Angelique Collins sat next to Carolyn Stoddard-Loomis as they flew through Collinsport in her brand new 1989 Nissan Hatchback. The days of living life wildly on the edge were over as marriages and children made both of the ladies parents of teenagers. Carolyn drove back to the estate with glee watching the dry October leaves scatter and dance in her cloud of dust. Angelique meanwhile looked out her passenger side window and saw parents already taking their kids out trick-or-treating in the diminishing light of early evening. She noticed stores with decorations of green-skinned ugly witches and little girls with hideous make-up on their faces and carrying brooms and sighed a bit as her heart dropped.

"Aren't they cute?" Carolyn remembered when her children Lizzie and J.R. were that small. Her youngest son, Christopher, was that size, and she felt she could watch him for hours.

"I hate this holiday." Angelique rolled her eyes. "At least the Wizard of Oz was daring enough to suggest that there were beautiful witches."

"Angelique," Carolyn made the turn from Main Street on to Collins Road before the light turned red. "I know your ancestor was tried for witchcraft, but don't you think you're taking it personally?"

"Carolyn," The former witch looked over. "Several members of my family studied Wicca; don't confuse it with Satanism. I even studied it a bit, and this time of year depresses me. I believe in God and I don't sacrifice black cats. I just loathe the fact that that one image stands to represent the given image of a very ancient religion. There are witches, but don't get the opinion that we all look like Halloween witches."

"Touché." Carolyn slowed as she turned through the gates of Collinwood and noticed toilet paper hanging from branches already. High school rivals of the Collins kids had left their mark, but Carolyn pretended to ignore it and turned down the nearly hidden road to the Old House inside the Collins front gate. She grinned as even more leaves flew in the wake of her car. "I didn't know you were so passionate about it."

"I am." Angelique saw the Old House through the trees. "Thank you for inviting me to go shopping. Maggie will have to join us next time." She reached for her bags in the back seat.

"I'll suggest it to her." Carolyn rolled her new car to a stop as Angelique opened the door. "Say hello to Barnabas and the kids."

"I will." The blonde mother of two turned on her heel and walked the cobblestone path from the road up on to the veranda of the Old House. The outside pillars towered over her as she checked the door, found it unlocked and slipped in.

"Angelique, is that you?" Barnabas had sat peacefully in the parlor reading the national news in the Collinsport Star. Briefly looking up to see if he had to give his son twenty dollars for the movies or to wish his daughter well, he continued reading as Angelique placed her bags down and glided over to kiss him. He breathed in her rose-scented perfume wafting through his senses and beamed contently to her.

"Looks as if you cleaned out the store." he commented with a wry grin.

"Just a few things," Angelique grinned. "Socks for our son, underwear for our daughter, new house shoes for my husband among other things."

"Like a few dozen dresses." Barnabas grinned as he looked down to his paper. A certain article caught his eye as he scanned it.

"Angelique, listen to this." he shared from the paper. "Three college students just vanished from the woods around Burkittsville, Maryland. Locals are blaming a legend called the Blair Witch."

"Well, don't look at me." she made a face. "I don't even know where Burkittsville, wherever is!"

PART 2

Collinsport High School always threw a big Halloween costume party for its students. It was almost expected considering the lore of local ghost stories consisting of the calls at Widow's Hill and the reputed ghosts of Collinwood. The area had it's own ghostly hitch-hiker out near Parker Field on the town limits and a more obscure rumor of the ghosts of a witch and a headless horseman on the road to Bangor. With its thick paranormal history and rumors, Collinsport made Halloween a major holiday for child and adult alike. William Collins even donated his house off the estate of Collinwood to be converted into a haunted house by his sister and the rest of the Collinsport High School student council. Sara instructed the whole detail as William watched and helped where he was allowed as he prevented his home from being destroyed before he could fully move into it.

"I bet you're taking Paula to the party." Sara teased him as he barred certain parts of the house to the rest of the student body. Built by Caleb Collins in the Nineteenth Century, he was doing what he could to make sure it stayed standing by locking rooms and barring halls not on the route through the fake ghosts.

"Of course," He answered. "I'm sure you're taking Joe as usual."

"No," Sarah suddenly turned snippy as she inspected the decorations. "We're through!"

"Again?" William wondered how long the break-up would last this time.

"He's going to be taking Tricia." Sara responded jealously. "I'm going with Brad."

"Brad Champion!" William reacted as Sara headed back to his kitchen plotting the route for the visitors. "Are you crazy! Do you know what he's like!"

"You just don't like him because he used to beat you up." Sara Collins stared to her brother. "I think he's cute."

"Cute!" William reverted to the over-protective brother. "He's a jerk! Even Russell thinks so. You can't date Brad!"

"Who says I can't?" When Sara frowned she looked like her mother.

"I do." Her brother stood in her face. "Brad is a letch. Russell told me so. He's always boasting about how far he gets on his dates and making up stories about his sexual prowess..."

"And how is that different from Russell?" Sara looked at her brother. She liked it when she was little and he took care of her, but she was grown up now and more than able to take care of herself. He had to face it.

"You can't date Brad Champion." William ordered her in front of two of the student council members.

"You can't tell me who to date!"

"What's going on here?" Angelique arrived at the house to check on the progress of her children. She hadn't been in this house since William had inherited it from his Aunt Liz and now her children were at each other's throats. "I and your friends can hear you two arguing clear outside."

"Mom," William turned to face his mother. "Tell Sarah she can't date Brad Champion."

"Tell him to get a life!"

"Children." Angelique rarely saw them arguing like this. "Why don't you want her dating this boy?"

"He's a jerk." William admitted his opinion. "I know how he treats girls."

"William," Angelique put her finger up to stop Sara from talking. "Your sister is a big girl. She can care for herself."

"Yeah," Sara crossed her arms over her clipboard. "So there!" She stuck her tongue out as she did when she was five years old.

PART 3

Angelique tried to find something to keep her preoccupied while she knew her children were getting ready for the Halloween party at the school. It was worse when William was younger and he and his cousins terrorized the city with practical jokes and were brought home by the police, but now that he was older, there was nothing she could do but fret and accept things as they were.

"I hate this holiday." she pretended to dust off the furniture.

"So you've told me." Barnabas tried reading.

"How can you be so laid back about this?" Angelique stood over him. "How can you sit there knowing your son is up there putting on some ghastly costume ready to..." She paused turned away then looked back to her husband. "I'm scared to death of what can happen him. There is a reason that All Hallowed Eve fell on this day. There is a certain alignment on this day that turns toward the paranormal. I don't want our son or daughter inheriting anything we've left behind."

"Angelique," Barnabas put his book down and tried to assuage her fears. "We have two wonderful children with no interests in the occult. They are nothing like those teens in Burkittsville who went looking for trouble and found it. They will be alright."

They heard scuffling at the sound of the stairs. Too evident to be Sara, the noises continued as Angelique looked up and noticed two huge black boots starting down trailing ahead of a huge black cape hanging from his shoulders and dragging behind at his feet. A metal breastplate painted a non-reflective black sported the emblem of a bat against a yellow oval insignia. His plastic yellow belt was more a decoration than to hold up his black pants. His area about his eyes were covered in black makeup and under his left arm, he carried a plastic cowl with a furious expression and two long bat-like ears. Angelique looked upon her first-born and saw something else.

"Mom," William started. "Don't have a conniption fit. This is not a vampire costume. It's a Batman costume; you know, like the movie?"

"I see." Angelique eyed the plastic cowl that William was carrying. It stared mutely back to her and provoked fears that William might jump off a roof trying to fly or something. The whole costume had cost her son almost $500 and had been reproduced from the same costume used in the Michael Keaton movie. "And, uh, what time will you be home?"

"Late," William added as he heard knocking at the door. "Paula wants me to take her for dinner after, and then I want to go by my house and make sure it's still standing." He opened the door as Jameson Collins, the son of Quentin and Maggie Collins, stood on the front veranda in a tuxedo and cape. His face had been whitened and two smears of red makeup dribbled from the corners of his lips. Angelique looked at the sight of him and rolled her eyes in disgust. Barnabas saw the boy as he entered the foyer, rolled his eyes in distaste at the mockery to his prior existence and grumbled a bit at the spectacle. He remembered living the real thing for more years than he wanted and sighed at the utter contempt for his former condition.

"Jamison." He noted the boy's arrival.

"Uncle Barn." Jamison turned to William. "I almost didn't get out alive. My dad threw a fit when he saw me in this."

"He's got sense." Angelique pictured Quentin yelling in her mind.

"By the way," Jamison pulled something out. "I've got my dad's van. I thought we'd take it instead of your trans-am. We better get going to pick up the girls."

"Yeah, right," William noticed his mother looking at him disapprovingly and tried to understand her distaste for this holiday. He kissed her good bye and strolled out to Jamison's van outside. Angelique stood looking out from the entryway and closed the door behind them.

"One good thing," Angelique braced on the inside of the doors. "With that thing on his head, no one can tell he's our boy."

PART 4

At the main house of Collinwood, Willie Loomis walked across the foyer ready to head upstairs and looked ahead as his teenaged daughter was on the way down. Her wild curly blonde hair danced with her as she appeared in a black bustier, fishnet stockings and black boots with a black leather jacket over her shoulder. She looked acted nothing like what was expected from the granddaughter and namesake of Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard, but then her own mother was supposed to be quite a hell raiser in her day. Under her breath, Lizzie Victoria Loomis sang under her breath as she marched down the steps ready to go out.

"Dress you up in my love..." Her voice oozed with sex. "All over your body..."

"Okay," Willie paused looking up from the drawing room doors. "Go back up there and put the rest of that on."

"But, dad," Lizzie looked at him. "This is it. I'm Madonna."

"I don't care if you're Patsy Cline…"

"Who!"

"You're not too big to get a spanking." Willie looked her breasts thrust high up from her chest and rolled his eyes wondering when they were going to stop growing. "Go put some more clothes on."

"Mom!" Lizzie called the upstairs just as Carolyn Stoddard-Loomis appeared coming down. "Tell daddy you said this is okay."

"Yeah right." Carolyn hated the changing of the times more than anything else. "Uhhhhhhhhhh, just be home at nine-thirty."

"Right." Lizzie kissed her mom. "Love you!" The girl bolted and sprang out the door. Willie dropped his jaw in disgust and turned to his wife. Sighing under her breath, Carolyn turned to the left of the drawing room to see what Willie was watching on the TV. Clad in a white sweater and long green skirt, she looked round for the remote to check the other channels.

"Carolyn," Willie followed her to the drawing room as she hit the remote to the TV and sat at the sofa. "How can you allow her to go out like that!"

"Willie," The blonde matron of Collinwood snuggled next to her husband.
"A lot of girls nowadays wear much worse. I'm not happy with it either, but she's a good girl."

"Good girl?" Willie regretted as the music for "Falcon Crest" entered the room from out of the television. "I wish she was eight again."

"Didn't she run around without underwear under her dress when she was eight?" Carolyn reminded him.

"I wish she was five again." Willie folded his arms and stared to the TV. Exasperated over trying to be a parent, he tried to focus on the images from the TV and then helped himself to the candy in the bowl on the table before him. "Hey, that guy looks like Quentin..."

PART 5

Carolyn and Willie sat comfortably watching television in a room off the dining room of Collinwood as the rest of the town was constantly rushing to the door every few minutes for trick-or-treaters. If they lived in town, it might have been a lot more active, but there were a number of close friends who brought their children. Carolyn's clients at her aerobics center brought their children, and acquaintances of Willie's from Collins Enterprises dragged their rug rats along for the ride. Returning another visit to the door, Carolyn checked her watch and guessed that to be her last trip. Sitting once more by Willie, she rested her head on her husband's shoulder as his head rested on hers as they watched the flickering images of characters living lives more interesting than their own. Willie barely moved except to drink his sherry then heard the loud knocking from the foyer.

"Nine-thirty." He checked his watch. "That must be Lizzie. I knew she didn't have a key in that outfit." He rose with a groan and crossed the archway to the dining room on his way to the foyer. The thundering knocking returned again as he reached for the front exit and pulled it open.

"Mr. Loomis," Sheriff Don Taylor stood in his brown and tan uniform. "I'm sorry to have to report this..."

"J.R..." Willie looked at his firstborn son with him. He was almost as bad as that oil baron on TV. "What'd he do this time?"

"Séance in the cemetery." Taylor answered as he whipped out a bag of toilet paper and empty egg cartons. "Suspected malicious mischief, I didn't get his friends, but they were very helpful in turning him over."

"I'm innocent." J.R. responded as earnestly as he could muster. "I was only holding this for friends."

"He was the only one I could catch." Taylor admitted as the youthful miscreant.

"I'll handle it." Willie noticed Carolyn at the other end of the foyer while the sheriff left with the evidence. The mother in her was frustratingly shaking her head as she put up her hands in defeat and approached her boy. She gazed in to his unbridled brown eyes and shook her head.

"When? When?" She asked the boy.

"J.R." Willie was getting tired of his son's covert activities. "I'm so tired of this. You should not be fooling around with a séance."

"Why?" J.R. asked sheepishly. "Because some former governess once allegedly got sucked into the past? Quite frankly, dad, I never believed that story."

PART 6

If Jamison Collins was the prince of Collinwood, then Sara Collins was its princess. The blue-eyed blonde teenager from Collinwood sat by Brad Champion's side as he turned toward the end of Lookout Point and stopped his Monte Carlo just short of the ten feet from the cliff. He grinned at her, rolled back his sunroof and draped his arm behind her as he looked into her eyes.

"Do you get a view like this from Collinwood?" The football player asked her.

"Yes," Sara responded as she rolled her eyes. "I thought you were taking me home."

"It's Halloween." Champion tossed the accessories from his serial killer costume to the back seat and scooted closer to Sara. "I thought we could come out here and look for the ghost of Bill Malloy. Rumor has it he returns looking for the man who killed him."

"My brother is the ghost buster." Sara answered matter-of-factly. "Look, we had a nice time, I'm not really up to this, just take me home."

"In a minute..." Champion passed his hand across her waist and kissed her across the lips as her eyes widened in shock. She pushed him back and slapped him.

"What are you doing!" She screamed at him.

"Look," Brad rolled his eyes as he braced against her door. "Obviously Haskell doesn't give you the attention you want otherwise you wouldn't have been so hot to get into my pants."

"What gave you that idea?" Sara glared at him. "My brother was right. You are a jerk!"

"Jerk?" Brad rolled his eyes again. "You're nothing but a little tease!" He grabbed at her witch's costume as she grabbed for the door. She pushed against him as his hand went for her chest and tried to kick back but his idiotic little Honda hatchback was restricting her movements from using her self-defense gestures. She clawed him across the face for enough time to work his car door, but it apparently just made him angrier. She began screaming her head off as loud as she could as he pinned her against the car floor.

The shaking car suddenly jarred as something hit it. A huge black shape reached through the open sunroof and grabbed Champion by his head and lurched him up with unholy mercy. Sara didn't look to see what it was. Crying and pulling her dress up, she heard Brad being jerked up through the roof of the car and then heard him screaming as a huge dark shape suddenly
choked off his screams and beat him into an inch of his life.

PART 7

Angelique idled her time waiting for her children to return home by darning her son's socks. She glanced to the Queen Anne clock on the mantel under her husband's portrait then looked to him herself. Barnabas noticed her over the top of his book then glanced to the clock himself.

"Eleven thirty." He announced. "William and Sara should be home soon."

"Hopefully." Angelique added as her head cocked toward the front of the house. She heard the scurrying of footsteps across the front veranda and someone fighting with the front door. It suddenly opened and Sara appeared violated and her left shoulder exposed. Holding her dress up, she looked from tear-worn eyes, collapsed emotionally and reached for her mother suddenly
standing.

"Sara!" Barnabas rushed to her. "What happened?"

"He attacked me!" Sara sobbed hysterically. "Brad tried to rape me!"

"What!" Angelique forced her daughter to look at her. "Why would he... "

"He attacked me!" Sara repeated trying to catch her breath. Her legs almost hurt as much as her self-worth. She had run the entire distance from the point across Selby's woods to Eagle Hill and out the other side to the estate. Almost a complete mile, she clutched at her mother as her mind shut out everything else.

"You can't tell William!" Sara forced out. "He'd just tell me he told me so!"

"Don't you worry about him." Angelique started to lead her upstairs.

"Sara," Barnabas tapped into anger he hadn't been aware of for years. "This Champion boy? Where is he?"

"I don't know." Sara looked down from the third step heading upstairs. "Something pulled him out of the car, something big and black..."

Barnabas and Angelique looked at each other.

"... It was ripping him apart cause I heard him screaming for a long time." Sara continued.

Barnabas looked away as a fear returned to him. He watched long enough as Angelique calmly and nurturingly accompanied Sara up to her room and then reached for the telephone on the foyer table. He dialed the number for the main house.

"Willie," He recognized the voice that answered. "I need you to get a mallet, a stake and some flashlights and pick me up. We need to put something back."

PART 8

Even washed and cleaned up, Sara could not rid herself of the disgusting sensation of Champion's hands all over her. She buried herself in her bed covers and stared out as if she were in a trance as her mother hovered over her. Angelique stroked the hair out of her daughter's natural beauty and sat by her side trying to help her cope.

"Sweetheart," She started. "You didn't eat your breakfast."

"I'm not hungry." Sara's violated voice mumbled for her mother to hear her.

"Darling," Angelique tried hard to think of the things to say. "This will pass. Things will look better later. You're a Collins, you can be strong."

"I wish I could put a curse on him." Sara mumbled as Angelique made a face. "I'd ruin his football career and make him..."

"Trust me on this..." Angelique stroked her daughter's blonde hair. "These things backfire." She noticed someone at the door of the bedroom. Looking up, William stood in his jeans and white sweater wanting to come in. Sara just gasped as she turned from him.

"How is she?" He sounded genuinely concerned.

"Go away!" Sara's voice called out from her bed while Angelique stood and pressed her son out. Closing the door, mother paused before son and looked him over for a minute.

"She's upset." She replied. "Give her time."

"I knew it." William answered. "I tried to tell her."

"I know." Angelique pressed him further down the front stairs as Barnabas, Willie and Quentin entered the Old House. There was a silent glance from husband to wife as Angelique sent her son out of the room. William paused and looked to his Uncle Quentin then to his Uncle Willie. They were waiting for him to depart. A brief pause, William decided to go poking in the icebox for an excuse to eat.

"The crypt in the mausoleum is intact." Barnabas announced quietly but comfortingly. "He's still in there."

"We got to Lookout Point just as the ambulance took Champion to the hospital." Willie continued as he collapsed to a chair. "According to a guy I know, he didn't lose any blood, but whatever attacked him left him near dead. He had cracked ribs, a
broken arm, a fractured skull and broken jaw. He won't be able to play football again."

"It gets worse." Quentin dropped the hammer and stakes as he tossed the morning paper to Angelique carefully folded to the front page. Angelique picked it up where it fell and scanned the top story.

"Local Teens Attacked By Unknown Beast."

"According to the story," Quentin continued. "It attacked them both and Brad tried to fight it. He's going to come out of this rape a hero."

"But that's not fair!" Angelique answered. "That monster attacked my baby. She was rescued by whatever that thing was..."

"We know." Barnabas added. "She'll have to tell the police what really happened."

"How is she?" Quentin asked.

"Violated." Angelique answered as she dramatically turned and paced a bit. "She'll tell on this boy." She looked to the kitchen and dropped her jaw realizing that her son was eavesdropping on their conversation!

PART 9

Maggie Collins and Carolyn Loomis had founded the Body Shop Aerobics Center on Main Street on the ashes of the Old Todd Antique Store. As their children had been born, both the proud mothers used to exercise just to regain their figures and try to keep up with eternally flawless Angelique. Opening their exercise classes to the public also gave them something to do as the children grew up. Maggie's daughter, Amanda loved being receptionist there because she could wear leotards all day long and meet all the guys enrolling to gawk at the girls. The job was simple and it gave her spending money.

"What are you doing here?" She looked up as her cousin William came in off the street. "Trying to sneak into the ladies locker room again?"

"I only did that once, and it was JR's idea." He glared at his redheaded cousin. "Is Aunt Maggie here?"

"I think she's got a class." Amanda watched her cousin walk right past her. He glanced over the exercise gear trying to spot a few friends a minute then noticed his former governess to the back of the room exercising with several of Collinsport's more huskier citizens. She then called a break, dabbed her face with a towel and grabbed bottled water from a ice filled cooler.

"Hi, honey," She drank some water as she still saw the boy in the young man before her. "You're not going to sneak into the girl's locker room again, are you?"

"No," Youth and adult shared a grin. "I, uh, sort of wrenched my back last night and was hoping to get a massage. Aunt Carolyn said I could..."

"Come on back." Maggie grinned and gestured to a back room. "Take off your shirt." She tapped the massage table as she turned and rubbed alcohol on her hands. The only time William or any of the Collins boys came in was to gawk and comment at the girls. They rarely exercised seriously, but it made her a bit happier for him use his free membership for something other than
meeting girls. Since the three of them started driving, they weren't getting as much exercise as she wished they had.

"I've never done this before." William hopped up the table.

"Really," She barely touched him to get him to lie on his stomach and he grunted in pain worse than she expected. She began rubbing his lower back. "You did hurt yourself. Are you and Jamison scrapping again?"

"No," William rested his arms under his head. "I, uh, well, you know how Sara makes my house to a haunted attraction every year?"

"Yeah," Maggie rubbed his aching back.

"Well," William continued. "There was this one guy who acted as if he wanted to vandalize the place, and I had to knock the stuffing out of him."

"You didn't toss him out a window like you did to Jamison back then, did you?" Maggie remembered how violent William's temper could be.

"Well," William felt his aunt squeezing his back and made a face of serious determination. "Let's just say he'll never do it again."

Maggie looked into his face and forgot this was the young man she knew as a child. He didn't look familiar to her at all; he resembled someone she might consider a punk or even a hood with contempt for human life. For a brief second, she realized that could possibly hurt someone seriously.

PART 10

Angelique sat at the kitchen table of the Old House catching her breath and drinking coffee as she read the paper laid out flat before her. The article on Sara's attack now had police reporting that Champion had confessed to a sexual attack but not to rape. The unidentified specter side of the story had been downplayed with the idea that it must have been one or two of the shipyard employees coming through on their frequent trips through the area. Gently massaging her temples, Angelique rubbed her eyes and yawned as she looked to the back steps and noticed Lizzie Loomis coming down from visiting her daughter.

"Sara wants more orange juice." The blue eyed teenage vixen mentioned.

"Her wish is my command." Angelique rose, took the glass from Carolyn's daughter and filled it at the refrigerator.

"I can't believe Sara dated Brad." Lizzie rambled on. "I could have told her he was a jerk. I would have thought she knew better."

"Sometimes you just have to learn things for yourself." Angelique heard her dryer buzz and turned to empty it and fold the clothes in it. Lizzie sneaked a sip from her cousin's juice while her aunt turned her back.

"Aunt An," The girl continued. "Do you believe in ghosts?"

"I believe in God." Angelique confessed with a wry motherly grin as she folded and separated the laundry. "I think it's the same thing."

"I think Sara really was rescued by Malloy's ghost." Lizzie mumbled as she sneaked another sip of the juice.

"Why?"

"Because I saw it too…" She confessed as Angelique stopped and gazed upon her with an odd look.

"Russell and I were on Main Street heading to the pizza place for dinner," the girl continued. "We looked up and saw a huge black shadow in the moonlight on top of the hardware store. It was just for a second and it vanished."

"Could have been J.R. and his friends in their Halloween pranks?" Angelique mentioned theoretically as she continued folding laundry.

"J.R. had already been brought home." Lizzie revealed. "I guess I'd better be going." She turned for the front hall. "I promised Sara some of my magazines."

"What about her juice?"

"It was delicious!" Lizzie responded just as she exited out the front of the house. Angelique looked at the empty glass and smirked a bit. She filled it up again and carried her daughter's laundry up with it. Sara was still in bed just barely interested in resuming her life. Maybe another week and she'd be ready to go to school again. Mother and daughter barely exchanged thoughts and Angelique returned downstairs and carried up her son's clean laundry this time. Day by day, week by week, she happily repeated the same little rituals happily as she entered her son's room, put away what he needed, picked up the random article off the floor and dusted his book shelves. As she turned to go out, she noticed fresh grooves in the hardwood floor behind his door and looked closer. She noticed the old kerosene lamp on the wall a bit crooked and wondered if he had discovered one of the old secret passageways of the house. She pushed against the opening as his Batman costume loomed at eye level across from her. It gave her a brief fright as she jumped back, grinned at herself being silly and looked inside.

Just inside, she noticed more things moved inside. A desk with a tiny lamp, a map of the town tacked above it and a shelf with assorted gear on it as if he were dabbling in going too far with his fantasies. She picked up a leather glove and noticed it torn and worn in places as if he had been fighting someone with it. His cape looked amateurishly sewn back together in some places as she noticed the paint on the metal breastplate scuffed as if it had been hit by something hard.

"Why that..." Angelique murmured as she quickly guessed the truth.

"Mom?"

She turned around and looked at William quite abashedly unprepared for her reaction. He stared a little embarrassingly at her as his mother stepped out and folded her arms in amused curiosity.

"You followed her."

"Yeah," William admitted.

"And beat up that Champion boy," She continued. "And climbed to the top of the hardware store."

"You know about that too?"

"I know everything." Angelique grinned and gasped at her would-be crime fighter. "Why?"

"Well," William lowered his eyes as he confessed. "I wanted... I wanted to live out a fantasy. I was just trying to protect Sara, but... knocking and beating the stuffing out of Brad helped me get a lot of frustration out, and... gave me a chance to live out a fantasy I've only been able to dream about. You going to tell dad?"

"I think you ought to tell him." Angelique answered. "But, I don't want you climbing any more buildings and running around in that costume. This is real life, and you can get hurt." She unfolded her arms and partially hugged him. "I love the fact you care about your sister. You have proved to be a lot better brother than Jamison and J.R. have been to Amanda and Lizzie, but I don't want you risking your life. I also don't think your father's going to permit poles in this house or cars speeding of the caves under the property." She ended with a wry grin.

"I want you to be yourself." She gazed deeply into her son's brown eyes. "Understand?"

"I got it." William looked one more time at his mother as she turned out of the room. He shot a look back at his costume, rolled his eyes a bit and still wondered how much it would cost to augment his black trans-am.

END