Tue. Apr. 28, 1970
The day after the full moon... Sabrina Stuart has been killed by the werewolf, and Quentin Collins has been faced with the seemingly impossible task of telling Chris Jennings of her death... What Quentin hasn't told him is that Chris's younger sister Amy knows the truth about Chris, and has witnessed Sabrina's death herself...
David Collins, newly returned from Boston with his father, Roger, came home while Quentin and Tony were in the study. Roger had left almost immediately, having heard gossip from the cannery that his "young" cousin had not been doing such a good job at the cannery after all—the other employees had been doing the brunt of the work while Roger was in Boston. Roger had hurried away muttering to himself about saving a sinking ship while leaving his suitcases with a thrilled Mrs. Johnson to unpack.
David heard Quentin and Tony Peterson saying good-bye downstairs. He rushed out from unpacking his suitcase in his bedroom. "Quentin!" he called out in greeting, "I'm back!"
Quentin looked up to see David standing up on the balcony above the Great Hall. The balcony railing wobbled as the growing young man grasped it and shook it with excitement at seeing Quentin again.
"Be careful, David," Quentin warned. "We'll need to get that railing fixed before someone breaks their neck!"
"All right!" David let go of the railing and ran down the stairs to give Quentin a hug. Quentin hugged the boy back, and gave a weak smile. Quentin put an arm across David's shoulders as the two turned and walked into the Drawing Room.
"How did you like Boston, David?" Quentin asked. "Do you think you'll want to live there for school?"
"I liked it pretty well," David was more excited about going to Boston than he had been before leaving earlier in the month. "I guess Oakley Prep won't be so bad. I decided I want to go there this fall." David did not notice Quentin's morose mood. "I hope Amy won't miss me too much…"
They found Amy sitting in the Drawing Room, staring at the fire. "Hi Amy! I've been looking for you! Maggie sent a couple of things for you! She's visiting a sick aunt in New Hampshire…" David greeted Amy, but she barely responded. She continued to just stare at the fire.
David looked up puzzled at Quentin. "Sabrina was killed last night," Quentin told David quietly, "She was mauled by a bear up at Chris's cabin…" Amy's eyes narrowed as she heard Quentin's excuse.
David looked shocked and turned back to Amy. "I'm sorry Amy—Sabrina seemed like such a nice lady."
Amy did not acknowledge him. She got up and walked up to Quentin, who kneeled down in front of her. "Please let me see Chris before you leave for the cabin," she begged.
"Of course," Quentin agreed, he was just glad that she was speaking to him again.
Unbeknownst to them, a woman dressed all in white stood appeared outside of the caretaker's cottage. Her long, flowing robes fluttered in the Spring breeze as wildflower petals flew by her. She stood in front of the cottage window and stared inside. She brought her hands up to her face and wept...
Act One:
As Quentin and Amy walked down to the cottage hand in hand, Quentin looked down from time to time, wondering what the quiet young girl was thinking. He knew that Sabrina's death had been a blow to her, especially with the knowledge that it was Chris who had killed her.
For Amy's part, she did not know how she felt. For her, Chris was the last of her family. As much as she loved the Collins family, she did not feel they were truly hers. She was not aware of the family connection through Quentin. All Amy knew was that her parents were dead, her brother Tom was dead, and now Sabrina, who she'd hoped would become her sister-in-law was now dead as well. Amy stared ahead towards the caretaker's cottage, ignoring the beauty of the Spring day. For her, there was no more beauty in the world. There was only the ugliness of reality. And that reality was that Chris was cursed—and, he was all that she had left…
Amy pointed towards the front cottage window. "Look Quentin, there's somebody else in there!" It was hard to tell who it was, but it seemed to be a woman's figure, dressed all in white.
Quentin looked, but he wondered if it was a trick of the sunlight. They came up to the front door and stopped. Quentin knocked on the front door twice, but there was no answer. Inside the cottage, the Woman in White sobbed in her hands as she walked across the room.
Quentin opened the front door tentatively, and peered inside the dark room. "Chris, I brought Amy to see you!" he called out, but there was no answer. Quentin, followed by Amy, stepped inside and looked for the person they saw through the front window, but she was gone. Flicking the light next to the front door, Quentin's eyes widened with shock, and he gasped as he looked towards the back of the room. "Amy, don't come in!" Quentin exclaimed, turning behind him and trying to push Amy back out of the cottage.
But, Amy struggled against Quentin and poked her head under his arm. She stared at what Quentin was trying to shield her from across the room and screamed with horror. Towards the back of the room, hanging from the rafters, a man's body swung back and forth slowly. "Chris!" she screamed, breaking free from Quentin grasp and running over to Chris's hanging body. An overturned chair lay on the floor beneath him. "No!" Amy cried, collapsing on her knees below Chris's body.
Quentin quickly came up behind the young girl and knelt beside her. She turned away from the horrible sight of her brother's hung body and buried her face into Quentin's chest. Quentin stared up at Chris with a horrified expression. "Chris..." he murmured, not really believing it had come to this. Judging by the angle of Chris's head, his neck had most certainly been broken by the hanging. Quentin closed his eyes with shame as he held Amy, feeling guilty he was never able to help his great-grandson.
Quentin held Amy for along time. Perhaps it was only a few minutes, but for Quentin it felt like an eternity. Finally, Quentin realized it was too horrible to continue to sit on the floor beneath the body.
"Come on, Amy, we've got to call the police..." Quentin told her.
Amy wiped the tears from her face, and nodded up at Quentin. They stood, and Amy leaned against Quentin as he led her out of the cottage. Amy realized that she was now completely alone. Quentin and the other Collins would not replace her family.
Neither Quentin nor Amy saw a Woman in White as she watched them leave. She came back out after Quentin shut the cottage door. Her long brown hair flowed behind her as she stared up at the hanging body…
Act Two:
"No, I've never heard of this Chris Jennings…" Buffie Harrington said into the bar phone at the Blue Whale. "I'll ask around…" She looked up and saw the front door of the establishment open. "I've got to go!" she said quickly, and hung up the phone. "Back so soon?" Buffie called from behind the bar as John strode into the Blue Whale. A jaunty, instrumental rock tune played on the juke box.
John smiled bittersweetly. "Yeah, it wasn't the best of nights last night..." He pulled up a stool and sat at the bar in front of her.
"More girl trouble?" Buffie arched an eyebrow. "Which one was it? The friend... or the one who wasn't really a friend?"
John shook his head. "I really don't want to talk about it-it's too terrible," he said, ignoring her questions. John nodded to the alcohol bottles behind her. "I'll have a spiced rum, please!"
Buffie raised both eyebrows and turned back towards the bottles. "Wow!" she reached for the spiced rum. "That bad, huh?"
John frowned and nodded, and Buffie grabbed two glasses. "I'll tell you what... this first one is on the house." She poured into both glasses and took one for herself. "I'll join you!"
John gulped down the spiced rum and grimaced. "The girl I told you about-the one I was worried for her life-she was killed last night! Attacked by a... bear-up on Green Mountain!"
Buffie gasped. "How horrible!" She reached for the spiced rum and poured John another. "I think you need another one on the house! You knew it was going to happen, didn't you?" she guessed.
John nodded and gulped down the rum. "I guess I see things before they happen..."
Buffie stared at him, intrigued. "You mean like am I going to get splashed by a passing car while walking, or win the lottery?"
John shook his head. "I wish it were so mundane. I saw for weeks that the girl—her name was Sabrina—was going to get mauled by an animal. I tried to warn her several times. I dreamt it was going to happen, I heard the growling… and the screams."
"That's absolutely horrific!" Buffie said. She looked down at the shotglass and decided she might take another swig.
"And then there's my other friend—her name's Angelique—I felt uneasy about her the other evening. I couldn't really explain what it was," John continued. Now that he was explaining things, it was all pouring out. "But, I felt compelled to come back here and see if she was all right… On the way here, I heard screaming in an alley—it was Angelique… This guy was trying to rape her…" He looked at Buffie with sad eyes. "But, I knew… I KNEW!"
Buffie looked away, feeling a little guilty. She was responsible for that attack. She might not have been the man in the alley, but she was responsible. She wondered if their scheme was worth it—really worth the anguish they were causing…
Act Three:
David came out of the kitchen with a tray of food that Mrs. Johnson prepared, to see Quentin and a stone-faced Amy come into the house. "What happened?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
Quentin looked at Amy, then shook his head at David. "It's Chris... He's gone David."
David was puzzled. "Gone away? Like, left town?"
Amy suddenly looked and glared at David, her cheeks streaked. "He's dead…" she said blankly. "Chris is dead."
"Amy," Quentin told her, "Go find Mrs. Johnson and stay with her while I call the police."
Amy looked up at Quentin. "I don't want to see Mrs. Johnson." She turned to go up the stairs. "I'm going to go lie down for awhile." Quentin and David stared up at her as she slowly walked past the wobbly balcony railing and left open the door to the upstairs hallway.
Amy walked straight into her bedroom like a somnambulist. Shutting the door behind her, she looked all around the room with a dazed expression on her face. Suddenly, without warning, she screamed like a wild animal and jumped onto the bed, throwing off the bed-covers and grasping the pillows in her hands. She tore at the pillows, exposing all the feathers inside and making them fly all over the room.
Jumping off of the bed, she flung the lamp hard onto the floor, shattering it. She tipped the side table over and rushed over to the vanity. Flinging the jewelry box at the vanity mirror, the glass shattered. Not done yet, she flung a heavy hairbrush at the vanity's glass and broke into a hundred tiny pieces. Amy ran around the room, flinging books and toys out of the bookcase, then tipped it over onto the floor with a bang. She pulled all of the drawers out of the desk and showered the room with papers, crayons and pencils.
Quentin ran to Amy's bedroom and flung open her door. He gasped in shock at the state of the trashed room, but nothing could have been more surprising than the sight of Amy, no longer hysterical, rocking back and forth in the rocking chair, calmly singing "London Bridge".
Quentin stood there staring, unsure of what to say or do. Next to Amy, dressed all in white in a long, flowing gown, knelt Sabrina. She looked the way she used to before she saw Chris transform into the werewolf that first time. Her pretty brown hair was long and straight, flowing past her shoulders. She had an ethereal quality about her. She smiled sadly at Amy, touching the young girl's hand before disappearing right before Quentin's eyes...
Cast:
David Collins… DAVID HENESY
Amy Jennings… DENISE NICKERSON
Ghost of Sabrina Stuart… LISA RICHARDS
Quentin Collins… DAVID SELBY
John Jaeger… CHRISTOPHER PENNOCK
Buffie Harrington… ELIZABETH EIS