Series 3/Chapter 4: NEVER WALK ALONE

Evening turned to dusk and the street lights around Collinsport lit up awash in  a soupy fog from the cold  Atlantic. Around town it felt like a normal evening, but normal for Collinsport was outright macabre by any other town's standards.

Detective Kat Banning made her way through the drowsy town to meet up with her boyfriend Caleb who had been running late himself. She was clenched up in her warm coat, her heels echoing each step through an old cobblestone street on her way to a quiet restaurant where they would meet. She was bundled up, but still felt the frosty sea air on her face and neck, the only exposed parts of her body.

Ealier that day she had gotten into a dispute with her partner Detective Loomis McGovern about her sudden change of heart regarding the fact she felt there was more to Leopold Divernet and Jack Thorne's death then the Collins were leading on, but she truthfully could not remember any of that. That's thanks of course to Alexandra's spell, erasing any doubt she had. A ploy Alex made in a desperate attempt to keep the family's vampire relative s secret.

Leopold, however, did not trust Kat, fading memory or not, and was hot on her trail through the foggy Collinsport night.

Kat's skills as a detective were as keen as they had ever been and could sense something was off. She was alone on the street but felt as if she were being watched. And she was right. Leopold was there. He hid in shadows and in corners following her every move, watching carefully and closely. Each step for Kat more dangerous than the next. So she picked up her pace hoping to lose whatever feeling she was having and get closer to a more busier street.

Leopold kept up too waiting for the perfect moment to strike and illiminate the detective once and for all.

****

At the police station Loomis sat at his desk with his feet up biting on a pencil in deep thought. His green desk lamp illuminating just a few things around him, especially the giant crime file he pulled marked "Collins". He still had a strange feeling about Kat. In all the years he had known her she had never just given up a hunch the way she had about Leopold and the Collins family.

The file he pulled didn't make him feel any better. He lowered his legs and sifted again through its contents. Page after page of  neighbor testimony and citizen reports about strange occurrences at the Collinwood estate and the local businesses that the Collins family owned that dated back more than 200 years. These were bizarre stories that included mysterious disappearances, murder allegations and accusations of occult activity. But nothing has ever been proven or corroborated.

He couldn't take it anymore. Loomis felt that Kat was just another patch in the Collins family quilt of the unexplained and had to tell her what he had found. He picked up his desk phone and dialed Kat's number.

Kat reached for her phone and stopped for a second on the darkened street to answer. She opened her purse and saw that it was Loomis and thought for a second if she should pick up, but decided to, after all he was her partner.

"What's up Loom?" She said in a nervous nonchalant tone.

"Hey, listen I was wondering if you could come to the station for a minute I have some stuff I want you to look at." Loomis said still sorting through the files.

"Right now? I'm on my way out actually. I don't think I can make it. Can it wait 'till tomorrow?" Said said looking around the dark street.

"It's really important, I think you should come now." Loomis expressed.

"Well what's this all about?" Kat said, still keeping her eye on her surroundings, noticing something in the shadowy distance move.

"I found this file that you really need to look at. There are old case numbers, lots of 'em! All about the weird stuff the Collins family has had happen to them up in that house. I mean, Kat, this stuff goes back to the 60s! You may have been right about them." Loomis explained.

But Kat wanted nothing to do with it. As far as she was concerned she had no need for any of it, and thought she had been clear about that before.

"Loomis, I don't know what you're doing or why you think you needed to look into anything about Caleb's family. It's unnecessary. I told you, maybe I was wrong about them." She said still watching as the shadowy figure moved. Her voice sounding more nervous.

"Kat. Are you ok? Where are you?" Loomis asked picking up on her tone.

"What? I'm fine. I'm just trying to get downtown to meet up with Caleb for dinner." She said trying to change her nervous voice.

"Where downtown?" Loomis asked but Kat did not immediately respond. "Kat? Hey?! You there?"

Kat for a split second turned to begin walking again toward her destination when all of a sudden the dark figure fell like a giant pitch black cape falling to the floor directly in front of her startling her so much she dropped her cell phone to the floor. Within the black mass were Leopold's two amber colored eyes piercing their way out, and a strange reverberating purring sound coming from his throat.

"Oh my god." Kat said out loud as she stepped back.

"Kat!? KAT!!" Loomis screamed in the other line as he heard her voice now distant.

****

That same evening Barnabas walked Kimberly back to Julia Hoffman's old area of the mansion. The area where she would perform some of her experiments in hopes that she could cure him from his vampire curse. But blood transfusions never worked. Neither did the therapy and hypnisid.  If anything, they only exasperated what he had already wished to go away.

Kimberly was having a moment of deja vu. As she walked the shadowy halls of Julia's old stomping grounds she remembered her time with Victor and how he had taken her to the laboratory where she would conduct experiments on their child Christopher when he was young.

"Are you feeling alright?" Barnabas asked noting Kimberly's sense of discomfort.

"Yes, thank you. I think I'm just a little tired." She said continuing down the hall.

Once they reached the three rooms, Barnabas opened Julia's office and pushed the door open for Kimberly to walk in first. She walked in and immediately flicked the light switch that lit a scattered amount of dim lights revealing a Julia's old office of old leather brown chairs, darken cherry wood furniture, thick velvet red drapes and a dusty Persian carpet.

"This is where she and I would have most of our talks. Some went well. Some did not. The laboratory is next door." Barnabas said as he sat on the leather sofa.

"Barnabas, can I be frank?" Kimberly asked sitting across from him in Julia's old chair.

"By all means."

"What exactly do you expect from this? What do you want?" She asked bluntly.

"To be free. This life, or...existence I should say, has ruined me beyond all comprehension. I cannot find love. I cannot find peace. I cannot find myself." He explained.

"David often spoke of you, well, not by name of course. He mentioned this family member, a legend, almost this folk hero type. Just today I realized you were the same person as the man in David's stories. David cared for you, you know? And he cared for everyone. I wish I hadn't betrayed him." Kimberly said.

"What betrayal?" Barnabas asked.

Kimberly thought for a second and stood up. She walked over to the window that faced an outer courtyard within the manor. Barnabas watched her every move carefully, her body tightly confined in her black dress, her bright blond hair perfectly coiffed back revealing her porcelain skin.

"While married to David, I had an affair. It's something I'm not proud of. And not just any affair, with a man who ...  a man that wanted to destroy this family, from the inside out. He manipulated me into doing terrible things to our son. Anyway, it's over now. And I want to make up for it. For David. For my sons, and even for Carolyn. She was there for my son Caleb when I could not be." Kimberly confessed.

"Kimberly," Barnabas said now standing next to her by the window, "if we were all judged for the mistakes we had made in the past, I surely would been doomed decades ago." He said, his hands now on her shoulders.

The two then began to search through Julia's notes to pick up where she had left off. Notes that were extensive and massive in volume. But they were determined to do it. And as soon as Kimberly felt up to speed, the experiments would begin her DNA tests and gene therapy on Barnabas.

****

Kat started to walk backwards, but the dark mass that was Leopold began to follow. She could hear his slow breath and his hissing mouth opening. 

"What are you doing?" She said loudly, with her arms stretched out in front of her. 

Leopold said nothing as she continued to walk backwards facing the vampire who's face was still covered in blackness. 

Loomis was listening and could hear everything that was happening. "Kat! Kat!!!" He screamed trying to get his voice loud enough from the phone on the floor to her ears. But to no avail. 

Then when the moment felt right, Leopold had lured Kat into a dark corner of the street and lunged at her. The blackness that covered his face revealed a vampire with long fangs and pale skin. She screamed and fell backwards on to the floor and Leopold jumped at the chance to finally bite her.

As he sat on top of her she managed to swing once and strike him on the face. He pulled back and she got up and ran over to her phone but Leopold was much too fast for her. His arm reached long and wide and pulled at her left shoulder turning her and dropping her to the floor again, just inches from her fallen phone where Loomis still listened and at the same time, was trying to locate her.

Leopold, with  his arm, stretched long, and holding Kat down on the cold wet cobblestone street begin to float over to Kat, and when she got close she turned over, from her stomach to her back, and kicked him in the midsection causing to lose his breath and fall back again. 

This angered Leopold. He regained his composure and lunged at her again jumping on top of her pinning her to the floor still inches from her cell phone. He lifted her up and held her neck.

"You should have stayed away." Leopold said in a deep cruel voice. 

Kat's eyes were like saucers, she recognized the voice but was too terrified to speak. Then from the corner of her eye and over Leopold's lower arm she saw Caleb walking on the other side of the street towards the restaurant they were to meet. 

With all her might she screamed his name.

"CALEB!!!!" 

Caleb was starteled and turned in the direction his name was called and saw a dark mass now holding Kat up by the neck on a side street. He jumped into action and ran towards them.

Leopold tightened his grip around her neck and Kat screamed again.

"Noo!!!" 

All Loomis heard over the phone as he frantically tried to trace her call was "Caleb, No!" 

Leopold knowing he had no time with an approaching Caleb tossed Kat to the ground where she smacked her head on the stones below, then he disappeared. 

Caleb reached Kat who was unconscious and tried to wake her.

"Kat?? Kat can you hear me? Kat!!" Caleb said softy tapping her face to try and wake her. But to no avail, then he saw the beginning of a small river of blood coming from behind Kat's head where she had hit the cobblestone street. He instantly picked her up and carried her to his car.

Within seconds the police, with Loomis, had tracked the location of her cell phone and surrounded Caleb's car. The red and blue lights flashed and reflected off of the wet ground illuminating everything that surrounded the area. People peeped through windows and came outside in the chilly night to witness the spectacle. 

As they cornered the car, the police pulled out their guns and pointed at Caleb and Kat who was still knocked out on the passenger side seat. 

From over a bullhorn Loomis demanded:

"Collins...get out of the car with your hands up." 

Caleb was completely confused but complied. As soon as he was out he was rushed by 5 to 6 police officers who placed handcuffs on him.

"What are you doing? My girlfriend was attacked, I'm taking her to the hospital." Caleb said as police removed Kat and put her into an ambulance.

Loomis walked up to Caleb who was being placed in a police car and punched him in the face.

"You're under arrest for the attempted murder of Detective Katharine Banning."

Series 3/Chapter 3: THOSE THAT ARE SCORNED

The sky over Collinsport continued to swirl with remnants of a late winter's storm. The air had a mist that sprinkled all around town and stuck to everything it touched. It was water from the sea. It was water from the sky. It made the slopelike streets of this seaside town slick and black, and Christopher followed those streets from Collinwood all the way to the house he once shared with his father.

It was going to be s long road ahead for Chris and Kimberly. Their relationship had to start from scratch and even though he instinctually knew his mother Kim was behind the altering of his DNA to mutate on a full moon, he still loved her. And the only way back from it all was if he could find the missing vials of antidote. 

He pulled into the driveway of the small cottage and sat in the car. He couldn't get himself to get out just yet, but he knew he had to. He had to search the house for anything his father left that would be a clue to where the vials of antidote were. If he couldn't find them, he'd be doomed forever.

Christopher unlocked the front door and stepped in, memories came flooding back of his childhood with Victor and without his mother. They were good times, even if he was lonely. His father treated him well, even though most of his life was lies and betrayal. But this home, this life was all he knew. And the guilt that he was responsible for his own father's death, no matter the state of his mind, was killing him.

Despite it all, the sadness and the guilt, Chris knew that the only way to end it all was to find the vials of the antidote Kimberly created and Victor harbored. Chris searched high and low in the little house he shared with this late father, even in the dark basement with the cage where Victor kept Chris during the full moon experiments. But nothing. The antidote vials were still missing.

Christopher was beginning to fear there may not be any of those vials left to save him, and just as he began to clean things up and leave Alexandra walked in the front door.

"Alex! Hi! What are you doing here?" Chris asked surprised to see her.

"Where have you been? I've been looking for you for two days." Alexandra replied coldly.

"I know. I'm sorry. It's been really insane lately. I haven't really been myself." Christopher said truthfully. "How did you know I was here?"

Alex didn't want to tell him she was connected to him telepathically now, her new powers were to be kept as secret as possible, and if she was going to get back at Claudia for what she had done, Chris needed to be kept in the dark as well.

"It was the only place I could think of. How've you been?" Alex said coming up to Christopher very closely.

"Uh..." he said uncomfortably, and pushing her away. "...a mess actually. Its like I don't know where reality begins or ends."

"Are you mad at me? Why do you feel so distant all of a sudden?" Alexandra questioned with a furrowed brow.

"Alex, look, a lot of things are different now. My father has died, my mother is back and---" Chris said as turning away from Alex as he began to explain his situation when Alex suddenly interrupted.

"And you're sleeping with Claudia?"

Christopher turned back to Alex quickly with a shocked expression on his face. He could feel the angry energy radiating from Alex's body in his direction. She even looked different. This was a side of her he had never seen before.

"What? What are you talking about? That's not true!" Chris answered.

"She'll never be the right person for you. She'll only take take take and take some more and then when you have nothing left she wants she'll just dispose of you Christopher. You have to listen to me!" Alexandra said in a sudden shift in moods of anger and desperation.

"Alex I don't know what you think you know, but Claudia has been....well she's been through a lot too." Chris said stammering in his speech.

"Is that what she told you? Everything she's ever been through is just a smoke screen to cover up the kind of person she is. She's evil!" Alex yelled.

"NO!" Chris responded defiantly. "You don't understand us."

"'Us'? So you're an 'us'?" Alex shot back, again changing moods.

Alexandra's eyes began to water at what she was hearing. She knew what he was going to say next. It was at the tip of his tongue and she could feel it. She could see in his mind that his life was changing and that she would  not be apart of it, at least not in the same was that she was before.

"She and I are a lot of like, Alex. You wouldn't ---you couldn't---understand. Actually you should be very grateful that you don't understand the type of people Claudia and I are. We're different. Things have happened to us, strange and unexplainable things." Chris said referring to Claudia's supernatural powers and his werewolf alter ego.

But Alex did understand. Ever since Claudia left Alex's body she had retained some of those powers, powers that were now overtaking her mind.

"Well....then I guess that's it then. We're over before we could ever really begin." Alex said as she seemed to accept Christopher's explanation, but there was one more thing she had to do.

Alexandra knew why Chris came home, to search for the vials of antidote. Every inch of her being could read Chris' mind now, he was an easy read. Despite having a very dark side when then full moon rose above Collinwood, he was a kind person who was trapped between the dark and the light.

"Oh, one more thing..." Alex said turning back around to face Christopher. "Were you looking for something?"

Chris looked at her confused, how would Alex know he was looking for something. He did not answer, and she smiled a Cheshire cat smile that made the hairs on the back of Chris' neck stand up.

Alexandra closed her eyes and the room's temperature turned freezing cold. Chris could see his breath coming from his mouth. The energy in the room suddenly turned menacing while Alex seemed to go off into a distant place in her mind. She took a deep breath and snapped open her eyes and coldly walked over to painting of the bay that surrounded Collinsport on the living room wall. She carefully removed it to reveal a safe that she easily opened, leaving a chilled to the bone Chris in utter shock.

As she opened the safe she pulled out a brown leather satchel and inside the satchel were 6 vials of a lavender substance that seemed to almost glow. Christopher instantly knew what they were, the vials of antidote that would remove the mutated gene Kimberly and Victor created that turns him into a werewolf. The substance that Chris so desperately needed.

"Alex, I need you to give those to me." Chris said calmly as he stepped closer to her with his arm reached out.

She smiled again and then smashed all six of the vials on the hardwood floors. They were destroyed. Gone.

Christopher felt gutted and stood in shock as Alexandra grinned again and said in a sinister voice that Christopher barley recognized:  "Don't worry. I'm sure Claudia will make it all better."

Christopher stood in devastated silence in the living room and watched Alexandra walk out the front door into the misty Maine evening without a regret in his stride.

***

The Collinwood mansion soon saw itself blanketed by the ocean fog as the sun began to set over Widow's Hill. The moon, in it's cyclical form, crept far off in the distance awaiting the slow steep decline into the sun's deep sleep. Barnabas, fresh off his altercation with Leopold, knew it was safe to journey out in to the manor. His mission this evening was to locate his good friend Dr. Julia Hoffman.

For years Julia did all she could to rid Barnabas of his lust for blood. Her time in Collinwood was marred by a string of unfortunate events that this generation of Collins family members were already experiencing for themselves. Its true, Collinwood was no place for the meek at heart, it was a place for those who were destined to see the kind of things no one else would ever imagine they would encounter, and Julia was one of those people, even if she had ulterior motives. 

Barnabas, dressed in one of his finest dark suits made his way into to south part of the mansion on the first floor that had been specifically designsted as Julia's offices. She had three rooms in that wing of the house apart from a small apartment like area on the second floor.

The area was somewhat abandoned, meaning most of the current crop of Collins family never went there, but was kept clean every week. The housekeepers, were often seen dusting along the hall and vacuuming the ornate Persian rugs that lined the long corridor that connected all three of Julia's rooms.

Room 2 was the room Barnabas was curious about the most. It had been the room where Julia had conducted a number of the experiments on him. A room that brought back several memories. He took a gulp and tried the door, but it was locked. Barnabas closed his eyes and took the knob again into his hand, the hallway darkened and the potted plants began to tremble. The drapes on the windows swayed slightly by a mysterious breeze and suddenly everything stopped and the locked clicked.

He opened the room's door and looked around. It was relatively the same for the most part. But the furniture had changed. He ran his finger along Julia's desk as he past it, leaving a straight line down the side of the desk where the dust had settled.

 He carefully walked over to a book shelf, with what seemed like hundreds of volumes of Julia's notes. He pulled one and saw the date. July 18th, 1969. He opened it and read:

"....he isnt reacting well at all to treatment. I have, for the most part, continued with all my knowledge to help him, but I feel as though, perhaps, whatever I have done has not done Barnabas any good. We will start a new form of therapy tomorrow. I hope we can work out our differences by then as well.                  -Dr. Julia Hoffman."

There were thousands of notes. Notes on her experiments, explanations on how she created them, how Barnabas reacted to them, how she modified them. Notes of his therapy under hypnosis. Notes on just about every aspect of their relationship. It was all he needed. Barnabas grabbed a few more of the volumes and dashed out of the Julia's offices to find Carolyn.


Carolyn was having tea alone in the red drawing room. She skimmed through a book she found in the newly renovated library, and sipped slowly from the steamy early gray tea enjoying this moment of quiet solitude, when just then Barnabas came in with Julia's notes.

"Good evening cousin." Barnabas said in a low voice as to not startle her.

"Oh, Barnabas, hi!" Carolyn said looking at the clock across from her noticing it was now 7 in the evening. "You're up early." She joked.

"I have a few things I need to take care of." Barnabas answered setting down the notes on a desk that sat to the side of the room. "Carolyn, may I be completely open with you about something?" He added

"Of course, what is it?" Carolyn asked.

"I don't trust this cousin of your late husband Jack. Why didn't you tell me he was like me? Why didn't you tell me we share the same curse?" Barnabas questioned.

Carolyn put down her book and sighed, she knew she would have to answer this question eventually but didn't expect it to come so soon.

"The truth is Barnabas, I didn't know how to tell you. All your life you've struggled with your ailment and for me to add on to that by telling you you were no longer the only one, I don't know, I didn't know how this is all going to work out. Which brings me to the truth... he isn't Jack's cousin. He's Jack under Claudia's curse. We have been saying they're cousins to protect Leopold's secret." Carolyn said bitterly.

"Months ago I had to go back on my vow to never return to Collinwood. I was happy living in London away from here and the terrible things that happened as I grew up. And when we decided to sell Collinwood, my husband Jack agreed to come to town for me and bring back a few things of our family heirlooms." Carolyn said filling in the blanks for Barnabas.

"And how did Claudia get involved?" Barnabas questioned.

"When Jack came to the house she was here, shes been living in Collinwood all these years. Waiting. Waiting for anyone, I guess. And when she saw Jack, she put the curse on him. The same curse Angelique but on you, but this curse aged Jack backwards and turned him into this vampire she calls Leopold. We've been in a way reliving what happened to you almsot 50 years ago." She continued. 

"Indeed. Fifty  years ago...how very strange to think of my present time being the past. And Carolyn, since we are speaking about the past,  I imagine that living in this age medical technology has advanced. Has it not?" He questioned.

"Since 1978? By leaps and bounds, yes." Carolyn confirmed.

"Then there must be a way for me to finally find myself free from this, isn't there? Earlier, after I left the old house---"

"The old house? You went to the old house?" Carolyn interrupted.

"Yes. Needless to say, that's why this  topic of Leopold and our similarities has come to mind. But that's besides the point now. It made me think, in this age, at this time I can be cured. I can finally be cured. I have even found some of Julia's old medical notes. Look!" Barnabas said optimistically, handing Carolyn one of the note books.

"Oh, Barnabas. I don't know what to say. I wouldn't even know where to begin to look for answers. And Julia..." Carolyn said skimming through the notes before Barnabas interrupted.

"We must find Her, only she can unlock me from this terrible thirst for blood. There are thousands of these notes Carolyn. She recorded everything. By now she must have come up with a cure." Barnabas explained.

"Barnabas, let me finish...." Carolyn said pausing herself mid thought, "I don't know how to tell you this. Barnabas, you've traveled 38 years into the future. A lot has happened. A lot has changed" She finished.

"I understand." Barnabas said in a tone as if he were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Before I moved to England, many years ago, Julia died. Barnabas she died in 1985. If she were alive today she'd be close to 95 years old. I'm so sorry Barnabas." Carolyn said.

The realization that there may be no hope finally started to set in and Barnabas began to feel his first real taste of defeat. A sensation he was not comfortable with, a sensation he was not accustomed to.

"Life seems to come and go for so many, and yet I remain here. As this, a prisoner of time. Cursed forever to see my family and friends move on. Forever."

Barnabas then turned and looked out of the drawing room window that looked over a grand lawn that stretched out to the cliffs that so often are battered by an unrelenting Atlantic sea. The reality of his position now in this time was overwhelming. How could he now save himself? How could he finally be free from the powerful curse of Angelique.

Carolyn felt horrible, she knew that Barnabas' quest to return to who he was had been his life's mission, a mission that for over 50 years he had failed to achieve time and time again.

Just then Kimberly and Caleb walked into the foyer directly across from the drawing room. They had spent most of their day out and about Collinsport reconnecting. Caleb went upstairs to change clothes for a meeting with Kat and Kimberly walked into the drawing room shuffling through her purse.

Carolyn and Barnabas both turned when Kimberly walked in, a moment that would break the seriousness of their conversation. And in that moment Carolyn had an idea that felt like a double edged sword: Kimberly should be the doctor that assists Barnabas in his quest for the vampire cure. It was the only way.

"Kimberly." Carolyn said softly when the idea came to her.

Barnabas looked confused and Kimberly looked up from her purse and noticed she wasnt alone in the room.

"Oh excuse me! I was in my own  head there for a second. Good evening." Kimberly said.

"Good evening Kimberly. So lovely to see you." Barnabas said in a short bow to his cousin's ex wife.

Carolyn walked over to the stack of notes Barnabas had taken from Julia's office and opened them up to a random page and handed it over to Kimberly.

"Kim, what if I were to ask your medical opinion on something. Like this, these are notes from our former family doctor Julia Hoffman who was David's therapist and also worked on Barnabas' blood condition."

"Blood condition?" Kimberly questioned in an interested tone as she took the notes from Carolyn and began to read.

Barnabas looked at Carolyn confused. He had no idea what she had planned and didn't know the type of doctor Kimberly was.

"Yes, he's had it most of his adult life and it affects the way he lives. He cannot go out in the day, and he cannot .....well....Kimberly, Barnabas needs to drink blood to stay alive. Human blood." Carolyn said matter-of-factly.

Kimberly lifted her eyes from the notes that she was reading and it finally clicked in her mind. This was the Barnabas was the same man who David and Victor had both spoken to her about years ago, the mysterious Collins family vampire that had lurked around Collinwood for centuries.. The man who's curse fell on the entire family like a thick Maine fog for generations to come, and here he was standing in front of her.

 Now Carolyn was asking for her help. Help in figuring out a cure to end the curse.

"If you would  help, Kimberly, Our family would be indebted to you." Carolyn said with a tight jaw knowing that her relationship with Kimberly had been strained at best since her divorce from David and the affair with Victor was revealed.

Would Kimberly agree? And could Carolyn's scorn for her finally erode if she did agree?

Barnabas stood patiently awaiting her decision, knowing full on that this would be something he could never repay her for if she did agree.

Kimberly opened the notes again and looked them over. She took a minute to think.

"When do we begin?" Dr. Kimberly Collins, her voice clear and precise said in her decision.

Barnabas and Carolyn looked at each other silently.

 A new era was about to begin.

Series 3/Chapter 2: FORGIVING, FORGETTING & FANGS

It was dawn now. The sounds ships in the chilly bay groaning their deep foghorns echoed up from the sea cliffs to the Collinwood estate scaring off seagulls that haunted the highest peaks of the mansion's neo-Gothic architecture.

Christopher, still in human form, made his way through the courtyard that separated the old house and the main house where the family resided the morning after his father Victor's death. He was unaware of the new guest that had just arrived and crept in the through an unlocked back entrence and saw one of the housekeepers silently working in the freshly painted and repaired library that had fallen victim to Claudia's arson. He carefully slid past her unnoticed.

Christopher was looking for his mother, Kimberly.

He quickly walked up the grand staircase, his sense of smell now in full effect following a flowery perfume that his instincts told him was his mother's and down the hall past the portraits of Collins family members; each portrait with eyes following his every step, looking down on the werewolf that turned Collinwood upside down.

He turned back and looked up at the faces he didn't recognize and their eyes seemed to glaze over again, returning to their frozen painted state.

Christopher continued on his way following his mother's sent and came to a bedroom door made of the thickest wood. He took a breath and opened it not knowing what or who he would find inside. To Chris' relief there she was: the mother who put his body through secret tests to turn him into bloodthirsty werewolf, her blond hair glistening in the morning sun like spun gold.

She was the mother he had longed for all his life, even though his now dead father Victor told him stories of her and how much she loved him, but they were nothing like the real thing.

Kimberly, who was sitting at a vanity fixing her hair for the day saw Christopher in the reflection of her mirror. She took a deep breath and slowly turned around not knowing what state Chris' mind would be in.

Christopher walked slowly into her room and stood next to Kimberly as she stood up. Now they were face to face and tears welled up in Christopher's eyes.

"I've missed you." He said softly.

Kimberly let out a gasp of air, as she was holding her breath awaiting what might come from this encounter, and as she reached over and pulled her youngest son close and embraced him, it was like she had reconnected with herself. The two burst into tears. It had been a long time coming.

"Promise me one thing, and you have to be truthful...no more lies." Chris said pulling away from his mother's arms to look her in the eye.

"Anything!" Kimberly responded. "No more lies!" She said wiping her tears.

"What happened to my father?" Chris asked Kimberly as if trying to confirm his foggy violent flashbacks  he was having of a bloody Victor laying in the grass of Collinwood.

"He was killed Chris. Something ...I don't know ... An animal or something attacked him." She answered.

"Me! I did it!!" Chris screamed.

"Stop! Listen to me. It wasn't your fault!" Kimberly said grasping Chris by the shoulders.

"I killed him! I ...I ripped his---"

"Listen it wasn't you. It was what we made you. I'm so sorry Christopher. It's all my fault. I should have never listened to Victor's paranoia about the Collins." Kimberly confessed. "Can you ever forgive me?" Kimberly added, without going into further detail of her involvement in the experiments. 

"I know the injections he gave me are what turned me into the wolf but Is there an antidote? Or am I going to be this thing forever every time there's a full moon?" Christopher asked, his eyes welling up with tears again.

Kimberly knew the truth of how her experiments worked and their effects on Chris' body. But she wasn't sure he was ready to hear her answer. The truth, she thought, might be too much.

"There is an antidote. I did create one." Kimberly responded hesitantly.

"Thank god!" Christopher said relieved.

"But I don't know where Victor put the vials, Chris. I don't know where they are." Kimberly answered feeling the hope of finding the location of the vials of antidote was as dead as Victor Reed.

"I have to find them!" Chris said sternly. "I have to have that antidote before the next full moon."

****

Over at the Collinsport Police station Kat walked in with a skip in her step and a smile on her face, something that her detective partner Loomis McGovern hadn't seen in a very long time. She flicked on her desk lamp and sat down to read emails she missed from over night during the storm. All while Loomis stared at her in wonder.

"Ummm ... Having a good morning?" Loomis said sarcastically. 

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kat teased with a grin.

"So what's up, did you crack the Collins case or something? What's making you so happy?" Loomis questioned.

"What do you mean? What Collins case?" Kat answered with confusion.

Kat's mind had been completely wiped clean by Alexandra's spell. All of her suspicions that Leopold had murdered someone and passed the body off as Jack Thorne were gone. Loomis, was just as confused as Kat, he knew how passionate she had been about cracking the case and now seemed completely indifferent to it.

"What do you mean what do I mean? The Collins case. Remember? You were thinking something funny was going on over there. In fact you've been dragging me with you about this for weeks. Remember? The body in the bay? The whole Jack Thorne thing?" Loomis said his frustrations growing.

Kat looked at him and paused. Something he said was resonating but her mind was completely blocked. She felt embarrassed that she couldn't remember but didn't want to lead her partner on. Kat sat back and nodded her head to give off a sense that she finally understood.

"Right! Right! You know what, I think whatever I was thinking, just didn't add up. Seriously, I was there all night and they're just a really misunderstood family. Seriously. I don't know what I was thinking." Kat resigned.

"Really." Loomis said unconvinced. "What were you doing there all night?" He pressed.

"Well, we were looking for Christopher to tell him about his father Victor and----" Kat said as Loomis interrupted.

"Wait, so, you were there all night, and you didn't hear from Christopher Reed and nobody knows just how Victor 1) got on the premises and 2) how he ended being mauled to death by some kind of random animal that lurks around on the Collins' property? Kat, you don't find anything a bit strange?" Loomis questioned.

"Well, look, I dont think there's anything we need to worry about thats all I mean." Kat said, her mind still in the fog of Alexandra's spell.

"Listen Kat, I don't know what's gotten into you but this is really weird." Loomis said now in a whisper so no other police officer could here. "Do you want to tell me something?" 

"No Lou! I don't. I told you I'm fine. Trust me. I've gotta go file these, excuse me." Kat said as she stompped off to file paperwork.

Loomis couldn't believe what he was hearing but at the risk of causing an argument he left it at that. After all they had been partners for a few years and they trusted each other completely but something was very strange. Kat's reactions and attitude caused Loomis to now question what was really happening over at the Collinwood estate. Was Kat right all along? Was the Collins family really up to something and did they get to Kat? Loomis planned to find out with or without Kat's cooperation.

And just as Loomis' mind began to wonder about the truth Kat's cell phone began to ring. It was Caleb Collins. Loomis took the phone and declined the call. He knew deep inside: whatever was happening with Kat involved the Collins family.

****

In a darkened room on the third floor of the Collinwood mansion, Barnabas laid still in a canape bed that was draped with the thickest red and black velvet drapes. Even though it was now mid morning, his room was almost completely black. One side effect from being alive and you're un-dead was that the sunlight was persona-non-grata.  

There was something bothering Barnabas, and he couldn't rest when he wanted to. He got up from his bed in the darkened room and walked over to a large cherry wood wardrobe. Barnabas knew this wardrobe well, it belonged to his mother and was over 300 years old. He walked around it, still in the dark, and felt its smooth edges. He Imagined his mother Naomi coming in from downstairs rooms where she washed all her linens and placing fresh bedding inside the wardrobe. 

Barnabas cracked a smile, but then remembered the night before and the uneasy feeling he received the man, Leopold, who had been staying in the old house now turned into a dark guest house. The house he used to stay in before he was brought to year 2015. 

Why did he get that feeling from that man? Barnabas thought. Carolyn wasn't answering his questions, and he could sense she was frightened when he asked her about him. There was only one thing he could do. Find out what this Leopold was all about.

Barnabas pushed the giant cherry wood wardrobe to the side making a loud dragging sound across the wooden floors revealing a secret passage that hadn't been opened for decades. Barnabas place his hand on the door that matched the room's wallpaper and moved it around looking for the soft spot that when pushed unlocked the passage.

He felt around for a few seconds, and suddenly, there it was. Barnabas pushed the section of the wall that had been purposely softened to indicate it's whereabouts and the passage sprung open.

Almost every single room in the Collinwood estate had a secret door that lead to countless passageways to various other parts of the house and also tunnels below the home that lead to the old house just across the courtyard. Barnabas grabbed his coat, a  candle and his cane and stepped into the dark corridor that lead down to the catacombs of Collinwood. 

The passages had been left unattended to since he had last seen them in 1978, but there were virtually the same, covered in dust and thick mounds of dirt. Barnabas covered his mouth and nose with his jacket and quickly walked through the passage way leading under both houses. The sound of rats and mice scurring around below could be heard, fearing for their lives as Barnabas was an intruder to their subterranean territory.

Finally, Barnabas came to the top of a small staircase and to a door that lead into the old house where Leopold had  been staying. He turned the nob and pushed the door open. On the other side was another pitch black room empty of anyone and anything except for a single black coffin in the center of the room. 

Barnabas recognized the coffin, it was his from years ago. He carefully walked around it and lit a few more candles to brighten his view, and as he turned around and there stood Leopold hissing and floating above the now opened coffin, his eyes a red as blood his fangs sharp and needles.

Barnabas's brow furrowed and he too released his fangs and raised his hands that had morphed to claw like appendages. The two floating mid air in candle light, each trying to place the twinge of fear within the other. 

Leopold struck first darting directly for Barnabas' neck but, Barnabas was quicker and faster and with the speed of light virtually disappeared and moved out of the way causing Leopold to brace himself up against the wall. After all he had many more years of vampire experience the Leopold did.

"I should have known there was another." Barnabas said hissing.

"What do you want?" Leopold said in an equally as sinister voice.

"Who sent you?" Barnabas asked as he came closer to his long time coffin, and questioning Leopold without knowing how he was created. 

Leopold felt threatened and lunged again at Barnabas who was inches away from the coffin. Leopold landed on top of the lid and closed it, like a lion protecting its property. 

"Get out!" Leopold growled.

"Who sent you!?" Barnabas questioned again this time louder.

"Leave him." A voice from the other side of the room said softly.

It was Claudia, Barnabas' daughter, the one who turned Jack Thorne into the un-dead version of her former lover Leopold Divernet. 

"Leopold and I have a long history, and in fact, he has a long history with Carolyn. He's her former husband, bewitched...... by me." Claudia said feeling guilt of her terrible deed.

She looked away from her farmer in shame.

"What have you done?" Barnabas asked with sadness in his eyes. "You have created this? Like your mother created me?" 

"I was angry, I was vengeful." She explained in vain. 

"You are your mother's daughter." Barnabas said of Claudia's mother Angelique coldly. 

He then threw his falling cloak back around his shoulders and walked away. He looked back at his daughter Claudia but had no parting words. But she could see the disappointed in  his eyes. He then retreated to the catacombs beneath the two houses and back to his darkened room leaving Leopold and Claudia alone together.

"You must hate yourself as much as I hate you." Leopold said, his eyes and teeth now to their natural state. 

"Listen to me, I want you to stay away from my father. Do you understand me?" Claudia warned.

"You silly witch, I want nothing more then to be distant from that other ---that other thing. You keep him away from me. Besides I have other matters at hand." Leopold said cryptically. 

"Have you? And what pray-tell does that mean? You sure lead a very busy life, for a vampire." Claudia said sarcastically. 

"Katharine Banning. That detective. She's getting too close. And I think her constant prodding and questioning has run its course. It's time I put an end to it."  Leopold warned an uninterested Claudia.

"Interesting." Claudia said with an eye brow raise. "What makes you think Caleb will even let you near her? They're closer the ever before." She added with careful instigation.

Leoopold suddenly lunged at Claudia and hissed his vampire hiss with his fangs out and ready for blood. But then, like a wave washing over a sandy Maine beach, he noticed something was different about Claudia. 

"My my my........." he said as he sniffed. "what scent is this?" He questioned inches from her neck.

Claudia backed away quickly knowing exactly what Leopold was sensing.  

The scent of a werewolf was particularly obvious to a vampire, especially one that was so close in proximity. The werewolf Christopher. Yet another little secret he could use to his advantage.

"What would dear daddy think of this?" He said with an evil grin.

****

Barnabas now back in his room struggled to understand how everything seemed to have come full circle. He had traveled back in time once again to be with a new generation of his family but all was the same. He was still the monster he hated and now his own daughter had done the same to another man as her mother Angelique had done to him.

It was clear to Barnabas now that to end all of the suffering and break the curse and save his famly he needed to finish what he started decades before.

He peeked carefully out of his bedroom window, shaded outside with thick birch trees and said:

"I must find her. I must find Julia Hoffman."

Series 3/Chapter 1: BEGINNING IN THE DARK

There was complete silence in Collinwood's main drawing room except for the rain tapping on the windows. The storm had caused a blackout and the candles Alexandra and Carolyn lit flickered and danced around casting shadows all over the room. No one said a word and waited for the guest to say something first.

Carolyn again whispered a name, this time questioning out loud if she was actually seeing what she thought she was seeing, her long dead cousin Barnabas Collins, whom she believed had died decades before in the late 70s.

But how was this possible? How could he be in front of her now when she thought he was long dead!

"Barnabas? Is that really you ?" Carolyn said stepping closer to the doorway where the shadowy figure stood, this time her voice stronger in tone but still weary of the answer that was to come.

Barnabas too stepped into the drawing room allowing the flickering orange light of Carolyn's candle to catch his face. He looked around, the room had changed over time, but it was still the home he knew for so many years.

"Carolyn," Barnabas said looking at his aged distant cousin. "this is extraordinary. So much has changed!" He said tapping his cane on the floor and reaching out to her for a hug. 

"Who's that?" Kat whispered over to Caleb in a quiet aside.

Caleb, like all Collins family members, knew the legend of his father David's ancestor Barnabas, but like Carolyn, he believed he had died decades ago. Caleb didn't know how to answer but knew something had to be said or his detective girlfriend would naturally start to suspect. 

"He's our cousin, but we haven't seen him in ..." he paused to find an explanation of Barnabas' missing years and settle on "forever."

Leopold felt a twinge of discomfort. He had never been around another being like him before. It was as if the walls were closing in, he could feel Barnabas' power in the air. Collinwood belonged to Barnabas, and it was as if the building itself knew it's master was home--again. 

"How? How can ..." Carolyn said still in shock and clutching Alexandra's hand.

"The universe works in very mysterious ways! I never imagined we'd be all together like this, here...in this time." Barnabas said cryptically as Kat's facial expression showed confusion to his choice of words. 

"Uhh...Its very nice to finally meet you." Caleb said as he cautiously extended his hand to Barnabas. "I've heard so many stories." 

"Have you?" Barnabas said shaking Caleb's hand. "My reputation often precedes me. Who might you be?"

"My name is Caleb, my father is  your cousin David." Caleb explained sensing Barnabas' confusion.

"David's son! David has a son?!" Barnabas said excitedly and looking over at Carolyn who nodded as confirmation. 

"And this is my mother, Dr. Kimberly Collins, my girlfriend Detective Katharine Banning, and this is Carolyn's daughter Alexandra." Caleb said introducing everyone to the visitor.

"And David? Where's David?" Barnabas who had last seen David a teenager in 1978.

Kimberly and Caleb looked at each other waiting for the other to answer, then Kimberly spoke:

"We haven't heard from David since our divorce. It's been about 20 years." She Explained.

"Unfortunate. I would have loved to see him too. And you? Who might you be?" Barnabas asked, motioning towards Leopold who kept to himself. 

"My late husband's cousin Leopold." Carolyn interjected covering up Leopold's true identity. She sensed the awkward feeling coming from Leopold who didn't say a word. "Listen Barnabas, it's been a very long night for all of us, the storm has taken out the power and you must be exhausted from traveling. It's getting late, why don't I set you up in a room and everyone else can settle in as well." Carolyn added.

"That would be wonderful, but a room? Why don't I stay in the old house?" Barnabas questioned not knowing Leopold was staying there.

"Leopold has been staying there, and I'm afraid the rest of the old house has to be renovated. I'm sure you'll be fine here." Carolyn said, nervously motioning for Barnabas to follow her into the dark foyer.

"Well, it was lovely to meet you all. I hope to re-acquaint myself with the family again soon." Barnabas said with his trademark 18th century politeness and a slight bow to the full room.

For Barnabas this all had a feeling of deja vu, this wasn't the first time he had come back to Collinwood from the past. But this time things were different, Barnabas could feel it inside. There was much more to everyone he met in the drawing room. He could sense tension and suspicion all around. 

"Are you ok?" Alex asked Leopold as Barnabas and Carolyn stepped out.

Leopold only nodded, never uttering a word. His nerves were on edge, everything seemed to have changed in a matter of minutes since Victor's death and it was making him go mad.

                                                                         ****

Barnabas followed Carolyn up the main staircase and into a hallway lined with photos of many departed Collins family members like Barnabas' parents Joshua and Naomi, cousins Quentin and Amanda and even Carolyn's beloved mother Elizabeth.

"Carolyn what year is it?" Barnabas asked stopping Carolyn in the hall looking up at Elizabeth's portrait. 

"It's 2016." Carolyn said with a sigh.

"Elizabeth?" He asked softly as he stopped in front of her portrait. 

"She died Barnabas. About 35 years ago. Caleb, Alex and I are the last of the blood family. And David, if he's still alive." Carolyn said sadly. 

Barnabas didn't often touch on his human emotions, but knowing Elizabeth was dead clenched what was left of his vampire heart. 

"If feels like a book I travel through. Every chapter I enter I encounter a new version of our Collins family." Barnabas said touching the painting of his beloved mother.

Carolyn seemed to understand, remembering the moment she met Barnabas

"Well, this chapter of the family, is just as interesting as the others, I assure you." Carolyn said sarcastically. 

Carolyn then lead Barnabas into a spare bedroom towards the end of the east wing of the third floor that was mostly shaded by trees. She knew Barnabas needed the darkest room possible. She then closed the door behind her. Barnabas was removed his coat and got comfortable. 

"Alright, what is this? What are you doing here?" Carolyn said abruptly, feeling the freedom to speak without holding back.

"Trust me, you're not the only one in this room who's surprised. But I have to tell you, this wasn't my doing." Barnabas explained to Carolyn as she continued to keep her distance with the lit candle close to her face.

"I dont understand. What are you talking about?" She questioned.

"No doubt you've met Evangeline, or perhaps you'll know her by the name the nuns gave her at the orphanage: Claudia. She traveled all the way back in time to 1972, a power she inherited no doubt from her mother; traveled to the very moment before I died. And Instead of allowing me to die she saved my life." Barnabas said.

"Claudia! Of course. She's been terrorizing us since the day we returned. I should have known she was behind this." Carolyn scoffed. "Wait, how do you know about Claudia's past in an orphanage?" 

"More surprises, dear cousin, Claudia--or--Evangeline as she was named at birth--is Angelique Bouchard's daughter...I am the father. When she was born, I made a terrible mistake. I took her away thinking she would have a better life away from Collinwood and her mother. I took her to a different time. Away from all of us. I should have never done that." Barnabas confessed. "Claudia is a Collins just like you and I. She is my family." 

Carolyn felt sick. Everything Barnabas and Alex had been was starting to make sense. When Alexandra asked her about Barnabas in the blue room, it had actually been Claudia possessing Alex wanting to know about her father, about all the history of her birth family. All the twisted things Claudia had been doing was her way of revenge, Carolyn thought, but there was one more question:

"So why bring you back to our time? Why did she do that?" 

"Simple. I promised her. I need to make amends for what I did, and the only way to do that was to come back, here, to a time she was present in." Barnabas explained.

"Do you really think that's possible? Do you really think you can have a relationship with Angelique's child, a child mind you, that has been using the same type of powers that cursed you into the creature you are today! Don't you think it's dangerous to have her around?" Carolyn scolded knowing how much he resented Angelique for the curse she placed on him all those centuries ago.

"The fruit may not fall from the tree, dear cousin, but I am sure my return is not a mistake." He replied. "Now I have a question ...this Leopold ...I can sense he is, shall we say, different. I know your keeping something from me, so go on, tell me....what is he?" Barnabas said, his voice deepening and turning cold as he stepped closer and closer to Carolyn and her flickering candle.

Carolyn paused and took a step back and looked over and Barnabas as lightening flickered from the sky outside brightening the room. Would she tell Leopold's secret?

*****

"I should get going and let you all sort this new visitor out." Kat said with a grin grabbing her bag and jacket.

"I'll walk you out." Caleb followed.

The two walked out to the front courtyard of Collinwood, Kat shivered in the chilly damp air, the rain had stopped but the sky still showed a dark face...a warning of more storms to come.

"You know for what it's worth, I'm really happy we're getting closer. I really missed you for so long." Kat said stepping closer to Caleb.

"I am too. What made you decide to give me a second chance?" Caleb asked as he put her jacket on for her. 

For the life of her, Kat couldn't remember why. She just knew that she wanted to, she had feelings for Caleb years ago, and then she didn't , and now she did again. It was strange. Her memory seemed to be blanking out on her all day.

The truth was, she wanted to get close to Caleb again so that she could get an inside look at the family and find out who Leopold really was. But all that changed once Alexandra's spell wiped her memory clean to keep Leopold's secret. A secret the Collins' family couldn't afford to be revealed. 

"Let's just say it was the right decision and leave it at that." The detective said embarrassed that she had forgotten such a detail. 

"Sounds good to me!" Caleb said with a chuckle as he kissed her on the lips.

As Caleb and Kat had a romantic moment in the drizzly Collinsport air in front of the Collinwood mansion, Leopold's cold eyes stared out of the window at them, he still didn't trust Kat, and he was going to do make sure that whatever threat Kat possessed to his existence, knowing the truth that he was a vampire buried deep in her psyche, was extinguished once and for all. 

****

While Caleb said goodbye to Kat outside the main house, Alexandra found a minute to sneak away to the old house where she had been receiving strange vibes ever since Barnabas returned.

She felt Christopher's energy there but since she hadn't heard from him in since the night when he turned into the werewolf that killed Victor she couldn't be sure it was him. The new powers left inside of her were still strange and new and she couldn't decipher what was real of fake.

But the moment before the lights went out and Barnabas returned she felt Christopher's kiss on her lips. She was suspicious and beginning to feel angry and the possibility Claudia and Christopher were together. It was the first time she had ever felt betrayal. And it was eating at her very soul.

Alexandra quietly opened the main entrance to the old house but saw no one in the first few rooms. The house was quiet, with only the sound of the fire place in the main parlor crackling and burning warming an empty room.

She followed her instincts and walked towards a back room where she could see candle light, Alexandra removed her shoes and continued to quietly tip toeing her way down the main hall and peered into the room to see what she feared most. There it was--her nightmare. 

Claudia and Christopher were kissing in the the candle light. And they weren't just small, sweet kisses like the ones Christopher had given her, these were  long deep passionate kisses that through her connection to Claudia could feel too.

Alex's eyes turned black and she started to feel an energy build inside of her that came out of her like a wild scream deep within her soul.

The light that Alex's rage created from her body distracted the couple who instantly felt they weren't alone. They looked into the hall but the light was gone and the hall was empty. Alex had suddenly vanished into thin air without being detected, swallowed up into the light her angry energy had oozed.

Alex's was transported undetected outside to the grounds of Collinwood and brought her to the very edge of Widow's Hill, the cliff side that over looked crashing Atlantic waves below, notorious to all Collinwood residents who carried a sad heart. It had also been where she first met Claudia.

Alex looked down and saw the waves splashing up against the sharp black rocks. Inside her mind she felt destroyed and ruined, not only had Claudia taken Christopher from her but left her with this terrible curse of black magic that she couldn't shake.

In this moment of despair she heard a voice echoing up from the shore below, it flowed up to her ears with the Atlantic mist and enter her mind.

"These new powers may actually work in your favor dear Alexandra, if you put your mind to it." the voice said, "the very powers you detest can be the key to Claudia's final undoing."

The voice inside Alex's mind was right, killing herself on Widow's Hill would only allow Claudia and Christopher to be together and happy, and as long as Alex was alive she would never let that happen.

                                

Series 2/Chapter 7: IT COMES WITH THE STORM

The witch Angelique had been passing herself off as a woman named Cassandra and had married Roger Collins, Carolyn's uncle. Only Barnabas, Angelque's former lover, knew her true identity. While married to Roger "Cassandra" and Nicholas Blair attempted a coup over the Collins family with various wicked spells and deceptions. All of them failure. Cassandra later disappeared, leaving Roger to believe she had left him...the truth was Cassandra had secretly became pregnant with a child and wanted to pass her off as Roger's, but the baby was really that of Barnabas Collins'...a truth no one would discover for years to come.

To save the baby girl Cassandra named Evangeline from a life of disaster Barnabas did the only thing he could do to save her from being raised by the wickedness inside of Angelique's heart. His connection to Angelique was powerful, more powerful than anything the world could ever created. In 1972 he learned of the baby's birth while Cassandra was in hiding. Barnabas went and searched for them. His connection to Angelique (Cassandra) was so strong that her energy was like a honing device which made it easy for him to find them.

There she was, a child so innocent and small asleep near her mother in a secret hideout just outside Collinsport. Barnabas reached in and grabbed the baby from her crib, kidnapping her to a place so far away, no one would ever find her.

In a desperate attempt to save the baby from years of torment by the secrets of her parents, Barnabas time traveled to Collinsport in the year 1850 and placed her in the safe keeping of an orphanage ..leaving Angelique alone, angry and bitter. 

His plan to save the baby he too believed to be Roger's daughter backfired. Just before she died Angelique confessed that Evangeline was really Barnabas' child not Rogers. In his rage, Barnabas attacked and drank the blood of Angelique, a toxic bite of a vampire immediately turned Angelique to ash and left Barnabas gasping for air.

Witch's blood ...a vampire's ultimate poison. 

 Just minutes after Angelique was turned to ash and Barnabas lay dying was the exact moment  where Claudia's own time traveling spell brought her.

                                                         ***COLLINWOOD, 1972***

A bright ball of light started to form at the edge of the room and expanded into the shape of a human figure. Barnabas, now close to death, opened his eyes with his last bits of strength and looked at the light. A small tear came to his eye when he began to think that possibly this was some how his way to a safe eternity away from all the darkness, but to his surprise the figure veiled in bright light was Evangeline, his long lost daughter now named Claudia.

Claudia emerged from the light and saw her father Barnabas laying on the floor covered in her mother's ashes. It angered her, but she knew that she could not undo that part of the past. A witch could not be brought back after the bite of a vampire. But her father, was a different story.

Barnabas coughed and reached out to the woman he saw come from the light not knowing she was his grown daughter Evangeline. He looked up and knew that his life was coming to an end and just needed a small dosage of blood. Perhaps, he thought, he could muster enough strength and take some from the mysterious stranger before him.

Claudia knelt down near her father and stroked his hair away from his forehead. 

"I should leave you here to die. I should sit here and watch you take your final breaths and never think twice about it for all you did. But I guess I'm different then you. I don't react on impulse." Claudia said now standing up and walking to where the mound of her mother's ashes was.

She placed her hands in the ashes, and a single tear rolled down her cheek, the powerful image of the her mother's remains tore her to shreds. She got up again and walked around the blue room.

"It really hasn't changed much over the years, Barnabas. It's  relatively the same. The family on the other hand, well, that's much different. You wouldn't recognize them if you saw them." She said continuing her small tour of the 1972 version of the Collinwood blue room.

Barnabas was now blacking out, and Claudia could feel his energy fading. It was now or never. Either she would bring him back to full life or allow him to lay there and die. The decision was hers, the power was hers, but instead of feeling relief of knowing that man who destroyed her life was dying there right in front of her...she started to feel sorrow.

She felt the fires of revenge eroding away inside of her. He was her father no matter what. But could she bring herself to replicate the exact spell her mother Angelique put on Barnabas that made him who he was and save his life one last time?

****
COLLINWOOD, PRESENT TIME
****

Alex made her way to her mother's room. Carolyn, who had just had a spat with Kimberly, was on edge. So many of things that were happening were exactly the reasons she never wanted to come back to Collinwood in the first place and now it was as if she was re-living her childhood one tragedy after another.

Alex knocked and opened the door to Carolyn's bedroom where she found her mother looking out of the window draped with white lace curtains, curtains that had been there since the room belonged to her mother Elizabeth.

"Are you ok?" Alex asked as she walked in slowly.

"That was Christopher last night wasn't it." Carolyn asked bluntly

Alexandra felt she had to explain everything even though she really wasn't sure herself how exactly Christopher transformed into the beast. 

"Mother, I don't know how to explain it. It must have been..... Claudia must be involved.

"Claudia." Carolyn said as it if to say she should have known Claudia was involved.

"She has had control over me too mother; for the last few weeks she's been inside of me. She has to be responsible for everything. I wanted to tell you last night, but when they found Victor I just couldn't." Alex said confessing her everything she could think of.

"What do you mean she's been inside of you?" Carolyn asked concerned.

"She was inside of me. We were like one person. I could see everything. Hear everything. But it's been Claudia all this time! She's the one who set the fire downstairs." Alex confessed.

Carolyn was shocked at the power Claudia had, she had never seen anything like it before.

"At every horrible turn Claudia has been there. She'll curse the day she ever set foot here."

Carolyn tensed up on the thought of  Claudia now free to roam around Collinwood continuing her chaotic reign, and I terrified Alex who had seen first hand Claudia's powers.

"Have you told Leopold Claudia escaped?" Alex asked.

"No, but we have to. He'll come up with a way to stop her. Come  with me!."

As the two made their way down the giant oak staircase that lead to the east wing that was still in the middle of fire damage repairs a sudden lightening bolt lit the stain class Windows above the staircase causing a kaleidoscope of colors rain down around Alex and Carolyn. 

A storm was brewing above Collinsport.

Just then Leopold walked in from the old house brushing the fresh rain drops from his shoulders. 

"She's free Leopold. Christopher released her!" Burst Carolyn from the top of the stairs.

Leopold took a deep breath before answering:

"I know. I had an unfortunate encounter with her earlier," he said with distaste for his one time flame from another lifetime, "but she's disappeared  again and I don't sense her presence. I can tell she's gone. Maybe for good."

"How can you be so sure?" Alex questioned.

"If she ever does return, we'll be ready for her. With every day that passes I'm more and more in tune with my new senses. There's no way she can get around me." Leopold said attempting to console Carolyn and Alex.

Alex was also getting used to the new senses she acquired as a result of being possessed by Claudia for some time. She feared if the rest of the family knew, they wouldn't understand. So for now, only Caleb would knew. And that's how Alex intended on keeping it.

****

Christopher awoke inside a candle lit room on a makeshift bed alone in the old house. He was thirsty and his muscles and bones ached from top to bottom. He stretched and tried to ease the aches, he noticed that there were fresh clothes folded on a small chair next to the bed. He walked over to the chair, the hard cold wood of the floor poked at the bottoms of his bare feet like needles. 

He sat back down as his head began to spin, like the morning after a long night of drinking. Flashes of the night before came rushing back. The shooting. Alexandra screaming. Seeing his father in the fog, then seeing his father scream for his life; screaming at him. He remembered. 

He killed his own father.

"What have I done?" He thought to himself as he pounded the side of his head, the torment of a shaky  memory was becoming too much. 

Then in a fit of anger, Christopher flipped over the bed he was on and kicked and punched the walls in a hysterical and painful rage. He fell down and buried his face in the flipped mattress, knuckles swollen and bleeding. The guilt was eating at him like a paracite. What had he done? How could this have happened? 

As he lay there devastated by his foggy memories a soft light came to him from the adjacent room.

Christopher lifted his head and got up from the bed stained with his tears. He made his way over to the doorway that faced the adjacent room and saw the woman he briefly met outside emerge from s ball of light with another silhouette, one he didn't recognize.

As the light started to dim around them Christopher could tell that the other person was a man he man. The man patted Claudia on the shoulder and left the old house right through the front door leaving Claudia alone with Christopher. 

She turned to where Christopher was standing and looked in his direction. Chris, scared that she noticed him, backed into the room and hid behind the wall. Claudia made her way into the room dressed in her ruby red cloak. She turned the corner and saw Christopher standing next to the door shaking in fear with his eyes closed hoping it was all a dream. 

"I'm not here to hurt you." She said stroking his face. "We are the same you know?" She said, referencing the fact that both of them had deep rooted pain from their parental betrayals.

Christopher opened his eyes and looked at Claudia. Claudia's anger and pain was gone. She looked at Christopher with kindness and sympathy. Without a spell chanted, or a magic potion poured, Christopher saw something beautiful looking back at him. They looked into each others eyes and his fears were instantly gone. He leaned close and instinctfuly kissed Claudia's lips. 

Inside Collinwood Alexandra felt a kiss on her own lips. She touched her mouth confused... But then knew. It was Chris kissing Claudia. 

Claudia found Christopher as somewhat of a kindred spirit. Both had been virtually used by their parents for their own causes. Both had been cursed with supernatural afflictions that neither actually wanted. Was it was love? A different kind of love that he didn't have with Alexandra?

****

The storm continued to come swiftly and swirled around Collinwood, thunder flashing a bright light into the house through the new windows in the main study. Leopold, Carolyn and Alex made their way into the room where Kat, Caleb and now Kimberly were all sitting hoping to hear from Christopher to tell him about his father. Leopold's eyes zeroed in on Kat who was on the phone in the corner of the room with her partner Detective Loomis McGovern going over the search for Christopher.

 Kat, who's threatening questions about the dead man Leopold had passed off Jack, had not made eye contact with him yet but soon felt a cold chill brush the back of her neck that startled her.  She quickly turned from mid conversation with Loomis to look directly into Leopold's eyes.

"Kat?.... Hey! Kat you still there?" Loomis said from his end of the phone.

"Yeah, yeah ....I'm here. Sorry. Listen, umm, we haven't heard from Chris Reed yet either, but as soon as we do I'll let you know, and if you hear from him first do the same. Ok?" Kat said hastily as she felt she was being watched.

"Detective, so kind of you to stop by." Leopold said now standing directly next to her.

"I was in the neighborhood." Kat said trying to break the uncomfortable feeling between she and Leopold, who did not know that Alex had placed Kat under a spell causing her to forget about the
dead man in the bay.

As Leopold stepped closer he could tell there was something different about Kat, she seemed less confident and more nervous around him. The negative vibrations he once received from her had softened. It was all due to Alex's spell, a spell that made her forget her mistrust of Leopold. But the vsmpire still had his misgivings about the good detective.

Outside, the storm raged and inside the Collinwood mansion the atmosphere was just as turbulent. Kat made her way away from Leopold. He  made her feel like he was a tiger ready to pounce. She  went over to Caleb and grabbed his hand. The fear she was now feeling was a common side effect of overstaying your welcome at Collinwod. 

The energy in the room continued to match the  electric weather outside thanks to the tumultuous events of the night before: Victor's death, Christopher's disappearance mixed with the dangers of Claudia escaping the sarcophagus and running around Collinsport. 

Alexandra began to feel a twinge of anxiety at the possibility of Christopher and Claudia being together somewhere, the kiss she felt, seemed real. 

The thunder clapped and everyone still awaitig news from Christopher jumped in their seats. Leopold knowing Chris was just a few feet away kept his mouth shut, he knew Chris' power might come of good use to him if he kept him for himself.

Kimberly looked over at Caleb and began to feel guilty about everything she had done. Not only to him but to her missing son Chris. The affair, the secrets, the lies, the experiments. Everything. She went over and sat next to Caleb.

"Don't worry. We'll find him." Caleb said calmly to his mother.

"I haven't really talked to him in so long, and now his father's dead. You know, We're all he has Caleb." Kimberly said as the realization that she allowed Victor to cloud her mind with conspiracy theories that took her away from her boys for so long.

"I'm willing to look past everything you did to dad and me, mom, I think it would be a good time to start fresh. Once we find Chris. We'll start fresh." Caleb said wiping a tear from Kimberly's face.

"I'd like that." Kimberly replied.

Seeing that things were getting calmer Kat decided it was time for her to make her way back to the police station.

"I'd better be get going. Caleb, please give me a call if you hear anything from Chris. We need to know if he's safe. If he's not, I'll officially mark him as a missing person and we'll start a search party." She said as she kissed Caleb on the cheek and excused herself.

As Detective Banning made her way to the door the thunder and lightening clapped loud shaking the house. The electricity went out and the family was left in the dark. Carolyn and Alexandra scattered to light candles all over the room when they all heard the front door swing open and hit the wall in a large bang.

"Claudia....?" Alex whispered to her mother in terrified voice.

But the footsteps that were coming closer and closer to the room were heavier then those a woman like Claudia would make. The sound of thick boots and a cane knocked up the foyer that was blanketed in darkness from the lack of lights.

Leopold began to sniff the air. A smell he found very, VERY familiar. The smell of the immortal. The smell of a man from another time, and another place. A man like him with the lust for blood.

The candle light was dim and flickered an orange glow around the room, but it was clear there was now a man standing in all blacked foyer just outside the room the family was in.

Kimberly quaked and shivered with fear, and grabbed Caleb's hand, "who was this stranger?" She thought.

Alex buried her face in her mother's back, thinking it could be Claudia.

The thunder rolled again and flashed a bright white light for a split second illuminating the entire room.

It was like the air was sucked out of the room, and in that split second of bright white light Carolyn squinted and gasped in shock at who she saw standing dead center in the doorway in a pool of rain water that had dripped from his coat and boots.

She whispered the name of a man very familiar to the walls of Collinwood, a name so infamous the entire town of Collinsport trembled.  "Barnabas."