Chapter 9

"Do you want to go to the room now?" Barnabas asked Phillip.

Phillip nodded vigorously, his eyes smiling.

"You like tearing up paper?"

"It makes me feel good."

"It shows." He wondered if Phillip would be so enthusiastic at later stages of the treatment...

He himself was not. He had told Julia of it, hoping that she would shoot it down. But Julia had accepted it, finding it far more acceptable than what Roxanne might do if she lost her patience.

They just did not have the time to find a method better attuned to his sensibilities. It was a brutal cure "A horse cure" as the Spanish saying has it. As, as all "horse cures" likely to prove very effective.

So effectiveness was what they needed...

"Do you want to try something different?'

"What you mean different?"

"You know now that drawings can't hurt you."

"No, they can't. And it is fun tearing them up."

"But we cannot do that forever. Julia's complaining about all the confetti."

They went into the room. Barnabas made Phillip lie down, and relax, before he moved away.

"You feel alright?'

"Yes. I am OK."

Barnabas took the breakaway bottle from the hiding place and lifted it.

"Look here, Phillip."

Phillip's face began to twist with remembered pain. Quickly, Barnabas smashed the bottle on the windowsill.

"There, you see? It is broken.

Phillip smiled again.

"Want to see it again?"

Roxanne glared at Angelique "I did not give you permission to scry."

"They have the key, Roxanne. They are moving fast."

"The key?" in spite of herself Roxanne considered the news."

"It was in Jason McGuire's grave. They just dug it up."

"I see. Still, you should not scry before telling me first. You are careless on your scrying and they'll know they are being spied on."

"They are ready to open the gateway!"

"Just leave the worrying to me... As long as there are no children missing we know we have time. Remember that child sacrifices are needed to open the gate."

"We have to move."

"I am in charge, and you have to do as you are told. Do not scry without checking with me first!"

Chris and Sandy romped on the grounds outside. Sandy still was not able to match Chris' stride, but was eager to do so.

This was so much better than the cage and the chains... better than being trapped inside that painful misshapen halfway body...

She felt strong, agile, her nose sharp to all the scents surrounding her.

Chris came back for her.

She nipped him playfully on one shoulder. Chris reciprocated with more enthusiasm this time. He liked her ears.

Then suddenly she broke off from him and raced away. He chased her, but by the time he got there, she had changed shape and was shaking.

"Chris, no." she said. :"not that."

Julia wasn't in her office when he went it, but Roxanne was.

"What are you doing here?" Barnabas asked harshly.

"Keeping an eye on my investment" she sat on top of the desk. "Will it kill you to act civilized?"

"I think that I have been. I have not told Megan of what I know about Phillip's breakdown."

"And you don't approve?"

"I can understand you taking it out on me. But not on him. He had nothing to do with your misfortunes."

"Misfortunes? That's an understatement?" she laughed. "Julia told me how you plan to cure him. " she laughed. "I did not realize you could go that route."

Barnabas caught her by the arms.

"Julia told you?"

"She cannot keep secrets from me I had a good laugh when she told me."

"Roxanne, do not ever repeat this about Phillip. He's had it tough enough,. Mockery just as yours will make him regress... Better keep away from him in the future, if you do not want me to hurt you."

"That's nothing new to you right? Hurting me?"

He let her go.

"You are full of compassion. Except with me, of course. You told my brother how to kill me. Very compassionate."

"At that time I thought""

"You thought! Why is it all right for you to be what you are and not for me?"

"Roxanne!"

"I am what you made me. No, not the vampire. Much worse. You are the one who makes me torture Phillip. Because that's the price I paid for escaping Randall. I have to do what they say, no matter how awful. Until they decide to let me rest for a while, wipe my memories, and let me believe that I am a good person, who helps others. and who feeds with restraint. The one whose earliest memories are of helping Harriet Tubman smuggle escaped slaves to Canada. The one that believed in Stalin, and could not take the truth about him... That Roxanne is a pipe dream, a fantasy that I sell to myself so I do not know that I am a killer and a torturer, serving inhuman masters. That's what you did to me, Barnabas. And that's why I hate you, and Valerie, and Julia, and that's why I enjoy making you suffer. What have you to say for yourself? What pitiful excuse can you offer that will not make me laugh?"

"I wanted to spare you..."

"Well, it did not work out too well, did it? It is all your fault. All of it. So, when you hear Phillip scream, you know that you did it to him."

"I am sorry Roxanne, but..."

"But nothing. Go To Hell!"

"What problem you have with Sandy? She does not respond?" Julia asked bemused.

"It is... rather embarrassing" Chris said abashedly "you see, Sandy's female."

"We have known that for some time, haven't we?"

"And she is still female when we change shape and... and I am male... and my human body is vasectomized, but I do not know about the wolf body..."

'"Sandy is in heat.?"

"Yes. And I don't want... puppies.."

Julia fought hard not to laugh. Finally she managed to keep a straight face before she spoke.

"You are right, Chris. I will give Sandy some hormone shots."

Carolyn stood in front of the mirror, studying the pendant that Nicholas and Vicky had dug out of McGuire's grave.

"You cannot use it yet." Vicky warned her. "You are not ready for it."

Carolyn caressed it.

"I can feel it giving me strength."

"It can destroy you."

Carolyn stamped her foot petulantly "I want to use it now!"

"You sound just like Jeb Hawkes" Vicky sighed "but with him it didn't matter. We knew from the start that we would lose him. But with you, it is different."

"I can feel the power of it. I can handle it."

Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to allow Carolyn's child to possess her. Carolyn she could deal with, but this child...this child should be taught a lesson.

"I am strong." Carolyn protested.

"You are not."

"I am... I..."

Carolyn stopped, her eyes becoming glassy again.

"No! No!" she screamed.

Repressing a smile, Vicky raced to her side.

...It was dark... but the darkness broke. She was coming back... coming back...

...Keep pushing. ... something would give...

She had no hands to push with, but she pushed. She had no eyes, yet she could find her way to the light...

To the light... to freedom...to Collinwood...

To Vicky and Nicholas...

Vicky's hand closed over her mouth before she could scream.

Carolyn fought her, kicking and scratching, but it was only for a few moments until Nicholas caught her, and tied her hand behind her.

"Do we have to go through the ceremony again?" he asked as Vicky gagged Carolyn. "We cannot use Derek nor Roger anymore."

"They will not be needed. The key will be enough. Make her like on the table again, and tie her legs, because she kicks hard.'

They laid her down and pushed down her skirt, as the had done the first time. They placed the stone again to where they could see the baby's head. Carolyn grunted and twisted, as Nicholas smirked.

"You did not escape, Mrs. Collins. You are going again into the serpent's belly.

They placed the key over her forehead and it burned. Worse even that the burning over her abdomen...

Vicky and Nicholas chanted, as the pain grew through her body. The snake head appeared again. And then she was swallowed by the snake...

"Well, it is done." Vicky said.

"Do you think that she might come back again?"

Vicky shrugged "Untie her. The child does not like being bound."

Carolyn got up, weak and disoriented. "what happened?"

"Carolyn tried to take over again."

"But I thought...I thought she was under control."

Vicky did not say anything. The lesson would be well learned. The child would not be so confident of his own strength again.

"Do you have any problems with Victoria Winters?"

"None. but then, she went through the Ring of Fire. She's still alive inside of me, somewhere, but she has forgotten even her name. She can't find her way back."