Chapter Ten: Josette's Decision

Victoria Winters, nee Maggie Evans, nee Josette duPres awoke an hour after she'd bedded down with her one-true-love, Barnabas Collins, in her sadly disused bedroom at The Old House. Various characteristic cobwebs overhead caught her attention in the wee small hours as she lay in the bed with him.

"It is now time," she thought to herself.

Josette had already devised this change in how their seaside town would operate with the understanding, "If Angelique decided how they would accept what they saw, I am more than given my own fair share in providing the same…"

As Josette, lying in bed, stared at the ceiling she remembered the night's events: A showdown of proof the Collins Family were a fair match for their nemesis: Angelique Bouchard. Now Josette had to discern, with her supernatural abilities, how to undo that damage; Hypnosis. Not a profitable hypnosis, she knew, but one that would support community standing in Collinsport. So? Josette got to "work".

She kissed the cheek of her beloved Barnabas next to her in bed, which he responded to, in sleep, with a weak smile. Then she unfolded herself from the blankets, stood up, and focused.

"I need to see the people who saw. I need to notice who might talk… tomorrow…"

She stood, scooping her hands before her and up to her chin. That was when the change came into being.

Josette was now in her astral form once more.

All in the world seemed a bluish-white alteration in what it looked as before, as she did, herself.

Time to "make-right" what had turned "so wrong".

Perhaps whisking through a window was what she experienced, and maybe it wasn't. Maybe the feeling of being part of the wind on her journey was her experience, and maybe it wasn't.

Josette crept, nay, floated, to many a home, many a mind and listened to what they'd seen that night at Collinwood.

"He's a vampire!"

"She's a witch!"

"The whole town will be destroyed!"

Josette's spirit listened to so many thoughts in each home she'd visited… and feeling a bit like Santa Claus in her listening. To each mind she encountered, she promoted the suggestion, "You will forget! These happenings upon Collinwood have nothing to do with your own life, do they?" To which many a mind reasoned, "Of course, they do not." And she could respond, "Then what is there to worry about?"

As Josette's spirit went to each Collinsport home, to undo the damage Angelique had created, she wondered to herself, "Will this help us?" and realigned her purpose with the family, "Yes, of course it will help us."

The spirit of Josette understood how important it was to influence her neighbours into a world they preferred: A peaceful world, a mundane world, a world in which their own hopes and dreams mattered. Angelique's decisions would never reflect this. Josette's decisions and her listening would reflect this. So, she continued.

Home after home Josette went, realigning the change in perspective, the "rational" explanation for what Collinsport occupants had seen that night at Collinwood. The narrative of The Collins plight changed in their lives to Josette's stipulation:

1) A terrible fire had take place.

2) Public officials arrived.

3) There were some fun ideas of supernatural elements causing the fire, but, really, there was more involved and electrical mishaps that had caused it.

4) Theatrical fun jokes came in that Barnabas Collins was a vampire and Angel Bay's business executive was a witch. Then? Everyone laughed.

5) The sheriff told everyone to "Go Home" and … they did.

Whoever had misgivings, of what Josette's ghost informed them of, soon asserted that their own lives mattered far more than what Collins Enterprises could entail.

Which is what Josette's astral spirit had suspected all along.

She found her work accomplished among the many minds of their town.

And she floated back to her own room at The Old House, blinking. A light flashed in reunion with her new body. As she stood there, she nodded and looked to her left, in which her old bed and her lover resided upon it.

Josette, warmed by these changes she'd made in the community, lifted up the blanket and scooted into restfulness, once again, with her sweetheart, which she (again) kissed on the cheek.

"Now," she thought, "I hope that is all that is needed, on my end, to make the difference."

Strangers in the night

Two lonely people, we were strangers in the night

Up to the moment when we said our first hello little did we know

Love was just a glance away, a warm embracing dance away

And

Ever since that night we've been together

Lovers at first sight, in love forever

It turned out so right for strangers in the night

A/N: Let me know what you liked! Take care.