Chapter 7

"I am worried about Iris." Julia said to Barnabas.

George had told Barnabas about Iris and Julia, so he knew to be very careful about what he said. No need to get Julia worked up over the past, when she needed to think clearly.

If only he could change the past...

No, he had tried that, and the results had been less than satisfactory. The butterfly effect... You crush a butterfly in the past, and all the present is changed... He probably had made more changes in the present than he could imagine. If he had not gone back to 1897 Carter might have been reelected, for example...

Still, when he saw the harm that he had done to Julia, he felt tempted to do it.

"What Megan offered was no solution." Julia said firmly.

"No, it is not. But we seem to be out of ideas.."

She shrugged.

Don't go there, he warned himself.

"What if it is already happening?" he said suddenly. "For real? What if Violet is already haunting her?'

"Of course. She attracted Sebastian to her. Why not Violet?"

Barnabas nodded, glad to have an excuse to get out. He did not care to go over the 1967 pseudo haunting. Not yet. "I think that I better go talk with her. If she is being haunted, I will know."


Iris looked at the phone. Barnabas was coming to see her tonight. To discuss Delia, he had said.

And Violet...

Did Barnabas suspect that it was her who had tried to kill Derek?"

It did not matter if he did or not.

Because she was going to kill him. She had already sharpened a wooden knife to do it.

She had not wanted to do it, but she had done it...

The wooden knife was well sharpened...

Why? Why should she give in to Violet? Why should she grant her sister her pound of flesh?

Because she could not stop her.

Deep in her, there was a whimper. She should not do this. She should be able to stop, to warn Barnabas not to come.

She would kill him. She had loved him once, and she would kill him...

Violet would have her way.

She looked at the wooden knife again. It was sharp, as sharp as the knife she had used on Derek... and this time she would not botch it.


Barnabas hoped that a talk with Iris would help her. He should have done this months ago, no matter what excuses he gave himself for not doing it.

And he should also talk to David about what he had done with Eliot. It made him mad to think about it. Granted that David was hurt by Hallie's actions, but what call did he have to dump Elliot like that?

But that could wait until he talked with Iris.


Iris sensed Violet's presence next to her. Barnabas Collins was coming. Barnabas Collins would be hers to kill.

She flattened herself against the wall. She had to stop Violet, make her go back, get the knife away from her...

But Violet was the stronger. It had not been so in life, but Violet was now strong...

She heard the steps approaching. Barnabas. It had to be him. She rested the knife against her breast, hoping that he would go away. She would not go down and open the door. Let him think that she was not home. Let him go away safely.

Violet waited. Barnabas was coming. to her.

"Iris?" Barnabas called "Iris, are you here?"

Iris whimpered. No, she was not. "Go away, Barnabas," she said in a whisper. "Save yourself, Go."

Barnabas worked the doorknob. It was locked. And the house was dark, without any lights.

"Iris!" he called again.

A chilling thought came to him. Suppose something had happened to her. Suppose she had killed herself, suppose...

He materialized inside the house.

He would look for her, look for any clues as to what had happened. He hoped that she was still alive.

Iris knew that he had come in. She whimpered. It was now too late to save him.

"Iris!" Barnabas knocked at the doors downstairs, opened them. No one was there. Puzzled he went into the kitchen. No Iris there, either.

But he could find her in the bathtub, drowned. Or with her veins opened. Or maybe she was hanging from a beam somewhere.

The ways of committing suicide inside your home seemed endless...

He would look upstairs. Maybe she was in her own bed, having taken too many sleeping pills...

Iris waited in the dark, sure that he would now come close enough for her to stab. He would come up the steps. Twenty five steps, and no more.

He had twenty five more steps to live...

Barnabas went up "Iris?" he asked again. "are you there?"

And then Iris burst into him. And he felt a blow to the chest...

She had stabbed him in the chest.

He staggered falling backwards. He slid down the steps, with her on top, moving the knife back and forth, like a saw in the wound. And feeling the splinters break off and embed themselves in him... Tearing his flesh, coming close to his heart...

"Iris, why?" he asked.

He fell to the ground floor, and she got up, leaving the knife in him.

He tried to move, and could not, the splinters stabbed him inside... "Iris..." he looked at her pleadingly. "Why?"

She began to weep, softly. "I had to... I could not stop myself..."

Then she turned, as if facing someone else "Here, Violet!" she said harshly "Are you satisfied now? Has he paid for your wrongs, and more besides? Or do you still want more?"

Barnabas moaned, a s much in dismay as in pain. Iris did not seem to hear him. She did not see him try to move. He was dead, dead, dead... He was as dead as Violet was. It was over for him now.

She moved away, her eyes fixed still on the spilled blood. "Why didn't you leave?" she asked "You would have been all right. You would not be here. You would..."

The knife was still in him...

He was alive still. Waiting for the sun to finish him off.


Barnabas is in trouble "George said suddenly.

"How do you know?"

"We are linked. As he is with anyone he takes blood from. I have to go look for him."


Iris saw the car come up the road, with the flashing light on top.

Sheriff Brant, looking for Barnabas, coming to find him.

Coming to find his body...

She could not stay there, not where Violet could rise again and demand more blood, more death...

She would, for once, not kill...

She ran out of the back door as Brant began to try to force the front door open.

So, it was breaking and entering. He did not have a proper warrant. Too bad. He had to find Barnabas...

She must get away. She must run as fast as she could. If he got too close to her...

She ran into the night as Brant forced the door open and turned on the light.

And he found Barnabas.

"Damn it!" he said, as he knelt down.

Barnabas opened his eyes. "George." he said "Iris... she has a knife... she'll use it on you."

George pulled out his gun. "I will look around"

Iris was nowhere in the house. He found Peter in his bedroom, mercifully asleep. Of Iris, no trace.

He made sure that she was not in the house. He would have heard her if she was. All he could hear were his own steps and his own breathing.

And Barnabas' soft whimper.

He came back to him and pulled out the knife. "It is safe to get up now."

"I can't This thing left splinters in me. Better ask Kenneth to come take them out."