's forgetfulness.
"Justin, earlier tonight you came in here alone. You didn't have anyone with you. You don't remember? We talked briefly about Collinwood and that new girl Victoria who I met too but...you didn't have anyone with you. How did you hurt your head?" Maggie said, cleaning up the little spec of blood coming from the cut on his head.
"What? You....you're lying to me. India---she was in here with me earlier. Maggie, please don't fool around!" Justin said, his panic continuing to boil over.
Maggie wasn't sure what Justin was talking about, she had no idea who India was---and that was the truth. The force of the power from Barnabas' ring around India's neck when it merged India and Vicky together as one has also reverted reality all around town, basically removing India from memory of those that did not matter to Barnabas' ultimate plan. His work, from beyond the grave that had yet to be found and opened, was working---and Justin--having clear memory of India was now also chosen to help.
"Sweetie, you've clearly banged your head somewhere, ok, let me just close up and get you something to calm you down." Maggie said, rushing over to grab a clean wet rag.
As she did so, the front of the Cafe door was still unlocked, it was now getting late, too late. The moon's light was bursting through the fog and illuminating the body of someone walking in from the street. It was Carolyn Stoddard.
"Sorry we're closed." Maggie said with her back turned to the door.
"It's just me Maggs." Carolyn said coming in from the fog. Her long night at the Blue Whale and later the uncomfortable moments with her mother & Arabella forced her to seek out a night-cap. "The Blue Whale is packed, and I just need a break from the house, you don't mind do you? Oh....Justin!" she added noticing the other cafe patron whom she had a history with.
"Oh...honey, I don't know. Justin has had a really rough night. Maybe you should just head on back to Collinwood." Maggie said attempting to thwart Carolyn from her plans of sticking around.
"My God Justin! What happened?" Carolyn said, rushing over to Justin and his bleeding head.
"I was in a car accident. I was...I was with someone then she just ....she was gone. The lighthouse. It's light took her." Justin said confusing everyone.
"Have you been drinking? Were you drinking and then driving?" Carolyn scolded.
"No. He only had coffee. He was here a few hours ago, alone, and rushed off. Said he had to go to Bangor, cut to 5 minutes ago and he shows up like this." Maggie said handing Carolyn the wet rag to clean Justin's blood. "I got to lock up."
"Bangor! India had to find Julia in Bangor. Maybe she's there." Justin rambled on.
"Julia? India? Who are you talking about?" Carolyn questioned.
"I don't know who these women are." Maggie said returning to the table. "He's been talking about this India person since he came back. He said she was someone who was supposed to work up at your place but the only person who's new there is that woman---Vicky something." Maggie finished.
The combining of Vicky and India had erased India's entrance into 1966. Her image, her energy was now deep inside Vicky's body, and all record of India in people's memories had vanished, that was except for Justin who for some reason was left with the truth of India's existence. And since she had vanished into thin air in his car, the terror of what really happened to her surged through his mind like a wild fire.
"Her name is Vicky Winters." Carolyn confirmed to Maggie. "Do you know Vicky Winters?"
Carolyn then asked Justin confused on how any of this was making sense.
"Vicky?" Justin asked confused.
"Drink this, honey, it'll calm you down." Maggie said pulling Carolyn aside at the counter.
"Maggie I'm really worried about him." Carolyn whispered.
"He hasn't been the same since...." Maggie began before being interrupted.
"Don't start." Carolyn jumped in.
"It's true honey, before you two broke up he was fine, and since the break up he's been all over the place, you know it's true. Everyone in town sees it." Maggie finished. "It's sort of the way you left Joe. In tatters." Maggie again hit back. “I heard about the fight tonight at the Whale.”
"Maggie." Carolyn seethed as Maggie mentioning their mutual ex hit a nerve, two women had always had a back-and-forth when it came to Joe Haskell. "I don’t want to talk about earlier tonight. And what was I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do. Justin needs to move on and from me, and from the looks of it, he's either moved on with this India person, or Julia person or....and maybe you should get over what happened with Joe." Carolyn said, hinting at her mutual animosity towards Maggie and Joe Haskell.
Maggie snarled at her old romantic rival but quickly let it go. Her worry about Justin's well-being took precedence.
"Justin's only mentioned India and Julia--who-ever they are, but Ive never seen them." Maggie added.
"I have to go to Bangor." Justin said, suddenly standing up remembering where Julia was and where he and India were headed.
"No, god, Justin! Listen to me, you've hurt yourself. You're in absolutely no shape to be on those streets. Let's call Sheriff Patterson to pick you up." Maggie said mentioning Justin's father the town Sheriff.
"NO! Please, don't call him. He'll just think I've been drinking again and I can't have him think that. It's not true. I just, please I have to get to Julia Hoffman. I have to!" Justin said.
Maggie and Carolyn looked at each other, they had no idea what was happening to their friend/ex-boyfriend. After his mother died, just a few years ago he had gone into a deep depression that pushed him to drinking which was one of the reasons Carolyn broke off their relationship.
The break up and his mother's death were only the catalyst of Justin's slow decline into hurt and sadness but this whole situation about India was now putting him on the brink of madness. His friends were deeply concerned he'd fall back into his lush ways; attempting to conceal what was really going on. Were they actually watching his break-down in real time?
It was no use, Maggie was already on the phone with the Sheriff's office who had patched in a call to the Sheriff's car. He was on the way to pick up his son. The Sheriff, a widower since 1964 after the untimely death of his wife Rebecca, had buried himself in his work by taking on much more duties at the station that he really needed to. The death of his wife, breaking his soul, and also putting a rift in his relationship with this son.
"Your dad is on the way hon. He's going to take you home and you'll rest and you'll be better tomorrow." Maggie said, crouching down to Justin's level now that he was sitting at the table again, his breathing shallow, his face red and sweaty. He was truly terrified of what he saw happen in his car.
Justin could not put together how someone could be seated in the seat next to him one minute then vanish the next. He could not put together in his head how the woman he almost hit on the road outside of Collinwood could have been a figment of his imagination. No one remembered her, no one, but he saw her. He helped her to his car, and felt her body in his hands. He knew she was real He new it with all his heart and soul and somehow, someway, she was gone. But he remembered her. She had to be real.
As Just sat quietly in the room of the closed Cafe, his father, Sheriff George Patterson came and and helped him to his squad car. He was sad at seeing his son in such a state, but also confused because he could see that Justin had not been drinking. Of all his years on the force, he knew what a drunk person looked like, he knew how a drunk person behaved. Justin was not drunk. Which made the Sheriff worry even more---was his son going mad?
****
Alone in a room meant for someone else, India stood in front of a standing mirror but the face staring back was Victoria Winters', not her own. There was something about Vicky's face that reminder India of her own, she could see their matching skin tones, their dark locks of hair and hazel/green eyes. She could see the similarities and perhaps this is why Barnabas chose her to return to 1966 and merge with Vicky--but with all things involving Barnabas Collins this was surely only one piece of a larger much more diabolical puzzle.
India, from inside Vicky's body, was strangely calm. She had survived time travel, a process that she could have never imagined in her whole life, and something inside her told her she would survive this too. She had to. She had to return to 2019, she had to discover what Barnabas' ultimate goal was.
She really had no choice.
India walked over to Vicky's suitcases and opened it removing one simple dress after another, sweet color blocked sweaters and several chunky shoes. The fashion choices of the late 60's were bizarre for this 20-something young lady from the new millennium. After the initial shock of it all, and the whole strange world she couldn't get out of, she had to swallow every foreign feeling she was having and deal with what her new world was giving her.
"Can we come in?" India's great-aunt and now employer Elizabeth, said from the slightly opened bedroom door.
"Of course!" India said hearing Vicky's voice come out of her mouth. It was a jarring sensation: to speak out only to hear another woman’s voice come out. It made her almost sick, the feeling she was herself yet someone else at the same time. It made her skin crawl.
"David was sent to check up on you but I found him pacing the hallway." Elizabeth replied as David hid shyly.
It suddenly dawned on India. She was staring at the people she came from. These were the people she was connected to by blood, people she never expected she would ever meet. She saw her own real face in her great-aunt Elizabeth’s. They had the same milky skin tone, the same color green eyes with little yellow specs, the same naturally pink lips. Oddly the same similarities she noted in Vicky’s appearance.
Then there was David... her father. Her 10 year old father.
The moment seeing them in the flesh all these years in the last felt surreal.
"Hello David." India said, sweetly connecting to her 10 year old father, the moment caused a rush of emotion that went over India’s spine like a river of cold mountain water.
"I hope I'm not disturbing your rest. I know it's been a whirlwind of a day—I can relate.” Elizabeth said referring to Arabella’s arrival earlier that night. “How have you been holding up?" The Collins matriarch added reaching into the closet and pulling out hangers to help "Vicky" unpack.
"I'm feeling much better, thank you. I guess maybe the excitement of everything just got to me." India said, saying what she thought Vicky would have replied with.
"You fell hard." David said as he sat on Vicky's canopy bed.
India, through Vicky's eyes, looked down at the 10 year old boy sitting on the bed looking up at her with his big brown eyes. The bizarre feeling returning as she looked over at the boy that would be her future father.
India smirked at David and then she discretely reached the back of Vicky's left arm and pinched the flesh hoping, one more time, that it was all a dream and the pinch would wake her in 2019.
But again it was all real.
David suddenly felt strange as India only stared at him without saying anything. Her eyes were watering, she was emotional and couldn't grapple the overwhelming shock of what was happening.
"Stop staring at me. STOP IT WEIRDO!" David shouted.
"DAVID!" Liz shot back, quickly turning from the closet where she was helping hang Vicky's things.
"I'm sorry.....I....I'm sorry." India said in Vicky's voice.
"I’m sorry Miss Winters. It seems like everyone is on edge today. First Carolyn and now David.” Elizabeth shared. “Vicky, are you ok? You seem to go off into your mind quite often." Elizabeth asked grabbing Vicky's hand.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Stoddard, I still feel a bit out of it from my fall. David, I'm sorry." India replied, covering for herself.
"Ok." David replied, still feeling unsure of his new governess.
"Maybe I'm homesick." India said in Vicky's voice.
"Homesick? Oh darling, I understand. Coming from New York City to a small town like this, ito this house that can often feel a bit overwhelming and drafty and dark makes sense. But I want you to understand that as long as you're here, you're home now too. This dusty old mansion's bark is worse than it's bite. Please, feel at home here." Elizabeth said, with a twinkle in her blue eyes.
"Thank you." India said.
"David, come here right now." Liz ordered, as David slowly walked over to the two women. "You'll stop all this nonsense of shyness and awkwardness, do you understand? Miss Winters is here to help you and in that she is here to help us as a family. You'll treat her kindly, wont you? You'll treat her as if you are with another member of this family. Is that understood young man?" She asked as she grabbed David's face and lifted it so that they'd be eye to eye.
David nodded he would.
"That's a good boy." Liz said.
"I, I .... can...." David said, his troubled voice began "can help you get around, when we're not studying of course." David offered.
"That would be very nice, I'd like that David." India said smiling Vicky's beautiful smile.
India bent down and reached for a pair of shoes and walked them over to the closet so that they were out of the way as she bent over the necklace around her neck feel out of her blouse and revealed Barnabas' Onyx ring that created this entire situation for India. Elizabeth noticed it right away.
"Oh! Your ring, it's ....I know that ring!" Elizabeth said.
"Oh..uhhh..." India said unsure of what to say.
"Where did you get it?" Elizabeth asked stepping closer and putting the ring in her hand giving it a closer look under the lamp light.
"I, uh...I found it. A while ago." India said.
"Found it? How very curious." Elizabeth replied
"That looks like the ring in the painting of that man--uh...Belvedere Collins...Bartley?" David said forgetting Barnabas' real name.
"Barnabas." Elizabeth corrected. "Where did you find it exactly?" Elizabeth asked.
"An antique shop in Chelsea." India said, keeping the lie going.
"Darling, you must take it to get it appraised, it looks exactly like the one from that painting David is talking about of one of our ancestors from the 18th century. If it's from the same time this could be worth a fortune, you wouldn't have to work---not even here!" Elizabeth giggled as she continued to inspect the ring.
India began to feel nervous, she knew that there was an inscription of Barnabas' initials inside the ring and if Elizabeth saw it she could begin to feel something odd was happening right under her nose. The truth was, if India wanted to discover what Barnabas really wanted from her, it was better, and safer, that no one else in the family know the truth. The least amount of people dragged into the situation the better--for everyone. India had learned the hard way that Barnabas, when he set his mind to getting something, would do anything to get it.
"I'll do that, thank you." India said, pulling the ring back from Elizabeth's hand before she could see the initials on the inside of the ring.
Elizabeth grinned, but noted the quick acting pull-back of the ring from "Vicky". It was an awkward motion but Elizabeth decided to let it go, a case of the nerves perhaps.
"Alright, David, it's getting late and you need to get to sleep. Off you go---brush those teeth and change for bed now." Elizabeth ordered.
"I'll see you tomorrow Da..." India began before catching herself saying dad instead of David..."David, see you tomorrow for our fist lesson." She finished.
"Good night." David said just before turning back at Vicky from the hallway. He stared at her, there was something about her he didn't understand. A familiarity. A closeness or connection. To a 10 year old boy this was strange. He couldn't comprehend it. He shook it off and rushed down the hall to his room followed by Elizabeth in her flowing black house-dress.
India had to get a hold of herself. She felt as if that there were things she was doing and saying that could probably begin to draw suspicion. She had to behave as if she really were Vicky. If anyone knew that she was really a woman from another time, from the future it could spell disaster for her, mostly because it would impede on whatever Barnabas wanted and she needed to make she Barnabas got what he wanted—that was the only way she could end this nightmare once and for all—She needed to help Barnabas succeed.
But getting Barnabas to succeed didn't mean she had to have his ring around her neck like a dog collar. He may be controlling where she was in time but he wouldn't control her by what she wore around her neck.
India stepped in front of a vanity mirror and gazed into the eyes of Victoria that were staring back at her. She pulled Vicky's thick black hair to one side and reached into her blouse and pulled out Barnabas cursed silver Onyx Ring and made a fist around it and in a split second she yanked on the chain snapping the clasp --- releasing herself from chain.
India then tossed the ring and chain on top of the vanity. The Onyx ring suddenly began to glow, furiously. It was a bright white light, so bright that it felt as if it would burn the walls around India in Vicky's room to ashes.
India could feel the heat from this light touching her skin, so hot it felt like she were standing directly under a summer sun scorching her skin from all sides.
She began to feel dizzy and feel the room swing back and forth then a spinning, dizzying sensation knocked her to the floor. The power and strength of Barnabas' ring was otherworldly.
India was now choking, gasping for air she couldn't breath. The heat from the ring was stifling. The energy was pulling all the oxygen from the room. India couldn't get herself up from the bedroom floor that felt as if it was spinning around and around. It was as if somehow the room itself was shot into outer space; the air had vanished and the room was burning hot and gravity was forcing India to stay glued to the room.
As India, in Vicky's body lay on the floor of the bedroom gasping for air and watching what looked like the walls beginning to crumble brick by brick to nothing she could hear a voice speak to her.
There was chaos in the room. It was happening all around her, then the floor boards of the room began to lift pushing up and breaking, the sharp broken slabs stabbing at her body.
As the chaos of the destruction of Vicky’s room from the energy of Barnabas’ ring began to quiet down India could begin to make out a deep voice speaking to her....softly at first.
"Find me." it said.
Then it came a bit louder. "Find!! ME!!”
India stayed locked in place on the breaking floor, the walls crumbling all around her. The mansion was imploding around. Objects were falling from the ceiling. Slabs of wood, concrete, glass. Crumbling and falling. India rolled around on the floor in the airless room scrambling to stay alive and hoping it would just end. If she were to die, let her die!
"FIND ME NOW!!!" the voice screamed loudly.
Finally it all stopped. India's eyes opened. She was on the floor. The room was perfectly fine. Nothing out of place. Nothing destroyed. Floor boards all in place as they were just moments ago while David and Elizabeth were with her.
But one thing was indeed out of place. The necklace had placed itself around her neck all on its own once more.
India then knew the voice must have been Barnabas'. The power and strength from his ring was clear---he wanted her to discover him again in 1966 and nothing would stop him from making sure SHE was the person do it. But India hadn't the faintest idea where to start looking for him and she couldn't blindly begin asking strange questions about a man the current family believed died over 200 years prior.
Then, as her mind began to clear, India remembered Julia's words in 2019. Julia would help her unlock this mystery...and also something Maggie and Justin had said at the Inn's coffee shop when she was still in her own body. Something about secrets that the family held.
And perhaps, their knowledge of old Collins family folklore could be the key to Barnabas’ whereabouts.
India's plan, was her one shot. She has to get to Julia, and her new friends Justin and Maggie could be her most likely allies in a world full of strangers and secrets.
It was clear to India that Barnabas' plan, whatever it was, greatly involved her. He was keen on keeping her in 1966. His grip over her was stronger and more terrifying than she had ever imagined. His control over her place in time was more powerful than anything she had ever experienced.
It frightened her. She could feel the hair on the back of Vicky’s arms lift and a chill go up her spine.
If her plan getting Julia involved to help her home failed, then India would be lost forever.
Without knowing where Barnabas was or how to find him, she would be truly lost inside of Vicky’s body and in Collinsport, 1966.
