Series 11/Chapter 1: WHISPERS

Widow's Hill



**PROLOGUE**

On the eve of a new season that brought in the cold kiss of autumn, clouds began to gather over the small fishing village of Collinsport, Maine. It had been six months since the evil witch Angelique Bouchard attempted a coup over the most famous family in town by trying to place them all under a spell and take over their lives by magical manipulation and mind control.

She failed. Miserably.

Her plan was foiled when the growing powers within Alexandra Thorne usurped Angelique's and broke the control over the family compound of Collinwood. But there were some casualties of this war. Barnabas Collins, his body encased in stone by Angelique, crumbled into a heap of dust as the spell broke; vanishing from the world he so tried to re-acclimate himself into at a deadly cost.

Barnabas was not the only victim. Angelique's obsession with love and receiving it, cost Victoria Winters her vision, her voice, her son and her freedom. Locked away at Windcliff Sanitarium under false pretenses and under a spell of silence and blindness, Vicky has been desperate for answers: Was her family really all gone as Angelique had lead her to believe? And how was she ever going to escape this treacherous witch's curse?

There was danger in Collinsport, just as much as ever. The Collins family believed Angelique dead all the while she was living with Curtis Winters, shape-shifting into a woman named Cassandra, a nurse at Windcliff. Her face twisting and turning into a completely unrecognizable person that no one would ever suspect. Vicky believed her family was dead and lived locked away in an insane asylum after her bewitched son believed a nervous breakdown had destroyed his mother's mind. All this a ruse, a complex plot, by Angelique to keep Vicky, the soul person who knew her true identity, out of the picture and out of her way forever.

Truth be told, Angelique was grasping at her fantasy life with Curtis with both hands. As long as Curtis remained under her control, as long as Vicky remained locked away at Windliff, and as long as she could continue her shape-shifting into Cassandra, Angelique and Curtis could remain together.

Angelique, however, would always forget that plan's don't always work out the way they are crafted, and she would have to work extra hard to keep Vicky in her place and her secret identity safe because fate, you see, is much like the wild sea that surrounds Collinsport: You don't ever turn your back on it.

********

A cool wind slowly blew through Carolyn's blond hair as she stood atop Widow's Hill gazing out on to the cerulean blue Atlantic sea. She looked out towards the horizon as an 1860's caravel danced in the distant waves like a ghost ship revealing itself to the world once more. She smiled to herself imagining it was the same ship that brought her Collins ancestors to America from England all those centuries ago. They brought with them their dreams of the new world, hopes, passions, and also a linage that would ultimately lead to devastation and peril.

Carolyn, after all, was a product of this linage. She knew first hand the traumas that her entire family had lived through. She thought how her mother had suffered, how her uncle Roger and David had suffered, she thought of every person that had taken their own lives right in the very spot she was standing on atop Widow's Hill. She'd been there too. She'd seen it first hand. She was a victim of it herself.

As the matriarch of the Collins clan continued to feel the emotions of her past build up inside of her heart like the swelling of the sea, the cold ocean air brushed against her perfect 70 year old skin and a voice broke through the crashing waves below: "There's an exhibition of old ships up in Augusta. That one's an 1860's English naval war ship that was restored. Sebastian  and Serena are thinking about going an checking them out before they head off to Boston on the weekend."  

It was Maggie Evans, bundled up in a cream colored coat and matching scarf. Her hair equally as tousled by the westward winds. 

"I didn't know you were so proficient in ancient navel ships." Carolyn said, as Maggie approached.

They hugged.

"My father. You know how much he loved painting landscapes? Well he loved painting old ships even more. He would have me research them when I was kid. Over and over I'd have to go through books about these old ships and describe them to him while he painted. I think it was a way for him to take his mind off of my mother. Painting really helped him heal in the early days after her death." Maggie reminisced. "What are you still doing up here? It's freezing!" Maggie continued, now hugging herself warm.

"I had this bench put out here." Carolyn said pointing to a wood and iron park-like bench behind them. "I realized that all these years we'd all come up here for one reason or another and didn't have a single thing to sit on and just gaze out on the water. It's therapeutic, really, listening to the sea on those rocks down there. It really clears your mind." 

Maggie stepped over to the bench to inspect it. She smiled at it's pretty French style moldings but then quickly frowned when she saw the tiny little dedication plaque in the center, it read "FOR BARNABAS". Maggie shook her head.

"It's been six months, Carolyn. You cannot continue to feel guilty about what happened to him. It was all Angelique's doing, you had no idea things would end up this way." Maggie said.

"I can't help feel responsible. Had Julia and I taken a different avenue in trying to reach out to him, maybe he wouldn't have gone down the path he did and trusted Angelique. He thought we were all out to get him. And he was right. He chose Angelique's words over our own because he felt trapped. And look where it led him." Carolyn remembered.

"Everyone has a choice. That's how life works. Barnabas made his too. He could have come to you, you both could have worked things out much like you had in the past, but he didn't. He chose to believe a woman who had lied to him his entire life. It wasn't your fault he died, Carolyn." Maggie reassured her. 

Carolyn shook her head and wanted to hear no more about it. She interlocked her arm with Maggie's and tugged her over to the bench, they sat down together to face the sea.

"So, tell me, has Serena made herself comfortable at Collinwood?" Carolyn asked.

"She has. We just moved the last of her things in." Maggie replied.

"She's going to be a great nanny for Johnny now that Siobhan is back at work. Siobhan told me how wonderful he was with her, like they'd know each other for years. He really is a good baby. Can't believe he's almost a year old." Carolyn said.

"She's nervous." Maggie added of Serena.

"Why?" Carolyn questioned clearly forgetting the history the house had with past governesses.

Maggie looked at Carolyn with an eyebrow lifted. 

"Oh. Well..." Carolyn paused unsure of what to say, then the two burst into a fit of laughter. They couldn't contain themselves. It was like a dam had broken after 50 years of holding back laughs of the strangely absurd things that sometimes happened to the people at Collinwood. How could anyone in their right mind ever choose to work there on their own free will? 

It never surprised Carolyn, in reality, that someone knowing the house's true history and past still felt a sort of magnetic pull to the Collins family and the great house on Widow's Hill. The draw of mystery and the unknown was like a drug to the outside world who only wanted just a taste of excitement in their ordinary lives. Any job opening for staff at the house was always met with overwhelming interest. But those who came in knew, never stayed long.

The grand luster of the spooky house usually wore off quickly once the creepy sounds turned into to real visions of those that lived there before. 

But Serena was different. She knew full well how this house worked, how the family lived and how the two worlds, one living and one dead, somehow coexisted within the walls of Collinwood. Plus the pay was fantastic!

As the two women on Widow's Hill continued to be astounded at anyone brave enough to walk the halls of Collinwood for a paycheck one person in particular came into Maggie's mind to ask about.

"Julia...how is she?"

Carolyn took a deep breath before answering.

"You know she hasn't really talked to us much since it all happened. You'd think Barnabas' death would have taken it's toll on her but she's really been focused on reconnecting with Siobhan and Quinn. Not everyone get's a second chance at living like Julia, so I think she's taking it for what' it's worth." Carolyn explained.

"Has she even cried yet? She loved him." Maggie replied as a great gust of wind blew through her thick hair.

"Not once." Carolyn replied.

Maggie sighed, her heart sinking slighting knowing how Julia often worked. When Julia kept things on the back burner for too long they often boiled over and it was almost never a pretty sight once it was time to clean up, especially when it came to Barnabas. Julia, pretending as if everything were fine after the death of the one man she put her own life on the line for over 5 decades, could soon begin to feel the pain she was bottling up. And there was no telling how she'd react once it all settled in.

"Should I be worried?" Maggie asked as she looked out on the sea.

"About Julia? No. I wouldn't. David thinks that it'll be fine. She's not the way she was all those years ago. She has a family now, of her own. A purpose. He said that now that Barnabas is truly out of the picture she can live the life she probably was always meant to live." 

"David thinks that huh? Well I'm not surprised." Maggie quipped. "There was never any love-loss between David and Barnabas, I'm Julia isn't the only one who can move on now that he's really gone."

Carolyn agreed. "I think now David can really truly heal from everything that happened to him as a boy. Imagine growing up at his age and seeing the horrors that he saw. It was bad enough at our age!"

"And Victoria? How's she been?" Maggie asked of the other former Collinwood employee with a history with the spirits of the house.

Carolyn shook her head again about her half sister who was locked away at Windcliff after a nervous breakdown.

"Curtis won't let us see her. It's been very complicated to get some sort of news. But, I'm not going to give up. We can't just let Vicky rot in that place without her knowing we're there for her." Carolyn complained.

Maggie smiled and grabbed her old friend Carolyn's cold hand and squeezed. She wanted to warn her about pushing herself too far and thinking that she could fix everything with Julia or Vicky.

But she didn't say those things. She didn't ruin the good moment she had with Carolyn on Barnabas' bench. She didn't want to spoil that wind swept moment of true friendship. She only squeezed Carolyn's hands and smiled then excused herself back to mansion leaving Carolyn in the cold for a bit longer to watch the ship in the sea finally make it over the horizon. 

The sun was bright in the sky and the waves crashed in bursts of water that filled the air around Carolyn in a wet mist that sprinkled on her porcelain skin. She closed her eyes and let the wind fill her hair and press against her skin, relaxing her face and her body.

A wave of peace suddenly broke into sudden shock when Carolyn heard someone whisper her name in the wind. A voice, she knew, a voice she had always known. Carolyn snapped open her closed eyes and turned around to locate the disembodied voice, but there was no one on Widow's Hill with her. 

No Maggie, no David. No one. Just the wind howling and playing a vicious joke on Carolyn's ears. Or was it? 

And just before she could shake that whisper of her name out of her head as nothing, she heard it again, this time she knew exactly who it was. It was Barnabas' voice calling to her through the wind.

Carolyn jumped from the bench and spun around in a circle searching for him, she could now feel his presence. He was there. He was calling her name, but what did he want? What did he want from her this time?

It couldn't be real. She was hearing things, it was the wind, she thought. It was impossible, just a joke her mind was playing on her. Carolyn, shaking with nerves, knew Barnabas was dead. She saw his stone-turned body crumble into a thousand pieces once Angelique's spell was broken.

He was dead! But Barnabas had been dead before, and Carolyn knew that. She stared blankly into the sea below, a worried, sick feeling came over her as she grappled with the thought in her mind of Barnabas' true demise.

Were they really free of him? Was his life really vanquished in a heap of stone and dust?

Carolyn's heart told her yes, but the voice she heard in the wind.....clearly gave her second thoughts. 

****

Windcliff Sanitarium had seen it's fair share of chiefs of staff over it's long history of searching for answers to the most destitute of patients with severe mental health problems and traumas, but none as passionate as Dr. Siobhan Morgan-Collins who followed in her adopted mother's footsteps into the world of psychological medicine. 

Siobhan had recently returned to the hospital after a 6 month absence due to maternity leave after the birth of her son John-Michael. She sat at her desk in a bit of an anxious heap reading over the many pages and documents of all the patients' progress while she was out. Thankfully, the doctor from Bangor who came to Windcliff in her absence, took careful and precise notes. 

 "Knock, knock!" a voice from Siobhan's open office door uttered in a clear tone.

"Oh! Doctor Wolf, please come in! Come in!" Siobhan answered as she quickly stood up for Dr. Wolf's entrance.

"I hope you've found everything back in it's place and that I didn't ruin any kind of order you've made." He replied of his time in her stead.

"Of course not! Thank you again for all your work while I was out, I'm sure everyone is going to miss you. It's not easy jumping in like that and then having to leave." Siobhan said.

"Well actually that is what I wanted to talk to you about." Wolf replied.

"Oh?"

"There's a new patient that came in about six months ago that I would like to keep on seeing even though you've come back. She and I have built up a sort of connection and I'd really like to be there to continue the treatments we've already begun. Do you think that is a possibility?" Wolf asked sitting on the overstuffed green leather chair.

Siobhan sat back down at her desk that faced Dr. Wolf. Her fair skin and dark hair glowing in the light of the small lamp on her desk giving her candle like aura around her heart-shaped face. 

"New patient?" Siobhan wondered as she sorted though the files unable to remember who Dr. Wolf was talking about.

"Here." He said handing her a file from his own briefcase. 

Siobhan flipped open the file and read the name to herself. WINTERS, VICTORIA.

"Oh, Doctor, I don't know about this. I completely understand that you'd want to continue what you've been able to accomplish with Vicky, but she's family. None of us have been able to see her since she's been here and I'd really like to check in on her." Siobhan said of her cousin by marriage. 

"Well that's actually just another reason I should remain as Ms. Winters primary psychiatric care provider, I've not only prepared a good program for her recovery but as you said, you're family. There's a conflict of interest there that I don't carry." Wolf pointed out.

Siobhan sighed, Dr. Wolf was absolutely right. There was no way Siobhan could openly care for Vicky without the American Board of Psychiatry on her about this familial conflict. 

"I suppose as long as I receive reports on a weekly basis on her prognosis and if any medication becomes changed or increased I am informed. I don't want anything to happen to Ms. Winters without my pre-approval now that I've returned." Siobhan said flexing her authority.

"Understood." Dr. Wolf grinned.

He stood up from the overstuffed green leather chair and adjusted his vest and jacket that had become clumped up around his chubby belly. He smoothed out the flyaway hairs in his grey beard and shook Siobhan's hand with a tight grip. 

Siobhan sat back down and took another deep breath as she thought about poor Vicky and how horrible it had been for her to go through the nervous breakdown Curtis described. It was a painful realization that the whole Collins family was dealing with, only what they didn't know was it was all part of a clever and wicked spell put on Vicky by Angelique to silence her knowledge of her continued existence in Collinsport. A spell that even though had partially been broken still kept a tight grip over Vicky and Curtis.

As Doctor Wolf made his way down the shadowy halls of Windcliff he entered his own office which was much smaller than Siobhan's, darker and oddly empty of patient files and records. He stood in front of a large mirror that hung on the wall and smiled, then suddenly like a sneak peeling away the outer layer of it's skin, Dr. Wolf shape-shifted into Angelique Bouchard, the witch who was dead-set on making sure no one in the Collins family could take her away from the new love of her life Curtis. That included Siobhan. Vicky's isolation from her family, that she believed dead, was the key to Angelique's happiness with Curtis.

Vicky was Angelique's only loose wire and now that she had full reign over Vicky's well-being at Windcliff via Siobhan's stamp of approval of "Dr. Wolf". Things for Vicky had just turned from bad to worse, and she didn't even know it yet. 

****

Victoria Winters sat in a rocking chair in a slight daze from the meds she had begin prescribed by Dr. Wolf. She looked up and saw a new face at her hospital room door, the woman's white outfit reflected the light of the room like beams of sunlight straight from the sun. So much so Vicky had to squint to get a good look at the new arrival. A new nurse perhaps? 

"Hi." said a soft voice from the woman in white as she cautiously stood at the door and closed it behind her. She stood there, her dark wavy hair perfectly framing her beautiful face.

Vicky had not expected a new roommate. No one had told her about it. No one had brought it up. Not Dr. Wolf, or any of the nurses. But Vicky never the less was excited to have more interaction with someone other than the witch who placed here there under a spell so twisted she was left mute.

"How are you?" the woman said, sitting on a bed across from Vicky.

Vicky, who's eye sight was slowly returning, was still unable to speak. She got up from the chair and grabbed her pad and pen and scribbled out "HI IM OK. I'M VICKY" 

"Dominique." replied the woman with her name as she slowly made her way closer to where Vicky was sitting.

"I hate these kinds of places don't you? Nothing ever good happens here. How long have you been here?" Dominique asked.

Vicky put up her hand showing 6 of her fingers and mouthed "6 months."

"Oh...that't not too bad. I've been in and out of these places ....well...for as long as I can remember. It's almost like I can't really escape them. I guess I'm trapped." Dominique replied, her eye glazing off into a day dream. "I'd give anything to feel the air again. The fresh air. The sun. The warm sun."

"I MISS IT TOO" Vicky wrote.

"Why can't you speak?" Dominique asked.

Vicky shook her head and wrote:  "LONG STORY"

"Well I think I have forever, so why don't tell me." Dominique giggled. "It's not like we're escaping here any time soon."

Suddenly, Dominique's words hit Vicky's mind like a wild fire, especially the word ESCAPE. That's all Vicky wanted to do, that's all she had been dreaming and praying for, some sort of way out, an escape!

Vicky, seeing an open opportunity and thinking Dominique was the answer to her prayers knew there was only one way out and if Dominique was as anxious to leave as she was leading on, Vicky had to act fast for any type of help of escape. There was no time for her to waste, now that 6 months had gone by. Dominique was the first new person she had seen since her arrival and time was of the essence. 

"I NEED U TO HELP ME. I'M TRAPPED HERE!" She scribbled.

"Tell me about it." The woman said rolling her eye and, sitting down on the floor Indian style.

Vicky shook her head seeing that the woman clearly did not understand. She scribbled another note.

"LISTEN. I NEED U TO HELP ME ESCAPE. I'M NOT SUPPOSE TO B HERE."

"That's funny, you're asking me to listen but you're not even talking. You're writing." Dominique giggled. "I could listen to the pen scratch on the paper. Is that would I should listen to?"

Vicky stared at her new roommate and shook her head. She ripped another page out of her pad and started to write again, this time the frustration was obvious in her hand movements and in her writing. Dominique, the new patient, needed to understand, she needed to get Vicky out. It was the only way. Vicky  hadn't seen anyone new person in over 6 months. She would only see Dr. Wolf and Nurse Cassandra, both of whom where shape-shifts of Angelique who had complete control over every aspect of Vicky's life now that she was both doctor and nurse. 

"ESCAPE. I NEED TO GO BACK TO MY SON. PLEASE HELP!" Vicky wrote.

"I have a kid too. I'd love to go back to her too. But....it is what it is Virginia." Dominique replied confusing Vicky's name.

Vicky was getting upset, she needed to some how break through to Dominique help her. She needed to escape Angelique's treacherous hands and get back to her son Curtis, the one member of the family Vicky believed was the last to survive Angelique's terror 6 months earlier.

"FAMILY DEAD. NEED TO FIND SON." Vicky wrote again on another clean sheet of paper.

"My family is dead too. Well except for my brother and daughter. They're out there somewhere. Wanna hear a story?" Dominique said getting up from the ground and jumping on her new bed.

Vicky rolled her eyes and saw that she was going to get no where with the complicated Dominique and just nodded her head agreeing, reluctantly, to Dominique's story.

"See, this isn't my first time here. I've been here before. Windcliff I mean. But the first time I was here, about 20-some years ago, I was a bad girl. I was a very very bad girl." The woman said, grinning with devious delight. "There was a man here, a beautiful man. And we fell in love. We made love. A lot. Like almost every night. He was so beautiful and he made me so happy. But then the main doctor here at the time---Dr. Grayson---she found out! Grayson sent me up-state to the Augusta hospital because patients aren't supposed do that... you know....sex thing." Dominique continue to Vicky's annoyance. 

Dominique continued to tell her story and describe the handsome, sexy patient she fell in love with all those years ago before she was transferred. It was so long ago, Dominique said, but the man had remained part of her life in her memory for years. So when the chance to come back to Windcliff came up she was ecstatic to return hoping that they could reunite. 

"He's beautiful Veronica," Dominique said again using the wrong name. "His name was David. Collins or something, yeah David Collins." 

Vicky's bored eyes suddenly sprung open and stared at Dominique in shock. She was in love with David! David,who had been locked away at Windcliff by his ex wife Kimberly also 25 years ago, match the time frame Dominique was talking about. But Dominique had no idea he was now free of the hospital and living happy and healthy with his wife who happened to also be the new Chief of Staff at Windcliff.

The parallels were astounding. 

The only problem was Vicky thought David was dead. But the ideas were already bubbling up in her mind on an escape plan using Dominique, her knowledge of the layout of Windcliff and Dominique's pure love David and hope of reunion. 

Vicky grabbed her pen and paper again and scribbled. 

"I KNOW DAVID! I KNOW DAVID!"

"What??? You do!?" Dominique replied in elation.

"HELP ME OUT. TAKE U TO DAVID."

"He's not here anymore?" Dominique said in disappointment to Vicky shaking her head "no".

Dominique paused in thought. Unsure of the truth but knew that if she trusted Vicky enough she would be reunited with her lost love somewhere on the outside. The man she had been thinking of for over 20 years, could very well be in her future.

The new patient got up from the bed and paced packed and forth in the light of the hospital room. Vicky kept tapping the pad of paper with her pen with David's name on it, her heart beating fast because she felt terrible about trapping Dominique this way, leading her to believe that she would reunite with David even though he was dead.... which was all a lie Angelique had fed Vicky for the last 6 months.

Dominique thought about Vicky's proposition. They had just met? Could she trust her? How could she know David and how would she even get them to him if she did? So many thoughts bubbled in Dominique's mind but the fact was, she was in love with him, and she had come back hoping to at least get some closure with the man she loved. Closure. That was the key to her whole existence now, that's all she needed. That's all she wanted. And Vicky was offering her that opportunity. 

"Ok. FINE! I'll do it. I'll help you out of here. But the moment I see that you're not taking me to him, the moment I feel like you've tricked me and I don't get to David, I swear, Ill slit your throat from ear to ear." Dominique said, her bright face suddenly truing dark and cold.

Vicky took a deep breath and reached out her hand for Dominique to shake on it, binding them together. It was a deadly risk that Vicky was that desperate to take. Nothing was more important than her freedom, even her own life.

****

As the bright sun of the day began it's slow decent into the horizon, Alexandra Thorne looked off into the distance as she stood dock-side at the piers of the Collinsport Marina. Her eyes fixated on the on the orange hues of the sky now that the sun was beginning to set and all she could do was wonder about her future and her past and how the two could, and would, somehow flow together in harmony.

"Penny for your thoughts."

Alex turned to see Andrew Shaw standing behind her with a two to-go coffees from the small Cafe just across the street from the pier and the Blue Whale.  She shyly thanked him for fetching the warm brew for them.

"So what were you thinking of? I can always tell when someone has something on their mind. Especially you. You seem to just go off into another world, just ....waiting for something to happen." Andrew pointed out.

"Ugh!" Alex scoffed in frustration with herself. "I guess I just keep going over everything that happened, you know. Every time I have a second to look at a sunset, just like that one, I think of that night when everything went out of control. I think of Angelique and what she did to everyone, I think of you, I think of Chris. I think of how lucky we were to find each other and what a miracle it is that we're all still alive." 

"That's about $1.00's worth of pennies." Andrew joked to Alex's giggle.

"Tell me about it." 

"But you're right. We've found each other and thankfully, we can lean on each other now that we're together and nothing is going to come between us again. Ever." Andrew reassured Alex who lovingly cuddled herself for warmth from the chilling day.

"How can you be so sure?" Alex asked in a quiet voice.

"Well, I'm not sure. But that doesn't mean we just allow things to take over us. Not anymore. Not ever." He said.

She squeezed his body close to her, her heart feeling full again. There was a lot on her mind, but somehow, Andrew much like Chris, was able to save her from her own darkness. Alex, who's body had absorbed much of Angelique's powers in their battle was an unlit firework. The feelings inside her of worry, of stress, of anxiety were much more than she realized. 

"Come on, we should get back home." Andrew said. "I'll get the car, wait here."

Alex unlatched herself from Andrew's body allowing him to rush off down the street where his car was parked. She remained on the docks waiting for him as she listened to the seagulls call back and forth to each other above her head. She looked up and three were circling her. They were circling and circling and then suddenly dived down at her, all at once. 

Alex screamed and threw her coffee at them. She backed up and watched as they landed on the wooden barricades on the pier staring at her with 6 red eyes that seemed to burn with the heat of a thousand suns. 

She slowly backed away, confused and humiliated at the birds odd attack on her. The three seagulls continued to stare at her intently, and as they did, a voice swirled into Alex's head from an unknown source. 

"Into the sea....into the sea...die...into the sea" the voice whispered. 

Alex looked around, haunted by the sound. But no one was there. 

The waves lapped up against the giant wood poles that held up the pier, splashing and crashing slowly as the tide began to rise. 

Again: "into the sea...into the sea you go....die...into the sea"

Alex, feeling a strong power over her looked over the pier and saw the water that had earlier seemed to be cold and unwelcoming but now, with the power of that disembodied voice, seemed refreshing and open to her....even with the autumn night approaching.

She lifted one foot onto the barricade. Then the other. She watched as the water crashed up against the sides of the pier. The water rushing fast up to shore then back out to sea, then back up to shore, then back out to sea. Back and forth back and forth by the powerful force of the pull of the moon.

She lifted the other foot, not standing on the wooden ledge of the barricade just steps from the top.

"into the sea into the...."

The voice coming to Alex was suddenly interrupted by the horn of Andrew's car. He jumped out of the driver seat just a few steps from where Alex was standing over looking what seemed like a jump.

"Alex!!! What are you doing?" He shouted.

Alex shook her head. The voice's energy disbursing with the sound of Andrew's.

"I...." Alex said, unsure of what had just happened. "Sorry, I was just looking down into the water. Thought I saw a starfish." Alex said, lying to protect him from whatever was happening in her mind and the voices in her head.

Alex lowered herself and jumped into the car with Andrew who, for the rest of the evening, kept a close watch on Alex.

****

Across town, in a chic apartment with gray walls and beautiful views of the sea, Angelique disguised in her shape-shifting body as "Cassandra" looked down onto a deck of tarot cards with one card pulled and facing up.

The Crowned Queen.

 Blond and beautiful, a symbol of power and fury...this card was Alexandra in real life.

The voice taunting Alex to jump into the sea, was Angelique's. 

Angelique was now fully ready to take the life of Alexandra Thorne to retrieve the powers she had lost in their battle. But this time, Alex was saved.  Angelique could only stew in her frustrations. She grabbed the tarot card that represented Alex and crumbled it in her hand then shape-shifted back into her real face. 

Angelique, now in her Cassandra body bristled at Alex's good fortune. She sat at the table and wondered just how power Alex had gotten after she had absorbed Angelique's powers. She wondered just how much more time it would take for Alex to fully understand just how strong she was. The clock was ticking for Angelique Bouchard.

If she wanted to remain with Curtis, safely without anyone discovering her, she had to regain her powers from Alex....and eliminate her. Once and for all.

 Angelique then looked over at a photo of "Cassandra" and Curtis lovingly together on the beach mealier that summer. This was what it was all for. For his love. For his touch. All for Curtis.

****

The Old House stood in darkness as the night wore one. It was quiet and everything inside had been covered in large white sheets protecting it from the elements of time while their owner, a man of a thousand lives lived on a different plane, between two worlds.

The quietness of the room was only broken with the sounds of the waves crashing against the rocks outside, and suddenly, without anyone around, a single candle sitting at a table side near a covered chair lit itself illuminating the musty drawing room of Barnabas' beloved home.

There was energy here. There was life here. The powerful forces that build the very walls of this sacred building were like living breathing organisms that had were about to sprout new life. 

As the candle continued to burn all on it's own, a grandfather clock in the front foyer began to tick away the minutes behind its protective white sheet; this ticking, this counting down of the hours was symbolic in more ways than one. Then, marking the hour, a very long chime, a knell that rang through the whole of the empty Old House as if to signal to the world that something...or someone was coming. 

Series 10/Chapter 10: THE BRIGHTEST OF LIGHTS

A simmering sun stung the late afternoon overcast sky over Collinsport. It was a fresh spring day filled with brightness that on face value only masked the real treachery and upheaval the most famous family in town had not yet realized, the reality that their entire world was about to flip upside down.

Carolyn was still missing. What was worse, so was Barnabas.

David and Siobhan continued their disagreement in the drawing room over who or what might be involved in Carolyn's disappearance. More often than not, Barnabas was the culprit but he hadn't been seen in just as many days, which matched up perfectly to David's suspicions of him.

"I wish you'd give my father more credit!" Siobhan said of her adopted father Barnabas rocking baby John in her arms.

"I've allowed him to live here since I came back from Windcliff 4 years ago, I think that's credit enough. especially considering everything he's put is through over the years, not just the most recent but throughout his whole existence here." David said smugly.

"He would never hurt Carolyn, David, you know that. He's always thought of her as his own daughter, it's just not possible." Siobhan said.

"But he has hurt her. Not physically, no, but in the past he's done some very cruel things to her. Think of how Jack died, and how Jude died. Barnabas was directly involved with both of those situations." David pointed out.

"Well, I'm obviously not getting through to you. There's only one way to end this. Siobhan said, putting the baby down in his crib.

"How's that?" He asked.

"I'll just go down to the old house and search it myself. If Carolyn was there at any time, I'm sure we'll be able to find some sort of evidence." Siobhan said.

"No! Absolutely  not! If you're father is on one of his tirades again, I do not want you stepping foot in that house. He's...to...no. Shiv, I'll go down there and make sure that everything is ok." David said still ignorant of the fact that both Barnabas and Carolyn were indeed at the hold house encased in stone by Angelique's spell.

As David and Siobhan continued to talk, the front door opened and in walked Julia Hoffman and her newly found granddaughter Quinn fresh from her stint at the Collinsport Hospital after the car accident that took Jeffery Shaw's life.

Julia had secured a safe place for Quinn to recover from her injuries at the Collin's family cottage down the way from the main house, a home Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard named Seaview.

Julia helped the limping Quinn into the drawing room where David and Siobhan were surprised into silence.

"Mother!" Siobhan said greeting her mother as she and Quinn walked into the room.

"Siobhan, I'd like you to meet, well, your niece I guess. This is Quinn Devereaux." Julia said as Siobhan then greeted Quinn and helped her sit down.

"Small world, isn't it." Quinn said noting that she knew David and Siobhan from the circumstances surrounding Christopher's death.

"I thought you would have left town by now." David said in a cold tone to Quinn who he blamed for getting Jeffery off of murder charges.

"I almost did, but there were things that I needed to take care of and....well here I am." Quinn responded.

"When Julia called me after your accident and explained what had had happened I can honestly say I wasn't exactly upset. Jeffery was a horrible person." David said. "But....you're family now Quinn, so I'm glad you're alright." David added.

"It's very weird to hear that." Quinn said her voice hinting how awkward she felt. "Family....I never really had one, not like this anyway."

"I know it's a lot to take in to discover your grandmother is still alive, and....well, that she looks like this, but trust me there are even more stranger things to worry about. Right now just focus on getting better." Siobhan said to Julia's grin.

"Vicky has been staying with her son Curtis, so Seaview cottage is all yours." David mentioned referencing that Seaview was technically Victoria's home as left to her by Elizabeth in her will.

"Thank you." Quinn answered. She and Julia then started to make their way out of the drawing room and off to get settled at the cottage.

"Before you go, Julia, you haven't had contact with Carolyn or Barnabas lately have you?" David asked to Siobhan's annoyance.

Julia paused and turned back to David, she felt the question seemed strange the way he had used both their names together, as if something happened both of them together. Julia suddenly thought of what happened, how she and Carolyn had entered a pact to kill Barnabas and rid the Collins family of his horrible, monstrous curse once and for all. But Julia  hadn't spoken to Carolyn since they decided to do it, and she couldn't imagine her going off on her own to take on Barnabas.

"That's a peculiar question." Julia said. "No, I haven't."

David and Siobhan looked at each other, the worry showing more and more on their faces.

"Why?" Julia said stretching for information.

"Well..." Siobhan began feeling as if telling Julia both Carolyn and Barnabas were missing would send off alarms in her mother's already stressed mind. "we can't find either of them. Alex hasn't heard from her mother and I haven't heard or seen father in at least 4 days."

Julia's facial expression turned from curious to furious. She hadn't thought anything not seeing Carolyn in days as the house was large, and they both lead very busy lives, and Julia was purposefully avoiding Barnabas. Now things seemed dyer.

"Have you gone over to the old house? You have to go there! She must be there!" Julia said in a rush of energy.

"Ok, Ok, calm down." David said. "I was just on my way there when you and Quinn came in. I'll get over there and make sure everything is ok, and if she's not there I'll give Loomis a call." David said reassuring them all that he'd bring in detective McGovern.

Julia seemed satisfied and continued on her way to Seaview with Quinn who was in a complete state of confusion about what was happening with Carolyn and Barnabas.

David grabbed his coat and his cell phone and started to make his way towards the front door to the Old House when he suddenly received a phone call from Curtis.

"Curtis, what is it?" David said as he could tell Curtis was in a panic.

"It's my mother, she's....David she's really sick." Curtis said on the verge of tears.

"What do you mean?" David wondered, unsure how serious Vicky's state was.

"The other day she wasn't feeling well and she wasn't able to talk. I thought maybe she caught a cold and was suffering from laryngitis, but I came home just now and..." Curtis paused and began to hyperventilate.

"And what? Curtis what happened to Vicky!!?" David said, concerned for his former Governess' well being.

"David she can't see. She can't see! She can't see!!' Curtis continued to say, unknowing that Angelique's binding spell was causing both of Vicky's horrible afflictions.

"Oh my god!" David said frightening Siobhan. "Listen, just hold tight, I'll be right there, ok? Just hold tight." David said as he hung up the phone. "It's Vicky. She's really ill. I have to get over there and see what's going on. We might have to take her to the hospital." He explained to his wife.

"Do you want me to come?" Siobhan asked.

"No, just stay here, if Carolyn turns up call me...whatever you do Siobhan, do NOT go to the old house, under no circumstances do I want you there. Deal?" David warned.

Siobhan pursed her lips and lifted an eye brow, she agreed but knew in her heart that she wouldn't be told what to do. As soon as she heard David's car pull out of the large circle drive way in front of the mansion she called for John's nanny who had been in the kitchen preparing a light early dinner bottle for the baby.

"Will you watch Johnny for a minute? I'm just going to go down to the Old House for a second and see my father." Siobhan said, breaking her promise to David as the nanny gleefully agreed to watch the baby John.

Siobhan grabbed her coat, placed it loosely over her shoulders, and did not put her arms through the sleeves and quickly made her way down to the old house.

If anyone was going to find out the truth about where Barnabas and Carolyn were, it was going to be Siobhan, little she know, however, the horror show she'd find when she got there.

****

On the western slope of the sand dunes, Alexandra followed her vision of the beach. The cold sea wind blew her hair in wild whips around her face. The salty mist from the crashing waves landed on her lips, she could taste it.

As she continued to walk down the breach, she thought about what happened. The thought about the horrible way Andrew began to change into this wolf form right in front of her eyes in the back seat of the car. She saw how horrible it was for his body to go through. The pain. The shock to his system. She thought about Chris and how horrible it must of been for him to go through it too.

It was so hard for her to understand what had happened, but she promised herself that she was going to protect Andrew now that he was apart of Chris, and Chris was apart of him. She was feeling for Andrew what she felt for Chris, her heart was pushing her towards him. All she wanted to do was find him, protect him and get him the cure for these horrible transitions and hopefully he could live a normal life. Why she felt like it was all her fault, she couldn't comprehend, but it was there, in her mind hoping to correct everything that had happened in the last few weeks.

As she harsh cold water washed over her bare feet, in the distance she could see something, a body, slumped over near the shore hidden within the the hard cold rocks of the shore. Alex squinted her eyes to make sense of it. What was it? Who was it?

Alex, felt drawn to the image in front of her. She kept walking forward in the sand. Faster and faster she went on the beach until she caught herself sprinting on the beach towards the body.

It was Andrew, cold, naked, wet and shivering on the seaside slope huddled in the rocks.

"ANDREW! ANDREW!" Alex screamed.

He was still in shock from his transition and in the fetal position. He had his arms wrapped around his body for warmth. He was suffering acute hypothermia from being all morning in the ice cold spring air near the sea with nothing to cover him,

Alex reached Andrew and removed her coat and placed it over his shivering naked body. She caressed his head and kissed his cheek.

"You're ok now, Andrew, I'm here." Alex whispered.

Andrew opened his terrified eyes and saw the most beautiful blond woman kneeling over him in the sand. He reached up and touched her face.

"What happened?" he replied in weakened voice.

"Just relax, ok? We're going to get you out of here. Do you think you can walk?" Alex asked looking around for the best way for here new werewolf love to go back up to the top of the bluff and to Alex's car.

"What happened?" He said again as he tried to get up.

"Careful, careful." Alex answered helping him sit up in the sand. "You had your first full transition last night while we were in the car trying to get you to your dad's hotel room for the serum." Alex continued.

"The car, the back seat." Andrew said putting the puzzle pieces together.

"There was an accident." Alex said tapping here bruised forehead.

Andrew looked up and touched her forehead. He seemed sad, his eyes warmed to her and he started to slowly remember what happened.

"We hit another car and then I got out. Right?" Andrew said, Alex  nodded her head and confirmed. "Are the other people ok?" He asked.

Alex didn't know what to say. She knew that the freak accident had another layer of shock that it happened to be his father and Quinn in the other car. She didn't know how she was going to break the news that the accident that he caused killed his father. Alex grabbed his hands as he sat there in the sand and sat down right in front of him while the waves crashed on the beach.

"What is it?" Andrew said shivering.

"Andrew we have to get you off this beach but before we go, I just need you to know about who was in the other car." Alex answered.

Andrew looked at her with a strange reaction. He didn't understand what was coming next.

"Who was it?" Andrew asked.

"It was your dad, and his car flipped over when we hit it." Alex explained. "Andrew......he didn't make it." She added.

"What? What do you mean? How could he not....what do you MEAN??" Andrew said, shivering and shaking in his place on the sand.

He broke down and began to sob in Alex's arms. The waves continued to break wildly against the rocks just feet from them. The waves were starting to get closer, the tide was coming in and Andrew needed to get off the beach.

Alex didn't know what to do. She knew that if they didn't leave the beach soon, Andrew could go into a deeper more dangerous hypothermia shock. Her jacket wouldn't keep her out of danger, but she also knew that the shock of his father's death and that he was mainly responsible for it, was taking a lot out him.

Alex put her hand on his chest, his tear stained face looked up at her as a warm flow of energy began to flow from her body to his. He closed his eyes and allowed the energy to fill his body and warm him. He took a deep breath and grabbed hold of her hand by the wrist. He opened his eyes, his body feeling surprisingly stronger and pulled her in for a kiss. They kissed, there on the sand, as the waves slowly made their way closer and touched their bodies slightly wetting them while they kissed.

Andrew and Alex opened their eyes after their kiss and looked at each other, they were fully in love and her magic was now returning stronger and stronger than it had ever been  before.

"We have to get you home." She said in a soft voice.

"I can't go back to that hotel room. Not now." Andrew said.

"You can stay at Collinwood, its not far from here and I can go back to the hotel and get your things. But we need to go now, you won't be able to be out here much longer." Alex said standing  up from the sand ad Andrew did as well.

Andrew tied Alex's jacket around his waist and the two hurried down the sandy beach back to Collinwood. His life in shambles, her life in an uncertain ways but together as one fighting force.

Together they would fight this, together they would get through this and together they would be, for as long as they could.

*****

As Alex and Andrew made their way back to Collinwood, David arrived at Curtis' apartment to help in anyway he could with Victoria's illness. He was concerned, and unsure of what he would find when he entered Curtis' home but he wanted to help her as best he could. Vicky had been like a surrogate mother to David for so many years, and now that she had returned to down practically for good, he wanted to make sure she was taken care of. To David, Vicky was family.

David entered the apartment, ad Curtis lead him to Vicky's bedside. What he saw, turned him inside out.

Vicky was in bed, back-lit by her bed-side light that placed shadows all over the walls, even in the late afternoon light. Vicky was looked up at the ceiling and almost looked completely unconscious, but she was in her right mind, only bewitched by Angelique's cruel spell of silence and blindness.

"Vicky? It's me?" David said as he grabbed her hand. She recognized his voice grabbed back and squeezed startling him as he sat on her bed side.

"She can  hear you, she just can't see or speak." Curtis said, shocked about his mother's strange and sudden illness.

"What the hell happened?" David said as Vicky began to try and speak. "What? What do you want to say?" David said, as Vicky seemed to try and peak. But nothing would come out. Only a sound from her throat that seemed to make her chock.

"Don't speak mother, don't speak!" Curtis said in panic.

"It's ok, calm down, it's ok." David said to the equally as panicked Vicky as he patted the back of her hand.

Vicky, now in her late 60's, had always been a healthy person. She was strong and had been through a tremendous amount of trauma in her 20s, but never, ever had she had health issues. This shocking turn of events made David see a side of her that he didn't like to see this side of her that showed her mortality. The vibrant woman he knew as a child was now sickly and, to his eyes, on the brink of death.

Angelique's spell was working perfectly. 

David patted Vicky's hand and told her to relax and rest a bit while David and Curtis stepped outside into the living room. David was no where near ready for Vicky to die, he was also unsure of what was going to happen. He could't understand how she had gone from so well taken care of to suddenly mute, blind and dying. 

"We need to get her to a hospital right away." David demanded.

"I've already called, they'll be here soon to take her." Curtis said.

"Take her? You called for an ambulance? I think we could have driven her to the hospital." David replied surprised at Curtis' strange request.

"I didn't call the hospitals ambulance service." Curtis informed.

"Then I'm confused." David replied curtly.

"I called Windcliff." Curtis replied to David who had his own strange history with the mental hospital just out of town.

"What?? Why on earth would you call the staff at Windcliff? Your mother's issues aren't mental. They're clearly physical."  David said.

"I think it's the best place for her. There are people there that can take care of her mental and physical health. I'm sure Siobhan can vouch for that hospital and I'm sure things will work out fine." Curtis said, the spell Angelique put on him working just as good as the one she put on Vicky. He was following Angelique's every order, even though he had no idea he was doing it.

David didn't like the fact that Curtis would bring up that his wife Siobhan, who was the head of the psychiatric department at Windcliff would take his side. 

"Curtis, none of this makes sense to me. You said your mother was sick, I get here and I can see it for myself, and now you're telling me you're sending her to a hospital that deals with more mental and psychiatric then physical. Do you know how strange this sounds? We need to take her to Collinsport Hospital." David added.

"She's my mother and I think I know what's best for her. She been showing signs of a mental breakdown for a week, David. She's been under so much stress since Barnabas made her go back to get Julia ....she's been through too much. She was sitting in my apartment just a few weeks ago telling me she felt his presence. There was no one there. Just her and I." Curtis recounted, still unknowing the presence Vicky felt was the invisible Angelique staking them. 

Before David could object, there was a knock on the apartment door. Curtis opened it and 4 large men in white outfits walked in. They were from Windcliff and Curtis pointed them in the direction of Vicky's room.

David quickly dashed over to the bedroom to help Vicky who surely had no idea what was about to happen. Just as he walked in he saw her frustratingly fighting the men who were trying to put her in a wheel chair.

"Mother you calm down. They're here to help you." Curtis said to Vicky's wailing and beating back the men. 

One man finally had had enough, and from a side satchel he pulled out a syringe and went to stab it into the fighting Vicky. 

"WAIT! What the hell are you doing!?" David said, holding back the man's arm from pricking Vicky with whatever was in the syringe.

"I'm going to sedate  her." the man from Windcliff said.

"That's hardly necessary. Vicky, please just calm down, ok? They're going to make sure you're taken care of. Just please relax." David said grabbing Vicky's flailing arms.

The blind and mute Vicky murmured something no one understood. She wanted to tell them everything. She wanted to tell David that Angelique had returned and that she was calling herself Cassandra and that Curtis was tangled up in some sort of relationship with her. She wanted to tell him that she was convinced that this had to be Angelique's doing, there was no other exploitation.

But nothing came out of her mouth, and the man from Windcliff pricked her with the needle anyway, knocking Victoria out as she collapsed into another man from Windcliff's arms as they put her in the chair and tied her arms up in a straight jacket.

"Oh my god, really!?" David said shocked at the way they were handling Vicky.

"Sorry--its policy." The third man said as they slowly rolled Vicky into the awaiting white van out front.

Vicky, in her mind, could hear and feel everything that was happening to her. The medicine had only knocked her out physically. She was unable to open her eyes, not that if she could open them she'd be able to see anything. All she knew was that the people she loved were in danger and there was nothing she could do about it.

She was going to Windcliff and Angelique was free and running around Collinsport causing untold amounts of suffering. Vicky knew she was powerless. She had been played and her own son Curtis was now an unwilling accomplice, bewitched by Angelique and made to push his own mother into disablement. 

As the van, and a slightly defeated Vicky drove off, David stood on the stood of Curtis' building and watched as the van slowly got smaller and smaller down the street. He remembered his own removal from Collinwood by men from Windcliff by the order of his ex-wife Kimberly. He remembered how she too lied to get him taken away, but David was trapped there for almost 25 years. He remembered how lucky he was to have found Maggie who helped him finally escape.

In the van all Vicky could do was feel the light from the sun warm her skin from the van windows as she was taken to Windcliff for an unknown amount of time. Vicky knew that Angelique had won this round, she knew that getting her out of way was the only way Angelique could remain free of being found out, but she prayed that somehow, some way, should could get through this and save the ones she loved from Angelique's yet to be revealed vicious plans. 

"She's going to be fine." Curtis said in a cold and strange voice, a side effect of Angelique's love spell as the van carrying his mother Victoria drove off. 

"She better be. If anything happens to her there, it'll on your head. And I wont let you get away with it. Do you hear me, if ANYTHING happens to Vicky I'll make sure you pay." David said sternly to Curtis who didn't know how to take David's message. 

David said not another word and buttoned up his jacket and made his way back to his car leaving Curtis on  his stoop unsure of his decision. Curtis stood there... confused. What had he done? Why had he done this? Angelique's powers had taken hold but at what cost?

Angelique's plan to get Vicky out of the way of her newly found obsession and love for Curtis had worked and his mother was out of the way now for sure.

****

Maggie sat in her bedroom looking into her vanity mirror. Just staring at herself. Only one light was lamp was lit in the corner of the room as the sun began to go down. She just stared at her face, with it's claw scratched scars that had scabbed over from Andrew's attack after the car accident. She just stared and stared, her eyes stone cold.

Her heart was beating at a slow pace, she couldn't believe what had become of her. With just one scratch, with just the slightest mixing of blood she too now was what Andrew was, and what Sebastian was, and what Christopher once was. A lycan. A werewolf. A creature of the night.

Maggie continued to stare at herself in the mirror and did not move. As she stared into the glass, her own reflection changed and mouthed the words: "The old house....the old house..."

Maggie jumped out of her vanity's chair allowing it to fall to the floor of her bed room. She gasped at her reflection speaking to her from the other side of the mirror. Her reflection's eyes were glowing. The person was Maggie, but it also wasn't Maggie.

Maggie gasped and tried to scream but nothing came out. For some reason the image in the mirror had sucked all the energy in the room, nothing made noise. Not Maggie, not the chair falling to the floor, nothing.

"The old house.... the old house...." the reflection repeated.

Maggie, stared into the mirror again, this time her face was lit by the glowing image looking back at her. Maggie's reflection began to shift, it began to change. It began to morph into something, or someone familiar. Maggie looked closer and in a flash of green and yellow light her own reflection changed to that of Josette Collins in the mirror.

Josette, the woman who was once the figure of Barnabas' obsession, the woman who married Jeremiah Collins and broke Barnabas' heart leaving him in the clutches of Angelique Bouchard who used his pain to her advantage only to have the tables flipped on her when Josette returned and Barnabas fell back in love with her.

Josette, the long deceased woman Maggie was a dead-ringer for, continued with the haunting words.

"The old house....go to the old house"

Then, suddenly, Maggie felt this urge of electricity that made her lunge over to her bedroom window where she saw that the sky was colored sunset purple and there was something sitting in the sky that was just as alarming as the face in Maggie's mirror.

A crescent moon.

The second most powerful moon in lyncanism was crescent moon. Not only did it cause transitions like the full moon, but for a shorter amount of time, but these were just as deadly as the full term transition of the full moon. The cyclical power of the crescent moon would also connect other werewolves to join together as on solid pack--alleviating the loneliness and despair of the werewolf mind.

Maggie could feel this, and even though she did not fully understand it, her new instincts were pushing a heart-pounding feeling that something was about to happen.

Maggie shook her head. She wanted nothing to do with what was happening to her. She wanted nothing to do with the new feelings and powers that she had inherited through the slash to the face Andrew gave her. They were unholy. They were unnatural. But she could feel it none-the-less.

Maggie screamed and rushed over to her the bathroom that was in her room and slammed the door behind her and fell to her knees in a panic and terror of what or could be happening to her.

"No, please I can't do this. This cannot be me! I cannot be this ...this thing...!" Maggie said holding her head and praying in her mind that she would not transition. She could feel her senses getting stronger. Her vision was powerful. She looked down and could see every fiber of the bath mat as if they were magnified a thousand times. She looked over at the sink's faucet and saw a single drop fall, as it it were directly in front her face and when it hit the bottom of the porcelain sink she could hear it echo all around her as if she was in a giant room with vaulted ceilings. All her senses were heightened to the extreme.

Maggie covered her ears and screamed again. This time, her son Sebastian came to the bathroom door, and in a surge of strength burst it open breaking the lock. He saw his mother on the bathroom floor, sweating and terrified for what was about to happen.

"Sebastian! NO! Get out of here. Take Serena and go please!" She screamed.

Sebastian got down on his knees and grabbed his mother by the shoulders. She looked up into his eyes and something was different. He too was feeling the power of the crescent moon.

"Something....something has happened." Sebastian said. "You feel it too?" He added, the beads of sweat now rolling down his forehead.

"What is it? What is it that we're feeling?" Maggie asked in a frantic voice.

Sebastian didn't know how to answer her. They just sat at on the floor of the bathroom as the sun began to set. Lower and lower the sun went as the sky turned darker and darker. The crescent moon began to shine bright above Collinsport.

"There's something ...." Maggie began to say.

"What is it?" Sebastian said, bracing himself for a transition, a transition he had not felt in years.

"The old house. We have to get to the old house. Something is there that we have to take back, or take control of. We have to go." Maggie said getting up.

"But what happens if...." Sebastian said stopping himself. "We can't be out, its too dangerous."

"If we stay here, there's no telling what will happen. It might be even more dangerous if we stay. I have to go to the old house at the Collinwood estate." She said again, almost as if her mind and body were in a trans.

"What's there? Why do you have to go? We could be seen!" Sebastian worried.

But Maggie was undeterred. She knew that the force of the crescent moon and the warning from Josette had to be connected. Whatever was at the Old House was powerful enough to wake the dead Josette to send her to Maggie and even powerful enough to wake the long dormant werewolf DNA within Sebastian to begin his own transition.

"I need you to come with me. There's a reason you and I both are going through this together...at the same time. Sebastian, please, I know how dangerous all of this is, but I have to go, and ..." Maggie paused when she realized she was literally asking her own son to go into one of the most dangerous situations she could have ever imagined, even if she had no idea what was waiting for her at the Old house. "I need you. I need you." She said.

Both were now feeling the full effects of the transition in progress, their bodies were beginning to feel the stretching of the bones deep inside their bodies, their eyes were turning color, they had to make it to the old house quickly.

Sebastian finally agreed and he and Maggie started off towards the front door in a rush.

Serena came out of her bedroom and saw them leaving. She had no idea what was going on. She got to the front door that Maggie and Sebastian left open. As the fog from the near by sea started to roll in over the darkened street, she heard two werewolves howl in the the distance.

Serena turned around quickly and closed the door behind her and locked it. She was breathing hard. She was terrified. She was horrified. Then again, as she stood there in the living room of the Evans cottage, alone, she again heard the mother and son wolf howl. It made her shake as if the room were filled with ice.

She could only hope and pray that Maggie and Sebastian would come back. Safe and sound. And in human form.

****

The crescent moon was now squarely over Collinwood crowning the sky like a precious pearl in a regal tiara. Andrew was laying in a room resting after his terrible first transition. He thought he was safe. He thought being with Alex and at Collinwood near her would protect him, but the dangers and old family curses weren't just for those who came from the Collins family line. They extended to those connected in all ways. Just ask Maggie Evans.

The curtains in Andrew's room were drawn but down the center was an opening where the moon light started to stream in. Andrew suddenly woke up...his eyes were glowing yellow. Just outside his window two other wolves were breathing hard, their snarls and grunts waited for their third member of new wolf pack.

Alex was in the drawing room still trying to contact her mother by phone while Andrew rested. As the fire crackled in the fire place she heard the wolves howl outside. She instantly stood up and dropped her cell phone to the floor. Her heart was pounding. Her blood was racing. She rushed out of the drawing room and knocked over a side table spilling a mug of tea all over the drawing room carpet and ran upstairs to check on Andrew.

She ran down the hall, her heart beating in her ears she burst through the door calling his name but there was no one in the room.

The curtains were pulled back blowing in a cold wind from the large open window Andrew jumped out of. Alex rushed to the window and looked out and saw three wolves  joining together and rushing over towards the old house. Andrew. Sebastian. and Maggie.

"ANDREW!!!!" Alex screamed, but it was no use mystical energy from the crescent moon was pulling them to the old house through the vision Maggie had from Josette in the mirror.

The stage was set.

****

Down at Seaview Cottage, Quinn slowly made her way into the living room from the bedroom in the back of the cottage upon hearing a strange commotion from the room.

"What are you doing?" She asked Julia as she noticed her shuttering the windows and locking the doors.

"I heard wolves." Julia said.

"Wolves?" Quinn answered with a strange expression on her face.

"Three. I heard three maybe four wolves. Something is out there. Something is happening." Julia said.

Quinn's stomach turned. Her heart felt as if it stopped and instantly thought of Andrew.

"How? How can this be happening, its not a full moon." Quinn said standing back into the hall way in fear.

"This is Collinsport... things don't always work like they do in the movies. We just have to stay here. We have to stay here Quinn. We cannot leave until sun up....do you understand me, do not open that door or any windows until the sun comes up and we're safe." Julia warned.

Quinn nodded her head that she understood and shuttered at the sound of the wolves howling in distance.

****

At The Old House, Angelique walked around in the candle lit rooms as the lady of the manor. Barnabas and Carolyn, two strong-holds of the family, were literally statues of themselves in the drawing room, images locked away in a spell by Angelique that placed then in a prison of stone.

Angelique delighted in the fact that she had finally taken back what she felt would have rightfully been hers, had she and Barnabas remained married all those years ago. She danced around the two statues and giggled to herself in the candle light gazing into the terrified rock face of Carolyn and the angry frozen stone eyes of Barnabas.

"Careful now Barnabas, or I'll make turn you into just a bust!" Angelique joked looking directly into the vampire's frozen reaction.

Carolyn and Barnabas weren't the only two Angelique checked off her list. Her spell on Vicky had worked as well. Vicky was now on her way to being locked away, mute and blind, at Windcliff, never to be an obstacle in the way of Angelique and Curtis' love.

As for the other Collins family members, their times would come too. It was only a matter of time, but she had to be careful and plot their demises slowly and methodically. Destroying an entire family all at once would case a panic and too much attention. She'd wait. She hold back, and strike again. One death at a time.

In the mean time, Angelique was happy with what she had done. She was celebrating, her powers were getting stronger and stronger, her control over everything she touched was matched by no one, no witch, warlock she had ever encountered ever.  She was elated. It had all worked out. She grabbed a bottle of Champagne that she had picked up on her way gone and a glass from the liquor cabinet and poured herself a glass.

Grinning, and guzzling the drink she looked at the two statues of Carolyn and Barnabas from her place on the sofa in the Old House drawing room. It was getting late. She had done so much in the last few weeks, she thought.

Her Champagne dizzy head grabbed the bottle and the glass and made her way up stairs to a bedroom. She opened the door to Josette Collins bedroom and looked around. Barnabas had kept it the same for decades, since the remodeling of 1967. The peach toned, rose embroidered curtains had been refurbished and recreated to the same kind Josette once had hanging in the large windows the faced the sea. The cream carpet was freshly cleaned, the bedding was even the same white sheets with small tiny pink flowers with pillows of lace trim that had Josette's initials crocheted into the corner tassels of each pillow.

Angelique put down the bottle of Champagne and sat at the vanity mirror looking at her beautiful reflection. Her wide blue eyes gazed back at her, they twinkled with delight and happiness of how her plans had come full circle after all these years, after all the heartache and death, and mistrust, and abuse, and terror she had suffered and made other's suffer, it was now coming together.

She would soon bring Curtis to the old house and they'd

live together, she thought. They'd be together and they'd love each other and no one would ever hurt them or interrupt them again. She looked into her reflection then took another swig of Champagne straight from the bottle. She was now feeling the effects of the bubbling drink fizzing up in her wicked brain.

Then, whole Angelique's head was back downing the sweet drink, the mirror she was sitting in front of began to glow. The light from the mirror cast a golden hue over Angelique's face. She put down the bottle and looked into the mirror. A figure appeared. It's eyes were glowing and staring back at Angelique. It said nothing but Angelique could sense this glowing image looking back at her was angry and furious.

Then, outside, the sound of three wolves howling their bloodcurdling call.

Angelique got up quickly. The bottle of Champagne fell down and spilled all over the bedroom floor, and the wolves  howled again while Angelique stared directly into the glowing image in the mirror.

"Payback." A voice said that came from the mirror in a hissing like image.

Angelique's giant blue eyes widened when she realized who it was. It was Josette.

Josette's imagine slowly began to float out of the mirror, the light was almost as bright as the sun and it lit the entire room up like a fire burning only white light.

Josette's dress, also made of the same translucent light, covered the vanity table like a waterfall flowing and washing over rocks as it cascades down a mountain side.

"Payback." The hissing Josette said again as her mystical arms reached for Angelique.

"NO!" Angelique screamed as she lifted a hand and allowed a powerful serge of energy to burst from her palm hitting the mirror behind Josette.

The wolves howled again outside at Josette's command. Josette had called them, she had used the power of the crescent moon to create the wolf pack that would bring on the supernatural powers strong enough to bring Josette out of the mirror to take revenge on her rival Angelique.

The ghost of Josette got floated closer and closer to Angelique who felt her mind cloudy with the Champagne. She quickly tried to make run for the door, but Josette's powers slammed it closed. Angelique turned to look at the grey glowing eyes of Josette and she was standing, now, directly behind her. Josette placed her hand, glowing, hot, white light filled hands, around Angelique's throat and squeezed.

Angelique could feel the hot energy of this ghost squeeze the breath out of her. She could feel Josette's hands as if they were made of flesh and bone. They were tightening and tightening around Angelique's throat like a vice. Angelique, crippled by her inebriation and dazed mind could not bring herself to use her powers, she was too focused on trying to release the hands from around her neck that were there but not there.

She could not find the hands to pull off of her, but Josette was chocking her.



Siobhan made it to the Old House to check on her father and hoped she would find him there, somewhere, without any signs that he was in involved with Carolyn's vanishing. All she wanted to do was to clear her father's name in the eyes of not only David, but the law that would eventually come knocking if David continued to say that he believed Barnabas was somehow connected.

She walked in to the old house. She saw the dark front rooms only lit by candles. She stepped into the drawing room and looked around. Two statues stood in front of her. It was strange. Why would her father have these giant statues just standing in the middle of the room. She got closer, allowing the darkness around the statues to subside, and the faces became clear.

Siobhan gasped and stepped back in total horror at seeing her father and Carolyn's faces frozen in stone, frozen in a screams and anger and encased in these prisons of rock like creatures. In her shock, she heard a commotion coming from an upstairs location. She turned and slowly walked backwards towards the bottom of the staircase never allowing herself to look away from the statues that looked back at her as if they were begging for help.

She turned and slowly, step by step, walked up the staircase towards the sounds she was hearing.


In Josette's room, Josette had Angelique lifted in the air now by the throat. Angelique was gasping for air and trying to pry herself out from Josette's angry grasp. The glowing ghost was going to make sure the witch that had ruined so many lives was going to die and with her death all of her curses forever.

Siobhan slowly made her way down the hall. A light from under a door twinkled and flashed calling Siobhan to open the door and see what was behind it. She slowly stepped up to the door and grabbed the door knob.


Angelique, her eyes slowly turning blood-shot puffy from the strangulation was starting to see flashes of stars in her eyes. She was beginning to black out but she still heard the howls of the wolves outside waiting for their next order from Josette's ghost.

As Angelique began to die, her head slumped over towards the door and saw that the door knob was turning. The door suddenly opened and standing there was Siobhan, she screamed at the sight of the ghost chocking the witch 5 feet in the air in the center of the bedroom.

Siobhan's entrance distracted her, and she slightly loosened her grip on Angelique who saw her way out. Angelique lifted her hand towards Siobhan. She extended her fingers towards her and then quickly made a fist.

Suddenly a jolt of energy bolted from Angelique's fist and hit Siobhan, and in a quick, slight of the hand Angelique and Siobhan had switched places.

Siobhan was now being strangled by Josette, and Angelique was now standing at the door watching. The witch, once again, had gained the upper hand over Josette. Angelique began to levitate, her powers were building and she lifted both hands and pointed them towards the ghost of Josette and the chocking Siobhan.

"Velim Tibi
Procul ab inferno,
in speculo vos
mi vale"

The spell Angelique spoke created a giant circle of light around both Josette and Siobhan. The circle closed off and trapped them both inside. Josette released her grab on Siobhan's neck and tried to get out of the circle of light but it was no use, the two women were both trapped inside. Angelique lifted her arms and the circle of light, the giant orb, began to collapse with both women in side and in a blink of an eyes flew back into the mirror with only the screams of the two woman echoing from the glass.

Angelique, angry and still feeling the hands of Josette around her throat walked over to the mirror and picked up a lamp on the side of the vanity then threw it into the glass breaking the mirror into hundreds of shards that fell down to the cream carpet. Locking the two women in the world of the unknown forever.

Siobhan was gone.

The wolves outside howled a horrid, terrible sound. They felt telepathically that Josette failed to kill Angelique. They could feel that good did not win this time and that Angelique still roamed the halls of the Old House unchecked and full of fury and power.

Outside the Old House, the three wolves, Maggie, Sebastian, and Andrew growled and sniffed and waited for a taste of the witches blood.

Angelique stepped onto the front portico of the Old House feeling like the most invincible creature on earth. She was all powerful, all knowing and could destroy anyone she came in contact with. She mad her way down the front steps and stepped into the yard where the wolves came and surrounded her.

Like three great white sharks, they circled around her pacing and snarling waiting for her to make a move so that they could then strike and kill her.

"Poor little things, you've been summoned by someone who'll never win. Josette is no longer a threat. Go on....leave this place now before I make you all regret you ever saw the moon." Angelique said to the hungry wolves teasing them without regard of their teeth and thirst for her blood.

They continued to circle around her, three werewolves of Collinsport, until Maggie lunged at Angelique who shot a lightening bolt at her knocking Maggie down and tossing her werewolf body over to the side of the house.

Maggie whimpered as her body changed back into human form laying under a small grove of tress smoking from the power bolt of Angelique's powerful jolt

Then Sebastian, angry at he saw happen to his mother reached and snapped at Angelique's arm. He missed and Angelique grabbed his my his werewolf throat. He shook  Her violently and knocked her to the ground, she quickly regrouped but was now cornered by Sebastian and Andrew, growling, snarling and foaming at the mouth for her blood.

Angelique raised her hands and the ground began to split open. The ground started to open wide and large gaps in the earth, like graves, began to be carved out of the ground. The werewolves jumped and dodged the opening ravines below them and tried to avoid falling in. But it was too late and too difficult. The giant gaps in the ground that Angelique created were becoming too many to keep up with and both wolves fell in, howling and scrambling to get up and get out.

As Sebastian and Andrew, in wolf form, struggled to get out of the deep trenches Angelique created  all the witch could do was laugh. It seemed like she was free and clear, no one would stop her. No one could stop her! Her cackle echoed throughout the wide open spring air, and to the wolves' terror, the trenches began to close. The walls of the earth slowly began to collapse and dirt began to fall in.

They were buried alive.

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A woman's scream came from behind Angelique who had just buried Sebastian and Andrew alive.

Angelique turned and it was Alexandra who had followed Andrew from Collinwood to the Old House when she saw his room empty and the window wide open.

"We finally meet face to face. The woman who caused so much sorrow for my daughter Claudia." Angelique hissed referencing the past history between Claudia and Alex.

"Angelique Bouchard?" Alex said connecting the dots.

"In the flesh" Angelique replied with a slight bow.

"What have you done?" Alex said noting all the destruction all around her as the giant gashes in the ground were beginning to come back to normal.

"I've taken back my place, this is where I have always belonged, and no one, little Alex, is going to stop me." Angelique answered, her eyes now changing from blue to a cold white.

Angelique began to levitate again and stretched her arms out wide while floating in the air.

The energy of everything all around her began to be pulled into Angelique's body like lightening bolts striking her over and over and over again. These blasts were bright, white lights that could be seen from all over town.

Serena stared out of her window at the Evans' family cottage and hunkered down in fear.

Curtis was still standing in front of his apartment building and saw the flashes from there.

Julia and Quinn quickly hid in the back bedroom of Seaview as Angelique's powers began to get stronger and stronger and the light filled the sky over Collinsport.

David saw it in his car on the drive home from Curtis' to Collinwood.


Alex was terrified, but she had to do something. She had to find a way to get this monster, this cruel witch of a being to end whatever she was doing to control everything around her.

Alex was rusty when it came to using her powers, the powers that she had suppressed for many years. She closed her eyes. She began to picture herself floating, she began to picture herself rising off the ground, her feet in the air and facing Angelique once and for all.

When she opened her eyes again, just seconds after closing them she was indeed in the air facing the monstrous witch, bolts of energy rushing around them like lasers from the sun.

Angelique laughed at Alex's attempt to confront her, no matter what she did, Angelique new her powers had grown incredibly strong, no one could stop her. She lifted her arm and closed her hand into a fist and sent a power bolt of light at Alex, but missed.

Alex put her hands together in a prayer position and sent a jolt over to Angelique that hit her but no effect came of it. Angelique was just absorbing all the power and energy all around her like a sponge to water.

Alex tried again, but the same thing happened, the jolt of energy from Alex was absorbed by Angelique's body. She began to feel helpless. She began to feel like there was nothing more she could do, Angelique was too strong.

"There's no use Alexandra. This is where we are. I am the one that will control everything from here on out. I will be the one that makes you happy and makes you sad, I will be the one that creates life and takes it away. I will be the one that changes the way life is forever. But...I can spare you. I can spare you from the darkness that I will unleash." Angelique said, her eyes glowing a bright white.

Alex, still in the along side Angelique, the powerful winds of the atmosphere blowing her hair all around here was disgusted by Angelique's thought of joining forces with this evil creature.

"Not on your life." Alex said trying once again to send a powerful bold of energy from her body. But again it was no use.

"Think of the possibilities, think of the things you too could do if we were on the same side! I can give you all you've ever wanted." Angelique said to Alex who was now coming down to the ground from mid air.

"I had what I wanted. At least I thought I did, and it was taken away from me. Chris died, and I was given a second chance with Andrew and now he's gone too. Everything has been taken away from me. My mother. My father. What good are you? Nothing you do will give me back the things I love." Alex said. "Not really. It'll all be a fantasy." She added.

"I can bring you back your mother. That's all? Ohhh...that's simple." Angelique said as she closed her eyes.

Inside the old house, the two statues of Barnabas and Carolyn began to crack. The cracks began to shake and move and then one by one the statues fell to the floor of the drawing room, then suddenly, and completely broke into crumbles of dust and rocks of stone.

In the rubble, a very much alive Carolyn began to cough. She was gasping for air rolling on the floor full of dust and powder from the stone that had encased her for days and days. She took deep breaths, her face covered in white dust and then she remembered, she wasn't the only one Angelique locked in the stone like jail.

Carolyn quickly turned her head over to her side for Barnabas and saw a mound of rocks and pieces of stone. Barnabas had not made it. It was just her. No one else. Carolyn picked up the stones that were once part of her body and part of Barnabas and held them in her hand. He was gone, now just a pile of rocks and stones, dust and powder.

As she began to cry, and looked up at his painting that hanging crookedly over the fire place. Carolyn thought to herself that this couldn't be the last of him, it just couldn't be! They may have had their differences but the manipulation he suffered at the power hungry Angelique was just too much for her to comprehend.

"Barnabas." Carolyn whispered as she sobbed on her knees in the rubble of her former cousin, the man she hated yet adored. The man she saw as a second father, even though he at times kept secrets from her, the man who took so much from her. She loved him. She truly love him--but she could not save him.

Carolyn looked up again over the fireplace. His painting bathed in a flickering light from outside. Her tears pouring down her face, she could not reconcile his death, his vanishing withing the encasement of stone that Angelique had locked them in, but then again she was a being of the supernatural, not like Carolyn who was mortal. His supernatural body succumb to the spell, and disintegrated into dust when the spell was broken.

Suddenly, mourning for Barnabas quickly extinguished when she noticed the bright lights coming from outside that shined on Barnabas' painting. She sniffled, wiped her eyes and got up from the pile of stones, limping towards the front door, she opened it, stepped outside and gasped in terror at the incredible sight she saw in the air.

Her daughter floating in front of a powerful glowing with rage Angelique.

"Look." Angelique said pointing to the Old House below.

"Mother! MOTHER!!" Alex screamed.

"Alex!!!!" Carolyn screamed in total anguish for her daughter's safety.

"See what I can do you for you Alexandra? Do you see I can make things come back and I did it just for you. Now, if we combined our powers, imagine the possibilities. Imagine bringing Chris back!" Angelique said danging the carrot of Chris' life in front of her.

Alex, her tears of frustration rolling down her face only shook her head. She knew the dangers of witch craft. She had seen the dark-side of being this powerful before and it almost cost her her own life many years ago. There was nothing Angelique could offer her that would make her cross back into that side again. She would  never join forces with Angelique no matter what.

"I would rather die then do anything with you or for you. Don't you see? Nothing you do can convince me. Nothing!" Alex said.

"You're a fool!" Angelique screeched.

"Like your DAUGHTER!" Alex shot back.

Angelique's eyes widened. Her anger was unparalleled. Alex and Angelique's daughter Claudia once fought over the love of Christopher and in doing so, Claudia lost and vanished into the world never to be seen again. Angelique wanted nothing more than to have Claudia back, but the truth was, Claudia wanted nothing to do with her witch mother Angelique. But the pain of that feeling, the rejection of Claudia was too much, and Alex was throwing those emotions in Angelique's face; a dangerous step.

"You'll wish you never said that." Angelique growled and lunged at Alex from her place in mid air and landed right in front of her.

"Oh my god! No! Alex!!!" Carolyn screamed from below.

Angelique and Alex were now eye to eye. They could feel each other's breath on their face. Angelique grabbed Alex by the face and began to suck the life out of her, but Alex, would not give in without a fight, she grabbed Angelique in return and miraculously began sucking back energy from her too.

The two witches were now spinning in the air, locked in a powerful struggle like a ball of electricity spinning in the air. Angelique with her hands on Alex's face, and Alex with her's on Angelique.

They spun around and around, the power of both women flowing back and forth into each other. Back and forth, back and forth. The power struggle was building wildly 200, then 300, then 400 feet from the surface of the ground.

The Sky began to turn black, and clouds began to cover and storm. Lightening began to flash. Thunder began to clap. The wind began to push the two magical beings into a thunderstorm in the air. The two powerful women were strengthening in the air with the elements surrounding them.

But the energy surrounding the two dueling sorceresses was too strong and they were starting to over lap. It was too much for the atmosphere to hold in one place and in one giant explosion of power. Angelique had only one more shot to take control as best she could.

She lifted her free arm into the air and conjured one last thunder bolt that hit both women blasting a giant bright light over the town of Collinsport, blinding anyone who looked up.

The flash of light was so bright it looked as if a second of day light had happened within the blanket of night.

At the Evan's cottage Serena screamed and fell to the floor from what she saw come from the window.

At Seaview house Julia and Quinn screamed too and hid behind furniture.

At his apartment, Curtis was blinded by the light and fell backwards onto the stoop covering his eyes.

While on his drive back to Collinwood, David quickly pulled over on the side of the road as the blast was so bright it obstructed his view.

Carolyn covered her eyes and fell back into the foyer of the old house that was now bathed in the white light of the explosion, hitting her forehead in the fall.

Everyone in town screamed as if a nuclear bomb had gone off, turning the night sky into a giant flash of white light engulfing everything it touched.

And for a moment there was silence. A silence that was almost deathly. A silence that was cold and harsh but was broken by the moaning of Alexandra who was now laying in the green grass of the old house grounds.

Carolyn, rubbing the bump on her head from her fall when Alex and Angelique collided in the thunder clap, opened her eyes and sat up. She saw Alex in the grass and quickly went over to her.

"She's gone. She's gone!" Carolyn said with her arms around Alex noting Angelique was no where to be found, the light and energy absorbed the witch completely removing her from the scene.

Maggie, Sebastian and Andrew too were now getting up, back in human form. They looked around, their werewolf bodies suddenly melting away back into the softs of human flesh, gone the monstrous creatures the night made them.

Angelique's spell over Collinwood seemed to be broken, even Siobhan, who was sucked back into a mirror inside the old house was now waking up in a daze on the carpet floor of Josette's room. She quickly made her way down stairs past her the rubble from the broken statue that was her father and joined the other's outside.

"It's over. It's all over." Carolyn said, tears in her eyes as Sebastian helped a limping Maggie over to where Carolyn, Alex and Siobhan were. Andrew too joined, kneeling in the wet grass and grabbing Alex's hand lovingly. She squeezed back.

"It's all over" Carolyn said again, her voice soft and calm as Alex buried her head in her mother Carolyn's lap, sobbing with relief of the end of the nightmare.

"Where's my father?" Siobhan asked of Barnabas.

Carolyn looked up and began to shed tears. She couldn't bring herself to tell Siobhan what Angelique had done to her and Barnabas, and that Barnabas did not make it. All Carolyn could do was mouth "I'm sorry" to Barnabas' daughter.

Siobhan gasped and covered her mouth and turned back to the Old House, Barnabas' beloved home and sobbed.

 Maggie, who had a lengthy and checkered history with the vampire of Collinwood over the past 50 years, grabbed on to her son Sebastian upon understanding Carolyn's notion of Barnabas' demise.

The nightmare....seemed over.

****

"Are you awake?" A voice asked softly. "It's time for your medication. Wake up now, come on, wakie wakie."

The person opened their eyes. Everything was foggy, everything was confusing.  The room was a blur, they could barley make out objects. The room smelled of fresh flowers and at the same time it smelled of sick. The person was in a bed with rough white sheets that scratched their skin. The person looked down at their arms, still blurry and confusing but they were able to make out an ID bracelet that read: PATIENT 124570 -- WINDCLIFF SANITARIUM

"Come on now, take your meds." The voice said. It was a woman's voice. She was clearly a nurse. "You sure have had a crazy few weeks huh? How are you feeling?"

The person could not answer.

"Hmm...well you look ok." the nurse said brushing off most of her duties.

The person in the bed with the scratching sheets tried to speak but couldn't. The nurse noticed and smiled then handed over a pad and pen.

"Here you go...what is it? What do you want to tell me?" The nurse asked, uninterested in what was really happening.

The person grabbed the pen and without being able to see clearly where they were writing still managed to scribble out something for the nurse to read back.

"W H   ER   AM    I?" The note read.

"It's finally being taken care." The nurse said. "Don't worry, as soon as things calm down, it'll all start to make sense." The voice said.

The person grabbed the pad and pen again and blindly scrolled out "C UR  T  I S"

"Oh.... well, he's the reason you're here and why you're not gone like the rest of them. That's right hon, Carolyn....David...Barnabas....Julia...Alex....all of them. They're all gone. Every last one of them. But Curtis, he's your saving grace."

The person suddenly perked up at thinking Curtis might be there to save them but they were still unsure of what was happening, the fog in their mind possibly from medication, was disorienting.

"Clam down calm down!!" the nurse said shoving the person back down on the bed. "Like I said, things will start to become more clear soon. Or maybe they won't. I don't know. That's not what I care about right now." The nurse said coldly.

The patient in the bed, a woman, pointed to the pad again where she had written Curtis, she wanted more information, she was adamant about finding out more about Curtis. Where was he, was he coming to get her?

The nurse grinned and leaned down very close her patient. The nurse was so close now, the patient could feel the nurse's breath up against her cheek. The patient's blurry eyes, damaged and strained became fixated on the nurses name tag as she leaned in close. The female patient could only make out the first four letters on the nurse's name tag.

"C  AS   ....S...."

"I couldn't part with Curtis...no, not at all. He means everything to me. I'll take good care of him for you Victoria." The voice said switching from uninterested nurse to cold and evil and finally naming the patient who was in the bed as Victoria Winters.

It suddenly dawned on Vicky just who was standing in front of her, the voice...the name tag....It was Angelique Bouchard, still alive and posing as Vicky's nurse at Windcliff : "Cassandra".

Angelique stood over Vicky and giggled evilly and took Vicky's pad and ripped up the pages she had written on.

Vicky lie there in her bed at Windcliff. Tears ran down her face. She had no idea what had happened to everyone. The white light...the powerful bright light that engulfed all of Collinsport. What had it done to everyone? What had it done to her friends? Her family? Where was her son Curtis? What had happened to Collinwood? Her mind was in a complete storm confusion and panic.

Angelique's binding spell had left Vicky almost completely sightless. Vicky could not talk at all and was trapped at Windcliff.

Alone, terrified and mute Vicky felt like she had lost everything around her to a power hungry witch. She continued to lie on the bed staring up at the ceiling in the white room, the tortured witness to Angelique's complete annihilation of everything she loved.

A new nightmare was born, and Vicky was being led to believe her whole family was dead. Angelique was not going to give up on Curtis this easy, her spell, although broken with the majority of the Collins family still held a tight noose around Curtis and Vicky.

Vicky wailed in terror at the thought of her family and friends' demise.
To Vicky, unknowing of the truth, all seemed lost.

Now, who would save her?