 |
| Barnabas & Carolyn discuss a shocking death in town |
A man on a mission to change the course of his and his family's history has come to a deadly impasse. He's killed two people in hopes that the future will be saved, but in doing so, has risked the whole reason for his return and tragedy has branched out like a shatter to a window. On this night he straddles the devastating idea that, perhaps, it was all for nothing.
Barnabas, fresh from his killing of a man in Arabella's hotel room and Arabella herself attempted to calmly make his way up to the front door of Collinwood manor. His eyes were glazed over with worry that he had made a huge mistake by removing Elizabeth's enemy. Was it for her? Was it for the future? His mind, blackened by distrust, told him it was for the best, but his heart, equally as damaged by his constant struggles with his curse told him his murders would come back to bite him---one way or another.
As he reached for the door knob to enter the home, his cousin Carolyn rushed up in a clear panic after seeing with her own eyes, Arabella's bloody corpse slumped over on the hotel room floor. Her heart was racing and she knew that leaving Vicky's coat, monogrammed with her initials on the inside lining would lead to her being the main suspect. The perfect trap.
Yet the horror of Arabella’s bloody corpse still flashed across Carolyn’s mind like a vengeful ghost haunting her every thought. Seeing Carolyn’s frantic demeanor, Barnabas jumped to her aide.
"Carolyn, what's the matter? You're sweating." Barnabas asked noticing Carolyn out of breath and her hair tattered from the windy outdoors.
"Oh!! Barnabas! You ...you can't imagine what I've seen! It's Arabella! She.....She's dead Barnabas!!!" Carolyn screeched hysterically falling into her ancient cousin’s arms.
Barnabas froze. Again--this was not part of his plan. No one was to see Arabella's body. He had only enough time to remove the man and bury him and then thought of sending Justin back to retrieve Arabella before morning. Things were spiraling out of Barnabas control and Carolyn's involvement now could cause even more damage to his plan of finally erasing all the destructive effects on this generation of this family from his own existence. He was stuck--he was troubled. And he was beginning to feel panic for the very first time ever.
Barnabas, tried to compose himself, unsure of what to do next and took a second to reply.
"Carolyn, please calm down, tell me what happened...slowly...Your Aunt? I don't understand. How could she be dead?" Barnabas said lying about not knowing.
Carolyn, who had only met her new cousin Barnabas only a short time ago, could not imagine his involvement in the death of Arabella --especially not knowing just how much of her blood was on his hands---and lips.
"Earlier today Aunt Bella was supposed to be here at the house to have breakfast with us. She didn't come. She never arrived so I went out for the day and when I finally got to the hotel, I found her. She was killed Barnabas! MURDERED!" Carolyn said screaming. “I have to call the police!” she added.
“You mean you haven’t?” Barnabas said in relief.
“I.... I didn’t know what to do. I panicked and came home first.” Carolyn tearfully confessed, her mind still weary of her own plot pinning the murder on Vicky.
“Carolyn,” Barnabas said calmly, “I need you to calm down.” He said as Carolyn began to lose control of herself.
Carolyn's cry would soon arouse suspicious and alarm to those inside. Barnabas had to think quick, he reached for his young cousin by the shoulders and shook her until she looked at him, confused, but dead in the eyes.
"What are you doing!?" She asked, unsure of why he was holding her so tightly.
Barnabas lifted his hand in front of Carolyn's face and in a quick motion snapped his fingers in her eyes and spoke: "Understand me once and for all, you did not see Arabella Stoddard that way, you will tell everyone you did NOT see her dead. Carolyn, you must listen to me and listen to my voice: as you enter this house, vanquish what you think you saw and say not the truth but that your Aunt has decided to leave Collinsport. For good. No one will hear from her again, therefore you must repeat what I have told you here....repeat what I have told you here....repeat what I have told you here."
Barnabas' voice filled Carolyn's mind like an echo. It was deep an enchanting. He filled her brain and touched every nerve that connected to each part of her body like an electrical charge that zapped through wires across miles and miles of land.
Carolyn's eyes glazed over and she said slowly back to Barnabas "I will repeat...what you have told me...here.....I will repeat what you have told me here...."
After being sure the Carolyn was under his control, he snapped his fingers and and she blinked. She gave him a faint smirk and then tuned to the front door, pushing it open and allowing them both to enter.
As soon as they entered, there was a rush of energy from the drawing room. A worried Elizabeth rushed into the foyer to meet Barnabas and Carolyn.
"Carolyn, where have you been all day?!? You were supposed to bring back Arabella. No one has heard from you! What's going on!?" Elizabeth said as Roger slowly made his way into the foyer too, looking less worried than his sister.
Barnabas turned to Carolyn and waited...would she repeat his lie?
"Well mother you won't have to worry about Aunt Bella anytime soon. She's gone. She's left us. For good." Carolyn said vaguely, Barnabas looked on with a bit of caution.
"Gone? Kitten what do you mean? She just left?" Roger asked sipping a cocktail.
"That's right...I was....with....yes, I wish with her all day and she.............." Carolyn froze.
"You told me she decided to leave town." Barnabas said finishing Carolyn's story for him.
"That's right." Carolyn said under Barnabas’ control.
"But that doesn't make any sense!" Elizabeth said to herself knowing Arabella had been blackmailing her about Vicky's connection to her.
"Well I am assuming things didn't work out for her here and that her European vacation came calling much earlier that expected. Isn't that right Carolyn?" Barnabas continued.
Carolyn looked confused. Her mind was fighting the power Barnabas had over her. She wanted to tell everyone that her aunt was dead, that she had been brutally murdered, that someone --or something--had taken to her throat and slashed, it ripped it ---or bitten it, to a pulp. But couldn't come out. Nothing, none of the words she wanted to say came out. She just slightly grinned again and said.
"Yes. Her vacation came calling." Carolyn parroted in a monotone voice.
"Carolyn, darling, are you alright? You seem different. What is it?" Elizabeth asked grabbing Carolyn's hands in hers.
"I'm fine mother. I just suddenly feel very tired. Perhaps it was being with Bella all day. Maybe I should go up to my room and lie down." Carolyn said, still feeling odd but unable to break Barnabas' lock on her.
"Yes, well, I guess I should be going up to my office too. There are lots of things I need to sort out for you Liz. Paperwork never seems to die down from the Cannery. Can we meet up in an hour down here after I put them all in order?" Roger asked as Elizabeth agreed and ushered her new cousin Barnabas into the drawing room where they were alone and she poured him a drink.
"Well, as you can see Barnabas, there is never a dull moment with your new family. I can honestly say I did not expect Arabella to give up this easily I was ready to sign over a check to her later today. She never showed." Elizabeth confessed as she poured Barnabas tea.
"Perhaps its all for the best. Ms. Stoddard did not seem to be a very good influence on Carolyn, and now that she's gone things will...." Barnabas paused and looked deep into Liz's eyes and saw how relieved she was, and the happiness exuding from her now that threat Arabella had pushed down on her was gone. The exposure of one of Elizabeth's darkest most personal secrets was safe and perhaps things were finally going to work out thanks to his quick action in neutralizing Arabella.
"You were saying?" Elizabeth said as she squeezed a lemon into tea she had been drinking.
"I'm sorry, I was just saying that perhaps things will finally get back to normal around here."
"As normal as it could get." Elizabeth laughed knowing that most likely wasn't true.
As the two cousins continued to make small talk David entered the Drawing room with his books. He looked disappointed and frowned at his aunt and new cousin Barnabas who he had yet to warm up to.
"I told you." David said out of no where.
"Told me what darling?" Elizabeth replied.
"She's not coming back. She's not here. She wasn't here all day. She missed my lessons." David replied.
"She missed your lessons? Vicky? Vicky wasn't here today? AT ALL?" Elizabeth said, embarrassed that she hadn't even noticed.
"Victoria is not here?" Barnabas said, his voice sounding worried, knowing India was Victoria and that he needed her at Collinwood to begin the transfer once he saw things were finally safe for the family. Without India at the mansion, none of his plans could continue.
"I told you. I said she wouldn't come back." David said.
"How could that be? How did I not see she wasn't here?" Elizabeth gasped.
"David, when was the last time you saw her?" Barnabas asked.
"I don't know." David replied flippantly.
"David, now tell the truth. When did you last see Vicky? Was it yesterday? the day before?" Elizabeth said, beginning to panic as her preoccupation with Arabella had turned her eyes away from the rest of the family at home.
"Yes, I guess yesterday." David said.
"I'll call George." Elizabeth said, getting up quickly to the phone to call the Sheriff who was always ready to help the Collins family.
"WAIT!" Barnabas yelped startling Elizabeth on her way over to the drawing room phone.
"What is it?" Elizabeth asked quickly turning to her cousin.
"I might know where she is, if you give me an hour, perhaps I could get a hold of her. I ran into her yesterday and she did seem overwhelmed. I think I can find her." Barnabas said hoping his hunch was right.
"Overwhelmed? Well perhaps a bit homesick, but I wouldn't have guessed overwhelmed. Are you sure you can find her?" Elizabeth asked.
"You won't." David quipped.
"DAVID!" Elizabeth shouted.
"Just give me a few hours, please cousin Elizabeth." Barnabas replied as he suddenly saw his plans again begin to crumble right in front of his eyes.
Elizabeth smiled and sat down with David to go over his school work in Vicky's stead as Barnabas scrambled up the main staircase and rushed down the hall and into Carolyn's room where she was lying down.
He pushed open the door and startled her out of a light sleep. Her breathing began to shallow. Her mind, now clearing from Barnabas control, was able to see that something was very strange about her new cousin.
"What ...are you? Tell me what you are, I can feel somethings strange about you....something isn't right about you Barnabas Collins! TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE!" She exclaimed, gripping the sheets on her bed so tight they began to cut off circulation from her fingers. "What did you do to me? Why did I say those things that were not true?" She added.
"Carolyn, listen to me," Barnabas began pushing aside her panic.
"NO! I don't want to hear your voice again! Who are you?? What are you?" Carolyn said, tears streaming down her face.
"LISTEN TO ME!" He yelled, Carolyn's whimpering suddenly subsided like a child being chastised by a parent. "You need to go to the hotel, under cover of darkness and remove Arabella's body. You must do this. I cannot, the family will be expecting me to locate Victoria. Do you understand? Carolyn....listen to the words I cam saying...go to the Inn ....retrieve Arabella's body....bury her. Bury her deep in the woods and do not return home until her body is gone for good. Do you hear me?" Barnabas said as his voice once again took control over Carolyn's mind.
"I hear you." She said softly under the vampire’s control again and as the remnants of her mascara tinted tears slowly dripped from her eye lid down to the blue satin bedspread marking it like period at the end of a sentence.
"Go now...." Barnabas said softly, as Carolyn got up slowly...paused and looked back at Barnabas once more....unsure of what he was....and then went on her way.
The clock was ticking. Barnabas Collins needed to find India before day light. His whole plan was once again at stake.
Carolyn made her way down the stairs and minutes later after taking a moment to compose himself in her room, so did Barnabas. But they were not truly alone. From an open crack in the second floor study Roger watched them leave seemingly together ...suspiciously close and their whereabouts so late in the evening unknown. He lifted his eye brow and turned back into the study, picked up his drink and guzzled it down.
As the fire place in the room warmed Roger he looked at the painting above the hearth. It was of his father Jamison Collins. The, cold, distant father that he saw started this all. To Roger, he had no idea of the true dark secrets that lurked in this family tree, but his father, the man he looked up to and tried to live up to his whole life was Roger's blame for all their misfortunes: vanishings, madness...death.
Roger believed his father never loved him, but hated him. To Roger, Jamison was the end-all, be-all reason for all of his problems in life: Divorce, drinking, anxiety, stress, gambling. It was all his father's fault, because of the lack of love.
Again----So Roger thought, not knowing the supernatural and historical reason that contradicted his impression of his father.
Roger filled his class again and looked over at the study desk filled with nicely organized files he was to bring down to Elizabeth to sign for the Cannery. Roger sipped one sip of his refreshed cocktail and suddenly lashed out and through the half full glass as the painting of his father shattering the cup to smithereens.
"Monster!!" He yelled to Jamison's painting, clearly drunk and still mistakenly attaching his suspicions of whatever obvious dark deed Carolyn and Barnabas were cooking up to his father's face.
To blame Jamison Collins was easy for Roger. He blamed him for all their troubles. And perhaps his father did deserve some blame, but for all the evil that lurked around the corner of every corridor of Collinwood Jamison was truly innocent....this time.
****
Vicky/India confronts Julia
"You didn't eat." A female voice said as India do Arco, still trapped in Victoria Winters' body and at Windcliff opened her eyes.
It was Julia Hoffman, back with her pen and pad ready for a second session.
"I'm not hungry. And besides you have my arms tied, how can I eat?" India said in Vicky's voice.
"A nurse would have fed you." Julia said taking her seat beside India.
"Dr. Hoffman, we're wasting time. Please. Keeping me here could put so many people in danger. All I want to do is get back to my time and get back to my family. Barnabas can help but he's so caught up in everything going on I don't know if he's trust worthy. But perhaps you can make him see what he's doing is wrong and refocus him. That's why I came to you." India pleaded.
"You speak of this....Barnabas, as though he is real and as though what you've suffered at his hands is real. Do you know what a psychotic break is Miss Winters? It's when our mind is so overwhelmed with the stresses of our lives, so overwhelmed that we begin to see cracks in our reality and things of our fantasy begin to spill in, blurring what is real and what is not. It can be very distressful to the person suffering. I see you in distress. Now, I wouldn't say that you're in the worst shape that I've seen. In fact if you were, I wouldn't be explaining any of this to you, I would just sedate you and work from scratch." Julia said pulling out a syringe from her coat pocket and placing it on a table attached to India's hospital bed that held her food and went across her abdomen.
India's eyes followed Julia's hands as she lay the syringe down.
"I don't know how else to make you believe me. I really don't." India said as tears began to fill her eyes.
"I want you to give yourself a break, Miss Winters. Why don't you tell me more about this Barnabas and tell me what he is and what he is to you?" Julia asked.
"I already told you. He's from another time, as am I. I am not Victoria Winters, I am India do Arco and I've come from the year 2019. Barnabas is a member of the Collins family and he's come back to this time to right the wrongs of his life. He needed my help but I don't know I can trust him. You trust him, at least you do in my time." India said.
"So you and I have met?" Julia asked playing along.
"Yes. Briefly. At Collinwood."
"Collinwood, and why would I be at Collinwood in the year 2019? That would make me over 90 years old." Julia replied.
India just shook her head, knowing Julia would never believe her, could never believe her. It was all too fanciful. The night was getting later and the threat of never getting back to 2019 to her own world and time was becoming a reality. She now had to put all her faith in Barnabas doing the right thing: fixing what he needed to fix to secure a better future for the Collins family and then setting her free. But it was getting scary--India was losing hope.
Julia saw that India was not going to answer anymore. India was upset, hurt, frightening that this was how it was going to be forever.
Julia, frustred with her new patient and how she wasn't giving up more information decided she'd untie her hands to at least allow her to eat. Perhaps an olive branch of ease around the wrists would help.
"What are you doing?" India asked.
"You have to eat Miss Winters. You're no good to anyone if you get sicker. So please, go ahead and have your dinner." Julia said as India, still attached to the bed by her ankles smiled and sat up to reach for her food.
Julia sat back in the chair next to the bed and began to read through her notes on India while India picked through the salty potatoes and cold meatloaf on her try. India scattered the peas over the gravy and snickered at the seemingly coagulated ketchup that had hardened like a skin over the meat.
India reached for a fork and knife and and saw the syringe next to her tray that Julia had forgotten there, open without a cap ready to inject.
This was her chance.
India grabbed the syringe in a split second with one hand and lunged at Julia's right leg and plunged it deep into The flesh then released the medicine into Julia's body but pressing down on the needles’s plunger.
Julia screamed in pain as the needle carved its way down into her leg muscle. India then grabbed the tray of food and threw it into Julia's face to create a diversion so that she could reach for the ties around her ankles.
While Julia continued to scream in pain, India untied herself and leaped off the bed and dashed to the room’s door as Julia groaned in pain.
The door was locked, and Julia had the key in her coat pocket.
"Where's the key!!!" India asked, as Vicky's voice rang out in complete panic.
Julia only moaned in pain as the sedative slowly seeped into her veins.
"WHERE'S THE KEY JULIA?!” India screamed again as she searched every corner of Julia's body as Julia attempted to push India off— to no avail.
India searched and searched and finally she found a key chain with several silver and gold keys that unlocked various doors at the asylum and ripped it from Julia’s coat pocket And rushed back to the door to unlock it.
As India struggled to find the correct key on Julia's key-chain to fit the door lock, Julia mustered enough energy to limp over to India. Julia was drooling, and weak, the medicine was slowly making her legs and arms more and more like jelly. But she was able to grab India by the back of the neck and squeezed hoping to pull her away from the door.
India was gasping for air and turned around. She and Julia were now locked in a bear-hug; pulling and tugging at each other, each woman hoping one would give in or fall down flat on her face. They continued to struggle knocking over a side table, pushing back chairs and slipping on the spilled food from India's tray that she had thrown into Julia's face just moments before.
India was now fighting for her freedom and her life! But Julia was relentless despite her slow mobility from the medicine India injected into her body; to Julia, India was a sick woman who’s mind was possessed by a terrible psychotic break, thus the key to her medical success.
Julia was in this fight to win too. Her life’s work lived and died on the assumption that Julia could crack the code of this "Vicky's" supposed illness. If Julia could, she would be one of the most famous psychiatric doctors in the nation, she could not allow "Vicky" to escape. No matter what.
The women struggled—back and forth pushing shoving, hair pulling slapping, tugging. The in a moment that turned the tables Julia’s foot slipped in some of the water from a cup that came from the food try. Her ankle twisted to the side and Julia yelped in pain and suddenly her body went backwards.
Julia began to fall backwards and in India's eyes, it was happening in slow motion. Julia grabbed onto India's hospital gown to sturdy herself and as she did, she yanked India, in Vicky’s body forward as they both fell through a fourth story window bursting through the glass in a loud and alarming crash and falling 4 stories down on to the grass of Windcliff's grounds below.
The fall knocked them both Instantly unconscious.
The two women were face down in the grass. Glass all around them from the window they fell through glistened in the moon light. Orderlies from inside who heard the crash quickly came running out to find their boss and her patient's bodies in the grass scraped up from bush that had broken their fall.
Shocking the orderlies, India gasped in a deep breath of air showing a sign of life.
"Jesus!!" One orderly exclaimed jolted by India's loud breath of air.
But Julia was motionless.
****
The following day, a brilliant sun shined down on Beau Cielvert as he walked into the Collinsport Inn for a meeting he had scheduled two days before with his employer Arabella Stoddard. He slowly walked up the large front staircase with wall to wall red and gold carpet and entered a mezzanine floor with elevators that would take him to her hotel suite on the top floor of the small Inn.As he approached her room Beau began to feel a strange and eerie coldness. Almost as if he were being watched from the shadows and corners of the hall. He turned around, and there was only a cleaning lady at the far end of the hall emptying out her trash bin.
He shook his head, and continued just a few feet to Arabella's room. Her door was slightly open but not enough to look into the room, just enough for Beau to notice something seemed off.
He pulled his gun from his strap and slowly pushed the door open with his shoulder, his gun drawn.
He knew something was wrong. His detective instinct was screaming in his ears that something was very much wrong.
"Arabella? Arabella!?" He called out into the room that still had the draped drawn to block out the morning sun.
No one responded.
Beau walked over to the drapes and dragged them across the large framed windows, pulling them to the edge so that all the sun that could, would, enter. When Beau turned around he saw an awful sight.
Not of a body. But of a bloody carpet and bed.
His eyes widened, his jaw dropped.
His instinct was right.
He rushed over to the bed and saw on the floor, a stained coat. With a pen from his pocket, he lifted the coat and saw the initials V.W.
Victoria Winters.
****
In a small house in town, just blocks away from Maggie Evans and her family's cottage, Justin awoke from a restless sleep. He tossed and turned all night thinking of the horrible situation India was in...alone.
He stood up quickly from his bed, not showing a sign of rest and walked over to his window that was barred off. In the reflection, he saw his father had forgotten to close the door when he came in during the night to leave food.
At first Justin was shocked that he actually did fall asleep, enough that his father entered in without waking him, but then, the sudden light bulb moment to run and thought that came into his head
Run out of the room. Save India!
Justin quickly grabbed his keys and ran for the door, opened and rushed passed his father who did not see it coming. George reached for Justin and grabbed the corner of his plain white t-shirt. They struggled and fell to the floor. George, a hefty man fell on top of his son. They began to struggle again, just before Justin got one arm free and punched his own father square in the nose splashing red droplets on Justin’s white ‘T’. The blow to George’s face allowed Justin to break free from his large father's hold on the orange shag carpeting.
Justin jumped to his bare-feet and looked back at his poor father writhing in pain from his bloody nose. There was no time to act for a Justin to act, had to leave him there....Justin rushed out of their home and jumped into his car and blasted down the street as fast as he could to Bangor.
"Shit! Shit! JUSTIN! COME BACK!” George screamed for the open door as blood continued to seep from through his fingers from his nose.
George knew had made huge mistake and that Julia would not be happy.
George managed to get up off the floor, and reached for his car keys to go after Justin just as the phone rang.
"Sheriff Patterson." He answered, flustered and bloodied, with a slight slosh to his voice as the blood fell over his lips.
"Sheriff, I'm Detective Cielvert....I've been in town working on a case for a private party who I was supposed to meet here at The Collinsprot Inn. I think you should get over here right away." Beau said holding up the coat Carolyn had planted.
"Is everything ok?" George asked strapping on his thick black police belt.
Beau didn't know how to answer. How could he fully explain what he saw in the room? Blood. Lots of Blood. No body. A strange coat that did not belong to the victim, or supposed victim.
Beau only answered the way he knew how. "Not in the slightest."
It was true. Nothing was "ok". Not with Barnabas, or Justin, or India and certainly not with the dead Arabella, who's body was carefully and secretly moved in the early hours of the morning by her own niece Carolyn who was under Barnabas' mind control.
In the dark of the night Carolyn sneaked the bloodied body out through a side employee entrance at the Inn and buried her deep in the woods where Barnabas told her to take Arabella near the man from Arabella's hotel room that Barnabas has also killed.
Arabella lied there, the dirt tossed over her face in large clumps from the cold cold night. Carolyn stared down at her dead aunt with two gashes in her neck that took her life and turned to throw up onto a heap of dead leaves. Carolyn’s stomach was in knots.
She felt revolted with herself. Carolyn was now fully entangled in a web of her own making but the spider keeping her trapped on the web's sticky threads was no longer Arabella and her lies...it was now Barnabas Collins and his quest for redemption—and the body count had only began to rise.
