DALE CLARK’S DARK SHADOWS-book five-DISASTER

 

DALE CLARK’S DARK SHADOWS-book five-DISASTER

 

Ignoring Julia, who he thinks of as nothing, Judah takes a controlled Liz and Victoria into the drawing room. Julia feels without Barnabas she is nothing. He is dead.

 

An hour and a half after Barnabas left, Angelique realized danger was at every turn. Danger and temptation. She would never give up her powers or the part of her self that allowed her to remain a woman. Normally, she preferred solitude. But now she wanted to confide in Julia. It has been a very long time since she’d had a friend. She feels a spirit in the room and calls to it but it leaves. She knows Barnabas is dead.

 

Before she can flee to Collinwood, Willie comes in. She orders him to follow her to Collinwood and for a moment he looked around for someone who could extricate him from the task. He was never comfortable around this woman. He follows her.

 

The man in his 60s became a werewolf. This was Cyrus Carrington. Quentin uses a silver cross Carolyn was wearing to ward off the wolf man/werewolf.

 

Carolyn as Charity mentions how the same creature killed Dorcas. When Charity thanks the Lord, Quentin says, “Yes, Charity, by all means, thank the Lord but don’t thank me.”

 

Liz gets a IDU any of this. Liz knows Judah did something to her but confusion blankets her mind. Liz comes out of it to blame him for killing Barnabas and that Liz could do that surprised Judah. He calms Liz by telling her that she will be content and relaxed no matter what was going on. Judah asks if he needs to place a spell on Vicki. She shook her head no.

 

Once she gets inside Collinwood and sees Barnabas dead, she orders Willie to take his body to Julia’s car. She also asks Julia to help them. A moment after getting his body in the back door of the car, they were speeding toward the relative safety of the Old House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

When she first entered the Old House’s drawing room, she drank a stiff brandy. It was a half hour since they arrived from Collinwood. Willie had driven down the narrow road between Collinwood and the Old House. Her car is a Lincoln. She downs another brandy. She looked at the portrait, one that intrigued her the moment she saw it that summer over four years ago.

 

She would not give up her hopes of love from him. He loved her but never the kind of love that she had needed and wanted from him. Despite Barnabas having declared his love for Angelique and apology for hurting her, Julia felt no jealousy toward Angelique. She seemed even closer to Angelique than ever before.

 

Quentin came in with a struggling Carolyn. Quentin tells Carolyn, “Your jaunts in the woods has already almost gotten us killed.”  Charity is now Pansy Faye. Quentin asks Julia to give Carolyn a sedative and from her reactions, he can tell Barnabas is dead. “Oh, dear God.”

 

Angelique muses on Barnabas’ face: not handsome in the usual sense but compelling. She thinks about the tropical summer nights so many years ago in Martinique. In every incarnation their love was a forbidden love.

 

Lessons unlearned haunted them again and again, karma seemed to dog their every move. (NOTE: there’s no such thing as Karma in the traditional sense). None.

 

Angelique wondered if some worse evil might come to kill Barnabas if she used the I Ching again. She planned something that could cause her own destruction. She would not be without Barnabas.

 

In Josette’s room, Carolyn becomes Leticia again and tells Julia it’s been a long time. Julia doesn’t care about anything now. Leticia thinks it has been over 25 years and knows Julia looks the same. Leticia says, “So many strange things have happened since we’ve seen you, Julia…”  She goes on, “Like Edith…did you know that she didn’t die? She fooled us all…for a while. But we didn’t find out the truth until it was too late…”

 

Julia leaves a sedated Carolyn but when she leaves, Leticia Faye Collins, the spirit, sobs as she relieved the nightmarish last months of her life.  (That should be relived?).

 

Quentin comes up and has a brandy. Quentin feels a need to share the grief with Julia. She feels there is too much to do to give into her grief now but he feels she can’t deny what she’s feeling. Quentin and Julia both feel for Angelique when she comes upstairs. Not certain which of them he should direct his next comment at, he said, “If you’d like, I’ll be glad to make…the arrangements.”

 

When she says, not yet, Quentin thinks he offended Angelique who says he did not. “Then I don’t understand your hesitancy.”

 

Angelique reveals there may be a way to bring Barnabas back. “He’s dead,” Quentin stated flatly.

 

“A condition with which you should be very familiar. You were dead once, too.”

 

“And you revived me.”

 

She claims she’s not sure it will work since Barnabas was killed by a spell from a non-human, unlike when Quentin was killed by Jenny. She intends to try even though it might mean Judah will try to stop her. When Quentin insists she try, she gets angry a bit but he tells her he didn’t mean to imply she wasn’t willing. Julia can use the chemicals and drugs here that “we” used when “we” created Adam that will slow down the decomposition of Barnabas’ body. Julia will send Willie into town to get the other things she needs.

 

Quentin asks, “Who’s Adam?”

 

Angelique tells him it does not matter, they do not have time to explain.

 

Julia tells Quentin she will explain it to him later. Julia sends Willie to Wyndecliffe. Quentin announces that werewolf is not Chris. Quentin knows who Cyrus said he was. “He said he was my son.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

Liz tells Judah that nothing is wrong and she feels fine. Vicki doesn’t want Judah to hurt her and he explains he would not and has given her a life of happiness. It is his gift to her for giving him Vicki. Vicki asks what he did to her, and he explains noting. She felt weak and helpless. Vicki, her tone flat and empty, asks him not to hurt Liz. He tells her he gave Liz a life of peace and happiness, something she’s wanted her whole life. He knows Vicki will soon feel only the memory of the glory of their Master.

 

He ignites the spark of her destiny or so he tells her. Vicki asks if they should have stopped Julia from taking Barnabas’ body. Vicki is cold hearted and goes to her room. Judah asks Gerald to do something for him: find the boy David Collins and bring him to him. Gerald asks what he will do to the boy but Judah will not explain himself to one such as Gerald. “David Collins is the heir, the last link in the family chain. He is a link that I intend to break. And when I do, the Collins family will at last come to the end.”

 

 

David stood by the doorway of the upstairs sitting room (?) which was just beyond the door to the landing. He heard what happened and knew Cousin Barnabas was killed, and thought he heard the voice of Cassandra, a voice and person he never thought he’d hear again in this house. He hid behind the curtain as Vicki passed and from her face, he knew she was a part of this. He hurried to the East Wing.

 

 

Vicki looks at herself in the mirror. The dark side of herself always existed and only waited for the proper time for its release. And that time was now. When Barnabas was killed, a part of her fought the evil part. The dark part that cared nothing for any of the others. She opens her window and curtains and with arms outstretched, she closed her eyes and welcome the dark embrace of the night.

 

 

Roger returns from the sheriff, who he will not have re-elected again if he has anything to say about it. Liz tells Roger that Carolyn has been missing for over an hour. Judah enters and Liz tells Roger that Judah will be staying with them for quite some time. Since Roger looks like Amadeaus, who judged Judah, Judah makes Roger confront his true, cold self, telling him he is a coward and always has been. Judah is a warlock.

 

 

He makes Roger go up the stairs as the Roger in the mirror laughs at him and tells him, “I’ll find you!”

 

 

David encounters a dead man zombie, decomposed and another, a man named Jared Craven, who had been killed in an auto accident last year. He pressed a ninth brick from the bottom, a secret panel entrance to a room. He found the urn which gave him warmth.

 

 

Conrad Simms wondered about his running the Collinsport Inn. It was a post retirement job. More difficult jobs he hired out to young men or women in the village. A Mr. Boothman had come in and fainted. Conrad had trouble getting employees to show up for work, which left him little time to talk to his guests. Jessica Melton called in sick. She was a little woman (text says girl). Conrad tells Boothman, “Wish you’d let me call Dr. Smith.”  Boothman is looking for a lawyer named Mr. Henry Jenson who has an office on Main Street, just a block over from the Inn, a red building with white trim. Jenson likes to work late.

 

“Good,” Boothman, a tall man, answered coolly as he headed for the door. “I don’t wish to stay in this town any longer than necessary.”

 

NOTE: I’m not sure this part of the plot or sub plot is EVER continued or expanded upon or explained. A quick look through books five, six and seven reveals it is not…unless I missed something. It’s possible. We shall find out. Of course, the saga was never finished by Dale as far as I know or as far as published zines go. I wish Dale would respond to requests as to what he had planned out past book seven’s ending. But alas, thus far, he has not. We might never know…ever…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

Quentin fills Julia in on Cyrus being his son. Angelique makes biting sarcastic comments to Quentin that anger him and he retaliates. Julia ignores their battle to ask more questions. They consider if the werewolf is working with Judah. Quentin has a feeling he is not and when Julia asks about anything to back up this, he says, “IDK.” 

 

When Julia and Angelique mention Judah is at Collinwood, Quentin storms out to go get the family out of there with the plan that he will sneak in the back way.

 

Angelique asks Julia what is wrong and Julia feels hopeless.

 

 

In his room, Roger is further tormented by his mirror image from the mirror itself. It claims to be more him than he is and that he is nothing.

 

Angelique stares at the portrait of Barnabas in the Old House drawing room. Julia joins her in staring. She asks Angelique if she can bring Barnabas back and Angelique says, “I honestly don’t know.”  Julia found herself strangely drawn to her.

 

Julia acknowledges that Angelique loves Barnabas and the other woman is happy that finally he accepts their love for each other. Angelique thinks she and Barnabas are bound together and thanks Julia for recognizing that she does love Barnabas. Julia thinks it is important to acknowledge feelings. Angelique asks Julia about her own and Julia asks, “I…I don’t know what you mean.”

 

Angelique admits she’s mocked Julia’s feelings in the past but isn’t now. All she could say was, “It is nice ot have your feelings acknowledged.”

 

 

Quentin saw two zombies patrolling the grounds. He tried an old servants’ doorway but it was locked. He forced open a window and waited inside a storage room. He found himself on the ground floor of the East Wing. He wanted to ask Barnabas what his father had in mind in designing such a house. A woman that Quentin did not see clearly and eventually thinks is Vicki has escaped the grounds. He finds Liz’s room empty but finds the cowering Roger huddled on the floor.

 

Roger tells him the monster in the mirror wants him to die.

 

 

Quentin thinks it is too late for Roger but wants to help him and tells him he thinks it best if he stay here. Roger destroys the mirror. Quentin has a new plan: get the others out first and come back for Roger. Roger’s image is reflected in hundreds of shards of glass on the floor. It tells him his wives never loved him. Laura was interested in Burke and who knows what Cassandra was interested in.

 

 

Quentin was wrong. Vicki was in her room in Collinwood. He found David’s room empty. Vicki tells him that he is a fool if he thinks they will be safe at the Old House. “IDK what he’s done to you and right now I frankly don’t care.”  She thinks what is happening to her should have happened a long time ago.

 

Judah enters the room. Judah tells Quentin the gun that is loaded with silver bullets meant for the hapless creature outside cannot harm him. Judah makes Quentin shoot himself in the chest but Quentin stood and healed. “I’m rather difficult to kill,” he told Judah.

 

Judah says, “I see that there is more to you, Mr. Collins, than I realized.”

 

Judah threatens something fatal to Liz or Roger if Quentin continues to try to take Vicki out of the house. Judah glared at him. “Get out of my house, Mr. Collins.”  As Quentin left, Judah’s voice followed him. “Enjoy your immunity while you can, Mr. Collins. Rest assured I will discover the source of your power. And then you will follow your recently departed cousin into oblivion.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

Julia compliments Willie on making good time back from the Wyndecliffe pharmacy with the materials she needed. She slows down Barnabas’ body deterioration. When Willie doubts Angelique, Julia tries to talk him out of that and just trust her this time. Julia thought, “Willie’s relationship with Barnabas was as complex and meaningful as everyone else who came into contact with him. Of course Willie would be upset and full of questions.

 

When Willie asks if he will be the way he was before (a vampire) Julia doesn’t confess to Willie that if that is the only way they can have him back, she would welcome the opportunity.

 

When they go up to check on Barnabas and then come back down, Willie sees a woman watching them from outside through the bay view windows. Carolyn as Leticia tells them she mourns Barnabas, too, meaning the woman outside. Willie wanted to make some herbal tea for Julia. Instead, Julia asks Willie to stay with Carolyn while she falls asleep after an injection Julia gave her.

 

Willie holds Carolyn’s hand as she talks to him as if he is Desmond. She says it is so good to see Barnabas again.

 

David, from a window, sees Quentin leaving the grounds and calls to him but Quentin is too far to hear. David left the East Wing to go the regular part of the house. He finds Liz’s room empty but runs into her at the main door that led to the main part of the house they always used. David realizes Judah, that man, has done something to her. Liz asks to read a book with him that arrived in the mail today.

 

 

The mirror Roger taunts Roger with the idea that Roger even wanted David to be Burke’s son instead of his. As Roger is about to slit his wrist, David comes into the room. Roger asks David how David can stand to look at him. David says, “IDK what you mean.”

 

David, reflecting on their troubled past, realizes he has to leave without his father but bends down and kisses him on the forehead and says, “I love you, Father. And I’ll be back for you.”  David left, crying, Roger realizes the demons in the glass lied to him and the voices were silent to him now. The terror eased a fraction.

 

Quentin makes it back to the Old House and gets a brandy and drinks it as he informs Julia and Angelique about what happened. Julia stops the bickering between Angelique and Quentin who keep antagonizing each other with sarcastic comments, observations and insults. Angelique tells him that Julia thinks Laura might be an unexpected ally against Judah. They explain to him that Petofi told them the urn fire could destroy Judah which might not mean Laura but might.

 

Julia will not turn down help from any camp. Quentin says, “IDK what to think anymore.”

 

Anglique explained that Judah is not confined to any one time anymore than she is and does not see any reason to think that him being Vicki’s father is a lie. Angelique tells them the various herbs and flowers she needs can only be found during dawn (huh?).

 

After Angelique leaves, Julia tells him, “You shouldn’t antagonize her so much.”

 

He looked down at her and feigned indignation. ‘And make people think that I’ve changed?”

 

“You have changed, Quentin.” She patted his arm before walking into the foyer. “We all have.”  She climbed the stairs to get some sleep.

 

David retreats to the East Wing again. He falls asleep in the secret room. His nightmare consists of two of the zombies in the foyer after dragging him down the stairs, dragged him into the drawing room. Judah, Liz, and Roger are there. Then a voice came to David. “You’re not alone, my darling. I will come when the ember bursts into flame.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER SIX

 

Quentin and Julia wait in the cellar room. Quentin believes Barnabas has done so much for him and for all of them. Julia remains optimistic that Angelique will succeed and bring  him back to life. Angelique arrives and tells Julia that since she is the most vulnerable, she must keep the amulet that Stokes once gave Barnabas to protect him from Nicholas on her person. Angelique cannot see the amulet herself, though.

 

Judah goes to Vicki’s room where she watches the sun slip below the horizon. He informs her that she can open a portal between this world and the realm of the damned, that will rip and widen until it engulfs this entire world, supplanting man, the hated one’s chosen.

 

He explains the power of the Mask of Baal will ignite the power within Vicki. The true source of her power lies within her heritage. Vicki learns from their talk that Judah has no idea about the complicated lineage of herself and Liz, her mother and her daughter. He had Vicki out of revenge, though Liz thought it was out of love.

 

NOTE: Judah in the TV show: from what I recall (and it’s been a long time since I saw his episodes) Judah has almost NO personality and rarely spoke and when he did, it was as some supernatural entity/monster. It is rather difficult to believe that beautiful Liz, when she was young, could fall for and love Judah Zachary. Gerard maybe but not Judah.

 

He also tells her that she has the power to become the most powerful of the Master’s servants. She gets a lustful gleam in her eye and asks when this new age will begin.

 

NOTE: it’s easy to see Alexandra become an evil character in the show and it would have been interesting to see but…somehow I want her to return to normal as she was really the audience POV.

 

Judah detects which side Miranda (Angelique) has chosen to take.

 

Judah invades the Old House cellar and puts Quentin down in a state of pain. He grabs the witch and banishes Barnabas’ spirit back to the land of the dead. He then makes Angelique vanish to eternity in the flames of hell. Quentin calls Judah, “You bastard!”

 

When Judah threatens to destroy Barnabas’ body forever, Julia places the amulet/talisman on the body. This leaves her exposed.

 

“You have consorted with the supernatural for many years,” Judah intoned. “But know this: there are demons within you more fearsome and dangerous than any you have ever known. I give them power now to come out of their hiding places, the dark places in your mind where you have relegated them.” 

 

Later, after Judah left (!), Quentin has Julia on a bed. She is in a coma. He had lived for years without knowing what happened to his portrait. Over a year ago he returned to Collinwood and discovered his portrait. He began to feel respect for Angelique or something that bordered respect. He couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps she and Barnabas weren’t together at last.

 

Barnabas, he thought, he seemed to elicit such strong emotions in almost everyone. Certainly Angelique…and Julia as well, although she wouldn’t admit it. Barnabas had always brought out the best and worst in people. He puts the amulet on Julia’s chest. Willie comes in and thinks she will get better saying she is tough. Quentin agrees.

 

Willie tells him a man in his 60s or 70s is downstairs to see him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

Beams of light in darkness appear to guide Julia in some twilight zone of nothingness. She saw the tall prison walls of Dachau. She was in her father’s lab and hundreds of people marching to a building where they never come out of. She finds herself in the lab and sees her younger self working with her father. Despite her mother’s wishes, she left the states and travelled to Germany to see her father. At 22, she enrolled in medical school and became bored, thus she left the US and went to her father in Germany.

 

NOTE: Not sure about this background for Julia.

 

His research project was of interest to Hitler himself. The study of the supernatural…

 

Her father tells her they will find the answer to the secret of the undead and nothing will stop the Third Reich. She once asked about the need for doing a particular experiment on one of the prisoners and her father was angry with her, “I do whatever is necessary.”

 

Julia ran from the room into a hall and slammed into the solid form of a man…Dave Woodard. “Hello, Julia. I’ve been waiting such a long time for you!”

 

 

Cyrus was drinking a sherry. Quentin vs Cyrus.

 

Cyrus also gets an IDK when he says IDK what to call you, Father, Quentin?

 

Cyrus’ mother was Jean Marie Francois. Shortly after the turn of the century, Quentin was in Paris. A waitress or was she a shop owner? A raven haired beauty that he enjoyed. He spent a couple of months with her, warm summer nights. She came to him and told him she was carrying his child.

 

 

He left Paris the next day. He and his mother moved to a small town not far from Paris. She gave out the story that her husband had been killed in a boating accident. He found, as an adult, some old letters Quentin wrote her. Cyrus found out his mother never married and came to the states shortly after the curse manifested itself. He knew there were only a few ways to become a werewolf. The Collins name was well known up and down the coast. He knew they were in the fishing business. He befriended Jamison Collins and eventually he tracked down the gypsy Magda. She admitted to being the one who placed the curse on Quentin and his children. Cyrus planned to kill her but she escaped, Cyrus calling her a resourceful woman.

 

Quentin admits what he did was reprehensible. Quentin tells him he found a way to escape the curse to the point where he does not transform into that animal. He offers to help find a way to escape the curse for Cyrus, too. Cyrus tells him he likes what he becomes and does not want to be cursed. He’s learned to control the beast to a certain degree. There was no full moon last night but he still transformed. He can change back and forth at will. Quentin tells him someone has beaten him to the revenge.

 

Cyrus saw the undead patrolling the grounds and wonders if he should offer his services.

 

Quentin apologizes to him.

 

He tells Quentin that his mother died when he was 21. She planned a special birthday dinner for him bu was there during his first transformation. Cyrus became the wolfman and killed her.

 

NOTE: WHY didn’t Quentin try to warn her? I know he was a stupid, callous creep back then but…was he at that time? After the end of 1897?

 

Makes him totally a jerk.

 

 

In the nightmare, Dave haunts Julia and eventually she’s being held in a pile of dead bodies. Dave pushes her down into a quicksand of bodies.

 

 

Julia wakes up and finds the amulet under the covers. She wanted to go downstairs to the cellar but didn’t. She had a large brandy. Julia thinks if she gave the amulet to Angelique the witch would still be alive. Huh? I thought the amulet would have stopped Angelique’s powers, too.

 

Julia feels Angelique’s death is on her conscience.

 

She thought she should take the survivors and leave Collinwood. Who does she mean? Carolyn and Willie? She wonders if Judah found Quentin’s portrait. Is no one thinking of David?

 

 

Somone knocks on the door and Julia opens it to welcome whatever fate awaited her….

 

“YOU!” She gasped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

Simon is behind the door and Julia invites him in. He tells her that the Dark Lord is not the only one who return his minions to this world. Quentin comes down the steps and hugs her. He is happy she is alive. She tells him another time when he asks what happened.

 

She knew she never would reveal to anyone the nightmare she had gone through. Quentin tells her he put the amulet on her and she explains it saved her. “Thanks God for that,” Quentin said.

 

Simon tells her he cannot help in the battle against Judah. Julia says, “I…I don’t understand.”

 

Simon claims the battle between good and evil might be upset. He believes it will be a battle of heart and soul. He calls himself and others like him being of an Order. They are forbidden to interfere and must just observe. He can only advise Quentin and Julia. There are forces at work Judah knows nothing about.

 

He can answer questions and show them they have the power within them to withstand any assault. Quentin’s sarcasm again, “A cheering section. That’s just what we need.”

 

Quentin thought Carolyn returned to them but it is really Leticia warning him about Edith and not to trust Edith. Edith is Quentin’s grandmother. Leticia/Carolyn says Caleb is their only hope as Edith wants them all dead.

 

Quentin knew virtually nothing about Edith’s early life. If they survive this, Quentin made a mental note to delve into her background a bit.

 

David was almost detected on three different occasions, David made his way to the East Wing and the abandoned bedroom. He slept fitfully after watching the zombies guard the grounds. He realized they try to stay hidden from the rising sun after he woke up. Many are inside the house, some are behind trees.

 

David holds the urn and gets angry, wanting to help Roger and Liz. Laura’s voice calls to him. She can do nothing to help him until he is ready to accept his destiny that is his birthright. “I’m…I’m not sure I understand,” David told her.

 

David saw Egypt, the Pyramids, the Sphinx and the sun inside the urn. He “goes” to another plane of existence and awakened in him was filling …that filled a void that has been within him all his life. A great fiery bird of prey. A hand grasped his shoulder and faced the intruder, fire burning his eyes…

 

 

 

Carolyn awakens as Millicent and suspects the sleeping Quentin might be a pirate—the same ones that took Daniel. She knows she is in Josette’s room. Using a back staircase, afraid of the voices in the drawing room down below, Millicent rushes through the servants’ entrance and into the night. Seeing what she was wearing she ran to a small woodshed that stood ten feet from the back door. As she reaches the mid way point along the path one of the undead causes her to slip back into the limbo from which her essence came. Millicent managed on terrifying scream before.

 

Carolyn comes too as the zombie is strangling her. A dark figure looms over the zombie and her throat was free but she slips into unconsciousness.

 

Roger and Liz are in the drawing room. Since David’s visit, the demons in the mirror had lost that demonic quality they possessed over him, at least they didn’t have it as much as they had before.

 

But they still persisted.

 

David emerged from the secret panel in the drawing room. “We’re getting out of her, Father. All of us.” Judah opens the doors and stands there. “At last, the Collins’ heir. You were a fool to come here, boy. With your death, the Collins family will at last come to an end!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER NINE

Roger tries to stand upright. “You will not harm my son….”  But Judah, seeing his fighting back, Judah’s eyes stoked the fire of self loathing and fear and terror.

 

David uses a power to knock Judah back. Judah says, “IDK how you did that, child.”  Judah does something to Liz which makes her slump in her chair. Roger is attacked, too. David is distracted by this.

 

As Judah means to finish off David, Laura appears. Roger helps Liz to her feet. Laura’s attack on Judah has flesh on half his face charred and blackened. Judah claims he is the first chosen of Lucifer.

 

“You are a creature of the night, Judah Zachary. And I am one with the god that rules the day. Feel the power of Ra!”

 

Judah seems to have his power renewed as he prays to his Master. When he attacks Laura, David rages and outstretches both arms at Judah, destroying him. Laura was on the landing.

 

As Roger and Liz recover, David assures them that it is over and that his mother helped defeat Judah. Liz says, “Laura, you really are here!”

 

“Hello, Elizabeth. It’s been a long time.”

 

Liz asks Roger what happened and it felt surreal. Roger says, “IDK exactly, Liz.”

 

David and Roger hug. Roger thanks David and Laura. Laura tells him to go up with Liz, that she and David will wait to talk to him in the drawing room.

 

 

Carolyn was on the settee in the Old House drawing room. Quentin wonders how she got down there. Julia’s answer is IDK. Julia also says, “Simon was outside for a while and when we came back in this is where he found her.”

 

Carolyn, Simon affirming her information, states Judah is dead.

 

Carolyn explains the creature choking her and gets in another IDK. She does not know how she got into the woods. A tall man stopped the creature strangling her. When Quentin questions how Judah can be dead, Simon says, “Sometimes help comes from unexpected sources.”

 

Carolyn explains she was at the House by the Sea, having followed Gerald there, and she met Judah there.

 

Quentin leaves to find out if what Simon said is true.

 

Julia silently offered a prayer that the nightmare was truly over.

 

A white fire severed the connection Vicki shared with her father. She collapsed. Liz and Roger comfort Vicki. Vicki falls asleep but realizes she’s lost the feeling of being vibrant and alive with her father and now had a hollow emptiness that had taken its place.

 

Roger joins Laura and David, thinking sarcastically, “The happy family.”

 

Laura didn’t expect gratitude from Roger but he thanks her again. “Then perhaps you don’t know me as well as you think,” he tells her. “For that matter, perhaps I don’t know myself as well either.”

 

She admits perhaps she does not know him and hopes he’s changed.

 

David says he is going away with his mother. At first Roger denies this will happen and fights with Laura. David will not leave the room as they discuss his future. He claims he is not like other boys and that his mother can teach him things he needs to know. Where Roger said he was too young to understand, David claims he is not.

 

“You’ll turn him into the same sort of unnatural creature that you are!”

 

Laura tells Roger, “That was done the moment he was conceived.”

 

“I have always been a realist. You are the one who has constantly turned away from what was happening right in front of you. Your powers of denial are overwhelming.”

 

Eventually, Roger gives in and will let them go. She says that they will start in Europe and from there go where they want. Laura concedes that she will bring David back if he wants to come back. David says, “And I will be back, Father. I promise I will.”

 

Roger wants her to keep him informed of where they are and she agrees, looking at him with new eyes. “You truly have changed, Roger.”

 

Roger goes with David to pack.

 

Quentin comes in and finds Laura in the drawing room. “Hello, Quentin,” Laura said with obvious delight, “What an unexpected pleasure!”

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TEN

Vicki has a dream  and not far away the Hammond Foundling Home. They were on a science field trip outside the city in search of insects and animals. As a child she had been terrified of the night. She is surrounded by darkness and fog in her dream. A familiar voice tells her to find it. “IDK what I’m looking for,” she cried.

 

She finds the House by the Sea.

 

 

Vicki woke up. Liz tells her she was asleep only a half hour. She wants to go for a walk. Vicki hugs Liz, a flood of emotions coming over her. She promises not to be long.

 

 

Julia has tea and talks to Simon who knows she is mourning Barnabas. Simon claims Judah is dead but now the real battle begins. The seed he has planted still lives…Vicki. Simon says that none that have gone through this ordeal are the same although the spirits are lifted. “What path Victoria chooses is the true reason I am her,” Simon explained.

 

Roxanne is seen by Julia. Roxanne was looking at them through the window in the drawing room. She pulled back and melted into the night (great sentence before we even know who is it so maybe we might think it was Vicki herself). Julia brought her hand to her mouth and gasped in astonishment. “Roxanne!”

 

 

Vicki goes to the House by the Sea. The altar has blood stained sheets. She stood before the fireplace and reached into the scone closest to the basement door and found a lever that opened a secret panel. There, she finds the Mask of Baal and places it over her face.

 

 

Julia smokes. She wonders which Roxanne she had seen. Julia hears sounds from the cellar and going down, sees Barnabas is still dead. She thinks maybe it is Roxanne.

 

A movement in the shadows caught her eyes and Julia turned, expecting to see the young woman—but the person coming toward her was definitely not Roxanne.

 

“ADAM!” she cried.

 

“You’ve got to help me, Julia. Somehow he’s a part of me. Somehow Barnabas is inside my mind!”

 

To be continued in…DAMNATION.

 

Coming in Fall, 1995:

DAMNATION.

 

Review: Well, now. That rose above and beyond all expectations for being exciting, for wrapping up, sort of, Laura’s return to the present day, Judah’s attacks, and a few other things. It also gives the audience a look into how an evil Victoria might come into play and frankly, it’s chilling and realistic. It feels as if it could be a part of the actual soap opera TV show but it rises even above that in cohesiveness. It is very entertaining and riveting.

 

Again, Dale writes well and even that feels like faint praise. He has done an astounding thing, tying different parts of DARK SHADOWS and it’s dangling sub plots and plots and made it into one thrilling story with pace and action…and it really does work. Simon feels like a character that could be a part of the show.

 

 

The only thing here that is puzzling is where is Mrs. Johnson? Doesn’t she live in Collinwood? Is she away? Like the show, this tends to forget her, though to be fair, the show often mentioned her without us seeing her. Here, I am not sure she’s even mentioned once other than being Gerald’s aunt. In any case, that does not detract from any of this.

 

The other part, as already noted, is the short section of Conrad at the  Inn, Boothman and Jensen? If Conrad wa a nod to Conrad Baines who played the Inn keeper…it cannot be the same person as that Inn Keeper was killed by the werewolf.

 

Not sure where Dale was going with that but I trust him enough to know he was. We may never know as he never finished the saga (as far as I know and repeated attempts to find out from Dale have failed) but it is still worth reading even unfinished.

 

In any case, all the books are great and each one seems to get better and better.