Chapter 11
Barnabas left her room just minutes ago. She felt exhilarated from her encounter with him. An event she could not remember having in a long time. After looking out the window for a few minutes, Maeve strolled over to the bathroom and washed up. She walked up to her nightstand and set the clock for 2:30 p.m. because she planned to visit Barnabas at his hotel room later that day. Suddenly, she heard a noise outside the door sounding like a package falling hard.
Maeve walked over to the door and listened. She heard footsteps walking away so she cracked open the door and peeked out. No one was there except for the early morning newspaper sitting on the doormat. She picked it up and brought it inside, glancing at the headlines.
"Mystery Man Thrown Out With The Garbage," it read. As Maeve read over the article, she learned that the city's sanitation facility found an unidentified body of a man about 3 a.m. this morning and reported it to the police. "The body was covered in garbage and a bloody knife was frozen in his hand, said a city employee. So far, no theories on what killed the man, nor where he died, the police advised the reporter. The police would not give any more information until they completed their investigation. The coroner indicated an autopsy scheduled later in the afternoon." Maeve could not find any mention of neck wounds or blood loss.
She sat the paper on the chair and walked over to her dresser. As she looked in the mirror, she thought the dead man might be the one that attacked the girl last night. She would conduct her own investigation before the coroner conducted the autopsy. She walked over to her bed and lay down. As she closed her eyes, Maeve started to see the white light that represented the "Powers-to-be". After a few minutes, she fell asleep. Knowing she would learn more from them, Maeve followed the light into the unknown.
At first, all Maeve could see in the blackness was the white light and her only blue aura. She heard waves crashing upon rocks and whispers howling in the wind. The scene suddenly took shape and Maeve stood facing a huge white mansion with four to five huge pillars in front. As she strolled through the front doors, a beautiful blonde woman ran down the stairs and right through her. As she followed the woman into a parlor, they both came face-to-face with . . . Barnabas. Both were dressed in eighteen-century clothes and neither saw Maeve.
Barnabas called the woman Angelique who was holding a child's doll. Barnabas exclaimed, "Sarah's doll!"
"This is what I'm going to do to keep you here, Barnabas!" She started to stick pins into the doll.
Barnabas ordered, "Give me that doll!" as he stepped towards her.
Angelique replied, "Don't come any closer, Barnabas! This pin is aimed right at her heart, and I'll kill her if you come any closer!"
Barnabas begs, "No! Please! I won't leave Collinwood."
"I'll make certain you won't leave. As long as she's on the brink of death, you won't leave. She will not die unless you deceive me again, but she will come close."
Maeve noticed Barnabas suddenly take a gun out of a box and shoot Angelique with it. Then he ran up to her and grabbed the doll out of her hand. The blonde woman collapsed at the base of a pillar. However, she was not dead.
Angelique gasped, "What have you done! You didn't do your job well enough, Barnabas. I'm not dead yet, and while I can still breathe, I will have my revenge. I set a curse on you, Barnabas Collins. You wanted your Josette so much. Well you shall have her, though not in the way you would have chosen. You will never rest, Barnabas, and you will never be able to love anyone for whoever loves you will die. That is my curse, and you will live with it through all eternity!" then she died. Maeve heard the sound of breaking glass and then watched a bat fly into the room and attack Barnabas, biting him on the neck. Barnabas screamed. Maeve was horrified at the whole encounter.
Without any warning, she found herself in darkness once again with only the white light guiding her. Did that REALLY happen, she asked. The white light flickered in affirmation. The blackness faded and Maeve was standing inside a mausoleum looking at the middle section of the far wall, which was already open. As she walked closer to the opening, she saw a man, dressed in modern-day clothes, using a crowbar to pry open a coffin in several different places. His eyes gleamed with greed as he took all the tools off the top of the coffin and placed them on the floor. As he got the lid partly opened, his expressions changed to immense terror as a ringed hand grabbed him by the throat.
As Maeve watched in awe, she saw many terrifying experiences flash across the man's face, images of atrocities, brutal deeds repeatedly executed by Barnabas upon the man. She felt Barnabas' lust, anger, obsession, and evil intents ripping his humanity away. The scenes started to slow down and then stop.
Tired and alone, Maeve stood in the dark as an unexpected ghost came out of the darkness. It was a little girl, wearing an old fashion light blue dress, singing "London Bridges." Chuckling to herself, Maeve followed the little girl to the same mansion she was before. The little girl walked into the parlor and interrupted Barnabas from killing a woman by strangulation. Barnabas immediately dropped the woman and turned around to face the little girl. Everyone else wore modern clothes.
"Sarah, my little Sarah," Barnabas purred, "you have come back to me! You're back with me now, and you're going to stay with me, aren't you?" Barnabas hopefully asked. "We're going to be all right, and everything will be just fine, won't it?" He approached the little girl, who took a step back away from him. "What's wrong?" Barnabas asked.
Sarah informed him, "I am very, very angry with you, Barnabas, for hurting people."
"Only when it was necessary," Barnabas responded.
"That isn't true," snapped Sarah, "and we both know it."
"It's over and done with," Barnabas assured her, "and everything will be fine as long as you're with me."
"No," replied Sarah, "you're not through doing bad things. Do you remember the rhyme you taught me, Barnabas? 'That wicked is wicked is well understood, the wicked are punished, so you must be good.' You must be good," she told him, "or you will be punished."
Barnabas implored her to stay, but she firmly told him that she was going and would never come back, that would be his punishment! As she began to fade from his sight, she said, "I know there is good and there is evil because I learned it from you, but you've forgotten it, Barnabas, and you have to learn it all over again. I'll never come back until you do. Goodbye, Barnabas."
"Please don't leave me!" begged Barnabas, covering his face with his hands. "I forbid you to leave . . . I beg you to stay, Sarah!" He began to cry behind his hands.
Suddenly, Maeve found herself in the darkness again. She looked for some evidence of life but saw none. She felt a presence and saw a pink light floating in the middle of the room. The only light in the blackness came from the aura surrounding the spirit. The light became the shape of the woman Maeve recognized. It's the woman Barnabas tried to strangle earlier but something else seemed familiar about her.
The spirit appeared to be talking to someone in the darkness, which Maeve could not see or hear. Then the ghost turned her head, looked straight at Maeve and mouthed the word "three". That gave Maeve a chill. After a few moments, the ghost said something into the darkness again, reached out her right arm and then disappeared. Maeve heard a loud piercing roar and felt an incredible anger from the blackness. She started to spin out of control and suddenly sat up in bed. Feeling very sick, she ran to the bathroom and vomited.
As Maeve returned to her dresser, she looked into the mirror and asked herself what just happened? Hearing the alarm clock and noticing the time was 2:30 p.m., she ran to turn it off and started to get dressed. As she finished dressing, she finally understood. Barnabas must be in trouble. As she picked up her backpack, which contained a wood stake and cross, a small bottle of holy water, a sheathed bowie knife and a pencil, she left her room and hurried across the street. She had to see him no matter what happened, she told herself. She entered Barnabas' hotel and asked the desk clerk for the room of Mr. Barnabas Collins.