Disclaimer: Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production and not mine

CHAPTER 10: LOST BOYS AND GOLDEN GIRLS

The past three months had been a wild whirlwind for Willie. So much so Willie wondered if life would ever stopped spinning out of control. Since Josette released him and Maggie from their mental bindings from the Old House, Willie and Maggie agreed to not reveal the Collins family's most terrible secret to the public, especially to the Collinses themselves.

Willie and Maggie had no choice but to accept the fact that Barnabas just couldn't be destroyed due to a devastating family curse. Evidently, the floating head Angelique was responsible for Barnabas' downfall due to her own love for him. Willie and Maggie had never heard of the story of Barnabas and Angelique, but they were deeply uncertain if they even want to know.

All they knew was Barnabas and Josette deeply loved each other long ago, but a curse drove them apart. Their love and their curse brought Willie and Maggie torment and despair.

Since Josette released them from Barnabas' imprisonment, it seemed considerate to keep the ghost lady's secret for her. But convincing Sam of this was a completely different matter. Sam strongly felt all of Collinsport needed to know the truth of what his daughter went through, even though what she went through was too unbelievably fantastical for most people to comprehend. It was with that Maggie finally convinced her father to publicly withhold the truth from the town.

She'd even persuaded him to withhold this from Joe. Maggie figured the less people who knew about this the better. But that didn't help her relationship with Joe.

Her massive secrecy, coupled with her being withdrawn with him due to her ordeal, and her sudden closeness with Willie ultimately drifted the couple apart.

The truth of the matter was Maggie became a completely different person in her months of being imprisoned by Barnabas. She was no longer the same girl Joe knew. The simple things she thought she wanted in life no longer resonated with her. Plus, Joe was both jealous and perplexed by her sudden friendship with Willie.

In regards to her rescue, Maggie, Willie, and Sam concocted a story of how Willie found Maggie tied up in a shack in the woods. Willie wandered the woods and encountered Sam on the grounds of Collinwood when he was visiting the Collinses that night. Willie alerted the artist of his daughter's whereabouts, and the two came to her rescue.

Maggie made up two thugs who held her captive, and proclaimed they must've quickly fled town. Maggie felt incredibly shallow and empty for lying to Sheriff Patterson. But the truth must never be told.

In regards to Maggie's actual abductor, Willie told the Collins family that Barnabas decided to returned to England. The family accepted that, but were puzzled by his abrupt departure, and by doing so, did that without a bade farewell.

Now he was kicked out of the Old House, Willie was also kicked out of the Collinwood estate. He was homeless and had no place to go. Maggie took him under her wing, and forcibly convinced Sam to let the former vampire slave stay in a spare bedroom at the cottage. That was one of the events that brought Maggie's vulnerable relationship with Joe to a head.

In addition to that, Willie's shattered relationship with Jason McGuire further hit the skids. Predictably, Jason's blackmailing money scam on Elizabeth Collins Stoddard dramatically backfired. Apparently, Jason was extremely close in marrying her for her money, but something happened, and Sheriff Patterson gave the scrupulous Irish con man twenty-four hours to pack up and leave town. Jason tried to forced Willie to steal some of the jewels he knew for a fact Barnabas Collins possessed. But Willie knew the ghost of Josette would not permit him to return to the Old House. Willie told Jason that Barnabas took all of his valuables when he left for England, and Jason had no choice but to accept this false claim.

Even though he refused to leave town with him, Willie did accept Jason's invitation for a goodbye drink at the Blue Whale. The two fondly reminisce over old times, but it was obvious Willie had drastically changed as a person in comparison to Jason since they fatefully arrived at this small insignificant fishing village.

Willie was no longer a street punk, and Jason was no longer the levelheaded man he once was. He became drunk on greed, and acting bitingly bitter and irrational. After Jason departed from Collinsport, Willie couldn't help but fear his former friend would eventually wind up dead if he didn't get his act together. But the two hadn't been on the same wave-length for quite some time. Willie never knew the full extent of how Jason was blackmailing Mrs. Stoddard, and in turn, Jason never knew Willie was actually Barnabas Collins' slave and was forced to participate in the kidnapping of Maggie.

Friendships imploded over the most anal of things.

Since being released from the Old House, other sections in Willie and Maggie's life also went through changes. They'd both received physical examinations from Dr. Woodard, who checked out their bite marks and various cuts and bruises. Since the doctor suspected supernatural foul play involved in Maggie's abduction, Sam told Dr. Woodard the truth and swore him into secrecy.

But it wasn't really the physical scars that haunted Willie and Maggie, the psychological ones ran pretty deep. Dr. Woodard insisted the two arranged to have secret therapy sessions with Dr. Julia Hoffman, a psychologist from Windcliff, which was a mental asylum a hundred miles outside Collinsport.

Both Willie and Maggie were dubious about opening themselves up to this head doctor. (As Willie sometimes referred to her.) Dr. Hoffman seemed to be an intelligent woman, but how could she possibly sympathized and relate to the depraved mind games Barnabas subjected Maggie to, or the countless bodies Barnabas forced Willie to disposed of? Not to mention all the torture and other abuse.

Furthermore, both Willie and Maggie were a little wary of Dr. Hoffman's obvious interest in Barnabas. The woman doctor knew he was a vampire, but Willie and Maggie constantly tried to persuade her Barnabas was gone. Dr. Hoffman agreed to conceal the secret of Barnabas, but Willie couldn't help but fear the eminent doctor had some ulterior motive. What, he didn't know, but he couldn't help but wonder if she was up to something.

Even though Willie and Maggie left the Old House, the ghosts didn't leave them. Well some of them at least. Sarah visited Maggie from time to time, talking about David, wanting to play, and even leaving her little doll every once in a while in the hope it would cheer Maggie up.

On the day he moved into the Evans cottage, Willie encountered a strange man in his new bedroom. A man he never met before. He was portly with short brown hair, and wore trousers, heavy boots, and draped in a heavy coat in the color of mud. He was a man from a long ago era. He placed Willie's belongings on the bed, the things Willie had to leave behind when Josette released him from the Old House, which wasn't much.

"I've beggin' ya pardon, sir," the man said timidly when Willie walked in on him. "Miss Josette ordered me ta deliver ya belongins'."

Willie blinked. If Josette sent this man, then surely he must've been a ghost. Willie confirmed his presumption when the man suddenly vanished in that all familiar chill. Willie didn't know who the man was, but he had an inkling the man used to be a Collins servant. If so, Willie wondered what that man went through as a Collins servant when he was alive.

Once Willie and Maggie settled into the cottage with Sam, they'd wasted no time in putting themselves back in working order. Maggie got her old waitressing job back at the Collinsport Inn, and managed to put in a good word to her boss, Mr. Wells, to hire Willie as a maintenance man. She reasoned that Willie should put his handyman skills to good use. Willie had no objections to this, especially since he was actually receiving payment for his labor. (And not getting smacked by canes.)

But he was conflicted still on several things. Since he was responsible for releasing Barnabas from his coffin, Willie felt incredibly guilty for Maggie's kidnapping. He confessed to her how he released Barnabas that night at the Collins Mausoleum, and how he was driven by greed and lust over jewels.

Willie was willing to give Maggie an out on whatever relationship they had developed, especially since her father and most of her friends constantly looked at them crossed-eyed whenever they were seen in public together. Plus, Maggie still have the very willing Joe Haskell waiting in the wings to offer her a much simpler and less complicated life.

Maggie was a little displeased but not at all surprised by Willie's involvement in Barnabas' arrival. (Though she kept this from Sam.) Maggie knew the kind of man Willie was when he came to town. But ironically, Barnabas transformed Willie into the complete opposite man he once was. Maggie couldn't forget all Willie did for her to keep her alive. Especially that night when Willie boldly declared to Barnabas, "If ya kill her, ya hafta kill me too!" Despite Willie's involvement in bringing Barnabas into Maggie's life, any of his wrongdoing suddenly became irrelevant.

But that wasn't the only thing troubling Willie. The vampire venom still toxically swam in his veins, and he could still hear his master's heartbeat thumping in his head. However, the surreal unnatural beating was more fainter than it used to be. At times Willie could actually feel Barnabas' dark and claustrophobic confinement. He felt it was this connection that was mainly keeping him in Collinsport.

Willie didn't really want to tread too far away from Barnabas, partly out of loyalty, but also because he needed to make sure Maggie would be safe from him. And other innocence in Collinsport for that matter, though Willie's help would be drastically limited. No matter how good intentioned Dr. Woodard and Dr. Hoffman seemed, Willie could never forget the dead glassy stares of the unfortunate victims burning right through him whenever Barnabas ordered to disposed them. In spite of everything, Willie was still beholden to Barnabas to some degree.

God help him.

After spending the day fixing toilets and repairing a water heater at the Inn, Willie took off in his jalopy of a truck to leave Maggie alone with her father. Sam mentioned something about a dinner, so Willie decided to let them enjoyed that for themselves.

By that time, Sam slowly began to accept Willie being a part of Maggie's life, but as far as Willie was concerned, Sam Evans needn't worry of the prospect of Willie Loomis becoming his son-in-law. True, Willie's relationship with Maggie could still go either way, but for now Maggie merely viewed him as a friend, and it wasn't quite the same as how he viewed her. And since Maggie was still recovering from being Barnabas' ideal bride, she wasn't exactly thinking about romantic relationships at the moment. Willie respected that. But still, Willie deeply wondered why Josette could possibly think Maggie was his "love."

After having a burger for dinner, and heading over to the Blue Whale for a beer, Willie enjoyed some quiet solitude.

Solitude, a word Willie never heard of until he met Barnabas.

Around six-forty-five in the evening, Willie returned back to the Evans cottage. Instead of using his own key to allow himself in, Willie instead headed for the backyard and let the cool breeze caress his rough features. The deepening pink and orange sky through the clouds, coupled by the gentle sounds from the sea, slightly eased Willie's lurid memories.

Some twenty minutes past, and the French doors leading into Maggie's bedroom flung open. Maggie stood between them with a bouquet of white jasmines within her clutches. With her sudden appearance, her and Willie's eyes locked.

"Hi," Willie said to her simply. "You and your pop enjoyed dinner?"

"Yes," Maggie answered him.

"Where didja get that?" Willie eyed the jasmines in her hands. "Got an admirer?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you... can drive me someplace?" Maggie said evasively. "If that's all right?"

"Sure." Willie shrugged.

Once they'd got inside Willie's truck, Maggie told him where she wanted him to take her.

Once they'd arrived, the two stroll silently on the sandy rocky beach, with the waves crashing gently on the shores with squawking seagulls flocking over the waves. Up ahead stood Widows Hill cloaked in a thick mist from the sea. The early night sky began to cap with some faint stars through the clouds, with the outline of the brilliant sphere of the gray moon peering from the heavens.

Willie and Maggie left footprints on the rough rocky shores as they trudged forward to Widows Hill. The soft salty breeze gently billowed their hair and clothing. They'd encountered some small boulders by the infamous bleak cliff. Finding the boulders were reasonably smooth and not jagged, the two sat down. Maggie still clutched the bouquet of jasmines and laid them on her lap.

After watching the waves quietly, Maggie broke the silence.

"Thank you for taking me here, Willie," she murmured. "I want to pay my respects to Josette for helping me, but I'm not really up to visiting her grave. You probably think that is crazy."

"No," Willie assured her.

He agreed with the notion of refusing to step foot into Eagle Hill Cemetery. Willie did not have the fondness of memories of that place. Neither did Maggie. So the other alternative was to visit the spot where Josette famously ended her life.

Willie could almost picture what that fateful night must've been like, with Barnabas chasing after her, Josette rebuffing him in terror over his monstrosity, and plunging down into the sharp rocks below. Willie could almost hear the screams of desperation chilling the air.

"I admittedly had my doubts about Josette from time to time," said Maggie. "But she did come through for us at the end."

"I still can't believe she locked him back into his coffin," Willie muttered with a haunted look veiling his gray eyes.

It was a look Maggie had grown accustomed to intimately well. They were both still haunted by nightmares of their tormentor.

"I'm thankful you went to her to help me," Maggie told him affectionately. "I owe you one."

"Oh, it was nothin'." Willie shrugged.

"Even though she and her husband took our bodies out for a spin like we were a couple of sports cars, she did eventually let us out of that spooky joint," Maggie said lightly.

Willie chuckled at her wisecrack. He liked that Maggie still maintained some of her spirited brassy personality from when he first met her. Before Barnabas violently changed everything for them.

"Josette really loved him," Maggie uttered, "and even loves him still. But this curse ruined everything for them."

"It seems Barnabas tangled with some crazy blonde," Willie said thoughtfully. "And I thought I met some crazy chicks in my time."

"Willie," Maggie said somewhat hesitantly, "in spite of everything that has happened, do you think somehow Barnabas and Josette can find their way... back to each other?"

At his baffled look, Maggie awkwardly clarified. "I mean... do you think they can get rid of this curse?"

That was a deeply profound query for Willie. But he was deeply certain of one thing.

"If there's one thing I know 'bout Barnabas is that he loves Josette. He always will."

"Yeah," Maggie concurred in a soft sigh. "But I must say I'm really quite jealous of you."

Willie blinked at her puzzled.

"You got to see Josette and I didn't," said Maggie. "I only felt her presence and smell her perfume and listened to her voice yelling at that ghost head woman, but I never saw her. The only image I saw of her was from a fainting portrait. I was dragged into this, Willie, because I look like her. But I never really saw it for myself."

"She helped ya, Maggie," said Willie. "That's all that matters."

A tingling sound cut through the breeze. A tingling sound of a melody. A melody Maggie knew all too well.

"It seems I'll never escape that tune," she muttered.

But from a distance by the cliff, Maggie and Willie spotted a wispy form twirling to Josette's melody. A figure who was transparent and hard to see clearly through the mist. But with the grace and all familiar flowing white gown and fragrance, Maggie instantly knew who this figure was.

"Josette," she whispered as her music sweetly intensified in the cool night salty air.

"This was how I first saw her," Willie told Maggie.

The two watched utterly speechless as the radiant spirit effortlessly pirouette by and against some sharp rocks, and madly spin about as the chilly breeze carried her up into the night sky. She elegantly faded away by the light of the gray moon. But her music still cling stubbornly against the breeze, making Widows Hill eerie, but somehow less gloomy and depressing.

Willie and Maggie smiled faintly, and Maggie stood up. She slowly tread through the rocks and came up to the waves. She unwrapped the bouquet from its wrappings and placed the jasmines on the shore. She watched the jasmines washed away by the sea.

"Thank you, Josette, for helping me," Maggie gently murmured.

Upon watching Maggie paying her respects to Josette's watery grave, Willie came up to her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Just then he realized she'd done what she needed to do. And for him to do as well.

"C'mon, let's go to Bangor," he said.

Maggie gaped at him surprised. "What?"

"We didn't really took the time to have some fun since we got outta that house together, Maggie," Willie told her gently. "I think we should learn to do that now that we gotta chance."

"But it's late, and pop is waiting for us," protested Maggie.

"Let him wait," said Willie. "I really wanna have fun with you tonight."

Maggie silently considered his words, with his urging look filled with anticipation on what sort of fun evening could await them.

"Well, all right. But you are doing all the paying for whatever it is we are going to do."

Willie tenderly took her hand in his and the two trudged their way back up the beach. The music box's melody floated and danced all around them.

Willie didn't know what the future would bring, or what his relationship with Maggie would eventually morph into, but he reveled that no matter what he and Maggie would experience it together.

"I know you're here, Josette."

Since taking over the Old House, things had been in working order. The desolate ancestral home belonged to the phantoms again, just as it should be. Little David Collins was now allowed to play with Josette and Sarah in their home without facing some precarious risks. They just had to keep the boy out of the forbidden basement. With the ever militant Joshua Collins constantly guarding the cellar door, it wouldn't be that hard to steer the boy clear away.

Poor Barnabas was safe and secure in his coffin, but he was in total despair for being an unwilling prisoner once again. Josette sincerely wished she could do so much more for him, but this was the best she could do. There was no other alternative until Barnabas' curse was somehow lifted.

Josette and so many of the deceased Collins ancestors just had to keep constant vigilance to guard the coffin this time. All but Jeremiah Collins.

Since his duel with Barnabas, Jeremiah seemed to take his nephew's banishment to heart. Jeremiah had no desire to return to haunt the grounds of Collinwood. He wanted to rest in peace. He always had. Given the bad blood between uncle and nephew, Josette knew it was better this way. She wished she could rest along with her husband, but the predicament of her true love forbade her to do so.

But on the bright side, the future between Willie Loomis and Maggie Evans felt both encouraging and promising. Josette felt something tremendously good happened in the midst of all the chaos Barnabas inflicted.

After gracing the couple with her presence on the beach, Josette sensed an intruder trying to barged into the grounds of the Old House. An intruder who was calling out to her by name.

Now that Jeremiah was at rest, Josette summoned the spirit of Ben Stokes to give her assistance when needed. At that moment, Ben was trying his best to ward the intruder away.

Through the thickness of the dark trees of the forest, Josette sensed a presence of a strong-willed determined woman.

Since banishing Angelique from her domain, Josette feared the witch would somehow return, and when she did, she would take on a more powerful form than a floating head. She would plainly create trouble for them all. But it wasn't Angelique who Josette was sensing. It was someone else. Someone Josette was uncertain of.

"I wish to see you, Josette."

Josette materialized through the columns of the withered porch of the Old House. She found a woman waiting patiently by the firmly shut front double doors in the nighttime darkness. A tall thin older woman with short red hair, and a no-nonsense expression masking her face. She wore a long green coat covering her blouse, and a long black skirt with matching heels. She carried what appeared to be a medical bag closely by her side.

The woman placed a much satisfied smirk across her lips. "It is a great honor to properly meet you Josette Collins."

The ancient walls of the Old House were cautiously on guard over this woman's questionable presence. Josette looked at her warily.

"There is no need to be wary of me," the woman insisted, as if she could read the ghost's mind. "I am here to help you."

"Help me?" Josette uttered dubiously, tilting her head slightly.

"You are the legendary Josette Collins, correct?" pressed the woman.

Josette didn't answer her. She looked at her haughtily.

"You are storing a man in there." The woman indicated the doors of the Old House. "A man among the living dead."

"I don't know who you think you are..." Josette snipped, lifting her nose at the unwanted woman.

"Dr. Julia Hoffman," the woman cut the ghost off to introduce herself.

Josette paused. "Doctor?" She arched up a questioning eyebrow.

"That's right." Julia eagerly nodded.

"A woman doctor..." Josette stammered. "Isn't it rather fanciful?"

"The world gradually evolved into a much more fanciful place since your untimely demise," said Julia with a look that plainly read I'm-getting-this-from-a-French-Regency-ghost? "I wish to see Barnabas Collins."

"You shall leave here at once!" Josette commanded heatedly.

"But allow me to explain," Julia pleaded. "I want to help him. I want to treat him so I can cure him of his vampirism."

Josette stared at her surprised.

"You... you can lift him of his curse?" The ghost was skeptical but a bit hopeful. "How do you propose to accomplish that? With magic?"

"No, with science."

To all my readers thanks for following my story. Reviews are welcome!