Disclaimer: Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production and not mine
CHAPTER 5: THE FORCES OF COLLINWOOD
The Great House was cloaked in mist and shadows in the early morning light as Angelique, in her Cassandra persona, silently creeped down the staircase carrying a lit candlestick. The witch stepped down into the foyer with the great assurance that the family were preoccupied in the kitchen, thinking she was still asleep.
Dressed in a warm, heavy winter coat with an attached hood covering her dark head, Cassandra crept up to Barnabas' portrait by the front doors and smirked.
He was in his coffin now, and Cassandra would make certain to pay him another visit in his dreams, free from haunting ghosts. She was bound to make him suffer through another painful day of unrest.
Satisfied with her devious plans, Cassandra stepped outside to the gray brisk morning.
Undeterred by the bone-chilling frost of winter, Cassandra trudged her way through the snow, and stepped on the lovely stone and marble gazebo the Collinses had in their garden. The benches and statue were covered in deep white snow.
Standing firmly in the center of the snowy and drafty gazebo, Cassandra spoke directly into the small candle flame within her grasp.
Barnabas was trying to lift her curse and she'd be damned if she'd allow that to happen. She needed to know more of the baffling treatments Dr. Hoffman was pursuing.
"Willie Loomis," Cassandra commanded into the tiny flame. "Listen to me. Listen to my voice."
Snug in his warm small bed in his small plain bedroom at the Evans cottage, Willie fluttered open his eyes. He sat up on his bed alertly with his hair sticking up.
"Willie Loomis," a woman's voice summoned deeply inside his mind. "Come to me."
"Who's there?" Willie demanded unnerved, staring around wide-eyed in his half-vacant bedroom from his bed.
"Come to me, Willie Loomis," the voice ordered.
"Uh-uh, no way!" Willie said resolutely, shaking his head. "It's not good listenin' to voices comin' outta nowhere!"
This was a fact Willie knew painfully well. He still suffered from horrid nightmares of his former master's slithering voice calling deeply inside his mind, commanding him to come to do unspeakable things.
"Come to me, Willie Loomis!" The chilly persistence of the voice freezed up Willie's senses.
Against his will, Willie got dressed, slipped on his coat and boots, and slinked out of the Evans cottage undetected. Reluctantly and obsessively, Willie drove his dirty white beat-up truck to Collinwood where he met up with Cassandra and her hypnotic candle flame on the snowy gazebo in the garden.
Willie came up to her blankly in a trance, his eyes glued on the small candle flame.
"What d'you want from me?" Willie asked monotonously.
"I want you to tell me about Barnabas' treatments," Cassandra demanded of him, her voice misty in the cold thin air. "How is he using Dr. Hoffman to lift the curse?"
"I dunno," Willie answered her lifelessly, his gaze still hypnotically on the flame.
Cassandra was taken aback. She absolutely knew for certain Willie was Barnabas' servant.
"What do you mean you don't know?!" Cassandra sneered at him.
"Dr. Hoffman is treatin' him," Willie obediently supplied, his blank gaze still on the flame.
"Yes, but how is she treating him?" Cassandra said coolly.
"She's a doctor," Willie said robotically.
"Yes, but what scientific nonsense is she conducting on him?" Cassandra spat.
"I dunno," said Willie.
"But how do you not know?!" Cassandra looked at him deadly. "You are his servant!"
A cold breeze snuffed out Cassandra's delicate candle flame. A spine tingling unnatural breeze tinged with a sweet tingling melody.
Willie instantly blinked and his eyes became more focused.
"Y-You..." he stuttered nervously to Cassandra. "W-Why am I here?"
"Go on home, Willie," the disembodied voice of Josette cut through the frigid air. "You are not required here."
Willie glanced around frightened, but he knew who that voice belonged to.
"O-Okay, Josette."
Willie got the hell away from the gazebo at once, leaving Cassandra fuming with her prominent blue eyes glaring dangerously throughout the snow.
"You may have banished me from the Great House, Angelique, but you certainly haven't banished me from the grounds," Josette's eerie voice taunted the witch. "You are not rid of me, and let me warn you I am not the same naïve girl you destroyed."
Maggie was serving scrambled eggs and coffee at the Collinsport Inn. When she got up that morning, she and Sam found that Willie had left the cottage and his truck was gone.
Maggie figured he merely went to the Inn early, which frankly didn't feel right, but he was not there when Maggie arrived for work.
Mr. Wells told her he hadn't shown up.
Maggie's heart slightly fell. He probably went over to check how Barnabas was doing. But why didn't he tell her he was heading out?
From the counter, Maggie gazed up with mixed emotions when she spotted Dr. Woodard and Dr. Hoffman filing into the diner together. They sat across from each other at one of the tables, and Maggie served them some coffee.
She still had a hard time coping with Julia and her involvement with Barnabas. Maggie didn't give her the usual friendly "good morning" like she reserved for the other customers. But the two doctors did give Maggie their order; pancakes for Dr. Woodard, fried eggs and toast for Julia, and Maggie served them.
As she moved away from their table, Maggie observed the two doctors engaging in a heavy conversation. They were speaking in low voices, and Maggie was much too busy tending to other customers to fully listen.
But Maggie was certain the doctors were discussing Julia's cure for Barnabas. Near as Maggie could tell, Dr. Woodard and Julia were being extremely careful about what they were saying in this public space. They obviously didn't use words that were completely fantastical, like vampire, or curse, or witch, or ghost. Josette and Angelique's names didn't seem to be brought up, either. It was a careful façade to make it seemed that the doctors were merely speaking of an ordinary simple patient, and referring in professional scientific terms that Maggie couldn't understand.
Maggie couldn't help but note Julia's obvious devotion to Barnabas. Maggie remembered how defensive Julia was toward Barnabas from the night before, and even by looking at her, Maggie could tell the doctor harbored some unyielding devotion and loyalty to the vampire.
Maggie sighed.
Barnabas clearly got himself another servant.
But Maggie was still puzzled why Julia wanted to serve Barnabas by deliberately seeking him out in the first place.
Maggie's foreboding thoughts got interrupted by Willie's sudden arrival at the diner. His eyes were wide and his face was troubled and pale.
"Willie?"
Maggie hurried over to him, and said, "Where have you been?"
Willie grabbed her by the shoulders and ushered her into the phone booth that Mr. Wells recently installed into the diner. Willie stepped inside the booth with her, and shut the glass door, closing them in the tightly uncomfortable and intimately confined space.
"Uh, Willie, this looks very conspicuous."
Maggie was a little humiliated by how all the customers, including Julia and Dr. Woodard, had witnessed them in this publicly awkward situation. But to their credit, this was only momentary, and the customers got back to their own usual business.
"Somethin' strange happened to me this mornin', Maggie," Willie whispered frantically, his back uncomfortably jagged against the black phone on the hook. "I woke up standin' in the gazebo at Collinwood dressed and everythin'. And Angelique was there, and Josette's voice and music. Josette got me outta there."
"What?" Maggie gasped wide-eyed.
"There was somethin' before that," Willie muttered thoughtfully. "Some voice callin' to me in bed, but I can't really remember clearly."
"Josette is right," Maggie whispered solemnly. "Angelique doesn't waste any time."
At Willie's questioning frown, Maggie clarified, "Oh, um, Josette visited me in my room last night. In fact, she came right after you left. She brought her jasmine perfume, music, and everything."
"Oh?" Willie cocked his head surprised.
"Yes, she looks a lot like me," Maggie murmured.
"Oh, ya finally saw her then," said Willie.
"Yes." Maggie nodded. "She said I need to protect you from Angelique."
"Does this mean I get to sleep in your room?" Willie grinned mischievously. "Ya can't let her call to me like she did this mornin'. I'm not safe alone."
"You never are." Maggie reached inside the top of her uniform and pulled out the talisman Josette gave her.
"I want you to wear this," she said, handing Willie the golden talisman. "Josette says it will protect you from Angelique."
Willie furrowed his brow as he gazed at the talisman in his hand. Maggie wondered if he was by any chance disappointed that it was made from plain gold with no shiny jewels attached to it.
"You can wear it under your shirt," Maggie instructed.
Willie looked unpleased by that prospect.
"Please, Willie," Maggie pleaded. "Josette and I want you to be protected."
"Okay, Maggie."
Willie begrudgingly put the golden chain around his head, and hid the medallion under his formfitting turtleneck.
"There, no witch won't call to me," he muttered.
"I hope so," said Maggie.
"I need to talk to Mr. Wells and meet up with Burke at Collinwood," Willie exclaimed.
"Getting ready to switch jobs," Maggie surmised knowingly.
"Pretty much," said Willie.
Abruptly the glass door of the phone booth pulled wide open, startling the two. Julia looked at them with suspicious squinty eyes, a look Maggie grew closely familiar with when they used to have their therapy sessions.
"Is something the matter?" Julia asked them.
"No." Maggie shook her head.
"Not really," said Willie, giving her a hard untrusting look.
The two stepped out of the cramped phone booth and Julia watched them go narrowly.
Willie left the diner, while Maggie resumed her waitressing.
Julia returned back to her and Dr. Woodard's table. Once she sat down, Dr. Woodard cast her a telling look.
"Julia," he said, "please answer me this. Does curing Barnabas Collins mean more to you personally or professionally?"
Julia didn't hesitate with her reply.
"Frankly, a little of both," she said. "He's someone I've been waiting for my entire life."
Maggie couldn't help but eavesdrop on that little exchange as she wiped the counter.
There was still a little afternoon light by the time Maggie's shift ended. She found Mr. Wells fiddling around the front desk in the lobby. Willie had gone up to Collinwood to go over some renovation plans with Burke and Vicki, so he was not around for what Maggie was about to do. She told her boss she needed to quit her job because something majorly important happened to her, but she purposely didn't go into any great detail.
Mr. Wells, a thin, friendly, middle-aged man with thinning brown hair, beady eyes, and spectacles perched high on the bridge of his long nose, was dismayed. He peered closely at Maggie through his spectacles.
"Is this by any chance related to Willie?" he asked her closely. "He just up and quit today, too."
"Willie's got a new job," Maggie explained.
"Yes, I know, he told me." Mr. Wells nodded. "By any chance are you and Willie planning on getting married? Is that why I'm losing you both?"
Maggie painfully swallowed. A violent image sliced through her vision. An image of herself in Josette's wedding gown with Barnabas sinking his sharp animal fangs into her soft delicate neck, drinking her blood.
"Maggie?"
Maggie blinked.
Mr. Wells looked at her concern behind the front desk.
"Are you alright? For a moment there you were as white as a ghost."
"I'm fine, Mr. Wells," Maggie insisted, forcing herself to not jump at the "ghost" comment. "It's just that Willie and I... we're not thinking that far ahead."
"Oh?" A puzzling crease form across the older man's forehead.
"If I need a steady job, you will take me back, right?" Maggie asked him. "I can come by every once in a while and help out."
"Well, of course, if it's possible," Mr. Wells said with a shrug. "You've been working here since you were fifteen. I hate to see you go. I've grown very fond of you being here."
"Thank you, Mr. Wells." Maggie smiled.
After she collected some of her work belongings, Maggie climbed into her car and drove away from the Inn. She couldn't believe the destination she was driving to. As she rode on the dark misty road in the snow-covered woods, she shifted her gears and drove up Widows Hill. The creepy silhouette of Collinwood in the waning light from the late cloudy sky was visible through the windshield.
Maggie's heart raced wildly. She couldn't believe she was actually doing this.
She recalled how just a short year ago she bluntly stated to Burke Devlin that there was no amount of money in the world that would make her live in Collinwood. But that was her life before Barnabas. Before Willie.
Josette's warning about Angelique and how the witch effortlessly controlled Willie with her witchcraft clung onto Maggie like a flesh-eating virus. It was almost like how Barnabas used to control Willie with his mind control.
Maggie wondered if Angelique was using the same exact method on Roger. That made her feel a little empty. Maggie may not have the most favorable view of Roger Collins, (and the hell he put her father through for ten years), but not even he deserved to have his feelings controlled and manipulated like an unloved puppet.
As she drove closer to the shadowy, imposing mansion, Maggie noticed a crew hanging up Christmas lights on the grounds throughout the estate. Maggie spotted Joe among them.
She then rode by the Old House, and no matter how hard she fought it, a spiky familiar chill naturally creeped down her spine. Just like old times.
At last, Maggie parked her car next to Willie's dirty truck. She got out and trudged her way through the snow. Maggie stepped up to the front double doors and used the knocker.
Elizabeth answered the door, wearing a black sweater with a matching long skirt.
"Hello, Maggie," she said formally. "I presume you're here to see Willie and Vicki."
"Well... yes." Maggie smiled sheepishly. "But I'd like to speak with you first."
"Oh?" Elizabeth raised a surprised brow.
"Yes, privately," said Maggie.
"Well, come on in." The matriarch invited Maggie in and shut the front doors. "We'll talk in the drawing room."
The two crossed the spacious foyer and entered the deserted drawing room.
"Would you like for Mrs. Johnson to make you some tea?" Elizabeth asked courteously.
"Oh, no, Mrs. Stoddard," Maggie declined politely. "I'm fine."
Elizabeth shut the large double doors to tightly conceal them into the room. This always struck Maggie as being a very secretive gesture when someone in the Collins family invited a guest to this room and shut those large paneled doors.
A nice warming fire burned in the fireplace.
Elizabeth and Maggie sat themselves down on the couch.
"What would you like to speak with me about?" Elizabeth asked Maggie.
"Are you still looking for a second maid?" Maggie inquired.
"Why, yes," Elizabeth answered properly, placing her hands on her lap. "We're not really having any luck finding one at the moment."
"I would like to apply for the job," Maggie offered to her.
"You?"
"Yes."
"But don't you have a job at the Collinsport Inn?" Elizabeth asked her.
"I... don't work there anymore," Maggie stammered a little nervously.
"Were you let go?" asked Elizabeth.
"No, nothing like that," Maggie quickly assured her. "It was completely mutual. I think I'm suitable for the job. I'm used to doing labor, and I'm a good cook, just ask Willie and my pop on that, and I know how to follow orders."
"That is preferable," said Elizabeth. "But why exactly do you want to work here at Collinwood? Do you wish to be closer to Willie?"
Maggie tried not to let the matriarch see right through her. True, she was applying for the job (something she didn't even want) to look after Willie, but she was also trying to keep a close eye on Angelique. Maggie hoped if Angelique was gotten rid of, the Collins family curse would come to an end, and peace would be restored in Collinsport.
"Mrs. Stoddard, I assure you this is strictly professional. But it is nice that Willie will be here, and Vicki and Burke."
"Very well." Elizabeth nodded, satisfied. "I'd like for you to start as soon as possible."
"Okay," Maggie agreed eagerly.
"But there is one important matter I want to make clear with you," Elizabeth stated strictly.
"What is that?"
"You answer to me and only to me," Elizabeth told her rather matronly. "I am the mistress of Collinwood and I'm the one solely responsible for managing this house and our family holdings."
"Yes, I know that," Maggie said steadily. "I thought that was common knowledge."
"Yes, but Roger's new wife seems to think she's in charge," Elizabeth griped. "She keeps trying to give Mrs. Johnson orders without my consent, and if I didn't know any better, I'd swear she's deliberately trying to undermine me."
Maggie took that in. Clearly, Angelique was fighting to gain control of Collinwood from Elizabeth.
"That won't be a problem," Maggie assured her. "I'll follow your orders."
"Good," Elizabeth said pleased. "I'd like for you to come by tomorrow morning around nine or ten so we can go over a schedule."
"I'll be here." Maggie got up from the couch. "I'm going to head up to the West Wing and see how Willie and the happy couple are doing."
"All right."
Elizabeth got off the couch and politely escorted Maggie out of the drawing room. Once Elizabeth opened the doors into the foyer, the two walked in on Joe stepping into the mansion from the front doors at the entrance. He kicked off the snow covering his boots on the freezing front porch.
Elizabeth walked up to him.
"All the Christmas lights are just about up, Mrs. Stoddard," Joe reported.
He brushed some snow off the shoulders of his heavy green coat as he stepped inside. Elizabeth shut the front doors once he came in.
"Thank you, Joe," Elizabeth told him graciously. "How much do I owe you?"
"Oh, no, Mrs. Stoddard," Joe insisted, shaking his hands dismissively in front of himself. "No charge."
"Oh, I insist," said Elizabeth.
"No, it's the season," said Joe. "You and your family have been generous to me, and I merely repaying the favor out of friendship."
Elizabeth was clearly uncertain of his reasoning in this matter, but decided not to fight against it.
"Thank you. I think Carolyn is in the kitchen. I'm going to check in on Roger."
Joe and Maggie watched her exit the foyer and headed in the direction of the study. Alone in the foyer, Maggie stepped up to Joe at the entrance with a small grin on her face.
"Hi, Joe."
"Hi, Maggie," Joe replied earnestly. "Are you having a wonderful holiday season?"
Maggie chewed the inside of her cheek. Between Barnabas' unwelcome return, and Angelique's equally unwelcome arrival, Maggie really hadn't the time to properly enjoy the Christmas season. Certainly not in the way she'd like.
"It's been busy," she decided to answer him. "How about you?"
"It's been busy for me, too," said Joe. "Carolyn loves dragging me to all the stores from here to Bangor."
Behind the staircase, Cassandra emerged from the back door leading into the kitchen. She paused once she heard Joe and Maggie's voices near the front entrance.
"Is Carolyn treating you well?" Maggie asked Joe.
Cassandra kept herself hidden behind the staircase and continued listening in.
"Yes," Joe answered Maggie.
"It wasn't all that long ago when she broke your heart, Joe," Maggie murmured pointedly.
"Yeah, well, it wasn't all that long ago when Willie Loomis treated you like garbage," Joe retorted indignantly.
"Joe, the worse Willie's done is drunkenly make a pass at me at the Blue Whale," Maggie countered irritably.
"Oh, he was quite the dirtbag when he came here," Joe sniped. "Remembered how he pulled a-not-so-friendly switch blade on Burke?"
"Yes, he was a lousy person when he came here," Maggie agreed, attempting not to get upset. "But he didn't break my heart like Carolyn did to you. That's the huge difference."
"You broke my heart, too, Maggie," Joe countered soberly.
Maggie dropped her guilty gaze on the cold stone floor, her heart crumbling, and her eyes concealing dark secrets.
"I know you didn't intend for that to happen. I know you went through an ordeal. Maybe someday, when you're ready, you'll tell me all about it."
At Joe's sudden words, Maggie gazed up at him again.
"Since you're kidnapping, everything has changed, especially you and me. In the midst of it all, Willie and Carolyn decided not to treat us like dirt anymore for some reason."
"I'm sorry I hurt you, Joe," Maggie murmured, dropping her soft gaze back on the stone floor again. "I really am. I wish things were different."
"I'm glad you're alive and well and spending Christmas with Sam."
Joe's words were filled with such a genuine sincerity, it made Maggie glance up at him again.
"Thank you," she said in a small smile. "I hope you have a good Christmas, too."
"I will." Joe nodded.
"I'll see you around, Joe."
Maggie ascended up the staircase and Joe watched her disappear behind the second story door up the landing.
Once Maggie was gone, Cassandra decided to emerge from hiding in the shadows. When she quietly took one step however, Cassandra felt something crawling down her neck and spine. An unusual sensation like icy fingers tickled her flesh. She somehow tripped and stumbled clumsily onto the large table in the center of the foyer.
I thought I banished you from here, Josette, Cassandra thought savagely.
"Are you alright, Mrs. Collins?"
Joe urgently rushed over to come to her aid. Cassandra couldn't help but to feel a little embarrassed. This wasn't exactly the graceful entrance she wanted to present for this young man.
"Yes, I'm alright."
Cassandra regained her composure and stood up straight against the table.
"Your Carolyn's friend, aren't you?" she asked him a little flustered.
"Yes, I'm Joe Haskell."
"It's nice meeting you again, Joe." Cassandra smiled warmly at him, and went into the drawing room.
Joe watched her go slightly befuddled.
Once Cassandra shut herself in the lonely drawing room, a cruel mocking laughter stung in Joe's ears.
He glanced around the foyer, but found no one was with him. But he sensed a presence.
A shadow loomed up behind him, startling him. Joe frantically whirled around and came face-to-face with a man smirking arrogantly at him. A man wearing an elaborate blue Naval uniform with a matching cape... and Joe's face. He was a man with the exact same blue eyes and wavy dark hair as Joe. It was unbelievably uncanny. The Naval sailor laughed tauntingly at his doppelgänger's face.
"Sailor, you are quite the devil with the ladies."
The man then faded away like a ghost in front of Joe's very eyes, taking his cruel mean-spirited laughter with him.
Joe tightly squeezed shut his eyes and listened to his drumming heartbeats. He didn't know what just transpired. He assumed it was something he must've vividly imagined.
As Maggie made her way down the creaky corridor, she smiled warmly to herself. Even though it got a little confrontational there, she was otherwise very pleased with her friendly encounter with Joe, and how it ended civilly.
She wondered if it was possible for them to become friends again, like they were before they started dating. But for that to work, Joe and Willie had to become friends, too.
Was that even remotely possible?
As Maggie drew herself closer to the closed door opening up to the dark and deploring West Wing, she paused when she noticed one of the bedroom doors were wide open. Several bedroom doors neighbored the West Wing, and Maggie had personally never been in any of them. But this door, which was the closest to the West Wing, apparently opened up into Vicki's bedroom.
The governess sat on her canopy bed, with a plethora of bridal magazines scattered all over her well-made bedspreads.
Maggie lightly rapped on the door.
"Vicki?"
The dark-haired governess glanced up from her magazines on her bed.
"Maggie," Vicki replied presently. "Are you here to see Willie?"
"Yes, among other things."
Maggie invited herself into the bedroom. The furniture had an upper stuffy quality that Maggie assumed came with the room when Vicki moved into it.
"Mrs. Stoddard hired me to be the second maid for this place," Maggie informed her.
"You? Really?" Vicki was clearly surprised.
"Yes, I applied for the job," Maggie exclaimed. "I figure Mrs. Stoddard needs the extra help."
"Yes, but do you really want to be a maid?" Vicki asked her a little dubiously.
"I know it's not the most glamorous job in the world," said Maggie. "But it's not like my waitressing was turning me into a princess."
"But I thought you hated this place," said Vicki.
"Yes, but it's time for me to try something new," Maggie insisted.
She gazed down on the bridal magazines. With the glamorous covers of happy brides gleaming in their silk wedding gowns, Maggie tried to forget the terrifying image of herself in a ghostly wedding gown with Barnabas drinking blood from her neck.
"Maggie, I think you are using this for an excuse to be closer to Willie."
Maggie didn't hear Vicki's words. Her friend sounded so distant and faraway. Maggie blinked and decided to shift the conversation in another direction.
"So, I see you're really anticipating marrying Burke."
Maggie indicated the many bridal magazines laid out throughout the bed.
Vicki looked at Maggie skeptically, perhaps sensing something was off, but she smiled nonetheless over Maggie's comment.
"Yes, things have been busy around here lately," she said. "Between my upcoming marriage, the West Wing, Christmas, and Roger's new wife."
Maggie noticed Vicki's obvious hesitation with that last statement.
All day long at the Inn, Maggie heard people gossiping deliriously over Roger Collins' new bride. They were cracking wise over how young and attractive Cassandra was in comparison to the much older Roger.
People joked that Roger must be suffering from a midlife crisis. But judging by the dark heavy look veiling Vicki's eyes, Maggie could tell that the governess found no humor in this situation.
"Roger's marriage must've come as a shock," Maggie said gently.
"I'm worried what this could do to David," Vicki said softly.
"They're not getting along?" Maggie queried.
"They haven't really been spending that much time together yet," Vicki exclaimed. "Roger is trying to handle this as delicately as possible."
She then fell silent.
"Vicki?" Maggie tilted her head.
The governess glanced up at her friend again, and said, "There is something not right with this marriage, Maggie. Roger doesn't seem like himself. We don't talk about David's lessons like we used to. He hardly spends any time with Carolyn since he got back. And he and Mrs. Stoddard have been arguing a lot more."
Maggie raised her brows.
"And then there's Cassandra," Vicki went on. "I don't know... but she strikes me as someone who is very cold... and... very manipulative. But I have no proof of that."
Maggie didn't know what to say. Clearly, Vicki didn't know Cassandra was actually a witch who was controlling Roger with black magic, and had deadly and merciless intentions for the Collins clan.
One thing was certain; Vicki didn't trust Cassandra anymore than Elizabeth did.
A sound of a creaking door came from the direction of the West Wing. Burke and Willie came up to Vicki's open bedroom door from out the corridor.
"Darling, have you seen David?" Burke asked his fiancée from the open doorway. "He was following me and Willie around when we were going through some plans."
"I haven't seen him around here," Vicki told him from her bed. "He's likely in the West Wing hiding someplace. He knows that area very well."
"Maggie, what are ya doin' here?" Willie cut in from the doorway.
"Get used to seeing Maggie around here, Willie," said Vicki. "Mrs. Stoddard hired her to be our second maid."
"What?" Burke looked bemused.
But Willie was clearly displeased by this development.
In a shadowy corridor in the West Wing, David and Sarah sat across from each other on their knees on the cold flagstone floor. The sinking evening light faintly filtered in from the filthy but elegant stained-glass window nearby. But it was Sarah's ghostly white glow that mostly illuminated the corridor.
The two children rolled Sarah's small ball across to each other on the flagstone.
Sarah looked she was getting ready to sing her song in the midst of their game, but David opted not to hear that tiring tune. There was something he wanted to know. Something the boy was certain Sarah knew the answer to.
"Hey, Sarah," began David, as he rolled the ball back over to the ghost girl. "How come I haven't seen Josette lately?"
"Josette is still here, David." Sarah rolled the ball back over to him, who in turn rolled the ball right back.
"Yes, I know," said David. "But I haven't seen her in Collinwood. And I still don't know why I'm not allowed to go to the Old House anymore."
"If you want to see Josette, you must go outdoors," Sarah informed him.
"Why?" David questioned in a whiny voice. "Why can't she see me here in Collinwood? And why can't I see her at the Old House like I used to?"
"I'm not allowed to say, David," Sarah said in her usual secretive way.
The two continued rolling the ball back and forth.
"Oh, come on, Sarah!" David pouted. "I really need Josette. I know I do. There is something about that Cassandra woman. I don't like how she looks at me. She's bad, I can tell."
"She is, David," said Sarah. "You need to be careful with her."
David paused as he snatched the rolling ball in his clutches. He looked around the corridor blankly.
"What is it, David?" Sarah asked him.
"Do you hear that?" David whispered, staring around.
"Hear what?"
"Music..." David murmured to her.
"With the way your sulking, I gather you don't approve of me working at Collinwood."
With a flickering candlestick in hand, Maggie creaked down one of the dark, ominous West Wing corridors, with the silent Willie traveling right beside her. He, too, was carrying a lit candlestick, and tried to maneuver around the shadows.
The two agreed to help Vicki and Burke find David, and the two couples decided to split up to find him.
"I don't get why ya wanna work here," Willie whispered to her in a frustrated hiss. "And as a maid at that!"
"Willie, I was a waitress," Maggie countered calmly. "I'm not really demoting myself as much as you think."
"Yeah, but you're a lot safer workin' at the Inn!" Willie argued.
"But you're not safe here!" Maggie shot back heatedly.
At his startled reaction, Maggie heaved a deep sigh, ran a hand through her pulled back auburn hair, and said calmly, "Willie, listen, you helped me at the Old House. The least I can do is help you here in this haunted house. I really do owe you one. I didn't like how Angelique or Cassandra or whatever her name is called you against your will. It's like Barnabas all over again. Josette's warning about her really got to me. Please, let me help you."
"But you bein' here might make things worse," Willie protested. "You look a lot like Josette. The witch might not like that."
"Then you and I will just have to share the talisman Josette gave us," Maggie insisted stubbornly. "We'll take turns wearing it. Hopefully, Josette has something in mind for getting rid of the witch. She said she would help whenever she can, like she did for you this morning. I hope it's not so limited like at the Old House."
"I still don't like ya workin' here," Willie muttered. "I tried so hard to protect you before."
"I'm already involved, Willie," said Maggie. "Barnabas dragged me into all of this when he kidnapped me. We need to work on this together."
"Can you hear it, Sarah?"
David got up from his spot on the floor and tried to prick his ears to listen closely to the music. The music sounded so faint and blended so naturally in the darkness of this ancient home. To David, the music sounded both intimidating and sad.
"Hear what, David?" queried Sarah from the floor.
"The music," David said a little impatiently, glowering down on her.
"I hear music all the time," Sarah stated.
David tried to pick up where the dour song was coming from. His curious gaze met the paneled wall beside himself and Sarah.
"Maybe it's coming from behind here."
David stepped up and leaned against the paneled wall. He placed his ear closely against it.
STAY AWAY FROM THE WALL!
Panicked and alarmed, David turned away from the wall in an instant. A frantic voice boomed inside his head. The frantic voice of a woman. When David frighteningly faced Sarah, his gaze stumbled into another presence.
A tall, slender woman stiffly stood beside Sarah, who still sat on her knees on the floor. The woman had long curly blonde hair pulled up in a bun, and sharp crystal clear blue eyes.
She cast David a strong warning look.
She wore a long flowing white gown, and was slightly shrouded in a white luminous glow.
David's heart raced madly against his ribs. He knew this woman was a ghost. One of many in Collinwood. But David had never seen this particular ghost before. He didn't recall seeing some old peeling portrait of her on any of the many walls adorning the Great House, or the various old books about the Collins family history.
Was this woman even a Collins?
"You should leave here, David," Sarah murmured pointedly. "Something is stirring."
"David!?" called out a voice resounding throughout the old walls of the darkening corridors.
It was Vicki.
At the sound of the governess' voice, the two ghosts suddenly vanished, abandoning David in the darkness.
But approaching footsteps quickly came his way, followed by a flashlight beam turning from a corner. A sudden beam of light splashed across David's face, causing him to squint from the unwanted brightness.
"Oh, there you are, David," Vicki breathed in relief from up the corridor. "Burke, I found him!" she hollered over her shoulder.
Vicki's familiar outline came sprinting down toward David with her flashlight in hand. Burke followed in pursuit from behind, carrying his flashlight.
"Where have you been?" Vicki sternly questioned her charge as she stepped up to him.
"I was just playing with Sarah," David said innocently.
"With Sarah?" Burke said over Vicki's shoulder, wrinkling his brow.
"Yeah, here's her ball, Burke."
David showed him Sarah's ball in his hand. Burke shined the beam of his flashlight on it.
"I keep telling you she's real," David argued to him. "We were playing with it, and then I hear this music, and a ghost lady appeared. She was someone I never saw before. She really didn't want me to go near that wall."
David indicated the paneled wall beside him.
"Don't you believe me?"
"Yes, I believe you, David," Vicki said patiently. "The ghost lady and Sarah are gone now."
"You'd better get washed up, Davey," said Burke. "It'll be dinnertime, soon."
"Okay, Burke," David agreed.
Vicki placed a hand on David's shoulder, and the three made their way up the corridor. Willie and Maggie turned the corner with their candlesticks, and bumped into the trio.
"It's all right," Burke told them. "We found him. He was just playing with his Sarah and other ghosts."
Wordlessly, Willie followed the three down a fleet of corridors. As he looked beside himself, Willie realized Maggie was no longer with him.
Maggie was in the same corridor with her candlestick where Vicki and Burke found David. She looked around the dark dreary place with the thick cobwebs draped from the rafters and crown moldings up above, and deep shadows clinging on the paneled walls. Examining the filthy stained-glass window, and elaborate carvings on the wall panels, Maggie strongly felt she'd been here before.
It dawned on her she had been here. This was where she and Willie encountered the ghost of that mysterious woman.
But Maggie felt she'd been here before that. But she'd never even been in the West Wing portion of Collinwood before the other night.
There was something unmistakably dreamlike about this place.
Is it even remotely possible to visit an actual place in a dream? Maggie pondered inwardly.
A mysterious music weakly intruded itself through the dusty air. A very old vintage sounding music.
Like the dark corridor, this music also seemed strangely familiar to Maggie. There was something haunting to it. Almost like Josette's music box, but there was nothing tingling about it. This music sounded universally severe and powerful. It sent goosebumps up Maggie's arm.
She stared at the paneled wall across from her. The same wall Maggie and Willie witnessed the blonde ghost woman disappearing behind of.
Curiously, Maggie slowly stepped up to the wall and placed her ear against it. She wondered if the haunting music was somehow coming from behind the wall.
She pressed ever closer against it... when someone swooped through the wall and dizzyingly took her into a tight freezing hold, causing her to drop her candlestick, losing her fragile light.
The unearthly hyperactive figure spinned Maggie away from the forbidden wall in a deranged dance.
"I wanna dance with you..." sung out a childish giggling man's voice in Maggie's ear as he continued spinning her up the corridor wildly. "... wanna dance your cares away..."
The man carelessly slammed Maggie against the wall close by where she came in. The royally startled Maggie got a good glimpse of her unwanted dance partner. Her eyes dangerously bulged, her heart raced frantically, and her jaw dropped.
The glowing phantom pinning her against the wall was someone who looked startling like... Willie Loomis.
But he wasn't Willie at all. His sandy blonde hair was sleek back, and his brown suit looked to be from the turn-of-the-century.
"You'd better stay away from there," the ghost warned Maggie firmly. "It is best we keep him locked up."
His gray-blue eyes penetrated sharply through Maggie, terrifying her to the core.
"We mustn't cross him," he whispered narrowly. "He is a bounder, a rake, a lecher, a liar, and a bully..."
Maggie shivered under his tight icy grip with each word.
"Most of all he is a monster," spat the ghost furiously. "A monster who murdered his own brother!"
Maggie gasped and shook violently.
"You look very much like Rachel," the ghost said to her suddenly, somberly.
"Maggie?!"
At the sound of Willie's calling voice, his dead doppelgänger faded away, sending spiky chills down Maggie's neck and spine.
Willie entered the corridor and found the petrified Maggie pinned up against the wall close by.
"Maggie?"
Willie came up to her with his candlestick in hand.
"Maggie?"
In the glow of the candle flame, Willie saw how traumatized and pale Maggie's face was. Her dark eyes were glassy. He hadn't seen her like this since he got her out of Barnabas' old coffin at the Collins mausoleum.
"Maggie? Maggie what's wrong?"
Maggie suddenly glanced at him, and uttered in a small voice, "Willie?"
"Yeah, it's me, Maggie," Willie said to her tenderly.
Eerily, Maggie acted very much like this when Willie rescued her from the coffin.
"Your Willie?" Maggie asked him trembling against the wall.
"Yeah, it's me, Maggie," Willie kindly reiterated.
Maggie unpinned herself off the cold cobwebbed wall, and shakily wrapped her arms around Willie's waist. Willie wrapped one comforting arm around her, while using his other hand to secure the candlestick.
Once she was able to let go of him, Willie placed a gentle hand on Maggie's shoulder, and guided her out of the haunted corridor.
"What happened?" he whispered to her as they left.
The ghost of Carl watched them leave cloaked in the deep shadows of the corridor.
Satisfied with his haunting, he turned right around and found the ghost of the blonde woman looking at him expectantly.
Carl gave her a grave look.
"There, I did my part in concealing the secret," he whimpered. "But please don't make me go back in there. Don't make me go behind the wall again, Beth."
As the early winter night gradually crept up the walls of Collinwood, Cassandra ascended her way up the spiral stone steps leading up to the neglected tower room. Cassandra held a lit candlestick to guide her way through the dark and squalid area.
After the fiasco with Willie Loomis and Josette's interference that morning, Cassandra knew she needed a private space to confer for secret meetings. A space that must be within the walls of Collinwood so Josette couldn't interfere again.
But, Cassandra also needed a space that would guarantee her privacy so she wouldn't be disturbed by unwelcome intrusions by the current members of the Collins family.
There were so many desolate and isolated rooms to choose from, but Cassandra decided the tower room was the perfect secluded choice.
This area, like most other abandoned areas in Collinwood, was heavily covered in dust, cobwebs, and slow decay.
Once she made it to the top of the spiral steps, Cassandra made her way down the darkened hall. Wasting no time, Cassandra retrieved the key she stole downstairs and reached the large door. She used the key to unlock it and trespassed her way in.
The tower room was dark and shrouded in heavy cobwebs just like the hall. It was adorned with a single filthy barred window. The place was so confined it could be used as a prison. To Cassandra's vague understanding, the room was used exactly for that on more than one occasion. The witch heavily sensed the room had seen its fair share of horror and misery as well as tragedy through the echoes of time.
Standing beside the filthy window with thick cobwebs sticking from the rafters, Cassandra closely gazed down on her small candle flame.
"I need you to come to me," she spoke directly into the flame. "I need you to come here."
Cassandra succeed in tapping into the consciousness of her latest victim. Someone who would serve her unwillingly but submissively.
Cassandra noted Roger had been a pretty obedient servant, but the witch needed extra help to preserve Barnabas' curse, and hopefully provide pleasant enough company.
When Cassandra first laid eyes on him, she immediately knew he would make a desirable servant. She sensed his upcoming presence and heard his footsteps creaking outside the door. The knob turned and the door swung open.
Joe Haskell entered the room with a hypnotic blank stare glazing his blue eyes.
Cassandra grinned triumphantly.
"Close the door and come to me," she ordered him softly.
Joe did what he was told with his gaze glued on the candle flame in Cassandra's hand.
"Did you call to me?" he asked her monotonously.
"Yes, you no longer have a will of your own," Cassandra informed him. "You only serve and obey me from now on."
"I understand." Joe continued staring blankly into the flame. "What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to prevent Barnabas Collins from being cured," Cassandra ordered him.
"Cured?" Joe said quizzically.
"Yes, from a curse I placed on him long ago," exclaimed Cassandra. "Barnabas must continue to suffer."
"What do you need me to do?" Joe asked his new mistress.
"Watch the Old House and find out how Dr. Julia Hoffman is treating him," Cassandra commanded. "Report to me regularly, and always come when I call you."
"I will." Joe nodded obediently.
"I'm going to leave now," Cassandra told him. "Wait a few minutes after I've gone to leave here."
Joe didn't say anything.
Cassandra stepped out of the room and shut the door behind her.
Joe kept his back squarely on the witch as she left. He waited for a couple of minutes as instructed to turn and leave.
But once he turned away from the window, Joe's heart painfully jolted.
The wispy transparent form of Millicent Collins hovered directly in front of him, looking at him despairingly. A woman who looked strikingly like his own childhood sweetheart.
"Oh, the witch has cast her wicked spell on you," she said woefully.
She then smiled broadly.
"Oh, I know how you feel." She giggled girlishly. "I have become mad in this very room!"
As her tingling laughter grew more robust, Joe's blue eyes rounded in a terror he'd never experienced before in his life.
Next Chapter: Past and Present Loves