PART ONE
Collinsport, Maine
Present Day
Spoilers-Buffy, thru season 2, dark shadows, barnabas collins and julia hoffman
"Nice place," Buffy sighed. She looked up at the two story inn located
on the cliff directly across from Widows Hill.
Hank Summers stood on the front porch and knocked on the door. Then he
looked back at his daughter.
"She spoke! I can't believe it! Hooray for speech therapy!"
She pondered and realized she had probably spoken a 1000 words since
leaving Sunnydale. She just needed to get away, and so accompanied her father on this short business trip. She needed to think about things, to grieve about things, to get away from her life and duties in Sunnydale.
"Sorry, dad. I... stuff going on at home."
"Buffy, I'm sorry. Well, do you want to talk about it?"
I know I've got a lot of paperwork I want to catch up on, but this is
your vacation too. If you want to talk about anything at all-"
"Thanks. I'm ok with it," she lied.
The desk clerk let them in and first led Hank to his room, then guided Buffy up the stairs to
her room. They passed a room with a closed door and, the old woman
said. "Here is where Alicia Zapato stays. She always spends her vacations in Collinsport. She's about your age. And this is your room."
The woman opened the door to a very dark room. She went into the
darkness and raised the curtains. Light flooded the room. She stood at
the window, motionless for a few moments.
"Look at this. Now, here, you are getting a world-class view of
Collinsport's soul... if it has one, HAHA! Over there to your right,
that big gray structure among the trees? That's Collinwood manor. To
your left is Widows Hill. And directly in from of you, the Collins'
private cemetery."
"Nothin' like having a cemetery in your own backyard," Buffy sighed.
The woman replied, "The Collins' do what they like. And they help in keeping the town small but thriving."
"So, is this a place where all the spooks kill off the townspeople
during full moons and stuff?" Buffy looked down and shifted her feet.
Maybe that girl across the hall, Alicia, would trade rooms with her. She
would have to work on that.
The woman blinked at her for a minute.
"I was joking," Buffy said.
"Of course," the woman blinked again, and opened the window. The
salt air is so refreshing, isn't it"
"Works for me. I just love that stench of death."
There was a small squeak of fright in the woman's chest, and she
muttered, "Enjoy the afternoon." and she hurried from the room.
Buffy shook her head, and made a special point to get dad, or Alicia, or anyone, to
exchange rooms with her.
x-x-x
Well, after just a short time in Collinsport, Buffy was convinced this place was totally evil. But the loss of her dear sweet Angel, weighed heavily on her. She spent part of the evening shuffling about town, occasionally weeping, but trying to figure her life out. Collinsport was evil, but she was too depressed to really care. She was only mildly surprised to be accosted by a vampire on her way back to the inn.
"Don't you look yummy!" the vampire hissed to Buffy.
"Yeh, yummy, crunchy and good with ketchup. But I'm not in the mood, so I suggest you leave me alone."
The female vampire leapt from her perch, blocking Buffy's path.
"You obviously don't know who you are talking too."
"I think I do, and you're still bothering me-"
Buffy didn't even finish her sentence before the vampire leapt on her. It didn't take long for Buffy to finish her job once again.
She clutched her stake and looked at the pile of dust at her feet. Shaking her head, she moved off, head down, now even more depressed.
"Stupid bloodsucker! And she's not even the Big Bad. That's someone else. God, I hope I don't run into them over the next couple days while I'm stuck in this town. I just don't feel like fighting out-of-touch vampires right now."
LATER, THE OLD HOUSE
"Barnabas, listen to me, you're in serious danger. This aint no ordinary girl. Now remember that homeless lady you turned into a vampire, remember that? Well this girl comes along… she's about 18 or so, and she's in complete control, as she pulls out a stake and BOOM, she wipes out the vampire, just like that, just as if she was born to kill vampires... and there's more, she starts talking to herself, insisting there's another vampire around here… you, Barnabas Collins. She was talking to herself about you!"
Willie Loomis pointed a trembling finger. Barnabas sat back in his chair, musing over this news. In almost 200 years in his lonely miserable existence as a vampire, he had received no true threats to his existence.
"Nonsense Willie. Don't drink, Willie... ever again!"
"I wasn't... well it wasn't that much!"
"Willie!" Barnabas warned, menacingly shaking his wolfs-head cane in his direction.
Dr Julia Hoffman came into the house, carrying a box full of medicines. She knew all about Barnabas and his curse, having discovered it when she treated Barnabas' victim, Maggie Evans for severe blood loss and mental trauma. After intense research, Julia came to him one night, astonishing him with the possibility of a medical cure for his vampirism. Through trial and error, and blackmail and deceptive, murderous secrets, they did form a partnership, and somewhere along the line, Julia actually fell in love with Barnabas Collins.
"Is everything ok, gentlemen?" Julia asked, looking at Barnabas with a slight fear. There was a time when he was merely an experiment to her, a real connection between science and the supernatural. But she had suffered with this lonely desperate cursed man for too long, and she eventually fell in love with him.
"Everything's fine, Dr. Hoffman. Er, I have to take a break from the injections tonight. Willie and I have something we need to do."
"I see, well, in that case, I'm going to mix up a new batch of serum. It will be ready for you at dawn."
"Good enough," Barnabas said, and he and Willie retreated to a private room to discuss what to do about this "professional vampire killer."
x-x-x
" I'll tell you a secret, Buffy. This town has a curse on it. I think... no, I'm sure... there's a vampire around somewhere. The girl who worked at this coffee shop, Maggie, she went missing, and then when she came back, she had bite marks on her neck, and she was all pale and bloodless. It was a vampire that got her."
"So... she's a vampire now? The bloodless girl?"
Alicia shook her head, sadness and fear in her blue eyes. "She died."
Alicia sat back with her latte, stroking the rim with her finger. "It's scary!"
"So does anything really exciting happen around here?" Buffy asked.
"You mean other than that? No… I just wish the vampire could be found, and destroyed once and for all."
Buffy thought about that, and then she decided to do a little investigating when night came.
It was something to do.
x-x-x
While her father was occupied, Buffy carefully surveyed the town. From Widow's Hill to the Collinsport Inn and all points in between. It took her all day, and one hour of that was spent observing the great and horrible house of Collinwood.
"It sits on a hellmouth!" she realized. The evil emanating from the great manor was practically tangible.
And the Collins' family practically owned the town!
"Dammit!" she muttered.
A little peace and quiet eluded her. Collinsport, Maine was a long way from Sunnydale, California, and still she could never elude her fate.
"There are vampires here, and I'm the vampire slayer... well, this sucks!"
Chiding herself for such a stupid pun, she turned and ran from the place; it was nearing sunset, and the vampire would make their presence known very soon.
She was furious at a fate so cruel as to choose here. The life of an ordinary teenage girl was not hers.
Because into each generation a slayer is born blah blah and she she was the one chosen to save the world from vampires and demons and the forces of blah blah blah!
It was a thankless job and no reward outside of an early, and very violent, death. Then the next would be chosen and Buffy would end up in a catalogue of past slayers, all viciously slaughtered in their teenage years.
Well there was the knowledge that the next in line would have prophetic visions of past slayers, including Buffy.
"Not now! Not tonight!" she swore, as she ran swiftly back to town. She was so enraged, she made a commitment to kill the vampire who would come for her now.
"Screw fate! I don't give a shit about the bigger picture now! I deserve to go to the mall and buy new clothes, and fate robbed me of something I had a goddamned right to! So Fate be damned: tonight is my choice. I'll destroy you not because I have to, but because I can!"
THE BLUE WHALE-NIGHT
"Perhaps we should talk to Dr. Hoffman. She understood my condition, perhaps she knows something about these vampire-hunters. Perhaps she-"
"Likes you," Willie mumbled.
"What was that?" Barnabas asked.
"Just one cup water with ice! I totally respect the curfew, I just got caught up in all the retro skirts at the thrift store!"
Momentarily distracted, Barnabas looked up at the girl shouting to the bartender.
"Need to use the restroom!" Willie blurted out.
"Willie!" Barnabas yelled.
"Not now, Barnabas!"
Barnabas was furious. She likes you! What does that mean? Like, as in a romantic way?
It's possible that someone might come to you willingly, someone who could accept you for what you are, and submit to your needs?
Barnabas recalled Dr. Hoffman's offer to him, frowned as he absently watched the young girl get her to-go cup.
"Ah!" he moaned, trying to comprehend the idea that Julia Hoffman had designs on him that went above and beyond curing him of his vampirism through modern medicine.
She was also in love with him!
"Hold this!"
Barnabas looked up to see the shouting girl thrust her to-go cup into his hands. He was even more shocked when she grabbed his precious wolfs-head cane from his side then ran away with it.
How dare she?!
"Sorry, Barnabas. Just, ah, had too much tea, that's it... what happened? Where's your cane?"
"Come with me now!" he ordered roughly. He was blinded by fury and determined to make the wench pay for her brazen theft.
He stormed outside, his inverness coal flapping behind him like wings.
"Barnabas it's her!"
He looked to where Willie pointed, the end of the dock, then he laughed.
"Let... let it go, Barnabas, it ain't worth it," Willie alerted him while clinging to his coat.
"Please Willie, you're becoming annoying!"
"Barnabas, I''m tellin' ya, she's not normal!"
Barnabas pulled on his coat, then knocked Willie's hands away. "She is but a mere child!"
"You lose something, buddy?!" the girl called out, twirling the cane above her head.
"And she won't be a problem much longer," Barnabas stated.
He strolled forward across the dock, ignoring Willie's sobbing.
"That, my dear," Barnabas pointed right at her "is a priceless family heirloom... and it doesn't belong to you."
She pulled it down, and looked at it. She made a face at the silver wolf head. She looked up at Barnabas, all mirth in her eyes gone, and replaced with a well-controlled rage.
"It does now. Finders keepers!"
"You little-" he began, running towards her.
"Come and get it!" she yelled, running away quickly. "Barnabas, no!" Willie cried, but they were both gone. He ran for the car.
Barnabas ran and ran, and the insolent whelp was running about thirty feet ahead.
Willie was right; she wasn't normal, but that didn't matter. Neither was he.
Transforming into a bat, he launched into the air, flying high over the trees.
From high above, he saw her running towards Collinwood.
"She moves so fast. How is that possible? Surely she can't be as I am?!"
He continued following her, then carefully alighted on the porch of the Old House, just in time to meet Julia who was on her way back from one of her research expeditions. "Get inside!" Barnabas ordered.
"But... what?"
Without a word, he opened the door and shoved her inside.
"Barnabas!" she called out, as he slammed the door shut.
Then there was a scream outside. Julia ran to the window, and saw Barnabas. He was fighting with a small woman... no, wait... that was no woman, that was a teenager!
"Barnabas!" she called out, then ran to the door.
She ran outside, and screamed in horror. Barnabas was flat on his back, and the girl was on top of him in a squatting position, a sharp wooden stick clutched in one hand and the point mere inches from his chest.
"No!" she cried out, throwing herself in front of the girl, grabbing the stick and trying to pull it away.
"Please stop! Please, I'll do anything! This isn't what you think. He's not dangerous now! I cured him! What do you want? Why are you doing this?!"
Julia was practically sobbing her last words, as the girl slowly backed off.
"Tell you what! I'll go my way... " and she walked backwards with the grace of a finely tuned athlete, amazingly avoiding every obstacle behind her. "You go yours. I'm gonna let this go. Sorry about the cane, have your minion fix it."
With that she was gone.
"Julia... "Barnabas called to her, as she picked up the broken cane from the ground.
"Oh, never could I have imagined... such strength in a child... "
Julia held out the broken cane. "I'll have Willie get to work on it right away. It'll be good as new."
"Julia, that girl was a second away from destroying me!"
"Well... she didn't," Julia reminded him, gazing off in the darkness the girl had vanished into.
