Series 1/Chapter 8: TRAPPED LIKE A WITCH

At Collinsport's local watering hole, The Blue Wale, Kat anxiously awaited Caleb for their impromptu date. She sat in a window seat table overlooking the same docks of the Collinsport marina that Jack Thorne's body was pulled out of the night before...or what everyone believed to be Jack's body. Kat's suspicions that the family knew more than they were leading the police to believe on how Jack disappeared and what or who was involved made her more aware of just how much her old High School friend Caleb Collins admired her.

And she was about to use that admiration to get herself inside the Collins inner circle to find out what really happened to Jack.

Kat sat in a leather jacked and black top, causally listening to the house jazz band play some standards while the noisy bar carried on with their own conversations never paying much attention to the hardworking musicians. The 50 year old jut-box sat in the corner, a small reminder of the old days of The Blue Whale were the music wasn't life but from the old box that required a dime a song.

A waitress named Leigh smiled and poured another drink for Kat.

"Don' tell me he isn't coming." Leigh said.

"He's coming! ...at least I hope." Kat nervously grinned.

"I'll keep your tab open." Leigh smiled a cynical grin and walked off.

Kat waited for another 15 minutes and two more of Leigh's sarcastic laced drinks and finally Caleb rushed into the Blue Wale and made his way to Kat's table, clearly flustered on his tardiness.

"I was just about to give up on you." Kat said with a snap in her voice, after all she didn't really want a date, just an inside look to the Collins family, Caleb's heart was the key.

"I'm so sorry I'm late Kat,  I had a little bit of car trouble." he said pointing to Leigh to bring him the same drink as Kat.

"Car trouble? Aren't you a member of the wealthiest family in Maine? You own half this town. Money shouldn't be an object for repairs or a new car." Kat asked sarcastically as she sipped her cocktail.

"I see you've jumped on to that bandwagon." Caleb said before Kat interrupted.

"Bandwagon?" She laughed.

"The family has hit some hard times, it's not as it used to be. The fishing fleet has slowed down, the investments my family had have dried up, money is tighter. You've seen the mansion! It's not up to its hay-day glory. That's why Jack was here in the first place. We were planning on selling everything off." Caleb explained as the waitress Leigh plopped his drink on the table with an annoyed look on her face.

Kat nodded, she could see it was a touchy subject, but she was happy to hear he brought up Jack.

"But anyway, I'm glad you asked me out tonight." Caleb moving on to the next subject.

"Me too. Its been so long since we last hung out, and since it's all been so crazy I thought you needed a night away. How're your cousins holding up?" Kat asked.

"Better then I thought. They had Jack cremated and buried on the Collinswood grounds. So, it all went fast. Poor guy." Caleb said reciting the tale Carolyn and Leopold had crafted for the body of the transient Leopold killed.

Kat was stunned, she hadn't expected the remains to be given to the family so quickly, and certainly not before she could order a second autopsy.

"Cremated? They cremated Jack already?" Kat asked surprised.

"Yeah, that's what Carolyn said he wanted. Why?" Caleb asked starting to feel interrogated.

"Just seems so quick." Kat said noticing his discomfort.

"Did you call me out to ask me about my cousin's funeral or, did you have ulterior motives? Because I'm certainly hoping for ulterior motives." Caleb boyishly grinned as he sipped from his beer, trying to make sense of her scattered conversation.

Kat did have ulterior motives, but they weren't the kind Caleb was hoping for. She had an itching feeling the Collins family was hiding something and that the body found in the water wasn't actually Jack. But now with the body gone it would be harder to prove.

And just as the two got a little deeper into their conversation, Leigh brought over something different to the table to see Kat and Caleb: a tall beautiful blond woman dressed all in white. Her hair coiffed perfeclty, her eyes blue and bright. She was tall, and had a smile that would light up Collinsport's darknest night.

"Kids, Sorry to interrupt, but she said she was looking for you." Leigh said walking off leaving the blond at the table.

Caleb's eyes became wide and filled with a look of utter shock. He stood, and looked at the woman in front of him as if he had seen a ghost. This was a woman he hadn't seen in over 15 years, a woman that came back from his past.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, his voice slightly monotone and timid.

The woman removed her gloves and put her chilly hands on  his face and smiled with a little tear coming down  her cheek.

"I've come back. I'm here." The tall blond said to Kat's surprise.

"Where have you been? What have you..." Caleb said, his voice trembling.

The woman only smiled and pulled Caleb in for a big hug. She held on to him for what seemed like hours. Kat sat at their table, the lights from the Collinsport marina shining in from the docks and reflecting off of the tall blond's beautiful face.

"Kat..." Caleb said releasing himself from the hug. "This is my mother."

****

Over on Collinwood, Leopold sat in his darkened room lit only by a small candelabra nearest the window. He was thinking about what his life would be come. Everything that was, was gone, now the only thing left behind was a creature created selfishly by a witch to use for whatever cruel plot she had in mind.

. As he sat in silence there was a knock on the door. Leopold paused for a second and thought that it was his imagination, but it wasn't. The front door of the old house squeaked open and in walked Carolyn, Jack's beloved wife.

"Carolyn, what are you doing here?" He asked as he stood up from his chair.

"I needed to see you. I know that now things are awfully changed, and we can't go back to how they were but...I just needed to see you." Carolyn standing in the foyer and looking into the room Leopold stood in.

"I can't begin to express how sorry I am that this has happened to you and to Alexandra, but I hope that we can all still somehow be a family. At least in some sort of capacity." Leopold said.

"Here, I wanted you to see this. Its a photograph and Jack and I when we were younger. You look so much like him, and yet so different." Carolyn said walking closer.

Leopold smiled and took the photograph and stood shocked how just how much he did look like Jack.

"There's still so much of Jack inside of you Leopold, I can see it. I hope that in the future when you feel that inside...you'll remember the human part of you. The Jack side of you." Carolyn said adjusting her coat from the chill of the room.

"Thank you for this." Leopold said as he placed it over the open flame of the candle and let it burn.

Carolyn stood in the room shocked and confused. "What are you doing?!?!" She yelled.

And to her horror Leopold began to morph from the light skinned, amber eyed man before her into the witch who created him, Claudia Bauchard, laughing at the pain she was causing Carolyn.

"Do you think he's still the same man? The same man that still loves you?" Claudia hissed. "Did you think coming here with this photo would turn  him back into your old withered husband. It's over Carolyn those days where you believed in true love are gone---forever!" Claudia said, coming closer to Carolyn.

"Stay back!" Carolyn said. "Stay back or I'll scream!"

"Scream all you like but no one will hear you. I control everything there is around Collinwood now, and everyone on this land. Even Leopold. He's mine now." Claudia said reaching for Carolyn to grab her.

Just then out of the shadows came Leopold's arm. He grabbed Claudia's wrist and yanked her to the floor knocking over furniture and old photo frames that were caked in dust and webs.

"Leave her!!" He growled as his eyes changed from amber to red.

"Careful my love, if your hungry, I am not the one to bite." Claudia warned again with a smirk, reminding the novice vampire of the toxicity of witches blood.

Carolyn stood in the foyer with tears in her eyes, not knowing what do next. She just stared at Leopold who had Jack's young face and couldn't believe her eyes.

"You think you have all control, but you have none." Leopold said lifting Claudia up.

For all her power of the people of Collinwood, Claudia made a crucial mistake in the spell over Jack when she turned him into her lost love Leopold Deverniet. her powers had only turned Jack into Leopold and gave him immortal life as a vampire but that's where the spell ended. She had no more control over his actions then anyone else and the will of his mind was still that of Jack Thorne.

Claudia tried to get away but Leopold's grasp was like a bear trap around her wrist, they struggled as he pulled her around the foyer and towards the front door, dragging her kicking and screaming.

"Where are you taking her?" Carolyn said from behind.

"Our little witch friend wants everyone here to suffer but never thought she'd have to suffer herself. But she will." Leopold said coldly as Claudia continued to struggle from his grip.

"Release me!!" Claudia screamed.

Leopold yanked on Claudia's arm and pulled her out into the snowy evening as Carolyn followed. He pulled her and pulled her all the way past Widow's Hill, the cliff-side which was at the far edge of the Collinwood property. The kept going further and further into the frozen night Claudia continuously locked in Leopold's strong hands.

Claudia tried desperately for release, muttering spells as she went, but nothing worked, Leopold's bewitched hand had severed her touch with black magic, and just then, they arrived at their destination. The Collins' Family tombs, Claudia's face turned serious, her once she stepped on to the hallowed grown of a cemetery her powers were useless.

Leopold kicked in open the gates and dragged a fighting Claudia onto the hallowed ground, Carolyn in tow. The walked over the frozen ground under the large canopy of beech-birch trees.

"Leopold what are doing?!" Carolyn screamed as she saw him go to her mother Elizabeth's tomb.

"Locking her away forever, so she cant hurt anyone ever again." He said as he opened the tomb next to Elizabeth's and threw Claudia down inside of the heavy stone sarcophagus that belonged to Elizabeth's grandmother Catherine.

Claudia screamed as she fell into the sarcophagus face first, as she turned her body around all she could see was a giant slab of stone close down upon her and lock. She pounded on the stone as much she could but she was trapped. Her powers were useless and she was locked away inside forever.

Leopold grabbed a horrified Carolyn and whisked her back to the main house at Collinwood, leaving a screaming and pounding Claudia alone inside the family mausoleum scratching and clawing at the stone cover powerless and livid.

But she had one more trick  up here sleeve that didn't require black magic, just very deep concentration, and it involved sweet Alexandra Thorne. Alexandra, Claudia thought, would be the key to her freedom.

Series 1/Chapter 7: THE FUTURE'S PAST

After eavesdropping on Leopold and Carolyn's chilly meeting in the snow Claudia retreated to her chambers within the secret passage ways inside the old house on Collinwood's land. Her jealousy and anger towards Leopold had boiled over. Everything she had worked for seemed to be slipping through her hands. Her plans, her revenge, her very existence depending on him falling back in love with her and doing her bidding. But it seemed her spell to change Jack into Leopold was not without it's flaws.

She felt betrayed by Leopold for not doing as she hoped: attacking Alexandra, and then revealing his identity to Carolyn: it was just one more note in the history books of her bad luck. The Collins family was the reason for her long unhappiness and loneliness, they reason for her mistrust and pain, the reason for her thirst for revenge; now a new generation had emerged thwarting every bit of justice she hoped for. The reparations she desired would only be paid when every last Collins family member was dead in their graves. It was all beginning to be too much for her.

She had a long history with the family. A history that went back decades. Her past was a patch work of secrets and lies that destroyed so much of her life, and now, in this time, the cracks were reforming, like stained-glass windows connecting one piece to another, her story would finally be told.

Claudia lay her head down on a soft bed inside a secret room in the old house. Her heart bounded in her chest. She closed her eyes, tears of rage trickled down her cheeks as she lay back in a trance like sleep that soon brought  dreams of her past.

**COLLINSPORT, MAINE 1850 **

In the dark of night the infamous Barnabas Collins, arrived inside Collinwood through a secret time portal that allowed one to pass through centuries of time without being detected. Within the walls of the old mansion, this time shifting portal saw Barnabas come and go many times over the years...this time period, one that was before the time of the old house, was no different.

Barnabas crept through the hallways of the old house as not to wake anyone who was living there. He was stealth, and sly. All the while holding a very precious  bundle with him that he carefully held in his arms. He had traveled back in time from the year 1972 where he had been living as a member of this family, his biggest, most darkest secret still deep inside his heart.

As he sneaked into an empty bed room to rest and was careful to make no noise. Still in his arms the tiny bundle, a sleeping baby girl he brought from the future, a baby he hoped would be kept all the dangers 1972 had to offer her. This baby, innocent and sweet, needed to be kept away from every evil that threatened her existence. Placing her almost 100 years in the past through time travel in safe keeping was Barnabas' only choice.

"No one will ever hurt you here. sweet Evangeline, no one. I promise to keep you safe from all harm. Especially from your mother." Barnabas whispered to the baby girl as she cooed at his face.

That night he and the baby girl slept well in the secret bedroom away from the unknowing family members in the home. The two had a long journey a head of them before dawn.

To keep the baby girl safe, Barnabas decided to place her in an orphanage in Boston, far away from her devious mother Angelique who had been living in 1972 under the assumed name Cassandra Collins, a clever guise she created to infiltrate the Collins family and be closer to Barnabas.

Under this disguise Cassandra had married Barnabas' cousin Roger, who was none the wiser to who she really was: she was the same witch, and former lover, who cursed Barnabas created him the night dwelling monster that he fought so hard against. Cassandra followed Barnabas into the future and attempted to ruin his life over and over again, at one point enchanting him and making him believe he was his true love Josette and seducing him into bed where the baby Evangeline was conceived.

Cassandra attempted to pass the baby off as Roger's but still use her as a stepping stone into Barnabas life by manipulation and cruel blackmail, but Barnabas was two steps ahead of her and would not allow her to ruin the child's life by using the baby against  him.

After the baby was born, Cassandra's days became numbered at Collinwood when an associate posing as her brother, Nicholas Blair, began blackmailing Cassandra into helping him destroy the family in his own twisted revenge plot. When that failed Cassandra disappeared with the baby girl. When Barnabas discovered them, he could not allow her to raise a child to be evil like her so he kidnapped Evangeline, leaving Cassandra do die alone of despair in her secret safe house just outside of Collinsport, never seeing her child again.



Just before dawn, 100 years in the past, Barnabas snuck out of the old house undetected with the baby girl he called Evangeline. He placed the baby in a small basket and rode for and hours and hours on horseback to Boston from Collinsport, finally reaching the orphanage where the baby he had conceived with Angelique, would be hidden away for her own safety. Angelique's body was not found, but her powers of sorcery were strong, her death would not impede her search for her missing child. Here, in this orphanage surrounded by nuns, Evangeline would be safe.

He handed the baby to two nuns at the gates of St. Catherine's Orphanage for girls.

"She is so small, and so sweet." A nun at the orphanage said as she reached for the baby girl. "Who gives her up?" She asked.

Barnabas thought for a second. He didn't know what to say. He couldn't tell the nuns the truth, the a vampire, a man of the living dead had conceived this baby with a daughter of the devil, a witch. He knew that they would not understand, nor would they accept Evangeline as innocent if her true pet-agree was divulged.

"Her mother could not care for her, she was a friend of mine many years ago but she went mad, this place, this is where this baby needs to be to stay safe. You must keep her safe." Barnabas said handing over extra blankets.

"Goodness. Well she will be very safe here sir, thanks to you. And who are you?" Replied a second nun.

"I am no one." Barnabas answered.

"Well you are to this baby. You saved her life. Whatever happened to the mother, this baby can thank you for that. A child is a gift from god, a gift that you are protecting by bringing her here to this place where god is strong." The other nun said.

Barnabas winched, he was beginning to feel uncomfortable, like the sun was starting to creep over the Church's steeple and pierce his skin, but the sun was only a figure of his imagination and displeasure with what the nuns were saying. Their crucifixes were burning his eyes, staring at him straight in the face.

"I must go!" Barnabas yelped, as his horse raised it's front legs restlessly.

Barnabas then thanked the nuns and smiled as best he could through the pain of seeing their crosses hanging from their necks.. As he turned to  prepare his horse for the journey back to Collinsport the first nun, still holding the baby, quickly called out to him before he rode off.

"Sir! Wait, her name! What is she called?" She asked.

Barnabas thought about telling the nuns the baby's name was Evangeline Collins, but saying her name, conjuring the truth could bring Angelique's dead spirit back...he paused....

"She was given no name. Name her as you wish." Barnabas said lying to keep the baby's identity safe.

"When was she born?" The first nun asked.

"Two days ago." Barnabas responded.

 The seventh of August." The first nun asked again.

Barnabas nodded yes.

"The seventh of August." The nun repeated.

"The feast of Saint Claudia." The second nun added. "That settles it,  we shall call you that. Claudia."

**COLLINSPORT, MAINE PRESENT DAY **

Christopher woke up the next morning sore from the night before. Next to his bed his phone chimed reminding him of several missed  text messages from Alexandra apologizing for the crazy first date. He smiled and text her back that it was the most exciting date he'd ever had, and hoped for another. She responded quickly, with  just a "😀"

Downstairs his father Victor was making coffee, waiting for Christopher, who was late, he finally called out to him.

"Hey! Boy you ever going to come down here?"

"Sorry, sorry! I over slept." Christopher said dashing around the table and grabbing the cup of coffee.

"What the hell happened to your lip?" Victor asked.

"Oh, craziest thing. Some weirdo jumped Alex and I last night. He didn't even take anything. Something must of scared him off. We were pretty lucky." Chris explained.

"Jumped? You were mugged? My god! Kid, why didn't you tell me?" Victor said standing up from the table.


"I don't know. No one got hurt so..."

"No one got hurt? Look at your lip!" Victor said grabbing his son's face.

"Dad calm down everything is fine." Chris said.

"I knew it. The minute you told me who those women were the other day, I knew something bad would happen. Nothing good comes from the people that live in Collinwood. Nothing." Victor explained.

"What are you talking about?" Chris questioned as he sipped his coffee.

"That family has a long history here kid, and it's filled with dangerous situations. The whole town knows their story. I don't think you should see her again." Victor warned.

"I'll see her again dad." Chris said furrowing his brow. "I'm not a kid anymore. I like her."

Christopher defiantly got up from the table. As he made his way back into his room he picked up his cell phone and logged into his favorite website, a local news blog. The headline read "Collins Family Member Found Dead in Bay".

It chocked Christopher like hands around his neck, but it got worse. The report said it was rumored to be the body of Alex's father Jack, yet Alex didn't seem fazed in her morning texts to him. Was Victor right? Something was definitely amiss. And he was going to find out what.

As Chris read the news on Alex's father, Victor went into his room and closed the door behind him. He  pulled out a large create from under his head and opened it. Inside were large wooden crucifixes, bottles of holy water and a gun  next to many rounds of silver bullets. He picked up the gun and loaded it, closed one eye and pointed it at the wall where there was a photo of Collinwood manor  and mouthed "pow!"

****

While Christopher Reed and his father Victor debated the Collins family over breakfast, the Collins family themselves had a few things to talk about now that it they knew Leopold was really Jack under Claudia's spell.

At their own breakfast table inside the ornate dinning room of the Collinwood Estate Alex, Caleb and Carolyn ate in relative silence. Perhaps still in shock over last nights events. The table was filled with everything you could think of when it came to breakfast, but no one seemed to have an appetite.

They were all up to speed on the events of the night before. Jack was now Leopold and under a strange spell by Claudia. It was all hard to believe, but Carolyn did. She knew it all too well.

"Are we going to mention what happens last night?" Caleb wondered out loud.

"We have to wait Caleb." Carolyn said sternly.

"No one else has questions?" He explained.

"Hundreds!! But we won't get answers until we hear from Ja... uhh, I'm sorry Leopold." Carolyn said catching herself.

As they all chewed awkwardly Kat and Loomis walked into the room. They both had very stern looks on their faces.

"Detectives!" Carolyn said in surprise.

"I apologize for barging in, the butler, Powell said you'd be in here." Loomis said.

"Of course! Any news?" Carolyn asked nervously.

"Mr. Thorne has been found Mrs. Thorne. And I'm sorry to tell you this....he's dead." Kat explained.

The family knew that it wasn't true, that it was all an elaborately conjured up by Leopold  as a cover for his new life as one of the undead. Someone had to die to make up for the lack of body for Jack and now the man Leopold killed would do just that The family had to play along as horrible as it was. Carolyn cried and Alex consoled her.

"Do you know how it happened?" Carolyn said, her tears real for the man she once loved was truly gone.

"We did find some strange wounds on his body, but the coroner is convinced that it was a suicide. There seems to be no foul play." Kat explained.

"So what were the wounds?" Alex questioned.

"Without getting too graphic and upsetting everyone, the coroner seems to believe that it could have been some kind of fish, or eel that leached on to your father's body in the water that made those marks." Loomis further explained causing Alex feel ill.

"Did you know if your father was depressed or feeling suicidal?" Kat questioned.

Carolyn quickly jumped into the conversation so that Alex wouldn't have to lie to police.

"He had his dark side yes, but I never thought he would do what he did. I want to thank you both for all you've done. If you wouldn't mind, I think we'd like to be alone now." Carolyn said, lying through her teeth to protect Leopold.

"Of course." Kat answered.

After  the family was briefed on details the detectives had on the situation, the detectives saw themselves out.

Kat placed her seatbelt on in the car but did not start the ignition.

"I don't know Loo. Something tells me there's more to this. There was no sign of trauma on the body aside from those little cuts on his neck and the coroner is ruling it a suicide, doesn't add up? Why would a wealthy man married to an even wealthier Collins family heiress do himself in?" Kat wondered.

"And how did his skin get that way?" Loomis wondered too.

"Water expose wouldn't do that, would it?" Kat answered confused.

"You think foul play?" Loomis responded. "That doesn't add up to me either, and the case is officially closed, what can we do?" He added.

"I don't know. But I've got to get inside that house more often, there's got to be answers there. That family knows more than they're leading on. And I know just the person who'll get me in." Kat said.

Kat picked up her cell phone and looked through the phone book. She found Caleb's number and text:

"I know your family is going through a lot today. Sorry again,  about Jack. If you need to get away meet me at the Blue Wale for a drink later. What do you say?"

She waited for a response but it didn't come. The detectives shrugged and began to make their way back to the station. As they drove Kat's phoned beeped.

"Your phone!" Loomis said

"Pick it up! Read it!!" Kat said excitedly  as  she drove.

"It's from Collins. He says 'Hey Kat. Blue wale sounds good. How's 9:00?'" Loomis read.

Kat smiled a Cheshire-Cat grin and said "I'm in!"

Series 1/Chapter 6: THE DEATH OF JACK THORNE

The winds continued to pick up speed, swirling around the turrets of Collinwood. Inside the great mansion, a family's anxiety began to bubble up, as one of their own was still missing. For Carolyn, the likelihood that Jack's disappearance was due to something more sinister and Collinwood related was becoming more and more clear every day he was gone.

"Thank you for meeting with me this evening." Detective Kat Banning said as she walked into the living room where Alexandra and Carolyn had been waiting. "We've done a very extensive investigation over the last few days and haven't had a single lead Mrs. Thorne. I'm hoping you've had better luck. Is there anything new that you were able to think of that might get us to some answers? It's almost as if he's just vanished into thin air." 

Carolyn swallowed a heap of air. Her mouth was dry. She could feel it in in her bones that something else was amiss. Over the years and in her youth, she witnessed various bizarre and unexplained occurrences similar to Jack's vanishing. This wasn't new for her, but explaining it to someone who may have a hard time understanding --and worse ---believing that maybe, just maybe, something supernatural had happened was a challenge within itself.

"No, detective Banning, I haven't. I agree with you,  it is as if Jack vanished into thin air. Things like that have happened before. People just ....go away." Carolyn said grabbing Alexandra's hand.

"What do you mean by that?" Kat asked, her mind scanning that statement for anything incriminating.

"I don't know. I can tell you that Jack wouldn't just leave me and Alex without telling us why. He wasn't the type of man to do things of that nature. He loved us."

"Well no one is saying otherwise Mrs. Thorne. I just think that maybe.....well maybe someone knows more than they're saying." Kat answered closing her note pad.

"I think we're just under a lot of pressure, thats all." Alexandra said, clutching her mother's hand and trying to quell the tension in the room.

"What we've decided to do is continue our investigation, but minimize the man power on the case until we have some sort of lead. At this time we have officers searching the grounds here and around town and the waterways for any kind of sign of Mr. Thorne, but as of just before I came to see you, there hadn't been any new news." Kat explained again.

"I understand." Carolyn said with tears in her eyes.

"Please, if you do hear anything, or see anything or find anything, give me a call." Kat said handing her another business card.

She excused herself walked over to the foyer where Caleb was waiting at the end of the staircase.

"So level with me, what do you really think? I've known Jack for almost my whole life and this really doenst seem like something he'd do." Caleb questioned.

"Well, obviously something isnt right. A 72 year old man doesn't just vanish into thin air without a good reason." Kat said.

"What about what Carolyn said? Things like this have happened before." Caleb mentioned.

"What did she mean by that?"

"She meant this house. You grew up in Collinsport, you've heard all the stories, and listen, I'm not saying something weird happened, but would you consider it?" Caleb asked the beautiful brunette detective.

"Are you seriously asking me to consider if Jack Thorne's disappearance is related to some sort of folklore? Caleb, come on!" Kat said with a wide grin.

"Look, I know, it sounded crazy in my head when I thought about it too, but my father's family has had some really dark and twisted things happen to them and no one can explain it. No one outside the family that is.  Kat, Look at me...." Caleb said, his face turning serious "This could be really bad. We still don't know where my own father is."

"I don't care what people say about this house. Jack did not go into some kind of ghostly time warp thing. He either left on his own, or someone ...someone took him. This family is loaded! I'm guessing as soon as the kidnappers find out Carolyn is back in town you'll all receive a ransom note. And as horrible as this sounds, that's exactly what we want. That ransom note will get us clues where, right now, we dont have any." Kat answered matter of factly. 

Caleb backed down, and smirked. She was the same Kat he remembered from high school. Strong willed. Smart and still very beautiful. He had been in love with her for so many years but that admiration came to stand still when his father too disappeared from Collinsport and his mother left him in Carolyn's care in London.

"You know it's been really nice seeing you again. Maybe we can hang out? Drinks? My treat." Caleb said flirting with Kat.

She smiled and put on her jacket ready to brave the snowy cold outside. As she flipped her thick black hair out from under her coat she turned to him and winked.

"I'll call you."

Back in the living room Carolyn again stared blankly out onto the frozen garden outside that looked out onto the Old house, she noticed what looked like candle light coming from one of the windows. "What in...." she said, confused as Alex was looking in the mirror adjusting her earrings. 

"Mother I just don't feel right going out to meet Christopher tonight with everything thats going on."

"What's that?" Carolyn answered turning back from the window where she saw the candles from the Old House.

"Are you ok? You look like you saw a ghost." Alex said noting her mother's ashen appearce, a side-effect of the shock at seeing some sort of activity at the Old House when she was sure no one had been there in decades.

"I think I'm just tired, and of course everything about your father being gone." Carolyn said decding not to say anything about what she saw in out of the window.

"That's exactly why I shouldn't have taken Chris up on the date tonight. What kind of daughter am I going out, leaving you here on your own and daddy still missing!' a guilt ridden Alex said.

"Oh stop it! I know you're worried about your father too, but we can't just stop our lives. We're going to find him, honey, we will, but we also have to carry on living normally until then. Besides, it's nice that you're making new friends in Collinsport. It'll get your mind off of everything that's happening" Carolyn said hugging her guilt-ridden daughter.

"No it won't. I'll be thinking about you and him all night." Alex answered.

"You have to take a break. Chris seems nice, and ....well, you need it honey." Carolyn reassured  her.

"Ok, but I won't be out long. I promise, a few hours tops and then I'll be back here before you know it." Alex said picking up her coat and heading out in to the frosty night.

****

It was later that evening and the shops around the small downtown of Collinsport were closing up, restaurants and bistros were switching to their dinner menus. Alex and Christopher walked along a snowy path in Founder's Park talking about everything they liked, and everything they didn't. The typical first date jitters were masked by shivering of the winter air.

As they walked they never noticed the shadowy figure following every step behind. The figure was Leopold still hungry and waiting for his first real taste of fresh blood. His sites were set on the young Alexandra.

The couple continued to walk and talk and laugh. Making eye contact then shyly looking away never noticing they were going off into a much denser part of the park covered in thick bushes and ever-greens. Leopold, dressed in his thick black peacoat with his color lifted, protecting his neck from the icy wind on his face knew this would be his chance.

He walked closer and closer to the couple doing everything he could not to be detected. But he failed, as he approached he stepped on some fallen branches making a sound that started the couple.

They quickly turned to see Leopold frozen in his tracks.

"Hey!" Christopher yelled back at the follower. "Do you need something?" 

Leopold zeroed in on Christopher, the vampire hissed, his amber eyes turned to fire red. He lunged on at Christopher in a quick motion that made him look like a flash of light knocking Alexandra to the floor and into a snow bank.

The two men rolled around on the floor punching and kicking each other. Leopold kept trying to bite but there was something about Christopher, something that turned Leopold off, his blood was not desirable for some reason. Instead of a succulent bite, the vampire was repulsed and jump off his victim.

Undeterred, Christopher lunged back and Leopold and swung three times, missing the shadow dweller each time.  Leopold smiled evily and reached out with this long, strong arms and grabbed Chris by the throat. While in this hold, Leopold lifted Christopher up by the neck to Alexandra's horror, and threw him up against a wall the that held up a walking bridge just above them. Christopher fell unconscious to the floor into a mound of snow.

With Chris out cold, Leopold then turned to Alexandra, his first choice of prey. She screamed but no one came to her rescue. Leopold began to walk closer and breath harder. She kept walking backwards keeping her eyes right on the monster in front of her. As he got closer and closer he could feel the vibration of her pulse float through the air, it pumped harder and harder, and only intensified as he came closer.

"What do you want from me?" Alex said as Leopold stepped closer. "I can give you money. I can give you as much as you want." 

"This wont  hurt a bit." He said in a deep menacing voice.

And as Leopold got close he grabbed Alexandra's face, then a flash of Jack's memory came to his mind. He recognized Alex...his own daughter.  Suddenly Leopold's eyes changed again from the deep red back to the amber, his fangs returned to their natural state, changing his entire face. When the twisted vampire's face returned to normal, Alex too recognized the man...it was the exact same face of her father when he was younger. She rememeberd  his face from photos and memories of her youth. She couldn't believe her eyes, but it was true, the man, the monster, right in front of her had morphed from a vicious blood thirsty creature to the face of her father as a young man.

Leopold backed up and covered his face realizing what was happening and what he was about to do. His mind racing was filling with Jack's memories of his past life, his wife, and his daughter, the woman he was about to murder with a single bite.

"Daddy? Daddy is that you?" Alex said, slowly stepping closer to the man with his hands over his face. "How is this possible? Daddy?" Alexandra said again, slowly stepping closer to him.

"Stay back!! Don't come any closer!!" Leopold yelled now starting to back away himself.

"It is you, isnt it?! What...what's happened to you...my god!" Alex said running up to her father and grabbing his coat collar, horrified of what she had just witnessed. 

Leopold pealed Alex's hands off of his coat and tried to get away but tripped and fell on the path. When he got up Alex was directly above him, and now there was no question in her mind. It was indeed her father's young face. She knew it deep inside her heart, but she couldn't explain it.

Christopher began to groan in pain and regain consciousness over by the wall where Leopold threw him in a rage. Alex knew as soon as Chris was able to, he'd come back and try to protect her from the assailant that, inexplicably, was her own father. She had to think quickly and protect her father.

Alex quickly helped Leopold up and whispered for him to run. 

She then quickly turned back to see Christopher getting up out of the snow as Leopold rushed off into the winter shadows of Founder's Park. 

"Are you ok?" Alex said helping Christopher up.

"I'm fine!" Chris said, rubbing the bump on his head "What the hell happened? Did he hurt you? Did he take anything?" Christopher asked looking around to see if the assailant was still around.

"I'm fine. Oh you have a little cut on your lip too." Alex said wiping his lip for him. "It was a mugger, but he didn't get anything. He just took off running." Alex said looking in the direction her father ran off too. "Come on, lets get you home."

****

Leopold's mind felt out of control. His memories from his previous life as Jack were filling his brain. How could he have almost killed his own daughter. No matter who he was now, she was still his flesh and blood. He sat in an empty room at the Old House filled with candles and roaring fire. The guilt seeping into faster and faster.

Claudia, the witch who made him this way stood in the corner of the room fuming at his defeat. 

"You failed Leopold." She said telepathically into Leopold's mind.

"What have you done to me? You've made me a monster thirsty after the blood of his own kin!" Leopold replied to her our loud. 

"Forge them! They're nothing to you anymore! The only thing they are good for is the blood in their veins, without them, you'll die!" She said swooping around him in her red cloak.

"You're insane. I cannot drink from Alexandra. I should rip open your veins right here right now and end us both." Leopold said jumping up and grabbing Claudia's neck.

"Do that, and the curse of this home and this family will haunt your sweet  Alexandra and her mother the rest of their lives. I've made it so that if anything happens to me, they're lives will be destroyed. Is that what you really want? Their lives are so precious to you, but you'll put them in danger by killing me?" Claudia warned with a slight trick to her curse.

"You're the monster." Leopold hissed at her.

"I am my mother's daughter." Claudia replied, her voice slightly strained from the choking grab of Leopold's hand

Leopold released Claudia dropping her to the floor. He put on his thick peacoat and dashed out of the old house, his mind split between the monster Leopold that Claudia had created and Jack Thorne, the man he once was. As he walked out of the Old House front door he saw Carolyn standing in the frozen garden that grew between the main house and the Old House. she had come to investigate the mysterious candle light coming from the Old House.

She stood in the frozen, dark night. Their eyes met. Her breath came out of her mouth in puffs of frosty smoke and she realized it was the man she married, his face the way it looked when they met decades ago and were married.

"My God!" Carolyn said stunned. "It's you." She said in a whisper.

"Carolyn..........I ...." Leopold said, his voice still in tone of Jack's.

"What....my god, what has  happened to you!?" Carolyn said, tears spilling from her eyes.

"Something terrible. Something more wicked and twisted than your nightmares can ever imagine." Leopold said, stepping into the garden now eye to eye with his wife from a different life.

"I thought I'd never see you again, but....I just never expected this." Carolyn answered.

"How did you know where to find me?" Leopold said covering his face.

Carolyn said nothing put her hands on Leopold's face, her hand trembled from the cold, she looked deep into the eyes she fell in love with, hers were now of a woman in her early 70's and his were of the 30-something young man she fell in love with. She began to sob and fell into his arms.

"I saw the candles through the living room windows earlier this evening." Carolyn said, revealing how she discovered Leopold. "I don't understand Jack, I don't understand!" She kept repeating.

"I'm not sure how I can explain it. But it's not a trick, its much worse." Leopold said.

"The police, they think you're missing. How are we going to explain you're a live, and....and you look so much younger?" Carolyn questions still crying.

"There is no way that I can come back to how I was, not now at least. That's all the past now. This is who I am. This is what I am." Leopold said.

"What do you mean 'what' you are?" his wife questioned.

"Someone......someone made me something."

Carolyn released herself from Leopold's hold. She stepped back and wiped her tear stained face. It was all becoming clear now, she had had seen this before, many many years ago. This man had become one with the shadows, one with the darkness, one of the undead.

"I've seen this look before, I can feel it now, I can feel what you are in my heart and in my body. Its like it was with Barnabas. It's come back to us... I know what you are." Carolyn confessed.

"I can never resume my regular life. Its too late for that, and because of this we must make it so that everyone believes Jack has died. Carolyn, Whatever happens from here on out, go with my plan. Do not question me at all costs. It must remain a secret."

Leopold buttoned up his jacket and rushed off into the snowy night.

Carolyn was stood alone in the snow shivering, her eyes filled with tears, not knowing what would happen next but knew the darkness she hoped to have left behind when she moved from Collinsport to London were again reemerging. 

And inside the Old House, an eavesdropping Claudia seethed with jealously of their love. Her eyes burned, the tears streaming down her face like lava making paths down her cheeks. 

****

Kat and Loomis arrived to the Collinsport harbor docks around 2am in the morning. The flashing red and blue lights of the parked police cruisers reflected in their unmarked car like forth of July fireworks. The two detectives were ushered over by a uniformed police officer to a large yellow tarp covering something that was fished out of the ocean.

The officer looked at them with an eyebrow lifted and pealed back the tarp, there laying in salt water puddle was a withered corpse of an older man.

"What do we have here?" Loomis asked another  police officer's on the scene.

"Dead guy, looks like he's been here for a while, couple of days at least" The officer said shining his flash light into the water.

"No, this guy's been here for a least a few hours--tops!" Kat answered kneeling down at the body for a better look.

"How can you tell?" The uniformed cop asked, the flashing police lights still reflecting their light, this time on the yellow Police line tape around the scene.

"His skin. I'd guess...." Kat began before Loomis interrupted.

"5 hours."

Kat agreed

"There's no bloating. Its like the opposite happened. He....he looks like he's been drained." Loomis added.

"Of everything." The cop said.

"What do you mean?" Loomis asked.

"Well, there's no blood. Like none. There's these two little wounds on his neck and when the coroner came out, he noticed there was no more bleeding. Like, the blood just stopped."

Kat and Loomis looked at each other confused, baffled even.

"Any ID?" Kat asked as she removed her plastic examining gloves. 

"Yup, that's why we called you two, aren't you looking for a fella named Jack Thorne? I think we found him." The police officer said handing them Jack's wallet.

Kat and Loomis were stunned at the turn of events. And standing just out of site in a darkened corner of the docks observing everything was Leopold, his belly full of fresh blood and his former life now extinguished.

Jack was gone forever, thanks to a homeless man Leopold fed on that he found drunk and sleeping in Founder's park. 

Series 1/Chapter 5: LEOPOLD AWAKENS

The sea thrashed against the razor sharp rocks along the coastline that made up the cliff known as Widow's Hill. The wind blew fiercely, howling through the trees and the pitch black of night, in the distance a small figure began to imerge from the mansion. It was Alexandra, dressed only in her nightgown, no shoes, no coat, her hair blowing wildly in the wind.

She was headed for the edge of Widow's Hill.

 Alexandra walked across the grass slowly listening to the waves crash against the cliff side, stronger and stronger the beat up-against the rocks. As she got closer and closer, she could feel the crash in her chest like a beating drum, pumping and pounding the beats of her heart. The wind was like ice and the clouds above were like silver pillows filling the sky.

"There's nothing left for you Alexandra. This is your fate." said a voice from in her mind. 

Alexandra could feel eyes watching her from some unknown place. Their presence was heavy and cold, constantly pushing her closer and closer to the edge and wind blew harder and harder pulling her in all directions. Suddenly, Alex's instincts told her to turn around, they told her to look behind her, they told her to do it fast. The eyes watching her were behind her. Alex turned quickly and there standing behind in her in the frozen white snow was the dark haired woman in a blood red cloak.

"Who....Who are are you?" Alexandra said as the woman floated closer to her above the snow.

Alexandra shivered in her nightgown and started to back away from the approaching woman in the red cloak came closer and closer extending her arms in Alexandra's direction.

"What do you want from me? Who are you?" Alex screamed over the howling icy wind.

The woman in red, was the same woman who had taken Jack. She got as close as she could to Alex and whispered only one word in her ear, "Claudia." 

Then Claudia pushed Alex off of Widow's Hill. 

Alexandra screamed as she fell to her impending death, but just before her body fell on to the spike like  black sea rocks to her death Alex woke up screaming in her warm bed inside the mansion. 

"Darling? Are you OK? I heard you scream." Carolyn said rushing through Alex's bedroom door.

"I was falling. I was ....someone pushed me...I was falling!" Alex said hysterically as she double checked her surrounding.

"Pushed you? What do you mean?" Carolyn said hugging her panicked daughter.

I don't know, I was walking in the cold and a woman was behind me, she whispered to me something.....a name....I don't remember....then she pushed me from the cliff." Alex said burring her face in her mother's chest.

"It was just a nightmare, you're here, you're ok." Carolyn consoled running her fingers through Alex's blond hair.

"It was so real. I can still smell the sea. I can still feel her hands pushing me. What was the name...what did she tell me her name was?" Alex said trying to remember.

"Was a name you heard before?" Carolyn wondered.

"I think so, but not a name of someone I know." Alex answered.

"Well it wasn't real. You're safe and you're here with me." Carolyn confirmed kissing her daughter on the forehead.  "Detective Banning called, she wanted to come by this afternoon, but I asked her to come this evening. I wanted to run out to the store and get more things for us. Would you mind coming with me?" Carolyn then asked politely.

"Of course, just give me  sometime to get out of this bed." Alexandra answered feeling silly about her nightmare.

"I'll meet you downstairs." Carolyn said as she walked out of the room.

Alex shook her head in disbelief. She was a 25 year old woman having childlike nightmares and felt silly. But the truth was, she was terrified. The dream felt real to her, ever element around her from the frozen grass on her feet to the feeling of wet sea-spray covering her exposed skin was real. She could still feel the water from the on her arms. 

Alex got up from her bed and looked at herself in the mirror and whispered: "Claudia." 

The two later went and braved the cold and were driven by their driver, Powell, to the store to gather supplies they needed for the house. It had been a while since Carolyn had set foot in town. But not much had changed. The town had grown some from what Carolyn could remember, more homes, more buildings, even Collins Enterprises had  become 12 story high-rise in the center of town by the marina, the tallest building in the small fishing village.

Founder's Park, with the copper statue of Collinsport's founding father Issac Collins still stood strong. The lake in the center of park named after Issac's wife Annabella sparkled in the winter sun.

As they left the grocery store, Caroly and Alex hurried back to their car  where Powell was waiting for them. The snow was about to fall again and Carolyn wanted to make sure to avoid a frothy drive home. As they made their way back to the car the town's people were already starting to whisper and gather in little groups in the parking lot togawking and the strangers, strangers that oddly seemed familiar.

"They're looking at us funny." Alex said trying to get back into the car.

"Excuse me miss!" A man's voice said from behind.

Alex turned and a handsome man with big brown eyes, thick fingers and dark hair handed Alex her wallet.

"You dropped this back there." He said smiling.

"Oh thanks! I would have been lost without it." she said smirking.

"I'm Christopher. Are you new here?" He asked, suddenly smitten with the beautiful Alexandra. 

"Yes! Well, I am! My mother is actually from here. I'm Alex." Alex responded.

"Oh....." Christopher said, standing awkwardly with Alex by the car door.

Carolyn noticing the strange interaction decided to break the ice and interject.

"Hello!" Carolyn said from the back-driver's-side of the SUV.

"Oh hi! Umm... I'm Christopher ...Chris...Chris Reed." he said introducing himself to Carolyn too, still awkward. 

"Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne, its a pleasure Mr. Reed... We're just about to leave."  Carolyn said, helping Chris with his exit.

"Listen, I know this is really sudden and your mom seems to be in a hurry, but could I call you sometime? Show you around maybe?" Christopher said in his shy 25 year old voice.

Alex blushed and placed beautiful blond strands of hair behind her ears and nodded yes. She went through her purse and pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen to write her number.

Christopher ran back to his own car where his father awaited him in the passenger side.

"Finally! What was that all about, I thought you were just going to take her the wallet you saw her drop." His father Victor grumbled.

"I did, but she's really cute." Christopher said smiling.

"God. Whats her name?" his father responded.

"Alex. She's new, cute british accent, her mother though is from here.  Carolyn something...Stoddard? yeah that's it. Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne. Guess she used to live here."

Victor's eyes became serious. He knew exactly who she was.

****

At the old house, in a darkened bedroom, candles splashed a gloomy red light on the walls.
There had been someone else living in the House for a very long time, awaiting the perfect storm to finally strike: he mysterious woman in red that attacked Jack and appeared to Alexandra in her dream, the woman named Claudia ,

Claudia was a powerful sorceress watching over Collinwood, she had hidden away there through years of abandonment. Collinsport was practically void of any family members and the state of the family compound, Collinwood, was in decay. But she remained there. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. For one man in particular. 

An old family secret involving Claudia kept here there... Plotting her revenge on the Collins family she saw as her one true enemy

.

The old house was dark and damp and lit by only candles. Claudia made her way from her champers to another dark room that was also filled with candles. There were thousands of them, lit with a snap of her fingers, melting fuming all around her and in the center of the room, a small black coffin with the initials BC carved meticulously on the very top.

Claudia's true love, a man by the name of Leopold,  died years and years ago. When she saw Jack enter the main house two days before, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Jack, albeit older now, was the spitting image of her long lost love Leopold. She watched Jack walk up the path and into the house and knew it was fate that had brought him back to her. Claudia would not neglect the opportunity for the reunion with him, and with her powerful spells, she would revive Leopold through Jack for her to love once more and together they would seek revenge on the family that had brought Claudia so much pain and suffering. 

Claudia took a breath and removed the hood of her blood red cloak and carefully opened the coffin lid.

She gasped!

There he was, the exact image of her lost love just as he looked the day he died. Young. Beautiful. Filled with youth and vigor. The spell to reverse Jack's aging and turn him back into a young man had worked, inside this new being's mind would be the memories of two men, the love of Claudia's life and the man who Carolyn was searching for, her own love, Jack Thorne.

"Leopold. Wake my love, It's Claudia." the witch said leaning in for a kiss.

As she got closer to kiss his lips, Jack's eyes and mouth snapped open! His teeth had now two long fangs protruding, he hissed and grabbed Claudia by the neck and seemingly flew out of the coffin pushing her to the wall knocking over candles and tables. Her spell was not only one to bring back the dead in a new body, but was one that would make Leopold blood thirsty and immortal.

He now a vampire and he was starving for blood.

Claudia reached around and placed her hands on his face, then released a powerful jolt of energy, like sunlight, blasting Leopold  away.

"You fool! You cannot feed from me! You'll kill us both." Claudia explained.

Leopold's renewed life inside of Jack's body that had been bewitched to look younger gave him a dangerous hunger, his thoughts were confused and jumbled mixing those of Jack's and Leopold's. Vampires cannot feed from witches. A Witch's blood is tainted by Satan, something the new Leopold would have to learn again.

"What am I?" He said as his fangs slowly morphed back into normal incisors "What have you made me?"

"Soon your memories of life as Jack will fade, and only Leopold's will remain. I've made you perfect. I've made you immortal. That is, unless you become foolish and feed from a witch." Claudia explained as she went over to comfort the confused vampire now cowering on the floor next to his coffin.

Just then came the sound of Carolyn and Alexandra's car rustling up in the snow of the stone driveway of the main house.

"Look! There. Tonight, when the sun has set, and the fog has rolled in. There is you next feed." Claudia said pulling Leopold up by his arm, her red cloak still securely around her shoulders.

Leopold's Amber eyes gazed out of the boarded up windows of the small house behind Collinwood. He squinted in the bright sun light but then, through  the cracked wooden board saw his former wife and daughter getting out of their car.

Leopold's eyes turned red. He was hungry, and thirsty. Not even Jack Thorne inside of him could stop his maddening cravings for blood. Anybody's.

"The night will come soon my love." Claudia said turning him from the window.

"Love?? This is not love! What have you done to me! You've made me a monster again!" Leopold said pushing Claudia's arms away.

"What? But this is who you were?" She said.

Leopold's memories were foggy and confused, but he knew that this is not who he was. This is who she had made him and he began to remember how it all started.

  ***COLLINWOOD In another time****

Years ago when Claudia first met Leopold, she was suspicious of him. His beauty was alluring but she had many secrets and lived as someone else. Hiding herself Hiding who she was as to continue her quest to find her family and seek revenge on those who wronged her all her life. He met her, and  as her love for him grew, so did the her lies. And her secrets. 

Despite their troubles they fall in love albeit a tortured one. Eventually time and truth caught up to came Claudia. She exposed herself as the daughter of a witch, and that she too carried the gift of sorcery and black magic. How could he go on with their love with such a secret. It was a shame and a dark curse upon them both. Most of all, for Leopold, it was deadly. 

He fell into a deep depression after losing his heart to her. How could he go on, he thought, without her? Leopold was no stranger to lost love. He had lost a love before, and stronger love, a love that he had paid dearly for and now, he was losing it all over again, this time with Claudia. 

In a dark frothy night, Leopold walked found himself stalking Claudia near Widow's Hill. A 300 foot cliff side awash with dark and violent crashing waves called to him. When Claudia detected him they argued. She knew in her heart they could not go on together. Not now, not ever. Their love was never ever to be

. In that moment of despair and loss Leopold could no longer live knowing his beloved Claudia was a daughter of such dark individual. 

Then there was a physical struggle between the two lovers. A fight at the edge of a hill known for lost loves and death. 

Leopold felt as if he has no choice and to take the woman whom he knew as a witch to death with him at the edge of the hill ….but his plan failed and fell to his death to the crashing waves below, leaving Claudia screaming and crying on the Widow's Hill cliff side. His body impaled at the bottom and crushed by waves.

His deep secret safely gone with him in his watery death. 

That is the moment Claudia knew the secret of her true identity is what made her life to this point a disaster and a living hell, and someone needed to pay, and pay dearly.

After Leopold's death, Claudia became a recluse. Locked away her heart and her mind inside a room where she would remain until the time was right to emerge with the truth of who she was, the daughter of a witch and a monster. And they would all pay dearly for causing her centuries of loss and pain.

 ****COLLINWOOD, PRESENT TIME**** 

"I know those women." Leopold said coming back from his memory and seeing Alex and Carolyn from the window. His eyes now back to Amber and glowing in the candle light.

"They are relatives of Barnabas." Claudia said, the name Barnabas sizzling off her tongue.

Leopold turned to Claudia, his newly young face still frozen in anger, but now a glimmer of hope. Even though he was now a monster, dammed for all eternity to feed off of blood to stay alive, perhaps at least killing every last member of the Collins family would make it worth it, if it weren't for them Claudia wouldn't be who she was, and he would never have had to jump from Widow's Hill.

"I can feel their blood pumping." Leopold said, his eyes closing the smell of Carolyn and Alex's blood filling his brain.

If he was going to be miserable, why not spread the misery around.

                                                  

             

Series 1/Chapter 4: THE DARK ROOM

The dark hall throbbed with the thumping and pounding from the room at the end of it. Alexandra trembled like an autumn leaf. She latched on to her mother's arm and stayed close behind her.

They walked slowly to the room at the end of the hall feeling an intense pressure on their bodies as they grew closer and closer to the oak door that had been locked for over 30 years, a door Carolyn herself locked the night before she left Collinsport, for what she thought was forever.

This was the room she last saw her ancient relative, the vampire Barnabas Collins, a man who inserted himself into her life on his supernatural quest to rid himself of a curse, a curse for blood, a curse that he thought would never end.

Caleb put his hands around the door knob and as he turned it a surge of energy shot through his body like a thunder bold, swirling and stinging him from the top of his golden blond head to his feet. It was energy that lit up the hall so bright that it looked like the sun burst right there in their presence.

Alexandra screamed and grabbed Caleb's hand to pull him off and as she did  the energy sparked and the two were thrown to the end of the hall tossing Carolyn to one side.

Then the sounds stopped, just as they quickly and mysteriously began.

Simply just stopped.

"What the hell was that?" Caleb said dusting off his leather jacket and helping Alex up.

Carolyn composed herself and went up to the door and turned the knob

"Mother no!" Alex screamed fearing the worst, but the only thing that happened was the door opened. And inside was darkness, and stillness.

Carolyn walked in showing no fear, but inside her stomach was turning.

Caleb, Alexandra and Carolyn carefully inspected the darkened room at the end of the hall, a laboratory style office that used to belong to a woman who lived at the home for many years, Julia Hoffman. In that room Julia had attempted to cure Barnabas of the many terrible things that plagued his life--to no avail. 

"I thought he was dead." Caleb said clearly aware of the legend of his ancestor.

"He is, but the powers he had over this house is more than you know. It's more than I can even understand. Barnabas is Collinwood....and Collinwood is Barnabas." Carolyn explained.

"What do you think it actually was?" Alexandra questioned.

"This house is filled with sinister and angry energy. Things I ran away from almost all my life. Caleb's father David too hasn't been back for the same reasons--- I assume his disappearance could be for the same reason. And now it's taken Jack."  Said Carolyn.

"Do you think we'll be ok here?" Alex asked.

Carolyn looked at the fear in her daughter's eyes. She could see the same terror that ruined her life was now starting to take a strangling hold on Alex. The cycle could not continue, she would no longer run away from everything that frightened her. Carolyn straightened up and stood firmly in the center of the room.

"This is our home. I won't leave without Jack." Carolyn confirmed turning around in circles so that every spirit in the house would year her "Do you hear that! I won't leave this time!!!" 

The night progressed without further incident, and around 9:30, two detectives finally arrived.

Detectives Loomis McGovern and Katherine "Kat" Banning both grew up in Collinsport, they were an odd paring, Loomis in his mid 40s and Kat, a rookie cop in her late 20s, hadn't had much experience, but made up for in street smarts and hard work. Loomis however had seen it all. A jaded soul that needed to see to believe. 

As the two surveyed the house from the outside Kat questioned the history of the Collins family. It was local folklore, the strange family that the town was named after and all their mysterious family members.

"So what do you think? Just another Collins family mystery!?" She said readjusting her scarf around her neck.

"Hope not. Thought this town was rid of all this. But what do ya know, history repeats itself." Loomis said knocking on the great oak door.

"A missing person is a missing person. Collins or not, but this should be interesting." Kat said with a smirk.

"Now, now, don't start getting all Scooby-Doo on me, this is real life stuff. There could be a very logical explination for why Thorne vanished without telling anyone." Loomis responded.

"Right. Aliens." Kat said jokingly to tease her partner who glared at her with disdain.

Carolyn's personal butler and driver Powell answered the door and led the two detectives into the main drawing room where Carolyn had laid out tea and small cookies for their guests that Caleb had picked up. There was an odd calmness in the house, especially for a family missing a family member under bizarre circumstances. 

Powell left the room After introducing the detectives to Alex who took it from there.

"This is my mother Mrs. Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne and our cousin Caleb Collins, Caleb was the one who called you." Alexandra said introducing everyone.

"Caleb, it's nice to see you again." Kat said, recognizing her old high school fiend, much to Loomis' surprise.

"You two know eachother?" Loomis asked.

"High School pals, but then he took off to Paris around the middle of 11th grade. Never to see him again." Kat smirked.

"London." Caleb corrected as he shook Loomis' hand.

"Would have been nice to know that." Loomis said to Kat in a whisper under his breath.

"Thank you both for coming." Carolyn said, as she poured tea. 

"Mrs. Thorne, from what I've read this is your old home." Loomis enquired.

"Yes. My mother Elizabeth inherited it from her father Jamison Collins, and he from  his father Edward and so on. This land has been in our family for centuries."

"And what about the other homes on the land. Did everyone check to see if Jack had gone there?" Kat asked.

"The cottages were empty when I checked." Caleb answered.

"And the other home? The one towards the back of this one?" Kat said writing things down.

"The old house?" Carolyn questioned mentioning the second, older mansion on the Collinwood land that had been the original family home until the mid 1800's when the newer mansion was finished. "There's no way Jack would have gone there. He was just supposed to come here and pick up a few things to bring back to London."

"I wonder though..." Kat begain again.

"I assure you Detective Banning, my husband is not at the old house." Carolyn said cutting off Kat.

"Why are there two larger homes on the property?" Loomis asked.

"The family never had it in them to demolish the old house. It stayed around for decades sentimentally, until about 1967." Caleb answered.

"What happened in 1967?" Kat asked.

Carolyn and Caleb looked at each other. They knew exactly what happened, or better, who moved in to the old house making it inhabitable again.

"A family member from London moved in and repaired it, but by the mid 70s, they moved away and from then on the house again was left empty. We boarded it up in 1985 right before I left to London for good." Carolyn answered.

"For good?" Loomis asked, his question leading to the obvious notion that Carolyn was indeed back in Collinsport.

"Well at least I thought for good." Carolyn answered.

"Well, under the circumstances, I'd say welcome home but I can understand its been rather difficult for you, and you can trust us, Mrs. Thorne, we are going to find your husband as soon as we can." Loomis said.

"Mrs. Thorne, do you remember the exact time and day you last heard from Jack ...?" Kat asked getting right to business.

"Two days ago, the day before he was to meet Caleb." She answered.

"And I text messaged him that day too. But he never responded." Alex added.

"And we are sure he came here?" Kat questioned again looking around the dark mansion noting some of the furniture still covered up.

"When we got here I found the keys he was supposed to bring me in on the floor just by the staircase, so we know he was here. We know he came in but we don't know where he went after." Caleb said.

"This house is rather large, could he still be here? Maybe he'd fallen and is somewhere hurt?" Loomis asked.

"No, we've checked and there's no one in the house." Alex answered.

The two detectives left the drawing room and asked to look around the home for clues, but nothing seemed odd, at least not what they'd imagine Collinwood would look like inside. The house was indeed disrepair but for the most part the only parts that had been touched were the parts where the family had been in, the two main rooms on the first floor and the kitchen. 

Alone now, taking notes in a side study, Kat looked out of the window out across the frosty grass and stared at the Old House just beyond the yard. There was something about it that made her skin crawl.

"Expecting ghosts and goblins to pop up?" Caleb staid startling Kat as he entered the room she was in. 

"Still the comedian I see." Kat said with a shy grin. "But seriously, this house had been boarded up since I can remember and the first person that sets foot inside in over 30 years suddenly disappears...without a trace...suspicious." Kat said with a grin. "But honestly, tell me has anything else odd happened since you've been back?"

Before Caleb could answer Carolyn walked in the room with her cup of tea still steaming from the saucer into the brisk air inside the home.

"Nothing at all." She said closing the library door. "I can assure you, Jack's disappearance is the only thing we can't explain. Which makes it all the more painful Detective Banning. I wish we had something to explain it."

"Something or someone?" Kat said as she collected her notes to Carolyn's displeasure. "We'll leave you now to get some rest. We'll be in contact tomorrow morning, Mrs Thorne, let us know if you hear anything before."

"Yes, thank you." Carolyn said as Kat opened the study door and turned back to Caleb.

"Goodnight Caleb." Kat said as she went to meet Loomis at front door.

As soon as Kat and Loomis returned to their car they knew something was off about the family. Of course it was. They were Collins. But what they were hiding wasn't clear, Kat for one felt she could smoke it out of at least one one of them, her old high school friend Caleb.

Inside the house Caleb and Alexandra questioned Carolyn on her motives for keeping the episode in the hall outside of Julia's old lab attributed to Barnabas from the detectives.

"They mustn't know of that." Carolyn said sternly.

"But why mother? You don't think it's related to daddy?" Alex asked.

"I know it's related. The problem is I don't know how. Darling, Barnabas Collins was ... he couldn't do what we experienced in that hall.... He didn't have that type of power. No, there's something much more living within these walls, and I have to find out first before the police do, its the only way."

And within those walls listening to Carolyn, Alexandra and Caleb  was indeed an entity, the woman in red with dark hair who had one objective: to keep watch over Collinwood for her perch inside the old house where she was keeping Jack. She had been there for decades waiting for this very moment.

And what she had done to Jack would turn Carolyn's stomach inside out. 

                                        

Series 1/Chapter 3: THREE BEATING HEARTS

A stately black SUV curled around the corner up to the front gates of Collinwood Manor. By this time the sun had gone down  leaving only the ghostly silhouette of a Gothic mansion sitting behind the rusted gates monogrammed with the letter C. 

Carolyn and her daughter Alexandra had flown from London on the first flight available to help Caleb locate Carolyn's husband Jack. Both women were terrified of the thoughts of what may have happened to Jack, albeit for different reasons. Alex was naturally worried about her father's disappearance, Carolyn was too, but the added paranoia of whom -or what- was in involved in his sudden vanishing gave the new Collins family matriarch a sinking feeling. She had seen this before, all her life she knew the dangers and treacherous ways of the mansion. This was a family history Alexandra only heard about in stories from Caleb was they grew up, she had yet to experience her mother's terror first hand. 

A droplet covered tinted window of  Carolyn and Alexandra's blacked out SUV rolled down revealing Carolyn's blue eyes staring up at the house of horrors she once knew. She stared intently at the mansion she grew up in as their driver, Jude Powell slowly removed their bags from the car.  Memories of murder, mystery and of one man in particular flooded her mind.

"Mother....." Alexandra said as she and Powell started on their way in to the house. "Mother..." Alex said again, Carolyn still staring at the house as if she couldn't hear Alex's voice. "Mother!" Alex yelled again finally getting Carolyn's attention.

"What? Did you say something honey?" Carolyn answered, her mind in a fog.

"Are you coming in? It's cold out here." Alex said, the frosty sea air swiping her pale skin. 

"I never thought I'd be back here again." She whispered to herself.

"Everything is going to be ok. Whatever happened in the past is over. I promise." Alexandra said helping her mother out of the car and trying to reassure her nervs.

"I'd usually agree with you, but the ironic thing about Collinwood is just how much the past seems to come back to life...." Carolyn said her sentence trailing as she stepped into the foyer of the house for the first time in almost 30 years.

Her eyes looked all around. The smell was the same, older but the same. It was a mixture of pine and dust. Every piece of furniture and surface was covered with white sheets to protect the antiques from damage.

Alex pulled down a sheet to reveal the old grandfather clock closest to the door of the main drawing room, it ticked the minutes away as no time had past.

"Its .....its amazing." Alex said in awe of the beauty of the old Gothic mansion.

They stepped into the drawing room, a room where many supernatural events had occuried, stories that Carolyn felt if she retold out loud, surly those ghost would come back and remind her why she left in the first place. 

Alex pulled down another sheet, this one from a painting on the wall revealing a very young Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.

"That's your grandmother...." Carolyn said, beaming with pride.

"You have her eyes." Alex said, noting Carolyn and Elizabeth's ocean blue eyes.

As Carolyn started a fire, Alexandra continued discovering countless artifacts the Collins family had left in the drawing room over the years. Books, and letters that were stuffed in the pages, a letter opener monogrammed E.C.S., a set of tumblers that made Carolyn giggle... "Those are Uncle Roger's."

"And who's this?" Alex asked pulling down one more drape from a painting.

Carolyn turned from the fire to see Alexandra had found the painting of Barnabas Collins.

Carolyn's eyes gazed up and saw the man she once loved as a surrogate father. A man that held a secret so dark, so twisted and so evil that when the truth was revealed to her decades ago, it shook her to her core. And here again, faced with this image, her blood ran cold.

Carolyn rushed over and yanked the painting down off the wall without explanation just as their cousin Caleb Collins walked into the mansion.

"Carolyn, Alex!" He said hugging and kissing them both. "I'm so glad you made it."

"Darling, you look wonderful." Carolyn smiled, seeing Caleb as her own grown son.

"I have a detective coming." Caleb said entering the room.

"Where could Daddy be? When was the last time you spoke to him?" Alexandra asked.

"It was yesterday morning. I called him at his hotel and we made arrangements to meet back at the realtors with the keys." Caleb explained as Carolyn walked over to a set of French doors on the opposite side of the drawing room.

Carolyn drew back  the drapes and looked out in to the dark of night. She was quiet, her mind still filled with the terrors that would befall them if they stayed in the house....but they had to stay.

"You know, we can make arrangements for you to stay at the hotel Carolyn. If this is too much---" Caleb said, noting Carolyn's discomfort. 

"No! This was a long time coming." Carolyn interrupted. "I noticed some of the other sheets on the furniture were removed before we came in. Someone was here. It must of been Jack. Carolyn said walking over to warm by the fire.

"I agree. I found these when I walked over by the staircase as I came in." Caleb said handing over the lost keys to the mansion to Carolyn.

Just then a noise came from down the hall. It was a loud thud that shook the paintings on the walls. Alexandra screamed and ran over to her mother for comfort. The noise came again this time louder and it felt closer.

"What is that? Where is it coming from?" Alexandra said terrified.

Carolyn knew exactly where it came from, the room down the hall had been sealed off many years ago. It was room no one was to ever enter. But now there was clearly life in the home something that had been in house sensed the beating of three hearts of pure Collins blood. 

The sound came again this time as if it were a loud thunderous knocking teasing  and daring them to come close.

"I'm going down there!" Caleb said dashing to the door.

"Caleb stop!" Carolyn screamed.

"It could be Jack! He may need our help!" Caleb returned.

"Its not Jack. " Carolyn said.

"Well who is it?" Caleb questioned beginning to feel frustrated with the whole situation.


"It's Barnabas."