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| Confrontation at Collinwood |
The chaos at the great house began to boil over on this night. Two women were missing and only the remnants of blood and a ransacked room at the Collinsport Inn were left with many unanswered questions. Vicky's vanishing to the whole family was a true mystery, no one knowing she was locked away at Windcliff Sanitarium, for his part, Barnabas knew the answers to what happened to Arabella. But his lips were sealed.
Victoria's vanishing was about to become yet another hurtle for Barnabas to leap over. Time was of the essence. For everything to work in Barnabas’ favor, “Vicky’s” whereabouts needed to be solved with the least amount of exposure of the truth as possible. He needed to find India, who was still inside of Vicky's body to finally reverse the effects of his family's cursed future and end their torment once and for all, but with her location unknown, Barnabas was left to do major damage control in order to keep to his plan and get himself out of these new messes of his own making.
In the main drawing room Elizabeth could not get the missing governess off her mind. Liz had not seen her secret daughter in almost 24 hours and no one knew where she could have gone. Roger, seeing Carolyn and Barnabas rush out of Collinwood earlier and still feeling the effects of the alcohol in his system, stumbled downstairs and saw Elizabeth's worried face.
"Oh Liz, she'll turn up. They always turn up." Roger said, dropping files on the desk in the room. “One way or another.” He added with his eyes signaling an oncoming hangover.
“What does that supposed to mean?” Elizabeth growled.
“My god Liz, really, we’ll either find Vicky alive and well and we’ll just move on or.... well the alternative is that we’ll have to bury another governess. You know how it goes around these parts.” Roger coldly replied.
Elizabeth glared at her hung over brother with an icy stare. They very notion of Vicky’s disappearance leading to her death sent shivers up Liz’s spine.
"Don’t go there. Don’t you dare go there.” Liz scolded as she twisted a strand of her pearls.
“Alright alright —I’m sorry. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Roger acquiesced.
“I don't understand where she could have gone. Why wouldn't she tell us if she didn't want to work with the family anymore? It just doesn't make sense." Elizabeth commented not knowing Vicky, was trapped at Windcliff with India inside of her body.
"You worry too much. You always have." Roger replied slurring his words.
"Roger, you've had too much to drink. Just...go upstairs. Go to bed." Elizabeth said waving her brother away.
"Stop! YOU STOP that! I came down here to comfort you on your horrible loss of an employee...or whatever she was and that's how you react???" Roger said, his boozy attitude starting to show face.
"Roger. Go upstairs, I'll have someone bring you some coffee to sober you up." His older sister ordered.
"I DON'T WANT ANY DAMN COFFEE!!"
"Fine then go upstairs and go to sleep!" Elizabeth screamed back, both of their frustrations starting to come to a boil. "I really don't understand why you have to behave this way so often. Now is not the time for you to just roll over and drink yourself into a stupor." She added.
"Oh, yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. Drinking myself into a stuuuupor." Roger slurred. "You know you're so consumed by Vicky, what you should be worried about is why your daughter is running out of this house at all hours of the night with Barnabas Collins, who may or may not really be related to us. That's...yeah---that! That is what you should be worried about." Roger said, confessing to have seen Barnabas and Carolyn seemingly leave the mansion earlier that evening.
"What? What do you mean? When did Carolyn leave late at night?” Elizabeth wondered.
"He means he saw Carolyn and myself go in search of Miss Winters." Barnabas said entering the room and covering for the fact that he had controlled Carolyn's mind to go and remove Arabella's body and bury it before the police found it.
"Barnabas, I didn't hear the door." Elizabeth said, embarrassed that she and Roger were caught talking about him behind his back.
"I hope you don't mind, I let myself in. In times like these who can think of answering doors." Barnabas said charming the Collins matriarch and not revealing his transported through the walls.
"Yes, of course." She said smiling as Roger rolled his eyes. "You and Carolyn went in search of Vicky? Did you find anything?" Elizabeth asked.
"Unfortunately we did not. And I assume she hasn't made contact here at home?" Barnabas asked, genuinely concerned with Vicky's missing body and India who was inside.
Elizabeth frowned. Her heart sank unsure of what to do next.
"It's been hours, Barnabas and no one has seen a thing. It’s just very frightening that Vicky would just leave like this—not saying a word. I called the police department yesterday and they said to wait one more day, that perhaps Vicky would turn up." Elizabeth said.
"You....called the police???" Barnabas said, shocked to know this detail.
"Well of course." Liz replied.
"Liz likes to worry Barnabas. Worry, all the time. She worries if she's not worrying. She's always been a worrier." Roger said, still slurring his words.
"Roger go to bed." Elizabeth demanded again, her jaw tightly wound with disdain for her brother's drunken attitudes.
Roger lifted both of his hands in the air, a sign of surrender and frustrated with Elizabeth's managing of his life and sighed. He pointed to the stack of Collins Fishing Fleet paperwork on the desk and said "Sign it.", then made his way through into the foyer but not before yelling back into the drawing room with a wicked grin "Don't worry sis....everything going to be just ----- horrible."
As Elizabeth apologized for her brother's behavior a sudden knock game on the great oak doors. Elizabeth's heart jumped thinking it was Vicky! She rushed over and opened the doors revealing Sheriff George Patterson and detective Beau Cielvert.
"Sheriff!" Elizabeth said, her heart now right back in place but beating with fear in her ears. "Whats happened? Have you found Vicky???"
The Sheriff kept his mouth shut on Vicky's whereabouts fearing that the coat found at a murder scene would also connect his son Justin, a known friend of “Vicky’s”, could potentially be linked to a possible murder.
"Uhhh ...we haven't heard anything from Vicky, not yet anyway. Mrs. Stoddard, we did find this." George said motioning for Beau to show the coat he found in Arabella's hotel room.
"Its Victoria's." Elizabeth said recognizing the coat right away.
Elizabeth let in the two officers and they walked into the drawing room where she introduced them to Barnabas. Barnabas was suddenly stuck between a rock and a hard place unsure of what the two men knew and why they had Vicky’s coat.
"I assume by your reaction to the coat that Vicky has not made it home." Beau said.
"No." Elizabeth answered.
"We’re assuming she and Arabella Stoddard were together sometime last night, & this coat that you've identified as Vicky's, was found on the floor of the hotel room. The question is why were they together and what happened. Mrs. Stoddard, Mr. Collins, there was a lot of blood in the room." Beau continued.
"Blood!" Elizabeth gasped as Barnabas lifted an eyebrow.
Barnabas was confused. He had not seen Vicky when he went to the Inn to kill Arabella. Now he had more questions, did India, in Vicky’s body see Arabella before he sent Carolyn to move the body? His mind was racing and frantic. He needed to procure and harness the innocence and light inside of India to secure the future of the family---but Carolyn's planting of the coat, a fact Barnabas still did not know, was another hurtle he had to overcome.
"A great amount of blood. And Because there wasn't a body in the room we don't know who it belongs to and no one at the hotel seems to know either. They saw nothing. No one. Would there be any reason for Miss Winters to go see Ms Stoddard at her hotel room so late?" George asked.
Elizabeth’s was frozen in speech. She could only imagine the worst: that Vicky someone how discovered that Arabella knew she was Elizabeth’s illegitimate daughter and went to confront her. That, of course, was not the case, Vicky was at Windcliff and the true culprit was standing right next to Elizabeth the whole time. His breath still hot with Arabella’s blood.
"How can that be Sheriff? How could no one have seen anyone go in or out of the hotel room?" Barnabas asked, pretending he had no idea what was happening even though he was the cause of it all.
"That's what we'd like to know." Beau added. "I was supposed to meet with Arabella to discuss some business and when I arrived the hotel room was a mess with this coat on the floor in a puddle of blood. It just seems very suspicious that Arabella would have left without meeting with me. We had important things to discuss." Beau said making the case that Arabella may have been murdered.
"Well she's left town." Carolyn said, entering the room still under Barnabas' mind control.
They all turned shocked at Carolyn's statement.
"Who's left town?" George asked unsure of which women Carolyn was referring to.
"Aunt Bella. I met with her last night. After I went looking for Vicky, I stopped by the hotel and she was going to leave. She had had enough of Collinsport." Carolyn said lying and covering for the murder.
"Carolyn, that doesn't make sense, she and I .....well, we were working on things." Beau said.
"Just what exactly were you working on .....I did't catch your name?" Elizabeth asked Beau.
"Detective Beau Cielvert, Mrs. Stoddard, I was hired by your sister-in-law to make sure she was safe when she was here. In Collinsport." Beau said, hiding the fact he was hired to look into Elizabeth's history and neglecting to add he knew about Vicky being her daughter.
"Odd." Barnabas whispered to Elizabeth.
"Alright I’ve had ENOUGH!!! None of this is making any sense. None of this. Why would Arabella just up and leave? Why would Vicky go to that hotel room then vanish just as mysteriously? We can assume at some point Vicky was there and at some point one of them left in a bloody mess...but which one?” Elizabeth wondered aloud.
Barnabas then had an idea. Carolyn had to be the person to throw the police off of Arabella's tracks. He put his hands in his coat pocket and made a fist, squeezing it tightly forcing all of his telepathic energy into Carolyn's mind.
"Aunt Bella said ...." Carolyn was beginning to feel her mind filling with the power from Barnabas as he forced her to say something that was not true, forcing her lips and tongue to come up with a cover: "She said she did something terrible and that she had to leave. I saw her in the Lobby as she left." Carolyn said lying.
"Something terrible? You don't think....you don't think this is Vicky's blood, do you?" George wondered.
"No!!!!!" Elizabeth gasped.
Barnabas was shocked. He did not expect Carolyn to say that, he did not expect her to cover for Arabella's disappearance by implicating her in the murder of Victoria Winters. But he still did not know where Vicky was, perhaps is was true, perhaps Vicky was dead too. He knew Carolyn was out for Vicky’s blood, could Carolyn have done something to her own half sister?
The thought made Barnabas’ heart sink. In his attempts to correct the past even more horrors were occurring. Still, no one knew Vicky was at Windcliff this whole time, except for George Patterson, still holding that secret close to his vest to keep his son out of trouble.
"I think we shouldn't jump to conclusions." Barnabas answered as everyone turned to him for a better idea.
"Listen, everyone, it’s all speculation at this point. A bloody coat doesn’t mean much until we see a body and at this point we don’t have one much less two. If Vicky or Arabella contact you, Mrs Stoddard please tell me right away. In the mean time we'll get back to the station and see if any of my officers have any new leads. We'll also try and track down Arabella, it’s possible she hasn't left the city yet." George added attempting to calm the nervous energy in the drawing room.
"No. She's gone. She got on a cruise ship earlier today and left for Europe." Carolyn said lying.
Beau could sense something about the way Carolyn was speaking was off. This wasn't how she normally spoke. The woman that he was secretly seeing, the woman that he was secretly dating, had never been this monotone; never been this distant and vague with how she worded her speech. It was like watching someone reading off a script. There was a vacancy in her eyes that he didn't recognize, all side-effects from Barnabas mind control.
"Are you ok?" He whispered as the other's chatted about possible leads at the station.
Carolyn suddenly snapped out of Barnabas' spell and mind control, her eyes fixed on the man she was falling in love with. They're connection unlocking what Barnabas had done to her for a split second. She smiled and touched his hand without anyone seeing.
"I think so." She said feeling strange but safe now that she was looking in Beau's eyes. He smiled back, but wasn't happy with her answer. Beau could tell something wasn't right.
"Again, Mrs. Stoddard as soon as we hear more we we’ll let you know." George said ushering Beau out of the room.
"Thank you Sheriff." Elizabeth said.
Now that the Collins were alone they could speak freely and Elizabeth was furious.
"Carolyn, tell me the truth. Where is Arabella????" She ordered.
Carolyn, seeing that Barnabas' control had momentarily lifted because of her connection to Beau,
knew Barnabas had controlled her to say it. She could feel him starting at her directly, his eyes piercing her soul. She was scared of him. She was terrified of what he could do to her, to all of them if she told the truth.
Carolyn took a gulp of air and continued to spread lies, her life and all those that she loved was at stake.
"I told you mother," Carolyn began softly, as Barnabas looked on waiting for the moment that Carolyn would expose him and everything would be destroyed. "I saw Aunt Bella in the hotel Lobby and she was leaving town. I don't know where exactly in Europe but she's gone. She's gone for good."
Barnabas took a breath of relief that his murderous secret was safe...for now. Elizabeth was plagued with worry and asked them to leave her alone to work on the Fishing Fleet paper work so she could focus at one thing at a time. Barnabas and Carolyn complied and closed the drawing room doors behind them leaving Elizabeth alone.
Now in the foyer, Barnabas confronted his cousin Carolyn about the coat in the room.
"What have you done? How did Vicky's coat get in Arabella's room?" Barnabas growled.
"I left it there. ...it....was an accident." Carolyn said lying.
"That was a mistake Carolyn a mistake that may cost me dearly." The vampire said worrying about what was happening. He was unsure how to fix this giant error in Carolyn's behavior. But Carolyn was now free to confront her mysterious cousin too--and she was not going to hold back.
"You listen to me....I don't know what you've done, to me....I don't know why...or what, you are but I can tell that something inside of you isn't right. There is blood on your hands, literally and now you've involved me Arabella........you...killed her." Carolyn began as her voice began to crack remembering her aunt's bloody body.
"Carolyn, please I can explain everything but it won't make any sense right now if I did." Barnabas said.
"No....no....you're....you're cold. I should tell everyone the truth. I should just come clean and tell everyone right now what you did to Arabella and how you're making me lie!" Carolyn shouted as Barnabas quickly covered her mouth.
"Carolyn, if you do that everything will be destroyed. I had to make sure Arabella was out of the picture, please, you must understand me! This was for the good of the family. All of you. Now...here, and in the future." He said, as a muffled Carolyn quickly ripped Barnabas' hands from her mouth.
"God forgive you Barnabas Collins....god forgive you." Carolyn said, as she rushed up the stairs unsure of what her next move would be.
Barnabas began to feel the weight of guilt on his shoulders and in his heart. He knew what he did was the monstrous act but it had to be done, to save his family, it had to be done. Arabella's place in Collinsport threatened the future. Their future....the family, was Barnabas only concern.
He turned around and stared at his own painting on the wall. It was as if he were looking into a mirror. His face, the same face, painted centuries ago was looking down at him with disdain and embarrassment. Shame. A tear fell from his eye, and it almost looked as if the same tear came down from the painted eye.
"God has long forsaken me, Carolyn," Barnabas' said to himself. "I am on my own."
The Forsaken Barnabas
Outside the mansion getting into their respective cars under the shadow of the main turret, private detective Beau Cielvert wondered to George Patterson about what was really going on. The whole situation was confusing them both.
"As soon as I can get you something I will." Beau said to George who hastily shot him down.
"Detective, I think its better if you leave this up to my department. I really do. You're no formal detective at our prescient, however your help this far has been appreciated, but I think this is where you part of this story ends." George said trying to contain the investigation to himself and himself alone thereby protecting Justin from any connection to a murder.
"But she's my client." Beau replied.
"Who's gone to Europe, if you need her to pay you for your services, that's something you'll have to take up with a court, but as far as I'm concerned, Arabella's a suspect in the disappearance of Victoria Winters and having her paid P.I. dabbling in an investigation where she’s the main suspect just doesn’t sit well with me. " George continued, still hiding the fact he knew where Vicky was this whole time.
Beau felt defeated. George had all the power, all control and the investigation was indeed his, all Beau could do now was allow the hefty Sheriff get to get in his squad car and drive off. George’s order for Beau abandon his involvement and discontinue his part in the search was beating at his brain.
Beau knew something was wrong with Carolyn he could tell she was hiding something, but it wasn't clear why, or why she didn't come clean to him right there in the drawing room.
And George himself was hiding something, he too knew the truth. He knew exactly where Vicky was: Windcliff Sanitarium. And he felt her better off there--gone and forgotten than in his son Justin's life.
****
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| Beau meets with his sister Noëlle |
The next morning, Beau arrived at a small cottage in the south part of town near the docks and the Blue Whale. It was a small green colored building with only 4 small windows front windows that reflected the overcast sky above town. Beau slowly pushed open the iron gates and walked slowly into tiny front courtyard that was so lush with green shrubs that it looked more like a small mock jungle than a Collinsport garden.
He was there to see his younger sister Noelle. Noelle Cielvert was a gifted woman. She was open to the other world, the world from behind the vale of the living and the dead. This gift she inherited at birth and was passed down by her mother's mother and her mother's mother before her. It was part of the Cielvert family, a family of creole linage that was deep rooted in the world of magic and COPD that reached as far back as to freed slaves from New Orleans; only one woman in the family at a time could occupy "the gift of the third eye".
And in This Generation, it was Noelle.
With this gift, Noelle could knowledge of the future. but she knew things in vague terms because of her preference not to use her gift. She was constantly pushing back--hating the fact that if she used her ability to it's full potential she could know all, see all, be all. She was a reluctant psychic of much power.
But her brother Beau---needed her to tap into those gifts now more than ever. He walked into her gauzy comfortably decorated home without knocking, a very sibling thing of him to do. He looked around, and fed her three gold fish that swam up to greet him as he sprinkled in their flaky food. He tapped on the glass of their bowl, his regular way of saying hello.
"You're going to kill them one day. I already fed them this morning." Noelle said, coming from her kitchen in the other room.
They greeted each other with a very French style double kiss on the cheek.
"Listen, I have to cut right to the chase." Beau began, his sister quickly rolling her eyes knowing what he was there for, but not due to her psychic abilities, he always started his sentences that way when he needed her to use her powers.
"I've already told you, I don't push what I don't want." She said referencing her abilities.
"But this time it's important, it really really is!" Beau said, begging like a boy to his younger sister.
"You always say that." She said in a hushed tone scooping the extra food out of her fish's bowl.
"Its about Carolyn." he shot back as she quickly turned around at the sound of that name.
Carolyn and Noelle were old friends, since they were children. Noelle and Carolyn were just months apart in age and had grown up together, but as they grew older and Noelle began to see things about Carolyn's connections to dark forces, through no fault of her own, Noelle decided that the friendship needed to end. This was almost a decade ago, when they graduated from high school.
"What about her?" Noelle asked, not knowing her own brother was secretly dating Carolyn.
"I don't really know how to tell you this without upsetting you. But Carolyn Stoddard and I have been seeing each other for a few months now. Things are getting serious, and I really am falling for her. But today something told me there was something wrong, something wasn't right. Noelle, there is this case I was working on and it's gotten very strange. The woman I was hired to work for has suddenly vanished. She's just gone---no trace of her. And Carolyn is hiding something about her. I can feel it. But I just can't pin point what it is." Beau explained, waiting for his sister to tear into him for keeping his relationship a secret.
"That is a lot to take in but you know that I've always had my reservations about Carolyn and her family. Why would you keep this from me?" She wondered.
"Honestly? I thought you'd ....just know." He joked, hinting at her ability of knowing all.
"That's not funny." she shot back. "Beau I can't tell you who you can fall in love with or who you can't but ....there is and always will be something about Carolyn and her family that I just cannot trust. I refuse to be some sort of police psychic for you, I wish I could but instead of hoping I would just get this done for you and tell you what you need to know why don't you listen to your gut? Hmmm? You're gut is telling you something is not right, is it not? Listen to it, please, take heed of what the universe is telling you drop her. Today." Noelle insisted.
"It's not that easy. I'm falling---" Beau began before she stopped him.
"No, Please. Don't say it. I don't want to hear any of it." His sister replied, hurt by the notion he was falling in love with a woman she felt she could not trust.
"I'm seeing her tonight, Noelle. I really wish I knew more about what was happening with her. You can help me. You can make that happen. Please....think about it, won't you?" He asked.
Noelle turned back around after refusing to look at her brother. She looked deep into his eyes and allowed her emotions and walls drop and let the rush of energy from her powers fill her body. He kissed her on the cheek and left her to decide on whether or not she would use her abilities to help him find out what was really happening with Carolyn and the rest of the Collins family and if they knew where Arabella and Vicky really were.
Noelle, now alone in her cottage, contemplated her brother's request. Would she finally allow herself to tap into the things, the powers, the third eye, she had inherited from her creole ancestors? For Noelle, this was a no-brainer. She knew she had to, if her brother's own safety was at risk she had to see what she could do to protect him—even delve into a world she feared. A world of shadows and darkness.
She quickly pulled the front curtains of her living room closed cloaking the room in dim light. It was dark now and she sat with a single candle burning on her coffee table allowing the tiny flame to flicker just inches from her hazel eyes that she slowly closed to allow her powers to take over.
She took a deep breath and held it allowing all her energy to pull her out of her body and into the void of the supernatural. Her dark grey cat sitting in the corner of her green couch hissed in the dark sensing the world of shadows creeping in. The television flickered on by itself and fizzed white noise over the cat’s hiss.
She could feel flashes of light, energy coming from within her, spinning all around. The energy was different colors, different shades, different hues of light; and then, like a the moment you wake from a dream Noelle found herself in a black room all alone.
A single spotlight snapped on just in front of her. Then another. Then another. Like a path of stones forming a path for Noelle to follow. And she did. As she got to the final spot of light in the path she saw her great-grandmother sitting in a chair in the black room all alone.
"Nana! Nana....How did I get here?" Noelle asked her, but the old woman only pointed to a black wall the opened up leading the young Noelle in.
“What is this?” Noelle asked her.
The old woman did not respond, all she did was snap her fingers and Noelle was instantly transported into the hotel room where she saw the figure of a beautiful woman with red hair. The redhead was standing in front of a figure... a man, another in shadows. Suddenly the woman screamed and the shadow lunged at her then vanishing into a black smoke, leaving the woman laying on the hotel room floor.
Noelle was shaking. She stood in the hotel room and slowly walked over to the woman on the floor bleeding from the neck. Her eyes were open...death was on her face. Blood poured from her wounds and pooled in a crimson circle around her head.
Then, a wind filled the room and Noelle noticed all the clocks spinning forward 5 hours ahead. And just as the the night sky turned a dark purple another woman entered the hotel room— in walked Carolyn, who screamed at the sight of the dead woman, Carolyn rushed to the door, but then came back leaving a coat. Victoria's coat, in a puddle of blood.
Noelle was confused, what was Carolyn doing in this room. Who was the woman? Noelle slowly walked over to the body on the floor and looked into the face of Arabella Stoddard, as Noelle looked closer in her dead eyes she saw the reflection of a man so cold so lost that it shook Noelle to her core.
Arabella’s eyes reflected the face of the man who murdered her. The man of shadows. Barnabas.
Noelle screamed at the site of all the blood and of the man’s face and woke herself up on her own sofa in her own living room. She knew now, Arabella was dead and that Carolyn knew she was dead all along, and that Vicky has nothing to do with any of it.
Beau had to know.
****
Justin woke up on the side of the road, still in his car that was hidden in a deep embankment under a grove of trees just around the corner from Saynes Street in Bangor.. Had had driven all night back to Windcliff to save India. He had to find her. He had to get to her and get her out of that hospital. Finding Julia was his idea and Julia did not make things any better. In fact, they made them worse.
Justin slowly made his way back into the hospital through a service entrance that a kitchen aide had left open. And like a hungry lab mouse searching the maze for a bite of cheese, Justin furiously searched the halls for India's room. He needed to find her. He needed to get to her. He needed to get her our.
He kept going, stealthily, hiding in shadows once a doctor or nurse passed him in the hall, quickly darting into closed off rooms, swiftly bouncing behind large potted plants and support beams all under cover so that no one knew he was back in the building.
As he frantically searched, room and room after room he finally came to room number 1256. There was India, in Victoria's body sleeping with cuts from the glass of the window she fell out of in her fight with Julia the night before.
He slowly pushed the door open and as it creaked, India opened her eyes, she gasped and he put his finger up to his mouth motioning for her not to make a sound.
He whispered: "we have to get you out." India nodded her head. He helped her out of bed, and she rushed over to a closer that had her street clothes hanging.
"I thought you'd never come back. I didn't know what was going to happen to me." India said in Vicky's voice as Justin cracked the room door to check if the coast was clear.
"I couldn't just leave you here." He said.
"No one believes me Justin. No one believes anything I've said and Julia....Julia thinks I'm crazy. She thinks I'm making all of this up." India exclaimed.
"I know, my dad....its a long story but he doesn't believe me either. We have to find Barnabas. He has to take you back, this HAS GOT TO END!" Justin said, his frustration now showing.
India looked at Justin. She couldn't believe how kind he was, and how brave he was to come back for. It was risky. All of it. But he did it. For her.
"Ok. Come on, come on!" Justin said
India slowly put on shoes and a pair of dark green slacks and tucked in the flowing over-sized hospital shirt in them. She then tied Vicky's thick luxurious dark hair up and out of her face. Justin grabbed India's hand and slowly two slipped through the halls of Windcliff on their way to the back exit: through the kitchen.
As the two slowly passed through the halls, Julia Hoffman was in her office, equally cut and bruised from her fall with India, she was alive and well; not even a fall from a 4th story window could take Julia Hoffman out, she had so much more to do.
As the stoic and cut up Julia sat in her glossy red leather chair, she turned it slowly ---she was not alone. As her chair went on its circular trip it stopped to face her visitor.... George Patterson.
"So Justin hasn't been here to see Vicky?" Patterson wondered.
"No, I was with with Miss Winters all night there was...." Julia paused ..."an indecent." Julia said being vague about her physical altercation with India.
"It's important that you tell me if he comes here. He rushed out of the house and the first place he'd come back to was here. Not to mention the Collins family will be wondering why you haven't let them know you have their governess." Patterson said.
"You didn't tell them either." Julia said in a snarky tone as George rolled his eyes at her.
"I didn't tell them. Something has come up...and having Justin linked to this derranged young woman could put Justin on the brink of something...." George said as Julia interrupted.
"Like his mother?" She asked pointing out Justin's mother's issues with mental illness.
"I owe you for helping Rebecca. You don't know to remind me." George revealed.
"Yes, you do." Julia shot back. "Listen, Sheriff I know what you want me to do but I can't just pretend your son doesn't also have issues going on inside his mind too. I'm almost sure these issues are residual effects from what happened to his mother. I would really hope you reconsider bringing him back here yourself so that I can monitor not only Vicky but Justin too." Julia explained.
"Doctor, I can handle my son. I can take care of him like I've always done, for years now, what I need from you is to keep Vicky Winters here. Under no circumstances can she and my son be seen together." Sheriff Patterson said trying to cover up for his son possibly being involved in the murder of Arabella with Vicky.
Suddenly Julia saw India and Justin pass her office window.
"Damn it!! Look!" Julia screeched pointing to India (as Vicky) and Justin sneaking out passed the office windows.
George and Julia got up quickly and rushed to the door. Justin and India were gone.
Julia and George quickly jogged down the hall after them and found them in the hall hugging. They were just steps from the kitchen exit.
"We're going to get you back India, back to 2019. Barnabas will help!" Justin said.
India looked at Justin, her eyes watering. He had risked so much to come back for her. She lifted herself up on her tippy-toes and kissed him.
"Thank you." She said with tears in her eyes. They hugged again, then escaped through the back door never noticing they were being watched.
George started after them.
"No!" Julia shouted, her arm bolting across George’s chest freezing him in place.
"Why? We can't let them go. That woman has done something to my son! He keeps calling her India! They're not well, doctor I'm afraid they're involved in the murder of someone...we need to stop them." George shouted.
"Yes. I know." Julia said, her voice calm and collected, a stark contrast to George's frantic state. "Let's let them get to wherever their car is and then....we'll follow." She added.
"Follow?"
"Follow. I want to know where they're going. I want to know who they think this Barnabas person is." Julia said.
"Barnabas...Collins. He's the man staying at the old house at Collinwood. I met him last night." Patterson confirmed shocking Julia.
"He's....real????" Julia asked.
"Very much so." Patterson said again.
"Very well then...let's see what this Barnabas person has over them. I need to meet Barnabas, and I need to know exactly what he's doing to both Justin and Victoria." Julia said.
Julia and George waited. She looked at her watch and then smirked as minutes passed since Justin and India vanished in his car.
"Let's go." She said in a deep and cold voice.
The two, doctor and town Sheriff then left the hospital hot on the trail of India and Justin and soon would come face to face with a force not even Dr. Julia Hoffman could have ever imagined in her whole life she would encounter. She would soon face a man that would change her life forever, not a figment of India's and Justin's imagination; a real life man with deep dark secrets and lusts....Barnabas Collins.
