Series 7/Chapter 1: GHOSTS FROM THE PAST

The warmth of the sun slipped into the drawing room through a crack in the drawn thick drapes around delicate french doors that lead to a thawing porch just off of a court yard of the great house on Widow's Hill. There was a quietness, a stillness in the home. A stillness that reached every member of the household in what was a well needed and seldom achieved peace. 

In the study, Carolyn Stoddard-Thorne wrote to her daughter Alexandra who had left in late January to her native London. Alex and Carolyn had been in Collinsport for over a year and with all the trials and tribulations that had occurred Alex felt she had to refresh herself  back in her home town, taking her boyfriend Christopher and his mother Kimberly along for the adventure. 

"Dear Alex,

The house has been oddly quiet for the most part. There are times where I can hear the waves from the sea crash up against the rocks and I think to myself something has to give, this peaceful feeling won't last. But it has! I'm grateful for that. Your young cousin Canan is doing very well, his three month birthday was yesterday. He's so precious, Kat and Caleb are wonderful parents.... he's growing so fast! I'll have to send you photos the next time I write. I miss you so much, darling. I hope to see you soon. Please give my love to Christopher.
Love always, Mummy"

Carolyn looked down at her letter and smiled, tilted her head slightly and wondered if she should mention Kimberly, even though they (almost) never got a long, they had been on better terms when she left. Carolyn digressed and folded the letter as it was and carefully slid it into a perfect white envelope already marked with Alex's London address. 

She did miss her daughter. They were closer than ever, but Carolyn herself understood the constrictions Collinwood could pose on a young woman. After all she was a young woman herself once, haunted by the curses her beloved home possessed, troubled by the lingering danger that always surrounded it's halls. But it was home none the less.

As Carolyn placed her letter to Alex on the desk a phone that sat at the edge of the table, black and sleek, a relic of decades past with a cord strangling it's receiver to the base, suddenly rang, braking the silence in the room and startling Carolyn in her seat. She grasped at her neck with the jolt and laughed at herself then answered the phone call.

"Hello?" Carolyn said in a whisper of a voice.

"Carolyn, Hi, Its Vickie." Victoria Winters said on the other end.

"Oh! Vickie!  How are you? Did you and Joseph make it to New York alright?" Carolyn asked with a smile on her face.

"We did! We've just gotten settled here. I just wanted to call and say that...well I wish things had gone a little differently. You and I have so much to catch up on and one day I hope we can." Vickie said waiting for Carolyn's response.

"Vickie, there's nothing I'd like more. My Mother....our mother," Carolyn said correcting herself. "would have liked that we did. So, when all is said and done, and you're all ready for visitors in the city, how about I come down and we just shop all day!" Carolyn continued, her voice eased and relaxed.

Vickie laughed in relief, the anticipated tension she carried on her shoulders felt like a weight on her shoulders lifted with simple phone call; a normal relationship with her half sister had bloomed. As they hung up, Vickie agreed to the future shopping excursion in New York.


Carolyn walked through the shiny black doors of the study and down a dimly lit hallway with the letter in hand for Alexandra. She stepped into the drawing room and opened one of the desk drawers searching for her stamps.

"A letter? Well, aren't we feeling very antiquated. Who's the letter for?" David said entering the drawing room with his signature bluster teasing Carolyn for her old style of communication.

"It's for Alex, I'd rather her get something handwritten then an impersonal email. David, a  handwritten letter from your mother is priceless." Carolyn said in a snooty tone back.

"Well, then I wouldn't know!" David said with a twinge of sarcastic sadness; for his own mother Laura Collins hadn't been seen or heard from in decades.

He managed to push out a smile and gave his older cousin Carolyn a tight morning hug. "How are things this morning?" He continued as he sat on the sofa flipping through a news paper someone had left on the side table.

"Fine. I'm expecting my Goddaughter Anna any minute now. Her train should have come in from Boston about 20 minutes ago. I sent Powell our to fetch her." Carolyn said mentioning the family driver Powell.

"How excited you must be. I haven't seen Anna since her baptism. Have you kept in touch much over the years?" David asked sincerely interested.

"Here and there: proms, graduations, birthdays....but she's an actress now and in town to see what it's like to live in a town like Collinsport; research for a role she's playing. I'm excited to have her." Carolyn said placing the stamp on Alex's letter.

"A town like Collinsport? What exactly is this role?" David joked, hinting at the strange occurrences the town has to offer.

"David, please. Whatever you do, don't go there with Anna. I have no idea what she knows and what she doesn't know but I can assure you, I do not what her to think we're town full of crazies and ...whatever else." Carolyn said stammering.

"Well every town has it's crazies, cousin, it's the 'whatever else' we should be worried about; particularly the Collinsport 'whatever else'. It's our biggest export." David said with a laugh.

"Oh!" Carolyn said tossing a throw pillow at him.

Just as the cousins, David and Carolyn, continued to chat in the drawing room the Collins family drive Powell opened the front door holding a large Louis Vuitton suitcases in each hand and a smaller tote bag tucked under his left arm. He placed them down on the floor and ushered Carolyn's goddaughter Anna in.

"Please come in Miss." Powell said in his deep baritone voice.

Powell, who stood six feet three inches, dapper in his looks even if he was an older man with a white hair and beard. He was the spitting image of the last Tsar of Russia Nicholas II.

As Powell, closed the door, a strikingly beautiful blond blue eyed woman of 25 walked in dressed in a long coat of all black wool. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, her eyes wide and curious.

"Thank you." Anna said quietly, removing one leather glove. She patted her forehead that was a glistening in the lights, the warmth of the room filling her body causing her to become flush and rosy cheeked.

"This way miss." Powell said bringing Anna to the closed double doors of the drawing room.

Powell turned the knobs and opened the doors announcing her:

"Miss Anna Tate." he recited.

"Oh!!" Carolyn laughed jumping from her seat. "So formal Powell, please Anna is family. Anna, darling come in come in!" Carolyn said ushering Anna over to the center of the room. "This is my cousin David, David, this is Anna Tate." Carolyn introduced.

"Anna it's a pleasure to meet you...again! You were just a baby the last time I saw you. We're very pleased to have you. Carolyn tells me you're here to research for a film role." David said politely as he reached for Anna's hand to shake.

Anna removed the other leather glove, took his hand and looked at David intensely. Her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest, pounding like a warrior's drum louder and louder. The heat from her body circulating around her like a storm.

David noticed her intense stare and hot hand too and quickly let go.

"Thank you, yes," She said shaking out of her mini trans  "that's right. It's a love story. A woman who's been lost for many years and she comes home to this small little village. I thought......" Anna explained but suddenly stopping mid sentence to pat her face with the back of her hand, her skin now pale and clammy.

"Anna, honey?" Carolyn asked noticing Anna's sudden change in speech. "Something wrong?"

"What? No...just felt a little warm I guess." Anna said removing her coat, tiny beads of perspiration now sparkling like tiny diamonds on her forehead.

David looked over at Carolyn with a glare that signaled to her something seemed off. Anna's bright and beautiful face had changed, now a veil of concern and discomfort.

"Anna, you've had a very long trip. The other members of the family won't be home until later, around dinner time, why don't I show you up to your room where you can rest and relax a bit before they all come home. You seem very tired. We've put you a few rooms away from the baby, so you won't have to worry about any baby ruckus." Carolyn joked.

"I am feeling a little off. Maybe a nap would do me some good. On the airplane I was feeling like a cold was coming on. So strange, I felt fine in Boston." Anna said folding her black coat over her arm.

Carolyn reached over and felt Anna's forehead and noticed her temperature, she was burning up. She then placed her and around Anna's jaw just below her ear to feel her temperature again. Even hotter.

"Oh sweetie, you must be coming down with something, you're a blaze. Come on, let's go upstairs, David, Powell, will you grab her things please? I'll have the cook make you some soup." Carolyn said quickly jumping into her mothering role.

The group took Anna and her belongings up to the staircase and down the long hall. Anna, like all new visitors, marveled at the paintings of all the past family members who had once walked the same halls. Naomi, Quinton, Abigail, Joshua, and of course Barnabas.

Anna took a deep breath and continued on her way and entered her room. It was one of the smaller suites, a canopy bed in the center of the room adorned with light blue fabric, right above the headboard a giant C in crown molding fixed to the wall; the centerpiece of quaint but elegant room in a grand house.

"This is beautiful." And said softly as she spun around in a small circle looking at her new room.

"If you need anything, please let us know. ....and welcome to Collinwood." David said with a bright smile, his handsome was striking, and brought a strange sense of pride to Anna.

She nodded back shyly and thanked him.

"Absolutely!" Carolyn agreed. "...And I'm glad you like the room, listen, I won't keep you any longer. Go ahead and get comfortable and rest. I'll come up in just a little while to check on you." Carolyn said as she made her exit with David and Powell.

Anna smiled and watched as the door closed behind Carolyn. She threw her black coat on the bed and took in a deep breath of air, feeling the muscles in her chest contract and twist relieving the stress of a long trip. She then took off her shoes and felt the fluffy white carpet between her toes as she slinked over to the window and slowly drew the curtains closed, but then opened them again changing her mind on more light in the room...the warmth of the sun seeped into her skin like water into a sponge.

Anna looked out into the foggy Collinwood yard and smiled.

"Collinwood." She said to her self in a sigh, shaking her head as if she found a strange irony to the house.

From the window she made her way to a small bathroom attached to her little bedroom. She turned on the faucet and splashed water on her face. The water seemed to bubble up on her skin  as if it were boiling. Each little drop popped and fizzled and instantly dried up. She wiped her face clean with a tender white towel with the family's double "C" crest embroidered in around the edge and  looked at herself deep into the mirror, her face cooling from the bubbled water and inside her eyes came a flicker.

A dazzling light in each of  her irises that turned them from ice  blue to a fire like orange and red burning and bright like there were actual flames in her eyes. Anna quickly blinked and rubbed her eyes gently and when she opened them again seconds later her eyes were back to their icy blue.

She took a deep breath again and turned off the light and left the bathroom for the comfort of the bed. She lay there for a minute and smiled to herself.

"I'm back." She whispered. 

****

Across town at The Blue Whale pub, Kat (who had returned to her detective work after her maternity leave) was having a small lunch with her partner Detective Loomis McGovern. It had been 3 months since Kat had returned to work and everything seemed to finally be fitting back into place. She was back to a normal routine, as was her husband Caleb who had gone back to work at the Collins Fishing Fleet with David. But as with all things in Collinsport, the steady pace in life never lasted longer then the thought of it. As Kat and Loomis talked and laughed over their lunch, the small wooden front door opened and in walked Kat's brother Sebastian who  had gone missing the night Kat gave birth, which he forcibly induced for the purposes of helping Victoria kidnap the child. 

The night of Kat's induced labor was also the night Christopher changed into his werewolf alter-ego stirring chaos in and around Collinwood. Sebastian...became Chris' third victim, a victim that strangely survived.

Kat had her back turned to the door of the pub when Sebastian walked in. 

As she carried on with her conversation with Loomis his reaction to what they were talking about suddenly changed. His eyes glazed over and looked beyond her straight at Sebastian. Loomis' face froze and he turned serious...it was as if he was seeing a ghost. But Sebastian was no ghost. Kat furrowed her brow confused at Loomis' abrupt change in demeanor and turned around to see what he was looking at so sternly.

"Oh my god, Bash!!" Kat said jumping out of her seat and grabbing Sebastian by the shoulders to pull him in for a great big hug. "Where the hell have you  been? What's happened??" She asked.

"I have a lot of explaining to do I guess." He smirked.

"You do, you really do!" Kat yelped.

"I've missed you so much sis!" Sebastian said, holding his younger sister close.

"We've been so worried about you. How could you just disappear like that without telling anyone? Especially me. What happened?" Kat pressed.

"I, I can't really explain it, I mean...." Sebastian started before his excited sister cut him off.

"Listen, forget it, I don't want to rehash what happened, Victoria is gone, my son is back and now you are too. But I hope you've changed your ways." Kat said in a serious voice as she had moved on from what Sebastian had done.

"Kat, I'm so sorry. I should have never helped Vickie take your baby. I wish I could take it---" Sebastian said before being interrupted again.

"Stop. It's over. It's been over. I'm just glad you're here and you are alive. Where have you been?" Kat asked again circling back to the real mystery of where Sebastian was this whole time. 

"It's really weird. After I went out to get the car to bring you to the  hospital....I just remember lots of fog and and feeling really uneasy. To be honest, I think Vickie slipped me something before I came by Collinwood that night, because I don't remember much after that. The next morning I woke up miles away at some hospital in Bangor. I must have been in a fight or fallen or something because I was pretty banged up. I don't remember anything at all. I blacked out for days." He explained.

"How'd you get from Collinsport to Bangor? Your car was left running in the driveway that night?" Kat asked, her detective instincts kicking in.

"I don't know. I really don't know." Sebastian answered honestly.

"Well...." Kat said taking it all in and dismissing any obvious holes in this story.

"And you know that Vickie's organization has been dissolved right?" Loomis asked from his seat at the table.

"Yeah, when I came out of my mess the other day I called up Vickie. I guess she's back in New York...she told me everything. Kat, sis, I'm really really sorry. Thank you for forgiving me." Sebastian said kissing his beloved sister on the forehead.

"Why don't you two catch up. I'll head back to the station. Meet you there?" Loomis asked standing up in his seat and dropping his white napkin down on the table with a $20 bill,  his towering body standing over everyone like a giant sycamore tree. 

"Ok." Kat said with a gleeful grin. "Are you hungry?" Kat asked turning back to her brother.

Sebastian smiled happily and nodded yes.

"I just have to wash my hands really quick." Sebastian said excusing himself to the bathroom before he had a meal.

Kat nodded back and walked over to the bar to order Sebastian a bite to eat while he washed his hands. They were always so close growing up and even in their adulthood despite Sebastian's many secrets. She knew just about everything there was to know about him, they were practically twins despite his 3 year age advantage. 

Sebastian pushed on the bathroom door slightly and peeked in to see if there was anyone else inside. He expected one of the many sailors and fishermen who stopped by The Blue Whale on their way out to see to be inside dressed in their thick wool sweaters smelling of the sea and sweat and sun. 

But the bathroom was empty. Just a dripping faucet and stained mirror await inside.

The relief flowed over Sebastian like a giant waterfall.

He let the door close behind him and went into one of the stalls. There was a sharp pain coming from his chest, a normal feeling since his attack from Christopher. He slowly unbutton his shirt and pealed it open exposing his mocha skin. His thick hands ran down  his chest carved with vicious scars.   

Remnants of the night his life changed for ever. Scrolled across his chest by claws.

The mark of a werewolf. 

***SINGAPORE***

Inside of a shaded office room with dark cherry wood furnishings a white ceiling fan with wooden blades resembling banana leaves turned slowly continuing its circular flow of the warm south-Asian breeze that crept in through the shuttered windows that cast striped shadows across the entire room.

The noise from the busy street below filled the room: a car honking, motorbikes zipping through the streets, the dinging of a street car. 

In the center of the room a large desk and leather bound chair. A woman sorted through papers while simultaneously packing suitcase with other files and paperwork she cherry-picked from the piles. She would open a folder, glance at the first page, turn the page, glance at the second and in a split second decide whether or not she needed to pack in the suitcase that was left gaping open on the floor beside her.

The woman, an American by birth, was a strikingly beautiful woman with bright blue eyes and dark hair. Her lips were like two pink pillows bunched together on a face like porcelain art. 

She stood up and fiddled through more files. She was looking for something very specific. She bit her lip in though as if she knew she was missing something. She stopped and looked around the misty room filled with large green potted tress hoping for some kind of mind break that would allow the memory of what she was looking for to finally come to light.

Then it came to her.

She rushed over to a filing cabinet that sat directly across from her on the other side of the room. She dashed past a old Chinese coffee table delicately crafted and made of the finest wood she had ever seen. She pulled open the filing cabinet and flicked through the first four or five rows of folders and picked one, then two, the a third thick folder of paper work out and slammed the drawer closed dashing back to her desk.

She opened the first file, then the second then the third. They were exactly what she was missing.

Then a knock at her door. 

"Yes?" She said loudly.

"Doctor, the customs agent is here to see you." A man's voice said in a thick Chinese accent from the other side of the door.

"Please see him to the den, I'll be with him very shortly." The Doctor replied.

She quickly gathered all her paperwork that was still yet to pack and stacked them neatly on the side of her desk for further review when she returned from her meeting with a customs agent.

As she turned and left the room, the light from outside trickled in through the shuttered windows casting more stripes all across her dark cherry wood desk.

The three files she had retrieved from the cabinet and left on the corner of the desk read:
EVANS, MARGARET 1967,1970;  EVANS MARGARET 1986;  COLLINS, DAVID 2000

"Ni Hao!" The woman said in her best Chinese to the customs agent.

"Ni Hao, Doctor." The agent said greeting her as she walked into the freshly painted white den with it's white wicker furniture and more potted green trees and more ceiling fans with wooden banana leaf shaped blades. 

"Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I gather you received my note, and that everything is in order for my travels?" The woman questioned.

"Yes, I did receive your paperwork but there is one more question as to what exactly you are traveling with." The customs agent replied. "You may very well be able to leave Singapore but I doubt you will be able to enter the United States without declaring what is inside." he continued.

"Mr. Chow, if there's anyway we can keep this in the most private of factions I would greatly appreciate it. Can't we come up with some sort of resolution without going into the gritty details of ...well...my business." The Doctor stated.

"This day in age, Dr. Morgan, there's no way I can agree to that. You'll have to either tell me what is inside such a large crate or I'll have to look myself to fill out this paperwork. The United States government will not let you off the ship in Boston without the declaration." Mr. Chow asserted.

Dr. Morgan, irritated and defeated, smirked and stood up motioning for Mr. Chow to follow her into another room. He obliged and grabbed his belongings and followed her as she led him down a dark hallway the smelled of candles and fresh rose water. 

The heat of the South Asian afternoon had Mr. Chow drenched in sweat. He followed Dr. Morgan down the hallway, removing his blue sports coat and rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white button up then loosened the tie from around his neck that was beginning to feel like a noose in the humid house.

"This way." Dr. Morgan assured.

As they turned a slight corner, Dr. Morgan finally brought Mr. Chow to a room where he instantly discovered where the smell or candles and rosewater came from. Dr. Morgan pushed the door that was slightly left open further and entered the room where a large rectangular crate sat in the center of the room surrounded by candles.

The scene seemed odd and Mr. Chow felt an uneasieness in  his stomach. Something told him he would regret causing such a fuss over whatever was in that crate, but the law was the law. 

Mr. Chow looked over at Dr. Morgan as she stood to the side of him looking at the object in the center of the candle lit room. She lifted one eyebrow and extended her hand out towards the rectangular crate. "After you." She said in a hushed tone.

Mr. Chow pulled out his pen and the customs forms he needed to file for Dr. Morgan's travels and took two dragging steps forward to see what was inside. The sweat was now dripping down his back and puddling at the top of his pants just as he placed his hand on the lid of the crate.

Mr. Chow looked back at Dr. Morgan just before he opened the lid. 

"Go on." She said. 

He turned back around and licked his lips that had dried with  his anxiety, he gripped the lid and lifted it open, Inside the crate, a coffin holding the remains of a woman who died over 30 years ago: Dr. Morgan's American mother who had lived in this very house, in this very city since 1973, a woman that was known by many in her seaside hometown of Collinsport, Maine.

These were the 30 year old remains of Dr. Julia Hoffman. 

                               

Series 6/Chapter 13: THE DEAD OF WINTER

The snow coated the ever-green trees that surrounded a small house on the outskirts of Collinwood just before dawn where a mystical woman would reunite with an old friend from decades past. These women shared throughout the years secrets, one was a confident who shared her mystical powers to help the other be stay safe from two very dangerous men.

Maggie Evans had promised to meet this person in the early hours to discuss Detective Kat Banning. For Maggie, hearing Carolyn say that Caleb was engaged to Kat was a  bit of a shock. She had hoped that this moment would never happen. Now, it was inevitable. Kat and Maggie's paths would eventually cross and Maggie had no idea how to deal with the outcome.

As Maggie carefully stepped up the frozen front steps of the small cottage a shiver ran up her spine. Of course she shook this off as just are result from the icy conditions outside, but deep down, she knew better. Her instincts had become refined in the years that followed her time with Barnabas Collins. The dangers were real, and she felt them deep in the blood that rain through her veins.

She knocked on the door and waited.

Just a few seconds later the door creaked open and standing there in a warm black dress, a scarf around her head and a necklace made of golden and rubies was the town voodoo priestess and Maggie's former confident Ezrabette Baptiste.

"Come in from the cold, ma chere!" Ezrabette said ushering in her old friend in her creole accent.

"Thank you for seeing me so quickly. I can't tell you how much I needed to see you. I should have called as soon as I left Windcliff, but there were more pressing matters." Maggie explained.

"You don't need to explain. Je comprends tout." Ezrabette replied half in French, understanding Maggie's often peculiar predicament.

"I know that Kat is involved with the Collins boy. And her brother? Sebastian? Where is he?" Maggie asked of Kat's in a concerned voice for Kat's brother.

"Sit down Margaret." Ezrabette instructed.

Maggie rolled her eyes in frustration. The suspense and stress were taking it's toll on her, but all she could do was breath and wait for Ezrabette to explain.

The two sat down around Ezrabette's round table with a dark purple table cloth and pulled a deck of tarot cards out from a band around her dress that was hidden by a black ribbon to match. Her heavily adorned fingers, began to shuffle and she then pulled 5 cards and placed then on the round table in the shape of a cross. She flipped the first one over.

"This card, the 4 of cups, tells me there are four distinct entities that are as one complete set. Regard, the center cup is cracked. This cup shows me one of these entities, one of these people, is damaged beyond what we understand. Beyond anything that we've ever seen." Ezrabette explained.

"Who is it?" Maggie questioned with a small tear burrowing its way out of one of her eyes.

"C'est Sebastian." Ezrabette replied in French matter of factly.

"Bette, they must never know I'm alive. When I left, I left to keep them safe from the darkness that followed me and brought me to ...." Maggie said before she was interrupted by Ezrabette flipping another card.


"Him....." Ezrabette said pointing to a card of a satyr. "their father." the mystical woman continued.

"Where is their father?" Maggie asked.

Ezrabette flipped another card, the sun card.

"The sun." Ezrabette whispered softly.

"What does it mean?" Maggie asked as Ezrabette stared down at the card. "Bette?? Tell me...what does it mean?" Maggie asked again impatiently.

"The card reveals him as the dawn. It represent the present. The coming day. The birth of a new morn. Sebastian and Kat's father is coming.....very soon." Ezrabette said to a shocked Maggie.

Maggie's 30 year secret was about to be exposed and could possibly bring a terrible new storm to Collinsport. Maggie was the mother of Sebastian and Kat Banning who believed she dead almost 25 years ago.

Maggie was the ex wife of Thatcher Banning, a cruel man she met in 1989. She married him soon after they met and bore two children, but was never ever happy. Happiness alluded Maggie and everything she touched. When Kat was only 7 and Sebastian was 5, Maggie escaped Thatcher, and left the children with Ezrabette. That is when she institutionalized herself at Windcliff hoping to escape the curse of the living Dead that she felt tainted her life and brought her such a vicious husband.

"What do I do?" Maggie asked Ezrabette in a panic.

"The only thing you can do. Find Thatcher before he finds you, and when you do, destroy him, never allow him to get close to your children, only disaster will come of that." Ezrabette said in a cold voice.

"Destroy?" Maggie questioned.

"He must die." Ezrabette answered back.

"What about Kat? And Sebastian? Should I reveal myself to them?" Maggie asked again.

Ezrabette took a moment, and flipped another card over revealing the hidden moon; a card that was mysterious in nature. The mystic Ezrabette pursed her lips and shook her head.

"Keep your secret. Hide. They must never know you're alive."

****

As the morning melted into a cool and sunny afternoon, Kat and Caleb took themselves to the Collinwood courthouse to mark the birth of their son as official. As they walked through the halls from the clerk's office on their way out with their new baby and the official birth certificate they passed the office of Judge Timothy Hatfield, a close friend of the family.

Caleb's hand was clasped tight inside of Kat's while she held Canan in her other arm. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the Judge's office door.

"What is it?" Kat asked as he stopped.

"Kat, what do you say?" Caleb asked.

"To what? What are you talking about?" She asked confused.

"I know we're going to get married and you'd probably want some kind of big wedding, but what if we just ask the judge to do this for us right here right now? We can go back down the hall and get the paperwork. So, what do you say?" He asked with a grin on his face.

"Without our friends and family? Just you and me?" Kat asked coyly.

"We've got our baby, that's family enough for me, come on! Let's do it!" Caleb said sincerely.

Kat thought about it for a second and looked around. There were people staring at them and smiling in the hall, their echoing conversation made it everyone's business.

"Ok! Let's do it! Let's get married!" Kat said as she kissed her baby boy on the forehead.

They both dashed into the office of Judge Hatfield who was signing papers. He looked up from his work and smiled, then removed the glasses that dangled off the edge of his nose.

"Well, Mr. Caleb Collins and Detective Banning! Nice of you to stop by. How's your father, son!?" He asked sitting back in his chair.

"He's doing good sir, very good. I hope we're not interrupting." Caleb asked.

"Not really, no. Who's this young man?" The judge asked of Canan.

"Our baby." Kat replied proudly.

"Oh, another Collins boy, eh! Well, that would make your grandmother Laura so proud. Now, what can I do for you kids?" The judge asked.

"This might sound a bit unorthodox but we plan on getting the paper work all straightened out today right after but...you're here...and we're here...." Caleb said stammering.

"Go on Caleb, spit it out!" The judge said joking although he could already tell what was coming next.

"...it just feels right so, will you marry us?" Caleb continued talking in at a nervous pace.

"Well now!! Caleb Collins marrying one of Collsinport's finest detectives! Sounds like a good mix to me. You'll have to go down to the clerk's office and fill out the appropriate paper work right after. So...got any rings?" The judge asked enthusiastically.

"Not with us, but we will. So you'll do it?" Kat asked.

"It'd be my pleasure. Gina, Pauline!" The judge yelled to his secretaries. "Will you come in here please?"

"Sir?" the red-headed, glasses wearing Pauline asked as she peeped her head in from an adjoining door.

"I'll need you two as witnesses; please stand on either side of this lovely couple." Judge Hatfield ordered.

"Oh a wedding!" Gina, an older woman with a small tummy and chubby hips gushed as she went over and took Canan from Kat's hands.

"Can I see the ring?" Pauline asked curiously.

"We don't have one. This was all sort of spur-of-the-moment." Caleb replied bashfully.

"Oh honey, please I can take care of that!" Pauline said as she rushed around the Judge's desk in her orange herringbone suit and grabbed a paperclip from a dish that held what seemed like thousands of little mettle clips.

She took the clip and untraveled it's small delicate curves and twisted it at the top in a sort of sailors not. She sized it on her own hand and gazed at it quickly. She smiled and came back around and took Caleb's hand.

"Here...use this for now. Just to make it official." Pauline said with a wink.

Kat and Caleb giggled then held each other's hands and looked into each other's eyes as the judge went through the typical wedding speech. Kat repeated the vows, as did Caleb.

Caleb took Kat's left  hand and placed the paperclip ring on her ring finger then kissed her back of her hand.

"I now pronounce you married." The judge said with a soft, calming voice. "Caleb, you may now kiss your bride."

They looked deep into each other's eyes and everything that had suffered in the past year had gone away. All the saddness, the dark memories of Leopold attacking Kat, Caleb's arrest for attempted murder, the house catching fire, Kat's memory loss, Caleb's airplane accident and the baby's kidnapping. It was all gone. Vanishing in their minds making room for more memories. Hopefully happy ones.

And as they kissed to seal their marriage a fresh powder of white snow fell around the courthouse blessing the wedding.

It was official Kat was now a Collins.

****

Alex ran down the satires to the drawing room where Carolyn was just getting off the phone. Carolyn turned and saw that her daughter Alex had a big grin on her face.

"What are you so happy about?" Carolyn questioned as she replaced the phone's receiver. 

"Caleb just called my cell phone from the courthouse....." Alex said in a dramatic pause. "He and Kat just got married!!!" shes quealed.

"Oh My!!! That's wonderful. Why didn't they have us go down there to be with them?" Carolyn questioned. 

"I asked the same thing, but they said it was a split second decision and they just went with it. We can have a dinner for them tonight. Who were you on the phone with?" Alex asked remembering her mother too had just gotten off the phone.

"Funniest thing. My old friend Vera Tate's daughter Anna just called me. She's been in Hollywood working in film, and said she was coming to Collinsport to research the town for a role she was up for. She's hoping she could stay here." Carolyn explained.

"Anna? Oh! Anna! Right I remember her. Blonde. Pretty. Your goddaughter right? Why would she need to research here?" Alex questioned.

"I wondered the same thing. She said that the movie takes place in a small New England town and that Collinsport would be perfect, so I said it would be fine for her to visit. It's been so long since I've seen her after all." Carolyn said.

"She was always a little odd, don't you remember? I remember one time when we were girls and she came to visit us in London one summer she would light all of our candles and sit in the room and just stare at the flame from the wick." Alex said snobbishly. 

"Be nice. She's a sweet girl." Carolyn scoffed.

"Well it's perfect timing anyway." Alex muttered.

"Is it?" Carolyn replied intrigued by her daughter's assertion.

"Mother, Christopher and I have decided to take some time for ourselves now that things seem to be calming down around here. We're going back to London for a bit. Now before you start complaining that I'll be too far from you, there's a plus side......Kimberly has set up some clients there too, so she'll be tagging along but for the most part. So we wont be totally alone." Alex said to Carolyn's shock.

"London! You're leaving me?" Carolyn said devastated by the news.

"Oh mom, it's not forever, I promise. Just for a while so that Chris and I can get closer. Plus did I mention I'm taking Kim off your hands. You won't have to see her for weeks, months even!" Alex said jokingly.

"Months?" Carolyn asked in an even more devastated tone of voice.

"Don't do this mom. Please. I know it's going to seem so hard but....I need to do this for me. You understand don't you? Anna will be here. You can get reacquainted with your goddaughter.....aaaand again...Kim will be GONE!" Alex said, adding a the joke about Kim again to lighten the mood knowing that Carolyn and Kim had never really liked each other since her divorce from David.

"I can't say that this will be easy for me. I love you so much darling. But I do understand. You know when I was your age I lived in this big house and this little town and felt that there was so much more out there that I was missing. Collinsport and this mansion can get a bit claustrophobic! All I wanted was adventure." Carolyn said.

"What? You were bored here in Collinwood! I can't imagine having a single boring day." Alex responded with a laugh.

"I guess I did have some adventure, but I should have been more specific." Carolyn said joking back.

"So you're ok with us going back to London for a while?" Alex said as she hugged her mother tightly.

"Of course. I love you....and You have my blessing. Christopher is a wonderful young man, he'll protect you. And you'll be taking that dreadful Kimberly." Carolyn said still mocking her eternal distaste for her cousin's ex wife making Alex bust out in laughter.

"I love you too mother. More than you know." Alex said tightening her grip on her mother.

*** COLLINSPORT 1920***

In the darkness and silence of an old mausoleum, Catherine placed a wreath of roses on the grave of Jamison's beloved father Edward. She was dressed in a thick black cloak with a hook over her head guarding her from the icy air that crowded the mausoleum interior. Catherine knelt down and adjusted the ribbon at the base of the wreath then went over to a stone lion on the wall with a ring in it's mouth and pulled the ring down opening a secret door in the wall where an empty iron coffin lay.

As Catherine stared into the room, Jamison came in from outside dragging an unconscious Barnabas in the snow and up the small steps and into the mausoleum.

"What are you going to do with him?" Catherine muttered as she shivered in the cold mausoleum.

"I'm going to put him back where he belongs, locked in a coffin for all eternity." Jamison said dragging Barnabas into the secret room.

"Jamie, How did you know of this room? How did you to tell me about the ring in the lion's mouth?" Catherine asked concerned.

"Many, many years of folklore and secrets, my darling, this family is full of them. And as a boy I'd come here and play and explore. It was inevitable that I'd find it." Jamison explained as he dropped Barnabas' arms.

"This is the most horrific thing I have ever had to deal with, I can't even believe it's happening. Those people coming here, and Claudia dying in the snow. Jamie we can't do this, we cannot put Barnabas in this crypt!" Catherine said starting to feel the strain of the situation in her mind.

"But he already is." Jamison said cryptically.

"What? What are you taking about?" Catherine said looking at her husband strangely.

Jamison's eyes seemed to change, in his mind he understood the perils of traveling through time and knew that there could not be a Barnabas from the future without the one who had been sleeping peacefully in a coffin since 1795. They were a divide in the parallel time warp that was created when Vickie opened the vortex and jumped through...the vampires were like mirror images of each stuck in a this loop that needed to be set straight, and Jamison knew how.

"Jamie, talk to me, what is going on?" Catherine said, clutching the cloak around her throat to keep warm.

Jamison slowly broke the locks around the old coffin. He carefully slid the lid open and just as he suspected there was the other Barnabas still sleeping awaiting his release by Willie Loomis in 1967.

Jamison reached over into a bag that he was caring around his shoulder and pulled out a 12 in wooden stake. He lifted it high into the air just above Barnabas' heart.

"Jamison No!!!" Catherine screamed and ran out of the secret room in the mausoleum just as he drove it into the chest of the Barnabas who slept.

And with perfect timing and precision both vampires, the one in the coffin that had been there since 1795 and the one on the floor unconscious who traveled from 2016 gasped for air and reached for their chest. .

The Barnabas who was on the floor writhed with pain, he gasped for air and coughed and wiggled like a worm on a  hook. The Barnabs in the coffin choked and began to turn the color of ash. He lifted one hand up in the air reaching for Jamison, but Jamison backed away and watched as the Barnabas in the coffin slowly turned to ash and disappeared.

Jamison quickly grabbed the Barnabas on the floor who was still gasping for air, that gasping would be short lived. Now that the original vampire had been snuffed out in 1920, Jamison would lock away the Barnabas who traveled back from 2016 in the coffin to await Willie Loomis in 1967, thus repeating the timeline of the vampire's most notorious events.

Barnabas Collins would be cursed to live his life twice.

Jamison walked out of the room and found Catherine sobbing face down on the grave of Naomi Collins. The past few hours had taken it's toll on her emotionally.

She lifted her head and watched her husband Jamison walk out of a secret room.

"What have you done?" Catherine asked in a hushed voice with tears streaming down her face.

"I've chained him in there forever. I had to" Jamison replied wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Why? Why did you only destroy one?" Catherine asked.

"For Elizabeth's sake. I had to set the timeline of events back to how it was so that Elizabeth's future would not be effected. Having those two monsters in existence would set events off...I don't know how it would have changed Liz's life in the future." Jamison explained, not knowing that he had just replaced the biggest, most darkest shadow to follow most of his daughter Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard's adult life.  

"I never want to speak of this again. Whatever that creature was took my mother's life, and now, I'll never see her again. Lock this door. Seal it. Never speak of it to anyone again. He can never ever be allowed to roam the earth and haunt this family ever again." Catherine said in sobs.

"It's over now. It's all over." Jamison said grabbing and hugging his wife tightly as the snow began to fall outside the mausoleum. 

****COLLINSPORT DECEMBER, 2016****

Deep in the forest surrounding Collinwood just beyond the ridge where a path that leads to another path the winds up to Widows Hill was a small clearing surrounded by trees and 3 feet of pure white snow.

There was a stillness to the frosty air. A quietness that only broke when the sound of crunching ice and watery snow melting coming from underground. Soon there was shifting happening below the slush. The snow soon dipped inward causing a large oval dip clearly visible at the surface of the snow. Something from below began to make it's way to the top, digging and pulling and scathing it's way up. Once it reached the surfaced, an arm pulled itself up from the icy and snow, and wiped away more snow from the face revealing the very much living Jaqueleen Walsh who had been below the ground, buried alive in 1920.

Barnabas and Vickie had buried her alive almost 100 years ago and now, in the present time she finally felt she was ready to return. Because her destiny was Barnabas Collins. Something inside of her told her to wait all these years before her return. Something animalistic and governed by the laws of the supernatural told her her time would come...and it was now, in 2016.

She scratched, and dug and clawed her way through the frozen ground, pulling at tree roots and the hard earth between herself and the surface. She reached and strained and carried her weight through the whole Barnabas dug for her, like a powerful earth worm burrowing through the ground to find it's way to the sun.

Her body finally pierced the top of the ground after what seemed like hours of digging through solid ice and earth. Jaqueleen's cold and hardened hands pushed down lifting her body out of the grave she had been in for almost 100 years, awaiting Barnabas who never returned

Her body, face and everything about her was perfectly preserved but covered in dirt and muck from the ground.

She sat up from her icy ground after taking large breaths to revive herself. She reached up to her neck and felt the wounds from Barnabas' bite had left a gory scar.

"It felt just like yesterday."  she thought.

She touched the wounds from Barnabas' fangs, and bit her lip remembering the taste of Barnabas on hers, it was a sensual, passionate and dangerous obsession she had with him. And time had taken it's course on that obsession. Now, she wanted more. Now she wanted him...and she wouldn't take no for an answer.

She  looked around the forest. She knew exactly where she was. Her body may have been trapped in the depths of the earth but her mind was working like a well oiled machine and knew precisely the time line she was in. The future was now...and she had to find the one who did this to her. She had to find the man she was incredible in love with, if not obsessed with.

 Jacqueleen shook off the snow from her dress, the ice quickly melted in her hair leaving it damp and cold. She stretched and cracked her neck releasing all the tension that had built up over the past 90 years. It was time she found the man who put her in that grave, it was time she found Barnabas Collins.

But would he be where she expected him to be?

Jacqueleen arrived at Eagle Hill Cemetery at the Collins family crypt where a fancy lock had been placed around the same gate guarding the deceased family members from the icy elements outside.

Jacqueleen, stern in her grip, grabbed the lock and held it tight in her hand. She took deep breaths, and with the strength of 100 men clamped down on the lock so hard that it turned to dust in her hands. She pulled the gate open and slowly walked in.

She slowly made her way to the secret room past the crypts of Jeremiah, Naomi, Elizabeth, Jamison, Roger, and of course, her own daughter Catherine Walsh-Collins. Jacqueleen stopped and knelt down near the grave with the lovely limestone engraving: CATHERINE WALSH COLLINS January 1892-MARCH 1954.

A small tear shortly flooded Jacqueleen's eyes.

She made her way to the lion with the ring in his mouth and instinctively pulled the ring down opening the secret door and there, locked away in a unmarked coffin was the legend, the man, the vampire, the monster that took Jacqueleen's life. The man she was obsessed with.

She walked over, her dress dragging on the limestone ground and put her hands over the sealed coffin. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. The smell of dust and years and years of mold filled her lungs like an expensive gaudy perfume.

She grabbed the coffin's life in both hands and with all her might flipped it open. Dust and ash filled the air all around her. And when Jacqueleen looked into the soft, black velvet lined coffin her eyes widened with shock and horror.


Barnabas Collin's coffin....
Was empty.

Series 6/Chapter 12: THEY RETURN

**COLLINSPORT, PRESENT TIME**

In a modest home just outside of town deep in the woods Ezrabette Baptiste, a woman of great spiritual and supernatural ability sat with her eyes closed among the many lit candles covering the two main rooms of her house. Laying peacefully on her sofa, in a supernatural slumber, was Detective Kat Banning who had been sent transcendentally into the year 1920 to occupy the body of Catherine Collins in hopes that she could retrieve her baby that had been kidnapped to that year.

Ezrabette sat in the center of the room among Kat's sleeping body and the hundreds of lit candles. The air was warm but not for long. Soon a small cool breeze began to swim in circular motions around the room, the flow of air brushed up against Ezrabette's vail and the curtains in the room causing the sensation of things were moving in slow motion.

"The portal." Ezrabette said softly, her eyes stern and still.

"What? What's happening?" Loomis waking up from a terrible sleep in an arm chair next to his partner Kat.

"They've opened the portal back to this time. They've opened the portal back to this time! THEY'VE OPENED THE PORTAL BACK TO THIS TIME!!" Ezrabette said in a progressing scream.

"Where? Where are they? Where are they! Tell me!" Loomis screamed as he jumped out of the chair.

"Find them at the hill where the house known as Sea Cliff cottage stands. There is where they will be found." Ezrabette replied.

As the two spoke, Kat's sleeping body began to mystically fade as she slept on the sofa.

"My god what's happening to her!!" Loomis asked in terror was he watched his best friend and partner start to disappear.

"The body in this time and that of the time in 1920 are consolidating in the portal. As she passes though time the body here will combine with the body there back in to one person." Ezrabette explained.

"Will she be ok?" Loomis asked concerned as Kat fully disappeared before his very eyes.

"Find her and the baby at Sea Cliff. Go! Quickly!" Ezrabette replied.

Loomis took a deep breath and grabbed his coat and quickly dashed out of Ezrabette's house and into the icy cold winter winds outside, leaving Ezrabette in a quiet state surrounded by candles and a warm fire. Her heart pounded in her chest. Yet she sat still...she knew more was to come. She knew this was the end of just part of what she for-saw in Kat's tarot reading.

But those secrets, she kept close to the vest. They would reveal themselves soon enough. 

****

The Family: David, Carolyn, Caleb, Kim, Alex and Chris sat quietly in the drawing room. There was nervous hush over the entire group as they awaited news from the travelers from 1920. On his way from Ezrabette's house over to Sea Cliff cottage Loomis had called Collinwood with the good news that Kat had succeeded in jumping back through the time warp. The nervousness was whether or not she had been able to retrieve the baby. The family patiently awaited.

Off in a corner of the room, Christopher and Alex talked over tea. They were as close as they had ever  been and things seemed to be getting better every day. Their lives were connected now more than ever and Alex felt she needed a change of scenery.

"You know, when all this blows over...I think we should, just go, you know? We should just leave town for a while and see places and get this whole crappy situation out of ours minds!" Alex said gesturing wildly with her arms.

"Is that so!" Chris said giggling at her animated state. "Where do you think we should go then babe?" He added pulling her in close fora snuggle.

"London. I really want to go back home. I love Collinwood, and I know how much this place means to my mother no matter  how many times something horrible can happen, but I need to go back to London. What do you say? Will you come with me?" Alex asked.

Chris thought for a second and looked around the nervous room. He had been through so much, the death of his father at his own hands while he was a werewolf, the realization that his own mother had been the reason he was a werewolf in the first place. The warped relationship with Claudia, and the killing of Leopold, it was all so much. So it was settled, Chris agreed. When things became calmer, he would leave with Alex back to her home city of London.

"I'll do it. I'll come with you." He said smiling with a giant white grin.

Alex jumped into his arms and hugged him as tight as she could.

And just as Alex and Chris' happy energy started to spill into the nerves and anxiety of the rest of the room the front door slowly opened, and in walked Kat smiling ear to ear cradling her baby with Caleb in her arms. Loomis followed right behind her, smiling just as much causing an instant sigh of relief throughout the family.

Caleb instant darted up and ran towards Kat, planting a firm kiss on her lips and looking down at his son.

"You did it. You found him!" Caleb said kissing Kat again.

"Where's Vickie?" Carolyn asked.

"She thought maybe it was better for her not to come back with me. She's decided to go back to New York." Kat answered.

"I guess we should ask the other question...where's Barnabas?" David asked cynically.

Kat took a deep breath and sighed. "He didn't make it." She answered solemnly as Carolyn gasped.

"What happened?" Kim questioned.

"There was a fight and Jamison Collins, your grandfather," Kat said motioning to David and Carolyn, "He decided he wanted to make sure he protected his family. He put Vickie, myself and Claudia in a cage and then tried to kill Barnabas. Barnabas freed us. He saved our lives." Kat continued.

"Claudia??? What was she doing there?" Christopher asked in shock.

Kat only shrugged. After all, she didn't have all the answers. The most important thing was that Kat and Caleb had been reunited and that the family was finally back together.

"Where's Vickie?" David asked noticing she had not come back to Collinwood.

"I dropped her off at the Collinsport Inn. She said she had to make some phone calls and go down to St. John's Perish before she left town." Loomis explained.

"Left town?" Carolyn asked.

"She said it was time for her to go back to New York, that's all I know." Loomis continued.

"Well, it's so good to have you back Kat, I'm just so grateful that you made it back safe. Now, things will start looking up. We'll be together as a family. Stronger then ever. I can already feel that." Carolyn said hugging Kat as Kat handed off the baby to Kimberly.

"He's so delicious. What are we calling him?" Kim asking of her grandson's name.

"Well they gave him the name Canan, its actually quite beautiful. I think I'd like to keep it." Kat answered.

"I should let you all get reacquainted. Have a nice evening everyone." Loomis said as the family cooed over baby Canan.

"Loo! Wait up!" Kat said following her partner to the door. "Listen, I really owe you for having my back and letting me figure this all out for myself. As you can see, with this family there's always more than meets the eye." Kat explained.

"You're my partner, we need to stick together. Always. But ...I will say this, if I can stick by your side, I want to know that you can stick by mine. Once you get back on the force full time, I'm going to need to know that I can trust you. No secrets. Just like it was before you became part of this family." Loomis said as he opened the front door and made his way onto the snowy front step.

Kat smiled and nodded. "You got it." She answered with a grin.

****

Upstairs Carolyn knocked on Maggie's bedroom door. Maggie, who had taken David and Carolyn up on their offer to stay at Collinwood for a while had been resting while the commotion downstairs carried on.

"Maggie? Are you up?" Carolyn asked.

"Yes, come in, come in." Maggie replayed politely. 

"Maggie, it's all over, darling. It's over. They're back! The baby has come back safely" Carolyn said in a joyful tone as she sat on Maggie's bedside.

Maggie, who was standing on the other side of the bedding turning it down, suddenly froze. She looked up at Carolyn and took a gulp of air. Her fears were making her stomach churn.

"Is he....did he....? " Maggie asked struggling to get the words out.

"No. Not Barnabas. Just the baby--Canan, Vickie and Kat. They're all back. Barnabas, for reasons I don't quite understand yet, he remained in 1920." Carolyn confirmed.

Maggie took a sigh of relief when Carolyn answered. Her deepest fear was that Barnabas would return and begin to wreak havoc on her life again as he did so many years ago, and as he attempted to do this past summer when he went searching for her at Windcliff, where he inevitably killed Joanna Grayson in cold blood. 

"I know that he's not here and that I should feel safe, but to not know where he is, will always keep me in a constant terrified head-space. If you feel good about everything and safe, I'll do my best too." Maggie said as she jumped into bed.

"Maggie, he really has changed a bit. You'd surprised." Carolyn said.

"I think I'd rather not." Maggie said coldly.

"He protects us! I know what you're thinking, I've fallen under some kind of Barnabas spell like my mother did 50 years ago, but truthfully I don't know if any of us would have survived these last few moths if it werent for Barnabas. He has his faults, and at times, they can put him in a dark place, but..." Carolyn said before being interrupted by Maggie.

"Carolyn, I don't mean to be rude, but spare me. You know more than anyone what he's capable of, and if he's trapped in 1920 then so be it." Maggie reiterated.

"I understand. I guess you'll be happy to know that he's there with my grandfather Jamison who we all know wasn't exactly the sanest man in the world, so whatever happens it's safe to say that Barnabas' fate my just be sealed there with Jamison." Carolyn relented.

"That's my hope." Maggie said getting into her bed. 

"You get some rest now darling. Tomorrow you'll meet the baby and Kat." Carolyn said as she headed for the door.

"Wait....I'm sorry. What did you say the baby's mother's name is? Kat?" Maggie said suddenly paying attention to something that wasn't Barnabas' name.

"Kat. Caleb's fiance, Kat Banning." Carolyn asked confused.

"Kathryn Banning." Maggie repeated.

"Yes." Carolyn answered. 

"Oh, ok....well Goodnight Carolyn." Maggie said abruptly. 

"See you in the morning. Rest up!" Carolyn said grabbing Maggie's feet from outside the blankets.

As soon as Carolyn closed the bedroom door behind her, Maggie jumped out of bed and walked over to the telephone that sat on a fancy side table near the bedroom window that looked out on to the side lawn that faced the old house, the house where she had been help captive many years ago by Barnabas Collins. 

After all this time she knew the other shoe was about to drop and now knowing the name of Caleb's fiance she could see where that shoe would drop...someplace she never thought she'd see again.

Maggie picked up the phone and dialed a number she also thought she'd never dial again.

"Hello....." Maggie said apprehensively. "....I knew you'd be expecting my call. I should have just gone right to you and never come to Collinwood. Why didn't you warn me?" She added  before listening to the person on the other end of the line.

"I've gone through too much, I can't do that." Maggie said responding to the person's idea.

"No...I won't do it. I won't!" Maggie said continuing to resist the person's advice.

"Yes. I think that will work instead. Tomorrow morning I've leave before everyone is awake and I'll come see you. Kat cannot know I'm here. She must never ever know." Maggie said before she hung up the phone and stared off  into the black night and the shadow of the old house beyond her bedroom window.

***ST. JOHN'S PERISH, COLLINWOOD***

As the Collins family had a well deserved and happy reunion, another reunion was about to take place across town at St. John's Perish where Father Joseph Helsing lived.

The Perish was quiet and calming with a few parishioners praying in the pews, and off in the corner lighting candles under a portrait of the blessed mother was Father Joseph, Victoria's biological father the man that created the lie to bring Vickie back to Collinsport over 50 years ago...the man Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard once loved.

"A mother's love is one of the most previous resources we receive as we grow, isn't father?" A women's voice said from behind as the priest lit his last candle and turned around to see Victoria standing behind him.

"Victoria." Father Joseph said in a whisper.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you or anyone. I just came to say goodbye, and that I'm sorry." Vickie said equaling Joseph's whispery tone.

"Are you...are you a vision? Are you real?" Joseph said shaking, unsure of if he was seeing Vickie in life or as a spirit.

He reached out and she reached  back. He grabbed her hands and squeezed feeling her flesh and bone, then a tear crawled up to the edge of his eye and slowly trickled out.

"How did you get back, how did you ..." Joseph said before Vickie interrupted.

"None of that matters now, really, father. It doesn't. What does matter, is that I've seen the error in my ways and I understand what you did and why you did it. We all make mistakes, it's just a shame I ran from mine. Fear puts us in an odd place: some of us rise to the occasion and conquer that fear, and other's just fade off. I want to conquer mine from now on." Vickie said with a slight nod to her possible future. "I hurt so many people father, I think it's time I everyone heal." Vickie continued.

"Will you stay in Collinsport?" Joseph questioned.

"No, no. I think for now, my time is up. I'm going back to New York to be where I started out. Collinsport is where so much of my life happened, but New York is my home. New York is where I began and I've lost touch with that and who I was really meant to be." She answered.

"I wish that we could get to know each other better, Victoria, there's so much I wish to tell you, so much I wish I knew about you. I'm sure--your mother Elizabeth--were alive today she'd feel the same. She's want us to get closer." Joseph said.

"I thought that too.  You see, I still have my home there, in New York, and of course I still have a home here in Collinsport, anyway, what I'm saying is, if it's possible maybe you'd like to come with me to New York for a while. You've spent so many years here at St. John's, I'm sure you can use a small vacation." Vickie said bashfully.

"You want me to go with you? You want me to travel back with you to New York and live with you?" Joseph said with a bright smile.

"I do." Vickie confirmed as she reached into her hand bag and pulled out two one way train tickets to New York City that was leaving in just two hours.  "I took the liberty of buy a ticket for you just in case....all you have to do is pack a bag." She continued.

It had come to this. Father Joseph had set off so much chaos with his initial lie about the fake organization and who Vickie needed to come to Collinsport in 1966 and observe the mysterious family so that Elizabeth and Vickie could be close... only to have the lie blow up in his face and go on a life of its own. Vickie's plots came back to haunt her too and now everything came full circle.

The path to forgiveness and redemption for both Vickie and Father Joseph came in the form of train tacks in the direction of New York City.

It didn't take much convincing on Vickie's part.. Father Joseph quickly and happily dashed up a small winding staircase inside the back area of the St. John's Parish where he and another priest lived. The quarters were cramped and modest, but suited the two holy men fine.

With a childlike grin, and a skip in his step, Joseph quickly packed a bag and headed back down the staircase. He looked around the sanctuary of the church that had been such huge part of this life, 60 75 years to be exact. He smiled at the alter and made the sign of the cross across his chest.

He was off with Vickie to the Collinsport train station. The tracks and platform were covered in the freshest frozen snow. Vickie and Father Joseph were bundled up in the the winter air as they waited for the coming train to the city.

When it arrived, it bounded into the station like a steel arm, pushing through the snow and burning through the tracks like a hot knife through butter. The steam from it's engine raged and filled the air around all the people awaiting it's arrival. Vickie looked over at her father the priest who had a never ending smile on his face. She picked up her bag and motioned for him to follow her on board.

"It's now are never." She said with a grin.

"I've had a lifetime of never's." Joseph said with a grin.

"Will they miss you at the perish?" Vickie asked.

"They will. But nothing is forever." The priest grinned again as the both took their seats on the train with the foggy window reflecting the frozen WELCOME TO COLLINSPORT sign in the glass.

As the train pulled out, Joseph looked out on the platform and standing there was a woman waving goodbye at them. He squinted and cleaned the condensation from the window and squinted. He looked closely and he could see that the woman was dressed differently, she was dressed in what looked like 1940's clothes.

Joseph shook his head and opened his eyes again, thinking the night and his mind was playing tricks on  him but when he opened his eyes again the woman in the 1940's clothes was still standing there.

And as the train pulled closer to her, Joseph saw her more clearly, in almost perfect clarity. It was Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard as she when he knew her. Her spirit had come back one last time to say goodbye to him and to Victoria.

One final wave. One final farewell to the man she truly loved long long ago.

The train chugged on through the winter icy and snow. Soon, the cabin conductor came by for their tickets.

"Ticket, sir." He said as Joseph handed his ticket. "Name?" The conductor asked to confirm his identity.

"Father Helsing." Joseph replied.

"Thank you father, ma'am, ticket please?" The conductor asked Vickie.

She smiled and handed her ticket.

"Name ma'am?" he asked again for confirmation.

Vickie looked at the cabin conductor and smiled.

"My name.......my name is Victoria Winters." Vickie answered as she looked out of her window one last time to Collinwood slowly fading in the background. 

Series 6/Chapter 11 BLOOD IN THE SNOW

**COLLINWOOD, 1920**

Jamison's gun pressed cold and hard up against Barnabas' forehead as his hand shook and beads of sweat gathered on his upper lip and Barnabas remained still, frozen in his sleep awaiting dusk. As Jamison's finger began to squeeze the trigger for release a sudden rush of light and energy swooped from the behind enveloping Jamison's body and knocking him and and the coffin to the ground awaking Barnabas.

The two men slowly gathered their composure's on the floor of the basement of the old house. The light was dim, and Barnabas could not see just yet as his eyes adjusted. Jamison, his head scraped from the fall, quickly regrouped and looked down at Barnabas who was shaking his head from the bumpy fall.

Jamison's eyes began to water. He could feel the mounting anger and hatred in his body boiling up like lava in a volcano just before an eruption, but his gun, with the silver bullets fell out of his hand in the fall and had gone missing in the dark basement.

"What is the meaning of this?" Barnabas muttered as he got to his feet.

"Your demise. The clock has run out Barnabas Collins. I've finally realized just why you came here and I know what you've done. This curse, this...unholy life you live, is now over." Jamison said.

Barnabas stood up and dusted off his suite. He looked down at his turned over coffin and adjusted his thin black tie and looked over at his distant relative Jamison who sounded confidant but shook in his shoes. Barnabas could feel Jamison's heart beat faster and faster. The blood pumping through  his body was a rush of for both of the men, and not surprisingly for different reasons.

"There's nothing you can do that would destroy me more than I have already destroyed myself. Everything you've heard of me, is perhaps, truth, and I understand how disturbing it all might seem, however there's nothing I can do about any of it. It is what I have been dealt. What did you plan on doing here?" Barnabas said with a smirk.

Jamison glared at Barnabas intently but suddenly saw the silver from the gun shine from under a table. It was a stroke of luck and Jamison dove for the gun pushing Barnabas aside. Jamison spun around on his knees and with both hands pointed the gun at Barnabas once again.

"Here! This is what I planned on doing. Every silver bullet in this revolver has your hellish name on it, and I plan on making sure they enter your body with all the heat of hell you come from." Jamison said pulling the trigger over and over and over unloading the gun in Barnabas' direction.

As the bullets flew through the air a light, bright as the sun, appeared in between Barnabas and Jamison blocking the bullets mid air. The light held the bullets suspended in itself and slowly began to morph into a figure. The face and arms became apparent first then hair and a dress. It was the spirit of Josette DuPres-Collins, Barnabas first true love.

She was glowing a bright and heavenly light, in her mid section the bullets from Jamison's gun gathered in her mid section. She looked down and collected them in her hands and held them.

"Josette." Barnabas said in a stunned whisper at the sight of her.

"More sorcery!" Jamison said still on his knees with the gun pointed and without bullets.

Barnabas saw his chance and dashed through Josette's spirit on to Jamison as if he were jumping through a screen made of a white mist or fog distorting Josette's body before it reattached itself as he passed through.

Jamison and Barnabas scuffed on the floor as Josette stood in the center of the room in a flowing and glowing light with tears streaming down her pale face the bullets still in her hand.

Jamison lodged a blow to Barnabas' face as Barnabas reached for the gun, then Barnabas sent an equally powerful blow into Jamison's face in response. They continued to fight and eventually got up from the ground and separated. Jamison on one side of the  basement floor, Barnabas on the other, bleeding from the lip.

"This wasn't supposed to happen Jamison, we can move on from this if you just allow my plan to continue." Barnabas adjusting his tie and attempting to catch  his breath.

"You plan? And what would that be? Kill us all? You've come here to do that, I know you have,  but I can't let you." Jamison said stammering in place across from Barnabas.

"You say you know the truth, and what truth is that? What do you know?" Barnabas questioned as the light from Josette reflected on his face.

"This...this is what I knew. This is what I saw! You're a creature from the darkest places we know and I can't allow you to continue to infect this family. Look what you've brought upon us? This spirit that works in concert with you? A spirit! An actual spirit!" Jamison said, his mind starting to crack under the pressure of what he was seeing.

"There are spirits all around you. You know you've seen them. You've seen them all your life. You know where they dwell and you know the ones that are good and the ones that are bad, I know that of you. What does that make you? We are of the same blood, the same type of supernatural creation and we need to work together to get me back to where I came from. We can do that. We can do it together. But you must stop this madness." Barnabas stated as Josette continued to stand silently with the bullets in her hand.

"I don't trust you." Jamison responded.

"Then what can I do? I don't want to kill you.....but if you stand in my way, I will have no choice." Barnabas replied.

Jamison's eyes zeroed in on Barnabas and he screamed on awful scream and lunged forward towards Barnabas' side of the basement planting a punch to Barnabas' face, square in the jaw. Blood oozed from Barnabas mouth that he wiped with with his finger then licked it clean with his hand.

Jamison, incensed by what he saw through another punch that Barnabas caught with his hand allowing a breath moment for Barnabas to throw his own punch into Jamison's mid section taking the wind out of his lungs. Jamison rebounded and tried again to knock Barnabas in the chest but failed. Suddenly the glowing figure in the room, Josette closed her eyes and squeezed her hands crushing the silver bullets in her hand.

As the bullets crumbled to the floor she opened her mouth and let out the frightening loud, blood boiling scream of a banshee that shook the walls and floorboards of the basement knocking both Barnabas and Jamsion to the floor.

The room grew suddenly quiet. The candles were extinguished with Josette's scream. Barnabas slowly got up and looked over at Jamison who had hit his  head in the fall and was knocked unconscious.  Then as he collected himself the light began to trickle in again into the shape of Josette's spirit standing directly over Jamison and in front of Barnabas.

"This is the last time I help you Barnabas Collins. The future is in your hands. If you fail at getting the right people back to their rightful time there will be disastrous consequences for this family." The spirit said.

"Why have you  helped me?" Barnabas questioned as small tears began to gather in dark eyes.

"I know what you feel for this family and the things you've given up over the centuries. I know the sins you've committed but I feel that the good will always out weigh the bad. This is your last chance to redeem yourself in the eyes of your family. As I said, the consequences on your failure are grave." Josette said.

"I wish you could come back with me." Barnabas responded.

"Our time was centuries ago. What we had is trapped in a time that will never be again. No matter how many times you try and recreate it for yourself or anyone else. When you return to the future Barnabas, stay there. Live out whatever life you will lead there and no where else. That you must promise me." Josette responded.

"Is there really no way to convince you Josette to come back with me. We could find you a new life too...we could be together there." Barnabas said tears now streaming down his cheeks.

Josette only shook her head now and floated closer to Barnabas and put her hand on his cheek. She smiled and leaned in to kiss him. Her ghostly lips touched his battered and bruised lips and it almost felt like she were really there in a real body and real form.

"You must go back to the main house. Below in the lowest level you'll find Victoria, Claudia and Catherine. Take them with baby Canan to the site of where Jamison will eventually billed Sea View Cottage. If you make in in the next half hour the portal will open, only then can you and rest jump through to the correct time. Go! Go now!" Josette said as Barnabas wiped his tears and dashed up the basement stares of the old house to the main house.

****

Barnabas dashed across the snowy frozen front lawn of the main house of Collinwood and burst through it's thick double doors. The melting snow sloshed at the bottom of his shoes leaving scattered puddles on the hardwood floors. The house was silent except for the crackling fire in the fireplace inside the drawing room.

Barnabas stared at the fire in the drawing room from the foyer and then looked up at the clock, time was ticking away and he had to get the women that Jamison locked in the basement free and out to the site of where Sea Cliff cottage would soon be built. Barnabas quickly turned to  his left and ran down a small corridor that lead to the basement door. He pulled it open and could see from the stop of the stairs a faint light at the bottom.

"What do you think Jamison has done?" Kat, still in Catherine's body asked the others.

"There's no telling. He was like a made man." Vickie responded.

"If he kills Barnabas and we don't escape, that's it for  us. I'll never get Canan back to 2016 and we'll never...we'll never be a family again." Kat said with tears in her eyes.

Vickie's eyes too watered watching Kat as Catherine break down, Vickie felt horrible, she knew this was all her fault. Had she never interfered with their lives none of this would have ever happened.

Claudia stood in the corner of the cell shivering and silent.

And just as Kat's tears and sobs filled the basement room, Barnabas turned the corner from the back stairwell unbeknownst to Vickie and Kat who were in each other's arms still crying.

"Father!" Claudia said delighted as she walked up to and put her hands around the bars she was locked behind.

"We don't have much time." Barnabas said pulling on the cell door that was locked.

"Barnabas, what happened? Where's Jamison?" Vickie quickly questioned.

"We fought, he's unconscious at the old house but I don't know for how long. If I can't get you out of this cell now, we'll miss the time vortex opening at Sea View. Where are the keys?" Barnabas asked in a rushed voice.

"Jamison has them of course. He took them when he went after you." Claudia stated.

Barnabas looked around and only saw a old ax that had been left on a work table with several other tools. He reached for it and told the women to stand back. With all  his might Barnabas slammed the ax down on the lock that was holding the door closed. The two metal objects collided causing sparks to fly into the air. With every heave Barnabas could feel the vibrations ripping into his body. He felt more human than he had ever felt in his whole life. The electric sensation moving through him, the adrenaline, it was an exquisite sensation.

He continued to wack at the lock, blow after blow until finally the latch snapped bursting into the air with one last slice. The door was unlocked and the women were free.

"Hurry! You must grab Canan from upstairs so that we can make it in time. We have to go now!" Barnabas announced.

The women all ran up the stairs and into the main  house, Barnabas followed. Kat grabbed her baby and made sure baby Elizabeth was fast asleep and safe. She ran down the stairs and Vickie, Barnabas and Claudia were all waiting for her. Barnabas wrapped Kat in Catherine's coat and group quickly made their way out of the main house and into the snow.

As they all ran down the front frozen yard to the exit they heard a gun shot fly into the air. It was Jamison who was hot on their trail and shooting at them from behind.

"Stop!!!" Jamison screamed shooting another bullet again at the group.

The women screamed, Kat covered Canan to keep him safe as they made it to the road where the snow had been cleared. It was now just a long stretch of street before they got to the shoreline where on the side of Widow's Hill stood the grounds were the Collins family would eventually build a lovely cottage that Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard would leave to Victoria in her will.

They all ran down the street screaming Barnabas trailing behind to make sure all three women and the baby made it safely. The mud and the snow mixed to make a dark color slosh that stained the bottom of the women's fine dresses.

As they got closer to the edge of Widow's Hill another gun shot rang out from behind, hitting Claudia in the back.

"Don't stop! Keep running!" Barnabas said pushing his hand on to his daughter's back trying to block the blood from seeping out.

"It stings!!" Claudia said in tears.

"Don't Stop!" Barnabas said.

They finally reached the edge of the hill where the cottage would be build, and there just as Ezrabette promised, the time portal back to 2016 began to open. The same portal Vickie Opened with her Ouija board.

"Hurry! It'll close without you, you must jump through!" Barnabas ordered.

The first to jump in was Kat and as she did, her body separated from Catherine's like a butterfly escaping it's cocoon as she and the baby became one with the vortex sucking them back in, Catherine's body fell back, unconscious on the ground and deep in the snow.

Following Kat and the baby went Victoria but Claudia fell to the ground just before the portal, she had lost too much blood and was too weak to jump.

"Claudia!" Barnabas screamed as he watched the vortex close without his daughter and himself going through.


Barnabas fell in the snow near his daughter and scooped up her cold body, but just as he did, Jamison came up behind him and pulled him away by the neck and they fell to the ground in freezing snow in another scuffle. The mud and snow dripped from their faces and bodies as they looked up and saw that the vortex had fully closed off and vanished.

Jamison ran over to Catherine who was waking up and helped her up, Barnabas crawled over to Claudia who's blood had seeped out of her wounds creating a crimson pool in the snow.

Catherine was disoriented and had no idea how she gone outside in the snow. She looked over in a daze and saw Jamison still  pointing a gun at Barnabas who was mourning his daughter who was dying in his arms.

"Jamie, what....what's going on??" She said in a confused state.

"This monster killed your mother, he's one of the un-dead. I knew it all along, from the moment he came in to our home I could sense his evil and the horror he would bring to us." Jamison stated pointing the gun at Barnabas as snow began to slowly fall onto the frozen ground.

"Killed my mother?" Catherine said in shock. "Jamison what are you talking about?" She added.

"And you killed Claudia." Barnabas said, with a seething a sense of emotion curtailing out of his stony heart.

"Jamie!" Catherine cried as she was finally understanding what was happening and seeing Claudia's body.

Barnabas stood strong and stared directly into the barrel of Jamison's gun. He knew this could be the end. He closed his eyes and allowed the snow to fall on his face then sticking to his alabaster skin.

He began to have flashbacks of his time in Collinwood with his sister Sarah, Josette and cousin Quinton. He remembered the terrible traumas inflicted by Angelique, then the family in 1966. He recalled his fondness for Elizabeth and Maggie Evans, and his troubled past with Julia Hoffman. He stood there and allowed the memories of his time with Claudia who he took away as a baby to save her from Angelique's evil, he remembered saving Kimberly from Carolyn's bullet. His life was a mixed of good vs. evil, and now it could all be over with a single gunshot to the heart with a silver bullet.

"Do what you must." Barnabas said still with  his eyes closed and now his arms stretched out in the winter air.

 "I have two more bullets, silver in their making, and one to his heart will end this family curse once and for all." Jamison said.

"I can't look!" Catherine said hiding her face in her husbands chest.

Jamsion squeezed the trigger and the gun clicked, he squeezed again and the gun clicked. Nothing came out. He had miscounted his bullets. Jamison's anger was bursting through his eyes. He walked up to Barnabas and flipped the gun around in his hand and with the butt of the gun slammed it down on Barnabas' head.

Barnabas grabbed screamed in agony and fell face down in the bloody snow.

Then....darkness.