PART ONE
It was the cold dark woods north of Rockport as Quentin Collins and Carolyn Stoddard Loomis took their sons, nephews and their friends camping. Angelique was glad to have her son, William, away from her for a few days as well as Quentin's son Jamison. The two boys along with J.R. Loomis, Matthew Burton, Joe Haskell Jr., Nick Schafer and Russell Coleman were worse than the Little Rascals when it came to terrorizing Collinwood. Burton was a bit of a con just like J.R. and Schafer, despite being William's friend was hard to keep track of. Coleman was the son of a worker on the shipping yards, but all felt his everlasting presence at the estate.
"Quentin," Carolyn picked up the paper plates and stuffed them into a trash bag. "How did you find this site?"
"My father brought me up here as a boy." He confessed.
"But no one's camped here in over a hundred years." Carolyn noticed.
"Yup, sounds about right..." Quentin beamed enigmatically over his own secret past then noticed his son experimenting with trash in the campfire. "Jamison! Stop throwing trash in the fire!"
"Awwww, dad..."
"Where are William, Matt and Russell?" Carolyn looked around.
"Damming the creek, catching crawdads…" Quentin mumbled. "I promised I'd show them how to cook them."
Carolyn turned as the three dam-builders wandered back to the fire and tents with Nick trying to catch up to them. They were all covered in mud and drenched to the skin as they huddled in the heat of the fire. William dropped a bucket half full of dozens of squirming, crawling live lobster-like creatures barely three and four inches long. Their tiny beady eyes stared up over the edge of the bucket pleading for freedom.
"William!" Carolyn grabbed a towel and dropped to her nephew's level. "Your mother is going to kill me!" She dried and warmed him.
"Awwwwww, Aunt Carowyn," The boy had always had a crush on her. "I had fun! Uncle Qwentin, can we tell ghost stories now!" The other boys soon ganged up and joined in on the request.
"Tell us about the one-handed wizard and the portrait that came to life!" J.R. lit up.
"What about the vampire in the secret room!" Jamison had his favorite story unknowingly warped from real secrets in the family tree. Even Carolyn was unaware that Quentin's crazy ghost stories were conjured out of real untold events in the family history.
"How about the one with the head that wanted a body?" Nick was still being dried out by J.R's mother. "William forgets how that ends!"
"No, no, no, no…. " Quentin closed the bag of trash and put away the left over hamburger buns away. "Your mothers would string me up, and Jamison, your mother would make me sleep on the couch."
"Maggie would do that." Carolyn mumbled with a bemused grin as she turned and dried off Russell. She had to be careful with him; he was only as old as William, but his eyes were always looking at her breasts. Somehow, he seemed a bit more worldly than his age implied.
"Do you boys know the true story of the founding of Collinsport?" Quentin sat on a log outside the fire. "I mean, the real true story!"
"Is it scary?" The son of Joe Haskell Sr. asked.
"Maybe," Quentin appeared as if the fire was putting a trance on him. The flames illuminated his face with an unearthly glow as he continued. "My father told me this story, and he heard it from his, and he heard from his all the way back to probably Isaac Collins himself."
Carolyn pulled her son J.R. closer as the boys seemingly calmed for the first time in their lives. Russell gazed up with a dirty look to her stretched sweater and she began wondering if he was really a sixty-year-old midget. The rest of the boys watched Quentin as he eerily began telling the story. An owl hooted from somewhere in the thick brush of the night and a timber wolf howled for his mate against the moonlit sky from far away. The crackling logs and branches in the fire snapped under colors of yellow and orange.
"It begins with a ship lost at sea." Quentin barely spoke over a whisper to set the mood. "A wooden sailing ship on it's way to Boston in 1678, over three hundred years ago this very day..."
PART TWO
"My name is Isaac Ishmael Collins. According to what I've been told, I am 236th in line for the throne of England, but rather than wait for my fortune, I shall create myself here in the Thirteen Colonies, a place filled with all matter of vermin both human and inhuman. It is here I shall make my fortune!" Isaac Collins (johnathan frid) wrote in his journal as the HMS Exeter bobbed in the windswept and storm filled rocks north of Boston. Sailors lashed themselves to beams and the helmsman tied himself to the wheel as the tiny craft rolled to and fro on the unstable sea. The sails were barely tied to the mast as the guide in the crow's nest barely noticed land. He shouted, "Land ho!" just as the mast crashed to the deck under his feet. The captain rushed to his employer's cabin.
"Mr. Collins," Captain Briggs (addison powell) stumbled to his feet. "As best as I can tell, the storm has pushed us off course from Boston. We just might as well be crashing on the rocks off Frenchman's Bay up the coast!"
"The devil may control the land and sea, but he does not control my destiny!" Isaac argued as a heavy blow shook the ship. He watched his best friend Joshua Harridge (james storm) look surprised as he rolled out of his bunk and hit the floor. Benjamin Drew (david selby) looked at the two of them and the captain as he yawned from his comfortable bedding being rocked by the storm.
"Where are we?" He asked his comrades.
"It's destiny!" Isaac roared at an open window pelted with rain and wash and stared at the untamed wilderness obscured by haze and storm lashing waves against the rocky shore. "This is where I shall build my destiny and the greatest of cities! Soon to be the greatest city in the Thirteen Colonies!"
"If he dies from exposure it becomes Harridgetown." Joshua mumbled in jest to Ben as he rubbed his aching head. He pulled out a flask of whisky.
"If you die from the drink, it becomes Port Drew." Ben continued the frivolity grinning jovially as he stole a sip from the same flask. The two friends shared a laugh and joined their third blood brother in an impromptu dance to the unclaimed land and a likely grand adventure.
PART THREE
As soon as the storm broke, Isaac, Ben and Joshua unloaded three horses and supplies and rode down the coast to file the deed to the land. They had been friends since childhood. They had looked out for each other through thick and thin. If one of them ever got into trouble, they all got into trouble. Their lives and destines were intertwined and their descendants were going to forage and tame a town on that stretch of land on the northern bay. Along the way, they didn't see a trace of the so-called bloodthirsty natives that reportedly already lived the land. They talked about the redskins and the rumors of them along the way as they reached the growing settlement of Boston and began looking for the surveyors and assessors of the town.
"Frenchman's Bay?" Magistrate Samuel Stokes (louis edmonds) checked the maps north of the colonies. "It's never been claimed, Mr. Collins."
"And with good reason," Samuel's brother, Aloysius (thayer david) hovered nearby. "The Penobscot Indians say the land is cursed. Nothing can live up there."
"Curse?" Joshua scoffed as he broke into the giggles.
"The Indians say the dead walk there." Aloysius continued. "It's never been surveyed because every surveyor has vanished. Some have seen a spectral ship on the waters and heard unearthly wails on the cliff called manacheo - the widow's cry. Men who go there never return!"
"That means we're dead." Joshua kidded with Ben. Isaac ignored his best friends as he turned back to the Magistrate.
"Really," Ben grinned. "You look good for a dead man."
"Well, thank you." Joshua added and shared in the youthful revelry with some jestful improvisation
Aloysius Stokes ignored the irreverence as Isaac signed his name to a deed for the land. Ben and Joshua signed as witnesses knowing their wealthy friend had promised them land as well. He was after all the only one with the power and clout to obtain it.
"How much land does this allow me?" Isaac signed his name.
"Oh," The Magistrate rolled his eyes whimsically. "Go in as far as you can. We'll have it surveyed after the King's aides approve the transaction. I see no problem."
"Why so far up there?" Aloysius started again. "I hear they're building in a tiny hamlet called Amity on the land near Manhattan. Why not here? You doomed to bad luck if you go up there!"
"My destiny is that land!" Isaac stood up proud as his comrades copied his pose in jest and mimicked his gestures. "Heaven and earth may not budge me. It will be named Collin's Port… Collinsport!"
"Good name."
"Port Drew." Ben faked a jovial cough.
"Harridgetown." Joshua followed in it. The two of them smiled jokingly to Isaac. He was such a fudge away from England.
"May God have mercy on your souls." Aloysius stared at them. "I'd prefer to cut off my own head than go up there."
PART FOUR
Five months later, Isaac's wife Grace (lara parker) arrived from England on a ship at the Collinsport docks. Their teenage son August (david henesy) and her sister Clara (nancy barrett) was with her. Between the other passengers and cargo being unloaded, she looked up as over a hundred men felled trees to create the settlement. So far, it consisted solely of odd shaped cabins and sheds, some of them attached to trees. Makeshift huts dotted the muddy road heading up the hill from the docks as wagons covered in mud carried gold fixtures and furnishings deep to a mansion being built far in the distance. Other immigrants met immigrants traveling overland and by sea as they sought work and homes. New structures of wood and stone and brick were being built around wood skeletons as children ran loose everywhere. Some of them cavorted in the mud and even worked as laborers as Grace sighed at the spectacle. Isaac emerged from the confusion.
"You've been busy." she remarked.
"Welcome to Collinsport!" He welcomed theatrically with a wave of his hand. "A town soon to be greater and grander than anything seen before, and wait till you see the new Collinwood. I patterned it after our home in England from the pillars out front to the number of bricks in the cellar and on a perfect site not far from Widow's Hill."
"Widow's Hill?" Grace asked.
"The wife of a sailor jumped last week after his ship was lost at sea." Isaac revealed. "It will be the last tragedy ever. And August, my beloved son, are you ready for a incredible adventure?"
"Eager, father." The boy stood proud in the presence of his father. "Seen any Indians yet?"
"Aren't speaking to me?" Clara grinned at her sister's husband.
"Beautiful Clara," Isaac added and kissed her hand. "And how was the voyage?"
"Horrible." She was frankly honest. "The sea tossed us like a child's toy. Thought it'd never end." She gradually wandered away as Isaac forced a grin and turned to Grace and his son. As the discussion turned to events in England, Clara broke away as she noticed an extra shape in the wagon the men had loaded with her belongings. A small shape of a person crawled under the tarp covering the baggage as it hovered over and poked through the bags. She whipped back the cover and discovered a young girl (sharon smythe) with dirty blonde hair and big blue eyes.
"You horrible gutter snipe!" She screamed. "Stealing all my pretty things!"
"I am Angelique Miranda DuVal…" The three-foot high girl jumped out and looked back with snobbish intonations. "And I am still a better person than you!" She stuck out her tongue defiantly and lifted her long skirt to her muddy bare feet before running loose down the hill amidst ramshackle cabins, frenetic activity and wild dogs and cats running in fear of her.
PART FIVE
From the start, Grace Collins (lara parker) looked at the children of the settlers running loose in dangerous circumstances and taking jobs for spending money and realized that it wasn't going to work. She opened the first school in Collinsport for all the children thirteen years of age and younger to keep them from getting hurt on the docks. Isaac's men built the one room cabin for her in less than a week and Joshua and Ben brought the supplies from Boston she wanted. As the teacher, she taught simple writing, reading and math with very little tolerance for under-achievers. Her son, August (david henesy), was around to help control the children in her absence, but it was soon obvious that he only had eyes for Benjamin's daughter, Victoria Drew (kathy cody). Her younger sister, Violet (denise nickerson), however, helped to indulge Angelique (sarah smythe) into mischief.
"Angelique," Grace hovered over the girl. "Read from the book."
"I don't wanna." the child glared hotly at her.
"Listen here, you little witch." Grace was starting to lose her patience with her. "You have been a thorn in my side since I arrived. Now read!" She turned her back to the child just before the book flew over her shoulder. She whirled around as the kids broke up laughing. Angelique sat guiltily still amidst the tomfoolery.
"Did you throw that?" Grace asked with the temperance of an adult.
"No," Angelique finally giggled. "The ghost did."
"Ghost?" Grace's eyes came to the child's level as she reached for the book. Her face came closer to Angelique as the girl looked to her.
"I see dead people." Angelique whispered solemnly as she stared into her teacher's eyes. She slowly broke into childish laughter.
"There are no such things as ghosts." Grace straightened and returned Angelique's book.
"Yes, there is!" Violet chirped up.
"The 'dults don't like to talk about it." Angelique continued. "But a man got killed on the docks. His ghost comes back looking for his head!" She stirred up the room. Grace tapped her desk with a ruler to secure the room.
"You are an evil child." She looked at Angelique.
"But at least I'm not a teacher!" She hurled her book again and stuck out her lip. The book bounced off the wall and opened to the story of Odysseus and the witch-goddess Circe.
That night, Magistrate Stokes rode into town on horseback. His breath formed in the air as it had been miles without seeing a solitary mark of inhabitation. As he neared Frenchman's Bay, he began seeing small huts and small sheds lit by lanterns. He patted the pouch with Isaac's deed to make sure he had it as his horse suddenly became spooked and reared up.
"Girl, girl, what is it?" He clicked his tongue to calm her, but she bucked him off. Stokes landed in the mud as his horse fled back to Boston. He gripped the pouch as heard other horseshoes galloping to meet him. Far to the tree line, a midnight black stallion with two glowing red eyes charged. Its rider wore Hessian attire that flapped in the wind. He waved a rapier as some sort of demented swordsman. The horse snorted and breathed smoke as it came closer and closer. Its rider laughed the most unearthly laughter as Stokes' eyes rounded in shock. The horseman didn't have a head!
"God take me!" Stokes (louis edmonds) ran into the brush as the horseman swung his rapier at him. It split the air with an unholy aura as the horse dove into the brush after its owner's target. The specter and horse were almost one and the same as it leaped a ditch and charged through the trees.
Scared for his life, Stokes ran trying to scream. He couldn't catch his breath as he looked for signs of people. He finally noticed a light.
Chloe Harridge (alexandra moltke) drew her bedsheets to her chest as the mad knocking began at her door. Her husband, Joshua (james storm), took a minute to rise. He listened to the strange frenzied screams for help as he grabbed his flintlock. The noise suddenly stopped as suddenly as it began.
"My love," Chloe reached to him. He silently instructed her to stay in her bed, as he listened to the door.
"Who is it?" He yelled out. He flung the door open as a body fell through. Chloe began screaming.
Its head was missing.
PART SIX
Isaac Collins (johnathan frid) walked over the docks to his ships with his feet clammering over the boards one at a time and consulted the plans of his builders and made the decisions of his town. He was preoccupied in business and his mond in another world as Christopher Stockbridge (roger davis) approached him.
"Mr. Collins?" The younger man approached him.
"Yes?"
"I am looking for my uncle." Stockbridge replied. "Where is he?"
"If you find him," Isaac barely looked up. "Let me know." Stockbridge made a face and turned on his heel realizing that he was not of much help. He tramped back along the loose wood boards of the dock and then peered through them to the water below and into the alcove of land hidden at the breakwater underneath. He was hoping Collins was a better ship-builder than a dock-builder and noticed the movement of men concealed under the boards.
"What do you do with a drunken sailor...Malloy, what's the rest?" A drunken voice mumbled under the influence of alcohol. Recognizing that voice, Stockbridge stepped off the planks and turned to look under the dock. He noticed his Uncle Lionel (jerry lacy) sharing a bottle of rum with Seamus Malloy (frank schofield).
"Uncle!" He scolded them. "You promised me you stopped drinking! Father will be upset!"
"I promised not to drink ale." Stockbridge staggered out. "I said nothing of rum. 'Sides, it gets cold working in these waters."
"But you will get terminated." The nephew was quick to point out.
"Correction." Isaac appeared coming back their way and stood over them on the docks with his long coat flapping in the breeze. "He has been terminated. Good day." He continued on about his business.
"Collins!" The elder Stockbridge pushed his younger brother's son out of the way and yelled at Isaac with annoyed verbal undertones. "You can't dismiss me..." He clumsily swayed as he sloshed on to land. "I know what you've done. I know your secrets. You can't fire me!"
"I just did." Isaac ignored him as he continued his business.
Grace Collins (lara parker) had a different sort of day as she dismissed her students and closed the schoolhouse. As she turned, she was surprised by the visage of a woman concealed under a hood standing behind her and waiting for her.
"Oh!" She shrieked.
"Mrs. Collins?" The female presence asked.
"Yes." Grace answered.
"Valerie Esmerelda DuVal." Angelique's mother (kathryn leigh scott) pulled down her hood. "How dare you tell my daughter ghost stories!"
"Now see here..." Grace took offense.
"No, you see here." Valerie glared back with eyes of fire. "She is a harmless child. A bit free spirited, perhaps, but weren't we all at that age? I will not allow you to teach her...witchcraft!"
"Mrs. DuVal," Grace beamed back. "Your daughter is an incorrigible little witch who needs a good spanking! And if you cannot do it..."
"Do you presume to tell me how to be a parent?" Valerie glared back to her. "It is not easy to be a single parent here in the middle of this wilderness. Especially for one not born on a silver spoon! Now, where is my child? I will take her now!"
"Your child..." Grace smiled. "Is following your habits... out on the docks!" She was slapped upside the head.
Free to her vices, tiny Angelique DuVal (sara smythe) was looking for free food or anything else she could steal and sell for it. She was chewing on a piece of dried meat her tiny hand had pulled out of the barrel she was sitting on as Amadeus Collins (john karlen) arrived from England to catch up with his brother. He grinned at the young girl with naiveté innocence near him and handed her a coin and turned his head about looking for Clara, Grace's sister to meet him. Not yet his wife and she was already leaving him waiting.
"Excuse me." Aloysius Stokes (thayer david) was also standing about looking for his brother as he too arrived from Boston. He stopped one of the workers as he nervously looked around. "Where can I find Magistrate Stokes? Did he make it?"
"No," Angelique spoke up out of nowhere as she chewed her free meal. "He did not." She spit a piece of gristle. "He's dead."
"Now, now, " Amadeus turned to listen to her. "Where would a little girl get such unholy ideas?"
"From the ghosts of Collinsport." She continued chewing. "They say he was killed by Isaac Collins." She continued her tall tale to her audience as Clara (nancy barrett) eavesdropped from a few feet away.
PART SEVEN
In the absence of adults, August Collins (david henesy) and Victoria Drew (kathy cody) vanished to the site where Collinwood, their potential home, was being built. The huge front pillars were in place and scaffolding lined the outside after the workers had departed for the night. The glass window openings seemed to stare back at them as the sockets of a skull as the two frivolous and romance-minded youths stepped over left tools, ladders and rolled up wallpaper. The glass chandelier was up and covered in paper to protect it from the plaster dust and sawdust in the air. Not yet married and lord of the manor, August kissed Victoria under the staircase and she playfully pushed him aside and rushed down in to the cellar hoping he would follow. Sensing the chase was on, August pursued after her as she giggled just out of arm's reach. Racing from him, she fled down a dark corridor deeper into the foundation before he finally caught her and pinned her to a wall. She felt his breath on her neck and she felt cold, sticky dampness on her fingers. As she caressed him, she smeared blood on him. It was all over the wall! They together looked up. A headless corpse was hanging in the rafters! Victoria's voice shrieked to the heavens.
"What sort of community are you running here?" Amadeus Collins argued with his brother within a shack near the docks. "You can't ignore the disappearance of a Magistrate. Where is he?"
"I run my city the way I run my business." Isaac argued back. "One thing at a time."
"My brother should have arrived last night." Stokes argued. "Where is he? What have you done to him?"
"You're listening to the fairy tales of a child!" Isaac parlayed with a knife and cut up an apple and ate the slices from his fingers. "The road to Boston is long and treacherous. The redskins got him, maybe brigands."
"There are no known brigands." Amadeus argued. "The Indians are peaceful..."
"And I am no killer!" Isaac plunged the knife through the papers on the table as his son August charged inside.
"Father!" He cried out. "A body! A headless body! At Collinwood!"
It was late that night as Virginia Drew (kate jackson) heard a horse racing around the cabin. Pulled from sleep, she thought of her children and looked out to see her daughters asleep by the burning embers of the fireplace. Beyond them and the walls of their temporary cabin, the sounds of a horseman encircled the cabin. She roused Ben (david selby), her husband, to tend to the upstart outside that dared to disturb their peace. Ben woke hesitantly and peered to the shadow encircling once more and lifted his rifle. "Who are you? What do you want?" he called out.
"Ben?" Virginia uttered as she covered her ears to the shotgun blast. Ben had shot at the presence and missed as his daughters awoke. They lifted their heads to see their father rushing out the door to see if he had hit the upstart on the horse riling them from their solitude. It was deathly quiet as the moon vanished behind the clouds. From a long distance off, Ben heard thunder as he stepped further from the cabin. The thunder turned to a gallop; the shadows into a charging steed. Its rider didn't have a head. Only a cutlass that swung at his throat!
Ben saw the sword strike sparks on his rifle barrel as it passed quickly over his weapon. Another few inches would have cleaved his head from his neck. Ben dove first for his cabin then feared for the safety of his wife and ran instead for Joshua's cabin. The horseman had now turned and was charging on him. Ben grabbed the door of Joshua's cabin with determined haste. He lurched it open, and dove to the floor!
" FIRE!" Joshua was inexplicably prepared with an inside barricade and eight riflemen with muskets and rifles waiting for the specter about to slay Benjamin Drew. Their rifles and flintlocks fired over Benjamin Drew clutching earth and sod and upon the specter. The barrage of bullets sheared the air while the horseman reared his mount unaffected by the onslaught and turned for the middle of town.
Lionel Stockbridge (jerry lacy) and Seamus Malloy (frank schofield) were already inebriated as they heard the horseman coming closer from the direction of the Harridge cabin. They turned to face and acknowledge it as the unidentified figure lashed out with his sword briefly in a flash and vanished in the distance.
"Some people should not ride horses." Seamus mumbled as Lionel staggered and fell on him. "Get off me. I'm the one that had the seventeen pints..." He hauled his partner up to stand. His drinking buddy had a deathly pallor and a shocked look in his face. His frock was wet and warm as his skull tumbled to Seamus's feet.
PART EIGHT
Isaac (johnathan frid) covered his mouth with his handkerchief and looked over the headless decapitated body of Magistrate Stokes and Lionel Stockbridge. Stokes had been found in the floorbeams of Collinwood; Stockbridge from the lane he had met his end. Isaac could only drop the sheet covering them as the new community funeral director plotted a cemetery at the land the Indians had called Eagle's Hill. It was as good a name to use for the first local cemetery and there were already several redskins buried there as a start.
"What do you think?" Amadeus (john karlen) stood by.
"Takes a pretty powerful man to slice off a head with one strike." The director mumbled.
"I will not have a madman ruin my town!" Isaac stormed back to the docks. "This is my town. My land!"
"But what of your people?" Amadeus grabbed his brother. "No, you care only for the work you can squeeze out of them. If you have anything to do with those men's deaths, let me hear it!"
"Why are you trying to ruin me!" Isaac pushed him off. "I have Grace and my son to think of. I cannot worry about these misfortunate details."
"You are no better than the madman who killed these men." Amadeus answered.
"And you are no different than father!" Isaac glared back. "But then he always liked you best! You were a lawyer, and a judge! What of I? A carpenter who built the greatest mansions in England and he looked down on me because I built with my hands while you cavorted with criminals and the scum of the earth. I could never live up to his expectations and now I can't live up to yours!"
"At least I never killed to reach my ends." Amadeus spoke then regretted it. His brother's fist knocked him right off the dock and into the water of the bay as Ben (david selby) and Joshua (james storm) ran to break up the fight between brothers. Amadeus pushed away Ben while he lifted him out of the water.
"I'll see you hang for that." Amadeus spit on the docks and sloshed angrily out of the waters. Ben and Joshua exchanged glances to each other sharing a secret between them then looked to Isaac.
"And what do you want!" Isaac barked at them.
"Isaac…" Joshua started. "The land is haunted..."
"A phantom horseman with no head." Ben continued. "He terrorizes the land. Any of us could be next."
"Pour me what you've been having." Isaac smirked and headed for his shack.
It was nighttime as Amadeus reached the furthest reaches of the settlement for the rout south to Boston. His horse was keeping a decent stride as the beginning of a road wore through the woods of this new continent. He thought of the vengeance he could take out on his brother as the noble animal scurried a bit, neighed and picked up speed. She seemed frenzied.
"What is it, girl?" He patted her as out the corner of his eye he noticed a midnight black charger coming at him. Its laughing rider was waving a silver rapier over his... there was no head.
His horse buckling, Amadeus fell to earth and landed on his back. He rolled once and tumbled down several feet into twigs, branches, years of leaves and high weeds. He rolled down an embankment and landed in the hard pebbles of a gully. He scrambled to his feet as the black horse and its rider slid down after him just several feet from him.
"Curse you, Isaac!" He grabbed a low hanging tree branch and pulled it back until it was taut. "I'll see you behind bars!" He released it as the person he assumed to be his brother charged him. Ducking the rapier, he then rethought his killer's identity in a split second. The branch had gone through the horse and its rider, but not the rapier. It flew through space and then froze in mid-air. The horseman stopped and reared his mount briefly as he held his hand out to his weapon as it froze trapped in the air and then returned to his hand. Laughing once more, he charged to Amadeus.
"Merciful Heavens!" Amadeus turned and ran for his life through the damp bed of rocks. He couldn't outrun it, but he might be able to lose it. He jumped back into the trees and forced himself painfully through thick briars and thickets. The ground rose and became rocky as he found an opening and then a deserted cabin front built into the rocks. He jerked the door open on impulse and dove inside. He peered out the glass window as the horseman charged deeper into the trees past him in its search for him.
Amadeus gasped. He tried to catch his fatigued breath and then heard another gasp behind him. He turned slowly as his face came inches from that of Hester Bouchard (joan bennett), a witch!
PART EIGHT
"Who are you?" Amadeus (john karlen) looked upon Hester (joan bennett) with fear and suspicion. She didn't answer him right off. She turned and lit a lantern to illuminate her dilapidated home. Most of it was wooden as the front part, but the back half looked like a mine that had been partially converted into a home.
"Just as you think," Hester guessed. "A witch who came here from Blair to escape the witch hunts, but I know you, Amadeus Collins, and that was my husband you were escaping..."
"Husband?"
"The very first white man to have his blood spilled on this land." She claimed as she broke pods of peas to a basket by lantern light. "I also know you love your brother, but his anger makes it hard for you. He's had to fight for everything, and it's made him bitter."
"How do you know this?"
"I'm a witch, aren't I?" She grinned toward him with a whimsical sense of madness. "I know a lot of things, and this won't be the last trial for your family." Hester closed her eyes and lifted her head.
"I see..." She seemed to be having visions. "Armies fighting to free the colonies from England… a nation divided in war… a great leader killed by a mere actor…" Her eyes flashed open as she stood up to Amadeus. "You in trial with the severed head of a warlock… a princess from Martinique dashed at the rocks at Widow's Hill… the death of a brother… an heir who won't stayed buried… a wayward son who fears the moon… a cursed painting… disasters for anyone named Collins!" Hester's predictions drove her to frenzy as she suddenly calmed and pointed her finger to him. "Beware the child with the innocent smile!"
Elsewhere, Angelique Miranda DuVal (sarah smythe) was tucked into her bed in the rafters of her mother's home. The girl had the vantage point of the whole room as Valerie (kathryn leigh scott) stroked her head and kissed it. Of all the trials and tribulations of her life, tiny Angelique was the one thing that made her happy to be alive. She beamed and doted on her little girl and climbed down the ladder to turn to her own brother waiting for her.
"You don't have to worry about paying me the back months rent." Her brother, Thomas DuVal (don briscoe) spoke. "I have sold it to Isaac Collins for twice it's worth and he will be here later this week to tear it down."
"What!" Valerie was incredulous. "How dare you sell my cabin?"
"For one," Thomas leaned on the mantle with his arm stuck out from his cape. "It's not yours, it's mine. I built it. Two, he named the price. Three, you were not about to give me any money."
"You want money, you bandit." Valerie held up a small pouch with coins. "This is all the money I left from selling mother's jewelry. Take it!"
"You sold our sainted mother's last possessions!" Thomas scowled as a horse sounded outside. "How dare you! Now, I'll have to buy them back!"
"For what?" Valerie screamed. "To lose them in another poker game!" Thomas lunged at his sister for that insult and started choking her. She clawed at his face as the front door of the one room cabin slammed open. The breeze blew out the fireplace and the fog off the ocean illuminated everything in blue. A headless figure stepped out of the hellish mist and entered the cabin before them. With one sharp strike of its silver rapier, the fog turned an ill pink from spraying blood and Thomas DuVal was beheaded where he stood. His blood splattered on his sister as she stood screaming and then felt her hair being pulled and then her whole body jerked off her feet. The horseman lurched her off her feet like a rag doll and bounced her off the wall before dragging her out into the dark night.
Angelique's eyes watched the whole spectacle and listened to her mother's screams being dragged off into the foggy night. It was certainly an image that would never leave her dreams. She began sinking into her obscured bedding fearing for when the horseman would be back for her!
PART NINE
Emily Bouchard (donna mckechnie) once more braved the road from Boston to her mother's isolated cabin near Collinsport with supplies. The closest French settlement to buy supplies was near a settlement called St. Charles. Ships from France, Germany and Britain docked there as well as at Collinsport. As she arrived back to her mother's shanty obscured in the rocky hills, she was surprised to see her mother warmly entertaining company.
"I lost my horse and your mother gave me lodgings." Amadeus excused himself. "I was on my way to Boston."
"I'm returning to my home there now." Emily beamed with a beautiful smile. "Would you like to accompany me?"
"I would be delighted." Amadeus grinned at her lovely presence, but Hester once more clutched his arm.
"Beware the child with the innocent smile." Hester repeated her warning.
"Excuse my mother." Emily grinned a bit embarrassed. "She likes to convince people that she is a witch."
Clara DuPre (nancy barrett) thought of her sister as she smoked her long cigarette and rode the Collins carriage to the DuVal cabin near the docks. Sent to collect Angelique (sarah smythe), she walked in through the open door moving in the morning breeze and looked around carelessly tossing her ashes into a pot behind the door and around the fireplace mantel. She had been told to look for a bed in the rafters. Eyeing the ladder, she tossed away her cigarette without looking and stepped one foot on it and hoisted herself up to look under the rafters. Buried under comforters and quits, the face of the concealed child looked out for human company.
"Angelique." Clara spoke with her French accent even more obvious. The frightened girl was hidden under the covers; only one eye peeked out. "Your mother was found in the woods near death. She is at Collinwood and is requesting you come to her."
"My uncle..." Angelique looked to the floor. His body was gone, but the floor and stone mantel were covered in dark purple left behind from the dried blood. Clara ignored everything else, lifted the small waif in her arms and took her out to her carriage. Once inside, Clara slipped inside herself, signaled the coachman and they started with a small lurch.
"You don't like your mother." Clara spoke to the girl. "I didn't like mine either."
"She drove my daddy away." Angelique listened to the feet of the horse. "He never came back."
"I never knew my father either." Clara admitted. "He took our brother, Louis, to Martinique to work on sugar plantations there. My mother sent us to live with the Collins than to take us with her. My sister married Isaac, their son, and became very rich. I was promised to the brother, a lowly attorney."
"They have a lot of money?" Angelique spoke as the carriage rocked.
"A lot of money!" Clara's eyes shone brilliantly as she looked over Angelique.
"I hate being poor." Angelique scowled.
"I don't blame you." Clara slightly squirmed as the girl bonded with her, but then hesitated and placed her arm around her. She grinned toward her. "We're rather alike, we are. I apologize for scaring you when I arrived."
"That's okay." The girl gave Clara back a monogrammed handkerchief.
"Why you little minx!" Clara recognized it, then grinned benevolently and stroked back the hair from the cherubic face of her new little friend. The carriage lurched forward and pulled up close to the tall white pillars of Collinwood. It was still being built and perfected as Clara led Angelique in by the hand. The young girl looked right briefly into a parlor room separated from the foyer by smaller pillars. As she tried to look round, she was lead upstairs where her mother was being tended by Grace Collins (lara parker). Clara gently prodded her further toward her mother's presence in the room.
"Your mother is very sick." Grace wrung out a rag and left instructions with a servant. Her eyes looked upon Angelique briefly complacent for the moment as she stood up. She had other business at the moment as she turned and headed downstairs to her husband Isaac (johnathan frid). He was hovering over the table in the parlor discussing his house plans with his contractors.
"So you found some caves underneath." He spoke to his contractor. "Build into them. See if they enter into the cliffs. Should be a proper passageway to help carry supplies from shore. And this room off the parlor… put a bookcase before it instead of a door. I can hide weapons in there from thieves."
"Isaac?" Grace tried to get his attention.
"Yes, my love?" Isaac barely noticed her as he turned back to his builders. "Not that wall paper! That's for the dining room!"
"Isaac?" Grace continued unfettered. "Valerie DuVal is very sick. She needs a doctor!"
"Please my dear," Isaac was distracted. "I am very busy."
"You and this house!" Grace screamed impatiently. "Isn't there anything else you care for!"
"Isaac!" Joshua (james storm) rushed in suddenly from outside. "There's a fire at the docks!"
Isaac dropped his blueprints and rushed to his horse behind Joshua. The two galloped down the hill past the barns and cabins as they saw the huge black clouds of smoke filling the air. A small shanty nearby was burning down and another small flame was on one of the incomplete boats. Someone was ringing a bell as every able man grabbed a pail of water or shoveled dirt to smother the flames. The Duval cabin was burning and threatening to burn the entire town. Isaac saw his life's work burning before him as he fought the blaze.
It took until nightfall to stop all the little flames being blown around, but it finally went out. Isaac turned as his brother returned on horseback. Amadeus jumped off his horse and walked defiantly up to his brother and slapped a piece of paper in his hand.
"Isaac Collins," he started. "You are hereby charged with the murders of Magistrate Stokes, Lionel Stockbridge and Thomas DuVal."
PART TEN
Angelique wandered past the Collinwood servants taking care of her dying mother. She wasn't sure what was happening or what was being said, but she knew her mother was very sick. Already feeling independent, she wasn't sure how she felt of her. Once alone with the woman, she gazed down at her coldly and distantly as her mother coughed and choked on the infection in her. Pale and cold, Valerie looked at her daughter and ran her fingers over the long hair over the child's ear.
"Moi chere'," she spoke kindly to her. "I think I may be dying. So I have arranged with my lawyer that the Collinses adopt you. You will be always taken care of by them."
"No, not by them." Angelique scowled. "I want to be adopted by Miss Clara."
"It's not possible for a single woman to raise you alone." Valerie looked up at her.
"Then die and leave me alone!" Angelique hissed and ran out past a servant and a workman in the hall. Valerie coughed and tuned to her side while her tears fell on her face and to her pillow. What was she going to? She only wanted the best for her daughter; why did she not see that!
"It's hard to believe that nasty little brat is our Angelique." A voice sounded in the hall. "Willie, did you seal up that message in the MacGruder House?"
"Yeah," The one named Willie answered. "Just before Sara opened Angelique's spell book in our time, Quentin was going to rip down that wall in Rose Cottage as part of its restoration. When he finds the bottle and our message, he'll give it to our future Angelique and she'll be able to return us to the present." Willie sighed as he ran his fingers over his period costume. He and Dr. Julia Hoffman slipped into Valerie's room with medicine prepared just for her.
"I hope this works." Julia dropped to her feet with her small vial. "Mrs. DuVal, this is supposed to help you." She lifted the head of Angelique's mother and had her drink from the bottle. Hoping that saving the life of Angelique's mother would not alter their time, she deeply gasped and reflected on her oath to save lives. This was as far back into time she had ever experienced and it was Willie's first excursion into the past as well.
"I never had to make penicillin from scratch before." She mumbled under breath to Willie and turned to smile good comforts to Valerie. "She looks a lot like Maggie and even Josette."
"Maybe that's why Angelique hated Josette. Her mother and Josette look so alike." Willie exhaled. "And Grace and Clara, Josette's own great-aunts? It's as if everything that ever happened to the family has been tied up in these events. The Collins, Drew, Harridge, DuPre and Stockbridge families, Angelique following the DuPre family to Martinique…" He paused and looked to Julia. "My resemblance to Amadeus Collins… The final proof my grandfather was the grandson of Desmond Collins."
"I also find it amusing that Grace, who looks so much like our Angelique, would actually have her patience tested by the young girl who would grow up to look like her and cause so much distress to the family." Julia looked up. "I wonder how the horseman figures into all this. It's not in the History of the Collins Family. I wonder what else…"
"What are you doing?" Grace Collins entered the room and noticed two people she knew as a servant and a craftsman tending to the needs of her patient.
"Um, uh, I was giving Mrs. Duval some medicine." Julia curtsied as the servant she was hired to be.
"You've done so." Grace appeared upset as she turned to Willie. "And you. Fetch some more water and get back to work."
"Yes ma'am." Willie and Julia exchanged a glance as they slipped back out. They turned and headed down the steps of the structure they knew as the Old House. Willie grinned to see it being constructed and finished before his eyes, but Julia took notice of something else. An angry mob was dragging Isaac to the house. They were carrying rifles and torches and screaming "Witchcraft" as Isaac was dragged into the basement in chains. Willie followed behind and watched was tossed into the cellar room made up as an impromptu jail where in his time Barnabas would some day hold Maggie and where a man-made human named Adam will one day sleep.
"So that's why a cell was built down here." Willie whispered to himself fascinating in learning the secrets of Collinwood unfold before him.
"But he's innocent!" Josh Harridge pounded the table while he and Benjamin Drew shared a bottle at Isaac's base of business near the docks.
"Of course, he is." Ben downed a pint of scotch. "But how did the magistrate's body get in Collinwood." Ben asked the question and paused watching Josh looking around themselves in a guilty state. He was finding himself with no other recourse but to confess.
"I panicked." He finally admitted. "He died at my front step and I hid his body at Collinwood. I never meant for it to be discovered, I just... needed to work up the resolve to bury him later!"
"You fool." Ben slapped him. "Then go tell Amadeus the truth. Clean up this mess you created!"
"Yes," Joshua felt less than a man as he pulled on his cape. "My mess, before it gets worse." He stepped out into the dark autumn air and headed up the street for the cabin Amadeus was renting. His breath fogging before him, he began to hear the hoof beats of several horses, but only one sounded like thunder. He turned hesitantly a familiar midnight black charger from nights before raced to him. Its headless rider laughed the most unearthly battle cry with his galloping straight at him.
"No!" Joshua felt the fear of God as he raced for Amadeus's cabin. Screaming for help, he dived through an alley to escape his executioner. Lawyer Christopher Stockbridge exited from his home at that instant. He was glancing over the papers for Valerie to sign for the Collinses to adopt Angelique and then noticed Joshua running toward him. He looked scared to death.
"He's going to kill me!" Joshua grabbed the lawyer.
"Who?" He smelled liquor on him. "Why don't you go sleep it off!" A horse and rider jumped out of the alley. Just as Stockbridge looked up, he saw a flash of silver and a warm rush of blood over his chest. Joshua felt the spray of blood from Stockbridge covering him and caught his head as the now dead lawyer dropped it. He turned from the snorting horse from Hades and its demonic rider and ran once more. The horseman could not be stopped, and Joshua did not have the protection of his cabin nore the gathering of twelve men with muskets to protect him. He jumped on Amadeus's door. It was locked.
"All right, all right." The brother of Isaac Collins heard the screams and panicked pounding as he was preparing for trial. He lifted his lantern and turned up the light. The pounding stopped as he undid his locks.
"What do you want!" He snarled and looked up. Lightning lit up the sky as the horseman's mount reared up with a roar of demonic laughter. From the saddle hung the head of Joshua Harridge! Amadeus stood stunned from what he saw the horseman claiming another ghastly trophy and then riding off into the night with it.
PART ELEVEN
Chloe Harridge (alexandra moltke) screamed "Witchcraft!" and hurled a tomato at Collinwood. The workers had fled and the townsfolk were ready to burn it down to keep it from being finished. Isaac (johnathan frid) sat in his jail in the basement partly in shock and mostly humiliated by the turn of events. Josh Harridge had been his best friend; he could not understand Chloe thinking he wanted him dead. As he sat defeated, he heard footsteps coming down toward him.
"Isaac!" Clara (nancy barrett) delivered his meal as she unlocked the door and placed it before him. "You did not eat your lunch."
"I'm not hungry." Isaac barely turned round.
"But you must eat." She put some veal on his fork and carried to him, but he turned away. Sighing out loud, she tried to lift his spirits. "Ben has taken to the docks to protect them."
"From the ghost?"
"From the people." Clara mooned over her sister's husband. She reached to him but watched as he pulled back from her tender touch. "But...I've heard tell that many have seen the horseman coming and going from Old Lady Bouchard's shack. Maybe, she's the fault of the murders." Clara continued.
"Why would she..." Isaac began then shrugged it off.
"Oh, Isaac..." Clara sighed even deeper. "I would do anything to help you!"
Amadeus (john karlen) was preparing his case as Benjamin Drew (david selby) charged inside and punched him into the face. The younger Collins brother hit the floor and rubbed his chin before lifting himself up and striking Ben in return into the stomach. One blow was prevented as Ben blocked it and then gave Amadeus a right cross against the jaw.
"Why are you ruining your brother!" Ben lifted up the pitiful younger brother and screamed into his face.
"Because he's a killer!" Amadeus struck him with his fist. Ben felt blood drip from his lip and pushed Amadeus across the desk.
"You don't know him like I do." Collins stood up. "Isaac would do anything to get ahead. Even witchcraft! Ever hear of Brutus Collins. He was our brother. He was hanged ten years ago for being a devil worshipper. It's in the blood. It's everything I've fought against."
"But you don't have proof that Isaac is practicing witchcraft." Ben staggered back.
"Yes I do." Amadeus led Ben out, down an alley and to the docks. The old shanty where Valerie DuVal once lived had been reduced in the fire to a black stone foundation. The last remaining floorboards had been propped upside on the ground outside. He yanked off the sheet to reveal the demonic symbol on the unburned bottom.
"That's my proof." Amadeus scowled back as he held something up. "And this - my brother's cigarette holder. What he used to burn down the cabin!"
PART TWELVE
Judge Aaron Radcliffe (mitchell ryan) had come to the tiny hamlet all the way from Boston to listen to Amadeus and Ben debate on whether there was a case that could exist to hang Isaac. Radcliffe knew Isaac and liked him. Their fathers had been allies in both business and war, but now, he had to try and be neutral as brother turned against brother. Aloysius Stokes (thayer david) was present at the inquiry as Ben took opposing counsel.
"Isaac Collins killed my brother and tried to hide his body in the walls of Collinwood." Stokes declared.
"Your honor," Ben stood up to defend Isaac. "The witness's brother was killed by a phantom rider on horseback. This was confirmed by the late Joshua Harridge who hid the body in Collinwood outside of Isaac's knowledge."
"Objection." Amadeus spoke up. "Hearsay evidence. Harridge is not alive to confirm this."
"This is not a trial." Radcliffe listened. "I'll allow it."
"Even so," Ben continued. "Isaac already owned the land. There was nothing to gain for killing him."
"And Thomas DuVal?" Amadeus asked.
"A venerate gambler." Ben pointed out. "He had many more dangerous enemies."
"What of Lionel Stockbridge?" Stokes added. "Everyone saw his argument with Isaac."
"Isaac was in Collinwood at the time." Ben confirmed. "Seamus Malloy was with Stockbridge at the time of death."
"Prosecutor." Judge Radcliffe sat back. "Before we begin a case of witchcraft, I want to see that Isaac stood to benefit in any way. He already had everything; why would he kill anyone for things he already possessed."
"But what of the symbol under the DuVal cabin?" Amadeus reported.
"Your honor," Ben continued. "It was painted to the underside of the floor. Only a child could have put it there."
"And if he did burn it down," Radcliffe reasoned. "He had a right to as he already owned it. Anything else, prosecutor?"
"Not now, your honor." Amadeus replied.
"Your honor." Ben added. "May Isaac at least be released on bail?"
"He's not charged with anything." Radcliffe stood. "He's free to be let out."
Once Ben released Isaac from under Collinwood, Isaac set about to rehire the workmen who had left. Ships he had promised were unfinished and workmen he had hired wanted to depart. He had much to do to restore both his honor and dream for a future. Busily preparing the notices for more hired hands, he was surprised when a beautiful woman was presented to him.
"Yes?" Isaac pleasingly looked her over.
"Mr. Collins." The young lady presented herself. "My name is Emily Bouchard and I am interested in the role of a domestic. You see, my mother lives closer to here than Boston and I would rather be closer to her."
Clara was viciously eavesdropping on the conversation as her sister approached. She motioned for her.
"What is that woman doing here?" Clara asked.
"Looks as if she is being hired as a housekeeper." Grace looked over.
"Oh, sister," Clara appeared wrought. "Don't you know? That's the mistress he was keeping time with since before we arrived. And now he's moving her in to your house!"
"What!" Grace believed it as she rushed into the room. "Isaac! How could you!"
"How could I what?" Isaac was confused.
"Keeping this trollop behind my back!" Grace screamed back.
"What!" Isaac was alarmed as Emily took offense. "There is no such thing!"
"You needn't lie about it." Grace looked to her sister. "My sister told me everything! Now everything makes sense; why you've been so busy! You've almost never home because you've been handling your city. I can see what you've been handling!"
"I beg your pardon!" Emily was offended.
Ben heard the argument and rushed through the front door to investigate. He caught a brief glimpse of Isaac following his wife up the stairs and then noticed Emily. "What happened!"
"I applied for a job and got accused of being a mistress." Emily ran out past him. As Ben reflected a second on who to follow, he noticed the cellar door slowly swinging closed. As he peered down the steps, he caught a scant glimpse of Clara's long blonde hair vanishing downstairs. Wondering what she was up to, he carefully sneaked down himself. Her presence wandered toward the caves under the structure's foundation and then into a dark chamber out of view. He saw a light being lit and then smelled smoke. Curiouser and curiouser, he wondered what she was up to and neared and peeked in. She sat on the floor and picked up a dried skull in front of a small altar.
"Gods of darkness, gods of strife," She chanted. "Send my horseman for another life. Help make me Isaac's wife." She picked up one of her sister's hair ribbons and wrapped it around the skull. "Rise my horseman, ride the night. Kill my sister with all your might!" She laughed out loud and then noticed Ben's face trying to vanish from the door. He ducked back out of sight as his footsteps vanished back to upstairs. Clara just grinned in complete control of what was happening and pulled out one of Ben's embroidered scarves from her bag.
"Take the one who leaves my sight!" She added to the spell.
Rushing from the caves under the foundation, Ben ran into the open basement of Collinwood and rushed up the stairs to the foyer. He stopped quickly as he noticed Isaac staring forlornly at the front door. He looked more depressed than ever.
"Grace took August and left me." He mumbled.
"Isaac!" Ben told him. "Amadeus was right! But it's Clara that's the witch! She's trying to ruin you so she can walk in and take over! She sent the horseman to kill her sister!"
"What!" Isaac came to his senses. "So many things are much clearer to me now! Go tell my brother! I'll get some horses to protect Grace." The two of them ran in different directions. Ben charged down the path for the docks as the night became darker and colder. Hitting the main road, he ran as he could, but just he reached the town limits, he heard hoof beats and the laughter coming with it.
"No!" Ben ran faster now that his life was imperiled. He hit the docks as hard as he could and turned over a barrel. The horseman climbed off his demonic steed and came after him. He floated over the barrel rolling toward him and continued coming with his rapier swinging and his ghostly laughter echoing through the night. Ben grabbed a sword from a decoration on one of the ships to duel him, but the horseman jumped the ten feet of space on to the incomplete frigate. Sailing like an unearthly black demon with wings, it swung at him and Ben stood surprised as the phantom's rapier shattered his weapon in his hand. He jumped back from every swing as he backed to a mast. Feeling it in his back and jumping aside, Ben watched the specter wedged its ghostly rapier into the thick mast.
Seeing the creature defenseless, Ben started punching it and kicking it, but he felt as if he was punching and fighting something harder than mortal man. In one move, the ghost caught his left arm and snapped it effortlessly. Screaming over the broken bones, Ben dropped in pain and watched the headless ghost grabbing its sword again and pulling it free. Plotting on instinct alone, Ben tied a rope to his waist with his one good hand and then stood up. Backing to the middle mast, he allowed the ghost to slash at one of the other lines. The broken line freed a weight and the missing counterweight yanked Ben off the dock and up to the crow's nest. The horseman roared with hostility at watching his prey jerked away from him. It paced trying to decide a next movement as Ben started to grab another rope to swing to another ship. Sailing for the next frigate over, Ben watched as the ghost's flying rapier cut his line, changed direction in the air and returned to the horseman's hand. Losing his rope, Ben dropped straight down between the boats and landed with a splash into the cold dark waters. The horseman hesitated over his lack of a reflection looking for his prey to surface for a mere second then headed back to his horse to kill his other target.
PART THIRTEEN
Benjamin Drew (david selby) washed up sore and tired after his fight with the ghost. Nursing his shattered right arm, he sauntered the walk of a dead man to the temporary cabin of Amadeus Collins (john karlen) and nearly collapsed in the door.
"Ben!" Amadeus helped him to a chair. "Did my brother do this to you?"
"No," Ben coughed. "But you almost had it right. There is someone practicing witchcraft, but it's Clara..."
"You can't say that about the woman I'm to marry!" Amadeus growled furiously at him.
"It's true!" Isaac (johnathan frid) charged in and dumped Clara's tools before his brother. The skull with Quentin's handkerchief was tied with Grace's ribbon. "Amadeus, brother, you say you know me then tell me to my face. Do you think I'm a killer? Speak with your heart and not your mind!"
"Isaac," Amadeus stood in judgeship over his older brother. "You are my brother, and Clara is..."
"...In love with him!" Ben finished the sentence. "She never cared for you. She used you to get to your brother. Now what do you think of that!"
"She's sent the horseman to kill Grace!" Isaac stood toe to toe with his brother. "How can you still care for her! I am your brother!"
"Ben," Amadeus turned to Drew drinking his brandy by the fire. "Rest here, we'll cut down the shore and over take the carriage and the horseman!"
"No!" Ben reared up and turned to Amadeus. "We'll save Grace. You get Clara to remove her curse!"
"A pact." They joined hands a second and split apart. His left arm still broken and supported by a hasty splint, Ben climbed the horse Isaac was leading and stormed off behind him on horseback as Amadeus rode his steed to Collinwood.
Five miles away, Valerie (lara parker) had second thoughts as she looked to August (david henesy). He was looking much like his father as he grew older. She started to think if she had been too hasty and grinned to Angelique (sarah smythe) sitting by her. The child stood staring at her doll as if waiting for her to talk. Her mother, Valerie Duval (kathryn leigh scott) was looking better and was much stronger as the color returned to her face. They silently appreciated the gentle rocking of the carriage for the minute as the coachman suddenly geared the horses to a full gallop. The four of them felt their ride turn to a wild tumble.
"Coachman," Grace stuck her head out. "What is the rush?" She looked up. He didn't have a head!
Angelique screamed her head off as Valerie pulled her head into the carriage far too late. A figure in black was racing alongside the other side and the seat became splattered in blood. The young girl dropped her mother's head and clung to August as the horseman's wild rapier swung through the tiny corner window. Grace pulled the children to the opposite corner and protected them as the mad figure pulled in his sword. There was a mad crash as the horseman landed on the back of the barreling coach and tried to get inside.
Ben and Isaac already heard the screams as they pushed inland. They forced their mounts harder and fiercer as they saw the black specter clinging to the ride as some huge leech trying to absorb the lives within it. They saw a female body tumble out as it wrenched open the door and then a head with long dark hair from it come rolling between their horses.
"Grace!" Isaac's voice screamed out terrified his own wife would be next!
Grace pinned her son and Angelique under her body as the ghost entered. She kicked at it with all her might then heard another crash. She saw a strange hand open the other door as the unliving corpse became distracted and climbed to the roof.
Ben watched from afar as Isaac stood toe to toe with the creation of his would be sister-in-law. He pulled up alongside the left side of the carriage as he controlled his horse with his broken arm as he pulled up first the young girl named Angelique and then August. Standing atop the racing carriage, Isaac wrapped his hands around the sword arm of the ghost and tried preventing it from slaying himself. The rocking carriage was speeding at fifty miles an hour under them around trees and low limbs. His eyes gazed down into the hollow body within the phantom's attire as one blow knocked the two of them off the back of the speeding carriage. Isaac grabbed on to the carriage vanishing under his feet and held on looking up to the specter climbing up the back of the racing vehicle. The unholy beast held up his swordless hand and reached to its cursed rapier flying back to his its hand.
Taking Ben's horse and the children, Grace watched as Benjamin Drew himself boarded and attempted to stop the madness. As the Collins matriarch came to a stop, she watched the shaking carriage with her husband disappear around the turn and out of sight. From out of the woods, another black menace arrived. She recognized her sister's long blonde hair racing past her and a loaded crossbow on her saddle.
PART FOURTEEN
Clara reared her horse and watched Ben stopping the coach a few dozen yards from her. The horseman had thrown Isaac hard to the ground and Ben jumped to its back. Flicked off like an ant, Isaac scrambled to his feet as the horseman reared back with his rapier. Clara held up the crossbow and aimed it at her true love. The unstopped horseman had orders to slay Benjamin Drew and anyone in his way. That even meant Isaac Collins himself! He tossed his sword to slay the Collins patriarch.
"Isaac!" Clara realized her wants colliding with her desires as she tried to kill Ben. "No!" She screamed as Isaac ducked from his would-be fate at the deadly blade. It sailed less than an inch above the hairs of his head and it instead it found another mark and located another target. Directly in its way, Clara's head gushed from her body as the deadly blade impaled into a tree behind her. Her deadly crossbow dropped to earth. Ben covered his mouth and looked away from her hideous death even as appropriate as it was. He grabbed the silver rapier from where it was imbedded and ran back to help Isaac.
"I hope this works!" He imbedded the rapier into the chest of the ghost. An unholy scream from beyond the grave rocked the woods with the thunder of the underworld closing its gates. The spirit's cursed clothing collapsed in one tattered mess as if nothing more was in them. It was just a pile of clothing stabbed with a rusty sword now. Grace and August rushed to Isaac's side.
"I love you!" Isaac kissed his wife and hugged her tight as August watched. "I'll never forget you again!"
"I know." Grace forced a grin. "How could I have believed Clara?" She looked around for a missing child. "Where's Angelique?"
"What happened to Clara's head?" Ben looked back to the decapitated female corpse lying off the road.
Things changed in Collinsport over the next few months. Amadeus stayed to build a courthouse and Isaac turned down the role of mayor to back Ben in the job. He sold part of the land to him as well as to Chloe Harridge. Grace continued her role as the schoolmarm for a while, eventually giving it to Emily Bouchard returning as well to work in Collinsport.
"Mother," She also eventually returned to her mother's cabin to take care of her. "I have your supplies."
"Good," Hester stood before a small girl hovering around her skirts.
"Who is that?" Emily asked.
"Angelique Miranda DuVal." Hester introduced the child. "Tell my daughter who you are now, little one."
"Angelique Bouchard!" The child stared back with a possessed grin.
"What happened next, Uncle Quentin?" The eight-year-old face of William Collins looked up to his favorite uncle. He had the face of his beautiful mother seen through the illusion of his father.
"That young girl became a witch just like Clara." Quentin replied casually. "And Clara? Some say her ghost still roams these woods... waiting... and looking... for Isaac to return to her." He sipped his hot chocolate a minute. "Now," He continued. "I want all of you boys to hit those sleeping bags. We're going fishing early!" He fatherly tapped his boy on the butt as he stepped over the form of J.R. Loomis burning Styrofoam plates in the campfire and headed to his mother Carolyn Stoddard-Loomis. She was still standing outside her tent eating salad from a Tupperware bowl.
"Quentin," She realized he was the biggest boy of all. "How much of that silly story is true?"
"Most of it," He poured more hot chocolate from a thermos. "Some family members have added their own bits over the years, but most of it's true. There were several hideous deaths when Collinsport was founded and Isaac was exonerated of them."
"And the little girl?" Carolyn shifted her weight. "Was her name really Angelique?"
"Would you believe me if I told you she was an ancestor of our Angelique?"
"No."
"Then I won't tell you." Quentin turned to the fire. For just a brief moment he had a brief glimpse of something else floating beyond the trees down by the dammed creek. By the look of Carolyn's face, she must have seen it too. It had to be the light of the fire reflecting off the mist of the lake downhill. It looked like an ethereal presence floating between the trees. She seemed to acknowledge them both as she turned to approach then vanished instead. Both Quentin and Carolyn looked at each other as they realized what they had seen together. A petite female phantom with long blonde hair...
END