Darkest Shadows of Terrors

Chapter 1

EEEOOOWWW, an unholy scream rent the night air as the creature knew it was being stalked and wanted to fight but could not see its opponent. The hulking mass of lumbering matted fur with glowing red eyes, neanderthal sized forehead and massive arms with over sized knuckles that drug the form along the ground paused and looked around and again screamed out a challenge to his stalker.

Pressing her body along the building's rough surface she looked around as nightfall blanketed its deceiving calm over the land. Sweat saturated her neckline and the excess began its crawl to the center of her back to drip and slide down her spine to collect at the top of the dimple that accented her well rounded and tight maximum gluteus or as one unfortunate male solider had the mischance of saying in her hearing, "great ass."

Which said male solider also smacked that great ass and found himself face up in a crotch with hard thighs that threated to snap his neck. "Don't you ever touch me again." He had learned the hard way never touch Jeanette Collins. She had with little effort taken him down and locked him in a death hold between her thighs.

She wiggled her shoulders to alleviate the next roll of sweat that traced its path in the previous pattern down her back to soak into a pool of growing wetness. The uniform she wore was tight and fit her body or had fit her body like a second skin. The uniform was a breathable material with an intricate web of sensors that when viewed looked like a spider web intersecting in green dots about the size of a pinhead.

Gone were the days of having to wear skintight spandex that made it feel like a net of sensors that would on occasions fettered her and would send tiny shocks if they got wet. Which on nights like tonight were quite often. The newer field uniform was more breathable and was suppose to absorb the sweat and cool the body.

However, again on nights like tonight it was back to the drawing board as far as she was concerned and the waist band of her uniform grew moister she was twitching with the pin like electric shocks that felt more like a neuropathy of her nerve endings.

Which said feelings were not conducive to making her humor more agreeable. Watching the neodemon make its way to a more populated area, Jeanette muttered "Shit." Her utterance made her the target of the red-eyed neodemon and he charged. Running towards where he had heard the word.

"Damnit Net!" JB shouted across the roadway where he had taken up his position to track with his sister. Jeanette ignored her brother's shout using the wall of the building to run up and flip behind the beast when it hit the brick wall of the old warehouse. The building gave to the onslaught it concaved with the semi shape of the creature.

JB Collins or as his birth name had been given Joshua Barnabas Collins was an attractive male with dark hair stylishly trimmed to accent his angular features. He like his sister wore the same uniform except he had opted to hide his male attributes by donning a duster like coat. He was his father's son in every respect of appearance, however that was where his identity to his father ended.

JB had honed his body to a 10 percent body fat; he was charging forward to place his body between his sister and the demon. The demon had time to recover and turned to face off against Jeanette. JB bounded forward the demon charged a now challenging Jeanette.

She waited and using the monsters momentum she sprang forward and did a black flip over the creature's head and watched in horror the creature hit JB knocking him backwards. "Son of a bitch." Jeanette sighed and pulled a small silver disc from her suit, aimed the weapon at the demon and opened a slipstream to nine hells.

The effect was much like opening a door into the darkness with the only light from the ambient lighting around the real time world to a pitch-blackness that threatened to swallow everything. The vacuum was polarizing as it began to drag anything in its area into is gaping maw.

The first such object was that of the massive furred form of the neodemon. The demon screamed one last time, his body was sucked into the slipstream along with a dumpster, a motorcycle, and the loose bricks that had been broken by the demons impact.

Pressing the button Jeanette watched the door that had been opened narrowed and closed with a subtle pop. Jeanette had hit her boot locks when she had opened the door so the only reason she had not been sucked into the slipstream was her gravity boots. Unlocking her boots she rushed to her brothers form.

"JB." She bent over her brother and began to check him for anything other than bruises and contusions. "JB, come on bubby open your eyes."

Glancing up she felt a shift in the atmosphere as more doors opened. These were not slipstreams and she recognized dimensional doors, her team appeared to step through nothing to appear on the platform that was this reality. There was Radu, the 400-year-old vampire she had taken as her lover, Cameron the demi god that had toyed with her affections but left her for her sister, and Logan her mentor for the psi power she held in her.

They moved to her and JB and stood looking down at their teammate. "Jeanette, what the hell were you thinking? Why did you not wait for us to do this recovery?" That was Cameron who was very pissed by the scowl on his face.

Jeanette stood, "It was a neo, I knew I could recover him with no problem. JB showed up and I had no idea he was going to play hero and try to interfere or help me."

Cameron looked around as the last member of their team came through the door and that member gave Jeanette more anguish to see the look on her face than any member on her team. She moved forward with such intense fury that Jeanette knew she was not just mad she was incensed at her recklessness.

"Grab him, the local authorities are coming and we can't afford to be found."

She gave her sister a look of intense exasperations. "You turn in your gear and you are on suspension until I think you have your head straight. Let's move out!"

Cameron lifted JB and slung him over his wide shoulders looked to Radu and Logan, "Clean up in 10. Authorities will be here about the time you erase all traces of our being here."

Cameron turned waited for Josette Collins the last member to arrive to open the door. She opened the door, grabbing her sister's arm and drug her through the door followed by Cameron, carrying JB. They stepped to the clean room of the subterranean area that was part of the Supernatural Hunter Advisory Deployment Other Worldly Services or as they were known SHADOWS Ops.

Cameron entered and turned to Josette, "I am taking him to the infirmary, you better get her under control before she kills one of us with her reckless attitude."

Josette standing equal in height to her sister let that auburn hair temper surface she slammed her sister against the wall of recessed lockers. "He is right, you are on paid suspension. You had better get your head together before you kill one of us. Got it?"

Jeanette knew her sister's temper and it hurt her that she had disappointed her older sister. She looked down and nodded, and Josette released her sister.

"Jo. I . . . "

She turned her back on her sister, "I don't want to hear it Jeanette, and you have done this for the last time. If you want to destroy everything we have built then keep it up. You will succeed in killing us all or exposing us to the world and then where do you think we would be?"

Jeanette slumped down on the bench that faced the lockers and hung her head. "I'm sorry." It was too late her apology landed on the closing of the pneumatic door that closed off the dressing room.

Jeanette hit the showers, hung up her uniform, then threw it in the cleaner receptacle, slipped on a pair of slides and moved to the door. Going to the elevator she punched the button that would take her to the floor of apartment complexes. Changing her mind she moved back to the dressing room and changed.

Her mind had been so conflicted lately and she was not sure what was causing her sleeplessness, or the reoccurring dream she had been having. It was always the same. It had started with her mother being in the past and a time alternate to their reality and she was upset because she not only had seen her mother's side of the life she was beginning to see other's side to what was happening and it scared her.

She had to find out where this was going and the only way she could do this was to put it to the computer and the alternate realities scenario room. So, Jeanette Collins, before her authorization was pulled, moved down the hallway of the SHADOWS ops Division of Alternate Path and Conjectures lab and paused before a wall that held a flat panel keypad.

Typing in her authorization access code, she pressed her hand to the wall when the shape of a hand outlined in green appeared. Pressing her hand to the wall she let the scan confirm her prints, leaving the hand in place she felt the slight prick as her blood was taken and scanned for DNA. Leaning forward she allowed the scanner to do a retinal scan, then she stood back while the sweeper sanitized the areas she had touched.

The soft female British voice of the computer spoke, "You are cleared for clearance, welcome Jeanette Collins. How are you today?"

The apparently seamless door slid back and the statuesque female with thick black hair, hazel eyes and skin like porcelain enter the entered the room. Dressed in her black leather combat uniform with her glorious black hair pulled into a ponytail. To say she was a timeless beauty would be an understatement.

"I am fine Phoebe, I need to run a series of scenarios please." The voice was pleasant, "Of course assume your position on the modular. Will you do it with psi or do you wish to input the data manually?"

Jeanette thought a moment. "I will use psi power, please prepare for input."

Jeanette moved to the outline on the floor that opened and a chair moved up on a pneumatic lift. Taking a deep breath, she sat in the chair, the chair then reclined, a headrest extended. Jeanette closed her eyes, and felt the arms extend then snap against her temples.

"You will need to relax Jeanette and focus on the part you wish of the scenario you wish to see. Please press the button on the arm rest when you are ready to begin." It was hard not to follow the agreeable and soft calming voice of the computer when the probes at her temples began to pulse with a yellow then green light.

Jeanette focused her eyes on the dream and her conflict with the dream. Relaxing she gave into the psi power and began to live her families life in an alternate reality.

1795

My name is Victoria Winters, my journey began nearly three years ago, when I first arrived in Collinsport Maine as a Governess for a troubled boy named David Collins. I had such hopes and dreams. They are but gone and I fear that all of my tomorrows may never come. My happily ever after I had hoped to share with the man I fell in love with ended in my yesterdays. Peter was hanged at dusk, and I had to witness his last breath as his bound body was thrust down the trap door by the executioner. He was executed for a murder that I had committed and soon I will join him for I have been tried and convicted of witchcraft.

The irony is that I may die of a fever that wracks my body as I lay here in my cell. Apparently, the good citizens of Collinsport would prefer to have me healthy to hang me, rather than let me suffer from the malaise of this fever.

I once remember when I was in the foundling home, that a favorite nurse of mine went away. I was devastated by her departure for I had hoped I could be her little girl and she my mother. I was heart broken, for here I was a mere child of such tender years of 6 maybe 7, I had felt my world crumble around me and I felt lost. Set adrift on a sea of isolation and loneliness That is when Mrs. Strayer told me "Victoria, as long as you have hope, you have a future. Remember that without hope you have lost."

Today I; in my delirium now realize that my choices and my decisions were wrong and what hope I had with a man I had dared to marry and dreamed of having his children was lost to me forever. I am dead inside and I am prepared to die.

The discarded quill pen and yellowed cured paper lay on the floor of the straw covered cell. Victoria laid in a fetal position on the single cot simultaneously shivering and perspiring under the thin blanket. The fetid smell of what was left on her stomach filled the room.

Victoria Winters drifted in and out of her delirium waiting for death to take her. At one point she dreamed she was back at Collinwood in the year 1967 and sitting at the breakfast table with David Collins, Roger Collins, Carolyn Stoddard and Mrs. Stoddard. For a moment she felt at peace and wondered if this is how it felt when you passed on, your past drifting before you.

One face appeared to her more often than most and that was of Barnabas Collins. His sad soulful sad eyes, when they studied her with appreciation and much like a puppy with such care and devotion.

The way his stoic countenance would relax and he would light up when he spoke of things long passed. Perhaps the most heartfelt memory was of their last meeting together when he proposed marriage to her. She had been so foolish and turned him down.

Now, it was way to late, and soon she would be to him nothing more than a passing memory, dust in the wind. Perhaps she was too hasty in not accepting his proposal. He said he was very fond of her.

She did not need nor want fondness, she wanted love, to be loved and cherished as the first Barnabus had loved and cherished his Josette. Sighing she drifted into her fitful sleep waiting, waiting, waiting for . . . death did not seem to come like she had hoped. So, she slept and she muttered his name . . . "Barnabus, why could you not love me. I need to be loved."

1971

Barnabas napped fitfully before the fire in his favorite chair in the drawing room of the Old House. In his dreams he saw his sister Sarah, his sweet, dear, innocent Sarah. She spoke to him in whispering tones. "Barnabas, you must find a way to save her! She will die soon unless you rescue her. She needs you now more than ever. You must help her. Look Barnabas, look and see how ill she is. She will die either of the fever as I did or by the hangman's noose. Go to Collinwood, there is a need for you there and then go to Professor Stokes."

In his dream he saw Victoria curled into a fetal position her body wracked with fever, she lay calling out his name. The dream was so vivid that he jerked himself awake calling out her name, "Vicki!" Leaning back on his chair he put his fingertips to his forehead and shook the dream from his mind. He had lost her and she was gone. He had to accept that and it was only a dream.

1795

In her cell, Vicki stirred, and weakly sat up, looking around. "Barnabus?" She blinked and looked the cell over and collapsed back on her bunk. She surmised she must have been so caught up in her delerium that she could have sworn she heard his voice.

It was her sickness that caused her to halluncenate his voice calling out to her. Rolling over made her head throb and now all she could do was just lie still and hope the trobbing would stop or she would die. She prayed for release and death and once again she fell into a fitful sleep.

1971

Barnabas felt the unusual chill in the room and startled more fully awake to the sound of a pounding on his front door. Surely, it must have been the pounding on the door that awakened him, not the vivid dream he just had.

Rising quickly he moved to the door and opened it to let in Roger. "Barnabas, I hate to impose on you, but Julia sent me to fetch you. Liz has suddenly grown ill and is requesting to see you on some matter that has consumed her every waking moment."

Barnabus frowned with concern edging his features. "When did this happen? What does Julia seem to think is the problem?"

Roger paced back and forth in the foyer, "She is not sure, Elizabeth has a high fever and she keeps calling for her baby, her little girl. Carolyn has been by her side reassuring her that she is there, but Liz just looks at her and says she is not the one. We thought that she was just delerius but she cupped Carolyn's face and said, darling your sister, I need to find your sister, she needs me."

Barnabus looked confused and put a comforting hand on Roger's back. "Is there nothing that Julia can do?"

Roger shoved his hands into the pockets of the coat he wore and shook his head, "Julia feels she should be sent to Wyndecliff or Collinsport Hospital. However, Liz refuses to go anywhere until she speaks with you."

"Me? Why me?" Barnabus was reaching for his Iverness coat and his silver wolf's head cane. "Has she said why she wants to speak with me"

He followed Roger out of the house and onto the front courtyard. "Only that you are the only one that can save her baby and bring her home, that you would understand and you loved her as she loved her."

Barnabus' mind was racing with confusion over Elizabeth's mystery malise and her curious actions in believing she had another child other than Carolyn. Never one to jump to hurried conclusions and wanting to take action to do whatever it would take to ease his cousins concerns he walked in contemplative silence next to Roger heading to Collinwood.

Roger and Barnabas entered Elizabeth's bedroom. She lay pale and unmoving on a pile of satin pillows, her dark hair framed her strikingly beautiful features and Barnabas was struck by how much she reminded him of the second love he had in his 200 years of existence.

Julia Hoffman stood by Liz bed and spoke softly to the the men. "She has just dozed off, I can't figure this out. She seems to be suffering from some sort of possession. She keeps calling out for her first born daughter and she wants to speak to you Barnabas."

Barnabas looked concerned for a woman that strongly resembled his mother Naomi Collins, Liz sensing his presence opened her eyes, gone was the sparkle in the blue eyes of his cousin and in their place was the lackluster look of guilt and fear. "Please Barnabas, I need to speak with you in private. I have to tell you something its important. I need to tell you before I die."

Roger started to the sound and tone of her voice and he spoke out, "Non sense Liz, you are not going to die."

Julie moved to Roger's side and took him by the arm. "Come Roger, let Liz and Barnabas have a moment," Then in a softer voice, "Perhaps he will talk her into letting me take her to Wyndecliff."

Liz watched him approach her bed and he sat on its edge. "I am so ashamed of what I am about to say, but I fear that I will die before I see her again. I need you my dear devoted cousin to go back or where ever and bring Victoria home. Please she has to know, you need to bring my baby home to me Barnabas, bring home my first born baby girl so I can tell her I am her mother."

If he was shocked by this announcement good breeding and an old fashion sense of respectful decorum prevented him from reacting to this news. Instead, Barnabas patted Liz's hand and lifted it to his lips and placed a kiss against her knuckles. "I will do what I can Elizabeth. However, you must realize she may not wish to come back with me."

"She will come back to you Barnabus, she is dying, she has lost hope. She needs you, she needs us."

Barnabus did not miss her words of Vicki would come back to him. It caused a glimmer of hope to rise in him. "I am connected to her Barnabus. I feel her desolation, her pain and her recriminations. She and Peter were captured, Peter was hanged and she too will hang if she does not die from the fever."

He kept his countenance as calm and comforting as he could after being told Victoria Winters was actually a Collins and she was. . . she would come back to him. "If I do this, will you promise me to let Julia take you to Wyndecliff?"

Liz nodded and a soft smile edged her lips as she closed her eyes, and Barnabas saw the single tear flow down her cheek. Taking his index finger he caught the teardrop and pressed it to his lips. "I swear on the tears of my mother and you Liz, I shall bring your daughter home to you."