Disclaimer: Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production and not mine
CHAPTER 4: BEGRUDGING ACCEPTANCE
"Pop, no!"
Maggie threw herself on Sam's back shoulders as the older man tried to lunge after the vampire with the stake firmly grasped. Barnabas used his cane to protectively shield himself from his armchair, causing Maggie to fear the vampire might use it as a weapon to attack her father.
Willie joined Maggie to restrain Sam, who was still trying to lunge after Barnabas.
"Mr. Evans, please, ya gotta calm down," Willie grunted, as he and Maggie struggled to hold the angry father at bay.
At those words, Sam abruptly spun around and glared at Willie deadly with the stake still firmly within his tight grip.
"This... this monster got released from his confinement!" Sam shot at Willie furiously, his furry face turning bright red. "He took my daughter from me, and tried to destroy her, and you want me to calm down!"
"Pop, you can't kill Barnabas," Maggie said frantically.
"Oh, Maggie, not you, too!" Sam snapped. "Why am I not allowed to destroy him for what he did to you!"
"Because Willie and I tried!" Maggie cried out hysterically. "The curse won't let us!"
Maggie inhaled shakily and quickly exhaled. "Remember?" she murmured with heavy sad eyes.
Sam slowly dropped his gaze and darted them back to Barnabas on his armchair.
At the father's silence, Julia decided to gently intervene.
"I'm working on a cure to help him," she exclaimed to Sam. "I'm helping to break him out of his monstrosity and to become a man again. To live an ordinary human life."
"Julia, what have you gotten yourself into?" Dr. Woodard stared at his friend and colleague in total dismay.
"I second that, doctor," Sam agreed spitefully. "You were supposed to help my daughter, not the monster that held her against her will!"
"Our efforts just might prove to be in vain, Mr. Evans," Barnabas stated gruffly from his armchair. "The witch has returned to ensure I remain under her curse."
Sam frowned at him befuddled.
"Remember that ghost head of a woman who was taunting Barnabas when you found me?" Maggie prodded her father. "She's back living in Collinwood as Roger's new wife."
"What... wait... what does that mean?" Sam stammered, taken aback. "Roger married a ghost head?"
"No, she's human now," Maggie explained to him. "Or she seems human but really isn't."
"Is the Collins family in danger?" Dr. Woodard calmly interjected.
"Yes, she destroyed my entire family long ago," said Barnabas.
"I'm gonna work at Collinwood to keep an eye on that witch," Willie informed Dr. Woodard.
"You, Willie?" Sam looked at him in deep speculation.
"Yeah, d'you want the curse to go on?"
"What I don't understand is why Barnabas is not being held accountable for what he has done to Maggie," Sam spat fiercely.
"He's not, pop," Maggie said with a strong resolve, narrowing her dark intense gaze on her former captor in his armchair. "Once you are cured, I want you to leave Collinsport," she demanded of him.
Barnabas glared at her rather darkly. "What?"
"You heard what I said," Maggie said evenly.
"This is my home, Maggie," Barnabas sneered. "I just can't leave here."
"This is my home, too, Barnabas," Maggie countered. "And it was also the home of all those girls you killed."
"I don't think you know what you're trifling with, Maggie," Barnabas said severely.
"I think I do, Barnabas," said Maggie, crossing her arms over her chest. "I spent months living in this house with you. I'm not going to sit idly by as you continue to hurt people."
"Maggie, I didn't choose to live this way," Barnabas argued.
"No, you didn't," Maggie agreed, shaking her head. "You were a man once, a man who was loved. I felt that with the ghosts of the Collins ancestors, and I felt it with Josette. I understand that. But that doesn't excuse what you did to me, or my friend's life being in danger with Angelique living at Collinwood. I want you to get rid of her, settle your demons, and go."
"Maggie, this is a dangerous game you're playing at," Barnabas hissed. "I'm already compromise enough as it is."
"I won't tell your secret, Barnabas," Maggie reluctantly assured him. "I'm grateful that Josette helped me. I feel I owe her something, and I know she wants your curse to be kept a secret. Because of that, I won't tell anyone what you really are."
Barnabas stared at her with great uncertainty as Maggie slid her gaze on Dr. Woodard.
"I think we should all go home," she said.
"I'll drive Sam to the cottage," said Dr. Woodard. "I was the one who drove him up here."
He shifted his serious gaze toward Julia. "You and I need to have a talk," he told her pointedly.
Julia nodded reassuringly.
"Come on, pop." Maggie put a calming hand on Sam's back shoulder, who was still shocked and upset over what happened. He was still clutching tightly to the wooden stake. "Come on, Willie," Maggie called.
"I'll catch up with ya later, Maggie," Willie told her. "I got some things I need to take care of."
Maggie gave him the exact same crestfallen look she'd given him before Sam barged in.
"You will see me later," Willie promised her.
"Okay, Willie," Maggie murmured lowly.
Willie watched her leave the Old House with Sam and Dr. Woodard.
"Are you really going to help us, Willie?" Julia asked the former servant hopefully once the trio left.
"I want the curse to stop," muttered Willie. "Who's helpin' ya treatin' Barnabas?"
"The ghost of the servant Ben Stokes has offered his assistance," exclaimed Julia. "Which was pretty interesting how he fetched my equipment."
"Willie, I want you to investigate Angelique's portrait," Barnabas ordered him. "We need to definitively know if she has a portrait of herself at Collinwood."
"Okay, Barnabas."
"And Willie," Barnabas added firmly, "Maggie Evans better not compromise me."
"She won't tell your secret, Barnabas," said Willie. "She basically promised Josette."
"But what about Dr. Woodard and Sam Evans?" Barnabas demanded shortly.
"Me and Maggie will keep Mr. Evans quiet," Willie assured him.
"And I'll handle Dave," Julia said helpfully. "He won't give us any trouble."
"You better keep your dear friend Maggie under control, Willie," Barnabas warned. "I would hate to have to settle her after all we went through together."
"Josette ain't gonna let ya hurt her, Barnabas," Willie said knowingly. "And I ain't gonna let ya, either."
"Willie..." Barnabas gave him one of his patented dark looks.
"I'm gonna help ya, Barnabas," Willie assured him. "But it's Josette's portrait hangin' up there, not yours. She's callin' the shots now. That's why ya even free."
With that, Willie slowly departed from the Old House.
Once the front double doors shut behind him, Barnabas stared up at the portrait of his true love. Willie's words were like ice to him, but he was right. Josette was the rightful mistress of the Old House. She was the one in control. It was because of her Julia was permitted to perform her experiments to make him human again.
But Willie was wrong about one crucial thing.
Barnabas may be unbound from his confinement, but he was not free. Far from it.
At the Great House of Collinwood, Angelique became acquainted with the ancestral home. She endured an incredibly awkward dinner with the current members of the Collins family, as her new husband Roger shamelessly gushed over her.
Angelique received uncertain looks from certain members of the family, and several intense unapproving ones from the house mistress Elizabeth.
The dark blank stares Angelique received from David was rather troublesome. The witch couldn't help but wonder if the boy would pose as some sort of serious problem for her.
All the while, Roger breathlessly rhapsodized over the upcoming Christmas party, a subject Angelique had grown increasingly tired of.
Draped in her long silk blue robe with a matching long nightgown underneath, Angelique studied her new reflection in the mirror above the dresser in Roger's bedroom. She had grown comfortably accustomed with her new name Cassandra. She had changed her name many times through the centuries when necessary, and had grown used to it. But it was her new hair she was unused to.
All her life, Angelique had long flowing blonde hair. It was an important element of who she was and part of her very identity. It was a major thing she'd clung onto in all these centuries. (That and her unwavering love and hatred for Barnabas.)
This shorter, darker hair was completely alien to her. She didn't feel like herself. Of course, she wasn't supposed to.
Angelique gazed down on her hand and felt the cold kiss Barnabas placed on it hours earlier. She remembered how the kiss sent an electrical jolt up her arm. It was just how it was in Martinique when they used to create sparks there.
The memory caused Angelique's heart to slightly melt.
As she turned away from the dresser, the witch suddenly encountered the livid ghost of Josette. Her potent jasmine scent and phantom melody of her old music box assaulted the bedroom. Angelique's icy blue eyes seethed in hatred, and her heart pounded wildly.
"I banished you, Angelique!" Josette shot at her heatedly.
Angelique chuckled wickedly, and countered, "Come now, Josette, you only banish me from the Old House. You didn't banish me from the entire grounds."
"I will not allow you to harm a member of this family!" Josette declared. "Most of all, I will not let you carry on Barnabas' curse!"
"I believe it is my turn to banish you now, dear Josette." Angelique grinned crookedly. "I have grown tired of your annoyance. You are now banished from this Great House! You shall no longer haunt down these corridors and echo your convoluted legacy through these passes! Suffer through your unrest outside these ancient walls! Collinwood now belongs to me!"
"This is not over, Angelique." Josette forcefully faded away, taking her music and scent with her.
"It's never over!" Angelique spat once the ghost vanished.
Once the bedroom fell silent, the door suddenly creaked open. Roger stepped in, wearing his blue silk pajamas with matching robe and slippers.
"Were you speaking to someone?" he asked, as he shut the door behind him.
Angelique swiftly collected Roger's gold lighter which sat on top of the dresser, and hurried over to her new husband. She flashed the lighter's flame directly in front of Rogers vision.
It didn't take him long to fall into the trance. It was just as simple as before. He hadn't a will of his own since he'd met her.
"You will make me the official mistress of Collinwood, won't you, my darling?" The dark flame gleamed inside Angelique's glassy eyes.
"Yes," Roger answered in a monotonous voice, as he stared deeper into the hypnotic flame.
"You will take Collinwood away from your sister," Angelique demanded.
"Yes," Roger repeated just as lifelessly as before.
"Good." Angelique flicked off the flame and quickly turned away from him.
At the Evans cottage, Maggie sat quietly on her chair in her bedroom reading a book in the lamp light. After consoling her distraught father, Maggie changed out of her waitressing uniform and put on a long flannel nightgown and bundled up in a warm house robe. Her auburn hair draped freely around her shoulders.
When the clock on the nightstand chimed in ten o'clock, Maggie frustratingly snapped her book closed and shot up from her chair.
Placing her book on her dresser, Maggie peered through her French doors, but couldn't see anything through the frost and fog clouding the glass in the winter night.
Maggie thought she heard Willie's truck pulling up, but she wasn't certain if she had just imagined it.
But then a soft rapping came behind her bedroom door.
"Maggie?" Willie's voice called behind the door.
Maggie stepped up to the door and allowed Willie in. She shut the door behind them.
"You were up there for a long time," Maggie remarked softly.
"I went back to Collinwood to tell Burke and Vicki I'm takin' the job," Willie informed her.
"Vicki must've been thrilled when you told her you reconsidered," Maggie said faintly. "Oh, Willie, do you really need to protect Barnabas again?"
"I'm protectin' you, too, Maggie," Willie insisted. "I ain't gonna let Barnabas hurt ya anymore."
"Yes, but you're dealing with a witch that cursed him and his family and she could really hurt you," Maggie protested. "And don't forget that ghost we saw in the West Wing. We don't know who she is and what she could do."
"I dealt with ghosts before with you," Willie reminded her. "And like I already said, I can't let Barnabas' curse go on. I don't want people gettin' killed, and me havin' to bury 'em again. The Collins family are in trouble, too, and they don't even know 'bout it. This way I can try to make things right and make up for my mistakes."
At this, Maggie sat on the end of her bed. She saw the sorrowful and regretful look veiling Willie's eyes. It was a look she'd seen in him every day since leaving the Old House.
"Do you really think that curing Barnabas will really change him?" Maggie asked him softly. "Will it really turned him back to the man he was, whoever that might be? Someone who doesn't kidnap and kill people? Most of all, will he finally set you free?"
"I dunno, it's worth a try." Willie shrugged as he sat next to her on the bed.
"I can't help but wonder if this will get in the way of Barnabas and Josette being together," said Maggie.
"Ya still pullin' for 'em?" Willie asked her, furrowing his brow.
"I don't know..." Maggie murmured, lowering her gaze.
"Josette wants Barnabas to be cured," Willie reminded her. "That's gotta mean somethin'."
"I guess," Maggie muttered, her gaze still downward.
"Maggie, I'm gonna keep ya safe," Willie promised her, tenderly rubbing his hand down her back. "I stood up to Barnabas. I told him to leave you alone, and ya can stay away from Collinwood. When Burke and Vicki pay me, I'm givin' ya the money."
"But it's your money," Maggie said stunned, glancing up at him.
"It's my fault that Barnabas is in ya life and all that ya went through," Willie said guiltily. "I know I can't change that, but I do owe you somethin'."
"Willie, please don't feel that way," Maggie pleaded. "You did help me. You saved my life."
"But I'm gonna really owe you somethin' for real," Willie said determinedly.
So determined, Maggie knew it was pointless trying to talk him out of it. She didn't want to admit it, but she hated that Willie was basically going back to being Barnabas' ghoul. Clearly he was still enslaved to the vampire. But she also knew he was trying to do something that he thought was right, and repenting over releasing a murderous vampire for ignorant selfish reasons.
"If ya want, I can stay here to make sure Barnabas don't come in," Willie offered hopefully.
Maggie smiled at him, and said, "Thanks, but Julia seems to have gotten rid of much of his predatory instinct. I don't think we need to worry about him coming in here."
"Okay," Willie muttered disappointedly, glancing down awkwardly on his lap.
"Besides, it will spare you another lecture from pop," Maggie reasoned.
Willie gazed up at her and smiled brokenly.
"Good night, Maggie." He got up and went over to the door and placed his hand on the knob. "I'm sorry this is happenin'," he muttered, his back still turned on her from the door.
"Good night, Willie."
Maggie watched him leave her bedroom and shut her door.
She heavily gazed downward again when a sudden familiar sweet scent tickled her nostrils, followed by an all to familiar melody resounding throughout her bedroom walls.
Maggie gazed up, and found a ghost sitting right next to her on the bed. She was dressed in white and shared Maggie's face.
"Josette," Maggie breathed, startled.
She nearly slid off her bed.
This was the first time Maggie had a full glimpse of her legendary doppelgänger. When she was forcibly held captive by Barnabas, Maggie only sensed Josette's presence, mainly through her jasmine perfume and beloved music box melody. Willie was the one who saw her during that time, and eventually Barnabas.
After her release, Maggie only saw a faint image of Josette floating and dancing on the rocky shores of Widows Hill, but it wasn't remotely as clear as she was seeing her now.
Maggie finally got the whole picture of how she was the spitting image of the woman Barnabas adored. Something she didn't get from that old portrait that was now hanging above the mantel in the parlor at the Old House.
The only major difference was Josette looked more sophisticated with her clothing and how she carried herself, like someone from an upper-class. Her curly dark hair was much longer and flowing than Maggie's.
"J-Josette," Maggie spluttered, listening to the haunting song of the music box that used to taunt her relentlessly.
"Willie is in great danger, Maggie," Josette warned her urgently.
"Yes, I know," Maggie echoed. "I don't want him to be involved in this, but he is so guilt ridden over Barnabas and my kidnapping, and burying all of those bodies, I can't change his mind."
"You can protect him from Angelique," Josette persisted.
"How?"
"Wear this talisman." Josette handed her a golden medallion dangling on a golden chain.
"What is it?" Maggie knitted her brow, staring into the golden necklace with a simple circle symbol engraved in the center.
"A trinket that will protect you and Willie from the witch's black magic," Josette exclaimed. "Considering you look like me, and Angelique despised me, you really need its protection. I wish I had this in my possession when Barnabas and I were alive."
Maggie's heart fell at that last statement.
"Are you going to help Willie like you did with me?" Maggie asked her hopefully.
"I will do whatever I can to protect everyone," said Josette.
Maggie feel a little disheartened. She remembered vividly how sometimes Josette's help was limited due to some supernatural force of Barnabas taking control of the Old House.
"Willie needs you," Josette pleaded to Maggie. "He needs you more than ever, as well as your friend Victoria."
Maggie listened to her wordlessly.
"Angelique destroyed mine and Barnabas' happiness," Josette went on mournfully. "And Barnabas and Jeremiah's brotherly bond. We mustn't give her the satisfaction to destroy people who deeply love each other again."
"No, we can't," Maggie agreed.
"Stand by Willie's side and not allow Angelique to destroy your happiness like she did to me."
Josette faded away like the icy breeze of winter, billowing Maggie's hair, and taking her signature music and scent with her.
After her departure, Maggie stared at the golden talisman within her clutches. She became lost in deep thought.
As the flames weakly diminished in the fireplace, Barnabas sat brooding on his armchair in the darkened parlor silently gazing up at the portrait of the mistress of the Old House. Shadows flickered in the dim light across the old portrait.
Julia had gone up to rest in Josette's bedroom after spending several hours going through her notes.
As the morning light drew nearer, Barnabas dreaded he had so little time left to exist with the night. An unnatural chill caressed his troubled features, and an all familiar person made herself be known with her tingling music and scent.
"You need to start resting in your coffin," Josette told him somberly. "It will be dawn momentarily."
"I am well aware," Barnabas said hesitantly, not looking up at her floating transparent form above him.
"I am a little cross with you, Barnabas," Josette said displeased.
She floated further up above the armchair with her flowing gown billowing around her like an elegant dancer.
"I will not tolerate you contemplating murdering the people I worked so hard to save from you. Nor will I tolerate your desire and need to commit murder on any given terms. I shall send Dr. Hoffman away, and lock you in your coffin, forever if need be."
"I understand your terms explicitly, Josette." Barnabas gazed up at her with dark eyes veiled in troubled torment.
Josette empathetically knew what was making him so aggrieved.
"I am unpleased with Angelique's return as well," she said down to him. "She is trying to fight me and this family."
"I fear if I rest in my coffin I will dream of her," Barnabas said hauntingly. "Just like the other night."
"I won't allow Angelique to hurt you, my love," Josette vowed to him. "I want you to conquer your curse and find your happiness."
"She destroyed us all before," Barnabas murmured.
"It will not be repeated," Josette said determinedly.
Over Barnabas' doubtful look, Josette said, "Barnabas, I am no longer that naïve girl Angelique deceived, and she is not the only one with powers. She may have banished me from the Great House, but that won't prevent my influence from reaching her. I need you to have faith in me, as well as your family. We all want to save you, Barnabas."
The early morning light weakly streaked the Old House through the gray winter clouds. Barnabas had gone to retire in his coffin with the ghost of his father keeping tight guard. Angelique wouldn't come to disturb him, at least not physically.
An unusual meeting was conferring in the parlor. In a surreal sight, Josette sat comfortably inside her portrait perched above the mantel. Bright ghostly light shimmered around the frame of the old painting as Josette gazed around the room.
Little Sarah sat on the floor by the unlit fireplace, singing "London Bridge" softly to herself.
The corporeal ghost of Barnabas' mother, Naomi Collins, sat on her son's favorite armchair, garbed in a magnificent fluffy pale blue gown, while the transparent wispy ghost of Millicent Collins hovered faintly about the room in a thin gray gown with a black shawl. She fiddled fretfully with her long blonde ringlets.
The corporeal ghost of Josette's dear aunt, Countess Natalie du Pres, leaned grimly against one of the pink pillars entering into the parlor. She was dressed in an aristocratic gray gown with her red curls draped around the puffy upper sleeves of her shoulders.
"I can't believe this is true," said the Countess despairingly. "The wicked woman has returned to inflict her curse."
"I agree with Josette," said Naomi from her son's chair. "We must retaliate in order to spare the family from this madness."
"It was rather foolish of you to provoke the witch, Josette," Millicent chided, waving a finger up at the portrait. "Therefore, you wouldn't have gotten banished from the Great House."
"The witch would've banished Josette from the family home anyway, Millicent," said Naomi. "After all, Josette has banished her from this house in order to regain enough power to become its mistress again. It would be likely for the witch to perform the same deceit on Josette."
"No, Millicent is right," Josette admitted from her portrait. "I was acting peevish. Now I'm in a position that I can't protect David, his governess, and the family as I did when the Phoenix was here."
"Thank heavens she is gone for now," said Naomi relieved. "That wicked Phoenix woman has never left our family well enough alone."
"You got yourself emotionally attached, Josette," Millicent scolded. "That is not good for carrying out your battles."
"But Collinwood has all kinds of ghosts with feelings." Sarah gazed up narrowly at her petite cousin from the floor. "Dark ones."
"I suggest you awaken Jeremiah from his rest," Natalie proposed to her niece.
"I can't do that, aunt Natalie," Josette protested. "Barnabas banished him."
"Then reverse the banishment," Natalie implored her.
"I shan't," Josette said, averting her gaze from her aunt. "Jeremiah wished to be laid to rest and I refuse to disturb him. And I further wish to pit Barnabas against Jeremiah no longer. Their estrangement shatters my heart."
"But Jeremiah is the most horrible phantom there is," Millicent said giddily. "His spirit fought the witch rather admirably when she cursed us all. I think you should summon him. He will bravely fight for the family's honor."
"I don't doubt that, Millicent," said Josette from her illuminated portrait. "But I already disturb his rest when he wish not to. I shall not do it again."
"What do you propose for how we fight the witch?" asked Naomi.
"I've sent Ben to find me a terrible frightening phantom to fight for me," said Josette.
"Oh, a phantom as horrid as Jeremiah!" Millicent squealed delightedly, clapping her hands together excitedly, and bouncing around like a hyperactive child.
"I sincerely hope so," uttered Josette.
In a tingling chill, Ben's ghost materialized into the parlor.
"Oh, Ben has returned with our ghastly fiend." Millicent giggled girlishly, bouncing up and down.
"Have you, Ben?" Josette asked hopefully from her portrait.
"I dunno if I call 'im ghastly, Ms. Josette," said Ben. "He is nothin' like Mr. Jeremiah. But he is a shi'fty sort."
"Well, where is he?!" Millicent whined impatiently, looking around the room.
"Where did that package come from?" Naomi asked suddenly, pointing a finger at a decorative white box sitting on the middle of the floor. It had a flashy red ribbon bow tied delicately around it. It was a package that wasn't even there a moment ago.
Josette glanced down on the mysterious gift.
"I honestly don't know," she whispered surprised.
Shrouded in eerie white light, Josette rose and stepped out from her portrait. She floated gently down to the floor with her veil and the bottom of her long flowing white gown billowing behind her like silk.
She landed softly on the floor to her knees and shadowed over the package. Naomi and Natalie loomed cautiously over Josette's shoulders, while Millicent and Sarah watched curiously nearby the fireplace. Josette slowly untied the red ribbon bow and removed the lid.
In a quick flash, a skeletal hand burst out of the package tightly gripping a pistol in its long bony fingers. A white flashy banner popped out of the barrel emblazoned in bold black lettering: FIB.
The ghost ladies reacted slightly confused, cocking their heads quizzically, while Sarah seemed mildly amused.
Ben gave Josette a sincere apologetic look.
A deranged wild cackling slice through the air, causing the draperies from the bay window to rustle suddenly.
A transparent figure dematerialized through the draperies. It was a ghost of a young man garbed in a nineteenth century stuffy brown suit and coat. He was an identical stranger to a man baring familiar gray-blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. Something that was astonishingly similar to Josette and Maggie, and other seas of people in Collinsport for that matter.
"What is so funny, sir?" Sarah asked the stranger as she got up from the floor by the cold fireplace.
"Don't speak to him, Sarah!" Naomi sternly scolded her daughter. "We don't know who he is."
The stranger hardly noticed this disapproval. He was still laughing madly.
"Y-You all should've seen the look on your faces!" His cackling echo prominently throughout the old rickety walls of the manor.
"Ben, why on earth did you bring a madman here?" Natalie reprimanded the servant.
"I am 'ery 'orry," said Ben. "But like I said, 'his man is a shi'fty sort."
"Who might you be?" Josette asked the new phantom.
At her question, the ghost of this man finally stopped laughing, and registered her query.
"Carl," he answered her. "Carl Collins."
"My gracious, you are a Collins!" Naomi was mortified by this claim. If she wasn't a ghost, she would've probably fainted.
"I'm from another time in the family history," Carl said affronted.
"Do you know who I am?" Josette asked him.
"Of course." Carl bowed to her respectfully. He then giggled lightly. "I just pulled a prank on the mighty Josette Collins!"
"I am tru'ly 'orry, Ms. Josette." Ben bowed his head in an apologetic manner. "I never 'hought he would treat ya an' 'his house with compl'ete dis'honor."
"It is all right, Ben," Josette assured him. "I am not offended."
"I fail to see the humor of the package," Millicent cut in, pursing her lips. "I find nothing ghastly nor humorous about the skeletal arm with the façade pistol."
"Can you do something like you just did with the package and make it frightful?" Josette asked Carl.
"What are you saying?" Carl gawked at her. "You actually want me to joke around?"
"At Collinwood," Josette commanded of him.
Carl's transparent form lit up, and he squealed ecstatically.
"Really? Wow, no one ever wanted ol' Carl to play out his jokes at Collinwood. Certainly not someone like Josette Collins. Oh, how I wish my brothers and sister were here to witness this."
The Old House's mistress smiled kindly at the prankster.
"I need you to do this to protect the family from a treacherous witch," she said to him. "And two people who share our countenance."
Carl nodded, then looked at her bewildered.
"Wait, what do you mean by that last statement?"
"There are two people who I care about who share our faces," Josette explained to him.
Carl nodded, but he was still clearly confounded over what she was referring to.
Next Chapter: The Forces of Collinwood